. 


A    HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND 
AND  GREATER  BRITAIN 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD.. 
TORONTO 


MODERN 
ENGLANDAND  WALE 


^f^^lU.MC5^ 


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'  •  Vv,    "cWltViiW"- 

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ER^^        g^      H 

S       '^ 


A   HISTORY    OF    ENGLAND 
AND  GREATER  BRITAIN 


BY 


ARTHUR    LYON    CROSS,   PH.D. 

PROFESSOR   OF   EUROPEAN   HISTORY   IN   THE 
UNIVERSITY    OF    MICHIGAN 


Nefo  fSorfc 
THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

1914 

A.II  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1914, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  August,  1914. 


Norton oti 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

THE  aim  of  this  book  is  to  trace  in  a  single  volume  the  develop- 
ment of  the  English  people  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present. 
The  work  has  extended  to  a  length  which  the  author  neither  designed 
nor  desired ;  but  the  demands  of  a  vast  and  complicated  subject 
proved  imperative.  Even  so,  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  exclude 
no  end  of  details,  not  only  picturesque  but  important.  On  the  other 
hand,  every  effort  has  been  made  to  treat  as  fully  as  may  be  what 
has  been  selected  for  mention.  Especial  stress  has  been  laid  on  those 
features  which  should  be  interesting  to  Americans,  not  necessarily  — 
to  borrow  Sir  John  Robert  Seeley's  distinction  —  because  they  are 
entertaining,  but  because  they  touch  fundamental  American  interests  ; 
for  example,  the  origin  and  development  of  the  English  Common 
Law,  the  causes  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  the  growth  of 
British  Imperialism.  Recognizing  that  history  is  an  inclusive  '  record 
of  the  thought  and  action  of  men  in  organization,'  or,  in  other  words, 
'of  the  development  of  men  as  social  beings,'  the  author  has  striven 
to  present  the  various  sides  of  activity,  political,  social,  industrial, 
religious,  and  intellectual,  which,  in  their  collective  capacity,  the 
English  people  have  manifested  through  the  course  of  their  long  and 
wonderful  past.  Mindful  of  the  significance  of  those  historical  forces 
which  are  as  potent  as  they  are  baffling  to  measure  and  appraise,  he 
has,  nevertheless,  sought  to  understand  and  delineate  the  men  who 
have  done  so  much  to  fashion  their  country's  destiny.  Since  England 
has  been  the  dominating  theme,  the  title  which  has  been  chosen  may 
seem  not  only  overambitious  but  misleading  as  well ;  however,  an 
attempt  has  been  made  constantly  to  make  evident  the  relation  of  the 
Welsh,  the  Irish,  the  Scots,  the  Indians,  and  the  Colonials,  as  well  as 
the  continental  Europeans  to  the  development  of  England  into  Great 
Britain,  the  United  Kingdom,  and  the  British  Empire  or  Greater 
Britain. 

A  work  of  this  character  is  of  necessity  built  upon  the  labors  of 
others ;  as  quaint  old  Robert  Burton  said  centuries  ago,  it  lights  its 
candle  from  their  torches.  While  specific  acknowledgments  are 
precluded,  the  general  works  made  use  of  will  be  found  in  the  lists 
for  "  Additional  Reading,"  and  the  other  sources  of  information  will 
be  apparent  to  scholars  familiar  with  the  subject.  However,  the 
author  wishes  to  take  this  occasion  to  thank  Messrs.  Longmans, 
Green  and  Company  lor  their  courtesy  in  permitting  him  to  adapt 


vi  PREFACE 

for  his  purposes  the  maps  on  modern  England  and  India  from  Gardi- 
ner's Atlas.  For  the  others,  he  is  under  obligations  to  the  Macmillans. 
Those  in  black  and  white,  from  2  to  7  inclusive,  were  prepared  by 
Professors  Coman  and  Kendall  for  their  stimulating  little  History  of 
England ;  moreover,  their  chapter  on  the  "  Physical  Characteristics 
of  the  British  Isles,"  in  the  same  book,  suggested  the  plan  of  the 
introductory  chapter  of  the  present  volume.  Professor  Edward 
Channing  has  furnished  valuable  advice  at  various  stages  of  the 
undertaking ;  Professor  E.  R.  Turner  carefully  read  the  manuscript 
and  has  contributed  generously  from  his  extensive  knowledge ;  while 
Mrs.  R.  M.  Wenley,  who  kindly  read  all  the  proof,  was  of  immense 
assistance.  Much  help  was  rendered  in  various  ways  by  Professors 
J.  S.  Reeves  and  J.  S.  P.  Tatlock,  by  Dr.  J.  F.  Scott,  Dr.  P.  V.  B. 
Jones,  and  Mr.  J.  R.  Hayden.  While  they  have  done  much  to  lighten 
the  author's  labors  and  have  often  kept  him  from  stumbling,  they 
should  be  absolved  from  all  responsibility  for  any  of  his  shortcomings. 


ARTHUR   LYON   CROSS. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN, 
July,  1914. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

PAGE 

THE  BRITISH  ISLES  :   THEIR  PHYSICAL  FEATURES  AND  RESOURCES  .        .        1 

CHAPTER   II 
THE  EARLIEST  INHABITANTS  OF  BRITAIN 11 

CHAPTER   III 
THE    COMING    OK    THE    ANGLO-SAXONS.      THE    "HEPTARCHY"    AND 

STRUGGLE  FOR  SUPREMACY 25 

CHAPTER   IV 
THE  ASCENDANCY  OF  THE  WEST  SAXONS.    THE  DANISH  INVASIONS.    THE 

GROWTH  AND  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  MONARCHY      40 

CHAPTER   V 
THE  STATE  OF  SOCIETY  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  .      62 

CHAPTER   VI 

THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  KINGS  (1066-1154).  THE  STRENGTHENING  OF  THE 
CENTRAL  POWER  BY  WILLIAM  AND  HIS  SONS.  THE  INTERVAL  OF 
ANARCHY  IN  THE  REIGN  OF  HIS  GRANDSON  STEPHEN  ...  76 

CHAPTER   VII 
HENRY  II  (1154-1189).     THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  ROYAL  POWER  AND 

THE    RISE    OF   THE    ENGLISH    COMMON    LAW 107 

CHAPTER   VIII 

RICHARD  I  (1189-1199)  AND  THE  TRANSITION  FROM  ABSOLUTE  TOWARD 
LIMITED  MONARCHY.  CONDITIONS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  TWELFTH 

CENTURY 120 

vii 


viii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   IX 

PAGE 

THE  REIGN  OF  JOHN  (1199-1216).  THE  Loss  OF  NORMANDY,  THE  QUAR- 
REL WITH  THE  CHURCH,  THE  BARONIAL  REVOLT  AND  MAGNA  CARTA  133 

CHAPTER  X 

HENRY  III  (1216-1272).  THE  STRUGGLE  OF  THE  BARONS  TO  MAINTAIN 
THE  CHARTER,  TO  EXPEL  FOREIGN  INFLUENCE  AND  TO  CONTROL 
THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  KINGDOM.  CONDITIONS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF 
THE  REIGN 147 

CHAPTER  XI 
EDWARD  I   AND   EDWARD   II    (1272-1327).     THE  COMPLETION   OF  THE 

FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  CONSTITUTIONAL  SYSTEM         .        .    166 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE  REIGN  OF  EDWARD  III  (1327-1377).  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE 
HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR.  CHIVALRY  AT  ITS  HEIGHT.  THE  GROW- 
ING IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  COMMONS.  THE  INCREASE  OF  NATIONAL 
SENTIMENT.  FIRST  ATTACKS  ON  THE  POWER  OF  ROME  .  .  .  189 

CHAPTER  XIII 
LIFE  IN  ENGLAND  UNDER  THE  FIRST  THREE  EDWARDS  (1272-1377)       .    210 

CHAPTER   XIV 
RICHARD  II  (1377-1399).    THE  END  OF  THE  PLANTAGENET  DYNASTY   .    230 

CHAPTER  XV 

THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER  IN  THE  ASCENDANT,  AND  "THE  CONSTITU- 
TIONAL EXPERIMENT  "  IN  GOVERNMENT.  HENRY  IV  (1399-1413) ; 
HENRY  V  (1413-1422) 242 

CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  FALL  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER.     HENRY  VI  (1422-1461)       .    254 

CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  HOUSE  OF  YORK.     EDWARD  IV   (1461-1483) ;   EDWARD  V  (1483) ; 

RICHARD  III  (1483-1485) 265 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM.     HENRY  VII  (1485-1509)    278 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS  ix 

CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  (1509-1529)  AND  THE  EVE  OF  SEPA- 
RATION FROM  ROME 294 

CHAPTER  XX 
HENRY  VIII  AND  THE  SEPARATION  FROM  RO^E  (1529-1547)  .        .        .    314 

CHAPTER   XXI 
THE  HENRICIAN  REGIME  (1509-1547) .338 

CHAPTER   XXII 

THE  PROTESTANT  EXTREMISTS  IN  POWER.     EDWARD  VI  (1547-1553)  .        348 

CHAPTER   XXIII 
THE  ENGLISH  COUNTER-REFORMATION.     MARY  (1553-1558)      .        .        .    358 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  ELIZABETHAN  RELIGIOUS  SETTLEMENT  AND  THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF 

ELIZABETH'S  REIGN  (1558-1572) 369 

CHAPTER   XXV 
ELIZABETH'S  ASCENDANCY  AND  DECLINE  (1572-1603)         ....    384 

CHAPTER  XXVI 
ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  (1558-1603) 401 

CHAPTER  XXVII 
JAMES  I  AND  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION  (1603-1625)     427 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 
CHARLES  I  AND  THE  PRECIPITATION  OF  THE  CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING 

AND  PEOPLE  (1625-1640) 450 

CHAPTER   XXIX 
FROM  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT  TO  THE  OUTBREAK  OF 

THE  CIVIL  WAR  (1640-1642) 474 

CHAPTER  XXX 

FROM   THE   OUTBREAK   OF    THE   CIVIL    WAR  TO   THE    EXECUTION   OF 

CHARLES  I  (1642-1649) 486 


x  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXXI 

PAGE 

THE  KINGLESS  DECADE:  THE  COMMONWEALTH  AND  THE  PROTECTORATE 

(1649-1660) 509 

CHAPTER   XXXII 
FROM  THE  RESTORATION  TO  THE  FALL  OF  CLARENDON  (1660-1667)       .    529 

CHAPTER  XXXIII 
FROM  THE  FALL  OF  CLARENDON  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  II  (1667- 

1685) 547 

CHAPTER  XXXIV 
JAMES  II  AND  THE  "  GLORIOUS  REVOLUTION  "  (1685-1688)       .        .        .    566 

CHAPTER  XXXV 
PURITAN  AND  CAVALIER  ENGLAND 588 

CHAPTER   XXXVI 
THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF  THE  NEW  DYNASTY  AND  THE  OPENING  OF  THE 

GREAT  WAR.     WILLIAM  AND  MARY  (1689-1694)         .        .        .        .614 

CHAPTER  XXXVII 
THE  COMPLETION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1688.    WILLIAM  ALONE  (1694- 

1702) 634 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII 
THE  END  OF  THE  STUART  DYNASTY.    ANNE  (1702-1714)        .        .        .    650 

CHAPTER   XXXIX 
THE  FIRST  HANOVERIAN,  GEORGE  I  (1714-1727) 676 

CHAPTER  XL 

THE  ASCENDANCY  AND  FALL  OF  WALPOLE  AND  THE  OPENING  OF  A 
NEW  ERA  OF  WAR.  THE  FIRST  PART  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  GEORGE  II 
(1727-1748) 696 

CHAPTER  XLI 

THE  DUEL  FOR  EMPIRE.    THE  CLOSING  YEARS  OF  GEORGE  II's  REIGN 

(1748-1760) 718 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  XLII 

PACK 

THE   REVIVAL    OF   THE   ROYAL    ASCENDANCY.    THE   FIRST   YEARS   OF 

GEORGE  III  (1760-1770) •   .        .        .738 

CHAPTER   XLIII 

THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION  AND  THE   END  OF  THE  PERSONAL  ASCEN- 
DANCY OF  GEORGE  III  (1770-1783) 761 

CHAPTER  XLIV 

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY    ENGLAND    TO    THE    EVE    OF    THE    INDUSTRIAL 

REVOLUTION 783 

CHAPTER  XLV 
THE  YOUNGER  PITT  :  THE  NEW  TORYISM  AND  ADMINISTRATIVE  REFORM 

(1784-1793) 808 

CHAPTER   XLVI 
THE  GREAT  WAR  WITH  FRANCE  TO  THE  PEACE  OF  AMIENS  (1793-1802)     831 

CHAPTER  XLVII 
THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  :  FROM  AMIENS  TO  WATERLOO  (1802- 

1815) 849 

CHAPTER  XLVIII 

FROM  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON  TO  THE  EVE  OF  THE  GREAT  RE- 
FORM BILL.  THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  GEORGE  III,  AND  THE  REIGN  OF 
GEORGE  IV  (1815-1830) 867 

CHAPTER   XLIX 
ENGLAND  ON  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORM  BILL 892 

CHAPTER   L 
THE  EPOCH  OF  REFORM.    WILLIAM  IV  (1830-1837)         .        .        .        .905 

CHAPTER   LI 
THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF  VICTORIA'S  REIGN  AND  THE  TRIUMPH  OF  FREE 

TRADE  (1837-1846) 927 

CHAPTER   LII 
THE  REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS  IN  EUROPE  AND  THE  BEGINNING  OF 

A  NEW  PERIOD  OF  WAR  (1846-1856) 950 


xii  TABLE  OF   CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  LIII 

PAGE 

THE  PALMERSTONIAN  REGIME  AND  THE  END  OF  AN  EPOCH  (1857-1865)    966 

CHAPTER   LIV 
A  NEW  ERA  IN  DEMOCRACY.    THE  POLITICAL  RIVALRY  OF  GLADSTONE 

AND  DISRAELI  (1865-1880) 983 

CHAPTER   LV 
THE  Two  LAST  DECADES  OF  VICTORIA'S  REIGN  (1880-1901)  \        .        .  1009 

CHAPTER   LVI 

VICTORIAN  AND  POSTVICTORIAN  ENGLAND 1039 

i 

CHAPTER   LVII 

SKETCH  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  EDWARD  VII  (1901-1910)  AND  OF  THE  EARLY 

YEARS  OF  GEORGE  V  (1910-1914) 1071 

APPENDIX 

LIST  OF  PRIME  MINISTERS  FROM  WALPOLE  TO  ASQUITH  ....  1090 


MAPS 

MODERN  ENGLAND  AND  WALES Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGB 

ROMAN  BRITAIN 18 

ENGLAND  TO  ILLUSTRATE  THE  GERMANIC  SETTLEMENTS  ....      30 

POSSESSIONS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  ANJOU 108 

SCOTLAND  (IN  THE  REIGN  OF  EDWARD  FIRST) 170 

ENGLAND  TO  ILLUSTRATE  THE  WARS  OF  ROSES 260 

IRELAND  (AFTER  1603) 482 

ENGLAND  TO  ILLUSTRATE  THE  CIVIL  WARS 490 

SCOTLAND  (AFTER  1603) 498 

SPAIN  TO  ILLUSTRATE  THE  PENINSULAR  WAR 854 

INDIA  IN  1857 .- 968 

AFRICA  IN  1910 1034 

THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  IN  1914  .  1064 


xiii 


A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   BRITISH   ISLES:   THEIR    PHYSICAL    FEATURES  AND 
RESOURCES 

England  and  the  British  Empire.  —  England  is  the  cradle  and  pres- 
ent center  of  the  British  Empire,  an  empire  which  covers  a  quarter 
of  the  land  surface  of  the  earth  and  includes  a  population  of  fully 
425,000,000  souls.  This  little  country  of  England,  with  an  area  of 
about  50,000  square  miles,  barely  larger  than  the  state  of  New 
York,  forms,  together  with  Scotland  and  Wales,  the  island  known 
as  Great  Britain.  Ireland,  lying  to  the  west,  is  the  only  other  impor- 
tant division  of  the  United  Kingdom,  although  the  British  Isles  which 
compose  it  number  no  less  than  five  thousand,  with  a  total  area  of 
120,000  square  miles  and  a  population  of  about  45,000,000.  It  will 
be  the  purpose  of  this  history  to  trace -the  course  of  events  by  which 
England  and  the  adjacent  countries  became  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  by  which  the  United  Kingdom  has  become  the  greatest  sea  power 
ever  known,  has  developed  a  foreign  commerce  larger  than  that  of 
any  other  country  of  the  world,1  and  has  fashioned  an  empire  with  an 
extent  of  territory  nearly  a  hundred,  and  a  population  almost  ten,  times 
its  own. 

Importance  of  Physical  Characteristics.  —  In  this  remarkable 
development,  physical  geography  has  to  be  taken  into  account.  Cli- 
'mate,  industrial  resources,  location  and  structure  of  mountains,  posi- 
tion and  character  of  rivers,  situation  relative  to  other  countries,  and 
the  nature  of  the  coast  line  have  all  been  determining  factors  in  British 
history. 

Climate.  —  Climate  is  especially  important.  Extreme  cold  is  a 
serious  obstacle  to  the  production  of  those  things  on  which  man  is 
dependent  for  his  existence  ;  extreme  heat,  on  the  other  hand,  checks 
active  exertion  by  which  character  is  developed  and  by  which  man  is 
able  to  make  the  most  of  his  surroundings.  With  respect  to  climate 
Great  Britain  has  been  particularly  fortunate.  The  summers  are 
long  enough  to  ripen  the  crops,  while  the  winters  are  not  too  long 

1  Though,  since  1900,  its  export  trade  has  fallen  below  that  of  the  United  States. 

B  I 


2  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

or  too  severe  seriously  to  interfere  with  outdoor  occupations.  Agri- 
cultural pursuits  can  be  carried  on  in  many  parts  of  the  country 
throughout  the  year ;  there  is  rarely  snow  or  ice  enough  to  interrupt 
communications.  Domestic  animals  thrive,  though,  by  a  fortunate 
chance,  insects  which  trouble  crops  do  not.  The  average  difference 
between  winter  and  summer  temperature  in  Great  Britain  is  less  than 
20°  as  contrasted  with  nearly  50°  in  central  Russia  on  the  east  and 
Labrador  on  the  west.  Southern  Ireland,  which  lies  directly  opposite 
southern  Labrador,  has  the  temperature  of  Georgia.  The  evenness 
of  climate  is  to  some  extent  due  to  the  surrounding  sea,  which  tempers 
extremes  of  heat  and  cold  alike,  while  the  mildness  of  the  winter  is 
further  due  to  the  circumstance  that  the  prevailing  winds  aje  from  the 
southwest,  bringing  to  the  British  shores  the  warmth  of  the  gulf  district 
of  America.1 

Distribution  of  Rainfall.  —  The  moisture-laden  winds  from  the 
southwest,  which  temper  the  climate,  bring  an  abundance  of  rain  which 
makes  portions  of  Ireland,  Wales,  Scotland,  as  well  as  western  England, 
unsuited  for  agriculture.  In  the  case  of  England,  itself,  the  moun- 
tains grouped  and  ranged  along  the  western  coast  modify  and  dis- 
tribute the  rainfall  so  that  the  greater  part  of  the  soil  is  well  adapted 
for  farming.  It  is  this  generous  distribution  of  moisture  which  gives 
to  English  grass  that  deep  rich  green  hue  which  is  so  striking  to  the 
inhabitants  of  dryer  climates.  Even  the  extremely  wet  regions  of  the 
western  midlands  are  not  without  their  advantages,  since  a  dryer  cli- 
mate which  makes  the  threads  brittle  would  be  a  great  obstacle  to 
cotton  manufacture. 

The  Island  of  Great  Britain.  —  The  island  of  Great  Britain  re- 
sembles roughly  a  triangle  resting  on  a  short  southern  base  and  inclin- 
ing its  eastern  and  western  sides  toward  the  northwest.  It  is  bounded 
on  the  east  by  the  North  Sea,  or  German  Ocean,  and  the  straits  of 
Dover ;  on  the  south  by  the  English  Channel ;  on  the  west  by  St. 
George's  Channel,  the  Irish  Sea,  and  the  North  Channel. 

Northern  and  Western  England.  —  England  proper  is  separated 
from  Scotland  by  the  indentation  of  the  sea  known  as  the  Solway 
Firth,  by  the  Cheviot  Hills,  and  the  Tweed  River.  With  an  area  of 
less  than  one  half  the  British  Isles  it  contains  about  two  thirds  of  the 
population.  There  are  two  distinct  divisions  within  the  country  itself 
which  might  be  marked  by  a  line  from  the  mouth  of  the  Humber  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Severn,  and  thence  down  to  the  shores  of  the  English 
Channel.  North  and  west  the  country  consists  of  mountains  and 
moorlands.  The  Pennine  range  extends  down,  almost  from  the  Scotch 
border  to  the  midland  county  of  Derby.  Tucked  into  the  northern 
corner  between  the  Pennines  and  the  sea  is  the  Cumbrian  group. 
The  short  broad  peninsula,  now  known  as  Wales,  is  prevailingly  moun- 
tainous, while  still  further  south  the  heights  of  Devon  and  Cornwall 

\This  influence  was  formerly  attributed  to  the  Gulf  Stream;  but  that  stream  as 
a  distinct  body  of  water  breaks  up  off  Newfoundland. 


THE   BRITISH  ISLES  3 

reach  out  along  that  narrow  tongue  of  land  which  forms  the  southwest 
projection  of  England.  For  centuries,  this  western  country,  given  over 
mostly  to  sheep  pasture,  lay  remote  and  backward  in  comparison  with  the 
more  favored  district  south  and  east  of  the  line  of  demarcation.  The 
tin  mines  of  Cornwall,  which  date  back  to  a  time  before  the  Roman 
occupation,  form  the  only  exception.  Yet,  even  in  the  early  centuries, 
the  mountains  were  a  benefit  to  their  country.  The  Pennines  formed 
a  protecting  wedge  which  served  to  split  the  waves  of  barbarian  inva- 
sion and  to  prevent  them  from  inundating  the  English  plain :  thus 
Carlisle  on  the  west  and  Newcastle  on  the  east  became  the  keys  of  the 
Scotch  border.  Furthermore,  aside  from  regulating  the  distribution 
of  moisture,  the  western  mountains  have  determined  the  course  and 
the  nature  of  the  important  rivers.  By  giving  them  long,  gentle 
slopes  they  have  admirably  adapted  them  for  commerce  and  irrigation. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  compare  the  rivers  of  England  with  the  short 
precipitous  torrents  of  Greece  or  of  Wales  and  northern  Scotland,  to 
realize  the  importance  of  the  English  mountain  system.  Nor  does  the 
Pennine  system  isolate  one  part  of  the  country  from  the  other,  for  three 
canals  run  through  it  east  and  west.  England  was  early  united,  while 
political  dissension  and  local  independence  have  characterized  the 
other  countries.  The  conquest  of  Wales  was  much  facilitated  from  the 
fact  that,  though  the  country  contains  many  inaccessible  fastnesses,  it  is 
easy  of  access  from  England.  With  the  discovery  of  the  use  of  steam 
in  manufacturing  the  Pennine  range  wras  found  to  contain  vast  stores 
of  mineral  wealth.  The  neighboring  region,  in  consequence,  has  be- 
come the  center  of  industrial  England,  and  the  once  solitary  stretches 
of  mountain  side  and  vast  expanse  of  moorland  are  now  studded  with 
smoking,  busy  cities,  and  swarm  with  life.  A  great  plain  watered 
with  many  rivers  stretches  down  east  of  the  Pennine  range  and  circles 
around  its  base  in  the  form  of  a  hook.  Manchester,  in  Lancashire, 
is  the  chief  seat  of  the  cotton  manufacture,  and  Leeds,  in  Yorkshire, 
of  the  woolen.  Birmingham  and  Sheffield  are  the  headquarters  for  the 
production  of  iron  and  steel,  while  along  the  banks  of  the  Clyde, 
the  Tyne  and  the  Wear,  and  the  Tees  are  situated  shipyards  which 
supply  not  only  Great  Britain  but  many  other  parts  of  the  world. 
The  Cumbrian  group  of  mountains,  unlike  the  Pennine  range,  is  of 
little  industrial  importance.  It  is,  however,  noted  for  the  beauty  of 
its  scenery,  containing  many  famous  lakes,  among  them  Lake  Winder- 
mere,  Derwentwater,  and  Conistonwater.  The  native  population  is 
scanty,  and  sheep  raising  is  the  chief  occupation,  though  the  district 
is  a  center  for  tourists  as  well  as  for  summer  homes,  and  the  lakes 
furnish  a  water  supply  for  many  of  the  cities  further  south.  The 
mountains  of  Cornwall,  in  the  southwest,  contain  rich  deposits  of 
lead  and  tin,  especially  the  latter,  which  have  been  worked  for  cen- 
turies. 

Southeast    England.  —  The    structure    of    southeast    England    is 
markedly  different  from  that  of  the  north  and  the  west.     It  is  pre- 


4  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

vailingly  a  plain  varied  with  hills  or  uplands  of  limestone  and  chalk. 
There  are  four  principal  groups  of  upland  ranges.  The  northern- 
most is  known  as  the  Oolitic  range.1  Starting  with  the  Cotswold 
Hills  on  the  banks  of  the  Severn,  this  range  runs  northeast  as  far  as 
the  river  Tees.  The  three  other  ranges  lying  further  south  are  mainly 
of  chalk  formation.  The  northernmost  includes  the  Chiltern  and 
the  East  Anglian  Hills.  Next  come  the  North  and  the  South  Downs, 
the  former  lying  just  south  of  the  Thames,  the  latter  skirting  the 
shores  of  the  English  Channel.  In  earlier  times  this  southeastern 
country  was  the  most  prosperous  and  progressive  section  of  England. 
The  reasons  for  the  leading  position  which  it  enjoyed  so  long  are 
easy  to  trace.  It  was  the  district  earliest  settled,  it  contained  the 
greatest  proportion  of  Teutonic  stock,  and  its  soil  was  the  most  fruit- 
ful in  the  land,  thus  enabling  people  to  live  closer  together  than  in  the 
more  barren  north ;  so  that  they  were  better  able  to  exchange  ideas 
and  had  more  means  and  leisure  for  education.  Furthermore,  they 
were  in  close  communication  with  the  Continent  whither  the  medieval 
Englishman  looked  for  trade,  knowledge,  fashions,  and  ideas.  The 
industrial  revolution  of  the  late  eighteenth  century  brought  about  a 
momentous  change,  and,  with  the  exception  of  London,  the  center 
of  progress  and  ideas  has  shifted  to  the  midland  country. 

Internal  Communication.  —  In  order  to  understand  clearly  the 
political  and  economic  history  of  a  people  it  is  necessary  to  know  their 
means  of  getting  about  from  place  to  place  and  of  communicating 
with  one  another.  In  the  early  days  before  the  Romans  introduced 
their  excellent  road  system,  a  system  to  which  many  of  the  Euro- 
pean highways  of  the  present  day  owe  their  origin,  Britain  was  largely 
a  land  of  tangled  forests  and  impassable  marshes.  At  that  time  the 
ridgeways  and  the  rivers  formed  almost  the  sole  means  of  communica- 
tion. But  even  with  the  advent  of  roads  and  railways  the  rivers 
are  still  of  great  importance;  they  provide  irrigation  for  the  soil, 
they  are  utilized  to  furnish  power  for  mills  and  factories,  and,  together 
with  the  canals  which  they  supply,  they  continue  to  serve  as  a  cheap 
and  convenient  means  of  transportation. 

English  River  Systems.  —  There  are  three  great  systems ;  the 
eastern  flowing  mainly  into  the  North  Sea,  the  southern  emptying 
into  the  English  Channel,  and  the  western,  which  finds  its  chief  outlet 
in  the  British  Channel  and  the  Irish  Sea.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the 
eastern  system  is  the  most  important.  It  is  commonly  divided  into 
four  groups.  Proceeding  from  north  to  south,  the  first  is  the  Nor- 
thumbrian group  which  lies  north  of  the  estuary  of  the  Humber.  The 
Tweed  forms  the  eastern  part  of  the  boundary  between  England  and 
Scotland.2  The  Tyne  has.for  its  chief  port  Newcastle,  a  great  center 

1  The  name  is  derived  from  the  Greek  word  for  egg  and  refers  to  the  character 
of  the  limestone  of  which  it  is  mainly  composed. 

2  It  gave  its  name  to  a  type  of  woolen  cloth  which  was  first  manufactured  along 
its  banks. 


THE   BRITISH   ISLES  c 

•  J* 

for  the  distribution  of  mining  products.1  The  second,  or  Humber 
group,  takes  its  name  from  the  Humber,  fed  by  two  rivers,  the  Ouse 
and  the  Trent,  which  with  their  tributaries  bring  the  products  of  a 
large  and  wealthy  district  to  Hull,  the  leading  port  of  northeastern 
England.  The  rivers  of  the  third  group  flow  into  the  Wash,  and  for 
many  reasons  are  comparatively  unimportant.  This  large  arm  of 
the  sea  is  bounded  by  a  marsh  with  no  harbors  and  no  suitable  sites 
for  towns.  The  neighboring  country,  never  adequately  drained  till 
modern  times,  was  long  the  haunt  of  wild  fowl  and  fish  and  the  men 
who  hunted  them.  The  fourth  and  last  division  of  the  eastern  group 
derives  its  name  and  importance  from  the  Thames,  the  largest  river 
of  England  and  the  chief  waterway  across  the  south  country.  It  is 
two  hundred  and  fifteen  miles  long  and  navigable  for  nearly  half  of 
its  length.  The  harbor  at  its  mouth  is  the  finest  in  the  whole  king- 
dom, and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  center  of  industry  has  shifted  to 
the  north,  and  that  Bristol  and  Liverpool  lie  nearer  to  the  American 
markets,  London  is  still  the  leader  in  imports  and  second  only  to 
Liverpool  in  exports.  The  rivers  of  the  southern  group  are  relatively 
short  and  unimportant.  On  the  west,  two  rivers  call  for  special 
notice.  The  Severn,  rising  in  the  Welsh  mountains,  sweeps  round 
to  the  east  and  south  in  the  form  of  a  bow,  widening  at  the  end  of  its 
course  into  the  Bristol  Channel.  Bristol,  its  chief  port,  rose  to  con- 
sequence in  the  Tudor  period,  owing  to  its  favorable  situation  with 
respect  to  the  New  World.  It  was  from  there  that  John  Cabot  sailed 
on  his  famous  voyage  of  discovery,  and  it  was  there  that  many  of 
the  heroic  seamen  of  Elizabeth's  day  made  their  homes.  Yet,  save 
for  a  small  amount  of  wool  manufacturing,  the  districts  lying  behind 
are  mainly  agricultural.  Bristol,  in  consequence,  had  long  ago  to 
yield  its  preeminence  as  a  port  to  Liverpool  on  the  Mersey,  the 
center  of  a  district  rich  in  manufacturing,  in  mining  products,  and 
pasture  lands. 

The  British  Isles  and  the  Continent.  —  There  was  a  time  when  the 
British  Isles  formed  a  part  of  the  neighboring  continent  of  Europe. 
This  is  evident  from  the  comparative  shallowness  of  the  intervening 
waters.  The  Channel  is  so  shoal  between  Dover  and  Calais  that  it  is 
said  that  if  St.  Paul's  cathedral  were  sunk  at  any  point,  its  dome 
would  stand  out  of  the  water.  Another  evidence  is  to  be  found  in  the 
similarity  of  structure  between  the  different  parts  of  the  island  group 
and  those  of  the  adjoining  mainland.  The  rocky  promontories  of 
Scotland  correspond  to  those  of  the  Scandinavian  lands,  while  the 
plains  of  southern  and  eastern  England  closely  resemble  those  of  the 
French  and  Dutch  lands  which  they  face. 

Importance  of  Insularity.  —  The  watery  barrier,  which  has  existed 
since  England  began  to  have  a  history,  has  been  a  significant  element 

1  Even  as  early  as  Shakespeare's  day  coal  was  sent  to  London  by  sea,  whence 
the  name  "sea  coal,"  and  the  fame  of  the  city  as  a  coal  exporting  center  long  ago 
gave  rise  to  the  adage  "  carrying  coals  to  Newcastle." 


6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  shaping  her  destiny.  It  has  kept  her  out  of  reach  of  her  greedy 
and  powerful  neighbors,  thus  enabling  her  to  maintain  her  inde- 
pendence and  to  develop  her  ideals,  manners,  customs,  and  system  of 
government  in  her  own  way.  Most  notably  it  has  left  her  energies 
free  for  commercial  and  colonial  expansion.  In  ancient  and  medieval 
times,  when  the  population  was  scanty  and  means  of  resistance  un- 
organized, peoples  from  the  Continent  forced  their  way  in  ;  but  since 
the  eleventh  century  there  has  been  no  serious  danger  from  this  source. 
Even  Napoleon,  who  reduced  nearly  all  Europe,  was  unable  to  make 
his  way  into  Great  Britain.  At  the  same  time,  Great  Britain,  es- 
pecially England,  has  not  been  too  remote  to  feel  the  influence  of 
the  great  continental  movements  such  as  the  Crusades,  the  Revival 
of  Learning,  the  Reformation,  and  the  French  Revolution.  Most 
of  these  movements,  however,  had  spent -their  force  when  they  reached 
her  shores,  and  took  there  a  very  individual  form,  as  we  shall  see. 
On  the  other  hand,  England  has  led  in  the  struggle  for  constitutional 
liberty,  and  the  supremacy  of  parliament  over  sovereign  was  estab- 
lished long  before  it  was  established  abroad. 

World  Position  and  World  Trade.  —  A  glance  at  a  map  of  the 
globe  will  show  how  centrally  the  British  are  situated  with  respect 
to  the  two  great  continents  of  Europe  and  America,  and  will  help  to 
explain  their  leadership  in  commerce.  Indeed,  one  fifth  of  their 
present  exports  consist  of  things  produced  by  other  countries  and 
distributed  by  British  ships.  Wool  from  Australia  is  carried  to  Ger- 
many, France,  and  the  United  States,  and,  in  the  same  way,  French 
silks  are  conveyed  to  Australia.  Likewise,  the  raw  cotton  from 
America,  India,  and  Egypt,  on  their  way  to  the  continent  of  Europe, 
as  well  as  many  oriental  products  destined  for  the  United  States, 
pass  through  British  ports.  It  was  only  lately  that  England  came  into 
the  circle  of  European  powers.  During  the  Middle  Ages  the  bulk 
of  the  trade  was  with  the  Orient.  Goods  were  taken  across  Asia  by 
the  overland  route  to  the  Mediterranean ;  thence  they  were  distributed 
to  the  different  countries  of  Christendom  by  the  ships  of  the  Italian 
cities,  admirably  situated  for  the  purpose.  The  advance  of  the  Turks 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  which  culminated  in  the  capture  of  Con- 
stantinople in  1453,  blocked  the  overland  trade  route  to  the  east  and 
made  it  necessary  to  discover  new  routes  by  sea.  A  momentous  but 
unforeseen  consequence  was  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  and  the 
shifting  of  the  seat  of  trade  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  Italy  had  to  yield  to  Spain,  Portugal,  France,  the  Dutch, 
and  to  England.  Of  these  five  new  powers  England  ultimately  forged 
to  the  front.  One  of  the  reasons  was  that  by  virtue  of  her  insular 
position  she  was  able  to  husband  her  resources,  to  hold  aloof  at  will 
from  the  complications  of  European  wars,  and  to  devote  her  main 
energies  to  commercial  and  colonial  expansion.  With  excellent  harbors 
her  seaports  in  time  grew  up  to  be  important  commercial  centers 
—  Newcastle,  Hull,  and  London  on  the  east ;  Bristol,  Liverpool,  and, 


THE   BRITISH   ISLES  7 

in  more  recent  times,  Glasgow,  on  the  west.  A  well-indented  coast 
line  is  an  indispensable  supplement  to  a  favorable  geographical  posi- 
tion. It  was  most  fortunate  for  Greece,  for  instance,  that  her  best 
harbors  faced  the  Orient,  the  birthplace  of  the  earliest  trade  and 
civilization ;  while  the  fact  that  Italy  turns  her  back  to  Greece  explains 
why  her  western  and  southern  coast  came  to  be  wealthy  and  pros- 
perous instead  of  the  east.  Great  Britain  has  been  blessed  with  a 
most  accessible  coast  on  three  sides. 

England  as  a  Producing  Power.  —  England  is  not  only  a  distributing 
power,  she  is  a  producing  and  a  manufacturing  power  as  well.  Here 
too,  as  has  been  shown  in  another  connection,  physical  conditions 
have  been  most  favorable.  Her  soil  is  well  adapted  for  sheep  raising, 
and  sheep  furnished  not  only  food,  but  the  material  for  clothes.  With 
the  introduction  of  machinery  the  country  was  found  to  contain  vast 
stores  of  iron  and  coal.  Cotton  for  manufacture  was  imported  and 
wool  was  produced  at  home.  The  great  productiveness  of  the  country 
resulted  in  an  overflow  of  population ;  this  led  to  colonization,  and  the . 
colonies  in  their  turn  created  new  markets. 

Wales.  —  When  the  Teutonic  tribes  pressed  into  Britain  in  the 
fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  Wales  —  remote  and  mountainous  — 
furnished  a  refuge  for  many  of  the  British  peoples  who  had  been 
holding  the  more  fertile  eastern  lands.  Although  they  were  soon 
isolated  from  kinsmen  who  inhabited  the  western  coast  north  and 
south,  all  attempts  to  subjugate  them  failed  until  their  conquest  by 
Edward  I  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  thirteenth  century.  It  was  not 
until  two  hundred  years  later  that  the  country  was  finally  incorporated 
into  the  English  parliamentary  system.  The  rocky  coast,  the  rugged 
mountainous  surface,  and  the  excessive  moisture  of  the  climate 
rendered  the  country  unsuitable  for  agriculture.  The  barriers  to 
communication,  and  the  wilderness  of  the  surroundings,  produced  a 
people  fierce,  independent,  and  disunited,  who  fought  not  only  against 
England,  but  among  themselves.  At  the  same  time,  the  beauty  of 
the  scenery  tended  to  foster  a  romantic  imagination  and  to  develop 
a  school  of  bards  who  sang  with  rare  beauty  and  exaltation  of  senti- 
ment. Wales,  too,  profited  by  the  industrial  revolution  of  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  centuries,  and  now  derives  its  chief  wealth  from  its 
mineral  products :  coal,  iron,  copper,  lead,  zinc,  slate,  limestone. 
Cardiff  is  a  busy  town,  noted  for  its  export  of  coal  and  iron  and  for 
its  docks.  The  coal  of  the  Black  Mountains  is  famous  for  its  smelt- 
ing qualities.  Swansea  is  perhaps  the  chief  center  for  copper  smelting 
in  the  world,  and  thither  ore  is  brought  for  this  purpose  from  many 
countries.  The  Cambrian  range  l  is  noted  for  its  slate  quarries.  But 
the  industrial  area  is  limited,  and  the  stretches  of  mountain  districts, 
while  they  charm  the  tourist,  reduce  the  average  of  population  and 
wealth.  Scarcely  more  than  half  the  country  is  under  cultivation,  and 

1  Not  to  be  confused  with  the  Cumbrian. 


8  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

its  total  population  is  less  than  2,000,000,  not  greatly  exceeding  that 
of  Manchester  and  its  adjoining  towns. 

Scotland.  —  Taken  as  a  whole,  Scotland  is  still  less  adapted  for 
agriculture  than  Wales,  only  a  fourth  of  its  soil  being  devoted  to  that 
purpose.  In  the  olden  time  when  men  depended  largely  upon  that 
form  of  livelihood,  the  country  was  indeed  badly  off.  The  northern 
Highlands,  bounded  by  a  rocky  coast  and  stormy  seas,  a  country  of 
rugged  mountains  and  remote,  inaccessible  glens,  sheltered  a  race 
fierce  and  turbulent,  who  eked  out  a  scanty  support  from  hunting, 
fishing,  and  sheep  raising,  and  by  cattle  forays  in  which  they  plun- 
dered their  neighbors,  Scot  and  Englishman  alike.  Until  the  clan 
organization  was  broken  up,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Highland 
district,  comprising  about  two  thirds  of  the  whole  country,  was  re- 
garded as  a  forbidding,  desolate  waste  inhabited  by  savages.  For  a 
long  time,  indeed,  there  was  only  one  road  across  the  Grampian  Hills. 
At  present  the  Highlanders  live  largely  off  the  crowds  of  tourists  and 
sportsmen  attracted  thither  by  the  wild  beauty  of  the  scenery  and  the 
preserves  of  fish  and  game.  The  district  to  the  south,  known  as  the 
Lowlands,  is  inhabited  by  people  of  quite  another  type  —  thrifty,  in- 
dustrious, and  austere ;  touched,  nevertheless,  by  strains  of  wild  en- 
thusiasm and  poetic  impulse.  The  southern  Lowlands,  or  "  Border," 
consist  mainly  of  hill  and  moorland  adapted  for  little  but  sheep  raising. 
The  country  is  as  rich  in  historical  association  and  romantic  legend 
as  it  is  poor  in  resources.  In  course  of  time  manufactures  developed 
along  the  Tweed ;  but  Scotland's  greatest  industrial  gifts  are  centered 
further  north  in  the  Lowland  plain  between  the  Border  and  the  High- 
lands. The  Firth  of  Forth  on  the  east  and  the  Firth  of  Clyde  on  the 
west  furnish  excellent  harbors,  and  a  line  of  communication  has  been 
carried  straight  across  the  island  by  a  canal  joining  the  two  bodies 
of  water.  The  neighboring  districts  are  rich  in  mineral  deposits. 
This  combination  of  industrial  resources  and  commercial  facilities 
has  led  to  a  great  development  in  manufacturing.  The  Clyde  is  the 
center  of  the  world's  shipbuilding,  while  Glasgow  on  its  banks  is  the 
second  city  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Though  the  poverty  and  learn- 
ing of  the  Scot  were  proverbial  as  late  as  Dr.  Johnson's  day,  the 
former  soon  ceased  to  be  true,  at  least  for  this  Lowland  plain  district. 
That  Scotland  was  able  to  share  in  the  great  industrial  development 
of  England  was  due  to  political  changes  brought  about  largely  by 
commercial  necessity.  In  the  time  of  Edward  I,  Scotland  formed  an 
alliance  with  France,  and  her  interests  and  her  civilization  continued 
decidedly  French  for  centuries.  When  James  VI  inherited  the  Eng- 
lish throne  in  1603,  she  was  joined  with  her  southern  neighbor  and 
former  enemy  under  a  single  king ;  and  finally,  by  the  parliamentary 
union  of  1707,  the  two  countries  became  really  one. 

Ireland.  —  The  position  of  Ireland  and  her  physical  characteristics 
have  rendered  her  peculiarly  unfortunate,  politically  and  industrially, 
and  have  presented  to  England  a  problem  which  she  has  never  been 


THE   BRITISH  ISLES  9 

able  to  solve.  She  first  entered  the  island  as  a  conqueror  in  the 
twelfth  century.  Original  differences  of  race  early  fostered  an  an- 
tagonism that  was  sharpened  by  religious  opposition  after  the  Refor- 
mation. England  alienated  Ireland  by  neglect  and  oppression.  At 
the  same  time  Ireland's  situation  made  it  strategically  necessary  for 
her  conqueror  to  remain  in  possession.  She  was  only  brought  to 
make  tardy  and  grudging  concessions  after  the  subject  people  had 
become  so  embittered  as  to  make  reconciliation  well-nigh  impossible. 
Ireland's  relations  to  England  have  done  much  to  make  her  people 
miserable  and  turbulent ;  but  much  has  been  due  to  natural  disad- 
vantages. Her  hills  and  mountains,  though  they  encircle  the  coast, 
are  too  low  to  modify  perceptibly  the  abundant  rains  brought  by  the 
ocean  winds,  and  contribute  rather  to  drain  water  into  the  central 
plain.  With  an  average  of  over  two  hundred  rainy  days  in  the  year, 
much  of  the  soil  is  too  wet  for  agriculture,  and  there  are  places  which 
are  mere  bog  and  marsh.  The  abundance  of  rain,  too,  interrupts 
agricultural  pursuits  and  renders  the  climate  sultry  and  enervating. 
Ireland's  mineral  resources  also  are  scanty ;  the  coal  is  of  a  poor  quality 
and,  situated  mainly  in  the  southeastern  county  of  Kilkenny,  is 
separated  from  the  chief  deposits  of  iron  which  are  in  Antrim  in  the 
extreme  northeast.  The  total  production  of  coal  and  iron  is  only  about 
one  per  cent  of  that  of  England.  Commercially,  too,  the  country 
has  been  unfortunate.  England  lies  in  a  position  to  intercept  its 
continental  trade ;  many  of  its  best  harbors  lie  to  the  west  and  north, 
where,  at  least  in  early  times,  they  did  little  good,  and  there  is  only 
one  navigable  river.  Dublin,  the  capital,  has  a  population  of  about 
three  hundred  thousand,  and  Belfast,  noted  for  its  linen  manufactures 
and  its  shipbuilding,  numbers  four  hundred  thousand.  But  these  are 
the  only  towns  with  a  population  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand, 
and  there  are,  all  told,  only  six  with  more  than  twenty  thousand.  Con- 
ditions, however,  are  favorable  to  pastoral  pursuits,  and,  relative  to 
its  population,  Ireland  raises  more  live  stock  than  any  other  country 
of  Europe.  Cork  and  Water  ford  are  the  great  ports  for  shipping 
cattle  to  Bristol.  Ireland's  cattle  trade,  however,  has  been  seriously 
affected  by  improved  methods  of  transportation  which  has  made 
American  competition  possible.  Since  the  end  of  the  last  century, 
mainly  through  the  efforts  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  and  the  Agricultural 
Commission,  a  considerable  industry  has  been  developed  in  supplying 
England  with  poultry  and  dairy  produce.  Emigration  began  on  a 
larger  scale  after  the  great  potato  famine  of  1845,  so  that  the  population, 
which  was  then  over  8,000,000,  is  now  only  half  as  much.  But,  what 
with  the  new  industry,  as  well  as  cooperative  banks  and  cooperative 
farming,  the  country  has  been  more  prosperous  in  the  last  decade 
than  ever  before,  while  the  decrease  of  population  has  been  smaller 
than  for  any  ten  years  since  1841.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  union 
of  Ireland  with  Great  Britain,  brought  about  in  i8oi,has  been  attended 
with  consequences  far  different  from  those  which  followed  the  union 
with  Scotland  in  1707. 


io  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

General  Summary.  —  While  Ireland  has  been  to  some  degree  an 
unfortunate  exception,  the  British  Isles  in  general  have  been  greatly 
favored  by  nature  in  attaining  the  preeminent  position  they  now 
occupy.  They  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  mild  and  even  climate,  of  a 
central  geographical  position,  of  a  coast  line  safe  and  accessible,  and 
of  mountains  stored  with  minerals  and  situated  so  as  to  regulate  the 
rainfall  and  form  rivers  adapted  to  internal  communication. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING  i 

J.  R.  Green,  A  Short  Geography  of  the  British  Isles  (1903) :  England,  pp.  1-107 ! 
Wales,  216-227;  Scotland,  245-317;  Ireland,  362-375.  The  remainder  of  this 
excellent  little  book  is  devoted  to  the  various  counties  of  the  respective  countries. 
The  best  description  for  historical  purposes ;  but  the  tables  of  population  are  out  of 
date.  G.  G.  Chisholm,  Handbook  of  Commercial  Geography,  pp.  216-254.  A.  C. 
Ramsay,  Physical  Geology  and  Geography  of  Great  Britain  (1894),  chs.  XXIX,  XXX, 
XXXIII-XXXV.  H.  C.  Mackinder,'  Britain  and  the  British  Seas  (1892).  The 
most  recent  work  on  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  British  Isles.  A.  Geikie, 
Landscape  in  History  (1905),  ch.  IV.  . 

1  The  editions  are  those  accessible  to  the  writer,  preferably  the  most  recent. 


CHAPTER  II 


Means  of  Studying  Primitive  Peoples.  —  Far  away  in  the  dim  past 
Britain  was  inhabited  by  a  race  of  men  now  extinct.  Since  no  written 
records  tell  what  they  did  and  how  they  lived,  their  times  are  known 
as  the  prehistoric.  It  is  beyond  our  power  to  reconstruct  any  account 
of  this  period ;  but  certain  "  auxiliary  science^'  as  they  are  called 
in  relation  to  history,  throw  light  on  the  physical  characteristics  of 
these  ancient  men,  their  condition  and  customs,  and  the  successive 
stages  of  their  development.  Archeology  teaches  much  from  a  study 
and  classification  of  the  relics  of  tools,  weapons,  and  places  of  habi- 
tation ;  from  human  remains,  anthropology  attempts  to  determine 
what  manner  of  men  they  were  and  their  race  relationships ;  the  strata 
in  which  such  remains  have  been  found  enable  the  geologis£,to  suggest 
information  as  to  the  relative  age  in  which  they  lived  ;  while,  from  such 
vestiges  of  their  language  as  have  survived,  jphilologv,  helps  to  de- 
termine their  degree  of  culture  and  the  other  groups  of  people  with 
whom  they  may  have  associated. 

Paleolithic  Men  of  the  River  Drift.  —  Ages  ago,  when  Britain  was 
still  a  part  of  the  Continent,  the  earliest  man  appeared.  Great  changes 
of  climate  took  place  during  his  sojourn  in  the  land  ;  generally  it  was 
colder  than  at  present,  though  at  times  it  must  have  been  hotter,  at 
least  in  summer.  Not  only  have  remains  of  reindeer  been  found,  but 
also  of  lions,  hyenas,  leopards,  and  elephants,  beasts  now  existing 
only  in  the  tropics.  With  them  were  bison,  bears,  lynxes,  and  wild 
cats,  animals  that  the  spread  of  civilization  has  pushed  to  the  wildest 
parts  of  our  temperate  zone ;  also  mammoths,  woolly  rhinoceroses,  and 
Irish  elks  that  no  longer  exist  in  any  part  of  the  earth.  The  race  of 
men  who  lived  among  them  has  also  passed  away.  Few  if  any  human 
remains  of  this  period  have  been  discovered,  and  none  in  Britain ; 
but  rude,  unground  weapons  of  chipped  flint,  unprovided  with  handles, 
found  in  the  deposits  of  ancient  rivers,  prove  that  they  ranged  over 
a  wide  territory  from  India  on  the  east,  and  northern  Africa  on  the 
south,  to  Britain  on  the  west.  (From  the  form  and  size  of  their  imple- 
ments and  the  places  where  they  have  been  found,  scholars  conclude 
that  they  were  a  small  race  of  nomad  hunters,  too  rude  to  polish  their 
weapons  or  to  build  themselves  habitations,  dwelling  chiefly  along 
the  banks  of  rivers.  They  belonged  to  the  most  primitive  type,  the 
earliest  stage  of  civilization,  the^ld  stone  or  paleolithic  age.  ^ 


12  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Paleolithic  Men  of  the  Caves.  —  In  course  of  time  they  gave  way 
to  a  new  race  still  in  the  old  stone  age;  for  their  weapons,  though 
they  had  handles,  were  still  of  unpolished  stone.  While  they  did  not 
understand  the  art  of  pottery,  had  no  domestic  animals,  and  knew 
nothing  of  agriculture,  they  represented  a  ^distinctly  higher  type  than 
their  predecessors.  Their  arrowheads  were  of  flint ;  but  they  formed" 
harpoon  heads  of  antlers,  they  made  needles  of  bone,  and  fashioned 
themselves  clothes  of  skins  sewed  with  reindeer  sinews.  They  painted 
their  faces  with  red  oxide  of  iron,  and  wore  amulets  and  necklaces  of 
perforated  shells,  ivory,  and  teeth.  They  constructed  bird  snares, 
and  speared  fish  with  their  barbed  harpoons.  They  knew  how  to 
strike  fire  from  flint  and  boiled  water  by  means  of  hot  stones.  Frag- 
ments of  bones  found  in  refuse  heaps  show  that  they  paid  no- regard 
to  their  dead.  On  the  other  hand,  they  possessed  a  rare  artistic 
faculty,  carving  pictures  of  animals  and  hunting  scenes  with  great 
accuracy  and  spirit.  Their  art,  their  implements,  and  their  manners 
and  customs,  particularly  their  unmindfulness  of  the  dead,  are  strik;- 
ingly  like  those  of  jthe  Eskimos.  Triese  facts,  and  traces  of  an  Eskimo 
physical  type  found  among  the  present  inhabitants  of  western  England, 
have  led  to  a  conclusion  that  there  is  a  racial  relationship  between  them 
and  the  ancient  cave  men  who  are  in  no  way  akin  to  their  prede- 
cessors or  any  of  their  successors. 

The  Neolithic  Men.  —  After  another  long  interval,  the  men  of  the 
old  stone  age  gave  place  to  the  men  of  the  new.  Their  weapons,  still 
of  stone,  were  more  skillfully  fashioned  and  were  ground  and  polished 
to  give  them  a  smooth  surface  and  a  keener  cutting  edge.  An  idea 
of  the  immense  stretch  of  time  that  separates  this  era  from  that  of 
the  old  stone  men  can  be  gained  from  the  fact  that  Britain  had  be- 
come an  island,  and  that  many  of  the  animals  of  the  previous  age  had 
become  extinct.  The  new  race,  understanding  the  rudiments  of 
navigation,  crossed  the  watery  barrier  in  canoes,  some  at  least  forty 
feet  in  length.  They  brought  with  them  domestic  animals,  horses, 
short-horned  cattle,  sheep,  dogs,  goats,  and  pigs.  Mainly  a  pastoral 
people,  it  is  possible  that  they  cultivated  the  soil  somewhat,  raising 
chiefly  wheat  and  flax,  and  that  they  spun  and  wove  with  the  spindle 
and  distaff  and  rude  looms.  It  may  be,  however,  that  they  still 
clothed  themselves  with  skins  and  had  no  vegetable  food  except  fruits, 
berries,  and  roots.  But  they  knew  how  to  fashion  pottery  from  clay. 
Sinking  shafts,  they  mined  flint  for  their  weapons.  They  did  not 
dwell  in  caves,  but  constructed  dwellings  by  hollowing  out  circular 
pits  under  ground,  with  an  opening  at  the  surface  to  admit  light  and 
air.  Traces  of  log  huts  have  also  been  discovered.  These  neolithic 
men  were  loosely  organized  into  tribes.  Evidently  they  often  fought 
with  one  another ;  for  they  had  camps  or  stockades  consisting  of  a  space 
surrounded  by  ramparts  of  earth  or  stone  placed  behind  a  ditch  and 
protected  by  a  palisade  of  stakes.  They  buried  their  dead  in  long 
elliptical  barrows  or  mounds  which  they  constructed  by  planting 


THE   EARLIEST  INHABITANTS   OF  BRITAIN         13 

Stones  upright  in  the  ground,  by  laying  others  across  their  tops,  and 
covering  the  chamber  thus  formed  with  earth.  Numbers  of  these 
barrows  still  exist.  The  men  who  built  them  indicated  their  belief 
in  a  future  life  by  burying  tools  and  weapons  with  the  departed  that 
they  might  have  them  for  use  in  the  other  world.  The  remains  show 
these  neolithic  people  to  have  been  of  jsmall  stature  with  so-called  dol- 
ichocephalic skulls ;  that  is,  skulls  long  in  proportion  to  their  breadth. 
By  means  of  physical  tests,  anthropologists  have  connected  them  with 
a  small,  dark  race  called  the  Iberians,  which  in  early  times  inhabited 
the  whole  length  of  the  northern  and  southern  shore  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Both  in  bodily  structure  and  in  the  traces  of  their  dialect 
they  show  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  a  people  still  living  in  the 
Pyrenees  —  the  Basques  —  whose  language  is  quite  different  from 
that  of  their  French  and  Spanish  neighbors.  But  the  same  type 
more  diluted,  together  with  fragments  of  their  speech  and  some  of 
their  superstitions,  still  survives  in  western  England,  in  Wales,  parts 
of  Scotland  and  Ireland.  Only  one  of  the  animals  which  we  associate 
with  their  age  —  the  Irish  elk  —  is  now  extinct. 

The  Men  of  the  Bronze  Age.  —  The  men  of  the  new  stone  age  were, 
in  course  of  time,  overcome  by  a  race  who  differed  from  them  essen- 
tially in  physique,  manners  and  customs,  and  language.  0?hey  were 
much  larger  and  stronger  of  body,  and  were  round  headed  or  brachi- 
cephalic!)  The  race  of  these  invaders  and  the  place  of  their  origin 
has  never  been  determined  with  any  certainty.  (It  was  formerly  the 
practice  to  call  them  the  Celtsland  to  assert  that  they  formed  a  branch 
of  a  great  family  composed  of  the  Greeks,  Romans,  Teutons,  and 
Slavs  in  Europe  and  the  Medes,  Persians,  and  Hindus  in  Asia  —  a 
family  to  which  the  name  Aryan  or  Indo-European  was  applied.  The 
view  that  there  was  such  a  family  of  peoples  united  by  blood  is  no 
longer  held ;  and  it  has  even  been  doubted  whether  these  round- 
headed  men  of  the  bronze  age  were  Celts  at  all.1 

Myths  and  Facts  concerning  the  Celtic  Invaders.  —  Starting,  it 
would  seem,  from  the  eastern  part  of  the  plain  of  central  Europe,  the 
new  peoples,  whom  it  has  been  customary  to  group  together  as  Celts, 
poured  westward  in  successive  waves,  the  first  of  which  must  have 
reached  Britain  fully  a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era.  Old 
legends  sung  by  the  Irish  bards  in  later  times  tell  of  their  descent 
from  two  of  the  sons  of  Noah,  Japhet  and  Ham.  While,  unfortunately, 
we  can  place  no  dependence  upon  these  romantic  stories,  we  are  able 
to  form  some  opinion  about  them  and  their  manner  of  life  from  the 
abundant  remains  they  have  left :  skeletons,  burial  places,  habita- 
tions, tools,  weapons,  and  ornaments.  Moreover,  since  they  sur-  . 
vived  into  the  time  of  written  records,  we  learn  further  about  them 
from  inscriptions  and  from  the  accounts  of  old  Greek  and  Roman 
writers.  Britain  first  became  known  to  the  ancients  from  the  Jin.  . 

1  Some  contend  that  the  Celts  first  appeared  in  the  iron  age. 


i4  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

produced  in  the  southwest.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  mines  pro- 
ducing this  metal  were  first  worked  by  the  Phcenicians,  who  were  the 
greatest  traders  of  antiquity ;  but  it  is  more  likely  that  the  Cassi- 
terides,  or  tin  islands,  which  they  visited  lay  off  the  coast  of  Spain.  At 
any  rate,  the  first  certain  historical  notice  of  the  island  of  Britain  comes 
from  Pytheas,  a  Greek  mathematician  and  explorer,  sent  out  by 
the  merchants  of  Marseilles  about  330  B.C.,  in  the  interests  of  trade 
development.  His  work,  unhappily,  survives  only  in  extracts  cited 
by  writers  who  were  hostile  to  him.  About  two  centuries  after 
Pytheas,  Posidonius,  a  tutor  of  Cicero,  tells  us  more.  The  fullest 
account  is  furnished  by  Cgsgi— IlL-his  Cnmme.ntarie.'^  Yet  all  these 
early  historic  notices  of  the  Britons  are  fragmentary  at  best,  and  have 
to  be  pieced  out  by  what  we  knew  of  the  Gauls. 

Waves  of  Invasion.  —  The  Celts  were  fair  haired  and  tall.  They 
understood  how  to  mix  copper  and  tin  to  produce  bronze,  a  material 
so  superior  to  stone  that  its  users  have  been  placed  a  stage  higher  in 
the  social  scale  than  the  stone  men.  Before  they  were  conquered  by 
later  comers  they  had  reached  a  third  stage  in  civilization  by  learning 
to  employ  iron  in  their  industries.  They  burned  their  dead  and  de- 
posited their  remains  in  round  instead  of  long  barrows.  Under  the 
common  name  Celts  are  included  no  less  than  three  groups  of  peoples 
who  followed  one  another  from  the  Continent.  The  first  comers 
were  the  Goidels  or  Gaels,  who  were  later  pushed  north  and  west,  where 
their  descendants  still  survive  in  Ireland,  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  the  west 
highlands  of  Scotland.  Their  language  is  the  Erse  and  Gaelic.  The 
Brythons,  for  whom  they  made  way,  are  the  ancestors  of  the  modern 
Welshmen  and  of  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  west  coast  of 
England.  Welsh  was  spoken  in  Cornwall  till  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  it  is  said  that  the  shepherds  of  Cumberland  still  count  their  sheep 
in  that  language.  The  rear  guard  of  the  Celtic  bands  was  formed 
by  a  group  of  tribes  known  as  the  Belgae.  They  bore  the  brunt  of 
the  Roman  attack  and  occupied  the  eastern  and  southern  parts  of 
the  country  till  the  Germans  finally  absorbed  or  destroyed  some  of 
them  and  drove  the  remainder  to  join  their  kinsmen  in  the  west. 
While  they  exercised  a  comparatively  slight  influence  on  their  con- 
querors, traces  of  their  institutions  have  survived  and  deserve  to  be 
considered  briefly. 

Religion.  —  Caesar  says  that  the  Celts  "  held  much  the  same  beliefs 
as  other  nations  do,"  and  describes  their  gods,  for  whom  they  had 
strange,  uncouth  names,  under  the  Roman  ones,  Mercury,  Jupiter, 
Apollo,  and  Minerva.  Like  most  primitive  people  of  the  so-called 
Aryan  group,  they  worshiped  the  forces  of  nature  as  gods.  They 
created  lesser  divinities  for  particular  localities,  identifying  each  grove, 
stream,  or  spring  with  its  appropriate  guardian  spirit,  and  peopled  the 
land  with  fairies,  dwarfs,  and  elves.  Living  in  wild  and  unfriendly 
surroundings,  in  the  midst  of  dense,  gloomy  forests  and  treacherous, 
inaccessible  fens,  exposed  to  storm,  thunder,  and  lightning,  their 


THE   EARLIEST   INHABITANTS  OF  BRITAIN         15 

attitude  was  naturally  one  of  wonder  mingled  with  fear.  Much  of 
their  worship  was  designed  to  placate  the  ferocious  or  malicious 
powers  to  which  they  were  exposed.  They  offered  human  sacrifices, 
and  at  various  seasons  of  the  year,  to  mark  the  changes  of  the  sun, 
they  held  festivals  in  which  fire  played  a  large  part.  They  believed 
in  wishing  wells  and  cursing  stones.  The  mistletoe,  which  still  figures 
in  our  Christmas  celebrations,  they  venerated  for  its  miraculous  prop- 
erties. 

Druidism.  —  The  first  comers,  the  Goidels,  probably  borrowed  from 
the  older  Iberians  their  priestly  system  and  ceremonialism  known 
as  Druidism.  The  Druids  were  a  highly  privileged  body,  who  ranked 
with  the  nobles  and  were  exempt  from  all  public_b_urdens.  They 
conducted  the  sacrifices,  practiced  magic,  foretold  the  future,licted  as 
judges,  and  were  the  custodians  of  learning,  human  and  divine.  On 
account  of  their  methods,  of  their  reputed  wisdom,  and  the  fact  that 
they  were  close  corporations  choosing  their  own  successors,  they  were 
all-powerful... 

Dwellings,  Camps,  Stone  Circles.  —  The  old  Celts  lived  in  huts 
constructed  of  logs  or  of  reeds  woven  together  and  plastered  with 
mud  or  clay.  These  were  often  placed  in  marshes  or  lakes  on  piles 
or  artificial  platforms  for  purposes  of  defense.  In  hilly  places  they 
had  camps  consisting  of  circular  inclosures  protected  by  ditches  and 
by  earthen  breastworks  covered  by  rows  of  pickets  along  the  top. 
The  most  famous  of  these  is  Maiden  Castle  near  the  modern  Dor- 
chester. But  the  most  striking  monuments  dating  from  this  early 
age  are  the  great  stone  circles,1  very  likely  used  as  sepulchers  or  possi- 
bly, as  was  formerly  believed,  for  temples.  Stonehenge  on  Salisbury 
Plain,  the  most  celebrated  of  these,  now  consists  of  a  confused 
mass  of  huge  boulders ;  but  in  its  original  form  it  must  have  been  a 
wonderful  evidence  of  the  skill  and  devotion  of  the  builders. 

Characteristics,  Social  and  Political  Organization.  —  These  ^ld_ 
Celts  were  a  rude,  hardy  folk,  but  hospitable  and  kind  in  their  bois- 
terous way.  Their  serious  occupation  was  war,  and  their  diversions 
rough  games  and  immoderate  eating  and  drinking.  New-born 
children,  it  is  said,  were  plunged  into  streams  to  test  their  endurance, 
and  were  offered  their  first  bread  on  the  point  of  their  father's  sword 
with  the  prayer  that  they  might  be  valorous  in  battle.  A  few  of 
their  customs  have  come  down  to  us.  They  shaved  their  faces  or 
plucked  the  hairs  out  by  the  roots.  They  were  fond  of  elaborate 
headdresses,  so  elaborate  that  they  had  to  use  rests  of  wood  to  keep 
them  in  shape  when  they  lay  down.  In  the  earliest  times  we  find 
them  tattooing  or  painting  their  bodies,  a  practice  which  long  sur- 
vived among  the  northern  peoples,  the  Scots  and  the  Picts.2  The 
latter,  once  known  as  Caledonians,  lived  in  northeastern  Scotland, 

1  The  date  of  these  stone  circles  has  never  been  determined.     There  are  indica- 
tions, however,  that  they  are  as  late  as  the  bronze  age. 

2  From  the  Latin  pictus,  painted. 


16  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

and  possibly  got  their  later  name  from  the  fact  of  their  being  the 
last  to  retain  the  custom.  The  Brythons,  at  least,  made  themselves 
necklaces  from  amber  and  gold,  and  swords  and  shields  of  bronze. 
They  sometimes  buried  weapons  and  ornaments  with  the  dead  to  be 
used  in  the  future  world.  Before  Caesar's  time  they  had  come,  in 
the  southeast,  to  use  iron  weapons  and  to  construct  war  chariots  of 
wood,  which  in  fighting  they  manipulated  with  great  adroitness. 
(At  first  their  only  form  of  social  and  political  organization  was  the 
family,  consisting  of  all  the  descendants,  for  several  generations,  from 
a  single  ancestor.)  The  kindred,  among  whom  the  tie  of  blood  was 
very  strong,  chose  their  ablest  male  to  lead  them  in  war  and  to  rep- 
resent them  in  peace.  As  time  went  on,  these  families  were  united 
into  tribes,  from  which  the  most  capable  male  member  was  selected  as 
king.  Each  free  tribesman  had  his  own  land  and  slaves,  the  right  of 
bearing  arms  and  of  assembling  with  his  fellows  under  the  direction  of 
the  tribal  chief  to  discuss  affairs  of  common  concern.  The  tribes,  as 
such,  usually  held  in  bondage  groups  of  the  conquered  or  Iberian  race, 
who  cultivated  the  soil  in  common  and  yielded  a  portion  of  the  prod- 
uce to  their  masters.  Their  legal  system  was  very  primitive.  They 
had  no  police  and  no  courts,  as  we  understand  the  term.  Their  judges 
were  merely  umpires  or  arbitrators  who  had  no  power  to  compel  the 
acceptance  of  their  decrees.  In  case  of  injuries  or  murder  they 
awarded  fixed  sums,  varying  according  to  the  nature  of  the  offense 
and  the  rank  of  those  involved.  These  were  paid  to  the  injured 
party,  or,  in  the  case  of  his  death,  to  his  relatives.  This  compensa- 
tion, however,  known  among  the  Germans  as  wergeld,  might  be  re- 
fused ;  in  which  case  revenge  was  sought  by  the  blood  feud.  In  mat- 
ters of  debt,  if  the  arbitration  was  rejected,  the  aggrieved  person 
might  seize  the  goods  of  his  adversary  or  fast  by  his  door  till  shame 
forced  him  to  yield. 

Trade  and  Industry.  —  In  their  earliest  trading  the  Celts  used 
cattle  and  bars  of  iron  and  tin  for  standards  of  value ;  but,  as  early 
as  200  B.C.,  they  seem,  in  the  southeast,  to  have  had  gold  money  fash- 
ioned on  Greek  models.1  In  the  absence  of  roads  they  made  use  of 
rivers  and  the  tops  of  ridges  as  trade  routes.  The  Thames  and  the 
Severn  were  especially  important,  and  evidence  of  temples  erected 
to  Lud,  their  god  of  commerce,  survive  in  the  names  Ludgate  Hill  in 
London  and  Lydney  on  the  Severn.  Their  greatest  trade  was  in  tin, 
which  they  carried  from  Cornwall  overland  to  the  southeast  coast, 
thence  in  ships  to  the  shores  of  Gaul,  whence  it  was  taken  overland 
again  to  the  Rhone  and  floated  down  in  ships  to  Marseilles.  Pytheas 
noticed  no  towns,  but  some  are  reported  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  and 
soon  London  "  was  crowded  with  merchants."  ^By  this  time  their 
agricultural  and  pastoral  industries  had  greatly  developed.^  Besides 
tin,  they  came  to  export  cattle,  hides,  grain,  and  also  slaves  and  huge 

1  This  is  all  the  more  notable  from  the  fact  that  the  later  Anglo-Saxons  never 
had  a  gold  coinage. 


THE   EARLIEST   INHABITANTS  OF   BRITAIN         17 

dogs,  the  latter  used  by  the  Gauls  in  war  and  by  the  Romans  for  hunt- 
ing. Their  imports  were  chiefly  manufactured  articles  of  iron  and 
bronze,  cloth,  and  salt.  But  this  does  not  mean  that  they  did  not 
manufacture,  to  some  extent,  themselves.  They  were  fond  of  bright 
colors,  and  we  are  told  that  they  wore  clothes  of  various  hues,  getting 
the  dyestuff  from  the  bark  of  trees.  They  excelled  in  enamel  work, 
and  they  made  many  of  the  gold  ornaments  which  they  wore,  as  well 
as  the  iron  weapons  and  chariots  which  they  used  in  war.  Such  trade 
and  manufactures  as  the  Gauls  carried  on  were  greatly  extended  by 
the  Roman  occupation. 

Caesar  in  Britain,  55  and  54  B.C.  —  By  the  first  century  before  the 
Christian  era  Rome  had  come  to  control  all  the  lands  bordering  on 
the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Signs  of  decay,  however,  were  already 
manifest,  and  party  strife  was  acute.  Moreover,  Gaul  was  not  only 
independent,  but  menaced  the  safety  of  the  mighty  but  declining  Re- 
public. Its  conquest  was  undertaken  by  Julius  Caesar,  in  58  B.C., 
and  achieved  after  a  series  of  brilliant  campaigns  lasting  nearly  eight 
years.  In  the  course  of  these  military  operations  he  discovered  that 
the  Gauls  were  receiving  aid  from  their  kinsmen  in  the  neighboring 
island  of  Britain.  Accordingly,  he  determined  to  put  an  end  to 
further  danger  from  this  source  by  invading  and  overcoming  the  British 
Celts.  At  least  that  is  the  usual  explanation,  though  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that,  since  he  was  a  party  leader,  he  felt  the  need  of  wealth 
and  plunder  to  reward  his  followers  in  Rome,  and  that  he  was  attracted 
to  Britain  by  the  hope  of  developing  trade  and  securing  plunder  in 
the  form  of  tin,  gold,  silver,  pearls,  and  slaves.  At  any  rate,  after 
gaining  from  merchants  such  scanty  information  as  he  could,  and  send- 
ing one  of  his  officers  to  spy  out  the  land,  he  set  sail,  late  in  August, 
55  B.C.  His  force  consisted  of  two  legions  aggregating  about  10,000 
foot  soldiers ;  his  cavalry,  delayed  and  roughly  handled  by  adverse 
winds,  was  unable  to  get  ashore.  Owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  sea- 
son and  the  fear  of  the  autumn  gales,  Caesar  returned  to  Gaul,  after 
a  brief  survey  of  the  neighboring  country  and  some  skirmishes  with 
the  tribes  round  about  who  made  a  vain  effort  to  resist  his  landing. 

Second  Invasion,  54  B.C.  —  The  ensuing  winter  was  devoted  to 
building  ships  and  collecting  men  and  supplies  for  another  campaign. 
By  July  he  was  ready  with  800  vessels  and  a  force  variously  estimated 
from  20,000  to  34,000  foot  and  horse.1  This  time  he  marched  inland 
and  forced  a  passage  of  the  Thames  by  a  ford  above  London,  which 
the  British  had  sought  to  obstruct  by  driving  sharpened  stakes  under 
the  water  and  along  the  opposite  bank.  The  soul  and  center  of  the 
resistance  was  Cassivellaunus  or  Caswallon,  chief  of  the  Catuvellauni, 
whose  center  was  at  St.  Albans.  Partly  by  his  own  military  skill 
and  partly  because  of  the  disaffection  of  the  tribes  whom  Caswallon 

1  Either  number  is  striking  enough  in  view  of  the  fact  that  William  the  Con- 
queror had  only  700  ships,  and  that  the  largest  army  Edward  III  ever  took  to  France 
during  the  Hundred  Years'  War  did  not  exceed  10,000  men. 


i8  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

sought  to  unite,  Caesar  reduced  him  to  submission  and  forced  him  to 
allow  his  eastern  neighbors  to  elect  a  king  from  their  native  line  which 
he  had  dispossessed. 

The  Romans  secure  a  Foothold  in  Britain,  43  A.D.  —  Nearly  a 
century  elapsed  before  the  Romans  again  took  up  the  conquest  of 
Britain.  Caesar's  last  years  were  occupied  in  securing  his  supremacy 
in  the  Roman  state,  while  his  successor,  Octavius,  devoted  his  whole 
energy  to  building  up  the  Empire  on  the  foundations  of  the  Republic 
overthrown  by  Julius.  Moreover,  neither  he,  nor  the  Emperors  who 
followed  for  some  years  to  come,  were  especially  anxious  to  extend  the 
Roman  boundaries.  The  possession  of  Britain  was  not  regarded  as  a 
military  necessity,  while  the  expense  and  trouble  of  occupation  would, 
it  was  thought,  outweigh  any  possible  addition  of  revenue.  For 
many  years  Cunobelinus,  grandson  of  Cassivellaunus,  and  famous  as 
the  original  of  Shakespeare's  Cymbeline,  ruled  in  southeastern  Britain. 
His  capital  was  at  Camulodunum,  the  modern  Colchester,  in  the  land 
of  the  Trinovantes  which  his  kin  had  again  subjugated.  On  his 
death  a  pretender  appeared,  who  fled  to  Rome  for  assistance.  In 
ancient  times  conquering  foes  seem  to  have  been  most  punctilious ; 
they  almost  invariably,  if  the  accounts  be  true,  required  an  invitation 
to  undertake  an  invasion.  At  any  rate,  Claudius,  who  was  then 
Emperor,  was  ready  to  seize  any  pretext  for  intervention  in  British 
affairs.  He  was  a  Gaul  by  birth  and  consequently  interested  in  the 
concerns  of  that  part  of  the  world,  while,  furthermore,  he  was  anxious 
to  celebrate  the  triumph  which  always  followed  a  Roman  conquest ;  so 
he  sent  his  general,  Aulus  Plautius,  in  43  A.D.,  against  the  sons  of 
Cunobelinus.  The  Emperor  himself  even  came  over  in  person  at  the 
final  stage  of  the  campaign.  Camulodunum  was  taken,  Britain  was 
made  a  province,  and  Claudius  got  his  triumph.  It  was  the  task  of 
succeeding  generals  to  extend  the  Roman  sway  to  the  remote  regions 
of  the  west  and  north.  A  few  incidents  during  the  occupation,  which 
lasted  for  nearly  four  centuries,  stand  out  as  picturesque  and  important. 
The  Suppression  of  the  Druids  and  the  Insurrection  of  Boudicca.  — 
VThe  Druids  were  particularly  active  in  opposing  the  extension  of 
Roman  influence)  Solely  from  reasons  of  political  necessity,  for  the 
Romans  were  usually  tolerant  of  other  religions,  the  then  governor, 
Suetonius  Paulinus,  undertook  to  suppress  them  in  61  A.D.  On  his 
approach  they  took  refuge  in  the  little  island  of  Mona  (now  Anglesey) , 
off  the  Welsh  coast.  But  there  was  no  escape.  The  Roman  historian 
Tacitus  vividly  pictures  the  final  scene :  "On  the  shore  stood  the 
forces  of  the  enemy,  a  dense  array  of  arms  and  men,  with  women 
dashing  through  the  ranks  like  furies,  their  dress  was  funereal,  their 
hair  disheveled,  and  they  carried  torches  in  their  hands.  The  Druids 
round  the  host  pouring  forth  dire  imprecations,  with  their  hands  up- 
lifted toward  the  heavens,  struck  terror  into  the  soldiers  by  the  strange- 
ness of  the  sight,  insomuch  that,  as  if  their  limbs  were  paralyzed, 
they  exposed  their  bodies  to  the  weapons  of  the  enemies  without 


.X        'GOLD."  -V'^     '-•'"/  Gl,Wm 


0          West          5  4      Longitude     3          from          1      Greenwich    1  0  East         ] 


iY  4  CO.,tHSI!»JN.Y. 


THE   EARLIEST   INHABITANTS   OF  BRITAIN          19 

attempting  to  move."  Finally  recovering  from  their  panic,  the 
Roman  soldiers  "  bore  down  upon  them,  smote  all  that  opposed  them 
to  the  earth,"  and  destroyed  their  sacred  grove.  A  garrison  was 
established  "  to  overawe  the  vanquished."  Meantime,  events  were 
happening  in  the  east  which  forced  Suetonius  to  hurry  back  toward 
London ;  the  Roman  government  had  become  unbearable.  Excessive 
levies  and  financial  extortion  on  the  part  of  capitalists  and  taxgatherers 
stirred  the  righteous  wrath  of  the  Britons.  The  climax  came  when 
Boadicea,  or  Boudicca,  widow  of  a  chief  of  the  Iceni,  a  tribe  occupying 
the  present  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  was  brutally  treated  for  trying  to 
preserve  the  heritage  of  her  daughters.  Stung  by  injustice  and 
injury,  she  raised  a  revolt  of  her  people  and  those  round  about  who 
were  already  chafing  under  grievances.  Camulodunum,  now  a  col- 
ony of  Roman  veterans,  was  overcome  and  reduced  to  ashes,  nor  was 
Suetonius,  who  arrived  ahead  of  his  troops,  able  to  protect  Lundinium 
and  Verulamium  from  a  similar  fate.  Fully  70,000  Romans  and  their 
supporters  are  said  to  have  been  massacred.  As  the  victorious  Britons 
were  returning  from  the  destruction  of  Verulamium,  Suetonius  at 
length  felt  strong  enough  to  strike.  In  a  battle  somewhere  in  the 
neighborhood  of  London  he  crushed  the  enemy  and  slaughtered  num- 
bers of  a  host  of  80,000,  including  women  and  children  who  followed 
the  army.  Boudicca  escaped  her  captors  by  taking  poison.  The 
vengeance  of  Suetonius  was  ruthless.  "  He  made  a  desert,  and  called 
it  a  peace."  Yet,  in  the  long  run,  the  uprising  had  the  effect  of  soften- 
ing the  rigors  of  the  Roman  administration. 

Agricola.  —  Under  the  governors  who  followed,  inaction  alternated 
with  military  suppression  till  the  advent  of  Agricola  (78-84)  who 
/knew  how  to  rule  as  well  as  conquer \  Allowing  that  our  account  of 
Hiim  comes  from  his  son-in-law  Tacitus,  his  rule  unquestionably  marks 
the  highest  point  of  the  Roman  supremacy,-  He  aimed  to  extend  the 
Imperial  sway  to  the  extremest  north  and  even  to  Ireland.  Convinced, 
however,  that  conquests  were  useless,  unless  existing  grievances  were 
rooted  out,  he  applied  himself  with  energy  to  the  reform  of  the  adminis-^ 
tration.  He  replaced  uncertain  and  heavy  burdens  by~Just  and^equal 
assessments ;  he  did  away  with  monopolies  and  abuses,  especially  in 
connection  with  the  corn  supply  for  troops ;  he  removed  incompetent 
officials  ;  he  fostered~education  and  the  use  of  the  Latin  language ;  he 
encouraged  the  building  of  temples,  courts  of  law,  and  dwelling  houses. 
Romanization  proceeded  apace,  and  many  natives  assumed  the  toga. 
But  primitive  peoples  are  prone  to  imitate  the  faults  rather  than  the 
virtues  of  the  more  civilized,  and  more  luxurious  forms  of  living  were 
adopted,  which  led  to  a  decline  in  the  vigor  of  the  subject  race.  Agri- 
cola  never  got  to  Ireland ;  but  he  pushed  steadily  north,  and  he  secured 
the  lines  of  the  Tyne  and  Solway  and  of  the  Forth  and  Clyde  by  a 
series  of  forts.  He  even  penetrated  beyond  the  Tay  and  defeated  the 
wild  Caledonians,  in  84  A.D.,  at  the  battle  of  Mons  Grampius,  the  site 
of  which  has  never  been  identified,  though  it  was  somewhere  on  the 


20  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

threshold  of  the  Highlands.  The  Emperor  Domitian  cut  short  his 
career  as  conqueror  by  recalling  him.  It  is  said  that  he  was  jealous 
of  the  fame  of  his  general,  though  he  may  have  felt  that  he  was  under- 
taking an  impracticable  task.  Agricola's  last  achievement  was  to 
send  a  fleet  to  circumnavigate  the  Island,  thus  for  the  first  time  deter- 
mining its  true  geographical  character. 

Roman  Walls.  —  Under  his  successors,  though  his  northern  line  of 
forts  was  strengthened  in  140-141  A.D.  by  a  turf  wall  made  of  squared 
sods,  no  attempt  was  made  to  hold  the  country  beyond  the  Tyne  and 
the  Solway.  Meantime,  about  123-124  A.D.,  under  orders  of  the  Em- 
peror Hadrian,  a  similar  turf  wall  had  been  put  in  to  reenforce  the 
southern  line  of  forts.  The  remarkable  stone  wall,  usually  known  as 
Hadrian's  wall,  was  probably  not  built  till  the  time  of  Septimius 
Severus,  who,  though  much  broken  with  age  and  gout,  came  over,  in 
208  A.D.,  to  deal  with  risings  in  the  north.  The  wall  in  its  completed 
form,  parts  of  which  still  remain,  was  a  very  elaborate  affair,  studded 
with  watch  turrets,  gate  towers,  and  stations  for  garrisons. 

The  Last  Two  Centuries  of  Roman  Occupation.  —  During  the  last 
two  centuries  of  the  Roman  occupation  Britain  was  in  a  very  unsettled 
state  and  often  proved  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  the  Empire.  Under  a 
weak  ruler  there  was  disorder  and  confusion ;  strong,  ambitious  gov- 
ernors, on  the  other  hand,  sought  independence,  or  aimed  to  use  the 
country  as  a  basis  of  operations  for  seizing  the  Imperial  crown.  Saxon 
and  Frankish  pirates  began  to  infest  the  eastern  shore  as  early  as  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century,  and,  in  the  fourth,  the  northern  High- 
landers, now  called  Picts,  reenforced  by  Scots  coming  originally  from 
Ireland,  became  a  constant  menace  to  the  border.  To  meet  the 
pirates  a  new  officer,  the  Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore,  was  created,  but 
the  first  two  counts  used  their  position  to  set  up  an  independent  rule 
instead  of  protecting  the  coast.  The  Roman  power  was  finally  re- 
stored, in  296,  by  Constantius,1  father  of  the  famous  Emperor  Con- 
stantine,  founder  of  Constantinople.  Meantime,  the  Empire  had  been 
entirely  reorganized  under  Diocletian  (284-305).  It  was  divided  into 
four  prefectures;  these  again  were  subdivided  into  dioceses,  Britain 
forming  one  diocese  of  the  prefecture  of  Gaul.  The  civil  administra- 
tion of  the  whole  country  was  in  charge  of  a  Vicar  or  Vice-prefect. 
The  diocese  of  Britain  was  in  its  turn  subdivided  into  four  provinces, 
each  under  a  presses  or  consularis.  There  were  three  military  com- 
manders :  the  Count  of  Britain,  who  seems  to  have  been  supreme  over 
the  Duke  of  Britain,  who  commanded  in  the  north,  and  the  Count  of 
the  Saxon  Shore. 

End  of  the  Occupation.  —  Even  thus  effectually  reorganized,  the 
Empire  was  unable  long  to  withstand  the  double  strain  of  revolt  from 
within  and  pressure  from  without.  In  Britain,  one  Maximus  set  him- 
self up  as  Emperor,  in  383,  and,  within  four  years,  was  strong  enough 

1  The  story  that  he  married  a  daughter  of  the  King  of  Colchester  —  the  "Old 
King  Cole"  of  the  nursery  rhyme  —  is  apparently  a  myth. 


THE   EARLIEST  INHABITANTS   OF  BRITAIN         21 

to  march  on  Rome,  although  he  was  defeated  in  northern  Italy  on  his 
return.  In  407  another  pretender,  Constantine,  led  the  British  legions 
into  Gaul  and,  though  he  was  overthrown,  his  troops  were  never 
marched  back.  Meanwhile,  the  German  barbarians  overran  the 
Empire.  In  410  Alaric  captured  and  sacked  Rome.  Honorius  bade 
the  Britons  henceforth  defend  themselves.  They  proved  unequal  to 
the  task,  and  before  the  close  of  the  century  had  to  yield  the  greater 
part  of  their  territory  to  the  German  tribes  who  swarmed  across  the 
Channel  in  constantly  increasing  numbers. 

General  Nature  and  Advantages  of  the  Roman  Rule.  — The  Roman 
occupation  of  nearly  four  hundred  years  left  few  enduring  traces  on  the 
history  and  life  of  Britain.  While  this  may  be  explained  to  a  large 
extent  by  the  thoroughness  of  the  later  Teutonic  conquest,  it  was 
partially  due  to  the  fact  that  few  of  the  Latin  stock  came  to  found 
homes.  The  remoteness,  the  climate,  the  gloomy  skies,  and  the  tur- 
bulence of  the  nation  repelled  colonists.  Settlement  was  confined  to 
soldiers,  government  officials,  merchants,  and  traders.  The  few  who 
took  up  large  estates  worked  them  mainly  by  natives.  In  spite  of 
occasional  outbursts,  it  was  comparatively  easy  to  hold  the  more 
accessible  parts  of  the  country  in  subjection,  because  of  the  enervat- 
ing effects  of  the  Roman  civilization  and  because  of  the  feuds  among 
the  subject  peoples.  As  a  Roman  observer  said :  "  Nothing  helps 
us  better  against  the  strongest  of  the  tribes  than  the  fact  that  they 
never  agree."  vHowever,  the  period  of  Roman  rule  was  not  without 
its  advantages.')  For  some  time,  it  furnished  a  fairly  effective  protec- 
tion against  external  foes  and  held  in  check  the  warring  tribes  within. 
The  concerns  of  the  subject  peoples  were  regulated  by  the  Roman 
law,  a  fusion  of  principle  and  practice  superior  to  anything  the  world 
had  yet  seen.  The  application  of  a  uniform  legal  system  made  for 
unity.  A  decree  of  Caracalla,  in  212,  conferred  the  privilege  of  Roman 
citizenship  on  all  free-born  provincials.  Although  due  mainly  to  a 
desire  to  increase  the  Imperial  revenue,  it  also  contributed  powerfully 
to  break  down  provincial  differences  in  Britain  as  well  as  elsewhere. 
While  the  general  administration  was  kept  in  Roman  hands,  the  Brit- 
ons were  given  some  training  in  local  self-government  by  allowing 
'them  membership  in  the  district  councils  which  were  intrusted  with 
the  building  of  temples,  erecting  fortifications,  and  laying  out  streets. 
Theaters  were  constructed,  which,  in  spite  of  their  corrupting  influence, 
made  for  education  and  culture.  Remains  "of  museums,  baths,  public 
buildings,  and  private  dwellings  show  how  far  they  had  progressed  in 
the  art  of  living  and  in  the  comforts  of  civilized  life.  Aqueducts 
provided  many  communities  with  an  abundant  water  supply,  and  the 
Romans  had  a  very  superior  system  of  heating  by  means  of  hypo- 
causts,  or  hollow  pipes  heated  from  an  arched  fire  chamber  below. 
Commerce  and  industry  throve,  protected  by  peace  and  wise  laws  and 
fostered  by  the  building  of  roads  and  the  growth  of  cities.  A  network 
of  roads,  so  skillfully  constructed  that  they  have  survived  to  excite 


22  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

our  wonder,  even  in  the  present  day,  provided  alike  for  communica- 
tion, the  transportation  of  troops,  and  for  transaction  of  all  kinds  of 
government  business,  as  well  as  for  the  distribution  of  wares.  The 
route  of  Watling  Street  from  Dover  to  Chester  can  still  be  traced. 
Most  of  these  roads,  although  few  of  them  can  now  be  identified  by 
name,  ran  through  London,  whose  commercial  importance  was  fore- 
shadowed thus  early.  York  was  the  chief  military  center,  with 
Chester  second.  Gloucester,  Colchester,  and  Lincoln  were  colonies 
of  Roman  veterans.  Bath  had  already  become  famous  for  its  springs. 
Among  the  chief  British  industries  were  pottery  making,  basket  weav- 
ing, and  the  mining  of  lead,  iron,  and  copper.  In  addition,  there  were 
goldsmiths,  silversmiths,  iron  workers,  stone  cutters,  sculptors,  archi- 
tects, and  eye  doctors  who  pretended  to  cure  defects  of  sight  with 
lotions.  While  city  life  had  reached  a  comparatively  high  degree  of 
development,  conditions  were  still  mainly  rural.  For  example,  one 
Roman  ruler  sent  eight  hundred  ships  of  wheat  to  feed  his  garrisons 
in  Gaul.  In  the  intervals  of  farming  the  owners  of  estates  hunted 
wolves  and  bears. 

British  Christianity.  —  One  most  significant  result  of  the  Roman 
occupation  was  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  Legend  tells  that 
St.  Paul,  and  even  the  disciple  Peter,  visited  the  land.  One  of  the 
most  beautiful  stories  is  that  concerning  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  who 
provided  the  sepulcher  for  Christ's  burial.  It  was  believed  that  he 
fled  to  far-off  Britain,  bringing  the  holy  grail  or  the  cup  from  which  the 
wine  at  the  last  supper  was  drunk,  that  he  founded  the  famous  abbey 
of  Glastonbury,  marking  the  site  by  planting  his  staff  of  thorn  which 
grew  into  a  tree  and  blossomed  every  Christmas  morning  in  honor  of 
the  sacred  day.  But  while  these  lovely  and  inspiring  tales  enrich  our 
literature,  they  rest  on  no  historical  foundation.  Christianity  was 
gradually  introduced  by  Roman  soldiers,  merchants,  and  officials,  and 
from  the  mission  stations  in  Gaul.  The  Britons  are  first  claimed  as 
subjects  of  Christ  by  Tertullian  and  Origen,  two  church  fathers  writ- 
ing in  208  and  239,  respectively,  while  the  first  evidence  of  any  organ- 
ized church  is  marked  by  the  presence  of  three  British  bishops  at  a 
synod  held  at  Aries  in  Gaul  in  314.  Within  a  century  and  a  half  the 
Teutons  came  and  thrust  a  "  wedge  of  heathendom  "  between  the 
Christians  of  the  Island  and  the  Continent.  During  the  long  years 
when  they  were  cut  off  from  the  mother  Church  at  Rome  they  devel- 
oped forms  of  worship  and  government  distinctly  peculiar  to  them- 
selves in  many  respects.  When  they  are  next  heard  of,  there  was  a 
British  and  a  Scotch-Irish  Church.  The  former  held  sullenly  aloof 
from  the  conquerors,  the  latter  spread  from  Ireland  to  western  Scot- 
land, reached  down  into  England  and  across  the  Continent,  and  be- 
came for  a  time  a  powerful  rival  to  the  Roman  missionaries  in  convert- 
ing the  pagan  German  peoples.  Both  branches  of  the  Celtic  Church 
were  independent  of  the  bishop  of  Rome.  Both  differed  from  the 
Roman  usage  in  their  method  of  computing  the  date  on  which  Easter 


THE  EARLIEST  INHABITANTS  OF  BRITAIN         23 

fell.  Both,  too,  had  a  peculiar  form  for  the  clerical  tonsure:  while  the 
Romans  shaved  the  crown  in  a  circle,  the  Celts  shaved  the  front  of  the 
head  from  ear  to  ear.  In  some  respects  the  two  Churches  differed  not 
only  from  the  parent  Church,  but  from  each  other.  The  British  had 
their  own  special  form  of  baptism.  On  the  other  hand,  among  the 
Scotch-Irish  the  supreme  governors  were  the  priest  abbots  of  the 
monasteries,  while  the  bishops,  subject  to  their  authority,  confined 
themselves  to  ordaining  priests,  consecrating  churches,  and  doing 
missionary  work. 

Evils  and  Disadvantages  of  Roman  Rule.  — While  the  Roman  rule 
brought  many  advantages  to  Britain  —  peace,  prosperity,  increased 
unity,  improved  communications^  civilized  arts,  and  Christianity  - 
it  brought  burdens  and  evils  as  well.  For  one  thing,  it  introduced 
Jtaxes  and  exactions,  always  burdensome,  and  often  destructive  and 
Crushing.  A  tribute,  or  land  tax^  took  from  a  tenth  to  a  fifth  of  the 
products  of  the  soil.  The  natives  had  to  provide  for  the  Roman^ 
Droops,  to  entertain  them  at  various  stages  of  their  constant  marches, 
and  to  furnish  labor  for  keeping  up  roads  and  bridges.  In  addition, 
traders  were_ taxed _on  their  stock;  a  twentieth  of  all  inherited  prop- 
erty had  to  be  handed  over  to  the  State ;  a  poll  tax  was  imposed  on  all 
handicraftsmen  and  laborers ;  a  percentage  was  claimed  on  all  goods 
sold  at  the  markets ;  and  customs  duties  were  levied  on  all  imports  and 
exports.  Worst  of  all,  these  revenues  were  not  collected  by  responsible 
officials,  but  were  let  out  to  tax  farmers  who  paid  a  fixed  sum  and 
squeezed  what  they  could  from  the  unfortunate  payers.  Money  was 
lent  at  exorbitant  rates.  Perhaps  worse  than  the  financial  burdens 
was  the  system  of  conscription  which  took  men  from  their  homes, 
usually  for  life,  to  form  a  part  of  the  great  military  machine.  "  We 
pay  a  yearly  tribute  of  our  bodies,"  wrote  one  Briton  in  a  pathetic 
narrative.  For  some  time  the  service  required  was,  as  a  rule,  in  far-off 
lands,  though,  later,  the  Roman  army  had  to  recruit  more  and  more 
from  local  levies.  Then  the  strange  vices  which  came  in  with  the 
conquerors  had  a  disastrous  effect  on  those  who  come  in  closest  con- 
tact with  them,  while  those  more  remote  were  excluded  from  any 
participation  in  affairs.  Both  causes  operated  to  kill  independence 
and  patriotism.  In  a  word,  as  has  been  well  said,  the  mass  of  the 
people  unlearned  the  rude  military  virtues  which  had  once  been  theirs, 
and,  prevented  from  assimilating  the  administrative  system  of  their 
rulers,  they  were  unable  to  develop  such  germs  of  self-governing  capac- 
ity as  they  had  originally  possessed.  With  the  withdrawal  of  the 
legions,  Roman  political  institutions,  laws,  language,  and  manners 
soon  passed  away,  and  then  it  was  too  late  for  the  natives  to  complete 
their  own  national  edifice  from  the  point  where  they  had  so  long  ago 
been  stopped  in  their  work.  In  Britain,  as  elsewhere,  the  tendencies 
preparing  the  way  for  a  successful  barbarian  invasion  had  been  long 
at  work ;  heavy  taxation,  conscription,  and  exhausted^evgnues  had 
bred  discontent ;  private  ambition  and  local  feeling  were  stronger  than 


24  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Imperial  loyalty ;  and  the  barbarians,  enlisted  in  increasing  numbers, 
were  favorable  to  those  outside  who  were  knocking  at  the  gates.  At 
last  the  barriers  gave  way,  and  the  enemy  pressed  in. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

B.  C.  A.  Windle,  Life  in  Early  Britain  (1897) ;  a  good  popular  account,  through  the 
period  of  the  Saxon  occupation.  W.  B.  Dawkins,  Early  Man  in  Britain  (1880), 
chs.  VI  and  following;  some  of  the  author's  views  have  been  superseded.  John 
Beddoe,  Races  in  Britain  (1885).  C.  I.  Elton,  Origins  of  English  History  (1890) ; 
chs.  IV,  V  deal  with  the  Celts ;  chs.  VI,  VII,  prehistoric  times ;  ch.  XI,  the  Roman 
period;  ch.  XII,  the  Anglo-Saxons  to  about  597.  A  valuable  work.  J.  Rhys, 
Celtic  Britain  (1904)  contains  valuable  information  mingled  with  details  chiefly 
useful  for  the  special  student.  E.  Conybeare,  Roman  Britain  (1903)  embodies 
results  of  recent  studies  in  brief  and  readable  form.  I.  Taylor,  The  Origin  of  the 
Aryans  (1892) ;  ch.  I,  on  the  Aryan  controversy,  discusses  the  development  of 
views  on  racial  origins  to  the  date  when  the  book  appeared.  For  more  recent  views, 
see  Ripley,  Races  of  Europe  (1899).  H.  D.  Traill,  Social  England  (new  illus.  ed., 
6  vols.,  1901).  A  cooperative  work  containing  a  mass  of  information  on  the  non- 
political  aspects  of  the  subject,  with  bibliographies  at  the  ends  of  chapters ;  I,  ch.  I, 
for  Celtic  and  Roman  conditions.  Sir  James  Ramsay,  The  Foundations  of  England 
(1898),  I,  chs.  I,  II,  the  Celts ;  chs.  III-VIII,  the  Romans.  A  detailed  narrative  with 
copious  references  to  the  sources.  Charles  Oman,  England  before  the  Norman  Con- 
quest (1910),  chs.  I-X.  This  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  seven  volumes  by  different 
hands,  covering  the  history  of  England  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present.  The 
volume  is  especially  valuable  as  presenting  the  results  of  the  recent  work  of  T.  Rice 
Holmes,  in  Ancient  Britain  and  Casar's  Invasions,  and  of  F.  I.  Haverfield  in  The 
Romanization  of  Roman  Britain.  Thomas  Hodgkin,  A  Political  History  of  England 
(1906),  chs.  I-V.  This  is  the  first  of  another  series,  devoting  twelve  volumes  to  the 
political  history  of  England.  There  is  a  useful  annotated  list  of  authorities,  pp. 
493-508.  C.  Gross,  Sources  and  Literature  of  English  History  (1900)  is  a  work  of 
unique  value,  containing  the  only  complete  bibliography  covering  the  whole  period 
from  the  earliest  times  to  1485. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   COMING   OF  THE   ANGLO-SAXONS.    THE   "HEPTARCHY," 
AND   STRUGGLE  FOR   SUPREMACY 

The  Britons  after  the  Withdrawal  of  the  Romans.  —  After  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Romans,  the  Britons  seem  to  have  resumed  their  old 
tribal  organization,  although  for  purposes  of  defense  they  chose  a  com- 
mon leader  (Gwledig),  who  combined  the  functions  of  the  old  Duke  of 
the  Britons  and  Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore.  For  years  they  fought  a 
losing  fight.  "  The  barbarians  drive  us  to  the  sea ;  the  sea  throws  us 
back  to  the  barbarians ;  we  have  only  choice  between  the  two  methods 
of  death,  whether  we  should  be  massacred  or  drowned,"  they  complain 
in  a  touching  appeal  to  a  Roman  general  in  446.  But,  for  good  or  ill, 
the  Roman  connection  with  Britain  had  been  forever  broken.  Before 
a  century  had  gone  by,  the  Island  had  so  far  passed  beyond  the  impe- 
rial ken  that  the  strangest  stories  were  circulated  about  it.  Britain, 
wrote  the  historian  Procopius,  in  the  sixth  century,  "  is  divided  into 
two  parts  by  '  the  men  of  old.'  On  the  eastern  side  of  that  wall  all 
is  fresh  and  fair ;  neither  heat  nor  cold  extensive ;  fruits,  harvests, 
men  abound ;  a  fertile  soil  is  blessed  with  abundance  of  water.  But  on 
the  western  side  things  are  altogether  different,  so  that  no  man  can 
live  there  even  for  half  an  hour.  Numberless  vipers  and  serpents  and 
other  venomous  beasts  abound  there,  and  so  pestilent  is  the  air  that  the 
moment  a  man  crosses  the  wall  he  dies."  According  to  another  story, 
believed  by  the  vulgar,  Britain  was  a  home  for  the  spirits  of  the  dead, 
and  certain  boatmen  were  exempt  from  tribute  to  the  king  of  the 
Franks  for  rowing  them  across  the  Channel. 

The  Coming  of  Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons.  — -  Within  four  years 
from  the  appeal  of  446,  if  the  legendary  date  can  be  accepted,  a  body 
of  Jutes,  under  their  mythical  leaders  Hengist  and  Horsa,  effected  a 
landing  on  the  little  island  of  Thanet,  off  the  coast  of  Kent.  Tradi- 
tion asserts  that  the  British  ruler  Vortigern  took  them  into  his  service 
as  allies  against  the  Picts  and  Scots,  and  that  after  assisting  him  to  repel 
his  northern  enemies,  they  revolted  against  him.  Probably  Vortigern 
is  a  myth,  though  no  doubt  British  leaders  called  in  German  auxiliaries. 
At  any  rate,  some  time  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  the  Jutes 
established  them^ves_jn^KjentJ  and  their  arrival  marks  the  beginning 
of  a  series  of  invasions  culminating  in  the  conquest  of  the  Island  by  a 
body  of  German  peoples  whose  racial  traits,  laws,  and  customs  form 
the  basis  of  those  which  prevail  to-day,  not  only  in  Great  Britain,  but 
in  every  land  where  the  English  language  is  spoken.  Two  other 

25 


26  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tribes  joined  the  Jutes  in  the  westward  movement  —  the  Angles  and 
the  Saxons.  Their  original  home  was  in  the  coast  country  stretching 
from  the  eastern  shore  of  the  present  Denmark  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Rhine.  A  wild  and  dreary  country  it  was,  too,  "  shagged  with  forests 
or  deformed  by  marshes  "  and  bordered  by  a  stormy  ocean.  The 
inhabitants,  strong  in  local  instincts,  all  belonged  to  the  same  German 
or  Teutonic  stock.  We  have  no  description  of  the  three  peoples  with 
whom  we  are  most  concerned  at  the  time  of  their  migration,  and  have 
to  draw  our  conclusions  mainly  from  what  earlier  and  later  writers 
tell  us  of  the  Germans  in  general. 

Earliest  Accounts  of  the  Germans  at  Home.  —  Among  others, 
Julius  Caesar,  half  a  century  before  the  Christian  era,  set  down  a  few 
fragmentary  but  invaluable  comments,  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
later  the  historian  Tacitus  wrote  a  much  ampler  account.  Among  the 
most  northern  of  the  German  peoples,  the  Scandinavians,  a  rich 
mythology  has  been  preserved  in  their  eddas  or  legends,  first  reduced 
to  writing  in  far-off  Iceland  after  the  lapse  of  centuries.  These  throw 
additional  light  on  the  religion  of  the  ancient  Germans.  They  were 
pagans,  worshiping  the  forces  of  nature ;  they  had  their  great  gods, 
whose  names  have  been  preserved  in  the  days  of  the  week.  Supreme 
over  all  was  Woden  (Wednesday),  from  whom  ancient  kings  derived 
their  descent.  The  name  of  his  wife  has  survived  in  Friday.  Thor, 
from  whom  Thursday  takes  its  name,  was  the  god  of  storni  and  agri- 
culture, whose  chariot  rumbling  over  the  clouds  caused  the  thunder, 
and  who  produced  the  thunderbolts  by  the  blows  of  his  mighty 
hammer.  Tiu,  the  god  of  war,  gave  his  name  to  Tuesday.  Frea,  the 
god  of  love,  fruitfulness,  and  plenty,  was  the  giver  of  rain  and  sunshine 
and  had  a  wondrous  boar  to  draw  his  car,  "  whose  golden  bristles 
lighted  up  the  night  like  day."  Besides  these  great  gods,  their  imag- 
inations created  all  sorts  of  strange  beings :  valkyrs,  or  swan  maidens, 
who  rode  swiftly  through  the  air,  carrying  the  messages  of  the  gods ; 
norns,  who  determined  the  fate  of  men ;  giants,  like  the  mere-fiend 
Grendel ;  fire-breathing  dragons ;  kobalds,  mischievous  demons  of 
mines ;  nixies  or  water-sprites ;  tiny  prankish  elves ;  and  other  spirits 
good  and  bad.  Many  of  the  modern  fairy  stories  are  drawn  from  the 
actual  beliefs  of  our  forefathers.  These  old  Germans  rarely  had 
temples,  but  worshiped  in  sacred  groves.  Sometimes  they  reverenced 
a  particular  tree  or  set  up  a  wooden  column.  After  death  the  valiant 
warrior  was  supposed  to  go  to  Valhalla,  and  live  forever  amidst  con- 
stant feasting  and  fighting,  the  highest  joys  they  could  picture.  The 
cowardly  and  selfish  went  to  the  cold  and  joyless  underworld,  presided 
over  by  the  goddess  Hel.  While  we  hear  of  priests,  they  had  nothing 
like  the  organization  or  influence  of  the  Druids.  Worship  was  very 
rudimentary,  and  human  sacrifices,  usually  of  prisoners,  are  not  un- 
heard of.  The  Germans  who  came  to  Britain  soon  left  their  paganism 
for  Christianity,  but  many  of  their  practices  have  survived.  The 
feast  of  the  Resurrection  takes  it  name  from  Eastre,  the  goddess  of 


THE   COMING  OF  THE  ANGLO-SAXONS  27 

dawn  and  the  returning  year,  and  children  still  follow  the  pleasant 
custom  of  hunting  colored  eggs  on  that  day.  Christmas  falls  within 
their  Yuletide  when  they  celebrated  the  winter  solstice,  or  the  time 
when  our  northern  lands  are  turned  farthest  from  the  sun.  The  burn- 
ing of  the  Yule  log  is  supposed  to  have  originated  in  their  old  bonfire 
in  honor  of  Thor,  once  a  sun  god.  And  from  them  we  learned  to 
decorate  our  Christmas  trees. 

The  Germans  as  described  by  Caesar  and  Tacitus.  Political 
Organization.  —  The  Germans,  as  described  by  Caesar,  were  a  rude 
.people  who  spent  their  whole  time  in  hunting  and  warfare,  clothed  in 
skins  and  living  chiefly  on  milk,  cheese,  and  flesh.  In  his  time,  the 
chiefs  distributed  the  land  annually  to  tribes  and  families,  forcing  them 
to  take  a  new  piece  every  year  so  as  to  promote  equality  and  to  dis- 
courage agricultural  pursuits.  They  had  no  common  magistrates  in 
time  of  peace,  and,  in  time  of  war,  followed  warriors  who  volunteered  to 
lead  them  against  an  enemy.  In  the  time  of  Tacitus  they  had  ad- 
vanced to  a  settled  form  of  agriculture,  and,  although  the  bulk  of  the 
land  was  still  owned  by  the  tribes  and  families,  there  are  traces,  at 
least,  of  individual  ownership.  Tacitus  tells  us  of  a  well-defined  politi- 
cal organization.  First  there  was  the  tribe  or  state.  Some  were 
governed  by  kings,  but  those  in  the  far-off  north  were  governed  in 
times  of  peace  by  a  council  of  chiefs  who  prepared  measures  for  the 
assembly  consisting  of  all  the  free  men  of  the  tribe.  They  usually 
came  armed  to  their  meetings,  which  were  mainly  to  decide  questions 
of  war  and  peace.  Proposals  that  pleased  them  they  greeted  by 
clashing  their  spears;  their  dissent  was  expressed  by  inarticulate  mur- 
murs. The  tribes  were  divided  into  districts  presided  over  by  chiefs 
elected  in  the  tribal  assembly.  These  districts  were  settlements 
made  by  groups  of  families  which  had  originally  sent  a  hundred  warriors 
to  the  host  and  an  equal  number  to  the  judicial  assembly.  All  except 
the  more  important  cases  were  decided  in  these  district  assemblies 
by  the  people  themselves ;  for  the  chief  was  in  no  sense  a  judge,  but 
merely  a  chairman  to  voice  the  opinion  of  the  majority.  Each  dis- 
trict was  composed  of  groups  of  kindred  forming  a  free  village  com- 
munity. They  had  no  cities,  but  dwelt  in  little  groups  planted  where 
a  meadow  or  a  spring  offered  an  inviting  spot.  Each  household  had 
its  own  dwelling  place  surrounded  by  a  plot  of  ground  which  was  the 
property  of  the  father  of  the  family.  The  arable  land  owned  by  the 
kindred  group  was  reallotted  every  year  at  the  meeting  of  the  commu- 
nity. While  some  of  these  villages  may  have  been  under  the  control  of 
a  chief,  it  is  generally  supposed  that  most  of  them  managed  their 
own  affairs  —  a  primitive  example  of  the  modern  town  meeting. 
They  cultivated  in  common  and  used  only  a  portion  of  the  soil  each 
season,  allowing  the  remainder  to  rest  or  lie  fallow.  Meadows  and 
woods  were  common  to  all. 

Ranks  among  the  Early  Germans.  —  Society  was  graded  into  ranks 
or  classes.  In  many  states  there  was  an  hereditary  nobility  claiming 


28  A   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

descent  from  the  gods.  The  nobles  enjoyed  personal  distinction,  but 
no  political  privilege,  by  virtue  of  their  descent.  The  bulk  of  the 
inhabitants  were  freemen,  distinguished  from  the  lower  orders  by  their 
long  flowing  hair,  their  right  to  bear  arms,  their  right  to  attend  the 
tribal  and  district  assemblies,  and  their  right  to  share  in  the  annual 
allotment  of  their  village  lands.  Below  them  was  a  class  of  half- 
freed  slaves  or  f reedmen ;  they  cultivated  the  lands  of  others  and  they 
might  be  called  upon  for  military  service.  While  they  could  not  share 
in  giving  judgments,  they  might  testify  in  the  courts,  and  their  lives 
were  protected  by  a  wergeld.  Lowest  of  all  were  the  bondmen ;  some 
bound  to  the  soil  which  they  tilled  for  their  masters,  some  household 
servants.  Their  lives  were  absolutely  at  the  disposal  of  their  masters, 
to  whom  any  one  else  who  injured  them  was  answerable.  Each  chief 
had  a  body  of  select  companions  or  oomites,  whom  he  supplied  with 
horses  and  weapons  and  who  fed  and  drank  at  his  rude  but  plentiful 
table.  In  return,  they  fought  by  his  side  in  time  of  war  and  helped 
him  to  while  away  the  idle  hours  of  peace.  From  these  companions 
certain  grades  of  Anglo-Saxon  nobility  descended. 

Personal  Characteristics.  —  Very  striking  in  their  appearance  were 
these  old  Germans  with  their  stern  blue  eyes,  their  ruddy  hair,  and 
their  huge  bodies,  capable  of  great  exertions  in  war  and  chase,  but 
"  impatient  of  toil  and  labor."  In  their  intervals  of  war  they  passed 
their  time  in  hunting,  feasting,  games,  or  in  "  sluggish  repose,"  leaving 
all  work  to  women  and  servants.  Their  excesses  in  eating  and  drink- 
ing were  prodigious ;  indeed,  they  regarded  it  as  no  disgrace  to  prolong 
their  orgies  for  days  at  a  time.  Deadly  quarrels  were  frequent.  Their 
passion  for  games  of  chance  was  so  intense  that  they  would  often  stake 
their  freedom  on  a  single  throw  of  the  dice.  However,  they  were 
hospitable  to  strangers,  they  had  a  high  veneration  for  women,  and 
their  family  life  was  simple  and  wholesome.  Such  were  the  ancient 
Germans  and  such  were  the  characteristics  —  personal,  social,  and  polit- 
ical —  that  the  Angles,  Jutes,  and  Saxons  transmitted  to  their  new 
island  home. 

Causes  of  Migration.  —  The  impelling  cause  for  their  migration 
seems  to  have  been  desire  for  more  land^  due  to  their  hunting  and 
pastoral  pursuits,  to  their  wasteful  system  of  agriculture,  and  their 
general  roving  instincts.  Moreover,  they  were  hard  pressed  by  the 
tribes  constantly  sweeping  upon  them  from  the  east.  Hemmed  in  to 
the  south,  they  naturally  chose  the  sea  route  down  the  Frisian  and 
Flemish  coast  made  familiar  to  them  by  over  a  century  of  desultory 
plundering  raids.  The  Franks  and  Alemanni,  who  lay  nearest  to 
Britain  and  were  subject  to  equal  pressure,  were  diverted  from  any 
such  conquest  by  the  opportunities  for  service  in  the  Roman  army,  by 
the  prospects  of  rich  booty  and  the  sunny,  fruitful  lands  of  the  south. 

The  Jutes  and  the  Saxons.  —  The  Jutes  who  occupied  Kent  never 
expanded  very  far.  A  dense,  gloomy  forest  —  Andred's  Weald  — 
confronted  them  on  the  west ;  to  the  south  a  wide  expanse  of  fen  coun- 


THE   COMING  OF  THE  ANGLO-SAXONS  29 


try,  later  known  as  Romney  M^rsh,  stnnH  in  their  way,  and  the 
Thames  River,  with  its  marshy  banks,  cut  them  off  from  the  north. 
The  bulk  of  the  lands  south  of  the  Thames  fell  to  the  lof  of  the  Saxons. 
In  477  a  band  of  South  Saxons,  under  their  chief  ^Ella,  landed  on  the 
coast  at  Selsey  and  appropriated  to  themselves  the  modern  county  of 
Sussex.  At  the  fortified  town  of  Anderida,  near  the  present  Pevensey, 
they  met  with  a  stubborn  resistance,  and  after  taking  it  they  "  slew 
all  that  were  therein,  nor  was  there  henceforth  one  Briton  left." 
They,  too,  were  limited  in  their  conquest  by  Andred's  Weald  to  the 
north  and  east.  In  495  Cerdic  and  his  son  Cynric  —  again  the  names 
of  the  leaders  are  only  traditional  —  landed  on  the  shores  of  Southamp- 
ton Water.  Their  followers,  known  as  the  West  Saxons,  reenforced  by 
some  Jutes,  soon  overran  what  is  now  the  county  of  Hampshire. 
They  met  their  first  notable  check  at  Mount  Badon,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Severn,  about  516.  The  British  leader  on  this  occasion  was 
Ambrosius  Aurelianus  —  according  to  later  legend,  no  less  a  person 
than  the  celebrated  Arthur  about  whom  so  many  romantic  stories 
center.  After  a  time  the  West  Saxons  worked  their  way  up  to  the 
Thames,  but  were  stopped  in  their  advance  down  the  valley  by  the 
tribes  who  had  pushed  in  from  the  eastern  coast.  The  strip  of  coast 
between  the  Thames  and  the  Stour  fell  to  a  band  of  Saxons  who  were 
able,  after  dogged  fighting,  to  gain  the  two  cities  of  London  and 
Colchester  and  to  found  a  kingdom.  They  came  to  be  known  as  the 
East  Saxons,  a  name  which  survives  in  the  modem  Essex.  The 
Middle  Saxons,  stretching  further  inland  along  the  northern  bank  of 
the  Thames,  stood  "between  them  and  their  West  Saxon  kin.  The 
latter,  turning  west  after  their  failure  to  secure  possession  of  the 
lower  Thames  valley,  gained  a  decisive  victory  in  577  at  Deorhamover 
three  British  kings  of  Bath,  Gloucester,  and  Cirencester.  This  vic- 
tory was  of  the  greatest  importance,  for  it  gave  them  control  of  the 
Severn  River  and  enabled  them  to  cut  off  the  Welsh  massed  in  Devon 
and  Cornwall  from  those  lying  north  of  the  British  Channel.  Ceawlin, 
their  leader,  at  this  time,  pressed  north,  "  capturing  many  towns  and 
untold  booty  "  ;  but  a  decided  defeat  some  miles  south  of  Chester, 
coupled  with  a  revolt  of  the  mixed  population  of  Saxons  and  British 
settled  in  the  Severn  valley,  stopped  the  growth  of  the  West  Saxon 
power  for  over  two  hundred  years.  However,  they  had  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  two  great  river  valleys,  of  the  Roman  roads,  and  a  compara- 
tively open  country  to  spread  over  ;  and,  in  spite  of  their  temporary 
reverse,  they  held  a  territory  more  extended  than  any  other  power 
south  of  the  Wash  and  the  Fens. 

The  Angles.  —  By  far  the  greater  part  of  present  England  was 
occupied  by  the  Angles,  who  gave  their  name  to  the  country  —  Angle- 
land  or  England  —  and  whose  migration  was  so  complete,  it  is  said, 
that  their  native  country  was  left  a  desert.  Although  details  are 
lacking,  they  seem  to  have  become  settled  in  their  new  homes  in  the 
sixth  century  in  groupings  that  can  be  determined  roughly.  Lying 


30  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

between  the  river  Stour  and  the  Wash  were  the  East  Angles,  made  up 
of  the  North  Folk  and  the  South  Folk.  North  of  the  Humber,  and 
stretching  beyond  the  borders  of  present  Scotland,  were  the  Northum- 
brians, consisting  of  two  peoples,  the  Deirans  and  the  Bernicians. 
Along  the  Trent,  running  into  the  heart  of  the  midlands,  were  the 
Middle  English,  and  still  farther  west,  on  the  British  border,  were  the 
men  of  the  Mark  or  Mercians. 

Tribal  Grouping  at  the  Close  of  the  Teutonic  Invasions.  —  Leaving 
the  minor  tribes  out  of  account,  we  have  now  noted  the  settlements  of 
the  various  peoples  who  came  to  compose  what  was  formerly  called 
the  "  Heptarchy,"  or  seven  kingdoms  —  though  the  number  varied 
and  the  name  has  little  significance ;  three  kingdoms  of  Angles  .-— 
the  Northumbrians,  the  East  Angles,  and  the  Mercians ;  three  king- 
doms of  Saxons,  —  the  East,  South,  and  West  Saxons ;  and  Kent,  the 
kingdom  of  the  Jutes.  To  the  north  and  west  were  the  Celts,  mingled 
with  remnants  of  earlier  peoples.  Northeast  Scotland  wras  the  country 
of  the  Picts,  while,  about  the  time  the  Angles  were  settling  themselves 
in  the  east,  a  band  of  Scots  came  over  from  Ireland  and  planted  them- 
selves on  the  northern  banks  of  the  Clyde.  The  Scots  and  Picts  were 
finally  united  under  one  king  in  the  ninth  century.  Stretching  down 
the  coast  from  the  Clyde  to  Land's  End  were  a  series  of  British  or 
Welsh  tribes  known,  respectively,  as  the  Strathclyde,  the  South,  and 
the  West  Welsh.  Later,  the  Northumbrians  succeeded  in  cutting 
the  Strathclyde  peoples  from  their  brethren,  the  South  Welsh.  These 
northern  Celts  united  in  a  loose  confederacy,  calling  themselves  the 
Kymry,  a  name  which  has  lived  in  the  Cumbrian  mountains  and  the 
county  of  Cumberland. 

Slightness  of  Roman  or  Celtic  Influences  on  Anglo-Saxon  Britain.  — 
The  Romans  left  very  slight  permanent  influences  on  the  country ; 
the  Teuton  invaders  had  gone  from  their  homes  comparatively  un- 
touched by  the  brilliant  if  decaying  civilization  of  the  great  Latin 
race.  So  the  manners  and  customs  and  forms  of  government  of  the 
English  were  to  a  large  degree  Teutonic,  not  Roman  nor  even  Celtic. 
The  invaders  found  a  British  people  enjoying  some  degree  of  culture, 
advanced  in  trade,  living  in  cities,  and  cultivating  large  estates.  But 
they  either  exterminated  them  or  drove  them  into  the  inaccessible 
west.  Coming  by  sea  in  small  numbers  and  disconnected  bands, 
hampered  in  their  progress  by  dense  forests  and  treacherous  marshes, 
they  could  be  better  resisted,  and  so  had  to  fight  long  and  stubbornly 
and  to  destroy  the  natives  before  they  could  prevail.  Moreover, 
coming  to  found  homes,  those  whom  they  spared  were  mostly  women 
and  slaves.  All  indications  go  to  show  this:  the  few  British  words 
that  survive  are  mainly  for  domestic  utensils  and  everyday  things ; 
the  medieval  towns  are  to  be  traced  from  the  fortified  centers  and 
from  the  rural  settlements  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  —  the  tuns,  hams,  and 
thorpes  —  and  not  from  the  vills  and  cities  of  the  partly  romanized 
Celts.  Many  of  these  latter  communities  were  utterly  destroyed,  and 


GERMANIC 
SETTLEMENTS 


?>.-,          R'ru}*       "  -ft/~\0  HOLY   ISLE 

1     .   "  \^S^-r-T.iri      CMNDISFARNE)  Angles 

'•      ^  *"    ' " 


4      Longitude     3         from         2      Greenwich    1 


0         East          1 

EMMAY  «  CC. ,£»»»'•, «.T. 


THE   COMING  OF  THE   ANGLO-SAXONS  31 

have  only  been  excavated  in  recent  times,  like  Calleva  (Silchester  in 
Hampshire)  and  Uriconium,  "  the  white  tun  in  the  valley,"  the  site 
of  the  modern  Wroxeter  in  Shropshire.  The  original  sites  even  of 
Deva  (Chester),  Eboracum  (York),  and  Canterbury  (Durovernum) 
were  only  centuries  later  repeopled. 

Union  into  Larger  Kingdoms  and  the  Introduction  of  Christianity. 
-Two  main  features  mark  the  period  following  that  in  which  the 
invaders  were  getting  settled  in  their  new  homes.  One  is  the  union 
of  the  various  incoming  tribes  of  Jutes,  Angles,  and  Saxons  into  larger 
kingdoms ;  the  other  is  the  introduction  of  Christianity  among  the 
heathen  Germans.  The  West  Saxons,  for  instance,  were  originally 
composed  of  many  smaller  groups,  the  Dorsaetas,  Somersaetas,  and 
Wiltssetas,  to  mention  only  a  few,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the 
other  kingdoms.  Also,  the  temporary  war  chiefs  of  the  migration 
period  were  either  exalted  into,  or  subordinated  to,  permanent  chiefs 
or  kings.  The  formation  of  larger  kingdoms  marks  an  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  larger  and  stronger  tribes  to  obtain  control  over  the  whole 
Island.  This  is  true  of  Northumbria  in  the  seventh,  of  Mercia  in  the 
eighth,  and  of  Wessex  in  the  ninth  century.  The  progress  toward 
unity  was  helped  and  hindered  in  many  ways.  It  was  helped  from  the 
fact  that  the  conquerors  all  belonged  to  the  same  race,  and  had  sub- 
stantially the  same  religion,  language,  and  social  and  political  organiza- 
tion. To  balance  these  elements  of  unity  there  were  serious  obstacles : 
the  piecemeal,  slow,  and  scattered  nature  of  their  migration  and  settle- 
ment ;  the  lack  of  communication  ;  and  the  love  of  local  independence, 
or  "  particularism,"  characteristic  of  the  German  for  generations  to 
come.  However  much  these  circumstances  may  have  helped  or  re- 
tarded, the  early  combinations  were  due  mainly  to  two  causes :  the 
subjugation  of  weaker  by  the  stronger,  and  the  union  of  neighboring 
tribes  for  defense  and  conquest.  But(Christianity  proved  to  be  the 
greatest  of  all  the  unifying  and  civilizing  forces.)  The  form  which  was 
to  prevail,  that  ol  Rome,  was  introduced  in  the  southeast,  while 
Scotch  and  Irish  missionaries  worked  their  way  in  from  the  north  and 
west.  Although  the  latter  were  for  a  time  serious  rivals  to  the 
Roman  missionaries,  they  helped  prepare  the  way  for  the  form  to 
which  they  ultimately  bowed. 

Augustine  converts  .flSthelbert  of  Kent.  —  The  first  ruler  to  attain 
a  leading  position  in  England  was  ^Ethelbert,  King  of  Kent  (560-616).. 
The  tribes  north  and  west  were  busily  engaged  in  making  head  against 
the  Celts  on  their  borders,  while,  protected  by  Romney  Marsh, 
Andred's  Weald,  and  the  Thames,  ^Ethelbert  was  able  to  develop  his 
powers  until  he  was  strong  enough  to  go  forth  and  make  himself  lord 
of  all  the  lands  south  of  the  Humber.  Lying  nearest  to  the  Continent, 
he  was  the  first  English  king  to  enter  into  relation  with  the  peoples 
across  the  Channel.  The  most  notable  result  was  his  marriage  with 
Bertha,  a  Frankish  princess.  Bertha  was  a  Christian,  and  though 
^thelbert  was  a  heathen,  he  allowed  his  wife  to  bring  a  bishop  to  her 


32  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

new  Kentish  home,  and  gave  her  the  deserted  Roman  church  of  St. 
Martin's  as  a  place  of  worship.  No  doubt  all  this  had  its  influence  on 
her  husband  and  his  people,  but  their  conversion  was  actually  brought 
about  by  a  mission  from  Rome.  The  Pope  at  this  time  was  Gregory 
the  Great  (590-604).  Already,  as  a  young  man,  he  had  seen  English 
boys  as  captives  in  the  slave  market  at  Rome.  Attracted  by  their 
fair  faces,  blue  eyes,  and  silky,  golden  hair,  he  asked  whence  they  came. 
He  was  told  that  they  came  from  the  country  of  the  Angles.  "  Right," 
said  he,  "  for  they  have  angelic  faces."  On  asking  further  the  name  of 
the  province  to  which  they  belonged,  he  was  told  that  it  was  Deira. 
"  Truly,"  he  exclaimed,  "  they  shall  be  withdrawn  from  the  wrath  of 
God l  and  called  to  the  mercy  of  Christ."  From  that  time,  according  to 
the  legend,  so  beautiful  that  one  hopes  it  may  be  true,  he  seems  to  have 
been  determined  to  convert  the  land  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  So,  in  596,  he  selected  a  monk,  Augustine,  and  a  band  of 
followers  to  perform  the  work.  It  is  easy  to  see  why  he  chose  the 
country  of  ^Ethelbert.  The  King  of  Kent  was  the  leading  ruler  in 
southern  Britain,  he  was  the  best  known  on  the  Continent,  and  the 
husband  of  a  Christian.  After  a  long  journey  through  Gaul,  Gregory's 
emissaries  crossed  the  straits  of  Dover,  and,  in  597,  landed  at  Ebbs- 
fleet  in  Thanet,  where,  over  a  century  before,  the  heathen  Jutes, 
bent  on  a  different  kind  of  a  conquest,  had  first  secured  a  foothold. 
Augustine  sent  word  to  the  King  that  they  brought  him  a  joyful  mes- 
sage. He  at  length  received  them,  sitting  in  the  open  air,  fearing  if  he 
entered  a  house,  they  might  overcome  him  by  magic  spells.  The 
monks  approached  him  in  a  procession,  singing  a  litany  and  bearing 
a  silver  cross  and  a  picture  of  Christ  painted  on  wood.  His  first  reply 
was  that,  although  their  promises  were  fair,  their  words  were  new  and 
of  uncertain  import,  and  he  could  not  forsake  the  beliefs  which  he  and 
those  about  him  had  so  long  followed.  Nevertheless,  he  allowed  the 
holy  strangers  to  comd  and  dwell  in  his  royal  city  of  Canterbury,  and, 
on  Whitsunday,  597,  he  consented  to  be  baptized.  It  is  said  that 
10,000  of  his  people  followed  his  example.  Though  we  are  told  that 
the  King  exercised  no  compulsion,  this,  like  other  wholesale  conversions 
of  those  days,  must  have  been  due  to  obedience  or  loyalty  rather  than 
to  conviction.  Augustine,  after  the  conversion  of  ^thelbert  and  the 
men  of  Kent,  went  to  Aries,  where  he  was  consecrated  archbishop. 
He  then  returned,  repaired  Christ  church,  another  of  the  old  Roman 
churches,  and  from  this  time  to  the  present  day  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  with  his  archiepiscopal  seat  at  Christ  church,  has  been 
the  head  of  the  Church  of  England. 

End  of  the  Kentish  Supremacy  and  the  Decline  of  Christianity.  — 
Gregory  had  planned  an  elaborate  scheme  of  church  government  with 
two  archbishops,  one  at  London  and  one  at  York,  each  with  twelve 
bishops  subordinate  to  him.     This  scheme,  however,  came  to  nothing. 

1  Latin,  de  ira. 


THE   COMING  OF   THE  ANGLO-SAXONS  33 

All  that  Augustine  was  able  to  do  was  to  establish  two  episcopal  sees, 
one  at  Rochester  in  Kent  and  another  in  London  in  the  land  of  the 
East  Saxons.  The  Pope  had  also  instructed  him  to  enter  into  rela- 
tions with  the  British  Christians  who  had  always  held  sullenly  aloof 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon  conquerors.  The  Archbishop  held  two  con- 
ferences with  the  British  bishops,  one  on  the  banks  of  the  Severn, 
where  he  received  them  grandly  sitting  under  a  spreading  oak.  They 
not  only  refused  to  acknowledge  his  supremacy  and  alter  their  cus- 
toms, but  even  to  join  in  the  work  of  converting  the  land.  It  was  to 
no  purpose,  says  tradition,  that  Augustine,  offering  to  contend  with 
them  by  a  sign  from  heaven,  healed  a  blind  man  after  they  had  failed. 
Their  stubbornness  was  due  partly  to  the  lordly  air  and  high  claims 
of  the  representative  from  Rome,  but  there  were  more  weighty  rea- 
sons ;  they  clung  to  traditions  dear  to  them  by  centuries  of  usage,  and 
they  would  have  none  of  a  faith  adopted  by  those  whom  they  had  such 
cause  to  hate.  Augustine  died  in  604  and  ^thelbert  in  616.  (His 
reign  is  notable,  not  only  for  the  spread  of  his  dominion  and  for  the 
introduction  of  Christianity,  but  for  the  first  book  of  laws  issued  by  an 
English  king.^  These  laws  are  merely  a  record  of  existing  customs, 
somewhat  amended  by  Christianity,  and  relate  chiefly  to  offenses  and 
penalties  to  be  imposed.  The  death  of  ^Ethelbert  marked  the  end 
of  the  West  Saxon  supremacy  and  the  temporary  decline  of  Chris- 
tianity. His  sons,  and  the  petty  kings  of  Essex,  relapsed  into  heathen- 
dom. Raedwald  of  the  neighboring  East  Anglians,  who  had  only 
gone  so  far  as  to  admit  Christ  among  his  other  gods  and  had  been 
prevented  by  his  wife  and  counselors  from  going  farther,  now  threw 
off  his  allegiance  to  Kent  and  for  a  time  became  the  leading  ruler  in 
the  Island. 

The  Rise  of  Northumbria.  —  Meantime,  the  Northumbrian^  had 
come  to  the  front  and  developed  a  power  that  was  destined  to  be_ 
predominant  for  over  a  century.  In  588,jjEthelric,  King  of  Bernicia, 
succeeded  in  gaining  control  of  the  nval  kingdom  of  Deira.  On  his 
death  the  rule  of  the  united  kingdoms  north  of  the  Humber  passed  to 
his  son  ^Ethelfrith,  known  as  "  the  devastator,"  from  the  extent  and 
ruthlessness  of  his  conquests.  He  first  secured  his  northern  border  by 
a  victory  over  a  combined  force  of  the  Picts  and  Scots  near  the  head- 
waters of  the  Tyne,  and  then  advanced  west  against  the  Welsh,  whom 
he  overcame  in  a  battle  near  Chester  at  a  date  variously  given  as  607 
and  613.  Legend  tells  that  two  thousand  monks  from  Bangor  appeared 
to  pray  for  their  countrymen,  whereupon  the  Northumbrian  King 
ordered  an  attack  upon  them,  declaring :  "If  they  cry  to  their  God 
against  us,  they  too  are  our  adversaries,  though  they  bear  no  weapons, 
since  they  oppose  us  by  their  imprecations."  Twelve  hundred,  it  is 
said,  were  slain.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  battle  of  Chester,  ranks  with 
that  of  Deorham  (Dyrham)  in  importance;  for  it  had  the  result  of 
putting  off  the  Strathclvde  Welsh  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  country 
we  now  know  as  Wales}  Thus  the  solid  Celtic  western  wall  had  been 


34 


A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 


broken  into  three  parts.  ^Ethelfrith  did  not  long  survive  his  triumph ; 
for  Raedwald  of  East  Anglia,  with  whom  Edwin,  one  of  the  sons  of 
the  displaced  king  of  Deira,  had  taken  refuge,  defeated  him  and  slew 
him  at  a  battle  on  the  river  Idle  in  617. 

The  Supremacy  of  Edwin  (617-633).  His  Conversion. — Edwin 
thereby  became  supreme  over  the  united  Northumbrian  kingdoms.  He 
extended  his  rule  to  the  north,  and  established  a  fortification  from  which 
Edinburgh  (Edwin's  burh)  takes  its  name.  He  also  made  himself  the 
leading  power  in  mid-Britain  and  allied  himself  with  Kent  by  marrying 
^Ethelburh,  daughter  of  ^thelbert,  and  sister  of  the  reigning  King. 
She  was  instrumental  in  bringing  about  his  conversion  to  Christianity ; 
for  he  only  obtained  her  hand  on  condition  that  she  bring  with  her 
her  chaplain  Paulinus  and  enjoy  the  free  exercise  of  her  religion. 
Paulinus  urged  the  King  to  adopt  the  Christian  faith.  He  promised 
to  do  so,  after  a  narrow  escape  from  death,  if  he  should  succeed  in 
gaining  a  victory  over  the  West  Saxons  with  whom  he  was  at  war. 
When  his  arms  prevailed,  he  held  a  meeting  of  his  Witan,  or  Council, 
to  discuss  the  question.  History  has  preserved  the  lofty,  simple  words 
of  one  of  his  ealdormen.  "  So  seems  the  life  of  man,  O  King,"  he 
said,  "  as  a  sparrow's  flight  through  the  hall  when  a  man  is  sitting  at 
meat  in  winter  tide  with  the  warm  fire  lighted  at  the  hearth,  but  the 
chill  rainstorm  without.  The  sparrow  flies  in  at  one  door  and  tarries 
for  a  moment  in  the  light  and  heat  of  the  hearth  fire,  and  then  flying 
forth  from  the  other  vanishes  into  the  wintry  darkness  whence  it 
came.  So  tarries  for  a  moment  the  life  of  man  in  our  sight ;  but  what 
is  before  it  we  know  not.  What  after  it  we  know  not.  If  this  new 
teaching  tell  us  aught  certainly  of  these  let  us  follow  it."  Coifi,  a 
heathen  priest,  was  more  material.  He  declared  himself  willing  to 
reject  the  old  gods  because  they  had  never  done  him  any  good,  and, 
after  the  question  had  been  decided,  he  mounted  his  war  horse,  hurled 
a  spear  against  a  pagan  temple,  and  then  assisted  to  set  it  afire.  This 
was  in  627.  Edwin  not  only  extended  his  sway  over  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  Island,  but  he  maintained  such  peace  and  order  "  that  a 
woman  might  walk  from  sea  to  sea  and  no  one  would  do  her  harm." 
But  his  enemies  in  the  end  proved  too  strong  for  him,  and  Christianity 
contributed  to  his  undoing.  Caedwalla,  King  of  North  Wales,  formed 
a  combination  with  Pgnda  of  Mercia,  a  stout  old  pagan,  and  the  two 
overthrew  him,  in  633,  at  Heathfield  near  Doncaster. 

Oswald  becomes  King  of  Northumtria.  The  Scotch-Irish  Mission. 
—  On  the  death  of  Edwin  the  two  Northumbrian  kingdoms  for  the 
moment  fell  apart  again.  But  they  were  soon  reunited  by  Oswald,  a 
son  of  the  Bernician  ^Ethelfrith.  During  the  time  of  Edwin  he  had 
been  in  exile  chiefly  at  lona,,  a  little  island  off  the  west  coast  of  Scot- 
land, where  there  was  aTamous  monastery  founded  toward  the  close 
of  the  sixth  century  by  the  Irish  Saint  Columba.  Oswald  labored 
to  convert  his  kingdom  to  the  .Scotch-Irish  faith  which  he  had  adopted 
at  lona.  The  field  was  clear,  since  the  Church  of  Rome  had  made 


THE   COMING   OF  THE  ANGLO-SAXONS  35 

little  headway,  especially  in  Bernicia.  But  the  first  missionary  who 
came  was  an  austere  man  who  failed  to  win  the  hearts  of  the  Northum- 
brians. On  his  return  he  was  rebuked  by  Aidan,  a  gentle  and  holy 
man.  The  monks  at  once  decided  that  Aidan  was  the  man  to  go  in 
his  place.  He  established  a  see  and  a  monastery  at  Lindisfarne,  or 
Holy  Isle,  on  the  Northumbrian  coast,  not  far  from  the  royal  residence 
at  Bamborough.  While  as  abbot  he  directed  the  devotions,  study, 
and  industry  of  his  monks  at  JLindisfarne^Jie  also  preached  and  taught 
the  people.  Since  at  first  he  could  speak  no  English,  Oswald  stood 
generally  by  his  side  to  interpret  what  he  said.  Many  stories  are 
told  of  the  piety,  humbleness,  and  charity  of  these  two  men.  On  one 
occasion  when  they  were  celebrating  an  Easter  feast,  a  silver  dish  full 
'  of  dainty  meats  was  brought  in.  Then  the  King's  almoner  entered 
and  said  that  the  people  outside  were  clamoring  for  food.  Oswald  at 
once  ordered  the  meats  to  be  sent  out  to  them  and  the  dish  to  be  broken 
into  bits  and  distributed  among  them.  Aidan  seized  his  hand  and 
cried,  "  May  this  hand  never  decay."  According  to  tradition,  it  was 
cut  off  at  the  time  of  his  death  and  preserved  unwithered  at  St.  Peter's 
church  in  Bamborough.  Although  Oswald  was  a  strong  and  valiant 
warrior  as  well  as  a  man  of  piety,  he  was  not  long  able  to  maintain 
head  against  Penda,  who  led  an  army  against  him  and  defeated  him  at 
Maserfeld  in  642.  Oswald  was  slain  and  miracles  were  performed  by 
earth  soaked  with  his  blood.  Oswy,  a  younger  brother  of  the  former 
king,  came  from  lona,  and,  starting  as  Oswald  had  done  in  Bernicia, 
was  able  to  make  himself  ruler  of  all  Northumbria,  though  Deira  was 
for  a  time  independent  under  its  old  kings.  Oswy  was  able  at  last  to 
make  way  with  old  Penda  at  the  battle  of  Winwaed  Field  in  655. 
This  triumph  accelerated  the  work  that  the  Scotch-Irish  Church  was 
doing,  for  heathen  Mercia  was  won  and  the  East  Saxons  were  recon- 
verted. The  Roman  Church,  however,  had  not  been  idle.  It  had 
secured  a  foothold  in  East  Anglia,  in  627,  and  in  Wessex,  in  635.  A 
clash  between  the  rivals  was  bound  soon  to  come. 

Synod  of  Whitby,  664.  Triumph  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  —  The 
Celtic  missionaries  were  scholarly,  devout,  zealous,  and  took  hold  of 
the  people,  but  the  church  which  they  represented  lacked  unity  and 
organization,  the  very  qualities  which  were  the  peculiar  strength  of 
the  mother  Roman  Church.  About  this  time,  Wilfrid,  a  young  Nor- 
thumbrian noble  whom  Oswy's  queen  had  educated,  returned  from 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  Eternal  City.  Full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  older 
system,  he  labored  strenuously  to  make  it  prevail.  At  length,  in  664, 
a  synod  was  arranged  in  the  King's  presence,  at  Whitby.  Wilfrid 
was  chosen  to  present  the  Roman  claims.  The  opposing  party  was 
led  by  Colman,  at  that  time  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  for  Aidan  had  died 
thirteen  years  before,  v  The  main  controversy  was  over  the  date  of 
Easter)  In  the  course  of  the  debate  Wilfrid  asserted  that  the  Roman 
custom  was  that  of  Peter  to  whom  Christ  had  intrusted  the  keys  of 
heaven.  This  decided  Oswy,  who  declared  that  he  would  take  the 


36  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

side  of  Peter,  lest  "  when  I  come  before  the  gates  of  heaven,  he  who 
holds  the  keys  should  not  open  unto  me." 

Organization  and  Extension  of  the  Church  under  Theodore,  669-690. 
-  The  results  of  the  Roman  victory  at  Whitby  were  momentous  and 
far-reaching.  It  brought  England  into  contact  with  the  civilization 
of  continental  Europe  and  led  to  the  formation  of  what  had  been  a 
mere  group  of  mission  stations  into  an  organized  church.  The  man 
to  whom  this  work  is  chiefly  due  was  a  learned  Greek  of  Tarsus, 
Theodore  by  name,  whom  the  Pope  sent  out  as  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury!He  arrived  in  669  and  wrought  unceasingly  for  over  twenty 
years  till  his  death  in  690.  He  found  only  seven  bishoprics  and  only 
three  bishops  to  fill  them.  Two  of  them  were  contending  for  the 
see  of  York  and  the  other  had  bought  the  see  of  London  for  money. 
In  the  teeth  of  great  opposition,  Theodore  divided  these  large  sees 
until  he  left  fifteen  in  effective  working  order.  In  673,  he  held  a  synod 
at  Hertford,  notable  as  the  first  assembly  of  the  whole  English  Church. 
A  number  of  wise  measures  were  enacted,  and  it  was  decided  to  hold 
annual  synods.  This  was  not  carried  out,  though  such  meetings  came 
to  be  held  from  time  to  time.  To  bring  the  Church  into  closer  touch 
with  the  people,  Theodore  greatly  extended  the  parochiaL  system.^ 
The  center  of  Church  life  in  primitive  times  was  the  bishop.  To  each 
was  allotted  a  single  church,  and  he  had  in  his  household  a  body 
of  young  men  whom  he  taught  and  sent  out  to  preach  and  teach  in 
their  turn.  But,  corresponding  to  a  need  for  more  regular  ministra- 
tions, as  time  went  on,  the  lords  of  large  estates  began  to  settle  priests 
ontheir  lands,  and  the  little  townships  or  hamlets  did  likewise.  While 
Theodore  did  not  originate  the  system,  he  did  much  to  foster  its  growth. 
Much  as  he  did  for  the(unity  and  extension  of  Church  government,} 
the  indefatigable  Archbishop  did  not  confine  himself  to  this  work. 
Assisted  by  the  Abbot  Hadrian  he  founded  a  school  at  Canterbury, 
where  boys  were  taught  arithmetic,  astronomy,  Latin,  Greek,  and 
the  Scriptures.  Then,  indirectly,  he  did  much  to  raise  the  standard 
of  morals.  A  "penitential  "  of  this  time  —  that  is,  a  work,  contain- 
ing a  list  of  sins  and  The  penalties  to  be  imposed  —  if  not  actually 
written  by  him,  was  based  largely  on  answers  to  questions  submitted 
to  him. 

The  Monks  and  Their  Work.  —  The  religious  and  educational 
work  of  the  Church  in  early  England  was  largely  done  by  the  monks 
who  had  established  Christianity  in  the  Island.  Monks  include 
both  hermits  and  anchorites  who  lived  apart  even  from  each  other, 
and  those  who,  though  withdrawn  from  the  world,  dwell  together  in  a 
community.  Only  the  latter  played  any  great  part  in  English  life. 
There  were  communities  of  men,  and  double  monasteries.  In  the  latter 
case  each  sex  had  its  separate  group  of  buildings,  but  was  under  the 
ministrations  of  the  same  priests.  In  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  these 
orders  were  mostly  Benedictine,  following  the  rule  of  St.  Benedict 
(480-543),  a  holy  man  who  founded  a  monastery  at  Monte  Casino  in 


AOj*-  4LJL<- 


THE   COMING  OF  THE   ANGLO-SAXONS  37 

northern  Italy.  He  taught  men  to  work  with  their  hands  as  well  as 
their  minds.  His  followers  were  pledged  never  to  marry,  to  obey 
their  superiors  without  question,  and  to  accumulate  no  wealth  for 
themselves;  in  other  words, (they  were  bound  by  the  three  vows  of 
poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience^  While  the  individuals  remained 
poor,  the  monastic  communities  became  immensely  rich.  Enjoined 
to  labor  as  well  as  to  pray,  they  entered  into  waste  places,  cut  down 
the  forests,  drained  the  swamps,  built  dwellings,  and  cultivated  the 
soil.  Work,  even  when  primarily  for  the  glory  of  God,  is  bound  to 
produce  material  results.  Aside  from  their  manual  labor  they  studied 
and  copied  manuscripts  and  taught  the  youth.  To  us  it  may  not 
seem  the  highest  courage  to  flee  from  the  throbbing  life  of  the  world 
and  its  temptations  instead  of  overcoming  them.  Moreover,  these 
monks,  as  their  wealth  increased  and  their  pioneer  work  was  accom- 
plished, became  weak,  idle,  and  corrupt.  Nevertheless,  after  all  is 
said,  they  were  a  great  power  jor  good..  Life  was  hard,  brutal,  and 
vicious,  and  the  gentle,  pious  men  and  women  who  devoted  themselves 
to  study,  work,  and  prayer  were  shining  examples  in  an  age  when 
greed,  ignorance,  and  blood-thirstiness  were  all  too  common.  The 
literature  of  the  times  is  full  of  the  doings  of  monks  and  nuns.  A 
most  interesting  figure  is  that  of  Ealdhelm,  known  in  the  Anglican 
calender  as  St.  Aldhelm.  A  member  of  the  royal  house  of  Wessex, 
he  became  a  pupil  of  Hadrian,  rose  to  be  Abbot  of  Malmesbury,  and 
did  much  to  spread  learning  among  the  West  Saxons.  Not  only  was 
he  an  exceptional  classical  scholar ;  but  he  had  great  gifts  as  a  com- 
poser and  singer.  It  is  said  that  when  he  found  the  country  people 
unwilling  to  stay  in  church  after  the  music  in  order  to  listen  to  the 
sermon,  he  would  intercept  them  on  a  bridge  which  they  had  to  cross 
and  sing  to  them.  Gradually  as  he  caught  their  attention  he  would 
talk  to  them  of  sacred  things. 

The  Venerable  Bede  (673-735).  — Yet  by  far  the  most  renowned 
and  attractive  figure  among  these  early  monks  is  the  venerable  Bede 
(673-735),  the  "  father  of  English  history."  His  Historia  ecclesiastica 
gentis  Anglorum,  or  "  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  English  Nation.  >JK 
extending  from  55  B.C.  to  731  A.D.,  is  notable  not  only  for  being  the 
Jkst  truly  historical  work  prnHiirprl  by  an  F.nftlkhrpRn.  but  for  a  grace 
of  style  and  temper  tnar~is~~aTT  but  unique.  Although  primarily  a 
church  history,  it  deals  incidentally  with  temporal  affairs,  and,  indeed, 
is  almost  our  only  authentic  source  for  the  period  of  the  seventh  and 
early  eighth  centuries.  As  a  boy  Bede  was  sent  to  the  monastery 
of  Jarrow  on  Tyne,  and  passed  his  life  there.  He  says,  "  He  gave  his 
whole  energy  to  meditating  on  the  Scriptures,  and,  amid  the  obser- 
vance of  the  monastic  rule  and  the  daily  ministry  of  singing  in  the 
Church,  ever  held  it  sweet  either  to  learn  or  to  teach  or  to  write." 
Humble  and  devout,  he  became  the  most  learned  man  of  his  day. 
Among  other  things  he  helped  to  found  the  court  school  at  York, 
where  Alcuin,  the  friend  of  Charlemagne,  studied,  and  through  him 


*WM^>^{  tfw^A 


38  A  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

contributed  to  spread  learning  over  the  Western  Empire.  He  labored 
to  the  end  on  a  translation  of  .the  gospel  of  St.  John ;  for  he  said  he 
did  not  wish  to  leave  his  boys  in  ignorance.  The  story  of  his  death 
has  been  preserved  in  a  beautiful  letter  of  one  of  his  pupils  Cuthberht. 

Influence  of  the  Church.  —  The  influence  of  the  Church  at  this 
time  was  manifold  and  boundless.  Its  organization  furnished  a 
model  of  unity  in  the  midst  of  separation  and  disorder.  Its  synods 
brought  men  together  and  broke  down  provincialism  and  prejudice. 
It  contributed  at  least  somewhat  to  raise  the  standard  of  morality, 
and  preserve  and  spread  learning.  It  fostered  industry,  agriculture, 
and  the  arts,  while  the  men  dug,  builded,  and  studied,  and  the  women 
spun,  wove,  and  embroidered.  Moreover,  extending  their  efforts 
beyond  their  own  land,  many  Englishmen  became  famous  and  heroic 
apostles  to  their  kinsmen  in  the  low  countries  and  the  German  lands 
farther  east. 

End  of  the  Northumbrian  Supremacy.  —  Oswy  of  NiirJLhiinibria 
died  in  670.  His  successor  Egfrith  was  defeated  and  slain  by  the 
Picts,  and  from  that  time  Northumbria  ceased  to  be  a  leading  power. 
Internal  strife,  hostilities  on  the  northern  border,  and  the  enmity  of 
_Mercia_pmyed  too  much  for  it  to  withstand.  The  kingdom  lingered 
on  into  the  ninth  century  till  it  was  destroyed  by  a  new  enemy,  the 
Northmen ;  but  it  would  be  useless  to  try  to  make  headway  through 
its  confused  and  tumultuous  annals.  Suffice  to  say  that  during  the 
eighth  century  there  were  fourteen  kings,  of  whom  many  were  deposed 
and  none  died  peacefully.  But  the  period  of  Northumbrian  ascen- 
dancy is  marked  by  the  conversion  of  the  north  and  midlands  and  by 
the  establishment  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  of  Rome  with  all 
which  that  implied. 

Supremacy  of  Mercia.  JEthelbald  (716-757),  Offa  (757-796).  — 
During  the  eighth  century  the  leading  position  in  England  was  taken 
by  Mercia.  ^thelbald  (716-757),  a  nephew  of  Penda,  made  himself 
supreme  as  far  north  as  the  Humber,  and  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century  was  an  important  factor  in  political  and  Church  affairs.  But 
he  was  defeated  by  the  West  Saxons,  at  Burford,  in  752,  and  was 
"  miserably  murdered  at  night  by  his  own  bodyguard  "  five  years 
later.  After  a  short  interval  he  was  succeeded  by  Offa.  who  had  a 
difficult  task  before  him;  for,  after  the  battle  of_Burford.  not  only 
the  West  Saxons,  but  the  East  Angles  and  the  Welsh  broke  away. 
After  more  than  twenty  years  of  hard  fighting  he  succeeded  in  re- 
covering his  supremacy  south  of  the  Humber  and  in  subduing  and 
absorbing  the  Welsh  on  the  western  border.  He  built  an  earthwork, 
known  as  Qffa's  Dyfeg-  from  the  mouth  of  the  Wye  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Dee,  marking  roughly  the  line  of  the  Welsh  border  at  the  present 
day.  He  gave  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  the  representative  of  one 
branch  of  the  West  Saxon  royal  house,  and  drove  a  rival  claimant  from 
his  territories.  He  was  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Charlemagne,  and 
more  than  one  sign  indicates  his  influence  with  the  Papacy.  Pope 


THE   COMING  OF  THE  ANGLO-SAXONS  39 

Hadrian  described  him  as  the  king  of  the  English  nation ;  he  made 
the  Pope  a  grant,  in  787,  which  is  regarded  as  the  origin  of  Peter's 
pence ;  and  he  received  the  first  and  only  papal  legates  who  ever 
came  to  England  till  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  He  succeeded 
in  pgtflhliarii'nor  qr)^aT£hhi^hnpric  af  T.irVifipld.  This  archbishopric, 
which  scarcely  outlived  the  King,  is  the  only  archiepiscopal  see  which 
has  ever  existed  in  England  outside  of  Canterbury  ancTYork  (founded 
in  735).  Off  a  made  laws  forjns_peopje,  which,  though  they  are  no 
longer  extant,  were  dfawn  on  by  Alfred  the  Great  for  his  later  and 
more  famous  compilation.  The  Mercian  King  was  also  liberal  in  his 
grants  to  monasteries,  and,  in  spite  of  a  legend  that  he  was  a  despoiler 
of  churches  and  in  spite  of  one  or  two  stories  of  his  ruthlessness,  he 
was  a  religious  as  well  as  an  efficient  ruler. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING 

Caesar  in  his  Gallic  Wars  and  Tacitus  in  his  Germania  describe  the  conditions  of  the 
early  Germans  on  the  continent  in  about  50  B.C.  and  100  A.D.,  respectively. 

Among  the  descriptions  in  later  works  are  :  Pasquale  Villari,  The  Barbarian  Inva- 
sions (1902),  bk.  I,  ch.  II;  F.  B.  Gummere,  Germanic  Origins  (1892);  Hannis 
Taylor,  The  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  English  Constitution  (1892),  I,  bk.  I,  chs.  I, 
II;  Wm.  Stubbs,  English  Constitutional  History  (sth  ed.,  1891),  I,  chs.  II,  III. 
Taylor's  work  is  a  compilation  very  clearly  written,  but  exaggerates  the  Germanic 
origin  of  English  institutions.  Stubbs,  although  superseded  in  places,  is  still  the 
authoritative  comprehensive  work  on  English  constitutional  history  in  the  medie- 
val period. 

For  the  invasions  and  the  early  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  most  valuable 
general  sources  are  Bede,  Historia  Ecclesiastica  Gentis  Anglorum,  to  732,  and  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  which  in  one  version  goes  to  1154.  Each  work  has  been 
translated  many  times.  Inexpensive  editions  are  those  of  J.  A.  Giles  in  Bohn's 
Standard  Library  (1843)  and  (1847),  respectively.  The  best  modern  narratives  are 
J.  R.  Green,  The  Making  of  England,  A.D.  449-829  (1881) ;  Ramsay,  Foundations 
of  England,  I,  chs.  IX,  XI-XIII ;  Oman,  England  before  the  Norman  Conquest, 
chs.  XI-XVIII ;  Hodgkin,  Political  History  of  England,  chs.  VI-XV  (bibliography, 
pp.  493-508). 

For  the  introduction  of  Christianity  see  H.  O.  Wakeman,  History  of  the  Church 
of  England  (1908),  chs.  I-III,  and  William  Hunt,  History  of  the  English  Church,  chs. 
I-XII.  Wakeman 's  is  the  best  one- volume  work.  Hunt's  is  the  first  of  a  series  of 
nine  volumes  by  different  authors  forming  the  standard  work  on  the  subject. 
Each  chapter  is  provided  with  a  fairly  full  bibliography.  F.  Makower,  Constitu- 
tional History  of  the  Church  of  England  (Eng.  tr.,  1895),  sees,  i,  2,  3,  is  valuable  for 
the  constitution  of  the  early  Church  in  England. 

An  invaluable  work  of  reference  for  the  whole  period  is  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography,  63  vols.  1885-1900,  with  6  supplementary  volumes  bringing  the  work  up 
to  1912.  The  ample  biographies  are  accompanied  by  good  bibliographies.  In 
1908-1909  a  cheaper  edition  in  22  volumes  was  issued. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ASCENDANCY  OF  THE  WEST  SAXONS.  THE  DANISH  IN- 
VASIONS. THE  GROWTH  AND  DECLINE  AND  FALL  OF  THE 
ANGLO-SAXON  MONARCHY 

Rise  of  the  West  Saxons.  Laws  of  Ine.  —  Not  long  after  the  death 
of  Offa,  the  Mercians  were  forced  to  yield  their  supreme  position  tothe 
West  SaxonSj.  While  the  West  Saxons  developed  a  great  streiigthT" 
they  owed  much  to  the  handicaps  which  the  Mercians  had  to  contend 
with,  to  the  fact  that  the  latter  were  an  inland  people  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  enemies,  and  that  they  were  an  agglomeration  of  at  least 
five  tribes  separated  from  one  another  by  rivers,  marshes,  and  forests. 
The  West  Saxons  had  started  on  a  career  of  conquest,  generations  be- 
fore, with  the  brightest  of  prospects,  but  they  had  been  held  back 
largely  by  internal  dissensions.  These  were  due  to  struggles  between 
two  rival  royal  lines  and  to  the  restlessness  of  petty  under-kings  by 
whom  the  subject  districts  were  ruled.  It  was  only  occasionally  in 
the  early  times  that  a  really  notable  man  came  to  the  front.  Greatest 
of  these  after  the  warrior  Ceawlin  (50.3)  was  Ine  (688-726),  celebrated 
for  his  commanding  position  in  the  south  and  for  his  code  of  laws. 
These,  dating  from  the  period  between  690  and  693,  are  the  "  earliest 
extant  specimens  of  West  Saxon  legislation . ' '  They  are  largely  amend- 
ments of  existing  custom  and  are  chiefly  an  enumeration  of  crimes  and 
their  penalties.  One  provision,  however,  prohibiting  the  sale  of  bond- 
men of  English  blood  beyond  the  seas,  is  markworthy.  Ine  was  a  truly 
pious  man ;  he  fought  valiantly  and  governed  well ;  but  his  later 
years  were  embittered  by  a  rising  of  the  aethelings  or  princes  with 
royal  pretensions.  Discouraged  by  this,  and  influenced,  perhaps,  by 
the  efforts  of  his  wife  to  convince  him  of  the  vanity  of  earthly  pomp, 
he  abdicated  and  went  with  her  on  a  life  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  where  he 
died.  Nearly  a  century  was  to  pass  before  the  West  Saxon  power 
again  took  the  lead.  This  time  its  supremacy  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  was  destined  to  be  lasting.  Many  reasons  explain  this.  There 
began  in  the  ninth  century  a  line  of  kings,  who  were,  almost  without 
exception,  effective  rulers  and  indomitable  warriors,  and  who  were  sup- 
ported by  the  Church  which,  desirous  of  union  among  the  diverse  tribes 
in  order  to  carry  on  its  work,  saw  the  best  prospect  for  such  a  union 
under  the  strong  West  Saxon  house.  Then  the  coming  of  the  North- 
men, who  were  more  than  once  victorious,  furnished  a  common  enemy 
to  draw  the  Anglo-Saxons  together  in  united  resistance.  Also,  the 

40 


THE  ASCENDANCY  OF  THE  WEST  SAXONS         41 

Northmen  aided  the  cause  of  the  West  Saxons  by  destroying  the  rival 
kingdoms  which  had  hitherto  impeded  their  advance. 

Egbert  establishes  the  West  Saxon  Supremacy.  —  The  beginning 
of  the  West  Saxon  supremacy  dates  from  the  accession  of  Egbert, 
who  was  the  son  of  an  under-king  of  Kent,  but  was  descended  from  a 
branch  of  the  House  of  Cerdic.  About  796  he  was  driven  out  of  Eng- 
land and  went  to  Frankland ;  and  for  some  three  years  he  "  dwelt  in 
honor  "  under  the  protection  of  Charlemagne.  From  this  greatest 
of  medieval  warriors  and  rulers  he  learned  invaluable  lessons  in  the 
art  of  fighting,  while  from  his  Empire  he  gained  his  first  idea  of  a  great 
united  rule.  On  the  death  of  the  king  who  had  sent  him  into  exile 
he  returned,  in  802,  and  was  accepted  as  ruler  by  the  West  Saxons. 
In  the  teeth  of  resistance  he  steadily  extended  his  power.  He  reduced* 
the  Mercians  to  submission,  the  people  of  East  Anglia  sought  his  "» 
"  peace  and  protection,77  he  recovered  the  Kentish  kingdom  of  his 
father,  and  forced  the  Northumbrians'to  take  him  for  their~tord.t*  He 
also  made  the  Welsh  acknowledge  his  lo~rdship.J~  During  Tiis  last  years 
he  had  to  fight  off  attacks  of  the  Northmen,  who  had  first  appeared  in 
the  reign  of  his  predecessor.  This  work  occupied  practically  the 
whole  energies  of  Egbert's  son  and  of  his  four  grandsons,  the  last  and 
greatest  of  whom  wasAlfred^ 

The  Northmen.  — ^The  Northmen,  or  Danes,  as  the  Anglo-Saxons 
called  them,  are  often  known  as  the  "  vikings  "  or  rovers.  They 
inhabited  the  peninsulas  of  Denmark.  Norway,  and  Sweden,  and  re- 
sembled in  many  respects  the  north  German  tribes,  who  had  harassed 
the  shores  of  Britain  from  the  third  to  the  fifth  centuries.  They  were 
heathens,  sea  rovers,  and  pirates,  and  passed  their  time  mainly  in 
plundering  and  fighting.  Organized  in  smallbands  under  petty  chiefs 
they  had  their  headquarters  in  the  innumerable  nords,  inlets,  and  creeks 
which  -indent  the  Scandinavian  coast.  Their  boats  were  small,  open 
affairs,  high  at  the  prow  and  stern,  and  propelled  by  oars,  usually 
fifteen  on  a  side.1  Often  they  bore  a  single  mast  and  a  sail  which  could 
be  set  up  to  help  the  oarsmen  when  the  wind  was  right.  Necessity 
as  well  as  inclination  forced  the  Northmen  to  take  to  the  sea,  for 
Charlemagne's  conquest  of  the  Saxons  blocked  any  chance  of  ex- 
panding south  by  land.  They  followed  two  routes :  a  northern,  by 
way  of  the  Shetlands  to  Ireland,  and  thence  to  the  extreme  south 
coast  of  England  ;  a  southern,  by  way  of  the  Frisian  and  Flemish  coast. 
Of  those  who  took  the  latter  course  some  crossed  over  to  England, 
others  made  for  the  French  and  Spanish  coasts  or  for  the  Mediterra- 
nean. In  the  tenth  century  one  band,  under  their  leader  Roilo,  se- 
cured a  foothold  in  northern  JFrancer  and  established  a  settlement 
which  developed  into  the  powerful  duchy  of  Normandy.  At  first 
they  conducted  merely  disconnected  plundering  expeditions,  then  they 
made  settlements,  and  finally  established  kingdoms. 

1  Some  of  the  later  ones,  however,  held  as  many  as  a  hundred  and  fifty  men. 


42  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Danes  in  England.  —  In  793,  they  landed  on  the  Holy  Isle  of 
Lindisfarne,  burned  the  monastery,  plundered  the  church,  killed  some 
of  the  monks  and  took  others  prisoners.  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle 
records  the  event  with  simple,  pathetic  eloquence :  "  The  ravaging  of 
heathen  men  lamentably  destroyed  God's  church  at  Lindisfarne 
through  rapine  and  slaughter."  In  addition,  we  are  told,  "  This  year 
dire  fore  warnings  came  over  the  land  of  the  Northumbrians,  and 
miserably  terrified  the  people,  there  were  excessive  whirlwinds  and 
lightnings ;  and  fiery  dragons  were  flying  through  the  air.  A  great 
famine  soon  followed  these  tokens."  During  the  course  of  the  next 
century,  the  invaders  secured  territorial  settlements  in  northern  and 
eastern  England,  overrunning  Northumbria,  East  Anglia,  and  Mercia. 
In  7  9  5,  they  landed  in  Ireland,  where,  in  83  2,  they  established  a  kingdom 
with  a  capital  at  Armagh.  As  has  been  seen,  they  proved  a  serious 
menace  to  the  West  Saxons  from  the  time  of  Egbert.  They  not  only 
infested  the  southern  and  southeastern  coasts,  but,  during  the  reign  of 
his  son,  they  penetrated  inland,  and  even  took  London  and  Canterbury. 
A  raid  into  the  land  of  East  Anglia,  in  870,  is  notable  for  the  grew- 
some  martyrdom  of  their  king.  St.  Edmund,  as  he  came  to  be,  refused 
to  divide  his  treasure  with  the  Danish  chief,  to  renounce  his  religion, 
or  to  become  a  vassal.  Forthwith,  he  was  tied  to  a  tree,  scourged, 
then  shot  through  with  arrows  and  beheaded.  Long  after,  a  shrine 
was  built  to  commemorate  his  martyrdom  at  Bury,  now  known  as  Bury 
St.  Edmunds.  This  was  while  yEthelred,  a  grandson  of  Egbert,  was 
ruling  the  West  Saxons  and  straining  every  nerve  to  drive  the  Danes 
out  of  his  territory.  In  871  he  died  from  wounds.  His  victories,  and 
one  was  notable,  had  been  overbalanced  by  many  defeats. 

Alfred  the  Great,  871-901^ — ^Ethelred  left  two  sons;  but  they 
were  under  age  and  the  time  was  not  one  for  children.  Alfred, 
who  had  so  ably  assisted  his  brother,  was  chosen  to  succeed  him 
as  King  of  Wessex  and  Kent.  871  was  truly  a  stormy  year  in 
English  annals.  Within  the  first  five  months,  nine  pitched  battles 
were  fought,  not  to  speak  of  skirmishes.  At  length,  the  Danes 
became  tired  and  consented  to  a  truce.  Northumbria  and  East  Anglia 
were  in  their  hands,  and  Mercia  was  soon  to  fall.  In  874,  they  set  up 
in  that  country  "  an  unwise  king's  thegn  ...  an  Englishman  by  race, 
but  a  barbarian  in  cruelty."  That  the  kingdoms  of  Wessex  and  Kent 
were  defended  against  them  and  organized  to  form  a  center  for  the  ul- 
timate recovery  of  the  whole  island  was  due  to  Alfred,  the  hero  of  the 
English  race,  whom  Ranke,  the  father  of  modern  historical  study, 
describes  as  "  one  of  the  greatest  figures  in  the  history  of  the  world." 
He  was  born  in  848.  From  his  infancy  he  was  marked  as  a  child  of 
special  attainments  and  charm.  There  is  a  pretty  tradition  that  his 
mother  once  showed  her  children  a  beautifully  illuminated  Anglo- 
Saxon  book  which  she  would  give  to  the  one  who  would  first  recite 
the  poem  it  contained.  Alfred  gained  the  prize.  Two  journeys  to 
Rome  when  he  was  still  very  young  must  have  fired  his  imagination  and 


THE  ASCENDANCY   OF  THE  WEST  SAXONS         43 

given  him  food  for  dreams.  Latin,  the  language  of  learned  men,  he 
began  to  study  after  he  was  twelve.  His  later  youth  was  spent  in  hard 
and  stern  duties.  He  was  only  twenty-two  when  the  whole  burden 
of  defending  the  kingdom  fell  on  him.  For  a  few  years  after  the  truce 
Wessex  was  free  from  the  Danes ;  but,  in  876,  Guthrum.  who  had  made 
himself  King  of  East  Anglia,  landed  on  the  south  coast,  overran  the 
modern  Dorsetshire,  and  seized  Exeter.  This  was  the  darkest  time 
in  the  annals  of  the  West  Saxons.  Alfred  retreated  to  the  fen  country 
of  Somerset,1  where  he  established  a  fortress  at  Athelney,  an  inac- 
cessible island  in  the  marshes.  After  he  had  brought  together  the 
men  of  Hampshire;  Wiltshfrpj  nrrl  <Snm»rr"'t  hn-*till'H  forth  and  de- 
feated the  Danes,  in  878,  at  Ethandun  (now  Hedington),  a  place  facing 
jChippenham,  where  the  main  force  of  the  enemy  were  massed.  Alfred 
forced  them  to  fall  back  on  their  camp,  and,  unable  to  defend  them- 
selves even  there,  they  consented  to  receive  baptism  and  to  evacuate 
the  West  Saxon  land.  From  the  fact  that  the  baptismal  rites  were 
completed  at  Wedmore  this  has  often  been  called  the  Peace  of  Wed- 
more  (879).  It  was  not  till  886,  after  he  had  defeated  the  Danes  in" 
a  sea  tight  north  of  the  Thames,  that  Alfred  got  a  treaty  dividing  his 
land  from  what  came  to  be  known  as  thej(  Danelagh."  By  the  terms 
of  that  treaty  the  Danes  were  to  keep  all  east  of  a  line  "  up  the  Thames 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Lea,  up  the  Lea  to  its  source,  thence  across  to 
Bedford,  thence  up  the  Ouse  to  Watling  Street."  Alfred  got  London, 
which  he  fortified  and  rebuilt.  Although  he  had  to  meet  a  few  more 
attacks  from  the  Danes,  notably  during  the  years  891-896,  under  the 
redoubtable  chief  Hasten  or  Hasting,  the  land  was  practically  secure 
after  the  crisis  of  878.  It  was  more  than  a  century  before  the  English 
lands  were  again  endangered  from  the  north. 

Alfred's  Military  Reorganization.  —  Alfred's  service  to  his  people 
had  only  begun.  Having  driven  out  the  enemy,  he  set  himself  to  or- 
ganize a  permanent  defense,  to  give  them  wise  laws,  tojmprove  their 
Apolitical  institutions,  to  ^educate  them  and  furnish  thern  with  a  litera- 
ture^ The  chief  military  weakness  of  the  English  had  been  the  fact 
thatTas  soon  as  a  battle  was  won,  the  army  would  disperse  and  leave 
the  land  unprotected  when  the  enemy  next  appeared.  To  prevent 
this,  Alfred  divided  the  men  into  three  parts ;  one  was  kept  at  work 
in  the  fields,  another  was  kept  constantly  under  arms,  and  still  a  third 
was  assigned  to  garrison  strongholds  or  fortresses.  This  practice  was 

1  The  story  is  that  he  was  a  fugitive  in  hiding  and  that  once  he  took  refuge  in  a 
cowherd's  hut  where  the  housewife  gave  him  some  cakes  to  tend.  He  allowed 
them  to  burn  and  was  sharply  berated  for  his  carelessness.  In  the  words  of  an  old 
ballad  the  woman  is  made  to  say :  — 

"There,  don't  you  see  the  cakes  on  fire? 

Then  wherefore  turn  them  not  ? 

You  are  glad  enough  to  eat  them 

When  they  are  piping  hot." 

This  story  is  a  myth,  nor  indeed,  did  Alfred  come  as  a  fugitive  but  to  gather  new 
strength  against  his  enemies. 


iJLt    X^fvA    £XA/v*-*l.  \ !*<  -yvv*/UAXx*-^) 
•J    .      ft     0        !_'     I    h  fl      /} 


44  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

carried  much  farther  by  his  son,  and  to  it  we  owe  the  origin  of  the  many 
English  towns.  Also,  Alfred  saw  the  importance  of  protecting  the 
seas ;  but  although  he  won  battles  with  the  ships  he  collected,  he 
cannot  be  called  the  founder  of  the  English  navy,  for  England  never^ 
had  a  permanent  fleet  until  the  sixteenth  century. 

His  Laws  and  Political  Reorganization.  —  Having  prepared  for 
defense,  he  proceeded  to  compile  a  body  of  laws.  "  I  gathered  these 
laws  together,"  he  states,  "  and  commanded  them  to  be  written, 
which  our  forefathers  held,  those  which  to  me  seemed  good,  and  many 
of  those  which  seemed  to  me  not  good,  I  rejected."  He  selected  from 
the  dooms  of  Ethelbe'rt  of  Kent,  from  Ine  of  Wessex,  and  Offa  of  Mercia, 
besides  taking  some  provisions  directly  from  the  Scriptures.  It  was 
a  decided  stefi  in  unification  to  give  his  subjects  a  common  law  where 
each  people  had  had  its  own  particular  system. 

His  influence  also  on  the  political  institutions  of  his  time  is  not 
without  significance.  The  earliest  form  of  organization  had  been  the 
tribe  or  folk  under  its  chief.  The  folk  had  been  divided  into  separate 
districts,  each  originally  composed  of  groups  of  a  hundred  warriors, 
and  these  in  turn  had  been  composed  of  groups  of  kinsmen,  each 
inhabiting  a  village  or  township.  As  the  little  tribes  were  consoli- 
dated into  larger  kingdoms  it  became  necessary  to  introduce  a  new 
government  division.  These  divisions,  which  ultimately  spread  over 
England  to  the  number  of  fifty,  came  to  be  called^shires,  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  word  sciran,  to  divide.  They  appear  first  in  the  south.  Their 
invention  has  been  attributed  to  Alfred,  but  the  arrangement  is  at 
least  as  old  as  Ine.  What  Alfred  did  was  to  perfect  it  and  extend  it  to 
the  old  tribal  kingdoms  of  Kent,  Surrey,  Sussex,  and  Essex,  which  had 
up  to  the  time  of  his  victories  been  ruled  by  one  or  more  under-kings 
of  the  royal  family.  From  the  time  of  Alfred  the  lands  south  of  the 
Thames  formed  a  part  of  the  West  Saxon  kingdom,  divided  into  judi- 
cial and  administrative  districts,  each  under  regular  sets  of  officials. 
The  head  of  each  was  an  ealdorman.  Beside  him  sat  the  shire-reeve 
or  sheriff,  who,  originally  appointed  to  collect  the  royal  rents  and  rep- 
resent the  king's  interests,  gradually  became  the  chief  man  in  the 
shire.  In  addition  to  the  ealdorman  and  the  sheriff  there  was  a  bishop 
to  look  out  for  the  Church  and  to  offer  the  benefit  of  his  superior  learn- 
ing. The  arrangement  offered  an  admirable  (combination  of  local 
self-government  and  central  organization  j)  for,  while  the  forms  of 
procedure  were  popular,  the  presiding  officers  were  responsible  to  the 
King  for  the  judicial  decisions  and  the  other  business  transacted  in 
their  courts.  Alfred  spent  much  time  in  deciding  appeals.  He  al- 
ways favored  the  poor,  "  because,"  he  said,  "  in  that  country  the  poor 
had  no  friend  but  the  King."  His  relations  with  the  subordinate 
divisions  of  the  shires  (probably  called  hundreds,  although  we  have  no 
certain  records  of  the  use  of  this  name  until  the  next  century)  is  un- 
certain ;  but  he  may  have  rearranged  them  for  military  purposes  or 
used  such  as  existed  as  centers  for  levying  his  troops. 


THE   ASCENDANCY   OF   THE   WEST   SAXONS         45 

His  Work  in  promoting  Literature  and  Education.  —  Another  phase 
of  Alfred's  varied  activity  is  his  work  as  a  promoter  of  education  and 
literature.  He  often  lamented  that  his  own  attainments  in  reading 
were  so  poor,  and  that  learning  had  reached  such  a  low  ebb  in  these 
turbulent  times.  At  his  accession  there  was  scarcely  a  priest  south 
of  the  Humber  who  knew  any  Latin.  It  was  Alfred's  wish  that  "  all 
the  youth  of  England  of  free  men  ...  be  set  to  learn  .  .  .  until 
that  they  are  well  able  to  read  English  writing,"  and  "  that  those  whom 
it  is  proposed  to  educate  further  and  promote  to  a  higher  office  should 
be  taught  Latin."  For  the  latter  purpose  he  caused  a  court  school 
for  the  sons  of  the  upper  classes  to  be  founded  at  Winchester.  It  was 
difficult  to  find  scholars  among  his  own  people,  therefore  he  went 
outside.  From  Mercia  came  four.  One  of  them,  Plegmund,  became 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  John  the  Saxon  and  Grimbald  came 
from  the  Continent.  Asser,  Bishop  of  St.  Davids,  Alfred's  biographer, 
was  brought  from  Wales  to  act  as  reader  to  the  King.  The  writing 
of  English  dates  from  Alfred.  Under  his  auspices  was  begun  the  Anglo^ 
£axon  Chronicle,  the  first  history  of  any  modern  country  in  the  ver- 
nacular. Also  he  started  a  collection  of  ancient  epics,  of  which  only  one, 
Beowulf,  has  survived.  When  men  began  to  see  that  they  had  a  com- 
mon history  and  began  to  read  a  common  language,  the  petty  tribes, 
each  speaking  a  local  dialect,  naturally  began  to  feel  themselves  more 
as  one  people.  Further,  Alfred  caused  certain  books  to  be  trans- 
lated :  "  Those  namely  which  are  most  necessary  for  all  men  to  know, 
into  the  language  which  we  all  understand."  Among  them  were 
Bede's  History;  a  general  hfslory  of  the  world  since  the  deluge,  by 
Orosius,  and  the  Pastoral  Care,  of  Pope  Gregory,  a  work  full  of  "  wise 
counsel."  Probably  the  actual  translations  were  made  by  the  learned 
men  he  gathered  about  him.  The  renderings,  however,  were  Alfred's, 
and  he  interspersed  them  with  little  comments,  bits  of  historical  and 
geographical  information,  and  lofty  sentiments,  which  he  thought 
would  inform  and  uplift  his  people.  Alfred's  interests  reached  far 
beyond  his  own  land.  He  was  never  on  the  Continent  after  his  earliest 
childhood;  but  in  the  "translation  of  Orosius  he  describes  the  people 
and  lands  of  central  and  northern  Europe  and  their  relative  positions. 
He  relates  the  journey  of  Ohthere,  a  Norwegian,  notable  for  doubling 
the  North  Cape  and  coasting  in  the  White  Sea,  who  "  told  his  lord 
King  Alfred  that  he  dwelt  northwest  of  all  the  Northmen,"  and  of  the 
Dane  Wulfstan  who  explored  the  eastern  Baltic.  Alfred's  connection 
extended  to  the  far  east  as  well  ;  for  he  is  said  to  have  had  correspond- 
ence with  Jerusalem  and  to  have  sent  alms  to  India,  the  first  instance 
on  record  of  English  intercourse  with  a  country  later  to  play  such  an 
important  part  in  the  destinies  of  the  British  Empire. 

Final  Estimate  of  Alfred.  —  Such  was  the  work  of  Alfred,  defender, 
lawgiver,  and  educator  of  his  people.  He  was  a  man  of  many  inter- 
ests, but  wi throne  aim  — jo  serve  those  over  whom  he  ruled^  He  was 
a  pious  man,  h)ut  not  a  mere  dreamer,  always  active  and  methodical 


46  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

in  his  activity.  He  kept  constantly  by  him  a  little  book  in  which  to 
write  down  things  which  struck  him  as  worthy  of  note,  and  was  so 
careful  of  his  time  that,  it  is  said,  since  there  were  no  clocks,  he  devised 
a  candle  covered  by  a  lantern  to  measure  the  hours  that  were  all  too 
brief  for  what  he  had  to  do.  (His  real  achievements  were  to  check  the 
barbarian  invaders  and  save  and  increase  the  heritage  of  Anglo-Saxon 
civilization  which  had  already  been  acquired ;  to  consolidate  his  king- 
dom and  make  it  a  center  of  reconquest  under  his  successor^  He  did 
not  invent  shires,  nor  found  Oxford,  nor  invent  trial  by  jury,  as  our 
forefathers  believed.  Nevertheless,  he  did  much  for  England,  and  if 
we  can  see  him  aright  through  the  distorting  medium  of  myth  and 
fable,  he  was  just  as  great  for  what  he  was  as  for  what  he  did.  He 
himself  said,Q'  I  have  sought  to  live  worthily  the  while  I  lived,  and 
after  my  life  to  leave  after  me  a  remembering  of  me  in  good  works.  '^ 
His  own  ideal  is  the  best  commentary  on  his  reign. 

Edward  the  Elder,  900-924,  and  the  Beginning  of  Reconquest.  — 
Alfred  died,  28  October,  900.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Edward 
the  Elder,  sometimes  known  as  the  "  Unconquered  King."  While 
Alfred  had  confined  himself  to  the  land  south  and  west  of  Watling 
Street,  Edward  and  his  sons  set  themselves  to  reconquer  all  England 
from  the  Danes  and  to  extend  their  overlordship  over  the  Scots  and 
the  Welsh.  Although  the  heritage  from  Alfred  was  much  smaller 
than  the  lands  occupied  by  the  Danes,  the  English  had  many  advan- 
tages over  their  enemy.  Their  kingdom  was  compact  and  united 
in  government  and  laws,  and,  to  a  considerable  degree,  in  language. 
The  West  Saxon  king  was  the  only  one  to  whom  the  Anglo-Saxons 
could  look,  for  the  other  royal  houses  had  become  extinct  during  the 
recent  wars.  Moreover,  Edward,  a  persistent  and  able  general  himself, 
was  assisted  by  his  sister  Ethelfleda,  "  the  Lady  of  the  Mercians," 
whose  military  achievements  surpassed  those  of  the  Amazons  of  old. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Danes  were  utterly  lacking  in  cohesion  and 
purpose.  Edward  had  to  ward  off  occasional  attacks  from  without, 
but  the  energies  of  the  continental  Danes  had  been  diverted  to  the 
richer  cities  of  southern  Europe  and  the  "  tottering  Frankish  Em- 
pire." Furthermore,  those  who  remained  in  England  were  scattered 
under  different  leaders  and  different  forms  of  organization.  There 
were  at  least  two  kingdoms  :  that  founded  by  Gu thrum  in  East  Anglia, 
and  extending  over  part  of  Essex  and  southern  Mercia ;  another  in 
southern  Northumbria,  with  its  center  at  York.  The  bulk  of  the  mid- 
lands, including  a  great  portion  of  ancient  Mercia,  was  governed  by 
a  loose  confederacy  of  Danish  chiefs.  This  is  generally  known  as  the 
district  of  the  "  Five  Boroughs,"  from  the  fact  that  the  jarls,  or  chiefs, 
who  made  up  the  confederacy  were  seated  at  Derby,  Leicester,  Lin- 
coln, Stamford,  and  Nottingham,  each  with  its  separate  host  and  law 
court.  But  it  was  in  no  sense  a  league  of  cities.  Northern  Nor- 
thumbria was  ruled  by  native  English  chiefs,  nominally  subject  to  the 
Danes  but  friendly  to  the  West  Saxon  house.  Scattered  throughout 


THE  ASCENDANCY  OF  THE  WEST  SAXONS        47 

the  whole  Danelagh  was  a  large  mixture  of  Englishmen  who  did  their 
part  in  reconquering  and  absorbing  the  alien  element.  Edward  and 
Ethelfleda  developed  a  method  of  warfare,  the  origin  of  which  may 
be  traced  back  to  the  time  of  Alfred.  Avoiding  battles  whenever 
possible,  they  seized  commanding  points  which  they  fortified  and 
garrisoned  as  centers  of  defense  and  further  conquest.  These  strong- 
holds, called  "  burns,"  consisted  of  mounds  fifty  or  sixty  feet  high,  on 
which  was  placed  the  dwelling  of  the  chief,  the  open  space  surrounding 
the  foot  being  inclosed  by  a  ditch,  reenforced  by  a  rampart  of  earth 
protected  by  a  wooden  palisade.  Often,  peoples  coming  to  these 
strongholds  for  protection,  engaged  in  trade  and  other  industries. 
In  this  way  the  burns  developed  into  towns  or  boroughs.  Before  the 
close  of  his  reign  Edward,  assisted  until  her  death,  in  918,  by  his  coura- 
geous sister,  had  recovered  Essex  and  East  Anglia  and  a  large  portion 
of  the  Mercian  district  of  the  Five  Boroughs.  He  had  also  extended 
his  overlordship  over  the  Northumbrians  and  the  Welsh,  beth-of  North 
Wales  and  the  Strathclyde.  It  is  asserted  that  the  King  of  the  Scots 
also  took  Edward  "  to  father  and  lord"  ; l  but  this  is  disputed,  although 
later  English  kings  based  a  claim  on  Scotland  upon  this  alleged  sub- 
mission. We  hear  of  subsequent  revolts,  even  in  the  districts  which 
Edward  had  actually  conquered,  but  he  had  good  ground  for  being 
called  King  of  the  Anglo-Saxons.  His  work  was  finally  completed  by 
his  sons,  three  of  whom  in  turn  succeeded  him. 

Further  Extension  of  the  West  Saxon  Power  under  Edward's  Sons. 
—  The  first  of  these,  Athelstan  (925-940),  known  as  "  Glorious  Athel- 
stan,"  from  his  grace  and  beauty,  had  been  a  favorite  of  his  grandfather 
Alfred,  who  acknowledged  him  as  heir  of  his  line  and  gave  him  a  purple 
robe,  a  jeweled  belt,  and  a  sword  with  a  golden  scabbard.  The  year 
after  his  accession,  he  met  the  Kings  of  the  Welsh,  of  the  Cumbrians,  and 
of  the  Scots  at  Dacre  (926),  and  secured  a  recognition  of  his  overlord- 
ship,  from  which  time  he  wrote  himself  "  Monarch  of  all  Britain." 
The  next  year  he  expelled  the  Danish  King  of  York  and  annexed  his 
kingdom  of  southern  Northumbria.  His  growing  power  caused  alarm 
to  the  princes  on  his  borders,  and,  in  937,  the  Scots,  Welsh,  and  Danes 
combined  against  him.  He  met  the  coalition  at  Brunanburh,  an  un- 
determined site  somewhere  in  the  north  country,  probably  near  the 
Solway  Firth.  A  desperate  hand-to-hand  battle  was  fought  from  sun- 
rise to  sunset ;  in  the  words  of  the  fine  old  ballad  commemorating  it : 

"  Sithen  sun  up 
At  morning  tide, 
God's  noble  candle, 
Glid  o'er  the  lands, 
Till  the  bright  being 
Sank  to  his  settle." 

1  The  Picts  had  already  in  the  middle  of  the  gth  century  been  united  with  the 
Scots  under  one  king. 


48  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

Athelstan  won  a  victory  which  determined  that  the  West  Saxons  were 
to  be  supreme  in  Britain.  Not  only  did  he  secure  a  position  at  home 
more  commanding  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  he  obtained  a  great 
prestige  abroad.  The  most  notable  foreign  rulers  sought  marriage 
alliances  with  his  house.1  Edmund  (940-946) ,  known  as  the  "  magnifi- 
cent "  or  the  "  dear  deed-doer,"  had  to  face  a  series  of  revolts,  and 
only  managed  by  hard  fighting  to  retain  what  his  father  and  brother 
had  won.  Although  Edmund  left  two  sons,  he  was  succeeded  by  his 
brother  Edred  (946-955).  Edred  was  weighed  down  by  sickness 
during  his  short  life,  but  waged  persistent  war  against  the  restless 
Danes  in  Northumbria.  In  954  he  adopted  a  new  policy.  He  put 
them  under  an  ealdorman,  Oswulf,  and  allowed  them  their  own  cus- 
toms and  their  own  laws.  This  wise  moderation,  followed  by  his 
nephew  Edgar,  in  his  long  reign,  resulted  finally  in  incorporating  the 
Danes  as  peaceful  subjects. 

St.  Dunstap,  Early  Life  and  Character.  —  It  was  in  the  reign  of 
Edred  that  Dunstan  came  to  take  a  leading  share  in  the  government. 
His  is  the  greatest  name  in  the  English  Church  since  Bede,  and  he 
stands  as  peer  of  Augustine  and  Theodore"  Dunstan  was^Dorn  about 
924,  of  a  noble  West  Saxon  family"connected  with  the  royal  house  and 
numbering  several  bishops  among  its  members.  He  was  educated 
at  the  monastery  of  Glastonbury,  and  early  introduced  to  the  court 
of  Athelstan,  where  he  spent  much  of  his  time.  He  was  a  dreamy, 
imaginative  youth,  who  cared  little  for  the  pastimes  of  his  fellows. 
His  studious  and  secluded  habits  seem  to  have  made  him  so  unpopular 
with  them  that  they  accused  him  of  sorcery  and  induced  the  King  to 
banish  him  from  his  presence.  Not  content  with  this,  they  set  upon 
him,  threw  him  into  a  marsh,  and  trampled  upon  him.  After  his  ex- 
pulsion from  Athelstan's  court  he  dwelt  for  a  time  with  his  uncle, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  who  urged  him  to  become  a  monk.  At  first 
he  was  unwilling  to  take  the  vows,  and  only  changed  his  mind  after  a 
serious  illness.  At  Glastonbury  he  built  himself  a  tiny  cell,  where  he 
spent  his  time  studying  the  Scriptures,  copying  and  illuminating  man- 
uscripts, and  playing  the  harp.  He  also  became  a  skillful  worker  of 
metals,  fashioning  organs  and  church  bells,  and  on  one  occasion'  he 
even  made  a  design  for  a  lady  to  embroider  a  stole.  Visions  and 
temptations  often  assailed  him  in  the  midst  of  his  occupations.  Once 
the  devil  is  said  to  have  peered  through  the  window  of  his  cell,  when 
he  was  hammering  at  his  anvil,  and  to  have  addressed  him  in  un- 
seemly language  until  Dunstan  pinched  his  nose  with  a  pair  of  red  hot 
tongs,  whereat  he  fled  roaring  with  pain.  On  another  occasion,  he 
appeared  at  the  altar  where  Dunstan  was  praying,  and  only  left  when 
the  holy  man  seized  a  stick  and  beat  about  him,  repeating  the  words 

1  One  daughter  was  married  to  Count  Hugh,  father  of  Hugh  Capet,  first  King  of 
France ;  another  to  Otto,  who  became  Otto  the  Great,  Emperor  of  Germany ;  an- 
other to  Louis,  the  blind  King  of  Provence ;  and  still  another  to  Charles  the  Simple, 
King  of  the  West  Franks. 


THE  ASCENDANCY   OF   THE   WEST   SAXONS         49 

of  the  68th  psalm :  "  Let  God  arise  and  let  His  enemies  be  scattered." 
Recalled  to  court  by  Edmund,  he  was  again  expelled  because  of  the 
slanders  of  hostile  noblemen.  But  the  King  on  a  stag  hunt  was 
saved  at  the  brink  of  a  precipice  by  a  prayer  and  a  vow  to  do  right  to 
Dunstan.  He  restored  him  to  favor  and  made  him  Abbot  of  _Gl«iston- 
b_ury  just  before  his  death. 

Dunstan's  Reforms.  His  Political  Influence.  His  Banishment 
under  Edwig.  —  In  his  new  position  ^Dunstan  led  a  movement  in 
England  to  meet  the  decay  in  religion  and  learnirijpthat  had  set  in  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Bede,  and  which  had  been  accentuated  by  the  dis- 
orders resulting  from  the  Danish  invasions,  when  schools  and  churches 
and  monasteries  were  broken  up  and  fighting  became  the  order  of  the 
day.  Monks  and  nuns  had  departed  from  the  rules  of  their  orders, 
had  married,  had  assumed  the  dress  and  manners  and  customs  of  the 
laity,  had  lost  interest  in  study,  and  entered  into  the  pursuits  and  pas- 
times of  those  in  the  world  about  them.  Even  Alfred's  efforts  to  pro- 
mote education  had  borne  little  fruit.  Dunstan  set  himself  against 
all  this.  He  introduced  monks  at  Glastonbury  pledged  to  live  the 
single  life  and  to  devote  themselves  to  study  and  the  services  of  the 
Church,  and  worked  untiringly  as  a  teacher  himself.  But  in  addition 
to  his  work  as  abbot,  he  accomplished  a  great  political  work  as  well ; 
for  Edred  made  him  his  treasurer  and  chief  adviser,  and  it  was  prob- 
ably due  to  his  sage  counsel  that  the  device  was  adopted  of  conciliating 
the  Danes  by  granting  them  a  measure  of  local  independence.  Under 
Edred's  nephew,  Edwig,  son  of  Edmund  (955-959)  ,Jje  lost  his  influ- 
ence for  a  time.  The  West  Saxons  hated  him  for  (his  opposition  to 
their  plan  of  establishing  the  West  Saxon  ascendancy  by  forceN  while 
he  crossed  the^rjurposes  of  an  ambitious  womajo/ho  was  bent  on -marry- 
ing her  daughter  to  the  young  and  "weak-minded  King.  The  trouble 
began  when  Dunstan  was  bold  enough  to  lead  him  back  to  the  corona- 
tion feast  which  he  had  deserted  to  enjoy  the  society  of  the  two  ladies. 
Ethelgifu  succeeded  at  length  in  securing  Edwig  as  the  husband  of 
her  daughter,  and  Dunstan  was  banished.  He  remained  two  years  in 
exile,  an  exile  notable  because  it  was  then  that  he  learned  much  at 
first  hand  of  the  revived  and  developed  Benedictine  rule  that  was 
taking  such  a  hold  on  continental  monasteries.  This  is  known  as  the 
'ICluniac  "  reform, -from  the  fact  that  it  began  at  Cluny  in  France. 
But  Dunstan  was  more  interested  in  education  and  religion  than  in 
monastic  discipline.  It  is  due  more  to  his  friends  than  to  himself  - 
particularly  to  Ethelwold,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  known  as  the 
"  Father  of  the  Monks  "  —  that  the  stricter  aspects  of  the  reform  were 
introduced  into  England.  In  963,  for  instance,  it  was  recorded  that 
Ethelwold  "  drove  the  clerks  out  of  the  bishopric,  because  they  would 
not  observe  any  rule,  and  he  set  monks  there." 

Recall  of  Dunstan.  Reign  of  Edgar  the  Peaceful,  959-975-  —  In 
957  the  people  of  Northumbria  and  Mercia  revolted  against  Edwig 
and  made  his  brother  Edgar  king.  One  of  Edgar's  first  acts  was  to 


50  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

x 

recall  Dunstan,  whom  he  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury:  not  long 
after.  In  959,  on  the  death  of  Edwig,  Edgar  became  King  of  the 
whole  Island.  His  reign,  which  marks  the  highest  point  in  the  power 
of  kingship  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  period,  was  powerful  and,  on  the  whole, 
^uneventful.  The  royal  policy  was  consolidation  on  the  basis  of  con- 
ciliation. The  Danes  were  to  have  their  laws  and  so  were  the  English. 
"  I  will,"  Edgar  declares,  "  that  secular  rights  should  stand  among  the 
Danes  with  as  good  laws  as  best  they  may  choose.  But  with  the 
English  let  that  stand  which  I  and  my  Witan  have  added  to  the  dooms 
of  my  forefathers."  While  the  King  was  supreme  over  all,  the  local 
government  was  in  the  hands  of  the  great  ealdormen  of  Northumbria, 
East  Anglia,  and  Mercia.  This' was  an  extension  of  the  policy  which 
had  been  initiated  largely  by  Dunstan  in  the  reign  of  Edred.  It 
worked  well  under  Edgar's  vigorous  control,  but  there  was  danger, 
realized  all  too  soon  under  weak  rulers,  that  local  divisions  would 
break  up  the  unity  of  the  kingdom.  The  monastic  revival  was  carried 
on  steadily.  And  whatever  may  be  urged  against  it,  the  supremacy 
of  the  monks  was  better  than  that  of  laymen,  secular  priests,  and 
bishops,  whose  standards  of  conduct  were  lower  than  those  of  the  regu- 
lar clergy.  Canons  directed  against  bearing  arms,  hunting,  hawking, 
dicing,  and  drunkenness  on  the  part  of  those  in  holy  orders  indicate 
this.  Edgar  was  crowned  in  973,  and  "  there  was  much  bliss  on  that 
blessed  day."  The  coronation  is  very  notable  as  the  first  which  the 
records  describe  in  detail.  The  King  entered  the  church  wearing  his 
crown,  which  he  took  off  as  he  knelt  before  the  altar.  A  Te  Deum  was 
sung,  after  which  the  bishops  raised  the  King,  and  the  coronation  oath 
was  administered  by  Dunstan,  who  presided.  Edgar  swore,  "  That  the 
Church  of  God  and  all  Christian  people  should  enjoy  true  peace  for- 
ever, that  he  would  forbid  all  wrong  and  robbery  to  all  degrees,  and 
that  he  would  command  justice  and  mercy  in  all  judgments."  Then 
prayers  were  said,  the  Archbishops  anointed  him,  and  the  people  in 
the  church  shouted :  "  Let  the  King  live  forever !  "  Next,  Dunstan 
girded  him  with  a  sword,  placed  a  ring  on  his  finger,  the  crown  on  his 
head,  a  scepter  in  his  hand,  and,  assisted  by  the  Archbishop  of  York, 
seated  him  on  the  throne.  After  his  coronation  Edgar  took  his  fleet 
round  to  Chester,  where  six,  and  possibly  eight,  kings  did  him  homage, 
and,  it  is  said,  rowed  him  up  the  river  Dee.  Edgar  remarked :  "  When 
any  one  of  my  aftercomers  gets  as  many  kings  to  serve  him  as  I  have 
here,  then  may  he  as  truly  call  himself  King  of  England."  l  In  spite 
of  rumors  of  evil  deeds  in  his  youth  and  stories  that  he  "  loved  foreign 
vices  "  and  "  heathen  manners,"  many  ballads  attest  the  ability  and 
success  of  his  rule.  One  declares : 

1  Other  stories  of  him  are  recorded.  Although  strong,  "beauteous  and  win- 
some, "  he  was  short  and  slender.  On  one  occasion  the  Scotch  King,  Kenneth,  who 
first  met  him  at  a  banquet,  expressed  surprise  that  so  great  a  kingdom  should  be 
ruled  by  such  a  mannikin.  When  Edgar  heard  of  it,  he  produced  two  swords  and 
offered  to  fight  him,  whereupon  the  Scot  retracted  his  words. 


THE  ASCENDANCY   OF  THE   WEST   SAXONS         51 

"  No  fleet  was  so  daring 
No  army  so  strong 
That  from  Angle  kin 
Booty  ere  took 
The  while  that  his  kingstool 
That  noble  prince  ruled." 

And  another : 

"  In  his  days 
it  prospered  well 
and  God  him  granted 
that  he  dwelt  in  peace 
the  whilst  that  he  lived." 

Later,  the  time  when  Edgar's  law  prevailed  was  looked  back  to  as  a 
golden  age. 

jEthelred  the  Redeless,  978-1016.  Beginning  of  Decline  of  Royal 
Power.  —  With  his  death  troubles  began.  His  eldest  son,  a  mere 
boy,  Edward,  known  in  time  to  come  as  "  The  Martyr,"  was  murdered 
by  the  thegns  of  his  wicked  stepmother  to  make  way  for  her  own  son 
^thelred.  She  had  him  crowned  at  once,  and  Dunstan  performed 
the  ceremony,  although  he  is  said  to  have  foreseen  and  foretold  that 
evil  would  come  under  a  king  who  owed  his  crown  to  bloodshed.  The 
good  Archbishop  lived  for  ten  years  more ;  but  his  political  influence 
was  at  an  end.  He  devoted  himself  to  his  teaching,  his  episcopal 
duties,  and  his  metal  work.  He  was  a  man  truly  pious  but  not  austere, 
sweet  and  engaging,  who  did  his  work  in  the  world  without  sacrificing 
his  principles  or  becoming  himself  worldly.  His  removal  from  the 
center  of  affairs  was  to  England  an  irremediable  loss.  yEthelred,  as 
he  grew  to  manhood,  showed  himself  incompetent  to  rule  his  country 
in  the  troublous  times  that  came  upon  it.  Gifted  with  personal  graces, 
he  was  by  no  means  wanting  in  ability  or  energy ;  but  he  lacked  abil- 
ity to  listen  to  wisdom  or  good  counsel,  hence  his  name  of  the  "  Rede- 
less  "  or  "  Unredy."  He  had  no  steadfastness  of  purpose,  and  was 
passionate  and  cruel.  The  policy  encouraged  by  Edgar  and  Dunstan, 
as  might  be  expected  under  such  a  ruler,  soon  began  to  show  its  ill 
effects.  The  great  ealdormen  in  the  different  districts  set  about  mak- 
ing themselves  independent  of  royal  control.  ^Ethelred  made  matters 
worse  in  seeking  to  counteract  them  by  raising  new  favorites  to  power 
and  endowing  them  with  land.  They  naturally  sought  to  advance 
their  own  interests,  and  thus  ^thelred  only  made  new  whips  to 
scourge  himself. 

The  Second  Coming  of  the  Danes.  —  In  the  midst  of  this  turmoil, 
the  Danes  reappeared,  and  this  time  they  continued  their  attacks  till 
they  established  themselves  as  rulers  of  the  whole  kingdom.  They 
began  in  980  with  some  predatory  raids  in  which  Swein,  son  of  the 
Danish  King,  figured.  In  991,  after  an  overwhelming  force  had  won 
a  bloody  battle  at  Maldon  in  Essex  —  commemorated  in  a  spirited 
ballad  — "  it  was  decreed  that  tributes  should  be  given  to  the 


52  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Danish  men,  on  account  of  the  great  terror  which  they  caused  by  the 
sea  coast."  This  was  obviously  not  the  first  time  invaders  had  been 
bought  off.  Alfred  had  on  occasion  resorted  to  the  practice ;  but  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  .^E their ed's  reign  it  was  paid  as  a  more  or  less 
regular  tribute.  The  money  was  raised  by  a  land  tax  called  DanegelcL 
Continued  long  after  the  danger  was  past,  it  was  for  some  time  the 
only  land  tax  raised  in  the  country,  and  was  not  finally  done  away  with 
until  nearly  two  centuries  later.  The  King  and  his  advisers  cannot 
be  blamed  for  purchasing  a  temporary  peace ;  but  the  difficulty  was 
that  ^Ethelred  kept  on  paying,  that  he  failed  to  take  advantage  of  the 
respites  in  the  invasion  to  compose  the  differences  between  his  warring 
lords,  or  to  develop  a  strong  army  and  navy.  Nevertheless,  in  con- 
sidering the  weakness  of  the  English  defense,  the  condition  of  the 
country^ as  well  as  the  indecision  of  the  King  must  be  taken  into  ac- 
count. fA  great  part  of  the  resources  in  men  and  money  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  great  territorial  nobles  who  were  at  odds  with  ^thelred. 
Even  when  the  king's  officials  could  be  depended  upon,  they  had  as  a 
fighting  force  only  the  ill-organized  shire  levies!  At  first,  the  Danish 
custom  was  to  land  at  unexpected  places,  mounton  horses,  ride  " as  far 
as  they  would,"  burning,  plundering,  and  "man  slaying,"  and  doing 
"unspeakable  evil."  By  the  time  the  English  were  prepared  to  meet 
them  they  would  seek  their  ships  and  slip  away.  Then,  later,  they  came 
in  irresistible  forces,  when  they  won  battles  and  had  to  be  bought  off. 
At  the  mercy  of  the  invaders  as  he  was,  yEthelred  brought  dire 
vengeance  on  the  English  by  a  stupid  as  well  as  brutal  deed. 
Alarmed  at  the  rumor  of  a  Danish  plot  to  seize  his  kingdom,  he 
ordered  a_general  massacre. of  all  Danes  dwelling  in  the  land,1  on 
St.  Brice's  day,  13  November,  1002.  This  fell  deed  brought  Swein 
"into  the  country  again.  He  was  very  strong  now,  since  he  was  King 
of  Denmark,  and  by  a  victory  over  a  rival,  Olaf,  had  added  Norway 
to  his  dominions.  Year  after  year  the  poor  English  were  subject  to 
his  attacks,  and  to  those  of  other  bands  as  well.  One  year  when  they 
were  happily  free  from  them,  a  grievous  famine  appeared,  "  grimmer 
than  any  man  had  mind  of."  On  rare  occasions  when  the  king  was 
energetic  enough  to  gather  a  force  of  men  and  ships  together,  treason 
and  dissension  were  bound  to  appear,  and  often  the  levies  broke  up 
without  even  waiting  to  fight.  In  1012,  on  one  of  their  many  inroads, 
the  Danes  captured  Canterbury  and  took  the  Archbishop  ^Elfheah 
prisoner.  He  courageously  refused  to  ask  his  impoverished  people 
for  a  ransom,  whereupon  his  brutal  and  drunken  captors  pelted  him 
with  ox  skulls  and  then  crushed  his  head  with  a  battle  axe.2 

1  Probably  this  did  not  include  the  men  of  Danish  blood  settled  in  the  country 
since  the  first  invasions. 

2  Nearly  a  century  later  two  famous  Churchmen,  Lanfranc  and  Anselm,  discussed 
his  claims  to  sainthood.     Lanfranc  questioned  them ;  since  the  Archbishop  had  not 
died  for  the  faith.     But  the  gentle  Anselm  urged  that  he  had  died  in  the  cause  of 
justice,  and  Lanfranc  was  convinced.     He  is  now  enrolled  in  the  English  calendar 
as  St.  Alphege. 


THE  ASCENDANCY  OF  THE  WEST  SAXONS     .    53 

The  Danes  gain  a  Foothold.  —  A  crisis  came  in  1013,  the  beginning 
of  the  end,  when  Swein,  accompanied  by  his  son  Cnut.  landed  with 
a  great  force  at  the  mouth  of  the  Humber.  The  Northumbrians,  the 
Mercians,  and  the  West  Saxons  submitted  in  quick  succession.  Even 
London,  which  at  first  held  out,  saw  the  futility  of  further  resistance. 
The  acceptance  of  Swein  amounted  to  a  practical  deposition  of  ^Ethel- 
red,  who  retired  in  1014  to  the  court  of  Duke  Richard  of  Normandy, 
whose  sister  Emma  he  had  married  in  1002  on  the  eve  of  his  disastrous 
massacre  of  the  Danes.  Within  a  month  after  ^thelred's  flight,  old 
Swein  suddenly  dropped  dead  at  Gainsborough  while  on  a  journey 
about  the  country  levying  Danegeld.  According  to  the  legend,  he  had 
levied  a  heavy  contribution  on  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  and  scoffed  at  the 
veneration  in  which  the  saint  was  held.  On  mounting  his  horse  to 
leave  the  town,  he  saw  St.  Edmund  coming  toward  him  in  full  armor. 
"  Help  !  Help  ! "  he  cried;  "  St.  Edmund  comes  to  slay  me,"  and  fell  to 
the  ground  and  died  that  very  night.  The  Danes  chose  Cnut  to  suc- 
ceed him  ;  but  the  English  declared  for  ^Ethelred  and  sent  a  message 
to  him  that  "  no  lord  was  dearer  to  them  than  their  lord  by  birth,  if 
he  would  rule  them  rightlier  than  he  had  done  before."  He  returned 
and  "  gladly  was  he  received  by  all."  In  spite  of  his  promises  he  ac- 
complished little.  He  did,  in  a  fitful  burst  of  energy,  manage  to  drive 
Cnut  out  of  England  ;  but  the  Danish  leader  soon  returned,  and  was  in 
possession  of  western  and  northern  England  when  ^Ethelred  died  in 
1016. 

Cnut  overcomes  Edmund  Ironside.  —  Thereupon,  the  people  of 
London  proclaimed  as  King,  Edmund,  ^Ethelred's  son  by  a  nameless 
mother.  From  his  valor  he  was  known  as  Edmund  Ironside.  But 
the  bulk  of  the  English,  led  by  a  traitorous  ealdorman  of  Mercia,  de- 
clared for  Cnut.  After  an  uphill  fight  Edmund  was  finally  defeated 
at  Assandun  (Ashington)  in  Essex^  He  was  forced  to  consent  to  a 
partition  of  the  kingdom.  He  died  a  few  days  after  the  treaty,  so 
opportunely  that  it  has  been  believed  he  was  murdered,  and  Cnut 
became  the  undisputed  King  of  all  England.  Edmund's  sons  were 
sent  out  of  the  country,  some  say  to  be  slain ;  but  they  found  a  refuge 
in  Hungary.  Both  married,  and  one  of  them  left  a  son  and  a  daughter, 
Eadgar  and  Margaret,  who  came  later  to  play  an  interesting  part  in 
English  history.  ^Ethelred's  sons  by  Emma  were  in  safe  keeping  in 
the  court  of  the  Norman  dukes. 

Reign  of  Cnut,  1016-1035.-  —  Cnut  re-summoned  a  meeting  of  the 
leading  men  of  London,  had  himself  formally  elected  King  and  the 
lines  of  ^thelred  and  Edmund  formally  excluded.  After  this  he  was 
crowned  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Cnut  had  shown  himself 
crafty,  bloody,  and  ruthless  in  his  rise  to  power,  and  during  the  first 
years  of  his  rule  he  was  merciless  and  .unscrupulous  in  disposing  of 
those  who  stood  in  his  way.  Yet,  once  seated  firmly  on  the  throne,  he 
ruled  as  advise  and  just  king  and  sought  to  govern  in  the  interests  of 
his  English  subjects^  Recognizing  the  necessity  of  the  situation,  he 


54  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

followed  the  recent  practice  and  organized  the^country  into  four  great 
earldoms  —  North umbria,  Mercia,  East  Anglia/Snd  Wessex — thoughT" 

later  atTeast,  there  were  many  smaller  ones  besides.  At  first  he  put 
some  of  these  and  other  offices  into  Danish  hands,  but  he  generally, 
as  time  went  on,  chose  successors  from  the  English.  "  At  the  time 
of  his  death,"  says  a  competent  authority,  "  every  conspicuous  post 
in  England  was  filled  by  an  Englishman."  Wessex,  for  instance,  was 
erelong  given  to  Godwine,  who  came  to  be  the  leading  man  among  the 
English.  As  one  means  of  strengthening  his  influence,  Cnut  married 
the  Norman  Emma,  widow  of  his  old  adversary  ^Ethelred.  At  this 
time  he  already  had  two  sons  by  an  English  woman  of  rank.  In  1018, 
as  an  earnest  of  his  good  will,  he  dismissed  the  bulk  of  his  forces,  re- 
taining only  the  crews  of  forty  ships  for  a  royal  bodyguard,  which, 
under  the  name  of  "  housecarles,"  remained  as  a  sort  of  standing  army 
up  to  the  Norman  Conquest.  The  same  year  he  held  a  Witan,  or  as- 
sembly of  his  wise  men,  at  Oxford,  where  "  Danes  and  Englishmen  " 
agreed  to  live  "  under  the  laws  of  King  Edgar."  This  meant  simply 
that  the  old  laws  of  the  English  as  they  were  in  Edgar's  time  were  to  be 
observed,  and  this  was  the  spirit  of  all  Cnut's  enactments.  He  pledged 
himself  to  rule  rightly;  but  the  people  in  their  turn  were  to  "  love 
God  and  be  true  to  King  Cnut."  A  notable  instance  of  his  regard 
for  his  subjects  is  a  provision  in  his  laws  that  his  reeves  or  agents 
should  provide  for  him  from  his  own  lands,  and  that  no  man  should  be 
forced  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  King  and  his  household 
"  unless  he  himself  be  willing  " ;  for,  as  he  writes  later  from  Rome, 

•  "  I  have  no  need  to  amass  money  by  unjust  exactions." 

Death  of  Cnut.  His  Character  and  Rule.  —  In  1027,  Cnut  took  a 
journey  to  Rome  and  was  present  at  the  coronation  of  the  Emperor 
Con-rad  II,  on  Easter  Day.  The  men  that  he  met  and  the  things  which 
he  saw  are  set  forth  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  his  subjects  from  the 
Eternal  City.  In  this  same  letter  he  takes  occasion  to  set  forth  his 
ideals  as  a  ruler.  When  Cnut  died,  in  1035,  in  the  full  vigor  of  his 
manhood,  his  dominion  included  not  only  England,  but  Denmark, 
Norway,  and  southern  Sweden  as  well.  On  the  other  hand,  as  the 
result  of  a  victory  which  the  Scots,  under  their  King  Malcolm,  gained 
over  his  northern  subjects  at  Carham  in  1018,  he  had  been  obliged  to 
ceed  Lothian,  formerly  a  part  of  Northumbria,  and  to  recognize  the 
Tweed  as  the  boundary  between  the  English  and  the  Scots.  Edinburgh 
had  been  lost  over  half  a  century  before,  while  Cnut's  cession  of 
Lothian  may  have  been  preceded  by  a  grant  of  the  whole  or  a  part  of 
the  country  by  Eadgar  to  Kenneth,  father  of  Malcolm.  Nevertheless, 
the  cession  is  of  great  importance,  for  it  determined  that  the  nucleus 
of  the  Scottish  kingdom  should  be  Teutonic  and  not  Celtic.  If  Cnut 
was  naturally  cruel  and  greedy  of  power,  he  was  wise  enough  to  restrain 
these  instincts.  It  is  true  that  most  of  the  praise  accorded  to  him 
comes  from  the  clergy  whom  he  favored,  not  only  by  liberal  grants,  but 
by  assisting  them  to  enforce  their  claims  against  the  laity.  Tradi- 


THE  ASCENDANCY   OF  THE  WEST   SAXONS         55 

tion,  however,  is  distinctly  favorable  to  him,  and  many  stories  are 
told  which,  if  not  true,  at  least  indicate  the  estimate  in  which  he  was 
held.  On  one  occasion  his  courtiers  urged  him  to  sit  in  a  chair  by  the 
seaside  and  bid  the  waves  stop.  When  they  came  on  regardless  of 
the  royal  presence,  he  refused  to  wear  his  crown  again  "  because  the 
honor  belonged  to  God  alone,  the  true  ruler  of  the  world."  Perhaps 
the  prettiest  of  all  is  that  which  tells  how  he  listened  to  the  singing 
of  the  monks  of  Ely. 

"  Cheerful  sang  the  monks  in  Ely 
As  Cnut  the  King  rode  by. 
Row  to  the  shore,  lads,  said  the  King, 
And  let  us  hear  the  Churchmen  sing." 

The  favorable  judgment  of  the  time  seems  to  be  justified  by  his  acts. 
Whether  sincere  or  not,  he  was  wise  enough  to  identify  himself  with 
his  people,  and  if  he  sought  his  own  interests,  they  were  England's 
interests  as  well. 

Return  to  the  Old  English  Line,  .gdwar^  the  rfnfftfiiinr,  1042-1066. 
-  The  reigns  of  Cnut's  sons,  Harold  Harefoot  (1035-1040)  and  his 
half  brother  Harthacnut  (1040-1042),  were  years  of  disorder  and  blood- 
shed and  heavy  taxation.  Neither  left  sons,  and  on  the  death  of  Hartha- 
cnut the  people  of  London  at  once  proclaimed  as  King,  Edward,  sole 
surviving  son  of  ^thelred  and  Emma.  The  return  to  the  old  Anglo- 
Saxon  line  was  due  partly  to  popular  feeling  against  an  alien  rule  and 
partly  to  the  peculiar  abuses  of  the  two  last  reigns. 

Edward  was  at  this  time  between  thirty  and  forty  years,  of  age. 
He  was  royal  in  his  bearing,  with  a  dignity  no  doubt  enhanced  by  the 
premature  whiteness  of  his  beard  and  hair.1  While  he  was  pious, 
affable,  and  gentle,  he  was  utterly  lacking  in  force  and  decision  and  not 
above  childish  spite,  petty  meanness,  or  even  worse.  Indeed,  he  had 
hardly  been  seated  on  the  throne  when  he  had  his  own  mother  de- 
clared guilty  of  treason,  and  seized  the  tenth  of  her  treasure  and  es- 
tates. Considering  the  way  his  mother  had  treated  him,  the  action 
might  have  been  partly  explicable  except  in  the  case  of  an  incipient 
saint.  Yet  his  reputation  for  personal  holiness  was  so  high  that  he 
was  popularly  called  the  "  Confessor,"  and  was  actually  made  a  saint 
within  a  century  after  his  death.  He  is  said  to  have  abolished  the 
Danegeld  because  he  saw,the  devil  sitting  on  the  money  bags,  and  he 
once  allowed  a  thief  to  rob  the  royal  hoard  under  his  very  nose,  telling 
the  treasurer  that  the  poor  man  needed  the  money  more  than  they  did. 
Having  passed  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  Normandy ,Jiis  interests 
were  more  distinctively  Norman  than  English.  He  brought  over  a 
number  of  Norman  followers,  who,  since  he  was  profoundly  susceptible 
to  the  influence  of  favorites,  succeeded  in  not  only  securing  themselves 
wealth  and  offices,  but  also  a  voice  in  his  counsels.  Chief  among  the 

1  There  seems  to  be  no  truth  in  the  story  that  he  was  an  albino. 


56  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

newcomers  was  Robert  of  Jumieges,  made  Bishop  of  London  in  1044, 
and  seven  years  later,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  It  is  said  that  he 
had  such  influence  over  Edward  that  if  he  declared  "  a  black  crow  to 
be  white,  the  King  would  sooner  believe  his  words  than  his  own  eyes." 
But  Godwine,  the  stanch  champion  of  English  interests,  was  allowed 
to  retain  Wessex,  and  Edward  married  his  daughter,  a  lady  of  more 
learning  than  charm.  This  alliance  greatly  strengthened  the  hand  of 
the  old  earl.  His  sons  rose  to  high  position,  and  if  two  of  them 
caused  serious  concern  by  their  wild  turbulence,  the  other,  Harold, 
later  to  be  king,  was  a  "  tower  of  strength."  Although  greedy  and 
politic,  Godwine  was,  so  long  as  his  power  lasted,  a  strong  check  on  the 
foreigners. 

Exile  of  Godwine,  1051. — Nevertheless,  foreign  influence  was 
growing  steadily.  The  King's  nephew,  Ralph,  a  Frenchman,  secured 
the  important  earldom  of  Hereford.  Also,  Norman  castles  began  to 
rise  and  frown  in  many  parts  of  the  land.  Built  of  solid  masonry, 
they  were  much  more  effective  fortifications  than  the  old  palisade 
mounds,  and  were  used  by  their  lords  as  centers  for  oppressing  the 
surrounding  natives.  A  crisis  came  in  1051.  Edward's  brother-in- 
law,  Eustace,'  Count  of  Boulogne,  was  returning  from  a  visit  to  the 
King  when  his  unruly  followers  came  into  conflict  with  the  men  of 
Dover.  Being  worsted,  Eustace  complained  to  King  Edward,  who 
ordered  Godwine  to  punish  the  townsmen.  This  he  refused  to  do. 
Although  he  armed  himself  for  resistance,  the  Earls  of  Northumbria 
and  Mercia  arrayed  themselves  on  the  King's  side.  Each  of  these  men 
is  famous  in  story;  Siward  of  Northumbria  is  the  "  old  Siward  "  in 
Macbeth,  while  the  Earl  of  Mercia  was  Leofric  of  the  well-known  tale 
of  Leofric  and  Godiva.  In  view  of  the  opposition  against  him,  God- 
wine  and  his  whole  family  were  forced  to  flee,  whereupon  they  were 
outlawed. 

Visit  of  William  of  Normandy.  —  During  their  enforced  exile  Ed- 
ward received  a  visit  from  a  very  notable  man,  no  less  a  person  than 
William,  Duke  of  Normandy  and  future  conqueror  of  England.  As 
we  know,  the  Northmen  had  not  confined  their  attacks  to  the  land 
of  the  English  during  the  ninth  and  early  tenth  centuries.  They  in- 
fested the  west  Prankish  coast  so  persistently  that,  in  912,  Charles 
the  Simple  was  forced  to  make  a  treaty  with  Rollo,  or  Rolf,  whereby 
he  yielded  to  him  the  lands  about  the  mouth  of  the  Seine.  Rollo  be- 
came a  Christian,  married  the  daughter  of  the  Frankish  King,  and 
established  himself  at  Rouen.  In  the  course  of  time  the  wild  Scandi- 
navian chiefs  were  transformed  into  ducal  vassals  of  the  new  kingdom 
of  the  French,  established  by  Hugh  Capet  in  987,  and  they  and  their 
people,  while  retaining  the  fierceness  and  warlike  prowess  of  their 
race,  adopted  French  manners  and  customs  and  French  methods  of 
government.  In  1002,  ^Ethelred  married  the  sister  of  Richard  the  Good 
(996-1026),  the  third  in  descent  from  Rollo,  and  it  was  during  his  resi- 
dence in  the  court  of  his  uncle  that  Edward  became  so  susceptible  to 


THE  ASCENDANCY   OF   THE   WEST   SAXONS         57 

those  Norman  influences  that  were  now  causing  dissension  in  England. 
Richard  the  Good  left  two  sons  who  succeeded  him  in  turn.  The 
second,  Robert  the  Devil,  who  died  in  1035  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jeru- 
salem, was  the  father  of  William.  It  was  a  chance  whether  he  would 
ever  enter  into  his  heritage  ;  for,  aside  from  the  fact  that  he  was  a  mere 
child,  barely  eight  years  old,  his  mother  was.  a  person  of  very  humble 
birth,  the  daughter  of  a  tanner  of  Falaise.  This  gave  the  aristocratic 
nobles  a  good  pretext  for  resisting  his  authority.  But  his  cause  was 
maintained  by  faithful  guardians  till  he  grew  to  manhood,  and,  in 
1047,  with  the  aid  of  the  French  King  he  was  able  to  win  a  decisive 
battle  (Val-es-Dunes)  and  to  establish  his  title  as  ruler  of  all  Normandy. 
By  1051,  he  enjoyed  the  added  prestige  of  having  gained  several  impor- 
tant victories  over  his  powerful  neighbor  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  and  while 
still  a  young  man  of  twenty-four,  was  the  most  powerful  lord  among 
the  French.  William's  visit  to  England  was  so  well  timed  that  there 
seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  he  undertook  it  on  a  chance  of  being  made 
the  heir  of  the  childless  Edward.  Godwine  and  his  family,  the 
champions  of  the  English  party,  were  in  exile,  and  Norman  influence 
was  supreme  at  the  court.  William  afterwards  asserted  that  Edward 
promised  him  the  succession.  Very  likely  this  was  true.  Edward's 
yielding  nature  would  easily  bend  to  a  stronger,  while  he  was  enam- 
ored of  the  Normans  in  general,  and  seems  to  have  had  a  real  fond- 
ness for  his  cousin.  But  he  had  no  right  to  make  such  a  promise,  which 
had  moreover  no  binding  value ;  for  it  was  the  custom  of  the  English 
Witan  to  choose  their  own  king  from  the  members  of  the  royal  family. 
Reaction  against  the  Normans.  Return  and  Death  of  Godwine.  — 
Soon  after  William's  visit  a  revulsion  of  popular  feeling  against 
Edward's  favor  to  the  Normans  encouraged  Godwine  to  return.  His 
backing  was  too  strong  to  be  resisted.  We  are  told  that  the  king's 
army  was  "  loath  to  fight  against  the  men  of  their  own  kin,"  and 
"  thought  it  pity  "  that  Englishmen  should  destroy  one  another  to 
make  room  for  foreigners.  The  unpopular  Normans  fled,  and  out- 
lawry was  declared  against  those  who  "  reared  up  bad  law,  deemed 
unjust  dooms,  and  brought  evil  councils  into  the  land."  Robert  of 
Jumieges  was  replaced  as  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  by  Stigand,  an 
Englishman.  The  Pope,  however,  was  not  consulted,  and  his  deci- 
sion that  the  proceeding  was  unlawful  gave  William  a  second  pretext 
for  his  later  invasion  of  England.  Godwine  was  restored  to  his  earl- 
dom, but  he  died  in  1053.  According  to  a  later  legend,  doubtless  un- 
founded, he  choked  at  dinner  while  protesting  his  innocence  of  the 
death  of  King  Edward's  elder  brother  in  the  days  of  Harthacnut. 
The  earldom  of  Wessex  fell  to  Godwine's  son  Harold,  a  brave  and 
earnest  man,  conscientious  and  gracious,  but  evidently  inferior  in  abil- 
ity to  his  father.  In  1055  Siward  of  Northumbria  died.  Waltheof, 
his  son,  was  passed  over,  and  Harold's  brother  Tostig  was  appointed 
to  succeed  him.  When  another  brother  got  East  Anglia,  which  Harold 
had  once  held,  and  still  another  the  southeastern  counties,  all  of 


58  A   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

England,  except  Mercia,  was  in  the  control  of  Godwine's  sons.  In  such 
a  situation  it  was  quite  natural  that  Harold  should  aspire  to  the 
throne,  even  though  he  was  in  no  way  related  to  the  royal  family  ex- 
cept as  brother  to  the  Queen.  To  be  sure,  Edward  the  ^Etheling,  son 
of  Edmund  Ironside,  had  returned  home  in  1057 ;  but  he  died  before 
he  was  even  presented  to.  his  King  and  namesake,  and  his  son  Eadgar 
and  his  daughter  Margaret  were  mere  children.  By  1064  Harold  was 
generally  regarded  as  heir  to  the  throne. 

Harold  and  William.  Death  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  —  About 
this  time  a  curious  incident  happened  which  gave  William  his  third 
pretext  for  claiming  the  crown.  He  was  now  stronger  than  ever, 
for  he  had  married  Matilda,  daughter  of  the  Count  of  Flanders,  and 
had  added  Maine  to  his  possessions.  Sometime  between  the  autumn 
of  1064  and  the  spring  of  1065,  Harold,  while  on  a  ship,  was  blown  by 
contrary  winds  to  the  coast  of  Ponthieu  and  seized  by  Guy,  the 
reigning  count.  When  the  news  reached  William,  he  demanded  that 
Harold  be  handed  over  to  him,  and  forced  him  to  do  homage,  to  swear 
to  marry  his  daughter,  and  to  support  his  succession  to  the  throne. 
There  is  a  well-known  story,  apparently  unfounded,  that  he  was  made 
to  swear  on  a  cloth  covering  a  chest  or  table,  which  when  removed 
disclosed  a  mass  of  holy  relics.  Not  very  long  after  Harold's  return 
to  England  the  Northumbrians  rose  brother  Tostig,  threw  off  his  rule, 
and  chose  in  his  place,  Morkere,  the  brother  of  Edwin,  Earl  of  Mercia. 
Much  to  Tostig's  disgust,  Harold  yielded  to  the  popular  will.  Thus 
deserted,  though  Edward  with  childish  obstinacy  stood  by  him  for 
some  time,  he  had  to  give  in  and  took  refuge  in  Flanders.  In  the 
midst  of  this  confusion  Edward  passed  away,  5  January,  1066,  uttering 
gloomy  prophesies  in  his  declining  days.  Recognizing  the  inevitable, 
however,  he  commended  the  kingdom  to  Harold  on  the  eve  of  his 
death.  Pure  and  holy  he  may  have  been,  but  he  showed  himself 
too  weak  and  incompetent  for  those  stirring  times.  One  peculiar 
superstitious  practice  begun  by  him  was  continued  by  English  kings 
till  the  eighteenth  century,  the  so-called  "  touching  for  the  King's 
evil,"  or  professing  to  cure  certain  skin  diseases  by  the  laying  on  of 
hands.  Edward  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  his  new  founda- 
tion dedicated  on  Innocents'  Day,  28  December,  1065,  when  he  was 
too  ill  to  attend.  Rebuilt  in  its  present  form  by  Henry  III  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  England's  most  historic  and  venerable  edifice 
really  dates  from  this  period. 

Harold,  King,  1066.  His  Opponents  and  the  Claims  of  William.  — 
There  were  three  candidates  for  the  throne,  little  Eadgar  the  /Etheling, 
Duke  William,  and  Harold.  Even  the  sticklers  for  the  old  line  saw 
that  they  stood  the  best  chance  of  preserving  English  independence 
by  supporting  Harold.  So  he  was  hastily  elected  by  such  of  the  Witan 
as  were  in  London  on  the  very  day  of  Edward's  funeral,  Epiphany, 
6  January,  1066.  Popular  as  he  was  with  the  people,  the  new  King 
"  had  little  stillness  the  while  that  he  ruled."  His  enemies  were 


THE   ASCENDANCY   OF  THE   WEST   SAXONS         59 

many.  There  were  Edwine  and  Morkere,  hostile  to  the  house  of 
Godwine.  There  was  his  own  brother  Tostig,  lurking  abroad,  burning 
to  recover  his  northern  earldom  and  to  revenge  himself  on  all  who  had 
shared  in  putting  him  out.  There  was  the  Pope  ready  to  aid  whoever 
would  expel  the  usurper  Stigand.  Finally,  there  was  William,  alert, 
resolute,  and  determined  to  secure  the  coveted  crown.  His  claims 
and  pretexts,  as  we  know,  were  many ;  the  promise  of  Edward ;  the 
oath  of  Harold ;  and  the  championship  of  the  Church.  He  advanced 
a  further  claim  in  behalf  of  his  wife,  Matilda,  descended  from  the  old 
Anglo-Saxon  line  of  kings.  When  Harold  refused  to  listen  to  him, 
he  at  once  prepared  for  war,  sought  to  attach  the  courts  of  Europe  to 
his  cause,  and  secured  the  papal  blessing  for  his  expedition.  Mean- 
time, Harold  was  seeking  to  strengthen  his  position.  In  April,  he 
journeyed  north,  received  the  submission  of  the  Northumbrians,  and 
sought  to  cement  an  alliance  with  the  two  Earls  by  marrying  their 
sister  Ealdgyth.  It  turned  out  that  they  were  the  ones  to  profit  by 
the  new  connection ;  for,  in  the  late  summer  of  1066,  Tostig,  ac- 
companied by  Harold  Hadrada,  King  of  Norway,  and  a  great  force, 
entered  the  Humber,  sailed  up  the  Ouse,  and  invaded  Yorkshire. 
Directly  the  news  reached  him,  Harold  hurried  to  the  scene,  met  and 
annihilated  the  invading  army,  25  September,  1066,  at  Stamford 
Bridge,  eight  miles  northeast  of  York.  Tostig  and  Harold  Hadrada 
both  fell  on  the  field  of  battle. 

The  Coming  of  William.  His  Victory  at  Senlac  or  Hastings,  1066. 
—  Within  ten  days  Harold  was  back  in  London ;  but  already,  six 
days  before,  William  had  landed  at  Pevensey  on  the  south  coast  of 
England.  His  following  was  composed  of  members  of  the  young  Nor- 
man nobility  and  of  adventurers  and  soldiers  of  fortune  from  all  over 
Europe.  Older  writers  place  his  forces  as  high  as  50,000  and  3000 
ships,  though  probably  it  did  not  exceed  12,000  or  14,000  men  and 
700  ships.  According  to  tradition,  William  stumbled  and  fell  on  the 
shingly  beach  as  he  landed.  His  followers  regarded  this  as  a  bad 
omen ;  but  he  reassured  them  by  crying  out :  "  By  the  splendor  of  God 
I  have  taken  seizin  of  England."  From  Pevensey  he  marched  to 
Hastings  which  commanded  the  northern  road  to  London.  Here  he 
awaited  the  coming  of  Harold,  who  marched  to  meet  him  after  taking 
less  than  a  week  to  prepare  his  forces.  Owing  to  his  haste,  he  could 
only  gather  men  from  the  south  and  east,  though  nothing  can  excuse 
the  selfishness  of  Edwin  and  Morkere  in  not  sending  a  single  man  to 
his  aid.  On  the  news  of  Harold's  approach,  William  advanced  to 
attack  him.  On  the  morning  of  14  October  the  Anglo-Saxon  King  took 
a  strong  position  on  a  little  plateau  —  now  covered  by  the  site  of  Battle 
Abbey  —  lying  north  of  Hastings  and  somewhat  south  and  west  of 
Senlac.  He  massed  his  men  closely  with  their  front  line  protected 
by  locked  shields.1  Their  formation  extended  along  the  front  and 

1  Another  account,  not  generally  accepted,  says  that  they  stood  behind  a  sort  of 
wooden  palisade  which  they  had  hastily  erected. 


60  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

two  sides  of  the  plateau  with  the  fourth  side  of  the  square  open,  pro- 
tected by  the  steepness  of  the  northern  slope.  In  the  center,  at  the 
highest  point  now  marked  by  the  high  altar  of  the  abbey  church, 
stood  Harold  and  his  brothers.  Here  was  planted  the  Dragon  of 
Wessex  and  the  King's  own  standard,  an  embroidered  picture  of  a 
fighting  man.  William  drew  up  his  forces  in  three  divisions,  a  center 
and  two  wings,  each  composed  of  three  lines.  The  first  line  con- 
sisted of  light-armed  foot,  the  second  of  heavy-armed  foot,  and  the 
third  of  heavy  cavalry.  The  light-armed  foot  of  the  center  were 
provided  with  crossbows,  a  recently  invented  weapon,  while  the  light- 
armed  forces  in  the  wings  were  made  up  of  archers.  The  heavy-armed 
forces  carried  spears  and  long  kite-shaped  shields,  and  were  protected 
by  shirts  and  short  breeches  of  ringed  mail  and  helmets.  The  cavalry 
were  likewise  protected  by  helm  and  mail,  and  were  provided  with 
heavy  swords  and  lances.  The  English  light-armed  forces  bore 
javelins  and  stone  hammers  or  axes  for  throwing.  Others  had  heavy, 
two-headed  battle  axes,  swords,  and  dagger  knives.1  Of  William's 
three  divisions  one  attacked  the  English  in  front  and  one  on  each 
flank.  On  the  right,  the  Bretons  were  forced  to  drawback.  Some  of 
the  English  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  following  them  down  the  hill,  but 
the  ranks  thus  broken  were  soon  filled  up.  Only  after  a  series  of  fierce 
assaults  were  the  Normans  able  to  gain  a  foothold  on  the  plateau, 
to  break  the  shield  wall,  and  to  capture  the  standard  by  which  Harold, 
shot  in  the  eye  by  an  arrow,  fell  fighting  to  the  last.  His  men  made 
one  final  stand  on  a  narrow  isthmus  protecting  the  rear  of  the  plateau 
from  which  they  had  been  driven.  Here  too  they  had  to  yield,  and 
by  sunset  of  the  short  October  day  William  had  won  the  victory  which 
was  to  make  him  King  of  England. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING 

J.  R.  Green,  The  Conquest  of  England,  A.D.  829-1071  (1883).  Ramsay,  Founda- 
tions, I,  chs.  XIV-XXX.  Oman,  England  before  the  Norman  Conquest,  chs.  XIX- 
XXVII.  Hodgkin,  Political  History,  chs.  XV-XXVI.  E.  A.  Freeman,  Norman 
Conquest,  1875-1877,  vols.  I-III.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  I,  bk.  I,  chs.  III-V. 
Alfred  the  Great  (Alfred  Bowker,  ed.  1899)  contains  chapters  on  his  life  and  times  by 
various  hands.  The  best  biography  of  Alfred  is  a  brief  volume  by  Charles  Plummer, 
Life  and  Times  of  Alfred  the  Great  (1902).  L.  M.  Larson,  Canute  the  Great  (1912)  is 
particularly  good  for  the  Scandinavian  background.  J.  H.  Round,  Feudal  England 
(1895),  PP-  332~3Q8,  sharply  attacks  Freeman's  account  of  the  battle  of  Hastings. 

For  the  history  of  the  Church  in  this  period,  see  Wakcman,  chs.  II-V,  and  Hunt, 
chs.  XIII-XX. 

1  The  famous  Bayeux  Tapestry  is  of  great  value  on  such  points.  It  is  a  pic- 
torial story  of  the  events,  from  the  time  Harold  was  blown  across  the  Channel  in 
1065,  to  his  death.  It  is  embroidered  on  a  strip  of  canvas  nineteen  inches  wide  and 
two  hundred  and  thirty-one  feet  long.  It  was  probably  designed  for  the  Bayeux 
Cathedral  where  it  is  still  preserved. 


THE   ASCENDANCY   OF  THE   WEST   SAXONS         61 


RULERS  OF  ANGLO-SAXON  ENGLAND,  802-1066 

EGBERT,  802-839 
ETHELWULF,  839-858 


~ 

ETHELBALD, 
858-860 

i 
ETHELBERT, 
860-866 

ETHEL 
866- 

IED   I 

87I 

ALFRED, 
871-901 

I 

Ethelwnld 


EDWARD  THE  ELDER,  901-925 

I 


I 
ATHELSTAN,  925-940 


EDMUND  I,  940-946 

I 


EDRED,  946-955 


EDWY,  955-959 


EDGAR,  959-975 


EDWARD  ETHELRED  THE  UNREADY=(I)  Elgiva;  (2)  Emma=CANUTE,  1016-1035 


THE  MARTYR, 
975-970 


979-1016 


of  Normandy 


I  I 

HAROLD  I          HARDICANUTE 
1035-1040         (Emma's  son), 
1040-1042 

Godwine,  Earl  of  Wessex, 
Ed.  1053 

I 


n 

(i)  EDMUND  IRONSIDE,         (2)  EDWARD  THE  CoNFF.ssoR=Edith,         HAROLD  II, 
1016  1042-1066  d.  1075  d.  1066 


Edmund,  d.  1050 


Edgar  Atheling,  d.  1120 


Edward,  d.  1057 


Margaret,  d.  io93=Malcolrh  Canmore,  d.  1096 


Matilda,  d.  m8=HENRY  I,  d.  1135 


CHAPTER  V 


7 


THE  STATE  OF  SOCIETY  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  ANGLO- 
SAXON  PERIOD 

Rise  and  Decline  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Monarchy.  —  The  key  to 

the  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  for  some  centuries  is  the  in- 
creasing unity  and  the  growing  strength  of  the  central  power.  The 
original  settlements,  according  to  the  generally  accepted  view,  were 
made  by  a  number  of  small  tribes,  each  under  a  temporary  chief  or 
war  leader  known  as  a  dux,  heretoga,  or  ealdorman.  During  the 
course  of  the  conquest  these  leaders  became  permanent  heads  of  the 
tribes  which  they  led ;  the  tribes,  in  course  of  time,  combined  into 
seven  or  eight  kingdoms;  and  these  in  turn  were  finally  united  into  a 
single  kingdom  under  the  West  Saxon  house.  The  extension  and  con- 
solidation of  the  power  of  this  line  of  kings  reached  its  zenith  under 
Edgar.  With  Edgar  a  period  of  decline  set  in,  due  partly  to  the 
incapacity  of  the  later  rulers,  partly  to  the  growth  of  powerful 
and  conflicting  territorial  jurisdictions,  and  partly  to  cumber- 
some and  inadequate  administrative  machinery.  After  the  final 
union  was  complete  the  kingdom  as  a  whole  consisted  of  several 
shires ;  each  shire  contained  subordinate  districts  which  came  to 
be  known  as  hundreds,  and  each  hundred  was  made  up  of  a  number 
of  small  communities,  either  independent  and  self-governing  or  subject 
to  the  control  of  a  lord.  If  free,  these  latter  were  called  townships;  if 
under  a  lord,  they  came,  towards  the  close  of  the  period,  to  be  called 
manors.  The  Germans  described  by  Caesar  had  been  mainly  a 
pastoral  people  with  cattle  as  their  chief  wealth.  Even  in  the  time 
of  Tacitus,  tillage,  in  so  far  as  they  engaged  in  it,  was  of  the  most 
rudimentary  sort,  and  they  liked  to  live  in  scattered  hamlets  or  even 
in  detached  homesteads.  But  once  settled  in  England,  the  invaders 
became  less  and  less  a  pastoral  and  more  and  more  an  agricultural 
people.  This  was  partly  because  there  was  less  land  available,  and 
probably  also  because  the  estates  of  the  Romans  and  the  Romanized 
Celts,  with  their  carefully  tilled  fields,  their  orchards  and  gardens, 
furnished  models  of  higher  forms  of  cultivation  by  which  they  were" 
not  slow  to  profit. 

The  Tunscipe  or  Township.  —  The  kinsmen  of  each  invading  tribe 
settled  down  in  a  village  surrounded  by  a  rude  form  of  boundary 
or  inclosure.  These  inclosures  were  called  "  tuns  "  (compare  the 
German  word  zaun,  meaning  hedge),  and  the  group  of  inhabitants 
was  known  as  a  tunscipe  or  township.  Less  frequently  the  village 

62 


THE   CLOSE  OF  THE   ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD       63 

was  known  as  a  ham  (compare  heim,  the  German  word  for  home). 
The  names  of  these  little  settlements  usually  contain  three  words : 
first  the  name  of  the  original  head  of  the  family,  next  the  word  "  ing/' 
which  came  to  mean  "  family  of,"  and  finally  the  word  "  ton  "  or 
"  ham."  Thus,  Ashington  meant  the  turf^>f  the  family  of  Ash,  and 
Nottingham,  the  ham  of  the  family~oT~Nott.  Originally,  most  of 
these  villages  seem  to  have  been  free  or  independent.  The  settlement 
consisted  of  a  line  of  houses  along  a  street,  the  parent  of  the  modern 
High  Street.  Each  house  was  surrounded  by  a  plot  of  ground  which 
supplied  such  garden  produce  as  they  understood  how  to  raise. 
Stretching  out  beyond  the  village  street  were  the  lands  that  the 
villagers  used  for  tillage.  Each  freeman  was  entitled  to  a  certain 
amount,  usually  a  "  hide,"  supposed  to  contain  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  acres.  In  the  original  allotment  a  hide  was  not  assigned 
all  in  one  place  but  scattered  in  strips,  in  order  that  each  might  share 
in  the  good  land  and  the  bad  land  alike.  Owing  to  lack  of  stock  and 
farming  implements,  each  man  helped  his  neighbors  and  was  helped 
by  them  in  turn,  a  practice  which  has  survived  in  the  barn  raisings 
and  corn  huskings  of  modern  rural  communities.  To  avoid  exhaust- 
ing the  soil,  crops  were  rotated  by  what  is  known  as  the  "  three-field 
system."  One  part  of  the  land  would  be  planted  with  wheat  or  rye, 
another  with  oats  or  barley,  and  a  third  would  be  allowed  to  lie  fallow. 
In  the  third  year  the  fallow  land  would  be  planted  and  another  field 
would  be  left  fallow,  and  the  crop  would  be  varied  in  the  third  field. 
During  the  interval  between  planting  and  harvest,  rude  temporary 
fences  were  constructed  to  keep  out  the  cattle.  After  the  crops  were 
gathered,  the  fences  were  taken  down  and  the  cattle  turned  in  to  graze 
on  the  stubble.  Besides  the  arable  land,  of  which  each  freeman  owned 
a  definite  share,  there  were  common  meadows  and  pasture  lands  for 
the  whole  community,  and  wood  lands  as  well.  In  the  woods  fuel 
was  cut,  and  swine  roamed  about,  feeding  on  acorns  and  on  whatever 
else  they  could  find.  (~At  stated  seasons  the  qualified  freemen  assem- 
bled in  their  tun-moot,  or  townmeeting,  to  transact  such  business  as 
came  before  them."}  Here  officers  were  elected,  chief  among  them  the 
jeeve^  who  presided  over  the  affairs  of  the  community  and  went  with 
four  chosen  men  to  the  meetings  of  the  hundred  and  shire.  Here 
local  by-laws  were  framed,  rules  of  cultivation  were  settled,  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  looking  after  the  roads  and  keeping  the  peace ; 
but  no  judicial  decisions  were  undertaken. 

The  Manor  as  an  Agrarian  Unit.  —  As  time  went  on,  most  of  these 
villages  lost  their  independence  and  passed  under  the  control  of  lords. 
The  lord's  steward  or  bailiff  took  the  place  of  the  elected  reeve  as 
president  of  the  moot,  and  the  freemen  became  dependent  cultivators. 
A  number  of  things  tended  to  increase  the  number  of  subject  com- 
munities. Famine  and  pestilence  impoverished  many ;  then  the  wars, 
notably  those  waged  by  the  Danish  invaders,  forced  freemen  to  yield 
the  title  to  their  lands  in  return  for  protection.  Then  the  increase 


64  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

of  conquests  westward  tended  to  swell  the  number  of  such  dependent 
villages.  The  kings  rewarded  their  followers  with  lands,  and  they 
settled  cultivators  upon  them.  Although  landed  estates  with  village 
communities  in  subjection  upon  them,  existed  from  the  beginning  of 
the  period,  being  merely  the  old  Roman  villas  under  new  lords,  the 
numbers  had  greatly  increased  by  the  eleventh  century,  when  they 
came  to  be  known  as  manors.  They  usually  consisted  of  two  parts. 
One  part,  commonly  known  as  the  demesne,  consisted  of  the  land 
cultivated  directly  for  the  lord  by  slaves  or  by  serfs.  This  was  also 
called  "  inland,"  although  it  might  be  scattered  among  the  other 
strips.  The  "  outland  "  comprised  the  holdings  of  the  serfs,  usually 
limited  to  a  yard  or  virgate  (thirty  acres  or  a  quarter  of  a  hide)  each, 
although  certain  persons  called  "  cotters  "  had  no  more  than  five  acres. 
The  serf  received  not  only  land  from  his  lord,  but  also  stock,  cattle, 
and  farming  implements,  and  some  household  furniture.  In  return, 
he  paid  part  of  his  produce  in  rent  and  was  called  upon  to  labor 
in  the  lord's  lands  during  some  days  in  the  week  and  at  intervals  dur- 
ing the  plowing  and  harvest  seasons. 

Manorial  Jurisdiction.  —  On  the  eve  of  the  Conquest  the  lords  had 
come  to  administer  justice  on  their  estates.  They  acquired  this 
power  from  grants  of  "  sac  and  soc,"  which  some  authorities  date 
from  the  time  of  ^Ethelred,  and  others  from  a  period  as  late  as  Edward 
the  Confessor,  but  probably  they  are  at  least  as  early  as  Cnut.  The 
old  township  court  was  now  a  judicial  body  under  the  lord's  steward 
or  bailiff.  Following  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  parishes  were 
organized,  each  under  a  priest,  and  these  parishes  were  roughly  co- 
terminous with  the  townships  or  manors.  The  parishes  gradually 
came  to  exercise  many  of  the  activities  of  the  old  towns,  which  either 
never  passed  to  the  lords,  or  were  acquired  back  from  them  or  devel- 
oped independently.  The  secular  activity  of  the  parish  government 
reached  its  height  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  It 
was  with  the  experience  of  the  parish  system  in  their  minds  that  our 
New  England  forefathers  shaped  our  town  system. 

Boroughs  and  Cities.  —  Another  growth  of  this  period  is  the  borough 
and  city.  Usually  in  England  the  word  town  is  synonymous  with 
borough  and  is  to.  be  distinguished  from  a  township  or  village.  The 
former  had  a  larger  population  and  enjoyed  peculiar  organization 
and  privileges.  The  most  characteristic  feature  was  the  wall1;  then 
the  borough  usually  had  a  court  of  its  own  and  a  market.  The 
origin  of  most  of  these  boroughs  is  shrouded  in  obscurity.  Some 
have  tried  to  trace  them  from  the  Roman  municipalities,  but  without 
success.  Although  there  are  certain  analogies  between  the  Roman 
and  the  medieval  Anglo-Saxon  town,  they  are  mere  analogies.  As 
a  rule,  the  name  and  character  of  the  institutions  are  quite  different. 
The  Roman  towns  were  centers  of  a  highly  developed  urban  life, 

1  Hence  the  name  "burh,"  a  fortification. 


THE    CLOSE   OF   THE   ANGLO-SAXON   PERIOD        65 

while  the  medieval  town  was  frequently  little  more  than  an  agricul- 
tural and  fishing  center  ;  indeed,  the  burghers  often  had  farms  outside 
the  walls.  The  Germans  had  a  superstition  against  settling  in  a 
walled  town,  and  frequently  we  can  trace  the  growth  of  one  of  these 
modern  towns  beside  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  Roman  city.  While 
the  sites  were  sometimes  determined  by  the  older  Roman  settlements, 
these  boroughs  seem  usually  to  have  originated  in  the  wars  against 
the  Danes  during  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries.  Sometimes,  however, 
a  town  grew  from  the  union  of  many  neighboring  townships,  or  de- 
veloped from  a  settlement  around  a  monastery  or  a  castle  or  where  a 
crossing  of  roads  or  the  ford  of  a  river  provided  a  favorable  site  for  a 
market.  Gradually,  these  towns  acquired  charters  confirming  old 
privileges  or  granting  new  ones.  Centuries  passed  before  they  be- 
came, strictly  speaking,  corporations;  that  is,  organizations  in 
which  the  governing  body  was,  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  a  fictitious 
or  ideal  person.  A  city  is  merely  a  borough  where  a  cathedral  is 


The  Hundred.  —  -  Until  the  courts  of  the  boroughs  and  manors 
came  into  being,  probably  not  before  the  eleventh  century,  the  hundred 
was  the  center  for  all  judicial  purposes.  Although  we  find  no  trace  of 
the  name  before  the  tenth  century,  the  thing  itself  evidently  dates 
back  beyond  the  German  invasion.  The  hundreds  seem  to  have 
been  originally  districts  of  the  tribal  kingdoms,  most  likely  the  district 
allotted  to  a  hundred  warriors  or  a  hundred  heads  of  families.  Each 
had  an  assembly  which  met  once  a  month.  It  was  the  duty  of  the 
presiding  man,  the  reeve  or  hundred  elder,  to  collect  the  dues  from  the 
hundred,  to  secure  performance  of  military  service,  and  to  keep  order. 
His  judicial  position  was  not  the  same  as  that  of  our  modern  judge  ; 
for  he  merely  acted  as  the  mouthpiece  of  men  qualified  to  attend  the 
court  —  the  priest,  reeve,  and  four  men  from  each  township  or  manor, 
as  well  as  the  free  landowners  and  the  nobles  or  thegns  of  the  hundred. 
The  jurisdiction  exercised  was  criminal  as  well  as  civil.  In  the  be- 
ginning, we  find  the  groups  of  kinsmen  responsible  for  the  conduct 
of  their  members  ;  in  cases  of  murder  or  serious  injury  they  had  the 
privilege  of  waging,  or  the  obligation  of  submitting  to  the  feud  or 
private  warfare.  But  before  the  end  of  the  period,  the  community 
had  established  its  position  as  arbiter,  and  an  elaborate  compensation 
had  been  arranged  —  "  wergeld  "  for  murder  or  injury,  and  "  bot  " 
for  other  damages.  It  was  only  when  such  satisfaction  was  refused 
that  the  kindred  had  a  right  to  wage  war  or  seize  the  possessions  of  the 
one  who  was  at  fault  —  whence  the  maxim  which  became  current  : 
"  Buy  the  spear  off  your  side  or  bear  it."  For  its  share  in  securing 
justice,  the  State  came  to  claim  a  fine,  known  as  a  "  wite,"  from  the 
offender. 

Procedure  in  the  Hundred  Moot.  —  Procedure  was  as  follows  : 
The  offended  party  made  a  formal  demand  before  the  public  meeting 
or  the  presiding  officer.  The  accused  was  obliged,  under  penalty, 


66  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

to  answer  the  charge  and  had  to  deposit  a  pledge  to  abide  by  the 
decision  of  the  court.  If  he  admitted  his  guilt,  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
meeting  to  determine  the  penalty.  If  he  determined  to  contest  the 
accusation,  he  denied  it  with  a  formal  oath,  usually  supported  by  a 
number  of  oath  helpers,  varying  according  to  the  rank  of  the  accused 
or  the  gravity  of  offense.  Sometimes,  in  cases  where  land  or  cattle 
were  involved,  documents  might  be  produced  or  witnesses  to  answer 
set  questions.  When  the  crime  was  too  serious  or  the  accused  was- 
too  notorious  to  find  oath  helpers,  or  when  he  was  a  foreigner,  he 
had  to  proceed  to  the  ordeal ;  that  is,  submit  his  case  to  the  judgment 
of  God.  In  the  case  of  the  fire  ordeal  the  accused  had  to  carry  a  piece 
of  red-hot  iron,  weighing  one  pound,  a  distance  of  nine  feet.  His 
hand  was  then  bandaged,  and  if  it  healed  in  three  days,  he  was  declared 
innocent.  For  especially  grave  cases  there  was  the  threefold  ordeal 
when  the  iron  weighed  three  pounds.  Another  form  of  test  was  the 
hot-water  ordeal,  where  the  accused  had  to  plunge  his  arm  up  to  the 
wrist  in  boiling  water  and  remove  a  stone.  Here,  too,  there  was  a 
threefold  ordeal,  according  to  which  he  had  to  plunge  his  arm  in  up 
to  the  elbow.  The  cold-water  ordeal  is  little  heard  of  in  Anglo-Saxon 
times,  though  it  was  much  used  later  for  trying  witches.  For  this  test 
the  accused  was  undressed,  bound,  and  lowered  into  the  water  by  a 
rope  at  his  waist.  If  he  sunk  a  certain  depth,  he  was  innocent ;  if  he 
floated,  he  was  guilty.  All  this  was  based  on  a  belief  that  pure  water 
would  not  receive  a  guilty  person.  The  "  corsned,"  or  sacred  morsel, 
was  the  form  usually  applied  in  the  case  of  a  priest.  He  was  given 
an  ounce  of  consecrated  cheese  or  bread  to  swallow,  his  guilt  or  inno- 
cence depending  upon  his  ability  to  perform  the  feat.  Since  the 
people  regarded  the  decision  in  each  case  as  given  by  God,  it  partook  of 
a  religious  ceremony.  The  accused  prepared  himself  by  a  three  days' 
fast  and  by  taking  the  sacrament.  If  the  test  failed,  the  assembled 
multitude  declared  the  penalty  —  fine,  slavery,  outlawry,  or  death. 
Imprisonment  was  not  used  as  a  form  of  punishment.  Although  the 
hundred  continued  to  meet  once  a  month  all  through  this  period,  it 
lost  much  of  its  power  from  the  creation  of  borough  and  manorial 
jurisdictions  within  its  borders. 

The  Folkmoot  and  the  Shire.  —  Before  the  union  of  the  tribes  the 
highest  form  of  political  and  judicial  organization  was  the  folkmoot. 
At  this  assembly  the  great  landowners,  the  freemen,  and  the  priest, 
reeve,  and  four  men  from  each  township  met  twice  a  year  under  their 
ealdorman  or  chief.  Here  the  business  of  the  folk  was  transacted. 
Since  questions  of  war  and  peace  were  decided,  they  met  armed,  and 
often  proceeded  against  the  enemy  directly  from  the  meeting.  Here 
certain  judicial  cases  were  settled,  those  involving  the  different  dis- 
tricts, and  those  too  important  for  the  different  districts  to  settle,  as 
well  as  those  where  justice  had  not  been  done  in  a  lower  court.  After 
the  tribal  communities  had  been  united  into  kingdoms,  districts  began 
to  appear  midway  between  the  hundred,  or  smaller  jurisdiction,  and 


THE   CLOSE   OF  THE  ANGLO-SAXON   PERIOD       67 

the  kingdom.  These  came  to  be  called  shires.  Shires  originated 
at  different  times  in  different  parts  of  the  Island.  In  the  south,  the 
kingdom  of  Wessex  was  divided  probably  on  the  lines  of  the  ancient 
tribal  state.  After  the  smaller  kingdoms,  Kent,  Essex,  and  Sussex, 
were  incorporated,  they  too  were  reduced  to  shires.  North  of  the 
Thames,  the  two  kingdoms  of  East  Anglia,  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  were 
treated  in  the  same  way.  The  remainder  of  the  midlands  were  arti- 
ficially divided  after  the  country  had  been  won  back  from  the  Danes. 
Usually  an  important  town  or  fortification  was  selected  and  the  shires 
grouped  around  it.  For  example,  Leicester  formed  the  nucleus  of 
Leicestershire,  Derby  of  Derbyshire.  The  shires  in  the  extreme 
north  —  Lancashire,  Cumberland,  Westmoreland,  Northumberland, 
—  were  formed  after  the  close  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  period.  Each  shire 
had  an  assembly,  or  moot,  in  which  the  procedure  was  much  the  same 
as  in  the  earlier  folkmoots,  except  that  judicial  business,  at  least  in 
some  of  the  Danish  districts,  passed  from  the  assembly  to  a  com- 
mittee learned  in  the  customary  law  —  the  twelve  senior  thegns. 
Besides  transacting  judicial  business  the  shire  moot  collected  revenues 
and  raised  military  levies.  At  first,  each  shire  was  under  the  control 
of  an  ealdorman,  or  earl,  chosen  by  the  king  with  the  consent  of  his 
wisemen.  As  time  went  on  the  shire  moot  came  to  be  presided  over 
by  a  shire-reeve  or  sheriff.  The  sheriff  started  merely  as  a  king's 
officer ;  he  was  his  bailiff  or  steward,  employed  to  collect  the  rents  of 
his  estates  in  the  shire.  In  course  of  time,  he  came  to  preside  over 
the  court  and  to  command  the  military  forces,  though  he  continued  to 
be  appointed  and  dismissed  by  the  king  at  pleasure.  The  bishops 
represented  the  Church,  and  since  they  were  the  only  learned  men  of 
the  time,  they  were  of  great  assistance.  They  participated  in  all  busi- 
ness except  trials  where  a  death  penalty  was  involved. 

The  Witenagemot.  —  The  highest  body  in  the  land  was  the  Witen- 
agemot, or  moot  of  the  Witan  or  wisemen.  In  theory  it  was  a  union 
of  the  ancient  folkmoots ;  but  in  fact  it  came  to  be  restricted  to  the 
great  officials  whom  the  king  assembled  about  him  —  the  ealdormen, 
the  bishops,  and  the  thegns  or  nobles.  All  freemen  were  entitled  to 
attend,  but  they  gradually  ceased  to  exercise  their  right;  means  of 
communication  were  too  poor  to  make  it  possible  for  those  that  lived 
at  a  distance  to  come,  and  the  increasing  size  of  the  body  diminished 
the  importance  of  those  who  were  able  to  appear.  Since  no  system 
of  representation  was  devised,  the  Witenagemot  came  to  be  an  as- 
sembly of  notables  or  a  royal  counciL  Its  business  was  to  assist  and 
advise  the  king  in  devising  such  rude  legal  measures  as  were  framed, 
to  give  their  consent  to  land  grants,  and  to  the  naming  of  ealdor- 
men and  bishops.  It  was  they  who  named  the  kings  —  though  they 
were  limited  in  their  choice  to  the  ablest  male  next  in  descent  in  the 
royal  family  —  and,  on  rare  occasions,  they  even  deposed  an  unworthy 
ruler.  The  Witenagemot  was  usually  strong  when  the  king  was  weak 
and  weak  when  he  was  strong. 


68  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  King.  —  The  king,  whose  eligibility  always  depended  on  his 
membership  in  a  certain  family,  after  his  choice  by  his  people  —  in 
later  times  practically  by  the  Witan  —  was,  during  the  heathen  period, 
lifted  on  a  shield,  but  in  Christian  times  consecrated  by  the  elaborate 
ceremony  already  noted  in  the  case  of  Edgar.  It  was  his  function  to 
preside  over  the  Witan  and  over  such  assemblies,  or  synods,  of  the 
Church  as  were  held.  He  led  the  levy,  or  fyrd,  in  war ;  he  enforced 
the  public  peace,  and  he  carried  out  the  decrees  which  he  made  with 
the  consent  of  his  Witan.  He  was  bound  to  a  considerable  extent  by 
the  recorded  laws  and  the  traditional  customs  of  the  people ;  he  was 
limited  by  the  National  Council  in  certain  respects,  and  his  power  of 
giving  effect  to  his  prerogative  was  hampered  by  lack  of  means  of 
communication  and  by  deficiency  of  administrative  machinery ; 
but,  in  general,  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings  enjoyed  large  powers  without 
being  absolute  monarchs. Rulers  like  Edgar  and  Cnut  were  able  to 
rule  almost  absolutely  without  causing  any  perceptible  friction,  but 
that  was  probably  because  they  were  able  and  just  monarchs. 

Revenues  in  Anglo-Saxon  Times.  —  In  those  days  of  simple  con- 
ditions the  expenses  and  income  of  the  State  were  small  and  irregular. 
The  latter  were  paid  chiefly  in  produce  and  personal  services.  The 
king  and  his  officials  had  a  right  to  maintenance  for  themselves  and 
their  retainers  on  their  progress  through  the  country,  and  goods 
could  be  seized  for  the  royal  needs;  this  right,  known  as  feorum 
fttltum,  corresponded  to  the  later  purveyance.  The  most  common 
form  of  public  service  was  the  trinoda  necessitas,  or  threefold  obliga- 
tion of  serving  in  the  army,  of  repairing  roads  and  bridges,  and  guard- 
ing fortresses.  When  one  of  the  king's  followers  died,  he  had  a  right  to 
the  heriot  —  a  payment  of  horses,  armor,  and  sometimes  money,  fixed 
according  to  rank.  In  theory,  this  was  simply  a  return  of  the  military 
equipment  with  which  a  chief  originally  endowed  the  members  of 
his  comitatus.  A  commoner  form  of  the  heriot  was  the  best  beast  or 
chattel  which  the  heirs  of  a  serf  paid  his  lord.  The  king  also  had 
rents  and  other  dues  from  towns  on  the  royal  demesne ;  he  received 
certain  court  fees  and  fines,  and,  in  the  case  of  lords  who  died  without 
heirs  or  were  guilty  of  grave  offenses  against  his  authority,  forfeitures 
of  landed  estates.  He  was  also  entitled  to  harbor  dues  and  tolls 
on  trade,  to  wreckage  and  treasure-trove.  The  Danegeld  has  already 
been  described. 

Evidences  of  the  Growth  of  Royal  Power.  —  Many  evidences  of 
the  growth  of  the  royal  power  can  be  traced  through  the  tenth  century ; 
for  example,  from  the  time  of  Alfred,  plotting  against  the  king's  life 
becomes  a  treasonable  offense,  punishable  by  death.  Originally,  the 
King's  Peace  was  a  personal  affair,  and  when  it  became  general,  it  was 
at  first  limited  to  special  places  and  special  seasons  —  to  the  four 
Roman  roads,  rivers,  and  all  navigable  streams,  and  to  Christmas, 
Whitsuntide,  and  Easter ;  but  as  time  went  on  it  came  to  extend  over 
the  whole  country  at  all  times,  and  the  popular  courts  came  to  be 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE   ANGLO-SAXON   PERIOD        69 

more  and  more  his  courts.  Another  evidence  of  growth  of  the  royal 
power  is  the  right  to  dispose  of  lands  without  the  consent  of  the  Witan. 

Ranks  in  Anglo-Saxon  Society.  —  The  question  of  ranks  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  society  is  obscure  and  complicated.  One  thing  is  certain, 
that  there  were  only  a  few  of  the  very  highest  class.  At  the  time  of 
Edward  the  Confessor's  death  it  has  been  estimated  that  there  were 
two  archbishops,  twelve  bishops,  eleven  abbots,  five  or  six  earls,  and 
twenty-four  king's  thegns.  Thus  the  political  power  of  the  realm 
was  in  the  hands  of  less  than  sixty  men.  Of  the  nobility  the  earl  was 
the  highest  in  rank.  While  his  name  is  derived  from  the  Danish 
"  jarl,"  he  was  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  ancient  ealdorman ;  he 
had,  however,  come  to  rule  over  a  district  embracing  not  one,  but 
many  shires.  Next  to  the  earl  was  the  thegn,  who,  originally  a 
minister  or  servant  in  the  household  of  a  king  or  great  lord,  had  re- 
ceived endowments  of  land  and  had  risen  to  the  dignity  of  a  territorial 
noble  himself,  liable  to  special  military  obligations.  Yet,  unlike  the 
later  feudal  vas'sal,  the  thegn's  lands  were  given  him  as  a  reward  for 
past  services  and  not  as  a  condition  of  future  services ;  his  title  to  his 
estate  was  absolute,  subject  to  no  qualification.  Thegnhood  was  open 
not  only  to  this  ministerial  class ;  for  even  a  merchant,  if  he  "  throve  so 
that  he  fared  thrice  over  the  wide  sea  by  his  own  means,"  could  attain 
the  rank.  Besides  the  king's  thegns  there  were  the  lesser  thegns  of 
great  earls.  The  normal  minimum  holding  was  five  hides  of  land. 
The  ceorls,  or  simple  freemen,  who  stood  on  the  next  lower  rung  of 
the  social  ladder,  were  a  comparatively  small  class  at  the  close  of  our 
period.  They  paid  fixed  rents  and  services  for  the  lands  which  other- 
wise were  theirs,  even  to  hand  down  to  their  heirs ;  they  served  in  the 
fyrd,  and  had  a  right  to  attend  the  various  courts  where  justice  was 
administered  and  business  transacted.  Below  the  ceorls  were  various 
classes  of  servile  dependents,  personally  free  but  debarred  from 
political  rights,  usually  bound  to  the  estate  of  some  lord  by  services, 
generally  onerous  and  uncertain,  for  the  lands  that  they  held. 

The  Decline  of  the  Royal  Power.  —  The  most  striking  political  fact 
at  the  close  of  the  period  was  the  weakness  of  the  central  government. 
By  a  steady  increase  and  consolidation  of  territory  and  by  a  steady 
absorption  of  national  powers  the  kingship  had  risen  to  its  highest 
point  under  Edgar  (959-975).  But  as  the  kingdom  grew  in  size  the 
power  of  the  rulers  declined  in  strength.  This  was  due  partly  to  the 
incompetence  of  the  succeeding  kings,  but  still  more  to  the  condi- 
tions they  had  to  face.  Although  the  country  was  small  it  was  hard 
to  reach  points  far  removed  from  the  court.  The  only  way  the  king 
could  govern  the  outlying  districts  was  by  representatives,  and  the 
only  means  he  had  of  paying  them  was  by  land  grants ;  once  they 
became  landowners  in  a  particular  district,  their  interests  naturally 
came  to  be  more  closely  attached  to  the  neighborhood  than  to  their 
nominal  lord.  Then,  at  a  time  centuries  before  any  conception  had 
arisen  of  the  newspaper,  the  railroad,  the  telegraph,  or  even  the  post 


70  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

office,  each  little  group  of  people  lived  in  and  for  itself.  So  the  manors, 
the  borough  courts,  and  the  jurisdictions  of  the  territorial  magnates 
came  to  be  the  real  centers  of  power.  Cnut  only  recognized,  he  did 
not  create,  a  situation  when  he  divided  the  country  into  great  earl- 
doms. But  it  was  the  power  wielded  by  these  magnates  that  helps 
to  explain  the  weakness  and  anarchy  of  Edward's  reign.  So,  on  the 
eve  of  the  Conquest,  we  note  the  conflict  of  two  opposing  tendencies. 
On  the  military  side  there  are  two  armies :  the  shire  levies,  under 
the  king's  representative,  the  sheriff ;  and  the  armies  of  the  thegns 
and  earls,  nominally  the  king's,  but  which  could  be  used  for  private 
purposes.  On  the  judicial  side  there  were  the  popular  courts  of  the 
hundred  and  shire,  constantly  encroached  on  by  those  of  the  borough 
and  manor.  As  to  lands,  there  were  the  lands  held  by  the  king,  the 
nobles,  and  the  people  by  the  old  folk  right,  but  constantly  decreased 
by  special  grants,  defined  by  book  or  charter,  giving  the  grantee  pow- 
ers of  holding  independent  of  the  old  customary  law.  In  general,  it 
may  be  said  that,  while  the  Anglo-Saxons  had  contributed  to  those 
who  came  after  principles  and  methods  of  local  self-government, 
they  had  failed  to  furnish  the  necessary  complement,  a  strong  central 
government  without  which  local  freedom  could  easily  degenerate 
into  anarchy.  It  was  reserved  for  their  conquerors  to  supply  what 
was  lacking. 

Anglo-Saxon  Literature.  —  The  earliest  literature  among  the 
Anglo-Saxons  reflects  the  characteristics  of  the  race  and  is  profoundly 
influenced  by  their  surroundings.  It  is  marked  by  love  of  the  sea,  a 
sense  of  gloom  and  mystery,  by  the  fierceness  and  boastfulness  of  the 
primitive  man,  tempered  and  ennobled  by  courage  and  loyalty.  It 
is  expressed  usually  in  alliterative  verse,  a  form  characterized  by  the 
repetition  of  the  same  letter  or  sound  at  the  beginning  of  two  or  more 
words  or  accented  syllables  in  the  same  line ;  as,  for  instance,  "  Then 
marched  from  the  moon  under  misty  slopes."  Heavy,  slow,  and 
often  uncouth,  their  poetic  style  is  vigorous  and  sometimes  grand.1 
Their  greatest  achievements  were  in  the  form  of  the  epic,  where 
an  action  is  narrated  in  poetic  form,  to  be  sung  by  glee  men  in 
the  halls  of  thegns.  Of  these,  Beowulf  is  the  earliest  and  the  only 
one  which  has  survived  in  anything  like  completeness.  The  material 
may  have  been  brought  by  the  later  Angles  from  their  continental 
homes ;  but  it  was  not  worked  up  into  the  shape  in  which  we  have 
it  till  the  eighth  century.  It  recounts  the  glorious  deeds  of  the 
Scandinavian  hero  Beowulf,  his  slaying  of  Grendel  the  marsh  fiend, 

1  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  picture  of  the  time  before  the  Creation :  "There  had  not 
here  as  yet,  save  cavern-shade,  aught  been ;  but  this  wide  abyss  stood  deep  and 
dim,  strange  to  its  Lord,  idle  and  useless ;  on  which  looked  with  his  eyes  the  King 
firm  of  mind,  and  beheld  those  places  void  of  joys,  saw  the  dark  cloud  lower  in  eter- 
nal night,  swart  under  heaven,  dark  and  waste,  until  this  worldly  creation  through 
the  word  existed  of  the  Glory-King  .  .  .  The  earth  as  yet  was  green  with  grass ; 
ocean  covered,  swart  in  eternal  night,  far  and  wide  the  dusky  ways." 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE  ANGLO-SAXON   PERIOD       71 

and  his  mother  the  "  she- wolf  of  the  abyss  "  and  of  the  fire-vomiting 
dragon.  Other  poems,  such  as  the  Battle  of  Finnsburg  and  King  Wal- 
dere's  Lay,  exist  only  in  fragments.  Besides  the  epics  there  are  some 
lyrics  or  poems  that  deal  with  sentiments  and  feelings,  and  softened 
by  a  melancholy  which  some  have  supposed  due  to  Celtic  influence. 
The  Wanderer  contains  a  pathetic  lament  over  the  hero's  lost  friend 
and  lord  and  his  present  loneliness. 

Contrasted  with  this  poetry  is  that  which  owes  its  inspiration  to  the 
Church  and  the  Scriptures.  One  of  the  most  beautiful  stories  in 
Bede  is  that  of  Caedmon,  a  rude,  unlearned  cowherd  attached  to  the 
monastery  of  Whitby.  He  had  no  gift  of  song,  and  often  at  the 
merry-makings  of  his  companions,  when  the  harp  was  passed  to  him,  he 
would  leave  and  return  to  his  stable.  On  one  such  occasion  a  figure 
appeared  to  him  in  his  sleep  and  bade  him  sing.  At  first  he  said  he 
could  not,  but  finally  at  the  bidding  of  the  stranger  he  began  to  sing 
verses  in  the  praise  of  God.  The  next  morning  he  rose  and  told  his 
dream  to  the  steward  of  the  abbey,  who  took  him  before  the  abbess 
and  divers  monks.  After  hearing  his  story,  they  related  to  him  a 
passage  of  the  Bible,  which  he  rendered  into  wonderful  verse.  He 
was  made  a  brother  of  the  monastery,  and,  as  Bede  tells  us,  "  he  sang 
the  creation  of  the  world,  the  origin  of  man,  and  all  the  history  of 
Genesis :  and  made  many  verses  on  the  departure  of  the  children  of 
Israel  and  their  entering  into  the  land  of  promise,  with  many  other 
histories  from  Holy  Writ." 

Another  early  Anglo-Saxon  poet*  was  Cynewulf .  All  that  is  known 
of  him  is  inferred  from  the  writings  attributed  to  him.  From  these 
it  appears  that  he  was  a  wandering  Northumbrian  minstrel  of  the 
eighth  century,  who  in  his  youth  rejoiced  in  hunting,  the  bow,  and  the 
horse,  who  received  many  golden  gifts  for  singing  in  the  halls  of  the 
great.  In  his  old  age  he  turned  to  graver  things.  He  wrote  four 
poems  on  the  lives  of  Christ  and  the  Saints,  and  very  possibly  was 
the  author  of  Riddles,  a  series  of  conundrums  for  the  reader  to  guess, 
and  of  the  Phcenix,  an  account  of  the  fabled  bird.  Closing  with  an 
allegorical  application  to  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ,  this 
latter  form  is  adorned  with  exquisite  touches  descriptive  of  the 
beauties  of  nature.  Next  to  Bede's  History,  the  greatest  prose  work 
of  the  period  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle.  Beginning  with  meager 
annals  the  work  was,  in  the  eighth  century,  greatly  expanded  under 
Alfred's  direction.  From  his  time  it  was  continued  independently  by 
at  least  half  a  dozen  religious  houses,  one  version  reaching  to  1154. 
In  spite  of  errors  and  omissions,  its  bold  and  simple,  but  quaint  and 
graphic  entries  furnish  the  chief  source  of  information  for  much  of  the 
period. 

Art  and  Building.  —  Like  other  people  in  medieval  times,  the 
Anglo-Saxons  were  notable  for  their  skill  in  illuminating  manuscripts 
and  in  embroidery  and  weaving.  We  hear  how  the  shuttle,  "  filled  not 
only  with  purple  but  with  all  other  colors,  flies  now  this  way,  now  that, 


72  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

among  the  close  spread  threads,"  and  how  they  "  glorified  the  wool 
work  with  groups  of  pictures."  Alfred  brought  in  goldworkers  from 
abroad,  though  his  own  people  were  not  without  ability  in  the  fashion- 
ing of  metals.  Bede  tells  us  that  the  founder  of  his  monastery  had  to 
send  for  glassmakers  from  France.  However,  the  Anglo-Saxons  were 
unversed  in  the  masons'  art,  for  they  seem  to  have  built  with  wood. 
The  stone  church  at  Canterbury  is  undoubtedly  a  relic  of  British- 
Roman  times.  Except  perhaps  in  the  north,  none  were  built  of  this 
material  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  period  until  Edward  the  Confessor. 
With  him,  under  Norman  influence,  those  grand  and  stately  edifices 
begin  to  appear  which  fill  us  with  awe  and  reverence  even  to  this 
present  day.  Westminster  Abbey,  though  built  on  an  earlier  site, 
was  his  peculiar  creation.  The  simpler  sort  of  houses  consisted  of  a 
single  room  and  were  surrounded  by  a  hedge.  Sometimes  they  had 
an  upper  chamber,  called  a  "  solarium,"  though  this  was  not  common. 
The  homes  of  the  greater  folk  consisted  of  a  hall  surrounded  by 
separate  buildings  which  were  used  for  bedchambers,  or  "  bowers,"  as 
they  were  called,  for  "  household  offices,"  and  for  the  housing  of 
cattle.  The  more  pretentious  were  roofed  with  tiles.  Inclosing  the 
whole  was  a  wall  usually  of  earth.  The  walls  of  the  hall  were  usually 
covered  with  tapestry,  and  harps,  armor,  and  weapons  were  hung 
about  on  pegs.  The  fire  was  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  and  the  smoke 
escaped  through  an  opening  in  the  roof.  Wood  was  the  customary 
fuel,  though  coal  was  apparently  not  unknown.  Benches,  sometimes 
covered  with  carpets  and  cushions,  constituted  the  chief  furniture. 
At  one  end  of  the  hall  was  a  raised  platform  where  those  of  higher 
rank  sat.  Chairs  were  few  and  were  generally  the  seats  of  kings  and 
great  persons.  Beds  were  usually  mere  sacks  of  straw  laid  on  branches. 
They  were  often  built  in  recesses  and  covered  with  a  curtain.  Since 
there  was  no  sitting  room  but  the  hall,  the  chamber  where  the  women 
sat,  after  they  had  served  the  cup  to  the  lord's  guests,  was  the  bedroom. 
Here  they  spun  and  wove,  here  they  sewed  and  embroidered. 

Manner  of  Living.  —  At  a  time  when  there  was  little  to  read  and 
when  means  of  communication  were  few  and%  inadequate,  the  pleasures 
of  feast  and  song  bulked  large.  Breakfast  was  commonly  at  nine, 
dinner,  or  noon-meat,  at  three,  and  supper,  or  evening  food,  at  an 
uncertain  hour.  Bread  was  a  great  staple.  Among  their  other 
articles  of  food  were  milk,  butter,  cheese,  fish,  poultry,  and  meat. 
Vegetables,  on  the  other  hand,  were  few,  and  in  the  winter  there 
were  none.  Bacon  was  very  abundant.  For  months  in  the  year  salt 
meat  was  the  only  kind  to  be  had,  since  cattle  could  not  be  kept  over 
the  winter.  Such  meat  was  usually  boiled,  though  they  understood 
how  to  broil,  roast,  and  fry.  Table  manners  were  as  yet  very  primitive, 
for  there  were  no  forks  and  few  table  knives.  After  dinner  the  hands 
were  washed,  the  tables,  which  were  mere  temporary  affairs,  were  taken 
away,  and  drinking  began.  Ale,  mead,  or  wine  were  passed  about,  and 
the  company  listened  to  story-telling  and  music,  or  danced.  The 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE   ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD       73 

common  musical  instruments  were  the  harp,  poetically  known  as  the 
glee  wood,  the  cithern,  the  pipe,  and  the  horn.  Feasts  often  ended  in 
quarrels.  Games  of  chance  were  another  source  of  diversion.  Chess 
was  probably  introduced  by  the  Danes ;  indeed,  it  was  over  a  game  of 
chess  that  Cnut  slew  his  brother-in-law.  Though  singing  and  playing 
were  regarded  as  desirable  accomplishments,  wandering  gleemen  did 
not  enjoy  a  very  high  status,  and  besides  singing  and  playing  performed 
tricks  and  cracked  jokes  from  hall  to  village.  The  villagers  were  some- 
times regaled  with  exhibitions  of  dancing  bears,  and  on  holidays  made 
merry  with  games,  such  as  running,  leaping,  and  wrestling.  Hunting 
and  hawking  were  favorite  pastimes  even  with  kings  like  Alfred  and 
Edward  the  Confessor.  The  clergy  showed  such  a  fondness  for  these 
and  kindred  pursuits  that  an  ecclesiastical  canon  was  passed  under 
King  Edgar,  declaring  "  that  no  priest  be  a  hunter  or  fowler,  or  player 
at  tables,  but  let  him  play  on  his  books  as  becometh  his  calling." 
Owing  to  the  badness  of  the  roads,  people  went  about  mostly  on  horse- 
back, though  carts  or  chariots,  usually  two-wheeled,  were  sometimes 
used  for  traveling.  Inns  were  so  infrequent  that  halls  and  monasteries 
entertained  freely,  and  hospitality  was  even  enjoined  by  ecclesiastical 
laws.  Ale  houses,  on  the  other  hand,  were  overcommon  and  were 
much  sought  by  the  humbler  folk,  who  had  little  else  to  do  during  the 
long,  dark  days.  Lesser  priests,  too,  frequented  them  to  such  an  extent 
that  their  superiors  had  to  pass  laws  against  the  practice.  Merchants 
usually  traveled  in  companies,  and  carried  tents  under  which  they 
stopped  at  night. 

Public  Health.  —  Plague,  pestilence,  and  famine  were  dread  visi- 
tants of  early  and  medieval  England,  though  not  as  frequent  or 
destructive  as  on  the  Continent.  Epidemics  entered  the  land  from 
time  to  time  from  the  east,  like  the  yellow  plague  which  appeared  in 
south  England,  in  664,  and  spread  north.  It  later  reappeared  and  so 
thinned  the  monks  of  Jarrow  that  the  little  boy  Bede  was  the  only 
one  left  to  join  the  abbot  in  the  responses.  Local  epidemics  were 
more  frequent  and  less  destructive.  They  were  usually  fevers  due 
to  famines  from  failure  of  crops  and  cattle. 

Trade.  —  The  early  villages  and  manors  were  almost  altogether 
self-sufficing ;  they  usually  raised  their  own  food  and  made  their 
own  clothes.  .  At  first  there  was  little  buying  or  selling;  each  man 
worked  for  the  other  members  of  the  community  and  was  supplied 
by  them  in  turn.  Salt  was  about  the  only  thing  brought  from  the 
outside.  Various  things,  however,  came  to  be  needed,  such  as  iron 
for  plowshares,  and  this,  and  the  fact  that  some  articles  came  to  be 
produced  better  in  one  place  than  in  another,  led  to  the  gradual 
development  of  trade.  An  enactment  of  Ine's  aims  to  distinguish 
the  honest  merchant  from  the  robber.  "  If  a  far-coming  man,"  so 
reads  the  law,  "  or  a  stranger  journey  through  wood  out  of  the  high- 
way, and  neither  shout  nor  blow  his  horn,  he  is  to  be  held  for  a  thief 
and  either  slain  or  redeemed."  Most  little  towns  had  a  market, 


74  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  before  the  close  of  the  period  fairs  were  coming  to  assume  a  posi- 
tion of  importance.  For  some  time  after  the  coming  of  the  Teutons 
sea-faring  life  ceased,  and  there  was  in  consequence  little  oversea  trade. 
As  early  as  the  time  of  Offa,  however,  it  is  recorded  that  English 
merchants  had  joined  bands  of  traveling  pilgrims  and  imported,  with- 
out paying  duty,  articles  of  gold  and  silver,  and  a  letter  from  Charle- 
magne to  Offa,  offering  protection  to  certain  English  traders  in  France, 
is  regarded  as  the  earliest  English  commercial  treaty.  But  it  was  the 
Danish  invasions  which  first  revived  the  art  of  shipbuilding.  Alfred, 
says  the  Chronicle  for  897,  "  commanded  long  ships  to  be  built 
to  oppose  the  invaders."  These  ships  were  primarily  for  war,  but 
they  had  their  effect  on  commerce.  In  Alfred's  time  the  chief  inter- 
course was  with  France  and  the  Mediterranean,  though  his  embassies 
to  Jerusalem  and  India  may  have  enlarged  the  commercial  horizon, 
while  the  coming  of  the  Danes  opened  communications  with  the 
trading  settlements  of  the  Northmen.  Scattered  indications  occur 
from  time  to  time  of  the  growth  of  an  import  and  export  trade.  By 
the  close  of  the  tenth  and  the  early  part  of  the  eleventh  century, 
wine,  fish,  clothes,  pepper,  gloves,  and  vinegar  were  brought  from 
France,  Flanders,  and  the  Empire.  From  the  north  and  northeast 
came  furs,  skins,  ropes,  masts,  weapons,  and  iron  wrork.  The  mer- 
chant in  ^Elfric's  Colloquies  or  Dialogues,  a  Latin  reading  book  for 
boys,  which  appeared  about  the  year  1000,  relates  that  he  brought 
from  oversea  brocade,  silk,  precious  gems,  gold,  wine,  oil,  ivory, 
bronze,  copper,  sulphur,  and  glass.  Many  of  these  commodities  came 
originally  from  the  Orient,  whence  they  were  conveyed  overland  to 
Constantinople,  or  rather  to  the  Bosphorus,  and  shipped  to  Venice 
or  some  other  Italian  port.  Thence  they  were  taken  overland  to 
Flanders  to  be  finally  shipped  across  the  Channel.  In  return,  the 
English  exported  mainly  metals,  such  as  tin  and  lead,  wool,  and  slaves. 
The  slave  trade  was  carried  on  extensively  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of 
the  Church  to  stop  it.  Gregory's  missionary  zeal  had  been  inspired 
by  the  sight  of  Anglian  captives  in  the  slave  mart  at  Rome.  Ine's 
laws  imposed  a  penalty  on  those  who  sold  their  countrymen  beyond 
seas,  and  later  enactments  prohibit  such  selling,  at  least  to  heathen 
lands.  But  Bristol  was  a  great  center  for  the  trade,  even  after  the 
Conquest,  and  it  was  well  into  the  twelfth  century  before  the  iniquitous 
traffic  was  stamped  out. 

Such  was  England  on  the  eve  of  the  Conquest.  William,  who  now 
entered  as  master,  was  to  inflict  much  misery ;  but  he  was  to  contribute 
much  to  its  power  and  prosperity. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Political  and  legal  institutions  are  treated  in  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  I,  chs. 
III-V;  Taswell-Langmead,  English  Constitutional  History  (1911),  ch.  I;  Wakeman 
and  Hassall,  Constitutional  History,  I,  chs.  IV-VII;  A.  B.  White,  The  Making  of  the 


THE   CLOSE    OF   THE   ANGLO-SAXON   PERIOD        75 

English  Constitution  (1908),  pt.  I,  chs.  I-III.  The  latter  work,  the  most  up-to-date 
of  any  of  the  constitutional  histories  here  cited,  has  on  p.  xxv  a  fuller  list  of  works 
for  further  reading.  Traill,  Social  England,  I,  ch.  II,  deals  with  all  aspects  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  history  and  life.  Ramsay,  Foundations,  I,  chs.  X,  XXX,  treats  briefly  the 
same  subject.  Ch.  II  in  Pollock  and  Maitland's  History  of  English  Law  (1898), 
vol.  I,  is  an  excellent  statement  of  the  main  features  of  Anglo-Saxon  Law.  Pol- 
lock and  Maitland's  treatise  .is  the  authority  in  the  period  it  covers  — -  to  the  time  of 
Edward  I.  Wm.  Cunningham,  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  (1896),  I, 
bk.  I,  is  devoted  mainly  to  economic  conditions.  This  work  is  valuable  for  the  whole 
period  up  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  daily  life  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  is  described  in  Thomas  Wright,  Homes  of  Other  Days  (1871),  ch.  I. 

For  a  brief  account  of  Anglo-Saxon  literature  see  Moody  and  Lovett,  A  History 
of  English  Literature  (1908).  This  is  perhaps  the  best  one- volume  work  covering 
the  whole  period  of  English  literature.  H.  A.  Taine,  History  of  English  Literature 
(tr.  van  Laun,  4  vols.,  1873),  I,  bk.  I,  ch.  I,  is  very  stimulating ;  but  not  always  to  be 
relied  upon.  j.  A.  Jusserand,  A  Literary  History  of  the  English  People  (3  vols., 
1906-1909) ,  vol.  I,  bk.  I ;  a  charming  and  scholarly  treatment.  The  Cambridge  His- 
tory of  Literature  (vols.  I-X,  1907-1913)  is  a  cooperative  work  which  contains  a  mine 
of  information ;  vol.  I,  chs.  I-VII  (bibliography,  419-445),  is  devoted  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period.  For  further  references  see  Moody  and  Lovett's  reading  guide,  385  ff. 

For  a  discussion  of  Anglo-Saxon  feudalism  see  Maitland,  Domesday  Book  and 
Beyond  (1897),  150-172,  303-313,  and  G.  B.  Adams,  American  Historical  Review, 
October,  1901,  pp.  11-36.  For  an  epoch-making  article  on  Anglo-Saxon  land  law 
see  P.  Vinogradoff,  "Folkland,"  English  Historical  Review,  VIII,  1-17.  For  selec- 
tions from  the  Anglo-Saxon  laws,  chiefly  in  English  translation,  see  Stubbs,  Select 
Charters  Illustrative  of  English  Constitutional  History  (7th  ed.,  1890),  pp.  60-76. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  KINGS  (1066-1154).  THE  STRENGTHENING 
OF  THE  CENTRAL  POWER  BY  WILLIAM  AND  HIS  SONS.  THE 
INTERVAL  OF  ANARCHY  IN  THE  REIGN  OF  HIS  GRANDSON 
STEPHEN 

William  secures  London  and  is  crowned  King  of  England.  —  After 
his  victory  at  Hastings  many  weeks  passed  before  William  reached 
London.  He  was  delayed  by  sickness ;  he  chose  a  roundabout  way  by 
the  seacoast  to  secure  his  communication  with  Normandy,  and  he 
lingered  somewhat  in  the  vain  hope  that  Englishmen  would  come 
to  submit  to  his  authority.  When  he  at  length  reached  the  southern 
bank  of  the  Thames,  he  wisely  made  no  attempt  to  cross  the  river 
in  front  of  the  strongly  walled  city,  but  sought  a  ford  higher  up  at 
Wallingford.  In  this  way,  too,  he  was  able  to  cut  the  city  off  from 
all  aid  west  or  north.  The  men  of  London  had  elected  Eadgar  the 
^Etheling  to  succeed  Harold ;  but  on  William's  approach  they  gave 
up  all  hope  of  resistance,  and,  headed  by  the  ^Etheling,  went  forth 
to  meet  him  and  offered  to  take  him  for  their  king.  As  soon  as  a 
stronghold  had  been  prepared  for  his  reception  —  the  future  Tower 
of  London  —  the  Conqueror  rode  into  the  city,  and  was  crowned  on 
Christmas  Daya_g5  December,  1066,  in  Edward's  Abbey.  The  event 
was  marred  by  a~ woeful  accident,  ominous  for  the  future.  The  Nor- 
man guard  outside,  mistaking  the  shouts  of  the  assemblage  within 
for  cries  of  resistance,  began  to  fire  the  neighboring  buildings.  A 
panic  resulted,  which  caused  William  for  once  in  his  life  to  show  fear. 

William  redistributes  the  Lands  of  the  Conquered.  —  After  the 
coronation  more  submissions  followed,  chief  among  them  those  of 
Edwin  and  Morkere  and  of  Waltheof.  William  made  them  liberal 
promises,  but  held  them  at  court  as  hostages,  hoping  thereby  to  get  a 
hold  on  the  midlands  and  north  of  England.  Before  proceeding  to 
extend  his  conquests  he  took  steps  to  organize  what  he  already  held. 
Courts  were  set  up ;  a  charter,  confirming  the  old  liberties  enjoyed 
under  King  Edward,  was  granted  to  the  men  of  London;  friends 
and  supporters  were  rewarded  and  foes  punished.  The  lands  of 
those  who  had  fought  against  him  were  seized  and  divided  among 
himself  and  his  followers.  Likewise,  he  appropriated  the  Crown 
lands  and  the  private  estates  of  Harold.  Those  who  submitted 
were  allowed  to  keep  their  lands,  but  only  on  payment  of  heavy  fines. 
Henceforth,  there  were  to  be  no  lands  held  in  absolute  or  allodial 
ownership;  every  landlord  must  hold  directly  or  indirectly  of  the 

76 


THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  KINGS  77 

King.  Much  spoil  fell  into  William's  hands,  and  from  it  he  distributed 
rich  gifts  to  the  Pope  and  the  churches  in  France  —  as  a  reward  for 
lending  divine  sanction  to  his  enterprise. 

William  establishes  his  Power  throughout  England,  1067-1071.  — 
For  the  next  four  or  five  years  after  his  accession  the  Norman  Con- 
queror was  occupied  in  putting  down  risings  and  overcoming  resist- 
ance to  the  extension  of  his  authority.  The  first  outbreak  occurred 
in  1067  while  William  was  absent  in  Normandy,  and  was  a  manifesta- 
tion of  bitter  discontent  against  the  alien  rulers,  who  "  built  castles 
wide  throughout  the  land  and  the  poor  people  distressed."  The  re- 
bellion centered  in  Kent  and  Hereford.  His  representatives  had 
practically  restored  order  before  William  could  get  back  ;  but  during 
the  year  1068  he  was  occupied  in  almost  constant  fighting.  He 
managed  first  to  subdue  the  west,  where  the  people  rallied  to  the  sup- 
port of  Harold's  mother  and  Harold's  sons.  Among  his  confiscations 
were  the  lands  which  form  the  basis  of  the  present  Duchy  of  Corn- 
wall, an  appanage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  north  gave  the 
most  serious  trouble.  It  began  in  1068  and  came  to  a  head  in  a  great 
rising  in  the  following  year.  Eadgar  the  ^theling,  who  had  taken 
refuge  with  King  Malcolm  of  Scotland,  was  put  up  as  king,  and  a 
body  of  Danes  assisted  the  native  English  and  Scots.  When  William 
was  at  length  able  to  break  up  their  combination  and  to  scatter  his 
enemies,  he  took  care  to  stamp  out  all  possibility  of  further  resistance. 
Marching  from  the  Ouse  to  the  Tyne  and  back,  he  ruthlessly  destroyed 
everything  that  lived  or  could  sustain  life,  and  every  building,  so  that 
the  vale  of  York  was  a  waste  and  ruin  for  years  to  come.  Some  of  the 
desert  places  he  granted  to  his  followers,  but  a  few  of  the  English 
leaders  were  allowed  to  make  their  submission,  and  Waltheof  was 
married  to  William's  niece,  Judith.  From  York,  the  Conqueror  led 
his  army  across  to  Chester  in  the  dead  of  winter.  Everything  —  the 
rigor  of  the  season,  the  rough  and  unknown  way,  and  even  an  at- 
tempted revolt  of  his  foreign  mercenaries  —  was  overcome  by  his 
irresistible  will.  His  pitiless  devastation  remains  an  indelible  blot 
on  his  character ;  but  it  accomplished  its  purpose,  for  neither  he  nor 
his  sons  had  to  face  another  general  rising  of  the  English.  A  few  of 
the  more  desperate  made  a  final  stand  in  the  island  of  Ely  in  1071. 
They  were  led  by  Hereward  the  Wake.1  the  hero  ofJ^ingsleVsJamous 
novel.  William  had  to  come  in  person  "  with  land  fyrd~ahd  ship^ 
~iyrcr"  to  rout  him  out.  Hereward  himself  escaped.  Edwin  and 
Morkere,  who  had  submitted  to  William  on  his  way  to  London,  and 
who,  joining  the  northern  rising,  had  been  pardoned  more  than  once, 
at  last  met  their  fate.  They  had  slipped  away  to  join  the  insurgents ; 
but  Edwin  was  slain  on  the  way  and  Morkere  was  taken  and  ended 
his  days  in  prison.  At  Ely  the  dying  resistance  of  the  native  English 
breathed  its  last  gasp.  Eadgar  the  yEtheling  had  again  fled  to  Mal- 

1  Wake  is  generally  interpreted  to  mean  "Watchful,"  though  some  connect  it 
with  the  name  of  a  local  family  of  some  note.      "J{^v-e 


78  A  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

colm,  the  husband  of  his  sister  Margaret.  To  avoid  further  danger 
from  this  quarter  William  marched  north  in  1072,  met  the  Scotch 
king  at  Abernethy,  and  arranged  a  treaty  by  which  Eadgar  was  ex- 
pelled. During  the  remaining  years  of  his  long  life  he  only  emerges 
twice,  when  he  accompanied  William's  son  Robert  on  the  first  cru- 
sade, and  when  he  fought  against  Henry  I  at  Tinchebrai  in  1106. 

The  Rising;  oftbe  flqr^na^  Eafls,  1075.  —  William's  future  diffi- 
culties  came  fronHiis  own  following.  In  1075  Roger,  son  of  the  Earl 
of  Hereford,  and  Ralph,  Earl  of  Norfolk,  rose  against  their  King. 
Their  pretext  was  that  he  was  an  usurper,  their  real  grievance  that 
he  held  jiiem  under  too  strict  control.  Waltheof  was  drawrn  into  the 
conspiracy!  TKougn  he  seems  to  nave  disclosed  the  plot  and  cer- 
tainly gave  himself  up  without  taking  arms,  he  was  afterwards  be- 
headed.1 Roger  got  off  with  the  lighter  Norman  penalty  of  imprison- 
ment for  life,  while  Ralph  eluded  capture. 

William's  Method  of  maintaining  his  Hold  over  the  English.  — 
Once  his  arms  had  triumphed,  William  had  to  solve  the_twofold_prob- 
Jem  of  holding  the  English  in  subjection  and  of  keeping  al:heck  on 
his  Norman  followers.  In  the  case  of  the  English,  he  continued  the 
practice,  begun  after  his  victory  over  Harold,  of  seizing  the  lands 
of  those  who  resisted  his  authority  and  handing  them  over  to  Normans 
who  would  take  good  care  to  defend  them.  Each  lord,  too,  had  to 
furnish  a  contingent  of  soldiers  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  his  grant. 
The  feudal  army,  thus  constituted,  proved  a  powerful  weapon  in  the 
King's  hands.  Secondly,  he  secured  every  district  which  he  con- 
quered by  a  castle  garrisoned  with  his  own  men.  Before  the  end  of 
his  reign,  one  of  these  strongholds  frowned  upon  every  town  of  im- 
portance in  the  Island.  Yet  he  did  not  rely  on  force  alone.  He 
attached  the  English  to  himself  by  protecting  them  with  good  laws. 
Gradually  they  came  to  see  that  even  stern  rule  and  oppressive  taxes 
accompanied  by  peace  and  prosperity  were  better  than  lax  rule  where 
anarchy  had  full  play.  The  popular  support  once  gained  proved  a 
stanch  prop  for  monarchy  for  over  a  century. 

Checks  on  the  Baronage^  —  The  baronage  were  held  in  check, 
partly  by  force  of  Circumstances,  partly  by  William's  courage,  energy, 
and  wise  foresight.  Though  he  granted  enormous  estates  to  some, 
the  lands  composing  them  were  scattered  throughout  the  land.  Yet 
this  was  due  to  accident  rather  than  to  design,  to  the  piecemeal  char- 
acter of  the  conquest,  and  to  the  fact  that  they  had  been  so  held  under 
their  former  owners.  Intentionally,  however,  he  broke  up  the  four 
great  earldoms  which  had  been  such  a  source  of  weakness  to  the  kings 
of  the  later  Anglo-Saxon  period.  If  he  granted  broad  lands  and 
quasi-regal  rights,  which  came  to  be  known  as  jaaJcUjjie^unsdictions, 
to  some  trusted  officials  such  as  the  Earls  of  Kent,_Hereford,  Chester, 

1  The  usual  story  is  that  Judith  coveted  his  land  and  that  William  wanted  to 
rid  himself  of  "the  last  of  his  English  earls;"  but  the  death  sentence  was  in  accord 
with  the  Anglo-Saxon  law  of  treason. 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN  KINGS  79 

Shrewsbury  and  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  this  was  for  the  defense 
of  his  borders.  In  general,  iFwasThis  aim  to  keep  the  administration 
in  the  hands  of  the  sheriffs,  and  to  reduce  the  earls  to  a  merely  titular 
position.  By  retaining  the  local  machinery  and  also  by  keeping  up 
the  national  militia,  he  held  a  strong  counterpoise  to  baronial  rule  and 
the  feudal  army. 

JWilliam  and  the  Church.  —  Another  body  of  men  whom  William 
attached  to  himself  were  ffie  Churchmen,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  he 
sought  to  detach  them  from  secular  interests.  During  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period  the  Church  had  been  closely  bound  up  with  the  ordinary 
system  of  government.  Bishops  had  been  appointed  by  the  King, 
with  the  consent  of  the  Witan ;  bishops  had  sat  in  this  body  and  in 
the  shire  court;  also,  with  some  exceptions,  cases  involving  clergy- 
men and  Church  business  had  been  tried  there.  William  changed  all 
this.  He  appointed  great  prelates  on  his  own  authority,  and  he 
issued  an  ordinance  providing  that  henceforth  ecclesiastical  persons 
and  causes  should  not  be  tried  in  the  secular  courts,  but  in  those  of 
the  bishop.  In  so  doing  he  was,  he  thought,  acting  in  the  interests 
of  the  Church  and  also  of  himself.  He  hoped  to  free  the  clergy  from 
the  control  of  those  whose  lives  they  were  seeking  to  reform  and 
save,  and,  by  drawing  them  away  from  the  laity,  to  bind  them 
more  closely  to  him  as  King.  The  result,  in  the  long  run,  was  un- 
fortunate ;  it  tended  to  foster  an  exclusive  privileged  class,  and 
opened  a  quarrel  between  two  conflicting  jurisdictions  which  lasted 
for  centuries. 

Clerical  Appointments.  —  In  his  episcopal  appointments,  with  one 
notable  exception  —  the  saintly  Wulfstan  of  Worcester,  deservedly 
remembered  for  his  efforts  to  suppress  the  slave  trade  —  William 
displaced  Englishmen  for  Normans.  Yet  these  foreign  prelates  stood 
as  stoutly  against  the  baronage  as  their  predecessors  would  have 
done  to  preserve  their  lands  and  privileges.  To  fill  the  office  of 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  King  chose  Lanfranc,  a  sagacious 
and  learned  Italian,  who  had  studied  law  in  his  native  Pavia.  Later, 
he  entered  the  Church  and  went  to  Normandy,  where  he  made  the 
abbey  of  Bee  famous  as  a  center  of  learning.  He  won  William's 
favor  by  his  wit  and  good  humor.  The  Duke  had  ordered  him  to 
depart  from  Bee  for  opposing  his  marriage  with  Matilda.  As  he  was 
riding  away  on  a  lame  horse  he  met  the  author  of  his  exile  and  said : 
"  I  am  going  out  of  the  province,  in  accordance  with  your  order,  and 
if  you  will  kindly  give  me  a  better  horse  I  will  obey  your  command 
more  speedily."  William  was  so  pleased  that  he  forgave  him  and 
made  him  Abbot  of  his  new  foundation  at  Caen,  whence  he  promoted 
him  to  Canterbury.  Doubtless  William's  motives  in  excluding 
Englishmen  were  partly  political,  to  fill  their  places  with  his  sup- 
porters. Yet  there  was  more  to  it  than  that.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
Church  had  not  kept  pace  with  those  of  the  Continent  in  learning,  and 
was  low  in  morals  as  well.  Aided  by  the  advice  of  his  new  councilors, 


8o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

William  worked  sincerely  to  secure  bishops  and  abbots  who  would 
work  for  better  things.  In  some  cases  the  choice  was  unfortunate ; 
for  instance,  in  that  of  the  harsh  and  oppressive  Thurstan  of  Canter- 
bury, who,  when  his  monks  refused  to  accept  a  new  form  of  chanting, 
called  in  his  Norman  archers  and  shot  them  down  even  at  the  altar. 
It  is  good  to  know  that  William  removed  him  when  the  matter  came 
to  his  ears.  In  general,  the  influence  of  the  new  dynasty  was  dis- 
tinctly good  for  the  Church.  Clergymen  who  lived  under  monastic 
rule  were  forced  to  put  away  their  wives ;  parish  priests  who  had  wives 
might  keep  them,  though  no  more  married  priests  would  be  chosen. 
Monasteries  once  more  became  the  centers  of  learning  and  culture. 
Many  new  churches  and  abbeys  were  built  in  the  Norman  style  of 
architecture.  In  order  to  increase  the  influence  of  bishops,  many 
of  their  seats  which  had  hitherto  been  in  country  villages  were  re- 
moved to  populous  towns. 

Relations  with  the  Papacy.  —  While  William  had  given  as  one  of 
the  reasons  for  his  invasion  the  desire  to  vindicate  the  power  of  the 
Papacy  against  Stigand  and  while  he  desired  to  be  the  Pope's  cham- 
pion and  friend,  he  was  prepared  to  resist  to  the  utmost  any  papal 
encroachment  on  his  authority  or  independence.  In  1074  Hildebrand, 
who  had  long  been  the  power  behind  the  throne,  became  supreme 
pontiff  as  Gregory  VII.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  advocates  in 
history  of  papal  authority,  and,  particularly,  of  the  three  Cluniac 
reforms:  celibacy,  simony,  and  investiture.  The  latter  question 
did  not  come  up  for  settlement  till  the  reign  of  his  sons,  but  William 
was  of  one  mind  with  Gregory  on  the  matter  of  clerical  marriages 
and  the  sale  of  church  offices.  On  the  other  hand,  as  against  the 
claims  of  the  Pope,  he  laid  down  three  principles  which  defined  the 
position  of  English  sovereigns  for  some  time  to  come.  These  were : 
that  no  Pope  should  be  recognized  or  no  papal  letters  should  be  re- 
ceived without  his  permission ;  that  no  decrees  of  ecclesiastical  as- 
semblies should  be  passed  without  his  consent ;  and  that  no  tenant 
in  chief  of  the  Crown  should  be  excommunicated  without  his  orders. 
His  son  William  Rufus  would  admit  no  papal  legate  without  a  royal 
license.  Yet,  if  William  was  arbitrary  in  his  relations  with  the  Church 
he  did  not  abuse  his  powers ;  but  sought  to  protect  its  rights  and  to 
raise  the  tone  of  its  life. 

The  Old  Anglo-Saxon  Laws  retained  with  a  Few  Innovations.  — 
Really  a  conqueror,  William's  constant  assertion  was  that  he  came 
to  rule  as  the  legitimate  successor  of  the  old  royal  line ;  and,  as  far 
as  possible,  he  allowed  the  English  to  retain  their  manners,  customs, 
and  institutions.  This  is  seen  in  his  legislation :  "I  recommend  that 
all  men  have  and  hold  the  law  of  Edward  with  those  additions  which 
I  have  ordained  for  the  advantage  of  the  English  people."  His 
innovations  were  few;  chief  among  them  the  ordinance  separating 
the  lay  and  spiritual  courts.  Then,  he  did  away  with  death  penalties, 
though  the  mutilations  he  allowed  in  their  stead  must  have  been  far 


THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  KINGS  81 

more  cruel.  A  new  form  of  ordeal,  the  judicial  jx^mbat^jvas  intro- 
duced mainly  for  the  benefit  of  his  Normans.  A  curious  device  for 
their  protection,  which  came  to  be  used  as  a  means  of  royal  extortion, 
was  the  responsibility  of  the  hundred  or  presentment  of  Englishry. 
It  provided  that  if  a  man  were  murdered,  the  hundred  where  itTiap-  ~ 
pened  had  to  pay  a  heavy  fine,  unless  they  could  find  the  assassin  or 
prove  that  the  victim  were  an  Englishman.  Another  innovation  of 
William  was  the  enactments  regarding  the  forests,  for  the  so-called 
.forest  laws  of  Cnut^are  a  forgery  of  the  twelfth  century.  William 
and  his  sons  were  passionately  fond  of  hunting  and  reserved  large 
tracts  of  land  for  their  pastime.  These  lands  were  usually,  though 
not  necessarily,  wooded ;  but  any  tract  of  Crown  land  reserved  for 
royal  hunting  was  called  a  forest.  We  are  told  that  William  "  loved 
the  tall  stags  as  if  he  had  been  their  father : "  however,  there  were 
many  considerations  beside  mere  love  of  sport,  that  made  his  suc- 
cessors cling  so  tenaciously  to  their  forest  rights.  They  yielded  the 
Crown  a  revenue  —  for  rights  of  cutting  wood  and  pasturing,  chiefly 
of  swine,  were  sold ;  they  gave  the  king  an  excuse  for  keeping  a  large 
force  of  armed  men  which  could  be  used  for  a  royal  army  in  time  of 
need ;  finally,  they  took  large  areas  out  of  the  pale  of  the  common  or 
traditional  law  so  that  the  king  had  at  his  disposal  special  courts 
and  special  law  as  tools  of  his  arbitrary  will.  William's  penalty  for 
hunting  the  royal  deer  was  loss  of  eyes,  while  Cnut's  (which  probably 
reflect  conditions  shortly  after  his  time)  prescribe  the  penalty  of 
death  for  killing  a  stag.  The  process  of  afforesting,  which  withdrew 
much  land  from  cultivation,  was  a  serious  grievance  to  the  people. 
In  recent  years  much  of  this  land  has  been  sold  or  turned  over  to 
agriculture.  That  which  remains  as  Crown  land  still  furnishes  a 
considerable  item  of  public  revenue. 

The  Domesday  Survey,  1085.  —  If  William  gave  his  people  good 
laws,  he  was  determined  they  should  pay  for  them ;  one  of  the  most 
frequently  reiterated  complaints  of  the  reign  is  that  of  Jieayy  taxation. 
An  important  item  of  revenue  was  the  Danegeld  of  two  shillings  a 
hide,  which  was  revived  in  1084.  (in  order  to  estimate  the  resources 
of  the  country  for  purposes  of  taxation  we  find  him  having  "  much 
thought  and  deep  speech"  with  his  Witan  at  Gloucester,  in  1085, 
over  the  state  of  the  country  and  its  population.}  In  consequence,  he 
determined  on  a  great  survey  or  official  inquiry;  the  results  of  which 
were  embodied  in  a  report  known  as  the  Domesday  Book.  Many 
guesses  have  been  made  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  name,  the  most 
generally  accepted  being  that  it  arose  from  the  belief  that,  like  the 
great  Day  of  Judgment,  the  survey  would  spare  none.  The  Chronicle 
records  in  1085  that  the  King :  "  Sent  his  men  over  all  England,  into 
every  shire,  and  caused  them  to  ascertain  how  many  hundred  hides  of 
land  it  contained,  and  what  lands  the  King  possessed  therein,  what 
cattle  there  were  in  the  several  counties,  and  how  much  revenue  he 
ought  to  receive  from  each.  He  also  caused  them  to  write  down 


82  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

how  much  land  belonged  to  his  archbishops,  to  his  bishops,  his  abbots, 
and  his  earls,  and,  that  I  may  be  brief,  what  property  every  inhabitant 
of  all  England  possessed  in  land  or  in  cattle,  and  how  much  money 
this  was  worth.  So  very  narrowly  did  he  cause  the  survey  to  be 
made,  that  there  was  not  a  single  hide  nor  a  rood  of  land,  nor  —  it  is 
shameful  to  relate  that  which  he  thought  no  shame  to  do  —  was  there 
an  ox,  or  a  cow,  or  a  pig  passed  by."  The  methods  employed  by  the 
royal  commissioners  were  to  visit  not  only  the  shires,  but  every  hun- 
dred in  the  shire  and  to  take  testimony  on  oath  from  those  best  quali- 
fied to  give  it,  the  landowners,  the  priests,  the  bailiffs  and  six  villeins 
from  each  township  or  manor.  The  four  counties  of  Lancashire, 
Cumberland,  Westmoreland,  and  Northumberland  were  not  included. 
Besides  getting  the  information  he  sought,  the  Conqueror  has  left 
to  posterity,  in  the  Domesday  Book,  "  a  great  rate  book  or  tax  roll, 
a  land  register,  a  military  register,  a  census  of  population,  and  topo- 
graphical dictionary."  But  it  must  be  said  that,  suggestive  as  it  is 
for  the  economic  and  political  conditions  of  the  time,  it  raises  fully  as 
many  questions  as  it  answers. 

The.  Oath  on  Salisbury  Plain,  1086. — The  importance  of  the 
great  gemot  which  William  held  on  Salisbury  Plain  in  the  following 
year  has  doubtless  been  much  exaggerated.  We  are  told  that  "  there 
came  to  him  his  Witan  and  all  the  landsittende  (land  owning),  men  of 
substance  that  were  all  over  England,  whosesoever  men  they  were 
and  all  bowed  down  to  him,  and  became  his  men,  and  swore_oaths  of 
jgalty  to  him  that  they  would  be  faithful  to  him  against  aH  men." 
This  has  often  been  cited  as  one  of  the  sources  of  strength  of  the  Nor- 
man kings :  that  in  this  assembly  the  landowners  were  all  bound 
by  a  direct  ojth  toJWilliajiL,  But  no  innovation  was  introduced, 
for,  doubtless7~such  oathshad  been  exacted  all  through  the  reign ; 
moreover,  it  is  quite  unlikely  that  all  the  landowners  in  England  could 
be  brought  together  at  this  single  assembly.1 

Last  Years  and  Death,  1087.  —  Of  William's  last  years  little  re- 
mains to  be  said.  He  had  to  face  revolt  from  Robert,  his  eldest  son 
(known  as  "  Curthose"  from  his  short,  squat  figure).  Robert  was  a 
young  man,  affable,  courageous,  and  skillful  in  athletics  and  martial 
exercises,  but  lavish,  weak,  and  dissipated.  Discontented  because 
his  father  denied  him  power  corresponding  with  his  station  and  ex- 
pectations, he  was  egged  on  by  many  unruly  nobles  who  hoped  to 
profit  by  discord,  and  by  the  King  of  France,  who  was  always  looking 
for  a  chance  to  extend  his  territories.  His  first  outbreak  occurred  in 
1087,  provoked  by  a  jest  of  Robert's  brothers,  William  and  Henry. 
They  were  with  the  King  on  one  of  his  expeditions  against  a  local 

1  Two  errors  are  prevalent  with  regard  to  William.  According  to  one,  the  cur- 
few was  introduced  by  him  as  a  special  measure  to  keep  the  English  down ;  but 
it  existed  earlier ;  it  was,  indeed,  a  police  measure  throughout  medieval  Europe : 
nor  did  he  introduce  the  Norman-French  language  into  the  English  law  courts; 
that  probably  did  not  occur  until  the  reign  of  Henry  III,  over  a  century  later. 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  83 

enemy.  William  and  Henry  occupied  the  rooms  above  Robert  and 
as  a  joke  poured  water  through  the  floor.  During  the  night  the  in- 
sulted Robert  decamped  and  attempted  to  seize  the  castle  of  Rouen. 
After  two  or  three  years  of  wandering  and  desultory  fighting,  father 
and  son  were  reconciled,  but  Robert  was  always  ready  when  occasion 
offered  to  cause  his  father  trouble.  The  King's  final  campaign  came 
in  the  summer  of  1087.  In  the  course  of  a  border  war  with  Philip 
of  France  he  met  with  an  accident,  at  the  capture  of  Mantes,  which 
proved  fatal.  He  was  taken  back  to  Rouen,  where  he  lingered  six 
weeks.  Before  his  death  he  divided  his  kingdom,  assigning  Normandy 
to  his  eldest  son  Robert,  and  England  to  William  Rufus.  To  Henry 
he  gave  5000  pounds  of  silver  with  the  prophecy,  it  is  said,  that  in 
due  time  he  would  get  all  his  father  had.  William  was  buried  in  his 
foundation  of  St.  Stephen's  at  Caen,  but  not  before  a  knight  had  been 
satisfied,  who  appeared  at  the  service  and  claimed  the  land  on  which 
the  abbey  stood  as  unjustly  seized  from  his  father. 

Character  and  Rule.  —  William,  the  conqueror  of  England  and 
founder  of  a  new  line  of  kings,  was  a  man  to  inspire  awe.  Of  more 
than  average  height  and  exceeding  stoutness,  heavy  voiced,  and  of 
enormous  strength,  he  was  a  "  very  stern  and  wrathful  man,  so  that 
none  durst  do  anything  against  him."  He  was  harsh,  despotic,  and 
avaricious,  "  took  from  his  subjects  many  marks  of  gold,  and  many 
hundred  pounds  of  silver,  and  this  with  or  without  right  and  with 
little  need."  He  sold  his  lands  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  if  another 
came,  he  ruthlessly  set  aside  the  earlier  claims.  He  built  castles  and 
garrisoned  them ;  he  appropriated  much  land  for  his  forests.  But 
withal  he  was  "  a  very  wise  and  a  great  man,"  and  more  honored  and 
more  powerful  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  He  was  "  mild  to  those 
good  men  who  loved  God,  but  severe  beyond  measure  to  those  who 
withstood  his  will,"  and  if  he  was  a  foreign  conqueror,  he  preserved 
the  forms  of  the  old  English  system,  and  if  he  was  "  sharp  sighted  to 
his  own  interest,"  the  establishment  of  his  power  was  good  for  Eng- 
land; for  he  put  an  end  to  those  disruptive  tendencies  which  stood 
in  the  way  of  national  organization  and  laid  the  foundations  of  a 
strong,  orderly  government  which  is  the  necessary  basis  of  freedom, 
prosperity,  and  progress.  Englishmen  saw  that  his  supremacy  was 
a  necessary  safeguard,  both  against  the  lawlessness  of  the  self-seeking 
nobles  contending  for  supremacy  and  the  anarchy  of  the  discontented 
people.  "  Among  other  things  the  good  order  that  William  estab- 
lished is  not  to  be  forgotten ;  it  was  such  that  any  man,  who  was  him- 
self aught,  might  travel  over  the  kingdom  with  a  bosom  full  of  gold 
unmolested,  and  no  man  durst  kill  another,  however  great  the  injury 
he  might  have  received  from  him."  William  could  show  himself 
pitilessly  cruel  on  occasion ;  but  it  was  for  a  purpose  and  not  from 
mere  caprice.  On  the  other  hand,  his  friendship  for  men  like  Lan- 
franc  and  Anselm,  who  figures  so  largely  in  the  next  reign,  shows  that 
his  austerity  was  tempered  by  gentler  traits. 


84  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Results  of  the  Norman  Conquest.  —  The  Norman  Conquest  was 
deep  and  far-reaching  in  its  results.  In  the  first  place,  it  brought 
in  a  new  line  of  foreign  kings  who  were,  for  three  successive  reigns, 
men  of  vigor  and  energy,  and  who  were  supported  by  an  armed  force 
bound  to  them  by  close  and  special  ties.  Thus  fortified,  they  not 
only  crushed  out  the  local  differences  which  had  marked  the  earlier 
period ;  but,  by  preserving  whatever  was  best  in  the  old  system,  they 
paved  the  way  for  the  combination  of  central  unity  and  local  inde- 
pendence which  survives  to-day  as  the  most  characteristic  feature 
of  the  English  government.  Although  their  aim  was  primarily  to 
strengthen  their  own  position,  the  peace  and  order  which  they  pre- 
served made  for  progress.  Moreover,  the  infusion  of  a  new  racial 
element,  combining  the  vigor  of  the  primitive  Northmen  and  the 
alertness  of  the  latinized  Frenchman,  tended  to  vivify  and  broaden 
the  sluggish  and  narrow  national  character.  Finally,  by  bringing 
remote  England  into  closer  connection  with  the  Continent  it  opened 
the  way  for  the  intellectual  and  cultivating  influences  of  the  centers 
of  older  and  higher  civilization.1 

Anglo-Norman  Feudalism.  —  Doubtless  the  most  significant  change 
of  all  was  the  introduction  of  a  well-organized  form  of  feudal  tenure 
where  feudal  tendencies  only  had  hitherto  existed.  Feudalism  is  a 
greatly  overworked  word  used  to  describe  conditions,  by  no  means 
identical,  which  prevailed  in  England,  France,  and  Germany  from  the 
eighth  to  the  fifteenth  centuries.  It  has  been  well  said  that,  applied  to 
this  period,  it  means  as  much  or  as  little  as  the  term  "  representative 
government "  would  mean  when  employed  to  describe  the  forms  existing 
in  any  of  our  modern  countries.  "  Feudalism  comprises  both  a  system 
of  land  tenure  and  a  system  of  government " ;  it  was  the  form  of 
political  and  social  organization  which,  by  the  eleventh  century,  had 
become  general  among  the  peoples  of  western  Europe.  It  was  an 
arrangement  by  which  the  various  relations  between  man  and  man 
were  determined  according  to  the  amount  of  land  held  by  one  or 
another.  At  the  top  of  the  scale  stood  the  lord  or  suzerain  in  whom 
the  title  or  ownership  of  the  land  was  vested.  Those  to  whom  he  gave 
the  use  of  it  were  called  vassals ;  lord  and  vassal  were  each  bound  by 
specified  obligations,  the  lord  to  protect  and  defend  his  vassal,  the 
vassal  to  render  service  to  his  lord.  The  commonest  form  of  service 
rendered  was  military.  Usually  there  were  several  intermediate  lords 
and  vassals  between  the  suzerain  and  the  small  cultivator.  In  a  thor- 
oughly feudalized  state  the  king  was  at  the  top  of  the  scale.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  the  greater  lords  held  themselves  practically 
independent  of  their  nominal  ruler  and  led  their  own  armies  and  judged 
and  taxed  their  own  dependents.  Feudal  elements  had  existed  in 
Anglo-Saxon  England.  The  thegns  or  manorial  lords  granted  lands 
in  return  for  service,  and  exercised  jurisdiction  over  their  dependents ; 

1  But  see  Oman,  England  before  the  Norman  Conquest,  648-651,  who  inclines  to 
minimize  the  benefits  of  the  Conquest. 


THE  ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  85 

but  their  relation  to  the  Crown  was  not  feudal ;  they  received  lands 
not  as  a  condition  of  future  service,  but  as  a  reward  for  past  services. 
Their  ownership  was  absolute ;  for,  although  they  furnished  armies 
for  their  King,  they  did  not  do  so  by  virtue  of  any  contract  or  agreement 
based  on  their  land  grant.  What  William  did  was  to  fuse  these  ele- 
ments into  a  single  whole.  He  made  himself  the  supreme  landowner  of 
every  foot  of  English  soil.  Each  new  grant  was  made  conditional  on 
service  rendered,  and  every  Englishman  whom  he  allowed  to  remain 
in  possession  had  to  yield  his  title  to  the  King  and  promise  service 
likewise.  Generally  the  grant  was  made  in  return  for  an  agreement 
on  the  part  of  the  landlord  to  furnish  the  King  with  a  specified  number 
of  fully  armed  knights  to  serve  him  in  his  foreign  campaigns  for  a 
stated  period  each  year  —  usually  forty  days.  If  the  grant  were 
large  enough,  the  tenant  in  chief  would  subdivide  the  land,  and  this 
process  might  be  repeated  again  and  again.  The  unit  of  service 
was  called  a  knight's  fee.  It  was  usually  five  hides  in  extent;  but 
might  be  larger  and  might  be  smaller,  depending  on  the  value  of  the 
land.  In  later  times  the  knight's  fee  was  estimated  on  the  basis  of 
its  annual  income,  first  £20  and  then  £40. 

Feudal  Incidents,  and  Other  Obligations.  —  Certain  obligations 
came  to  attach  to  all  military  tenures.  The  overlord  had  the  right  of 
acting  as  guardian  and  of  collecting  the  revenues  of  the  estate,  during 
the  time  when  the  heir  was  under  age.  This  was  known  as  wardship. 
When  the  young  lord  entered  into  possession,  he  had  to  pay  a  fine_ 
known  as  relief.  By  the  right  of  marriage,  the  lord  could  determine 
when  an  heiress  might  marry,  and  might  demand  payment  for  allowing 
her  to  take  a  husband  of  her  own  choice.  These  rights  were  defensible 
when  land  was  granted  in  return  for  military  service;  for  during  a 
minority  the  estate  contributed  no  defender  to  the  land,  and  it  was 
decidedly  against  the  King's  interest  to  allow  an  heiress  td  marry  an 
enemy  or  a  weakling.  Escheat  was  another  right  reserved  to  the 
sovereign,  by  virtue  of  which  the  estate  reverted  to  him  when  the 
line  to  whom  it  was  granted  died  out.  Then  the  King  could  claim  the 
right  of  forfeiture  for  any  offense  which  a  vassal  might  happen  to 
commit  against  feudal  law.  These  obligations  attached  to  a  military 
tenure  were  called  incidents..  Besides  the  incidents,  there  were  certain 
payments,  known  asaids^jvhich  the  lord  could  claim  at  crises.  During 
the  twelfth  century,  threeof  these  became  customary:  oneJor  knighting 
.the  King's  eldest  son,  another  for  marrying  his  eldest  daughter,  and  a 
third  to  ransom  him  in  case  he  fell  into  captivity.  Another  effect  of  feu- 
dalism was  to^devetop  a  form  of  inheritance,  known  as  primogeniture, 
by  which  the  lands  came  to  descend  to  the  eldest  son.  The  old  Anglo- 
Saxon  custom  of  equal  division  among  heirs,  known  as  gavelkind,  was 
not  suited  to  a  system  where  the  main  function  of  an  estate  was  to 
furnish  an  instrument  of  military  defense,  and  it  did  not  survive  to 
any  extent,  except  in  Kent.  The  feudal  theory  even  came  to  exercise 
an  effect  on  the  royal  succession.  Although  the  form  of  election 


86  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

continued,  the  .crown  began  to  be  regarded  more  as  a  hereditary  posses- 
sion, and  one  of  William's  sons  even  tried  to  hand  it  over  to  his  daugh- 
ter. William  carefully  avoided  the  evils  of  continental  feudalism, 
where  the  landlords  were  independent  rulers  and  the  King  was  naught. 
By  establishing,  as  he  did,  feudalism  as  a  form  of  land  tenure,  and  by 
preventing  it  from  becoming  a  system  of  government,  he  made  it  a 
source  of  strength  rather  than  weakness ;  for  he  was  supreme  landowner 
as  well  as  King,  and  got  thereby  much  revenue  and  an  additional  army. 

Royal  Revenues.  The  Magnum  Concilium. — It  was  partly  because 
he  wished  to  pose  as  the  successor  of  Edward,  partly  because  he 
wished  to  have  resources  independent  of  his  feudal  vassals,  that  William 
kept  up  the  national  taxes,  the  national  militia,  and  the  national 
courts.  Besides  the  feudal  revenues  and  the  Danegeld,  he  had  the 
county  farm,  a  lump  sum  paid  in  by  the  sheriffs,  who  in  their  turn 
collected  the  rents  from  the  royal  manors  in  their  county  and  fees 
from  the  courts  of  the  hundred  and  shire.  Further  sources  of  Crown 
revenue  were  profits  from  cases  settled  in  the  Great  Council,  and  cer- 
tain miscellaneous  receipts,  such  as  those  from  forests  and  mines, 
murder  fines,  royal  licenses  to  Jews,  and  taxes,  later  called  tallages, 
from  towns  on  the  royal  domain.  The  old  National  Assembly  (of  the 
great  men  of  the  realm)  continued  to  meet  usually  three  times  a 
year  on  Easter  at  Winchester,  on  Whitsuntide  at  Westminster,  and 
on  Christmas  at  Gloucester.  But  some  changes  were  introduced ;  for 
instance,  the  name  was  changed  ;  it  came  to  be  spoken  of  as  the  Great 
Council  (Magnum  Concilium)  or  King's  Court  (Curia  Regis).  Also, 
where  it  formerly  consisted  of  Englishmen,  it  now  consisted  largely  of 
Normans.  Finally,  although  practically  all  of  the  same  classes 
attended  as  in  Anglo-Saxon  times,  the  bishops  and  great  landed  nobles 
came,  not  by  virtue  of  their  office,  but  as  tenants  in  chief  of  the  Crown. 
Although  in  theory  their  old  powers  were  retained,  in  fact  the  King 
was  practically  supreme  in  legislation  and  taxation.  All  judicial 
cases  that  were  not  tried  in  the  private  courts  of  the  manor  or  borough, 
or  in  the  courts  of  the  hundred  and  shire  and  the  church  courts  went 
to  the  Great  Council.  Indeed  great  men  and  great  causes  were  tried 
here  in  the  first  instance. 

The  Conquest  and  the  Manorial  System.  —  The  new  feudal  organi- 
zation was  not  without  its  effect  on  the  manorial  system  and  the  de- 
pjendent  cultivators.  In  the  first  place,  it  tended  to  alter  the  character 
of  the  latter's  military  obligations.  Formerly,  he  had  owed  labor 
services  and  rent  to  his  lord  and  military  service  as  a  king's  subject. 
Now  he  was  called  on  to  render  military  duties  through  his  lord  as  a 
condition  of  cultivating.  Knight's  fees  came  to  approximate  to 
manors,  forming  parts  of  the  larger  or  including  one  or  two  more  of 
the  smaller.  A  second  result  was  to  accelerate  the  downfall  of 
slavery.  The  influence  of  the  Church  must  not  be  forgotten,  par- 
ticularly in  improving  the  slave's  lot  and  in  doing  away  with  traffic  be- 
yond the  seas;  but  the  gradual  disappearance  of  slavery  itself  was 


THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  KINGS  87 

largely  due  to  the  feudal  theory,  which  had  no  place  for  any  being 
absolutely  without  rights.  The  feudal  law,  among  other  things, 
allowed  slaves  escaping  to  town  to  have  their  freedom,  if  they  remained 
a  year  and  a  day.  The  towns,  however,  seldom  welcomed  fugitive 
serfs,  and  made  use  of  the  laws  mainly  to  protect  burgesses  against 
old  claims. 

The  Ma.nor  as  a  Judicial  and  Agrarian  Unit.  —  As  time  went  on,  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  lord  of  the  manor  increased  more  and  more,  and 
developed  under  three  distinct  aspects.  This  process  of  development 
was  probably  not  complete  before  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Civil  cases,  where  the  law  of  the  land  was  involved  in  connection  with 
freemen,  wrere  dealt  with  in  a  session  of  the  tenants,  known  as  the 
court  baron,  where  two  freeholders  had  to  be  present.  Where  serfs 
or  villeins  alone  were  involved  and  the  common  law  did  not  enter, 
the  session  was  called  a  court  customary,  from  the  fact  that  the 
cases  were  decided  according  to  the  custom  of  the  manor.  Criminal 
cases  were  dealt  with  in  a  session  known  as  the  court  leet.  The  manor 
was  usually  the  unit  of  private  jurisdiction.  There  was  no  system  of 
great  seigniorial  courts,  as  on  the  Continent,  where  appeals  were 
regularly  carried  from  the  lord's  lower  courts.  \However,  there  were 
a  few  'Vhonours  "  or_"  liberties  "  that  originated  before  the  Conquest 
in  a  royal  grant  to  ^pme  great  noble,  with  jurisdiction  over  several 
manors  or  hundreds)  In  general,  the  power  of  the  sheriff  was  en- 
couraged as  a  counterpoise  to  the  great  barons,  and  it  increased  with 
the  decline  of  the  earls  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  bishops  from  the 
shire  courts.  But  the  sheriffs  became  in  their  turn  local  magnates, 
and  were,  in  course  of  time,  largely  superseded  in  their  judicial,  ad- 
ministrative, and  military  duties  by  the  King's  judges,  by  justices  of 
the  peace,  and  by  the  lords  lieutenants.  The  lord  of  a  manor  was 
represented  in  his  judicial  and  administrative  business  by  his  steward 
or  bailiff,  and  often  did  not  live  continuously  on  any  one  of  his  estates. 
The  manors  were  still  isolated  rural  communities,  as  they  had  been  in 
the  previous  period,  and  continued  so  for  centuries  to  come.  The 
tenants  rendered  their  services  of  labor  and  paid  rents  chiefly  in 
produce.  Little  or  no  money  was  yet  in  local  circulation.  Methods 
of  agriculture  remained  primitive,  and  there  was  much  unclaimed  or 
waste  land.  The  older  districts  of  the  southeast,  which  were  the  most 
fertile,  contained  the  greater  part  of  the  population ;  the  north  and  west 
were  wild,  barren,  and  sparsely  settled.  It  is  estimated  that  less  than 
half  the  present  area  capable  of  cultivation  was  in  use.  Nearly  half 
the  total  crop  was  wheat,  though  the  product  of  oats  and  barley  was 
considerable.  There  were  some  vegetables,  but  no  root  crops.  The 
system  of  scattered  holdings  and  common  cultivation  still  prevailed. 
Marling  was  the  only  wTay  of  fertilizing  the  soil.  Orchards  were 
frequent,  and  thirty-eight  vineyards  are  mentioned  in  Domesday 
Book.  Bees  were  kept  to  a  considerable  extent  because  the  honey 
was  used  for  sugar,  and  dairy  produce  and  poultry  formed  staple 


88  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

articles  of  diet.  The  state  of  public  health  was  probably  better  than 
on  the  Continent.  There  was  some  leprosy,  though  not  as  much  as 
is  sometimes  supposed.  Skin  diseases,  due  to  the  absence  of  fresh  vege- 
tables and  the  excessive  use  of  fish  and  meat,  were  common.  There 
was  no  St.  Anthony's  fire  so  prevalent  in  France,  for  black  bread  made 
from  rye  was  not  eaten. 

Towns  after  the  Conquest.  —  The  great  majority  of  the  towns, 
about  three  quarters,  indeed,  were  agricultural.  Most  of  the  eighty 
mentioned  in  Domesday  Book  were  merely  villages.  The  flourishing 
centers  of  trade  as  a  rule  were  the  seaports.  London  and  Southamp- 
ton controlled  the  trade  of  southern  England  with  the  Continent ; 
Norwich  was  the  center  of  the  eastern  traffic  and  Bristol  of  the  trade 
with  Ireland.  Many  towns,  such  as  York,  Lincoln,  Winchester,  and 
Oxford,  developed  from  early  fortifications.  From  one  point  of  view, 
though  temporarily,  the  towns  suffered  from  the  Conquest,  when  the 
population  fell  off  about  one  half.  The  reason  for  this  was  that 
castles  were  established  in  their  midst  or  rebuilt,  the  townsmen  were 
burdened  with  garrisons,  and  often  their  houses  were  cleared  away 
to  make  room  for  fortifications.  Nevertheless,  the  ultimate  result  of 
the  Conquest  was  favorable  to  town  growth.  Foreign  commerce  was 
extended  by  closer  relations  with  the  Continent  and  internal  trade 
was  fostered  by  the  better  peace  that  the  strong  kings  of  the  Norman 
line  were  able  to  impose. 

The  Population  and  Classes.  —  The  population  at  the  period  of  the 
Conquest  was  probably  about  300,000  families  or  2,000,000  souls. 
In  round  numbers,  the  agricultural  population  was  divided  by  tenure 
into  10,000  nobles  and  gentry,  of  whom  1500  were  tenants  in  chief; 
35,000  small  freeholders;  200,000  serfs  of  various  degrees  of  depend- 
ence ;  and  25,000  bondsmen.  The  remainder  of  the  300,000  were  made 
up  of  burgesses  and  lower  clergy.  Most  of  the  tenants  in  chief,  and 
even  of  the  more  considerable  under  tenants,  were  Frenchmen ;  but  the 
two  races  soon  fused  by  intermarriage,  and  the  distinction  between 
Englishmen  and  Frenchmen  came  to  be  the  one  between  the  King's 
subjects  on  either  side  of  the  Channel  rather  than  one  between  Saxons 
and  Normans  settled  in  England. 

Language  and  Literature.  —  French  chiefly  was  spoken  at  the 
King's  court,  in  the  castle  and  the  manor  house,  while  English  was  the 
tongue  of  the  humbler  folk.  Laws,  charters,  writs,  records  of  judicial 
decisions,  and  the  writings  of  the  learned  were  in  Latin.  It  was  not  till 
the  thirteenth  century  that  French  came  to  be  the  language  of  the 
statutes  and  to  be  employed  by  the  legal  class.  The  expulsion  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons  from  the  higher  offices  in  Church  and  State  checked  the 
growth  of  a  literature  in  the  native  tongue,  though  one  version  of  the  A  n- 
glo-Saxon  Chronicle  was  continued  to  1 1 54.  The  story  of  the  victory 
of  Senlac  was  recorded  nearly  a  century  after  the  event,  by  Wace  of 
Jersey  in  his  French  epic,  the  Roman  de  Rou,  a  history  of  the  Norman 
•  '"'".ing  house.  The  style  is  simple,  direct,  and  unadorned,  for  Wace 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  89 

was  a  historian  rather  than  a  poet.  The  Normans  as  a  race  were 
practical  and  serious  rather  than  romantic,  and  most  of  their  writing 
in  this  period  is  either  religious  or  historical.  Lanfranc,  among 
other  things,  wrote  a  treatise  against  the  heresy  of  Berengar  of  Tours. 
Anselm,  who  succeeded  him,  wrote  a  long  series  of  philosophical, 
theological,  and  devotional  works,  which  combine,  to  a  rare  degree, 
acumen  and  originality  with  spiritual  elevation  and  sweetness.  A 
prevailing  interest  of  the  time  is  shown  in  the  number  of  lives  of  saints 
which  appeared.  The  historical  writers  are,  in  the  main,  mere  annal- 
ists, copying  their  earlier  matter  from  their  predecessors,  and  chiefly 
valuable  for  their  rather  bald  records  of  their  own  day.  Among  them 
are  Ordericus  Vitalis,  a  monk  of  Evereul ;  Florence,  a  monk  of  Worces- 
ter, Henry,  Archdeacon  of  Huntingdon,  and  William  of  Malmesbury. 
Ordericus  wrote  with  some  imagination  and  vividness,  though  he 
was  inaccurate  in  detail  and  chaotic  in  method.  William  of  Malmes- 
bury was  the  first  writer  since  Bede  to  organize  his  material  and  to 
discuss  cause  and  effect ;  in  other  words,  he  was  the  first  of  the  Anglo- 
Normans  who  was  a  historian  rather  than  a  chronicler.  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth,  a  Welshman,  collected  old  Celtic  legends  and  is  the 
source  of  ijJuch  medieval  romance.  From  him,  in  part,  the  stories 
of  Arthur  and  Merlin  were  handed  down,  and  to  him  we  owe  the  plot 
of  Shakespeare's  King  Lear. 

_.  Anglo-Norman  Architecture.  —  Although  a  new  architectural  move- 
ment was  on  foot  at  least  as  early  as  Edward  the  Confessor,  it  received 
a  marked  impulse  from  the  Conquest.  Almost  invariably  the  Normans 
began  rebuilding  the  cathedrals  and  abbeys  of  the  conquered  Saxons. 
Both  peoples  used  the  so-called  Romanesque  style,  but,  while  the 
older  edifices  were  of  wood,  in  most  instances  the  new  church  buildings 
were  of  stone.  Very  simple,  austere,  and  impressive  they  were,  with 
their  low  square  towers  and , round  arches  supported  bv  heavy  piers 
and  columns! Their  vast  proportions  were  not  so  much  to  produce 
an  impression  of  grandeur  and  strength  as  for  a  practical  reason ;  they 
feared  for  the  endurance  of  their  mortar.  Early  in  the  twelfth  century 
the  introduction  of  a  new  type  came  with  the  appearance  of  the  pointed 
arch.  This  new  style  came  to  be  known  as  the  Gothic  or  Early  English. 
It  did  not  at  once  supersede  the  Romanesque ;  for  the  old  and  the 
new  continued  side  by  side  all  through  the  century.  Even  more 
notable,  was  the  development  oj  castle  building.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
strongholds  were  simple  mounds  of  earth  surrounded  by  a  moat  and  a 
palisade.  The  Normans  introduced  the  square  rectangular  keep  or 
tower  of  stone.  Gradually,  as  the  art  of  defense  progressed,  outer 
walls  were  added  and  were  strengthened  by  gate  towers.  Projecting 
galleries  were  built  writh  openings  in  the  floor  to  command  the  ditch 
which  was  dug  as  a  further  defense.  Within  the  inclosure  other 
towers  were  built  to  sweep  the  invaders  by  a  cross  fire.  Siege  engines 
were  at  first  very  primitive  and  ineffective,  so  the  chief  way  to  reduce 
a  castle  was  by  starvation.  The  earliest  castles,  during  the  twelfth 


90  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

and  thirteenth  centuries,  were  fortresses  rather  than  places  of  residence, 
and  castle  guard  was  an  obligation  due  from  lesser  men  to  the  barons 
and  the  King.  There  was  little  advance  in  domestic  architecture  dur- 
ing the  period  immediately  following  the  Conquest.  Commercial 
development,  too,  must  have  been  slow  at  first ;  for  the  silver  penny 
for  some  time  was  the  only  coin  struck. 

William  Rufus,  1087-1100.  Character  and  Policy.- — The  new 
King,  William  II,  was  crowned  by  Lanfranc  in  London  without  any  for- 
mal election.  He  was  about  twenty-eight  or  twenty-nine  years  of  age, 
short  and  corpulent,  and  of  great  bodily  strength.  He  got  his  name 
of  "  Rufus  "  from  his  ruddy  face.  Owing  to  the  Conqueror's  policy 
of  excluding  his  sons  from  any  share  in  the  government  during  his 
lifetime,  his  successor  came  to  the  throne  quite  inexperienced  in  public 
affairs.  One  of  his  few  redeeming  features  was  the  respect  which  he 
retained  for  his  father's  memory,  and  Lanfranc,  during  the  two  years 
that  he  continued  to  live,  held  him  in  some  restraint.  William  showed 
considerable  abilities  as  a  soldier  and  in  keeping  the  people  on  his  side. 
He  could  be  generous  on  occasion,  and  was  not  very  cruel  for  the  age 
in  which  he  lived.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  capricious,  unable  to 
stick  to  any  principle  or  policy,  and  inordinately  wasteful.1  (The  King's 
prodigality  explains  his  greediness  in  extorting  money  and  supplies 
from  his  subjects)  it  is  related  that  people  fled  to  the  woods  when  he 
drew  near,  to  save  what  they  could.  Worst  of  all  was  the_viciousness 
pLhis  personal  life  and  his  blasphemy.  His  father  had  been  so  austere 
in  his  morals  and  so  strict  in  the*  observance  of  his  religious  duties 
that  the  contrast  was  all  the  more  striking.  Even  the  fashions  indi- 
cate the  departure  from  the  simpler  and  soberer  ideals  of  the  past 
reign.  The  courtiers  began  to  let  their  hair  grow  long,  Curled  and 
bound  with  ribbons ;  they  wore  garments  like  women ;  they  affected 
a  feminine,  mincing  gait,  and  adopted  shoes  with  long  curved  points 
like  rams'  horns  or  scorpions'  tails.  They  passed  their  nights  in 
"  drinking  and  revelry,"  and  it  was  said  of  William  that  "  he  every 
morning  got  up  a  worse  man  than  he  lay  down  and  every  evening  lay 
down  a  worse  man  than  he  got  up."  He  "  openly  mocked  at  God  and 
the  saints,"  and  he  favored  Jews,  who  had  first  come  over  in  his  father's 
time  from  Rouen ;  not,  however,  in  any  broad  spirit  of  tolerance,  but  to 
annoy  Christians,  and  to  use  them  like  sponges  to  suck  money  from  his  v 
subjects  and  to  squeeze  it  from  them  into  his  own  coffers.  He  did 
not  regard  it  as  wrong  to  break  his  word  to  his  own  people  or  to 
foreign  princes ;  yet,  in  accordance  with  the  new  artificial  code  known 
as  chivalry  which  was  just  coming  in,  he  observed  scrupulously  every 
promise  which  he  made  as  a  knight  and  a  gentleman. 

1  A  well-known  story,  which  may  or  may  not  be  true,  illustrates  his  reputation 
as  a  spendthrift.  His  chamberlain  once  bought  him  a  pair  of  boots.  William  asked 
the  price ;  when  he  was  told  three  shillings,  he  contemptuously  ordered  the  servant 
to  take  them  away  and  bring  a  pair  worth  a  mark  of  silver.  The  servant  brought 
a  cheaper  pair  and  pocketed  the  difference. 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  91 

Resistance  of  the  Norman  Barons.  —  The  English  seemed  to  have 
welcomed  him  at  his  accession ;  but  the  Norman  lords  who  had  estates 
on  both  sides  of  the  water  preferred  the  rule  of  his  weaker  brother 
Robert,  and  broke  out  in  revolt  early  in  1088.  Robert  was  too  much 
occupied  with  his  duchy  of  Normandy  to  come  in  person,  and  the  rebel 
forces  were  led  by  the  Conqueror's  half-brother  Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux. 
William,  partly  by  his  energy,  partly  by  the  support  of  some  of  the 
barons  whose  estates  were  wholly  in  England,  managed  to  overcome 
his  enemies.  A  chief  source  of  strength  was  the  support  of  the  English 
people,  to  whom,  in  an  assembly  where  he  had  laid  "  his  necessities  be- 
fore them  and  entreated  their  assistance,"  he  had  promised  "  the  best 
law  that  had  ever  been  in  this  land ;  all  unright  gelds  he  forbade,  and 
to  each  man  he  gave  his  woods  and  his  hunting."  Once  triumphant, 
he  imitated  the  discretion  of  his  father,  welcomed  the  submission  of 
his  enemies,  and  was  particularly  mild  to  those  who  might  be  danger- 
ous. Already,  at  his  coronation,  he  had  sought  popularity  in  another 
quarter  by  gifts  to  the  Church  and  poor.  In  1091,  he  made  terms  with 
Robert  by  which  each  agreed,  in  the  event  of  the  other's  death  without 
heirs,  to  unite  the  dominions  of  both.  This  same  year  he  received  the 
homage  of  Malcolm  of  Scotland,  and,  in  1092,  in  the  teeth  of  the  pro- 
tests of  the  Scotch  King,  proceeded  to  annex  Cumberland. 

Ranulf  Flambard.  — •  Meantime  Lanfranc  had  died  in  1089,  and 
William's  rule  changed  for  the  worse.  He  took  as  his  chief  adviser 
Ranulf.  or  Ralph,  known  as  "Flambard."  the  "  Fiery  Torch  that 
licked  up  everything."  Although  of  humble  birth  and  loose  personal 
habits,  Flambard  was  audacious  and  aspiring.  By  virtue  of  his  business 
ability  he  had  won  the  favor  of  the  Conqueror  and  risen  to  the  position 
of  royal  chaplain.  As  Rufus's  chief  minister  or  treasurer  he  managed 
all  the  financial  and  judicial  business  of  the  realm,  and  was  rewarded  in 
1099  with  the  bishopric  of  Durham.  His  name  is  associated  with 
systematically  fleecing  the  estates  of  royal  tenants.  While  he  did  not 
originate,  he  carried  to  greater  lengths  than  ever  before  the  exactions 
known  as  feudal  incidents,  requiring  particularly  exorbitant  reliefs 
from  incoming  heirs.  More  than  this,  he  extended  his  extortions  to 
the  possessions  of  the  Church,  shamelessly  selling  offices  and  keeping 
bishoprics  and  abbacies  vacant  in  order  to  collect  their  revenues  for 
the  king.  The  see  of  Canterbury  was  not  filled  for  four  years,  and  at 
the  close  of  the  reign  three  bishoprics  and  eleven  abbeys  were  at  rent. 

Anselm  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  1093.  —  In  1093,  William 
was  overtaken  by  a  serious  illness,  and,  face  to  face  with  death,  he 
momentarily  repented  of  his  evil  ways.  "  He  made  many  promises 
to  God  in  his  trouble,  his  own  life  he  would  lead  aright,  and  God's 
churches  in  protection  and  peace  keep,  and  nevermore  for  fee  sell  them  : 
and  all  right  laws  would  he  among  his  people  have."  As  an  earnest 
of  his  upright  intention,  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  fill  the  archbishopric 
of  Canterbury.  The  man  selected  was  Anselm  —  good  and  upright, 
of  great  learning,  and  "  amongst  the  most  noted  of  his  time."  A 


92  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

native  of  Aosta  in  southern  Burgundy,  he  became  a  pupil  of  Lanfranc 
at  Bee,  succeeded  him  in  the  office  of  prior,  and  later  rose  to  be  abbot. 
Doubtless  the  greatest  scholar  in  theology  of  the  period,  he  was  much 
interested  in  education,  even  of  young  boys,  and  once  administered  a 
wise  reproof  to  an  abbot  who  sought  to  spur  his  pupils  by  flogging. 
He  accepted  the  high  office  with  the  greatest  unwillingness.  The 
pastoral  staff  was  literally  forced  into  his  hands  and  he  was  carried 
bodily  into  the  chapel  for  consecration.  He  stood  for  high  ideals, 
and  realizing  that  by  nature  and  training  he  was  unfitted  for  the  rough 
work  before  him,  he  protested  to  the  bishops  and  nobles  that  they 
were  "  seeking  to  yoke  a  young  unbroken  bull  to  a  weak  old  sheep," 
adding,  "  the  Church  plow  needs  a  better  matched  pair  than  that." 
Events  proved  his  foresight ;  a  conflict  was  inevitable.  He  was 
right  in  contending  that  the  Church  which  stood  for  the  moral  and  edu- 
cational improvement  of  man  should  be  independent  of  unscrupulous 
and  self-seeking  laymen.  The  baseness  and  profanity  of  the  King 
cannot  be  too  much  insisted  upon,  but  underlying  all  of  William's 
unworthy  motives  was  a  principle  that  future  history  would  justify. 
The  Church  was  not  a  purely  spiritual  institution,  and  its  bishops  and 
other  officials  were  not  purely  spiritual ;  they  controlled  large  estates 
and  larger  powers,  which  must  be  subordinate  to  the  central  powers  if 
national  independence  and  unity  and  order  were  to  be  preserved. 

Conflict  between  the  King  and  Archbishop.  —  The  King  soon  re- 
covered from  his  illness,  "  repented  of  his  repentance,"  and  resumed 
his  evil  courses,  his  tyranny,  and  his  profanity.  "  The  Lord,"  he  said, 
"  will  get  no  good  of  me  for  the  ill  that  he  sent  me."  Anselm 
stood  squarely  against  him,  and  a  series  of  struggles  arose.  They 
all  contributed  to  the  main  issue  as  to  whether  the  Archbishop  and 
the  Church  which  he  represented  should  be  independent  of  royal 
control.  He  resisted  William's  attempt  to  seize  certain  lands  belong- 
ing to  the  see  of  Canterbury,  he  refused  to  contribute  more  than  500 
marks  for  a  Norman  war  for  which  the  Red  King  was  preparing, 
and  he  sought  to  hold  a  synod  for  the  reformation  of  manners. 

Moreover,  there  were  two  rival  candidates  for  the  Papacy,  and  Wil- 
liam refused  to  recognise  Urban  II,  whom  Anselm  supported.  The 
conflict  became  acute  in  1095,  when  the  Archbishop  asked  permission 
to  go  to  Rome  to  get  his  pall,  or  symbol  of  archiepiscopal  authority, 
from  Urban.  William  refused  because  it  would  commit  him  to  the 
candidate  whom  he  had  never  accepted.  In  the  same  year  a  council 
was  held  at  Rockingham  to  decide  whether  the  Archbishop's  duty  to 
the  King  and  to  the  Pope  conflicted.  Although  no  agreement  was 
reached,  Anselm  boldly  declared  that  he  would  render  to  Caesar  the 
things  that  were  Caesar's,  and  to  God  the  things  that  were  God's. 
He  showed  his  composure  by  falling  asleep  while  the  King  was  deciding 
what  answer  to  send  him.  The  King  then  sought  to  gain  a  point  by 
sending  secretly  and  acknowledging  Urban,  but  he  failed  to  get  Anselm 
to  accept  the  pallium  from  his  own  hands.  The  Archbishop  took  it 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  93 

from  the  altar  in  the  usual  way,  although  he  did  agree  to  observe  the 
laws  and  customs  of  the  realm,  in  so  far  as  he  could  without  prejudic- 
ing his  allegiance  to  the  Holy  See.  After  another  conflict,  in  1097, 
over  his  refusal  to  furnish  a  contingent  for  a  campaign  in  Wales, 
Anselm  obtained  the  grudging  permission  of  the  King  to  go  to  Rome. 
With  a  pilgrim's  scrip  and  staff  he  left  the  country,  never  to  return 
until  a  new  king  was  on  the  throne. 

The  First  Crusade,  1096.  —  Meantime,  a  movement  was  on  foot 
which  relieved  Rufus  of  danger  from  his  brother  Robert  during  the 
remainder  of  his  reign.  Peter  of  Amiens  and  Urban  II  were  preaching 
a  Crusade,  the  first  of  many,  to  recover  the  Holy  Sepulcher  at  Jerusalem 
from  the  Seljuk  Turks  who  had  taken  the  city  in  1077.  Among  the 
nobles  of  western  Europe  who  joined  in  this  enterprise  was  the  Duke 
of  Normandy.  So  poor  that  he  often  had  to  stay  in  bed  for  lack  of 
clothes,  he  mortgaged  his  duchy  to  his  brother  Rufus  in  return  for 
10,000  marks.  He  took  with  him  many  younger  sons  and  allies  who 
from  lack  of  estates  were  likely  to  foment  discord,  and  left  William 
free  to  pursue  his  plans  undisturbed.  Among  his  companions  was 
the  restless  Odo  of  Bayeux,  who  died  at  Palermo.  The  year  that  the 
Crusade  was  preparing,  1095,  a  rising  occurred  in  England  under  the 
powerful  Robert  of  Mowbray,  Earl  of  Northumberland.  Notwith- 
standing troubles  in  Wales,  where  he  was  much  occupied  during  the 
reign,  William  was  able  to  put  it  down.  In  contrast  to  his  mildness  in 
1088,  he  punished  the  ringleaders  with  merciless  severity.  Mowbray, 
to  be  sure,  got  off  with  imprisonment,  but  those  who  were  implicated 
with  him  were  brutally  mutilated. 

Death  of  William  Rufus,  noo.  --The  Red  King's  last  years  were 
spent  mainly  in  trying  to  extend  his  power  in  the  Norman  duchy 
which  he  was  holding  in  pawn.  But  England,  shocked  by  his  wicked- 
ness and  burdened  by  taxation,  was  growing  weary  of  him.  In  August, 
noo,  he  was  shot  by  an  arrow  while  hunting  in  the  New  Forest,  a 
peculiarly  fatal  place  for  the  line  of  William  the  Conqueror,  since 
two  others  besides  Rufus  met  their  death  here.  It  seems  most  likely 
that  the  shooting  was  accidental,  though  Walter  Tirel,  a  favorite 
courtier,  was  charged  with  murder.  The  event  was  said  to  have  been 
foretold  by  all  manner  of  visions  and  portents.  William's  epitaph  in 
the  Chronicle  is  a  scathing  estimate :  "  He  was  very  powerful  and 
stern  over  his  lands  and  subjects,  and  towards  all  his  neighbors,  and 
much  to  be  dreaded,  and  through  the  counsels  of  evil  men,  which  were 
always  pleasing  to  him,  and  through  his  own  avarice  he  was  ever 
vexing  the  people  with  armies  and  with  cruel  taxes,  for  in  his  days  all 
justice  sank,  and  all  unrighteousness  arose,  in  the  Light  of  God  and 
the  World.  He  trampled  on  the  Church  of  God  ...  for  he  desired 
to  be  the  heir  of  every  one,  Churchman  or  layman  .  .  .  and  in  fine 
...  all  that  was  abominable  to  God  and  oppressive  to  men  was  com- 
mon in  this  island  in  William's  time ;  and  therefore  he  was  hated  by 
almost  all  his  people,  and  abhorred  by  God  as  his  end  showeth,  in 


94  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

that  he  died  in  the  midst  of  his  unrighteousness,  without  repentance 
or  any  reparation  made  for  his  evil  deeds."  Against  this  can  only 
be  set  the  good  peace  that  he  kept.  When  it  was  found  that  he  was 
really  dead,  the  nobles  of  the  hunting  party  fled  to  Winchester,  each 
to  look  after  his  own  interests.  His  body  was  brought  to  the  city 
by  the  foresters  and  buried  without  religious  rites. 

Henry  I,  1100-1135.  His  Charter  of  Liberties.  — Henry,  the  Con- 
queror's youngest  son  and  the  one  in  whom  he  had  the  greatest  con- 
fidence, was  one  of  those  who  hastened  to  Winchester.  He  managed 
to  seize  the  keys  of  the  royal  hoard.  In  spite  of  the  claims  of  his 
elder  brother  Robert,  he  was  accepted  by  the  leading  men  on  the  spot 
and  was  crowned  soon  after  at  Westminster.  In  order  to  attach  his 
people  to  him  the  new  King,  besides  taking  the  customary  coronation 
oath  to  rule  with  justice  and  mercy,  issued  a  Charter  of  Liberties,  in 
which  he  promised  to  do  away  with  the  evil  customs  of  his  brother's 
reign.  The  Church  was  to  be  free,  and  no  profit  was  to  be  taken  from 
vacant  bishoprics  and  abbeys.  Reliefs  from  lay  barons  were  to  be 
just  and  lawful,  and  the  King  was  to  charge  nothing  for  licenses  to 
marry.  Widows  were  not  to  marry  against  their  will.  The  guardian 
of  the  person  and  lands  of  a  minor  should  be  the  mother  or  such  other 
relative  as  should  seem  just.  As  the  King  dealt  with  his  tenants  so 
should  they  deal  with  those  under  them.  All  the  King's  men  were  to 
dispose  freely  of  their  money,  and,  if  prevented,  their  relations  or  other 
qualified  persons  might  dispose  of  it.  Just  fines  were  to  be  taken 
from  offending  tenants  in  place  of  the  excessive  exactions  of  the  two 
Williams.  Military  tenants  were  to  be  freed  from  all  payments  and 
labor  except  armed  service.  Firm  peace  wras  to  be  established  and 
maintained,  and  the  laws  qf  Edward  the  Confessor,  with  the  Con- 
queror's improvements,  wrere  to  be  retained.  The  new  King,  however, 
was  firm  on  one  point :  the  forests  were  to  be  retained  as  the  old 
King  had  had  them.  Such  was."  the  parent  of  all  later  charters." 
It  marks  the  first  check  on  the  despotism  founded  by  the  Con- 
queror and  carried  to  such  a  height  by  the  Red  King.  Although 
its  promises  were  often  broken,  the  fact  that  Henry  felt  it  even 
worth  while  to  make  them  is  significant,  and  they  were  used  as 
the  precedent  in  exacting  from  King  John  over  a  century  later  the 
momentous  b' ody  of  concessions  known  as  Magna  Charta  or  the  Great 
Charter.  \  As  a  further  guarantee  of  his  intention  to  undo  the  wrongs 
of  his  brother's  reign,  Henry  recalled  Anselm,  filled  vacant  bishoprics 
and  abbeys,  and  sent  Flambard  to  the  Tower.  He  chose  for  his  wife 
Edith,  daughter  of  Malcolm  and  Margaret  of  Scotland  and  niece  of 
Eadgar  the  ^Etheling. )  In  this  way  the  Norman  was  united  to  the 
old  English  line.  Although  the  barons  looked  at  the  alliance  with 
contempt,  it  pleased  the  people.  As  a  concession,  however,  to  Norman 
usage  the  Queen's  name  was  changed  to  Matilda. 

Rising  of  the  Barons,  1101.  —  Within  a  month  after  Henry's 
coronation  Robert  returned  from  the  Holy  Land.  He  had  only  been 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  95 

home  a  short  time  when  he  was  induced  to  invade  England  and 
contest  with  Henry  for  the  crown.  Flambard,  who  had  escaped 
from  the  Tower,  was  particularly  active  in  egging  him  on;  but 
probably  the  representations  of  his  Norman  vassals  resident  in  Eng- 
land carried  the  most  weight.  If  the  Church  and  the  people  had  not 
stood  by  Henry,  he  would  have  been  forced  to  yield.  As  it  was  he 
gained  a  victory  by  diplomacy  rather  than  force.  After  Robert  had 
succeeded  in  landing  unexpectedly  at  Portsmouth,  in  1101,  he  met  him 
at  Alton  and  persuaded  him  to  give  up  his  claims  to  the  English 
throne  in  return  for  a  yearly  pension  of  3000  marks  and  a  concession  of 
all  but  one  of  his  Norman  possessions.  The  brothers  further  agreed 
each  to  name  the  other  his  heir,  and  to  assist  one  another  in  the 
punishment  of  traitors.  Henry,  thus  strengthened,  at  once  pro- 
ceeded against  those  who  had  been  unfaithful  to  him.  Chief  among 
them  was  Robert  of  Belleme,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury.  He  was  forced 
into  premature  revolt  by  grave  charges  of  misgovernment  and 
oppression,  was  overcome  and  driven  out  of  the  country,  in  1102, 
forfeiting  his  vast  English  possessions  to  the  King.  Henry  was  now 
supreme  at  home,  and  for  "  three  and  thirty  years  he  ruled  England 
in  peace  .  .  .  nor  in  all  those  years  durst  any  man  hold  a  court 
against  him." 

Henry's  Conquest  of  Normandy,  1106.  —  But  Normandy  was  ruled 
by  the  unstable  Robert,  and  formed  a  refuge  for  the  disaffected  who 
might  at  any  time  organize  another  invasion  into  England.  More- 
over, English  subjects  who  had  estates  in  Normandy  were  constantly 
exposed  to  attacks  from  Henry's  enemies,  and  Robert  was  either 
unwilling  or  unable  to  protect  them.  Making  use  of  complaints 
against  these  disorders,  Henry  finally  led  an  expedition  across  the 
Channel  in  1106,  defeated  his  brother's  Norman  army  at  Tinchebrai, 
took  Robert  prisoner,  and  appropriated  the  duchy,  which  remained  an 
English  possession  for  nearly  a  hundred  years.  The  Duke  Robert 
was  taken  to  England  and  held  a  prisoner  till  he  finally  died  in  Cardiff 
Castle  in  1134.  Robert  of  Belleme,  the  main  cause  of  the  trouble,  was 
pardoned,  but  seized  six  years  later,  and  he  also  died  in  prison.  By 
"  the  only  generous  indiscretion  of  his  life  "  Henry  refused  to  take  in 
custody  the  young  son  of  Duke  Robert,  who  served  as  a  weapon  in  the 
hands  of  the  King's  enemies  till  his  death  in  1128. 

Compromise  with  Anselm,  1106. — This  same  year,  1106,  was 
marked  by  a  final  agreement  in  the  matter  of  filling  episcopal  offices. 
There  were  several  stages  in  the  process,  election,  homage  to  the  King 
for  temporal  possessions,  investiture  —  the  conferring  of  the  ring  and 
the  staff,  which  were  spiritual  symbols  of  the  bishop's  marriage  to  the 
Church  and  his  assumption  of  the  pastoral  office  —  and  consecration. 
Anselm,  on  his  return,  had  refused  to  repeat  the  homage  for  the  lands 
of  Canterbury  which  he  had  rendered  to  Rufus,  and  he  also  refused  to 
consecrate  bishops  who  had  received  investiture  in  his  absence.  As  an 
obedient  follower  of  the  Pope  he  could  do  nothing  else ;  for  during 


96  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

his  exile  he  had  attended  a  Lateran  Council  in  Rome,  which  had  for- 
bidden clergymen  to  receive  lay  investiture  or  do  homage  to  a  layman. 
Henry  was  firm  and  Anselm  was  firm ;  repeated  embassies  were  sent  to 
Rome,  and  finally  the  Archbishop  went  himself.  At  length  the  Pope 
suggested  a  compromise  by  which  the  King  agreed  to  allow  the  ring 
and  staff  to  be  conferred  by  the  Church,  on  condition  that  each  can- 
didate render  homage  for  his  land.  The  victory  was  really  the  King's, 
for  by  refusing  to  receive  homage  he  might  block  any  episcopal  ap- 
pointment that  he  chose.  From  this  time  it  came  to  be  the  custom 
for  the  dean  and  chapter  of  each  cathedral  to  elect  its  bishop,  but, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  elections  had  to  take  place  in  the  royal  chapel 
or  in  the  presence  of  royal  officials,  the  King  really  dictated  the  choice. 

Henry's  Last  Years.  —  During  the  remainder  of  the  reign,  although 
Henry  had  to  deal  with  many  risings  and  continual  disorders  in  Nor- 
mandy, his  chief  interest  was  centered  in  notable  improvements  and 
innovations  in  the  machinery  of  government.  Aside  from  this,  the 
most  notable  event  of  his  last  years  was  his  attempt  to  settle  the  suc- 
cession. In  1 1 20  his  son  and  heir,  William,  was  drowned  in  the  "  White 
Ship,"  crossing  the  Channel.  It  was  a  gay  party  who  paid  the  penalty 
of  drunken  revelry  with  their  lives.  Henry,  if  report  be  true,  fell  to 
the  ground  when  he  heard  the  news,  and  never  smiled  again.  The  only 
heir  left  to  him  was  his  daughter  Matilda,  married  to  Henry  V,  em- 
peror of  Germany.  On  the  death  of  her  husband  she  returned  to 
England,  and,  although  a  woman  had  never  ruled  the  land,  Henry  in 
1127  made  the  barons  swear  to  accept  her  as  his  successor.  In  1129 
he  married  her  to  Geoffrey,  the  son  of  his  enemy,  the  Count  of  Anjou, 
although  she  was  twenty-seven  and  he  was  only  a  boy  of  sixteen.  The 
barons  had  to  swear  allegiance  to  her  again  after  her  marriage,  while 
after  the  birth  of  her  son  Henry,  the  oath  was  repeated  to  him  in  1133. 
Geoffrey  proved  a  troublesome  son-in-law,  and  while  trying  to  bring 
him  to  terms,  Henry  died  in  Normandy  in  1135.  His  death  is  said  to 
have  come  from  eating  too  heartily  of  lampreys  or  eels,  his  favorite 
dish.  He  was  sixty-six  years  old,  an  advanced  age  for  those  times. 

Henry's  Character  and  Policy.  —  Henry  was  a  man  of  scholarly 
tastes,  from  which  he  got  the  name  "  Beauclerk."  Although  affable 
and  witty  he  was  cold  and  calculating,  holding  constantly  in  check 
the  violent  temper  so  characteristic  of  his  family.  Slow  to  make  up 
his  mind,  he  was  quick  and  decided  in  action.  With  ready  insight  he 
saw  that  he  must  hold  down  the  turbulent  barons,  keep  on  good  terms 
with  the  Church,  and  attach  the  people  to  himself  if  he  was  to  rule  as  a 
strong  king.  By  the  orderly  system  of  judicial  and  financial  admin- 
istration which  he  developed  he  was  actuated  by  thrift  and  a  desire  to 
increase  his  resources,  but  he  laid  the  foundation  on  which  the  wisest 
of  his  successors  built,  and  which  have  contributed  so  much  to  the 
stability  of  the  English  nation.  Extortionate  he  was  and  cruel  at 
times.  The  Chronicle  says  of  an  early  period  of  his  reign,  "  It  is  not 
easy  to  describe  the  misery  of  this  land,  which  it  suffered  at  this  time 


THE  ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  97 

through  the  various  and  manifold  oppressions  and  taxes  that  never 
ceased  nor  slackened."  On  one  occasion  forty-four  thieves  were 
hanged  in  a  single  judicial  session,  and,  in  1124,  ninety  debasers  of  the 
coinage  were  "  foully  mutilated."  But  he  gradually  won  for  himself 
the  name  of  the  "  Lion  of  Justice,"  and  the  Chronicle,  no  friendly 
witness,  said  at  his  death,  "  He  was  a  good  man,  and  great  was  the  awe 
of  him ;  no  man  durst  ill  treat  another  in  his  time :  he  made  peace  for 
men  and  deer."  Successful  in  war,  he  was  at  heart  a  statesman  rather 
than  a  warrior;  the  necessary  development  of  England  justifies  his 
campaign  against  Wales  and  Scotland,  and  the  protection  of  his  sub- 
jects across  the  Channel  and  its  close  connection  with  English  affairs 
made  the  reduction  of  Normandy  inevitable.  While  "  selfish  aims 
dictated  "  his  policy,  he  "  gave  peace  and  order  to  his  people,"  and 
the  result  of  his  rule  was  "  better  than  that  of  many  who  are  called 
benefactors." 

Administrative  Machinery.  The  Curia  Regis  and  the  Exchequer.^— 
It  was  after  Henry  had  got  the  baronage  and  Church  in  hand  that  he 
began  to  develop  a  system  of  transacting  the  business  of  government 
which  did  so  much,  not  only  to  increase  the  wealth  and  power  of  the 
Crown,  but  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  country  and  people  as  well. 
In  this  work  he  was  greatly  assisted  by  Roger,  created  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury.1 First  as  Chancellor,  and  then  as  Justiciar,  he  organized  the 
Curia  Regis,  or  King's  Court,  which  served -at  once  as  an  advisory  body, 
a  tribunal  for  important  judicial  decisions,  and  a  treasury  board. 
This  body  was  smaller  than  the  Great  Council  of  the  King's  tenants 
in  chief,  and  sat  longer  and  more  frequently.  It  was  composed  of  the 
great  officers  of  the  royal  household :  th^e  Chamberlain,  the  Constable, 
the  Butler,  and  the  Steward.  These  officers  Tiad  originally  acted~ 
as  servants  to  the  King,  had  made  his  bed,  had  groomed  his  horses, 
poured  his  drink,  and  provided  his  meals.  These  duties  had,  in  course 
of  time,  become  purely  honorary,  had  been  handed  down  from  father 
to  son  in  certain  great  families,  and  were  regarded  as  positions  of  great 
dignity.  Another  class  of  members  were  the  chief  ministers  or  servants 
of  the  Crown  :  the  Tusliciar.  the  Chancellor,  and  the  Treasurer.  The 
justiciar  acted  as  Regent  during  the  King's  absence,  as  his  rigTit-hand 
man  when  he  was  in  the  country,  and  presided  over  the  Curia  Regis. 
The  Chancellor  or  royal  secretary  was  keeper  of  the  royal  records. 
He  got  his  name  from  the  fact  that  he  originally  sat  behind  the  cancelli 
or  bars  of  a  screen.  Gradually  he  became  a  very  important  official, 
was  custodian  of  the  Great  Seal  which  had  to  be  affixed  to  all  the  most 
important  documents,  and  was  consulted  in  the  transaction  of  all 
important  business,  and,  in  course  of  time,  came  to  take  the  place  of  the 
Justiciar.as  the  king's  chief  minister.  The  Treasurer  kept  the  royal 
hoard.  \To  these  three  offices,  new  men,  usually  of  the  clergy,  were 
appointed  and  were  looked  at  askance  by  the  older  nobility^)  In 

1  He  had  first  attracted  Henry's  notice  when  an  obscure  Norman  priest  by  the 
quick  and  businesslike  way  in  which  he  had  said  mass  on  one  of  the  royal  journeys. 


98  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

addition  to  these;  two  groups  of  more  or  less  permanent  members, 
certain  important  men  were  selected  from  time  to  time  from  the 
Great  Council.1  The  members  of  the  Curia  Regis  held  two  financial 
sessions  a  year,  one  at  Easter  and  one  at  Michaelmas  (29  Septem- 
ber), when  they  met  the  sheriffs  from  the  various  counties,  received 
their  rents,  and  went  over  their  accounts.  For  the  sums  paid  in  at 
Easter  the  sheriff  received  a  tally,  which  was  a  stick  notched  in  the 
side  and  marked,  each  notch  indicating  a  certain  number  of  pounds, 
shillings,  or  pence;  after  notches  had  been  cut,  the  stick  was  split 
lengthwise,  the  Government  keeping  one  half  as  a  check  on  the  sheriff. 
(The  court  in  its  financial  session  was  called  the  "  Exchequer,"  from  the 
Latin  word  for  chequers)  The  officials  sat  about  a  table  and  made  up 
their  accounts  by  means  of  counters.  In  moving  these  counters  to 
and  fro  they  looked  as  if  they  were  playing  chequers.2  Another  way 
of  extending  royal  power  over  the  local  districts  was  by  sending  officials 
into  the  different  counties,  who  sat  with  the  sheriffs  in  the  cases  in 
which  the  King  was  concerned,  i.e.  Crown  pleas ;  listened  to  complaints ; 
and  conveyed  the  King's  wishes  to  his  people.  Another,  and  perhaps 
originally  their  most  important  duty,  was  to  see  to  it  that  the  taxes 
due  the  King  were  properly  levied  and  collected.  These  traveling 
representatives  of  the  Crown  were  called  itinerant  justices. 

The  Towns  under  Henry  I.  —  In  spite  of  the  extension  of  the  central 
power  through  the  Curia  Regis,  the  Exchequer,  and  the  itinerant 
justices,  Henry  I  encouraged  the  growth  of  towns  by  allowing  them  a 
measure  of  self-government.  The  borough  courts  were  active  in  the 
exercise  of  their  duties ;  many  boroughs  farmed  their  own  taxes. 
London  and  Lincoln  dealt  directly  with  the  Exchequer,  while,  before 
the  close  of  the  reign,  London  was  granted  the  right  of  electing  its  own 
sheriff.  As  yet  the  towns  were  small  and  unimportant,  still  supple- 
menting their  scanty  trade  and  industry  by  tilling  the  lands  outside 
their  walls.  There  was  little  foreign  commerce.  The  eastern  port 
towns  received  wines  and  some  articles  of  luxury  from  the  Normans 
and  the  cities  along  the  Rhine.  Chester  and  Bristol  sent  corn  and 
luxuries  to  Ireland  in  return  for  furs,  hides,  and  cattle,  and  Englisji 
.sheep  supplied  the  wool  for  Flemish  towns.  London  was  still  so  rural 
that  it  suspended  the  session  of  its  hustings  court  during  the  harvest 
season,  and  is  described  by  foreigners  as  a  city  of  wooden  houses  with 
thatched  roofs,  with  narrow  streets,  "  and  at  night  infested  with 
savage  dogs."  But  the  privileges  granted  by  the  King,  and  the  peace 
and  good  order  attracted  Norman  merchants  and  Jews,  who,  though 
unpopular,  continued  in  the  royal  protection.  From  these  small 
beginnings  may  be  traced  the  growth  of  these  centers  of  trade  and 
local  self-government  that  came,  within  a  century  or  two,  to  play  such 
a  part  in  the  public  life  of  the  land. 

1  The  Great  Council  itself  was  sometimes  known  as  the  Curia  Regis. 

2  The  name  does  not  come,  as  some  have  said,  from  the  fact  that  the  table  was 
covered  with  a  checkered  cloth. 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  99 

English  Life  in  Henry's  Time.  —  On  the  whole,  the  life  of  the  period 
seems  to  have  been  easy  and  joyous.  Chivalry  was  coming  in  with 
its  artificial  distinctions ;  but  class  feeling  was  much  less  marked  than 
elsewhere,  the  common  people  were  contented  with  their  lot.  Hos- 
pitality, charity,  and  love  of  sport  prevailed,  and  the  country  could 
with  truth  be  called  "  Merry  England."  "  Nowhere,"  we  read,  "  are 
faces  more  joyous  at  the  board,  or  hearts  more  eager  to  please."  If 
London  was  small  and  unpretentious,  it  was  the  center  of  jolly  pastimes, 
with  its  cockfights,  football  games,  archery  matches,  foot  races  and 
water  sports,  and  occasional  skating.  Hunting,  feasting,  and  love 
of  dress  are  a  favorite  theme  of  attack  by  austere  ecclesiastics.  In  the 
small  villages  pilgrimages  to  local  shrines,  the  visits  of  wandering 
minstrels,  and  the  numerous  saints  days  furnished  constant  occasion  for 
merrymaking.  In  the  monasteries  there  was  much  good  cheer,  some- 
times we  hear  of  dinners  with  as  many  as  sixteen  courses,  washed  down 
with  copious  draughts  of  wine,  cider,  and  beer. 

The  Monastic  Revival.  —  In  monastic  life,  however,  this  period 
witnessed  the  beginnings  of  an  earnest  revival.  From  the  early  part 
of  the  previous  century  new  orders  had  come  into  being,  as  vital  pro- 
tests against  the  declining  ideals  of  the  Benedictine  and  the  Cluniac 
monks.  Chief  among  these  reformed  orders  was  that  of  the_C_ister-_ 
cians.  Simplicity  and  austerity  were  its  ideals.  Garments  were  to 
be  ot  Ihe  plainest  and  coarsest  sort,  church  ornaments  were  to  be  of 
simple  brass,  iron,  and  painted  wood.  Its  houses  were  to  be  in  lonely 
and  desolate  places.  The  professed  brethren  were  to  devote  themselves 
to  study,  while  lay  brothers  were  to  do  all  the  manual  labor.  In  1128 
the  Cistercians  came  to  England,  and  in  the  succeeding  years  estab- 
lished many  houses,  chiefly  in  the  north,  partly  because  the  south  was 
already  occupied  by  the  older  orders  and  partly  because  they  preferred 
the  remote  and  unpeopled  districts.  Every  one  has  heard  of  Melrose 
Abbey  in  Scotland  and  Fountains  in  Yorkshire,  only  two  among  their 
many  houses.  By  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  there  were  fifty 
Cistercian  houses  in  England.  Their  chief  industrial  pursuit  was 
cattle  and  sheep  raising,  and  the  wool  of  the  Cistercians  became  a_ 
famous  article  of  export.  The  order  of  St.  Gilbert  of  Sempringham, 
which  came  in  aooui  1139,  was  for  both  men  and  women.  Its  founder 
was  an  Englishman,  a  wealthy  and  holy  man  of  Lincolnshire,  who,  in 
spite  of  great  asceticism,  is  said  to  have  lived  to  the  age  of  a  hundred 
and  five  or  six.  Among  the  other  orders  which  appear  at  this  time, 
were  the  Augustinians,  or  Black  Canons,  and  the  Premonstratensians,  or 
White  Canons.  Two  military-religious  orders,  founded  as  a  result  of 
the  crusading  movement,  also  found  their  way  into  England  —  the 
Knights  Hospitallers,  who  furnished  succor  to  sick  and  needy  pilgrims 
on  their  way  to  the  Holy  City,  and  the  Knights  Templars,  who  guarded 
the  roads  to  the  Holy  Land.  Altogether,  well  over  two  hundred  new 
houses  were  founded  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  and  his  two  successors. 
With  increasing  wealth  abuses  crept  in.  The  Cistercians,  for  instance, 


ioo  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

are  accused  of  avarice,  idleness,  luxury,  but  we  must  not  forget  the 
services  they  rendered  in  reclaiming  waste  lands,  furthering  useful 
arts  and  trades,  preserving  and  spreading  learning,  administering 
charity,  and  setting  up  standards  of  living  which,  even  if  not  always 
observed,  were  a  protest  against  the  brutality  and  coarseness  which 
they  saw  about  them.  For  a  period  of  nearly  twenty  years  following 
Henry's  death  such  voices  were  sorely  needed. 

Stephen  received  as  King  of  England,  1135.  —  On  the  death  of 
Henry  I  there  were  three  candidates  for  the  throne :  Matilda,  his 
daughter,  and  the  two  sons  of  his  sister  Adela  —  Theobald  of  Blois 
and  Stephen  of  Boulogne.  Of  these  three,  Matilda  had  unquestionably 
the  best  title,  she  was  the  nearest  heir,  her  father  had  named  her  his 
successor,  and  the  barons  had  sworn  to  accept  her ;  but  Matilda's  sex 
told  against  her,  as  did  her  arrogant  temper  and  her  marriage  with  the 
representative  of  the  Angevin  house,  long  the  declared  enemy  of  Eng- 
lishman and  Norman.  Theobald,  although  accepted  by  the  Normans, 
was  not  recognized  in  England,  and  being  a  timid  and  cautious  man, 
he  withdrew  from  the  race.  Stephen  hastened  to  England.  He  was 
promptly  accepted  by  the  citizens  of  London  in  return  for  his  promises 
to  maintain  peace  and  to  respect  the  liberties  and  privileges  of  the  city. 
He  had  still  stronger  support  in  the  bishops.  At  Winchester,  of  which 
his  brother  was  a  bishop,  he  came  to  terms  with  them,  granting  the 
Church  concessions  in  the  matter  of  elections,  and  jurisdiction  greater 
than  it  had  ever  enjoyed  on  English  soil.  He  then,  by  promises  equally 
lavish,  sought  the  alliance  of  King  David  of  Scotland,  and  Robert, 
Earl  of  Gloucester,  Matilda's  half  brother.  In  addition  to  the  Corona- 
tion Charter  with  its  customary  vague  assurances,  he  issued  another 
in  the  following  year,  1136,  containing  Histinrf.  promises  |n  earh  nf  the 
three  estates :  he  would  not  use  Church  land  for  gain ;  he  would  do 
away  with  the  wrongs  committed  by  the  sheriffs ;  he  would  surrender 
the  forests  made  in  Henry's  reign ;  and  "  observe  the  good  laws  of 
Henry  and  Edward  the  Confessor." 

His  Character  and  Problems.  —  Personally,  Stephen  was  a  man  of 
the  most  popular  and  engaging  qualities,  athletic,  brave,  generous, 
and  affable,  but  totally  incompetent  to  deal  with  the  problems  which 
confronted  him.  He  was  unable  to  fulfill  the  promises  which  he  had  so 
rashly  made,  he  was  not  keen  and  foreseeing  enough  to  anticipate  the 
opposition  which  the  nobility,  turbulent  and  self-seeking  as  ever,  were 
bound  to  manifest.  He  excited  animosity  by  bringing  mercenaries 
into  the  land;  he  weakened  his  position  by  creating  new  earls  and 
allowing  them  to  build  castles.  Aiming,  like  /Ethelred  the  Redeless, 
to  increase  his  supporters,  he  only  added  to  his  difficulties.  In  the 
words  of  the  Chronicle:  "The  more  he  gave  them,  the  worse  they 
always  carried  themselves  toward  him."  In  the  very  first  revolts 
directed  against  him  he  showed  himself  too  easy  to  punish  disaffec- 
tion even  after  he  had  put  it  down.  "  When  the  traitors  perceived 
that  he  was  a  mild  man  and  a  soft,  and  a  good,  and  that  he  did  not 


.  THE   ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  101 

enforce  justice,  they  did  all  wonder.     They  had  done  homage  to  him, 
and  sworn  oaths,  but  they  no  faith  kept." 

His  Attacks  on  Roger  of  Salisbury  and  his  Family,  1139.  —  Like  all 

easy  men,  he  was  capable  of  sudden  acts  of  violence  and  rashness  of 
the  direst  consequence.  Such  a  blunder  he  committed  by  a  foolhardy 
attack  on  Roger  of  Salisbury  and  his  family.  (Between  them  they 
controlled  the  financial  and  judicial  business  of  the  Government.^ 
Old  Roger,  although  he  held  no  office  at  this  time,  was  the  leading 
councilor  of  the  realm.  Roger,  his  son,  was  Chancellor.  Nigel,  a 
nephew,  was  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  To  be  sure,  they  affected  almost 
royal  state,  attending  councils  with  armed  bands,  fortifying  castles, 
and  accumulating  great  wealth  as  well  as  power.  Suddenly  Stephen 
ordered  them  to  surrender  all  their  castles  into  his  hands,  and  when 
they  refused,  arrested  all  the  family,  except  Nigel  of  Ely,  who  fled  to  the 
stronghold  of  Devizes.  Stephen  only  secured  the  castle  and  the 
person  of  Nigel  by  threatening  to  hang  Roger  the  Chancellor.'  The 
King  may  have  been  moved  to  proceed  against  the  house  of  Roger  by 
the  intrigues  of  rival  barons,  he  may  have  feared  that  they  were  com- 
bining against  him  in  favor  of  Matilda,  he  may  have  been  merely 
jealous  of  their  increasing  power  and  pretensions,  but  his  action  was 
Disastrous  in  itsconsequences.  It  threw  the  financial  a^H  judicial 
isystem  into  a  confusion  from  which  it  did  not  recover  till  the  next 
reign,  and  ilalienated  the  Church,  to  whose  position  the  King  owed  his 
support.  Even  his  own  brother,  Bishop  Henry,  declared  against  him. 
The  situation  was  particularly  critical.  Already  Stephen  had  had  to  face 
revolts  in  Norfolk  and  Devon,  a  rising  in  Wales,  and  in  1138  David 
of  Scotland  invaded  England  to  secure  the  earldom  of  Northumber- 
land for  his  son  Henry.  He  was  met  near  Northallerton  by  an  army 
gathered  by  the  dauntless  energy  of  the  Archbishop  of  York.  As  it  was 
accompanied  by  a  car  bearing  the  banners  of  the  patron  saints  of  the 
three  northern  churches  of  Beverley,  Ripon,  and  York,  the  engagement 
is  often  called  the  "  Battle  of  the  Standards."  After  a  fierce  con- 
test, in  which  the  English  arrows  "  buzzed  like  bees  and  flew  like 
rain,"  the  Scots  were  defeated  and  retired  across  the  border.  Yet  in  a 
treaty  made  the  following  spring,  April,  1139,  the  King  yielded  prac- 
tically what  David  had  invaded  England  to  obtain.  Meantime,  the 
southwestern  counties  had  risen  at  the  instigation  of  Robert  of  Glouces- 
ter, who  had  thrown  off  his  allegiance  and  fled  abroad,  alleging  that 
Stephen  was  a  usurper  and  had  not  kept  his  promises  to  him. 

The  Coming  of  Matilda  and  the  Beginning  of  Civil  War,  1139.— 
Such  was  the  situation  when,  in  the  autumn  of  1139,  Robert  and 
Matilda  appeared  in  person.  Their  arrival  converted  the  unrest, 
already  manifest,  into  a  civil  war  which  lasted  for  fourteen  years. 
The  disputed  succession  was  only  a  pretext  which  the  barons  seized 
to  foster  disorder  and  thereby  to  gain  power  and  profit  for  themselves. 
"  All  became  forsworn  and  brake  their  allegiance,  for  every  rich  man 
built  his  castles,  and  defended  them  against  him,  and  they  filled  the 


102  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

land  full  of  castles.  They  greatly  oppressed  the  wretched  people  by 
making  them  work  at  these  castles,  and  when  the  castles  were  finished 
they  filled  them  with  devils  and  evil  men.  Then  they  took  those  whom 
they  suspected  to  have  any  goods  by  night  and  by  day,  seizing  both 
men  and  women,  and  they  put  them  in  prison  for  their  gold  and  silver, 
and  tortured  them  with  pains  unspeakable  for  never  were  any  martyrs 
tormented  as  these  were.  They  hung  some  up  by  their  feet  and 
smoked  them  with  foul  smoke  ;  some  by  their  thumbs,  or  by  the  head, 
and  they  hung  burning  things  at  their  feet.  They  put  a  knotted 
string  about  their  heads  and  twisted  it  till  it  went  into  the  brain. 
They  put  them  into  dungeons  wherein  were  adders  and  snakes  and 
toads,  and  thus  wore  them  out.  .  .  .  Many  thousands  they  exhausted 
with  hunger.  .  .  .  They  were  continually  levying  an  exaction  from 
the  barons  .  .  .  and  when  the  wretched  inhabitants  had  no  more  to 
give,  then  plundered  they,  and  burnt  all  the  barns,  so  that  well  might- 
est  thou  walk  a  whole  day's  journey  nor  ever  shouldest  thou  find  a  man 
seated  in  town,  nor  its  land  tilled."  "  Then  was  corn  dear  and  flesh 
and  cheese,  and  butter,  for  there  was  none  in  the  land  —  wretched  men 
starved  with  hunger  —  some  lived  on  alms  who  had  been  erewhile 
rich :  some  fled  the  country  —  never  was  there  more  misery,  and 
never  acted  heathens  worse  than  these.  At  length  they  spared  neither 
church  nor  churchyard,  but  they  took  all  that  was  valuable  therein, 
and  then  burned  the  church  and  all  together.  Neither  did  they  spare 
the  lands  of  bishops  nor  of  abbots,  nor  of  priests,  and  every  man  plun- 
dered his  neighbor  as  much  as  he  could.  If  two  or  three  men  came 
riding  to  a  town  all  the  township  fled  before  them,  and  thought  that 
they  were  robbers.  The  bishops  and  clergy  were  ever  cursing  them, 
but  this  was  nothing  for  they  were  all  accursed,  and  forsworn,  and 
reprobate.  The  earth  bare  no  corn,  you  might  as  well  have  tilled 
the  sea,  for  the  land  was  all  ruined  by  such  deeds,  and  it  was  said 
openly  that  Christ  and  his  saints  slept."  As  another  writer  of  the 
times  put  it,  "  In  olden  days  there  was  no  king  in  Israel,  and  everyone 
did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes  ;  but  in  England  now  it  was 
worse ;  for  there  was  a  king,  but  impotent,  and  every  man  did  what 
was  wrong  in  his  own  eyes." 

The  Progress  of  the  War.  —  The  two  years  following  the  arrival  of 
Robert  and  Matilda  were  marked  by  a  bewildering  series  of  raids, 
sieges,  and  ravaging  of  towns  ;  but,  in  1141,  the  King  was  defeated  at 
Lincoln  and  captured  by  Earl  Robert,  and  his  son-in-law  Ralph,  Earl 
of  Chester.  He  was  sent  a  prisoner  to  Bristol,  and  Henry  of  Winches- 
ter—  since  1139  papal  legate  —  came  to  terms  with  the  Queen,  on 
condition  that  she  should  consult  him  in  all  matters  of  importance 
and  leave  in  his  hands  the  appointment  of  all  bishops  and  abbots. 
Matilda  was  received  in  Winchester  with  solemn  state,  and  other  im- 
portant places  surrendered  themselves  into  her  hands.  The  Lon- 
doners, who  at  first  had  protested,  were  obliged  to  yield  also.  But 
Matilda  showed  herself  oppressive  and  unbending,  she  exacted  a  heavy 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN  KINGS  103 

tax,  and  canceled  all  the  concessions  which  Stephen  had  made  to  the 
citizens.  Incensed  at  such  treatment,  they  took  arms,  drove  her  out 
and  opened  their  gates  to  the  partisans  of  Stephen.  The  legate 
Henry  deserted  her  cause  and  returned  to  Winchester  to  hold  it  for 
the  King.  Matilda  led  a  force  against  the  city,  but  Henry  slipped  out 
and  brought  an  army  led  by  Stephen's  queen  and  William  of  Ypres, 
his  captain  of  mercenaries,  to  its  relief.  Hard  pressed  between  the 
forces  within  and  without,  the  Empress  was  obliged  to  withdraw,  and 
in  attempting  to  cover  her  flight  Robert  of  Gloucester  was  captured. 
Before  the  end  of  the  year  he  was  exchanged  for  Stephen.  With  the 
balance  thus  restored  the  fight  went  on.  But  year  after  year  Matilda 
lost  ground.  The  death  of  Robert,  in  1147,  deprived  her  of  her  chief 
support,  and,  in  the  following  February,  she  retired  to  Anjou  and  gave 
up  the  struggle.  Yet  her  retirement  neither  gave  peace  to  England  nor 
a  clear  title  to  Stephen.  Her  son  Henry  was  now  fifteen  years  old ; 
he  had  already  been  in  the  country  twice,  once  from  1142  to  1146,  and 
again  in  1147,  and  was  soon  to  return  again  to  contend  for  his  heritage. 
Then  the  barons  in  their  own  interests  were  determined  to  continue 
the  carnival  of  misrule :  "  they  remained  each  man  to  pursue  his  own 
policy  and  fight  his  own  battles.  Every  lord  of  a  castle  was  a  petty 
king,  ruling  his  own  tenants,  coining  his  own  money,  administering  his 
own  justice."  The  infamous  Geoffrey de  Mandeville,  who  had  changed 
sides  half  a  dozen  times,  received  his  death  wound  in  1144.  "  Un- 
shriven  he  had  passed  away,  laden  with  the  curses  of  the  Church,  and 
his  body  no  man  might  bury."  Still  there  were  many  more  equally 
bad,  if  not  so  well  known. 

Geoffrey  of  Anjou  conquers  Normandy.  —  One  great  source  of 
encouragement  to  the  party  opposed  to  Stephen  was  the  conquest  of 
Normandy  by  Geoffrey  of  Anjou.  Steadily  refusing  to  take  any  part 
in  the  English  complications,  he  had  been  persistent  in  his  attacks 
upon  the  duchy  since  the  death  of  Henry  I.  At  first  he  made  little 
progress,  but  at  length  his  perseverance  was  rewarded;  Rouen,  the 
last  great  fortress  to  hold  out,  fell  in  1 144.  Louis  VII,  King  of  France, 
recognized  his  victory  by  investing  him  with  the  dukedom,  and  before 
the  close  of  another  year  he  had  stamped  out  the  last  embers  of  resist- 
ance. 

Treaty  of  Wallingford,  1153.  —  Geoffrey  died  in  1151,  not  yet 
forty  years  old.  Already,  some  months  before,  he  had  handed 
over  the  duchy  of  Normandy  to  his  young  son  Henry.  His  death 
added  to  Henry's  possessions  the  lands  of  Anjou  and  Maine.  By 
marrying,  1152,  Eleanor,  heiress  of  Aquitaine  and  divorced  wife  of 
Louis  of  France,  he  acquired  a  vast  territory  comprising  one  third 
of  the  ancient  Gaul.  His  united  possessions  now  reached  from  "  the 
Channel  to  the  Pyreness."  After  making  a  truce  with  Louis  and 
others  who  had  leagued  themselves  against  this  startling  increase  of 
power,  he  set  out  for  England.  Stephen  made  an  effort  in  which  he 
was  defeated,  mainly  through  the  influence  of  the  Church,  to  secure 


io4  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

the  English  succession  for  his  son  Eustace,  "  an  evil  man  "  who 
"  did  more  harm  than  good  wherever  he  went."  For  a  time 
Stephen  struggled  on  doggedly;  but  when  Eustace  died,  in  1153,  the 
poor  King  really  had  nothing  left  to  fight  for,  since  his  younger  son 
seems  never  to  have  been  considered  as  a  candidate  for  the  throne. 
Consequently,  a  truce  was  arranged  followed  by  a  pacification  at  Win- 
chester. According  to  the  treaty,  commonly  known  as  the  Treaty  of 
Wallingford,  Stephen  was  to  continue  as  King  during  his  lifetime,  while 
Henry  was  recognized  as  his  heir,  and  provisions  were  made  for  putting 
an  end  to  the  disorders  which  had  so  long  prevailed.  Crown  lands 
were  to  be  resumed,  foreign  mercenaries  were  to  be  banished,  all 
castles  built  since  the  death  of  Henry  I  were  to  be  destroyed,  and  Ste- 
phen was  to  consult  his  prospective  heir  in  all  important  acts.  Ste- 
phen died  in  1 1 54,  and  it  was  left  to  a  young  man  of  twenty-one  to  mend 
the  evils  which  had  come  upon  the  land  during  the  nineteen  years' rule 
of  a  man  who  was  as  generous  and  kindly  as  he  was  weak. 

Anarchy.  Extent  of  the  Devastation.  —  During  the  civil  war 
and  the  anarchy  which  accompanied  it  certain  districts  suffered  more 
than  others.  This  was  particularly  true  of  the  Thames  valley,  of  the 
southwest,  and  some  of  the  midland  counties.  Here,  when  the  war 
was  at  its  height,  the  conditions  must  have  been  dreadful.  It  is 
pictured  with  grim  pathos  by  a  chronicler  of  the  time :  "  With  some 
men,"  he  says,  "  love  of  country  was  turned  into  loathing  and  bitter- 
ness, and  they  preferred  to  migrate  to  distant  regions.  Others,  in  the 
hope  of  protection,  built  lowly  huts  of  wattle  work  round  about  the 
churches,  and  so  passed  their  lives  in  fear  and  anguish.  Some  for 
want  of  victuals  fed  upon  strange  and  forbidden  meats,  the  'flesh  of 
dogs  and  horses  ;  others  relieved  their  hunger  by  devouring  unwashed 
and  uncooked  herbs  and  roots.  In  all  the  shires  a  part  of  the  inhabit- 
ants died  in  herds  from  the  stress  of  famine,  while  others,  with  their 
wives  and  children,  went  dismally  into  self-inflicted  exile.  You 
might  behold  villages  of  famous  names  standing  empty  because  the 
country  people,  male  and  female,  young  and  old,  hath  left  them ;  fields 
whitened  with  the  harvest  as  the  year  verged  upon  autumn,  but  the 
cultivators  had  perished  by  famine  and  the  ensuing  pestilence." 

Results  of  the  Reign.  —  At  first  sight,  the  reign  of  Stephen  appears 
to  be  nothing  more  than  a  period  of  anarchy  and  suffering,-  but  it 
brought  the  people  a  useful  lesson,  or  reenforced  an  old  one/that  the 
rule  of  a  strong  King,  harsh  and  despotic  though  he  might  be,  was  to 
be  preferred  to  the  unrestricted  sway  of  local  magnates. )  Viewed  in 
this  light,  the  reign  contributed  as  much  to  strengthen  the  central 
government  against  feudal  independence  as  the  work  of  a  William  the 
Conqueror  or  a  Henry  Beauclerk.  It  was  only  when  peace  and  order 
had  been  secured  in  place  of  anarchy  that  freedom  and  self-government 
could  be  depended  upon.  On  the  other  hand,  the  barons  were  not  the 
only  force  that  threatened  the  unity  and  security  of  the  land.  The 
prevailing  uncertainty,  and  the  aim  of  the  contending  parties  to  secure 


THE   ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS  105 

the  support  of  a  powerful  and  influential  institution,  brought  the  Church 
into  a  position  of  prominence  that  later  kings  had  to  reckon  with. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Freeman,  Norman  Conquest,  IV,  V,  is  still  valuable  for  an  exhaustive  account  of 
the  events  from  1066  to  1154,  though  Freeman  was  inclined  to  minimize  the  effects 
of  the  Conquest,  and  many  of  his  findings  have  been  reversed  by  recent  investigators. 
Briefer  and  more  modern  narratives  are  to  be  found  in  Ramsay,  Foundations  of 
England,  II ;  H.  W.  C.  Davis,  England  under  the  Normans  and  Angcvins  (1905),  chs. 
I-VI,  and  G.  B.  Adams,  Political  History  of  England  (1905),  chs.  I-XI.  Both  of 
the  latter  works  embody  the  results  of  recent  scholarship ;  and  Davis  pays  much 
attention  to  the  non-political  aspects  of  the  period,  presenting  in  ch.  VI  an  interest- 
ing picture  of  conditions  under  the  Anglo-Norman  kings. 

Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  English  Constitution,  I ,  bk.  II,  chs.  I-II ;  Wakeman 
and  Hassall,  Constitutional  Essays,  chs.  II,  III ;  Taswell-Langmead,  English  Con- 
stitutional History,  chs.  II,  III ;  and  White,  Making  of  the  English  Constitution,  pt.  II, 
and  pt.  Ill,  chs.  I,  II,  contain  brief  accounts  of  the  constitutional  aspects  of  the 
subject.  A  more  detailed  treatment  will  be  found  in  Stubbs,  Constitutional  His- 
tory, I,  chs.  IX,  XI.  Good  brief  accounts  of  feudalism  are  given  in  E..  Emerton, 
Introduction  to  the  Middle  Ages  (1891),  ch.  XV;  G.  B.  Adams,  Civilization  during 
the  Middle  Ages  (1898),  ch.  IX,  especially  valuable;  Seignobos  (tr.  E.  W.  Dow), 
Feudal  Regime;  and  J.  H.  Robinson,  History  of  Western  Europe  (1902),  ch.  IX. 
The  feudal  incidents  are  discussed  in  detail  in  Pollock  and  Maitland,  English  Law, 
I,  bk.  II,  ch.  I,  and  J.  S.  McKechnie,  Magna  Carta  (1913),  pp.  52-77.  Pollock  and 
Maitland  treat  Norman  and  Anglo-Norman  Law  in  I,  bk.  I,  chs.  Ill,  IV. 

For  the  Church,  see  Wakeman,  chs.  V,  VI,  Makower,  sees.  4,  5;  and  W.  R.  W. 
Stephens,  English  Church  (1901),  chs.  I-VIII. 

For  social  and  industrial  conditions,  see  Traill,  Social  England,  I,  ch.  Ill ;  Free- 
man, Norman  Conquest,  V,  ch.  XXIV ;  Cunningham,  English  Industry  and  Com- 
merce, I,  bk.  II;  W.  J.  Ashley,  English  Economic  History  (1892),  I;  and  Mary 
Bateson,  Medicctial  England  (1904),  pt.  I;  R.  E.  Prothero,  English  Farming,  Past 
and  Present  (1913),  ch.  I ;  the  most  recent  and  authoritative  work  covering  the  whole 
period  of  English  agriculture. 

References  to  sources  and  for  further  reading :  Davis,  534-544 ;  Adams,  Political 
History,  448-458 ;  and  White,  p.  xxvi. 

Selections  from  the  sources :  Adams  and  Stephens,  Select  Documents  of  English 
Constitutional  History  (1901),  nos.  i-n,  especially  i  and  7. 

THE  ANGLO-NORMAN   KINGS,   1066-1154 

WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR  =  Matilda  of  Flanders 
1066-1087 


Robert,  Duke  WILLIAM  RUFUS,  HENRY  =  Matilda  Adela  =  Stephen  of 

of  Normandy, 
d.  1125 

William, 
d.  1128 


1087-1100                       1100-1135 

d.  inS 

i 

Blois 

William,                Matilda  = 
d.  1120                 d.  1167 

=  (i)  Emperor                Robert  of 
Henry  V                Gloucester 
(2)  Geoffrey 
of  Anjou 

STEPHEN,                                          Henry, 
II3S-HS4                                        Bishop  of 
Winchester 

(2)  HENRY  II, 
1154-1189 

1  Illegitimate. 


106  A  HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 


THE  KINGS  OF  SCOTLAND,  1066-1153 
DUNCAN  I 


MALCOLM  III  =  Margaret,  DONALD  BANE,  1094-1097 

1058-1093          d.  1093 


DUNCAN  I,  EDGAR,  ALEXANDER  I,  Matilda,  DAVID  I, 

1093  1097-1107  1107-1124  d. 1118,  1124-1153 

m.  Henry  I, 
d.  1135 


CHAPTER  VII 

HENRY    II      (1154-1189).      THE     RESTORATION     OF    THE     ROYAL 
POWER  AND  THE  RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  COMMON  LAW 

Henry  II,     Founder  of  the  Angevin  or  Plantagenet  Line.  —  The 
line  of  which  Henry  II  is  the  first  representative  continued  in  unbroken 
succession   for  _two  hundred  and  forty-five  years.     It  is  sometimes 
known  as  the  Angevm  dynasty,  from  the  fact  that  Henry  on  his  father's 
side  descended  from  the  Counts  of  Anjou  ;  sometimes  as  the  Plantag- 
enet, from  the  emblem  of  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  a  sprig  of  broom  (Latin, 
planta  genesta)  which  he  wore  in  his  hat.     The  new  ruler,  a  boy  barely 
turned  twenty-one,  took  up  again  the  good  work  begun  by  his  grand- 
father, which  had  been  all  undone  by  nineteen  years  of  anarchy  .^ 
It  was  his  task  to  subdue  the  barons  under  the  royal  hand,  to  check ^ 
the  growing  power  of  the  Church,  to  bring  its  members  within  the  con-  » 
trol  of  the  State  in  worldly  things,  and  to  attach  the  people  to  their  ^ 
sovereign  by  protecting  them  from  oppression  and  by  advancing  their 
welfare.     If  he  did  not  reach  his  goal,  he  took  the  right  road  and  guided 
the  course  of  events  so  far  that  the  way  was  set  for  the  future. 

Henry's  Character  and  Appearance.  —  Although  of  middle  height, 
Henry's  square  frame,  his  long,  muscular  arms,  his  round  head  crowned 
with  closely  cropped  red  hair,  his  fiery,  freckled  countenance,  his  eyes 
dear  and  gray,  but  bloodshot  and  flashing  like  balls  of  fire  in  moments 
of  anger,  marked  him  as  a  man  of  striking  appearance.  Careless  in 
dress,  he  was  temperate  in  meat  and  drink,  of  feverish  energy  and 
uncommon  endurance.  When  not  engaged  in  war  or  State  business, 
he  was  either  hunting  and  hawking  or  deep  in  a  book  or  in  conversa- 
tion with  some  of  the  learned  men  whom  he  delighted  to  gather  about 
him.  Even  during  mass  he  was  busy  whispering  with  councilors  or 
drawing  little  pictures.  He  never  sat  except  at  meals  or  when  he 
was  on  horseback.  He  was  constantly  on.  the  lookout  for  information ; 
he  never  forgot  a  face  he  had  once  seen  or  a  fact  that  had  once  struck 
his  attention.  He  spoke  only  French  and  Latin,  but  he  knew  some- 
thing of  every  language  "  from  the  Bay  of  Biscay  to  the  Jordan." 
Subject  at  times  to  ungovernable  fits  of  passion,  he  was  generally 
good-humored  and  very  easy  of  access. 

His  Original  Interests  not  Primarily  English.  —  Although  Henry 
had  spent  four  years  of  his  youth  in  England  and  had  paid  occasional 
visits  besides,  he  came  to  the  throne  practically  a  foreigner,  and  appar- 
ently never  learned  to  speak  the  English  language.  Indeed,  England 

107 


io8  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

was  only  a  part  of  the  numerous  territories  which  he  ruled.  At  first 
his  only  interest  in  the  land  was  to  use  it  as  a  source  of  supply  in  defend- 
ing and  rounding  out  his  possessions  across  the  Channel ;  but  after 
he  had  undertaken  the  work  of  developing  his  English  resources  he 
became  more  and  more  interested  in  the  work  for  its  own  sake,  while 
his  original  end  receded  into  the  dim  future.  Nevertheless,  the  con- 
flicting interests  and  local  jealousies  of  the  many  states  which  he  sought 
to  control,  the  intrigues  of  the  French  kings  who  drew  profit  by  stir- 
ring up  strife  against  him,  and  the  later  dissensions  of  his  sons  absorbed 
so  much  of  his  time  and  energy  as  to  keep  him  abroad  more  than  half 
of  his  reign.  This  makes  it  all  the  more  notable  that  his  most  enduring 
work  was  done  in  England. 

Thomas  Becket.  —  He  turned  his  hand  first  to  recovering  what  the 
Crown  had  lost  under  Stephen,  he  resumed  crown  lands,  he  destroyed 
adulterine  or  unlawful  castles,  he  appointed  sheriffs  who  would  carry 
out  his  will,  and  he  set  in  motion  the  administrative  machinery  which 
had  come  to  a  standstill  on  the  death  of  old  Roger  of  Salisbury.  Of  all 
the  appointments  which  he  made,  that  of  Chancellor  was  fraught  with 
the  greatest  consequences.  This  official  in  those  days  ranked  below 
the  Justiciar  and  the  Treasurer,  but  as  secretary  of  the  royal  household 
he  was  brought  into  closest  contact  with  the  sovereign  and  had  many 
important  duties  to  perform ;  he  had  the  custody  of  the  royal  seal, 
he  drew  up  all  important  documents,  he  kept  the  legal  records,  and 
had  charge  of  the  King's  chaplains  and  clerks.  Thomas  Becket,  whom 
he  selected,  was  the  son  of  a  Norman  merchant  settled  in  London. 
Brought  up  in  the  household  of  Archbishop  Theobald,  he  received  the 
usual  ecclesiastical  education,  but  had  distinguished  himself  rather  as 
a  man  of  affairs  than  as  a  scholar  or  theologian.  He  first  endeared 
himself  to  Henry  by  his  "  most  subtle  management  "  in  inducing  the 
Pope  to  reject  Stephen's  efforts  to  secure  the  succession  of  Eustace. 
Thomas  was  a  striking  contrast  to  his  master :  he  was  fifteen  years 
older ;  he  was  tall,  dark,  and  handsome ;  he  dressed  with  the  greatest 
care  and  elegance,  maintained  a  large  and  lavish  household,  and  dis- 
pensed sumptuous  hospitality.  Yet  he  and  Henry  became  fast  friends ; 
they  worked  together  >  they  hunted  together,  and,  on  occasion,  they 
romped  like  schoolboys.  But  immersed  as  he  was  in  worldly  busi- 
ness and  luxury,  and  so  martial  that  he  more  than  once  rode  in  the 
King's  armies,  the  life  of  Thomas  was  so  pure  that  even  his  enemies 
found  no  word  to  say  against  him. 

The  Opening  of  the  Conflict  between  Becket  £nd  Henry,  1163.  — 
A  time  came  when  the  firm  friends  were  turned  into  bitter  enemies. 
In  1161  Theobald  died.  Henry,  wishing  to  secure  a  truety  agent  to 
assist  him  in  curbing  the  power  of  the  Church,  determined  to  appoint 
Thomas  to  the  vacant  Archbishopric.  The  Chancellor  resisted  stoutly ; 
for  it  was  his  nature  to  champion  to  the  utmost  any  cause  which 
he  undertook,  and  he  realized  that  as  head  of  the  English  Church  he 
would  be  bound  to  come  into  conflict  with  the  royal  policy.  His 


DOMINIONS  OF  THE 

HOUSE  OF  ANJOU 


2          Longitude  from  Greenwich        2 


THE   RESTORATION   OF   THE   ROYAL   POWER      109 

scruples,  however,  were  overborne,  and  in  May,  1162,  he  assumed  the 
office  of  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  resigned  the  chancellorship 
and  all  his  worldly  interests  and  suddenly  became  an  ascetic  of  the 
most  extreme  type  as  well  as  a  most  ardent  defender  of  Church  privilege. 
Not  many  months  passed  before  he  broke  with  the  King.  Curiously 
enough,  the  first  quarrel  arose  over  a  point  which  did  not  concern  the 
Church  at  all.  Henry  demanded  that  the  sheriffs  should  pay  into  the 
royal  treasury  a  certain  "  aid  "  or  fee  which  they  had  been  accustomed 
to  collect  from  the  shires  in  payment  for  their  work.  Thomas,  at  a 
council  held  at  Woodstock,  in  1163,  took  the  part  of  the  sheriffs,  and 
thus  became  the  first  English  subject  on  record  to  resist  his  sovereign 
on  a  question  of  national  taxation.  This  opening  breach  was  followed 
by  many  others  in  rapid  succession,  all  of  which  involved  questions  at 
issue  between  Church  and  State.  The  Archbishop  demanded  back 
land  which  had  been  taken  from  his  see  in  times  past,  and  even  excom- 
municated without  royal  leave  one  of  the  King's  tenants  in  chief. 
But  the  climax  was  reached  in  the  struggle  over  criminous  clerks. 

The  Criminous  Clerks.  —  In  Anglo-Saxon  times  cases  concerning 
the  Church  and  the  clergy  had  been  tried  in  the  courts  of  the  hundred 
and  shire.  William  the  Conqueror,  in  separating  lay  and  spiritual 
jurisdiction,  had  failed  to  draw  a  definite  line  between  the  two  classes 
of  cases ;  but  he  and  his  sons  had  apparently  kept  the  clergy  under  the 
control  of  their  courts  in  matters  of  temporal  concern.  J[n  the  trou- 
blous time  of^  Stephen  the  Church  courts  had  greatly  extended  their 
powers,  andTamong  other  things,  claimed  the  exclusive  right  to  judge 
the  offenses  of  clergymen,  even  it  committed  against  the  law  of  the 
land:  In  so  far  as  they  were  the  moral  and  religious  guides  of  the  time, 
one  can  understand  why  they  should  try  to  keep  their  persons  and  goods 
out  of  the  reach  of  men  whom  greed  or  revenge  might  prompt  to  con- 
trol them.  But  there  was  another  side  of  the  question.  Since  the 
sentences  of  the  Church  courts  were  very  light,  unscrupulous  men  took 
advantage  of  the  clerical  privileges,  easy  to  obtain,  in  order  to  shelter 
themselves  from  penalties  which  their  crimes  deserved.  Obviously, 
the  increase  of  a  class  of  persons  exempt  from  the  law  of  the  land  would 
be  a  serious  menace  to  the  security  of  the  State  and  to  the  authority 
of  the  Crown.  This  was  what  King  Henry  was  determined  to  prevent. 
Two  or  three  cases  arose  at  this  time  of  clerks  found  to  be  guilty  of 
murder  and  robbery,  and  Becket  not  only  refused  to  have  them  re- 
tried in  the  King's  courts,  but  even  to  allow  adequate  sentences  to  be 
pronounced  against  them.  The  King  summoned  a  council  at  West- 
minster and  ordered  the  bishops  to  agree  that  clerks  accused  of  crime 
should  be  called  before  the  King's  courts  to  answer  the  charges ;  if 
well  grounded,  they  should  be  tried  in  their  episcopal  courts  in  the 
presence  of  a  King's  justice,  and  if  guilty,  they  should  be  handed  over  to 
the  lay  courts  for  punishment.  The  King  did  not  ask  that  clerks 
should  actually  be  tried  in  his  courts.  But  the  bishops,  led  by  Thomas, 
refused  to  concede  even  what  the  King  required.  On  being  asked  if  they 


no  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

would  obey  the  customs  of  the  realm,  they  agreed  only  with  a  quali- 
fication, "  saving  their  order."  Thereupon  the  King  dissolved  the 
assembly  in  anger.  Finally,  after  the  bishops  one  after  another  had 
weakened,  Thomas  assented  without  any  qualification. 

The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  1 164.  —  In  order  to  make  the  under- 
standing definite,  Henry  summoned  a  Great  Council  to  meet  at  his 
hunting  lodge  at  Clarendon,  in  January,  1 164,  and  directed  some  of  the 
oldest  barons  of  the  realm  to  draw  up~ "the"1'  customs  "  as  they  had 
existed  in  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  These  customs  which  Henry  II 
presented  to  Becket  and  the  bishops  for  acceptance,  are  known  as  the 
"  Constitutions  of  Clarendon."  They  were  grouped  under  sixteen 
heads  and(aimed  to  settle  all  questions  at  issue  between  the  King  and 
the  clergw  However,  they  went  far  beyond  the  original  question 
in  dispute ;  indeed,  far  beyond  any  claim  that  Henry  had  ever  made. 
Their  provisions  not  only  brought  the  criminous  clergy  under  the 
cognizance  of  the  King's  justice,  but  defined  the7  relations  between  the 
royal  aild  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  drew  into  the  King's  tribunals 
many  cases  involving  church  property  and  large  court  fees.  Also 
they  sought  IP  define  again  the  relations  between  the  sovereign  and  the 
Pope.  {(Their  general  aim  was  to  put  the  Kmg~at  the  head  of  the  T^ng- 
TTsh  Church  and  to  subordinate  the  clergy  to  his  will ;  to  make  the  law 
of  the  land  dominant  over  the  law  of  the  Church^)  Only  a  small  field 
was  left  to  the  courts  Christian :  offenses  of  a  minor  nature  concerning 
the  clergy  alone ;  crimes  of  the  laity  involving  spiritual  punishment ; 
cases  relating  to  marriages  and  wills,  defamation  of  character,  usury, 
and  the  like. 

Resistance  and  Flight  of  Becket,  1164.  —  Although  Becket,  after 
stout  resistance,  accepted  the  Constitutions,  he  apparently  never 
intended  to  keep  his  promise,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  against  the 
law  of  God.  In  fact,  he  applied  for  a  dispensation  from  the  Pope 
absolving  him  from  his  agreement.  The  King,  whose  anger  was  great, 
found  an  occasion  to  test  the  Archbishop's  obedience.  Thomas  was 
very  stiff-necked,  but  Henry  was  so  captious  and  violent  that  the 
Archbishop  despaired  of  maintaining  his  position,  and  finally  fled  one 
night  in  a  pelting  rain.  Adopting  a  disguise,  he  took  ship  across  the 
Channel,  reached  the  domains  of  the  King  of  France  in  safety,  and 
secured  an  audience  with  Alexander  III  at  Sens.  The  ambassadors 
of  the  King  had  already  preceded  him.  The  Pope  was  in  a  delicate 
position.  The  Emperor,  Frederick  Barbarossa,  was  supporting  a 
rival  or  anti-pope,  and  Henry  had  stood  loyally  by  him,  while  the 
attitude  of  Louis  VII  was  doubtful.  On  the  other  hand,  Becket  was 
the  champion  of  the  Church.  Consequently,  he  tried  to  delay  an 
answer.  When  Henry  heard  of  his  attitude,  he  proceeded  to  seize  the 
revenues  of  Becket  and  to  send  his  relatives  into  exile.  Thereupon, 
Pope  Alexander,  while  he  did  not  formally  condemn  the  Constitutions, 
absolved  Becket  from  observing  them  except  so  far  as  was  consistent 
with  his  holy  orders.  For  six  years,  from  1164  to  1170,  the  quarrel 


THE   RESTORATION   OF  THE   ROYAL   POWER      in 

continued,  Becket  striving  with  might  and  main  to  force  the  King  to 
recede  from  his  position. 

The  Murder  of  Becket,  1170.  —  A  crisis  came  in  1170,  when  the  King 
determined  to  crown  his  son  Henry  as  his  successor.  Becket,  who 
had  refused  several  offers  of  mediation  and  had  been  liberally  excom- 
municating the  King's  supporters,  was  stung  to  fury  by  the  fact  that 
the  coronation  ceremony  was  to  be  performed  by  Roger,  Archbishop 
of  York.  Louis  VII,  too,  was  offended  because  his  daughter,  the 
consort  of  the  young  prince,  was  not  crowned  with  her  husband.  In 
order  to  evade  an  interdict  that  had  been  prepared  against  him,  the 
King  met  Becket,  and  promised  him  amends  for  the  slight  in  the  matter 
of  the  coronation,  while  Thomas,  on  his  part,  promised  to  return  to 
England.  As  none  of  the  essential  points  at  issue  were  settled,  the 
reconciliation  proved  a  hollow  one,  and  the  Archbishop  went  back  to 
his  see  with  dark  forebodings.  He  made  matters  worse  by  suspending 
and  excommunicating  a  number  of  those  who  had  assisted  in  the 
recent  coronation  and  who  were  holding  archiepiscopal  lands.  Henry 
received  the  news  with  a  furious  outburst  of  passion.  "  My  subjects 
are  sluggards,  men  of  no  spirit,"  he  roared;  "  they  keep  no  faith  with 
their  lord,  they  allow  me  to  be  made  the  laughing-stock  of  a  low-born 
clerk."  At  once  four  knights  hastened  to  Canterbury,  and  after  a 
heated  interview  with  Becket,  they  followed  him  to  the  cathedral  and 
murdered  him  within  the  precincts  of  the  holy  place.  His  body  was 
found  covered  with  a  coarse  haircloth  shirt  and  scarred  with  scourging. 
Within  a  few  days  of  his  death,  it  was  said,  miracles  began  to  be  wrought 
at  his  burial  place ;  in  less  than  three  years'  time  he  was  canonized  by 
Alexander  III,  and  his  shrine  became  the  most  popular  of  English 
centers  for  -pilgrims  until  it  was  destroyed  at  the  Reformation.  Stead- 
fast and  courageous  he  was,  and  his  royal  adversary  persecuted  him  in 
mean  and  petty  ways,  even  if  he  did  not  intentionally  cause  his  death ; 
but  the  cause  for  which  the  Archbishop  contended  —  the  exemption 
of  the  clergy  from  State  control  and  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  in 
important  matters  of  temporal  concern  —  was  a  political,  not  a  reli- 
gious one.  Though  he  met  a  martyr's  fatej(Thomas  waged  his  struggle 
as  a  politician  and  not  as  a  saint)  His  death  brought  to  his  cause  a 
greater  victory  than  he  would  ever  have  been  able  to  gain  had  he  lived. 
Public  opinion  held  Henry  accountable  for  the  base  deed  for  which 
he  was  only  indirectly  responsible,  and  he  was  obliged  to  seek  recon- 
ciliation with  the  Pope  at  the  expense  of  concessions  and  on  terms  very 
humbling  to  his  royal  pride. 

Henry  in  Ireland.  State  of  the  Country.  —  While  Henry  was  wait- 
ing to  see  what  the  Pope  would  do,  he  turned  his  attention  to  Ireland, 
first  granted  to  England  by  Adrian  IV  in  1154-  The  Irish,  developing 
in  comparative  isolation,  had  attained  a  degree  of  culture  and  a  fervor 
of  religious  life  far  in  advance  of  their  social  and  political  development. 
Their  zealous  missionaries  had  carried  their  faith  even  to  the  wildest 
parts  of  the  German  lands,  they  had  beautiful  legends  and  sweet- 


ii2  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

tongued  bards,  they  excelled  in  the  illumination  of  manuscripts ;  but 
their  Church  was  only  slowly  subject  to  episcopal  control,  the  people 
were  still  in  the  tribal  stage,  and  law  and  the  means  of  keeping  peace 
and  order  were  sadly  lacking.  The  kings  of  the  five  provinces  of 
Ulster,  Leinster,  Meath,  Munster,  and  Connaught  "  fiercely  battled 
like  bulls  for  the  mastery  of  the  herd,"  while  the  petty  chiefs  were 
constantly  warring  against  one  another.  Cattle  were  the  chief  standard 
of  value,  houses  were  primitive  and  clothing  was  scanty,  and  there  was 
a  dearth  of  arable  land  and  mineral  resources.  Most  of  the  trade  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  Danes  settled  at  Dublin,  Wexford,  Waterford,  and 
Limerick,  who  sent  their  ships  laden  with  skins  and  hides  to  the  Eng- 
lish and  French  ports  and  brought  back  corn,  wine,  and  trinkets.  In 
1166  Diarmait,  King  of  Leinster,  hard  pressed  by  rivals,  appealed  to 
Henry  for  aid.  Though  too  much  occupied  to  go  in  person,  the  Eng- 
lish King  allowed  him  to  enlist  volunteers  among  his  subjects.  Chief 
of  the  recruits  was  Richard  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  known  as 
"  Strongbow  "  because  he  was  a  redouHtable  warrior  ~~  In  addition, 
there  came  men  from  England,  Wales,  and  from  across  the  Channel, 
restless  and  needy  adventurers,  eager  for  any  stirring  or  profitable 
undertaking.  Strongbow  having  stipulated  with  Diarmait  that  he 
should  marry  his  daughter  and  become  his  heir,  aided  him  to  triumph 
over  his  enemies.  The  death  of  Diarmait  in  1171  opened  such  a  pros- 
pect of  powrer  for  the  English  Earl  that  Henry  became  jealous  and 
recalled  him.  King  and  vassal  met  in  Gloucester  and  crossed  over  to 
Ireland  with  a  force  of  about  4000  men.  During  his  stay  in  the  coun- 
try from  October,  1171,  to  April,  1172,  Henry  was  able  to  secure  the  sub- 
mission of  most  of  the  native  chiefs  and  kings  as  well  as  of  the  prelates 
of  the  Irish  Church,  and  held  a  synod  at  Cashel  where  many  measures 
of  reform  were  passed.  .  But  although  he  left  Strongbow  with  various 
English  officials  to  represent  him  at  his  departure,  the  latter  served 
rather  to  limit  the  authority  of  the  ruler  of  Leinster  than  to  maintain 
peace  and  order.  Indeed,  owing  to  extensive  confiscations  of  land, 
the  English  intervention  added  one  more  element  of  discord  to  the 
troubled  country,  and  left  jt  "  as  it  were,  a  shaking  sod." 

Henry's  Submission  at  Avranches.  "Benefit  of  Clergy." — After 
leaving  Ireland,  Henry  crossed  to  Normandy,  and  at  Avranches  came 
to  terms  with  the  papal  legates  and  received  absolution.  He  swore 
that  he  had  not  instigated  the  murder  of  Becket,  that  he 'would  sup- 
port Alexander  III  and  his  successors,  that  he  would  allow  appeals  to 
Rome  to  all  who  would  guarantee  not  to  undertake  anything  against 
his  kingdom.  The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  and  the  matter  of  the 
criminous  courts  were  passed  over  in  silence ;  for  in  this  connection  he 
went  no  further  than  to  agree  to  do  away  with  any  customs  introduced 
against  the  Church  in  his  time.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  his  courts  con- 
tinued to  claim  control  over  most  of  the  property  cases  in  which  the 
Church  was  involved,  while  clergymen  accused  of  criminal  offenses 
claimed  exemption  from  the  lay  courts  —  "_benefit  of  clergy  "  it  was 
called  —  for  centuries. 


THE   RESTORATION   OF   THE   ROYAL   POWER      113 

The  Revolt  of  1173. — No  sooner  had  Henry  become  reconciled 
with  the  Pope  than  he  had  to  face  a  dangerous  revolt  headed  by  the 
young  Henry,  whose  succession  had  been  established  by  his  corona- 
tion only  three  years  before.  Back  of  this  revolt  lay  many  causes  of 
discontent.  The  King  had  provided  magnificently  for  his  three  eldest 
sons.  Henry  was  recognized  as  heir  of  England  and  Normandv. 
Richard  as  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  and  Geoffrey  was  to  be  rnarried  to  the 
heiress  of  Brittany,  but  the  King  was  cautious  and  niggardly^ He 
refused  them  authority  and  revenues  equal  to  their  high  pretensions. 
Then  Louis  VII  was  anxious  to  keep  the  family  embroiled,  in  order 
that  he  might  increase  the  possessions  of  France.  Queen  Eleanor 
was  on  bad  terms  with  her  husband,  while  the  feudal  barons  on  both 
sides  of  the  Channel  were  restive  under  the  King's  firm  rule.  The 
occasion  was  furnished  by  the  attempt  of  Henry  to  provide  for  his 
youngest  son  John  out  of  the  Angevin  provinces,  which  Prince  Henry 
claimed  as  a  part  of  his  heritage.  By  means  of  liberal  promises  the 
King  of  the  Scots  as  well  as  many  petty  under  sovereigns  in  Flanders 
and  elsewhere,  were  drawn  into  the  combination  against  the  English 
King.  All  the  support  on  which  he  could  count  was  that  of  a  few  faith- 
ful servants,  his  mercenaries,  the  Church  with  which  he  had  been 
reconciled,  and  the  common  people  who  preferred  heavy  taxes  to 
another  carnival  of  bloodshed  and  anarchy.  Furthermore  the  Eng- 
lish King  and  his  ministers  acted  with  promptness  and  decision,  while 
his  opponents  were  divided  by  selfish  and  conflicting  aims. 

Crushing  of  the  Rebellion. — The  rebellion  broke  out  in  1173,  and 
it  was  not  till  the  summer  of  1174  that  Henry  gained  the  upper  hand 
in  his  continental  possessions.  Meantime,  his  Justiciar  and  other 
faithful  followers  had  been  facing,  with  a  fair  degree  of  success,  both 
English  revolts  and  invasions  from  Scotland.  Two  days  after  his 
landing,  a  royal  force  led  by  Ranulf  de  Glanville,  later  celebrated  as 
one  of  England's  most  famous  jurists,  succeeded  in  defeating  and  cap- 
turing the  Scotch  king  William  the  Lion  at  Alnwick.  Before  taking 
the  field  in  person  Henry  went  to  Becket's  tomb  to  do  penance :  clad 
in  a  woolen  robe,  barefoot,  he  knelt,  kissed  the  spot  where  the  holy 
martyr  had  fallen,  and  received  eighty  stripes  on  his  bare  back  from 
the  assembled  prelates  and  monks.  In  return  for  this  and  certain 
concessions  he  received  final  absolution.  The  capture  of  William  put 
an  end  to  the  English  rebellion ;  but  abroad  his  sons  were  still  in  arms : 
Louis  VII,  too,  had  seized  the  occasion  of  his  absence  to  make  war 
again,  but  he  dared  not  face  Henry  on  his  return,  which  occurred 
directly  after  he  had  settled  matters  in  the  English  domains.  Before 
the  close  of  September,  the  young  Henry,  Geoffrey,  and  Richard  all 
submitted  to  their  father.  He  was  very  forgiving  and  even  granted 
them  generous  allowances.  William  the  Lion  at  Falaise  did  liege 
homage,  and,  as  an  earnest  of  his  good  faith,  gave  up  many  hostages 
and  castles.  In  crushing  this  rebellion  Henry,  for  the  only  time  in  his 
life,  used  mercenaries  on  English  soil.  Never  again  in  that  country 


ii4  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

did  subjects  rise  against  their  sovereign  until  nobles,  clergy,  and 
commons  were  united  over  a  generation  later  in  a  great  national  rising. 

Henry's  Last  Years  and  Death.  —  Across  the  Channel  events  did 
not  result  so  happily.  The  King  of  France,  the  feudal  barons,  and 
two  of  his  sons,  Richard  and  John,  troubled  King  Henry  to  the  end  of 
his  days.  His  other  sons,  Prince  Henry  and  Geoffrey,  died  in  1183 
and  1 1 86  respectively.  A  chief  source  of  difficulty  was  the  question 
of  the  succession.  The  original  plan  had  been  to  give  Henry  England, 
Normandy,  Maine,  and  Anjou,  to  Richard  Aquitaine,  and  to  Geoffrey 
Brittany.  John  was  to  be  made  Lord  of  Ireland,  and  was  sent 
over  to  take  possession  in  1185;  but  he  showed  himself  absolutely 
incapable,  he  affronted  the  chieftains  who  came  to  visit  him  by  pulling 
their  long  beards,  he  squandered  on  amusements  the  money  which  his 
father  gave  him,  he  seized  the  land  of  the  natives  to  confer  it  on  un- 
worthy favorites,  and  was  soon  recalled.  Still  the  King  cherished  his 
project  and  the  Pope  agreed,  sending  him  a  crown  of  peacock's  feathers 
entwined  with  gold.  Brittany  was  held  for  Geoffrey's  heirdom 
shortly  after  the  death  of  his  father.  Richard  succeeded  to  the  pre- 
tensions of  his  deceased  brother  Henry,  and  refused  to  yield  to  John 
any  of  his  original  heritage  in  Aquitaine.  John,  thus  unprovided  for, 
came  to  be  called  "Lackland."  In  1188  Richard  joined  Philip  II, 
who  had  succeeded  as  King  of  France  in  1180,  and  demanded  that 
Henry  II  recognize  his  succession  and  consent  to  his  marriage  with 
Philip's  sister  Alais,  to  whom  he  had  been  betrothed  since  childhood. 
Henry,  old,  discouraged,  and  sick,  had  to  consent  to  their  terms.  When 
he  found  the  name  of  John  among  those  who  had  joined  his  enemies, 
he  was  heart-broken.  Turning  on  his  bed,  he  muttered,  "  Now  let 
all  things  go  as  they  will,  I  care  nor  mote  for  myself,  nor  for  the  world." 
He  was  taken  to  Chinon,  the  place  where  his  eyes  had  first  seen  the 
light,  and  died  within  two  days,  repeating  in  his  last  hours,  "  Shame, 
shame  on  a  beaten  king."  It  is  said  that  the  attendants  plundered  his 
apartments  and  even  his  corpse,  which  was  only  covered  from  naked- 
ness by  a  young  man  who  threw  a  cloak  over  it. 

Henry's  Constitutional  and  Legal  Reforms.  —  From  this  sad  end 
to  a  still  sadder  struggle  with  treacherous  and  undutiful  sons,  it  is  a 
relief  to  give  a  survey  of  those  aspects  of  Henry's  work  which  have 
given  him  deservedly  a  place  among  England's  greater  kings.  In 
spite  of  its  tragic  ending,  and  although  he  showed  lamentable  lack  of 
judgment  in  dealing  with  his  sons,  his  foreign  policy  was  in  one  sense 
successful,  for  he  held  his  vast  possessions  intact  to  the  day  of  his 
death.  But  it  is  in  the  field  of  domestic  legislation,  and  preeminently 
in  that  of  legal  reform,  that  he  marked  an  epoch  in  progress.  His 
Norman  ancestors  had  begun  the  work  of  shaping  the  law  as  it  exists 
to-day  in  the  English-speaking  world :  they  had  wrought  to  make  it 
the  law  of  England  rather  than  the  law  of  Kentishmen,  Mercians,  or 
West  Saxons ;  they  had  wrought  to  break  down  or  prevent  the  growth 
of  special  privileges,  to  unify  conflicting  customs,  to  introduce  trained 


UAMvw^, 


THE   RESTORATION  OF   THE   ROYAL   POWER      115 

judges,  organize  courts,  improve  methods  of  procedure ;  in  short,  to 
construct  that  system  of  common  law,  or  law  based  on  custom,  usages, 
and  court  decision,  and  the  methods  of  administering  it  which  it  has 
been  the  work  of  succeeding  centuries  to  perfect  in  detail.  So  Henry 
II  did  not  originate  this  work,  but  he  contributed  so  much  toward  the 
process  of  development  that  his  reign  was  truly  "  a  critical  period  in 
the  history  of  English  law."  Not  only  did  he  undertake  far-reaching 
reforms,  but(he  determined  the  momentous  fact  that  the  law  of  the 
land  should  be  English  and  not  Roman,  as  was  the  case  in  other  Euro- 
pean countries.)  The  legal  and  constitutional  edifice  begun  by  William 
I  and  Henry  I  was  demolished  during  the  anarchy  of  Stephen's  reign, 
and  Henry  II  had  to  rebuild  practically  from  the  foundations. 

The  Political  and  Legal  Problem.  —  Although  Henry  II  had  the 
interests  of  his  subjects  somewhat  at  heart,  his  foremost  aim  was 
political^  to  strengthen  the  royal  powers  at  the  expense  of  the  Church 
and  theThaToris.  To  this  end  he  reorganized,  strengthened,  and  con- 
solidated the  old  courts,  established  new  ones,  and,  as  a  means  of 
outbidding  his  rivals,  introduced  novel  and  improved  methods  of 
procedure,  in  criminal  and  civil  causes.  As  a  result,  before  the  close  of 
his  reign  the  King's  courts  and  judges,  instead  of  being  exceptional 
resorts  for  great  men  and  great  causes,  had  come  to  exercise,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  a  vast  and  steadily  increasing  jurisdiction.  This  meant 
much  for  the  future  of  English  methods.  When  Henry  and  his  judges 
began  their  work,  law  and  procedure  were  as  yet  confused,  conflicting, 
and  disorganized.  Anglo-Saxon  law  was  still  administered  in  the  hun- 
dred and  county  courts.  Aside  from  private  and  inadequate  compila- 
tions, the  law  was  practically  unwritten,  and  the  Anglo-Norman  offi- 
cials who  administered  it,  even  though  they  might  be  willing  to  respect 
local  customs,  understood  them  imperfectly  at  best.  Manorial, 
borough,  and  other  special  courts  enjoyed  great  powers  and  privileges. 
Obviously  if  the  royal  power  continued  to  increase,  it  would  seek  to 
bring  order  out  of  this  chaos.  If  a  more  logical  and  uniform  system 
could  not  be  fashioned  out  of  the  existing  native  elements,  help  might 
be  sought  elsewhere. 

Henry  II  prevents  the  Roman  Law  from  becoming  the  Law  of  Eng- 
land. —  Beyond  the  Alps  just  at  this  time  a  code,  long  in  disuse,  was 
coming  to  life  again  that  from  its  universal  character,  its  logical  struc- 
ture, and  its  rational  arrangement,  was  admirably  suited  to  meet  the 
needs  of  the  youthful  countries  of  western  Europe.  This  was  the  law 
of  the  old  Roman  Empire,  or  Roman  law,  codified  by  order  of  the 
Emperor  Justinian  in  the  sixth  century.  It  was  a  fusion  of  the  prac- 
tice and  principles  of  a  people  of  unparalleled  legal  genius  and  of  un- 
paralleled administrative  experience.  Although  it  had  fallen  into 
oblivion  during  the  period  of  formation  of  the  new  Germanic  states  on 
the  ruins  of  the  Western  Empire,  the  twelfth  century  witnessed  its 
revival  at  the  recently  established  University  of  Bologna.  Students 
began  to  flock  to  Italy,  and  doctors  of  law  gradually  made  their  way  to 


u6  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

France,  England,  and  the  Germanic  Empire.  In  the  reign  of  Stephen, 
for  example,  we  find  one  Vacarius  teaching  in  the  household  of  Arch- 
bishop Theobald.  The  same  century  also  marks  an  epoch  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  canon  law,  or  law  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Between 
1139  and  1142  Gratian  published  his  celebrated  codification  known  as 
the  Decretum.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  Roman  civil  law  secured 
a  permanent  foothold  in  France,  in  the  fifteenth  century  we  find  it 
domiciled  in  Germany.  Scotland  also,  to  a  large  degree,  took  up  the 
new  system,  but,  except  in  the  ecclesiastical  and  chancery  courts,  it 
never  obtained  any  considerable  or  abiding  hold  in  England.  It  is 
due  to  the  work  of  Henry  II  that  it  did  not.  In  other  countries  no 
single  system  existed  able  to  dispute  the  superior  claims  of  the  intru- 
sive guest.  But  Henry  II,  in  his  efforts  to  make  his  authority  supreme 
and  absolute,  so  simplified  and  unified  divergent  practices  that  by  the 
time  the  Roman  law  was  in  a  position  to  make  itself  felt  in  the  Island, 
the  common  law  was  too  widespread  and  too  firmly  founded  to  be 
supplanted  by  any  alien  rival. 

Henry  II  brings  the  Jury  System  into  General  Use.  —  The  story  of 
how  Henry  did  his  work  is  too  long  and  the  details  are  too  involved  to 
be  told  here.  One  or  two  points  only  can  be  considered.  Henry  recog- 
nized that  if  his  system  of  justice  was  to  prevail,  it  behooved  him  to  in- 
troduce better  methods  than  those  already  in  vogue.  His  measures 
witness  how  completely  he  outbid  his  rivals.  ^For  instance,  he  brought 
into  general  use  juries  for  accusing  criminals  and  for  deciding  disputed 
points  at  law  —  the  parents  of  our  modern  grand  and  petty  juries) 
Curiously  enough,  this  bulwark  of  English  liberty,  long  regarded  as  an 
Anglo-Saxon  heritage,  was  of  royal  and  foreign  origin.  Starting  from 
the  inquest,  a  device  of  the  Frankish  Emperors  who  sent  round  officials 
to  gather  information  on  the  sworn  testimony  of  the  communities  they 
visited,  the  system,  much  developed  on  French  soil,  was  brought  to 
England  byJWilliani  the  Conqueror  from  his  Norman  home.  He  and 
his  sons  employed  it  for  various  purposes,  amongother  things  to  get 
information  in  judicial  cases  where  the  royal  interest  was  involved. 
At  first  allowed  to  privileged  subjects  as  an  exceptional  favor,  Henry 
extended  it  to  all.  We  are  already  familiar  with  the  clumsy  methods 
employed  by  the  Anglo-Saxons  to  bring  criminals  to  account  and  to 
decide  questions  of  disputed  ownership.  By  the  ^presentment  jury, 
consisting  usually  of  twelve  men  from  each  hundred  and  four  from 
each  adjoining  township,  criminals  were  brought  to  account  by  men 
sworn  to  voice  the  common  report  of  their  vicinage.  Inquisition  or 
recognition  juries  —  or  assizes  1  —  enabled  men  to  determine  their 
Tights  of  possession  against  an  intruder  by  forms  of  procedure  juster 
and  more  summary  than  they  had  ever  before  dreamed  of.  By  a 
decree  of  his  it  was  first  made  possible  to  defend  a  title  by  the  testi- 
mony of  those  who  knew  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  to  avoid  the  brutal 

1  The  word  "assize"  has  many  meanings:  a  royal  enactment,  a  form  of  trial, 
an  early  form  of  jury,  a  judicial  session. 


THE   RESTORATION   OF   THE   ROYAL   POWER      117 

and  inconclusive  trial  by  combat.  Writs  were  devised  *by  which 
such  cases  could  be  drawn  into  the  royal  courts,  which,  in  spite  of  their 
many  shortcomings,  gave  speedier  and  more  impartial  hearings  than 
those  whose  jurisdictions  they  invaded. 

The  Development  of  the  Jury.  —  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that 
Henry's  juries  were  strikingly  different  from  the  bodies  familiar  to  us. 
Members  were  at  first  chosen  for  their  knowledge  of  the  facts  in  the 
case  to  be  decided,  though  gradually  they  came  to  supplement  their 
personal  knowledge  by  information  acquired  by  a  private  examination 
of  documents  and  men  not  in  the  panel.  The  separation  of  the  wit- 
nesses from  the  jurors  was  a  process  of  slow  growth,  for  it  wras  not  till 
the  fifteenth  century  that  the  former  came  to  testify  in  open  court. 

^Moreover,  the  earliest  trial  juries  —  inquisition  or  recognition  juries, 
as  they  were  then  called  —  dealt  only  with  civil  cases/^  In  criminal 
cases  the  jury  introduced  by  Henry  II,  and  employed  under  his  suc- 
cessors, was  concerned  only  with  the  presentment  or  accusation  of 
offenders  whose  ultimate  fate  was  still  decided  by  the  ordeal.  But 
this  form  of  test  practically  disappeared  when  Innocent  III,  in  1215, 
forbade  the  clergy  to  participate  in  trials  where  it  was  used.  So,  under 
Henry  III,  new  juries  were  introduced  to  decide  on  the  truth  of  the 
facts  presented  by  the  accusation  jury.  Oftentimes,  however,  the  new 
jury  might  be  the  original  body  of  accusers  acting  in  the  new  capacity. 
If  an  accused  man  were  formally  condemned  by  a  trial  jury,  he  for- 
feited his  possessions  to  the  State ;  otherwise  he  could  only  be  put  to 
death.  It  rested  with  him  to  say  whether  he  would  submit  to  a  jury 
trial  —  "  put  himself  on  his  country,"  as  it  was  called  in  technical  lan- 
guage. Often  a  felon,  sure  of  his  condemnation,  in  order  to  save  his 
goods  for  his  family,  would  prefer  a  painful  death  rather  than  stand  a 
painful  trial.  As  a  means  of  forcing  him  the  terrible  peine  forte  et  dure, 
only  abolished  in  1772,  was  employed.  The  prisoner  was  stripped 
naked,  laid  on  the  floor  of  a  dungeon,  pressed  with  heavy  weights,  and 
fed  on  bread  and  water  till  he  died  or  submitted.  Strange  to  say,  the 
old  forms  of  procedure  remained  on  the  statute  book  long  after  they 
had  become  practically  obsolete  ;  trial  by  battle  was  not  abolished  till 
1819  and  compurgation  not  till  1833.  The  jury  is  mentioned  in  the 
Constitutions  of  Clarendon  of  1164,  but  we  get  more  detailed  informa- 
tion concerning  it  in  the  Assizes,  or  royal  ordinances  of  Clarendon  and 
Northampton  of  1166  and  1176,  respectively. 

Henry  II's  Reorganization  of  the  Courts  and  Administrative  Re- 
forms. —  Aside  from  the  introduction  of  the  jury  into  general  use,  there 
were  many  other  instances  of  Henry's  legal  and  administrative  activity. 

(He  restored  the  Curia  Regis  and  Exchequer  founded  by  Henry  Ly 
In  1178  he  marked  off  from  the  farmer  a  body  of  two  clerks  and  three 
laymen  to  hear  cases  in  which  the  Crown  was  concerned  and  those  of  his 
subjects  which  were  too  important  for  the  local  courts.  This  is  the 
parent  of  the  later  courts  of  King's  Bench  and  Common  Pleas.  Then 
he  marked  England  anew  into  circuits  and  sent  out  itinerant  justices 


n8  A   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

to  represent  him  in  the  courts  of  the  hundred  and  shire.  He  held 
certain  notable  inquisitions,  or  official  inquiries,  to  obtain  information 
on  important  points.  One  held  in  1 166  aimed  to  ascertain  the  amount 
of  military  service  due  from  his  tenants  in  chief.  Another,  in  1170  — 
the  Inquisition  of  Sheriffs  —  undertook  to  find  out  what  abuses  the 
sheriffs  and  other  officials  had  been  guilty  of  during  the  King's  four 
years'  absence  from  England.  As  a  result  of  this  inquiry,  fifteen  were 
turned  away,  probably  not  only  on  account  of  extortion  and  oppres- 
sions but  because  the  King  wanted  to  replace  them  by  men  more  de- 
voted to  his  interests.  In  i i8i,byjiis  famous  Assize  of  Arms,  he  took 
steps  to  reorganize  the  military  forces  in  a  more  serviceable  way  by 
providing  that  every  free  subject  of  the  realm  should  arm  himself 
according  to  his  property.  In  this  way  he  provided  another  check  on 
the  power  of  the  great  territorial  lords ;  he  showed  his  people  that  he 
was  to  depend  upon  their  services  rather  than  upon  mercenaries.  It  is 
interesting  to  notice  that  in  determining  each  man's  liability  according 
to  property  he  made  use  of  the  sworn  testimony  of  neighbors.  One  of 
the  few  unpopular  measures  that  can  be  laid  to  his  door  is  his  severe 
regulation  of  the  forests.  Although  really  an  absolute  King,  he  had  the 
wisdom  to  summon  his  Great  Council  and  to  issue  his  most  important 
enactments  in  their  name.  In  this  way  he  secured  the  approval  of  his 
great  tenants  in  chief  by  seeming  to  consult  them,  and  broke  down 
their  local  differences  by  associating  them  together  in  common  efforts. 
The  Revenue.  — ^As  a  financier,  Henry  II  was  apparently  less  suc- 
cessful than  in  any  other  branch  of  his  administration ._)  He  was  always 
on  the  lookout  for  money,  but  he  was  capricious  and  often  despotic  in 
its  collection.  He  failed  to  devise  any  permanent  productive  system, 
and  it  has  been  estimated  that  his  income  was  less  than  that  of  his 
grandfather.  Certainly  it  was  less  adequate  to  his  needs.  One  source 
of  additional  revenue  came  from  the  increased  royal  courts.  The  old 
Danegeld  ceased  to  be  levied  soon  after  his  accession,  and  in  its  place 
he  imposed  a  new  tax,  known  a,s  the  donumin  the  counties  and  the 
auxilium  in  the  towns.  ^Henry^Lhad  added  another  feudal  tax  known 
as  scutage;  it  was  a  tax  on  each  knight's  fee,  which  the  King  might 
impose  in  lieu  of  military  service.  Henry  II  greatly  increased  the 
practice  because  it  gave  him  funds  for  mercenaries  to  use  in  his  con- 
tinental wars.  One  form  of  taxation  first  met  in  his  reign  is  a  tax  on 
irirnrnes  and  personal  property.  The  first  levy  of  this  sort  waslmposeH' 
in  1188.  andis  known  as  the  Saladin  Tithe  because  it  called  for  a  tenth 
of  the  revenues  and  goods  oF  subjects  to  assist  in  the  recovery  of 
Jerusalem,  captured  in  the  previous  year  by  the  great  Mohammedan 
warrior,  Saladin.  Again  the  liability  of  each  person  assessed  was 
determined  by  a  jury  of  neighbors.  {These  juries,  employed  to  repre- 
sent the  community  in  judicial  ana  financial  business,  came,  before 
many  years  had  passed,  to  be  called  together  in  one  place  to  assist  the 
King  and  Great  Council  in  the  government  of  the  realm.  With  that 
step  parliamentary  government  beganA 


IIQ 


Summary  of  the  Work  of  Henry  II.  —  Such  was  the  work  of  Henry 
II.  As  a  ruler  of  many  peoples,  French  and  English,  he  was  able  to 
hold  together  vast  dominions  against  opposing  forces.  In  England 
.he  achieved  great  and  far-reaching  results.  He  restored,  extended, 
and  defined  the  organs  of  central  government  and  increased  the~powef 
oTtHe  Thrown  against  the  barons  and  the  Church,  and  instituted  a  series 
of  legal  reforms  irom  which  English-speaking  people  receive  benefit 
even  TcMlay. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING 

Narrative.  Ramsay,  The  Angevin  Empire  (1903),  chs.  I-XIV.  G.  B.  Adams, 
Political  History,  chs.  XII-XVI.  Davis,  Norman  and  A  ngevin  England,  chs.  VII-IX. 
Kate  Norgate,  England  under  the  Angevin  Kings  (1887),  I,  chs.  IX-XI;  II,  chs. 
I-VI;  a  full  and  interesting  narrative.  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green,  Henry  II  (1892)  ;  a  good 
brief  account.  The  Constitutional  side  of  the  subject  is  treated  in  Taylor,  Origin 
and  Growth,  I,  bk.  II,  ch.  Ill  ;  Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  Ill  ;  Wakeman  and  Hassall, 
Constitutional  Essays,  ch.  Ill  ;  Stubbs,  English  Constitutional  History,  I,  ch.  XII  ; 
and  Pollock  and  Maitland,  I,  bk.  I,  chs.  V,  VI.  R.  L.  Poole,  The  Exchequer  in  the 
Twelfth  Century  (1912)  ;  the  most  recent  and  scholarly  work  on  the  subject.  Refer- 
ences for  further  reading  same  as  ch.  VI.  Selections  from  the  sources:  Adams  and 
Stephens,  nos.  12-20. 


THE  EARLIER  ANGEVIN  KINGS,  1154-1272 

HENRY  II=Eleanor  of  Guienne,  d.   1204, 
1154-1189         divorced  wife  of  Louis  VII 


1 

Henry, 
d.  1183 

Richard  I, 
1189-1199 

1 
Geoff  rey  = 
d.  1186 

=  Constance 
of  Brit- 
tany 

1 
John= 
"99- 
1216 

=  Isabella 
of  An- 
goul&me 

Eleanor 

Arthur, 
d.  1203 

HENRY  111= 
1216-1272 

=  Eleanor  of 
Provence 

m 

Joan, 
Alexander  II 
of  Scotland 

1 
Eleanor, 
m.  Simon  de 
Montfort 

Richard, 
King  of  the 
Romans, 
d.  1271 

EDWARD  I, 

1272-1307 


Edmund  Crouchback, 
d.  1295 


Margaret, 

m.  Alexander  III 

of  Scotland 


THE  KINGS  OF  SCOTLAND  FROM   1153-1286 

DAVID  I  (see  p.  106) 
Henry,  Earl  of  Huntingdon 


MALCOLM  IV,  1153-1165 


WILLIAM  THE  LION,  1166-1214 


ALEXANDER  11=  Joan,  sister  of  Henry  III 
1214—1249 

ALEXANDER  III, 

m.  Margaret,  daughter  of  Henry  III, 
1249-1286 


133 


CHAPTER  VIII 

RICHARD  I  (1189-1199)  AND  THE  TRANSITION  FROM  ABSOLUTE 
TOWARD  LIMITED  MONARCHY.  CONDITIONS  AT  THE  CLOSE 
OF  THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY 

Twofold  Nature  of  Richard's  Reign. — On  3  September,  1189, 
Richard,  surnamed  Coeur  de  Lion,  or  the  Lion-Hearted,  was  crowned 
King  of  England.  He  was  thirty-two  years  old  and  had  been  recog- 
nized as  Duke  of  Aquitaine  for  eighteen  years.  The  third  of  Henry 
II's  sons,  he  was  the  eldest  who  survived  him.  "  A  knight  errant " 
had  "  succeeded  a  statesman,"  but  the  change  was  not  at  first  very 
marked,  because,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  months,  in  1189  and  1194, 
the  new  King  was  absent  from  England  throughout  this  reign  of  nearly 
ten  years,  and  the  government  was  carried  on  by  ministers  who  sought, 
in  the  main,  to  continue  the  policy  of  Henry  II.  The  reign,  then,  has 
to  be  considered  from  two  points  of  view :  one  deals  with  personal 
exploits  and  adventures,  with  his  part  in  the  Third  Crusade,  with  his 
later  imprisonment  in  Europe,  his  career  in  France  and  its  dramatic 
close.  The  other  side  relates  to  points  of  constitutional  advance, 
notably  the  growth  of  the  representative  principlein  the^SYsterrTof 
administration  employed  by  the  central  go vermnentTIrr  the  local 
centers. 

His  Personal  Character.  —  Richard  had  many  faults :  he  was  an 
undutiful  son,  he  was  lavish  in  expense,  unscrupulous  in  extortion, 
violent  in  passion,  and  had  little  interest  or  capacity  in  problems  of 
statesmanship.  But  much  can  be  said  in  his  extenuation.  He  lived 
in  a  rude  and  stormy  age,  his  father,  though  he  loved  his  sons  and  sought 
their  advancement,  was  often  both  petty  and  violent  in  his  treatment 
of  them,  while  from  their  boyhood  they  were  a  prey  to  the  intrigues  cf 
designing  persons.  Richard,  too,  had  his  good  impulses  and  redeem- 
ing features.  He  was  a  "  splendid  savage  "  with  the  virtues  and  vices 
of  the  medieval  hero.  He  was  warm-hearted,  generous,  and  forgiving 
toward  his  enemies,  particularly  to  his  younger  brother  John,  even 
though  he  was  moved  as  much  by  contempt  as  by  Christian  precept. 
Then  much  of  the  money  which  he  squeezed  from  subjects  he  devoted, 
not  to  his  personal  use,  but  to  a  cause  that  was  regarded  as  the  highest 
in  which  men  could  engage,  the  winning  of  the  Holy  City  from  the 
enemies  of  Christ.  "  What  more  can  kings  desire,"  sang  a  troubadour 
of  the  time,  "  than  the  right  to  sa.ve  themselves  from  Hell  flames  by 
puissant  deeds  of  arms."  As  a  general,  both  in  the  tactics  of  a  partic- 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE   TWELFTH   CENTURY        121 

ular  battle  and  in  the  strategy  of  a  campaign,  he  was  regarded  as  the 
genius  of  his  age.  In  spite  of  his  knightly  figure,  —  he  was  two  inches 
over  six  feet,  lithe  and  graceful,  —  in  spite  of  his  courage  and  warlike 
temperament,  he  was  nervously  organized  and  not  robust  in  health. 
His  romantic  nature,  his  fondness  for  poetry  and  music,  mark  him  as 
a  Frenchman  rather  than  an  Englishman.  A  troubadour,  Bertrand 
de  Born,  gave  him  the  name  "  Yea  and  Nay,"  but  his  code  of  good 
faith  was  as  high  as  the  standard  of  the  times. 

Beginning  of  the  Reign.  Coronation  and  Massacre  of  the  Jews. 
—  In  the  settlement  following  Henry  IPs  death  he  forgave  and  took 
into  favor  those  who  had  adhered  to  Henry,  while  those  who  had 
taken  his  own  side  of  the  quarrel  had  their  estates  confiscated  for  dis- 
loyalty. In  an  interview  with  Philip  II  of  France  the  two  monarchs 
pledged  themselves  to  start  for  the  Holy  Land  in  Lent  of  the  coming 
year.  Richard's  coronation,  a  magnificent  affair,  was  marred  by  a 
cruel  massacre  of  the  Jews,  who  had  come  to  London  to  present  the 
King  with  gifts.  The  massacre  spread  to  other  parts  of  the  realm,  that 
at  York  being  particularly  atrocious.  The  movement  against  the 
Jews,  inspired  by  hatred  of  their  extortion  and  by  the  superstitious  zeal 
awakened  by  the  pending  crusade,  was  joined  by  that  class  of  violent 
and  disorderly  persons  who  are  always  seeking  a  chance  for  plunder 
and  bloodshed. 

Richard's  Departure  for  the  Third  Crusajjfi.  — •  Richard  began  at 
once  after  his  coronation  to  raise" funds  for  the  Crusade  and  to  provide 
for  the  government  during  his  absence.  The  faithful  Glanville  was 
allowed  to  resign,  if  he  was  not  actually  deprived  of  the  Justiciarship, 
and  had  to  pay  a  large  sum  of  money  into  the  bargain.  His  office  was 
acquired  not  long  after  by  William  Longchamp,  whom  Richard  had 
first  chosen  to  be  Chancellor  and  Bishop  of  Ely.  He  was  ugly,  stunted, 
and  lame,  but  able,  industrious,  and  thoroughly  devoted  to  his  master's 
interests.  Securing  a  commission  as  papal  legate,  he  became  as  pow- 
erful in  spiritual  as  in  temporal  affairs.  But  he  stood  almost  alone  in 
representing  the  interests  of  Richard,  who  made  the  mistake  of  leaving 
John  and  his  half-brother  Geoffrey,  both  bitter  enemies,  in  Normandy. 
They  soon  crossed  to  England  and  caused  him  endless  trouble.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  took  with  him  some  of  his  most  trustworthy  servants, 
Glanville,  Baldwin,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  Hubert  Walter, 
destined  to  play  a  leading  role  in  this  and  the  subsequent  reign.  Then 
Richard  sold  everything  he  could,  offices,  lands,  privileges,  and  favors. 
Some  men  paid  to  resign  offices,  others  to  acquire  them.  He  announced 
that  he  would  sell  London  if  he  could  get  a  purchaser.  He  excused 
men  from  accompanying  him  on  the  crusade  in  return  for  money  pay- 
ments, and  even  sold  back  to  William  the  Lion  of  Scotland  the  con- 
cessions that  old  Henry  had  wrung  from  him  at  Falaise.  Richard 
crossed  to  France  in  December,  1189.  It  was  a  formidable  task  which 
be  and  Philip  had  undertaken.  Practically  all  the  strongholds  of 
Palestine  were  in  the  hands  of  Saladin  (or  Salah-ed-din,  "  honor  to  the 


122  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

faith  "),  the  powerful  ruler  of  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Mesopotamia.  Fred- 
erick Barbarossa,  Emperor  of  the  Germans,  had  already  lost  his  life 
in  the  cause.  Proceeding  by  the  way  of  the  Mediterranean  from 
Marseilles,  Richard  was  delayed  in  Sicily  and  again  at  Cyprus,  and 
did  not  reach  the  scene  of  the  righting  until  June  of  1191.  The  French 
King  had  arrived  before  him.  Although  they  both  succumbed  to 
sickness,  they  managed  to  secure  possession  of  Acre  in  July.  Shortly 
after  Philip  returned  home.  He  made  his  illness  the  pretext,  but  he 
was  already  alienated  from  Richard,  who  had  thrown  over  his  sister 
Alais  and  married  Berengaria  of  Navarre.  More  particularly,  he  was 
anxious  to  look  after  his  affairs  at  home.  With  his  other  allies  the 
English  King  marched  on  Jerusalem  and  twice  managed  to  get  within 
striking  distance  of  the  city.  But  the  exhausting  march,  the  heat,  the 
dearth  of  supplies,  and  the  persistent  harassing  of  the  enemy  had  sadly 
reduced  the  Christian  forces,  while  the  commanders  were  at  odds 
among  themselves.  Much  against  Richard's  will  they  turned  back. 
As  he  faced  the  city  for  the  last  time  he  is  said  to  have  covered  his  face 
with  his  shield,  declaring  that  he  was  unworthy  to  look  upon  the  holy 
place  which  he  was  unable  to  recover. 

Treachery  of  John.  Expulsion  of  Longchamp.  —  Meantime,  very 
disquieting  news  arrived  from  England  where  John,  shortly  after  his 
landing,  had  become  involved  in  difficulties  culminating  in  open  war 
with  the  royal  representative.  For  a  time  things  went  his  way.  In 
October,  1191,  he  brought  the  Great  Council  together ;  they  proceeded 
to  depose  Longchamp  and  to  declare  John  heir  to  the  throne,  in  the 
event  of  Richard's  death  without  issue.  The  motives  leading  up  to 
the  struggle  were  petty  and  personal,  but  the  results  were  important. 
While  the  dismissal  of  the  Justiciar,  who  had  made  himself  very  un- 
popular during  his  master's  absence,  does  not  mark  the  first  step  in 
the  direction  of  ministerial  responsibility,  the  act  certainly  added  to 
the  Council's  prestige.  Further,  the  citizens  of  London,  in  return  for 
aiding  the  victorious  party,  apparently  received  a  recognition  of  their 
"  commune,"  involving  considerable  rights  of  self-government.  And, 
finally,  the  Church  was  encouraged  to  revive  its  claims  to  free  canonical 
election.  Philip,  after  his  return,  sought  further  to  embroil  the  situa- 
tion by  offering  to  John  Richard's  continental  possessions ;  but  John's 
mother,  Eleanor,  induced  him  to  reject  the  seductive  proposal. 

Capture  and  Imprisonment  of  Richard.  —  Richard,  after  his  retreat 
from  Jerusalem,  succeeded  in  capturing  a  caravan  train  from  Egypt 
and  in  relieving  Joppa  hard  beset  by  the  Saracens.  Then  he  fell  ill 
of  a  fever,  Saladin  chivalrously  sending  him  snow  and  fruit  to  soothe 
his  suffering.  After  his  recovery  he  arranged  a  truce  for  three  years 
by  which  the  Christians  retained  the  coast  from  Acre  to  Joppa  and 
the  right  of  visiting  the  holy  places.  In  October,  1192,  he  left  Pales- 
tine, never  to  return  again.  On  his  voyage  home  he  landed  near  the 
head  of  the  Adriatic,  and  as  he  wandered  through  the  territories  of 
Leopold  of  Austria  whose  enmity  he  had  incurred  at  Acre,  he  was 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE  TWELFTH   CENTURY        123 

taken  prisoner.  It  is  said  that  he  was  recognized  when  his  servant 
offered  gold  bezants  for  food.  Leopold  was  forced  to  hand  him  over 
to  the  Emperor,  Henry  VI,  who,  besides  itching  for  ransom,  nursed 
a  number  of  grievances  against  the  English  King.  Philip  and  John 
were  overjoyed  at  the  capture ;  but  the  prospect  of  a  ransom  of  150,000 
marks  and  Richard's  promise  to  do  homage  for  England  and  his  other 
lands  induced  the  Emperor  to  agree  to  his  release.  There  seems  to 
be  little  basis  for  the  beautiful  story  of  his  discovery  in  captivity  by 
his  favorite  minstrel  Blondel.  In  April  of  1193  the  Queen  mother 
and  the  Justiciar,  Walter  of  Coutances,1  began  to  collect  the  money 
for  the  ransom ;  they  demanded  an  aid  from  clergy  and  laity  of  one 
fourth  of  rents  and  movables  without  exemption  even  of  church  plate. 
Orders  like  the  Cistercians  who  had  no  plate  had  to  give  wool  instead. 

Richard  in  England,  March  to  May,  1194.  —  John  and  Philip  were 
baffled  in  their  efforts  to  prolong  Richard's  captivity  and  seize  his 
kingdom,  for  the  ransom  was  paid.  Though  Richard  was  received 
with  greatest  enthusiasm  by  his  subjects,  he  only  remained  in  the  coun- 
try from  March  to  May,  1194,  and  employed  most  of  his  time  in  selling 
again  the  offices  and  honors  already  sold  to  provide  for  the  Third  Cru- 
sade. Disloyalty  furnished  him  a  good  pretext,  but  he  spared  the  lands 
of  John,  and  when  his  brother  crawled  at  his  feet,  told  him  he  was  but 
a  child  who  had  been  ill-advised,  and  gave  him  a  good  dinner.  ^  In 
addition  to  sales  and  confiscations,  Richard  levied  heavy  taxes  to  carry 
on  a  war  of  revenge  against  Philip,  and  departed  never  to  return  again.) 

The  Administration  of  Hubert  Walter,  1194-1198.  —  For  the  next 
four  years  the  Government  was  in  the  hands  of  Hubert  Walter,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  and  successor  of  Walter  of  Coutances_as  lusticiarT 
llewas  a  nephew  1)1  the  great  Glanville  and  had  been  trained  in  the 
methods  of  Henry  II.  Intrusted  with  the  task  of  keeping  order  and 
supplying  Richard's  constant  demands  for  money,  the  credit  for  the 
constitutional  and  administrative  progress  of  the  period  is  due  to  him. 
Like  so  many  of  the  notable  prelates  of  the  next  four  centuries,  he  was 
primarily  secular  in  his  interests.  Lavish,  and  even  charged  with 
extortion  and  avarice,  he  dicTmuch  to  conciliate  the  middle  classes,  to 
give  the  small  landowner  a  share  in  the  management  of  the  shires, 
to  extend  the  jury  system  and  make  it  more  representative,  and  to 
confer  self-government  on  important  towns.2  His  instructions  to  the 
itinerant  justices  in  1194  and  in  1198  introduced  important  reforms. 
The  justices  in  1194  were  ordered  to  provide  for  the  election,  in  each 
shire,  of  four  crowners  or  coroners  to  decide  what  were  Crown  pleas, 

and  to  reserve  them  for  the  royal  judges.     The  suitors,  or  those  en- 

• 

1  The  successor  of  Longchamp. 

2  In  1194  a  charter,  the  oldest  surviving,  was  granted  to  Lincoln,  allowing  the 
citizens  to  elect  their  own  magistrates.     In  this  same  year,  and_  again  in  1199,  a 
charter  was  granted  to  London :  in  neither  is  the  commune  mentioned  which  John 
conceded  in  1191,  but  the  citizens  apparently  kept  their  mayor;   for  Magna  Carta 
in  1215  confirms  their  right  to  elect  such  an  official. 


124  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

titled  to  attend  the  county  court,  were  to  be  the  electors.  The  Arti- 
cles of  the  Eyre  of  this  year,  together  with  those  of  1198,  provided  that 
the  presentment  juries  hitherto  appointed  by  the  sheriff  should  be  se- 
lected by  four  knights  chosen  in  the  county  court.  Moreover,  these 
juries  who  formerly  confined  their  activities  to  criminal  accusations,  were 
instructed  to  investigate  and  report  on  all  sorts  of  royal  business.  In 
1195  Hubert  issued  an  order  that  every  one  over  fifteen  years  of  age 
should  take  an  oath  to  keep  the  peace  before  knights  appointed  to 
act  as  custodians  of  the  peace ;  as  yet  these  knights  had  no  judicial 
power,  but  they  were  predecessors  of  the  later  justices  of  the  peace  who 
came  to  play  such  an  important  part  in  English  history.  Most  of 
the  Justiciar's  other  measures  were  not  so  successful.  He  tried,  for 
instance,  to  introduce  a  uniform  system  of  weights  and  measures  and 
to  prevent  the  frauds  of  cloth  workers  and  cloth  merchants.  In  1197 
Hugh,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  refused,  in  a  Great  Council,  to  contribute 
to  a  sum  to  equip  three  hundred  knights  to  serve  abroad  for  a  year. 
There  was  no  substantial  ground  for  Hugh's  action,  knights  were  sup- 
posed to  serve  for  forty  days,  and  this  was  merely  asking  for  a  less 
number  for  a  larger  period,  which  amounted  to  the  same  thing.  But 
the  King  and  Justiciar  had  to  bow  to  public  opinion,  and  a  precedent 
of  successful  resistance  to  an  unpopular  tax  was  established.  In  1198 
a  carucage  of  five  shillings  a  carucate  was  levied.1  In  this  case  the 
juries  of  assessment  were  elected  in  the  county  court.  Meanwhile,  in 
1196,  Hubert  Walter  had  to  deal  with  a  demonstration  in  London  led 
by  William  Fitz  Osbert,  or  "  Longbeard,"  described  as  an  advocate  of 
the  poor.  Mad  with  zeal  for  justice,  in  his  position  of  alderman  he  at- 
tacked his  colleagues  for  favoring  the  rich  at  the  expense  of  the  lesser 
sort.  Alarmed  at  his  agitation,  they  charged  him  in  their  turn  with 
sedition  and  a  conspiracy  to  sack  the  houses  of  the  wealthy.  He  took 
sanctuary  in  the  Bow  Church,  but  Hubert  Walter  smoked  him  out 
by  setting  the  church  on  fire,  and  dragged  him  to  Tyburn  gallows 
at  a  horse's  tail.  The  monks  of  Canterbury,  who  owned  the  church, 
complained  to  the  Pope  charging  the  Justiciar  with  sacrilege.  Inno- 
cent III  demanded  that  he  give  up  his  secular  office,  and  Richard 
I,  incensed  at  the  successful  resistance  of  Hugh  of  Lincoln  and  be- 
cause the  carucage  of  1198  did  not  bring  in  a  more  satisfactory  revenue, 
agreed  to  remove  him.  Hubert  Walter  was  succeeded  by  Geoffrey 
Fitzpeter  in  the  office  of  Justiciar ;  but  he  reappeared  again  as  Chan- 
cellor in  the  next  reign. 

Richard's  Death,  1199.  Results  of  the  Reign.  —  Richard  spent  his 
few  remaining  years  fighting  King  Philip  of  France.  It  was  in  the 
course  of  these  wars,  mainly  over  boundaries,  that  he  built  his  famous 
Chateau  Gaillard,  a  "  Saucy  Castle,"  on  the  Seine.  In  1199  he  was 
mortally  wounded  by  the  bolt  of  a  crossbow  while  besieging  the  Castle 

1  This  comparatively  new  tax  stood  in  place  of  the  old  Danegeld  and  could  be 
more  exactly  calculated.  A  carucate  was  the  amount  of  land  which  an  eight-ox 
team  could  plough  in  a  single  season  and  was  estimated  at  100  acres. 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE   TWELFTH   CENTURY        125 

of  Chaluz  belonging  to  his  vassal  the  Viscount  of  Limoges.  A  peasant 
plowing  the  land  of  the  Viscount  had  turned  up  a  golden  ornament 
to  which  Richard  as  overlord  laid  claim.  The  archer  who  had 
wounded  him  was  brought  before  the  dying  King.  "  It  is  thou,"  said 
he,  "  who  didst  slay  my  father  and  my  brothers,  now  slay  me  also. 
I  do  not  fear  thy  tortures."  The  chivalrous  King  pardoned  him,  but 
he  was  afterwards,  by  the  order  of  the  King's  sister,  mutilated,  flayed, 
and  torn  asunder  by  wild  horses.  Richard's  worst  traits,  his  hot  tem- 
per and  his  avarice,  grew  on  him  in  his  later  years.1  The  charge  that 
he  constantly  neglected  English  interests  for  those  beyond  the  seas  can 
to  some  extent  be  met.  While  the  highest  religious  ideals  of  the  age 
prompted  him  to  go  on  the  Third  Crusade,  reasons,  likewise  of  weight 
from  the  contemporary  standpoint,  determined  the  wars  with  France. 
He  regarded  his  French  possessions  as  an  essential  part  of  his  kingdom. 
Commercially  they  might  have  been  of  as  much  value  in  French  as  in 
English  hands ;  but  they  yielded  large  revenues  to  their  overlord ;  and 
Richard  could  not  see,  any  more  than  his  successors  could  see,  that  they 
were  a  source  of  weakness  rather  than  strength  to  England.  CYet  the 
wars  which  he  waged  abroad  contributed  to  English  constitutional 
development,  the  need  of  money  developed  the  machinery  of  represen- 
tation, and  at  the  same  time  awakened  forces  of  opposition  which  later 
made  use  of  this  machinery  against  the  Crown.^ 

The  Secular  Character  of  the  Period  of  Henry  II  and  His  Sons.  — 
Perhaps  the  most  striking  feature  of  the  age  of  Henry  II  and  his  sons 
is  its  worldly  or  secular  character.  The  death  of  Becket  brought  to 
an  abrupt  pause  an  intellectual  and  moral  revival  which,  under  the 
influence  of  the  higher  clergy  and  the  monks,  had  shown  its  force  as 
early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  Some  scientists  there  were,  like  the 
learned  Adelhard  of  Bath  who  had  translated  Euclid,  and  written  a 
work  on  the  Causes  of  Things  (De  Rerun  Causis),  and  like  Robert  of 
Crickland,  who  abridged  Pliny's  Natural  History.  But  science  was 
mainly  subordinated  to  theology  and,  for  that  reason,  made  little 
progress.  Partly  owing  to  the  number  of  quacks,  notably  in  medicine 
and  astrology,  but  most  of  all  because  of  the  superstition  of  the  age, 
men  of  science  were  under  suspicion  and  justified  their  pursuit  of  for- 
bidden knowledge  by  curious  apologies,  generally  to  the  effect  that  it 
aided  in  the  comprehension  of  theological  subjects.  One  plea  is 
unique:  "  Science  is  useful  in  this  vale  of  misery  because  it  teaches 
us  to  live  rightly  in  the  midst  of  this  perverse  and  wicked  generation." 
At  first,  too,  classical  scholars  had  to  take  an  apologetic  attitude; 
we  are  told  that  "  even  in  the  classics  there  were  thoughts  which  de- 
served the  attention  of  the  serious  mind."  But  although  Paris  and 
Chart'res  were  centers  of  classical  learning,  and  John  of  Salisbury, 
the  foremost  scholar  of  his  time,  was  an  enthusiast  on  the  subject,  it 

1  Fulk  de  Neuilly  once  bade  him  give  in  marriage  his  three  evil  daughters,  pride, 
avarice,  and  luxury.  He  replied  with  biting  wit  that  he  would  give  his  pride  to  the 
Templars,  his  avarice  to  the  Cistercians,  and  his  luxury  to  the  bishops. 


126  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

had  to  yield  the  palm  to  law  and  logic.  English  schools  were  founded 
slowly  and  were  mostly  connected  with  cathedrals,  monasteries,  and 
parish  churches.  Chief  among  these  latter  was  that  which  Archbishop 
Theobald  gathered  about  him  at  Canterbury.  Here  were  gathered 
together  a  circle  of  young  men  of  promising  legal  and  political  talent. 
Thomas  Becket  was  of  course  the  most  famous  of  them  all,  but  John  of 
Salisbury  was  the  finest  scholarly  product.  His  Policraticus  or 
Statesmen's  Guide  Book  deals  primarily  with  principles  of  govern- 
ment and  philosophy;  but  many  digressions  make  it  practically 
an  encyclopedia.  Having  incurred  Henry's  anger,  he  left  the  country 
and  in  1176  was  made  Bishop  of  Chartres.  It  was  Theobald  who  in- 
troduced the  study  of  the  civil  law  into  England;  he  brought  over 
Vacarius,  who  was  silenced  by  Stephen. 

Learning  at  Henry  II' s  Court.  —  In  spite  of  the  materialistic  and 
bigoted  character  of  the  age,  Henry  II  and  many  of  his  family  were 
well-educated,  alert,  and  interested  in  learning.  This  is  true  even  of 
John,  the  blackest  -of  the  dark  sheep ;  for  the  story  that  he  got  this 
reputation  from  having  once  borrowed  a  book  of  the  Abbot  of  St. 
Albans  is  unjust.  Many  learned  men,  though  more  particularly  his- 
torians and  legal  scholars,  surrounded  the  King.  There  was  much 
intercourse  with  foreign  countries,  diplomatic,  ecclesiastical,  and 
scholarly.  Many  letters  have  survived  to  attest  this.  While  they 
contain  much  news,  they  are,  unfortunately,  polished  and  conventional 
rather  than  gossipy  and  spontaneous. 

Decline  in  Moral  and  Religious  Enthusiasm.  —  The  number  of 
lettered  laymen  in  the  royal  service  was  greater  than  ever  before. 
(Yet  the  clergy  continued  to  manifest  more  interest  in  law,  politics, 
and  administration  than  in  the  pursuits  proper  to  their  sacred  calling. 
The  same  mundane  spirit  was  manifest  in  the  country  at  large.  The 
monastic  revival  was  beginning  to  spend  its  force.)  Even  during  the 
stormy  nineteen  years  of  Stephen's  reign,  one  huncfred  and  fifteen  reli- 
gious nouses  had  been  founded ;  during  the  thirty-five  years  that  Henry 
II  ruled,  there  were  only  one  hundred  and  thirteen.  This  decrease  in 
the  number  of  new  foundations  wras  accompanied  by  a  decline  in  morals 
and  religious  fervor.  The  Cistercians,  for  example,  were  accused 
of  pride  and  avarice,  sins  perhaps  more  lamentable  than  the  more 
customary  monastic  failings,  sloth  and  gluttony.  One  or  two  efforts, 
at  least,  to  extend  canonical  rules  of  life  and  to  widen  the  area  of  reli- 
gious education  failed.  Such  standards  as  existed  were  rather 
revivals  from  the  past.  The  Carthusians,  who  were  striving  for  re- 
form on  the  Continent,  only  came  to  England  in  the  last  years  of 
Henry  II,  and  their  houses  were  few  and  unimportant. 

Legal  and  Historical  Writing.  —  As  one  might  expect,  the  writings 
of  the  period  were  mainly  of  a  legal  and  historical  character.  In  the 
reign  of  Henry  II  appeared  a  Treatise  concerning  the  Laws  and  Cus- 
toms of  the  Kingdom  of  England,  notable  as  the  first  systematic  treat- 
ment of  the  subject  ever  produced  in  the  country.  It  was  formerly 


THE   CLOSE  OF   THE   TWELFTH   CENTURY        127 

ascribed  to  Henry's  great  Justiciar,  Ranulf  de  Glanville,  though  it  is 
quite  possible  that  the  author  was  his  nephew  Hubert  Walter.  While 
historical  writing  was  at  a  standstill  during  the  first  half  of  the  reign, 
the  murder  of  Thomas  Becket  called  forth  no  less  than  ten  biographies 
of  the  martyr.  In  1172  began  the  so-called  "  Chronicle  of  Benedict 
of  Peterborough  "  entitled  the  Acts  of  King  Henry  and  King  Richard. 
It  was  probably  written  by  Richard  Fitzneal,  Treasurer,  and  Bishop 
of  London,  to  whom  we  owe  the  Dialogue  of  the  Exchequer,  describing 
the  organization  and  procedure  of  that  celebrated  financial  body. 
The  Acts  of  King  Henry,  and  its  continuation  by  Roger  of  Hoveden 
form  the  most  valuable  record  of  this  period.  This  and  the  other 
late  twelfth  century  chronicles  differ  greatly  from  the  earlier  ones : 
they  are  annals,  bare  notes  of  events ;  but  they  are  written  by  men  in 
the  midst  of  affairs,  busy  statesmen  and  diplomats,  and  not  by  solitary 
monks.  Then  they  reach  out  beyond  the  boundaries  of  England  and 
deal  with  what  is  going  on  in  Europe  and  with  the  Orient  which  the 
Crusades  had  opened  to  western  Christendom.  However,  there  is  one 
striking  exception.  The  only  work  that  is  really  historical,  that  tries- 
to  grasp  events  and  to  interpret  their  meaning,  William  of  Newburgh's 
History  of  English  Affairs,  was  the  production  of  a  canon  in  a  remote 
and  lonely  AugustimanL  priory  in  Yorkshire.  His  comments  on  the 
men  and  affairs  of  his  time  are  marked  by  excellent  judgment.  More- 
over, he  was  the  first  tojienounce  the  mass  of  fable  which  that  unblush-^ 
ing  romancer  Geoffrev'oTMonmouth  passed  off  as  history,  a  fact  which 
has  led  a  learned  scholar  to  name  him  "the  father  of  historical  criticism." 
Walter  Map  and  Giraldus  Cambrensis.  —  Two  writers  who  throw 
vivid  lights  on  the  conditions  in  which  they  lived  were  Walter  Map  and 
Gerald  de  Barri.  The  former  was  a  versatile,  many-sided  man  of 
great  learning.  His  only  surviving  work,  Courtiers1  Triflings,  is  an 
interesting  scrapbook  on  all  sorts  of  subjects  with  the  dominating  aim 
of  satirizing  the  Church  and  clergy  and  the  follies  and  vices  of  the 
court,  as  John  of  Salisbury  had,  with  a  more  thundering  voice,  de- 
nounced them  in  his  Statesmen'' s  Guide  Book  some  years  before. 
Gerald  de  Barri,  or  Gerald  the  Welshman  (Giraldus  Cambrensis)  as 
he  is  more  commonly  called,  wrote  a  valuable  and  lively  account  of 
the  conquest  of  Ireland,  as  well  as  topographical  descriptions  both  of 
that  country  and  of  his  native  Wales.  Although  his  works  on  Ireland 
are  manifestly  hostile  to  the  natives  and  full  of  wild  and  horrible  tales, 
they  are  one  of  the  few  historical  sources  for  the  period.  Gerald  pro- 
duced  various  other  vivacious  and  racy  works  on  many  subjects,  and 
has  been  called  the  "  father  of  English  popular  literature."  These 
works  were  all  in  Latin.  First  in  the  reign  of  John,  Layamon,  a  simple 
Worcestershire  priest,  in  his  Brut^or  legendary  history  of  B*rutus  and 
Britain,  set  himself  "  to  tell  the  noble  deeds  of  Englishmen  "  in  the 
English  tongue.  This  was  the  first  seed  of  a  noble  national  literary 
revival  which  came  to  fruition  in  Chaucer's  immortal  Canterbury  Tales 
two  centuries  later. 


128  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

The  Rise  of  the  Universities.  — 
land's  oldest  and  best  known  seat 
"prominence,  although  it  was  not  formally  knnwrf  a.*  a.  "  University  " 
till  the  reign  of  his  grandson  jlenrv  II \f  One  of  the  most  notable  fea- 
tures of  the  twelfth  century  is  the  rise  of  ihe  universities.  The  earliest 
teachers,  in  England  as  elsewhere,  were  in  schools  attached  to  monas- 
teries, cathedrals,  and  occasionally  to  a  royal  court.  Gradually,  how- 
ever, groups  of  students  began  to  gather  in  this  place  or  that  to  hear 
some  man  famous  for  learning  or  eloquence.  As  time  went  on,  groups, 
sometimes  of  masters,  sometimes  of  scholars,  organized  themselves 
into  corporations  or  gilds  called  universities.  Originally  meaning 
any  body  of  men  in  a  collective  capacity,  the  term  uniiiersitas  came  at 
length  to  be  restricted  to  those  combined  together  for  learning  or 
teaching.  The  aim  of  such  organizations  was  to  regulate  conditions 
of  membership  and  methods  of  instruction.  At  Bologna,  the  uni- 
•versitas  was  one  of  scholars,  at  Paris  it  was  composed  of  masters. 
The  University  of  Oxford  traces  its  origin  to  an  expulsion  of  English 
.students  from  Paris  about  1167^  There  had  been  teachers  at  Oxford 
before  this  date,  but  they  had  taught  merely  in  a  private  capacity.1 
In  1 1 86,  Giraldus,  who  read  his  Topography  of  Ireland  to  the  students  of 
Oxford,  speaks  of  doctors  of  different  faculties  and  of  scholars  of  various 
ranks,  rich  and  poor.  In  1192,  it  is  said  that  the  clerks  were  so  nu- 
merous that  the  city  could  scarcely  hold  them.  At  Cambridge,  too, 
there  are  evidences  in  the  twelfth  century  of  teaching  given  in  con- 
nection with  religious  foundations.  The  University  proper  seems  to 
owe  its  origin  to  one  of  the  town  and  gown  conflicts  common  in  early 
times,  which  led  to  a  migration  from  Oxford  in  1 209,  though  it  was  not 
till  1318  that  the  younger  institution  secured  formal  recognition. 

Conditions  at  the  Universities.  —  The  conditions  were  at  first  very 
primitive.  The  students  lodged  with  the  townsmen,  and  the  masters 
lectured  wherever  they  could,  sometimes  in  the  open  air  with  their 
classes  sitting  about  them  on  the  bare  ground.  During  the  course  of 
the  thirteenth  century  houses  began  to  be  established  for  communities 
of  poor  scholars.  These  have  developed  into  the  modern  colleges 
with  organized  bodies  of  masters,  fellows,  and  scholars.  Studies 
were  grouped  under  various  heads  —  liberal  arts,  theology,  law,  and 
in  some  universities  medicine,  each  with  its  faculty  or  recognized  hier- 
archy of  teachers  and  governors.  •  The  faculty  of  arts  gave  instruction 
in  the  seven  liberal  arts,  divided  into  ihetriyium.,  which  included 
grammar,  rhetoric,  and  dialectics,  and  the  cjnadrimum  including 
geometry,  arithmetic,  music,  and  astronomy. 

Growth  of  Towns  since  the  Conquest.  —  The  progress  of  boroughs 
and  cities'was  marked  by  new  and  important  stages  during  the  reign 
of  the  sons  of  Henry  II.  It  should  be  recalled  that,  while  their  origin 

1  The  story  that  the  famous  canonist  Vacarius,  whom  Theobald  called  in  and 
whom  Stephen  silenced,  lectured  there  rests  on  no  adequate  evidence.  He  prob- 
ably taught  at  Canterbury. 


THE   CLOSE   OF   THE   TWELFTH   CENTURY        129 

is  obscure  and  by  no  means  uniform,  already  before  the  Conquest 
they  were  distinguished  by  certain  well-recognized  characteristics : 
they  were  walled ;  they  were  under  a  special  peace ;  they  enjoyed  cer- 
tain market  rights ;  and  they  paid  a  lump  sum  known  as  firma  burgi 
(or  farm  of  the  borough)  in  place  of  the  dues  and  taxes  customarily 
collected  by  the  sheriff.  While  the  Conquest  subjected  them  to  in- 
creasing oppressions  and  exactions,  the  greater  prosperity  which  it 
brought  in  its  train,  from  wider  markets  and  the  advent  of  foreign 
traders,  enabled  them  to  purchase  protection  and  privileges  from  kings 
strong  enough  to  maintain  them.  The  concessions  thus  secured  were 
recorded  in  charters  which  either  confirmed  old  liberties  and  privi- 
leges or  conceded  new  ones.  Those  to  London  were  the  rrtost  impor- 
tant and  were  much  in  advance  of  the  others,  for  which  they  serve 
to  a  large  extent  as  models.  William  I's  grant  to  London,  though  in 
legal  form,  was  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  charter ;  it  was  little  more  than 
a  promise  in  general  terms  that  the  liberties  and  property  of  the  city 
should  not  be  disturbed.  Henry  I,  however,  in  1 100,  granted  a  charter 
containing  distinct  concessions ;  in  return  for  £  300  a  year  he  aban- 
doned all  revenues  from  Middlesex,  in  other  words  the  farm  of  the 
county;  he  allowed  the  citizens  to  appoint  their  sheriff  and  to  hold 
their  court ;  he  exempted  them  from  trial  by  battle,  from  special  tolls 
and  exactions  as  well  as  from  a  number  of  general  imposts ;  and  fines, 
or  amercements,  were  limited  in  amount.  No  notable  gains  came 
under  Henry  II.  He  granted  many  charters ;  but  as  a  rule  they  did 
nothing  more  than  confirm  liberties  enjoyed  in  his  grandfather's  time. 
He  was  jealous  of  the  growth  of  any  jurisdiction  that  might  lessen  the 
power  and  revenues  of  the  central  government ;  while  he  had  no  need, 
as  his  neighbors  the  French  kings  had,  to  nurse  the  growth  of  the 
municipalities  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  feudal  nobles.  Nay,  more, 
certain  instances  occur  where  he  caused  men  to  be  fined  for  setting  up 
organizations  to  control  local  government  or  trade  without  a  royal 
license.  The  reign  of  Richard  I,  however,  marked  a  distinct  stage 
in  the  progress  of  English  municipal  autonomy.  In  the  first  seven 
years  of  his  reign  no  less  than  nine  charters  were  granted.  The  main 
aim  was  doubtlessTo  get  mr>npy}  though  some  see  in  his  policy  an 
intelligent  recognition  of  the  signs  of  the  times.  Perhaps  the  most 
interesting  concession  was  one  in  which  he  had  no  part.  It  was  made 
to  London  by  John  and  Walter  of  Coutances,  in  1191,  to  secure  the 
aid  of  the  City  against  William  Longchamp.  It  took  the  form  of  the 
grant  of  a  commune,  or  communa,  an  organization  well  known  in  France 
but  as  yet  new  to  England.  (^A.  commune  in  the  general  sense  meant 
any  union  for  the  advance  of  civic  liberties ;  in  the  special  sense  it 
means  a  collective  feudal  person,  a  corporate  organization  with  the 
legal  position  and  independence  of  a  feudal  vassap  Whether  London 
was  granted  a  commune  in  the  restricted  sense,  on  the  French  model, 
has  never  been  determined.  If  so,  the  organization  did  not  survive  long 
into  the  thirteenth  century.  It  was  not  confirmed  by  Richard,  nor 


i3o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

by  John  himself,  until  the  barons  inserted  a  clause  on  the  subject  in 
Magna  Carta.  But  that  clause  was  included  in  subsequent  reissues 
of  the  Great  Charter.  The  right  to  have  a  mayor,  however,  dates 
from  1191.  Henry  FitzAylwine,  the  first  mayor,  held  office  for  life. 
By  Magna  Carta  the  right ~ol  annual  election  was  conceded.  In  the 
Lord  Mayor,  the  board  of  aldermen,  and  the  common  council  subse- 
quently added,  the  government  of  the  city  is  vested  to-day. 

The  Gilds.  —  Side  by  side  with  the  municipal  governments  other 
organizations  grew  up  with  the  primary  aim  of  controlling  commerce, 
trade,  and  industry.  These  gilds,  as  they  were  called,  were  in  the  orig- 
inal medieval  sense  private  voluntary  societies  for  mutual  help  and 
pleasure.  {Some  were  merely  social  or  religious  in  character^  The 
gilds  merchant,  the  aim  of  which  was  to  further  the  trading  privileges 
of  members  and  to  exclude  from  competition  all  non-members,  _date 
from_t]ie  eleventh  century  and  became  very  numerous  in  the  twelfth. 
In  course ^oTtime  these  gilds  merchant  came  to  control  a  larger  num- 
ber  of  the  town  governments,  and  even  in  many  cases  to  take  their 
place.  They  were  wealthy  and  exclusive  bodies ;  it  was  this  fact  that 
led  the  handicraftsmen,  according  to  a  widely  accepted  view,  to  or- 
ganize associations  of  their  own  known  as  craft  gilds.  The  earliest 
known  body  of  this  sort  is  that  of  the  weavers,  who  received  a  charter 
from  Henry  I.  In  the  course  of  the  twelfth,  and  the  following  century, 
the  bakers,  the  fullers,  the  grocers,  the  butchers,  the  clothiers,  and 
many  other  mysteries  or  crafts  came  to  have  their  separate  organiza- 
tions. The  central  government  and  the  municipal  authorities  seem 
to  have  looked  on  their  growth  with  some  disfavor,  or  were,  at  least, 
very  jealous  in  guarding  their  rights  of  granting  them  licenses.  Henry 
II  imposed  fines  on  no  less  than  eighteen  adulterine  or  unlicensed 
crafts  in  a  single  year ;  though  if  they  paid  their  fines,  he  made  no  at- 
tempt to  disturb  them.  John  was  more  shifty.  In  1201  the  citizens 
of  London  bought  from  him  the  privilege  of  turning  out  the  weaver's 
gild.  Having  received  the  money,  he  turned  to  the  weavers  and  got 
them  to  pay  him  to  take  them  under  the  royal  protection,  thus  nullify- 
ing the  privilege  which  he  had  just  sold.  It  would  seem  that  the  oppo- 
sition existing  between  the  aristocratic  merchants  and  the  humbler 
craftsmen  has  been  exaggerated.  At  any  rate,  a  common  motive  of 
the  latter  in  organizing  craft  gilds  was  not  so  much  hostility  to  the 
gilds  merchant  as  a  desire  to  raise  their  own  standards  of  production 
and  conditions  of  labor.  London  never  had  a  gild  merchant ;  but  her 
craft  gilds  grew  in  wealth  and  importance,  and,  under  the  name  of 
livery  companies,  both  craftsmen  and  merchants  came  to  take  an  im- 
portant share  in  the  government  of  the  city. 

Markets  and  Fairs.  Foreign  Trade.  Growth  of  London.  —  With 
the  growth  of  trade  and  industry  there  was  also  an  increase  in  the 
number  of  markets  where  local  products  were  disposed  of,  and  of  fairs, 
held  at  less  frequent  intervals,  to  which  people,  foreigners  as  well  as 
natives,  came  from, far  and  near  to  buy  and  sell.  Naturally,  there  was 


THE   CLOSE  OF  THE   TWELFTH   CENTURY        131 

much  rivalry  between  neighboring  markets,  involving  disputes  as  to 
their  respective  rights.  Some  were  settled  peaceably,  in  other  cases 
the  contending  parties  resorted  to  club  law.  An  amusing  encounter 
took  place  in  1201  when  the  brothers  of  St.  Edmunds  at  Bury  came  with 
six  hundred  armed  men  to  Lakenheath,  where  their  rivals,  the  monks 
of  Ely,  had  set  up  a  market.  Their  prior  was  so  frightened  that  he 
"  would  not  come  out  of  his  house  "  to  prevent  the  seizure  of  his  goods 
which  he  only  recovered  later  through  the  Exchequer.  There  was 
also  rivalry  between  the  great  seaports,  between  Bristol  and  Chester, 
for  instance,  for  the  control  of  the  trade  of  Dublin.  London  at  this 
time  was  steadily  increasing  its  trade  relations  with  the  merchant 
cities  of  northern  Germany  and  the  low  countries.  In  1194  Richard, 
supplementing  an  earlier  concession  of  Henry  II,  granted  to  the 
citizens  of  Cologne  a  gild  hall  in  the  city,  and  probably  the  hall, 
known  from  the  fourteenth  century  as  the  Steelyard,1  which  came  to 
be  the  headquarters  of  the  Hanseatic  merchants,  dates  from  this 
period.  With  the  extension  of  trade  and  the  increase  of  wealth  con- 
siderable building  was  undertaken.  The_first  English  "  building  act4" 
in  the  form  of  an  ordinance  of  the  London  Council  T  was  promulgated 
in  1212.  It  is  very  striking  for  its  precautions  against  fire.  Wooden 
'houses^ were  to  be  replaced  by  stone^at  dangerous  points  such  as  the 
market  place.  Thenceforth  no  thatched  roofs  were  to  be  allowed, 
only  tiles,  wooden  shingles,  and  lead  might  be  usedl  A  tub  of  wafer 
musFrje  placed  before  each  building,  and  cooks  and  bakers  might  not 
work  at  night.  About  the  same  time,  the  wooden  bridge  across  the 
Thames  was  burned  and  was  rebuilt  of  stone. 

Rural  Life.  —  Among  the  rural  classes  the  customary  services  seem 
to  have  grown  lighter  than  in  the  period  immediately  following  the 
Conquest,  and  (the  tendency  is  more  marked  to  substitute  rents  in 
money  and  kind  in  their  place^  If  these  rents  are  somewhat  heavier 
than  in  the  past,  it  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  tillers  of  the  soil  were 
beginning  to  share  in  the  general  prosperity.  Even  at  that,  some  pay- 
ments were  successfully  resisted,  as  when  the  cellarer  and  the  men  of 
the  Abbot  of  Bury  had  to  give  up  a  forcible  attempt  to  collect  reap- 
silver,  by  a  body  of  old  women  who  berated  them  with  hard  words 
and  threatened  them  with  saucepans.  Some  villeins  rose  from  the 
ranks,  like  the  great  scholar  Grosseteste,  who,  a  generation  or  two 
later,  became  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  In  general,  however,  the  lot  of  the 
villein  was  a  hard  one,  and  there  was  ordinarily  little  hope  of  bettering 
it.  It  is  only  occasionally  that  one  hears  of  a  mild,  generous  landlord 
like  St.  Hugh  of  Lincoln.  (The  Assize  of  Clarendon  contains  a  pro- 
vision to  prevent  serfs  from  taking  orders,  while  the  Franciscan  friars 
who  came  to  England  early  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III  were  forbidden 
by  their  rules  to  admit  them.)  They  were  occasionally  sold  apart 
from  the  land  as  late  as  the  thirteenth  century.  Toward  the  end  of 

1  It  got  its  name  from  the  fact  that  here  cloth  was  marked  with  a  leaden  seal  to 
show  that  it  was  properly  dyed. 


i32  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  twelfth  it  is  recorded  that  the  Canons  of  Osney  bought  one  man  for 
twenty  shillings,  another  for  four  pounds  and  a  horse.  Leprosy  and 
skin  diseases  prevailed.  Lack  of  drainage  and  ventilation,  the  diffi- 
culty of  communication,  alicf  the  necessity  of  living  on  safted  fish  and 
meats  made  the  winters  in  the  rural  districts  cheerless  and  unhealthy. 
In  spite  of  hard  conditions,  Henry  II  and  the  ministers  who  carried 
on  his  work  had  wrought  well ;  their  administration  and  judidal__re- 
forms,  aided  by-time,  had  welded  Saxon  and  Norman  into  a  united 
English  peopleT By  their  foreign  policy  the  King  andTus  son  Richard 
Tiad~secured  for  England  a  recognized  place  among  the  powers  of  Eu- 
rope. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Ramsay,  Angevin  Empire,  chs.  XV-XXII.  Davis,  England  under 
the  Normans  and  Angevins,  chs.  XI,  XII.  Adams,  Political  History,  chs.  XVII, 
XVIII.  Norgate,  England  under  the  Angevin  Kings,  chs.  VII-IX.  Stubbs, 
Historical  Introduction  to  the  Rolls  Series  (ed.  Arthur  Hassall,  1902).  This  volume, 
made  up  of  Bishop  Stubbs'  introduction  to  certain  of  the  Chronicles  and  Memorials 
of  Great  Britain,  commonly  known  as  the  "Rolls  Series,"  embodies  some  of  the 
soundest  work  on  the  period. 

Constitutional.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  I,  bk.  II,  ch.  IV,  sec.  3.  Taswell- 
Langmead,  ch.  III. 

Social  and  intellectual  conditions.  Traill,  Social  England,  I,  ch.  III.  Norgate, 
II,  ch.  II.  Stubbs,  Lectures  on  Medieval  and  Modern  History  (1900),  VI,  VII ;  two 
brilliant  and  learned  lectures  on  "Learning  and  Literature  at  the  Court  of  Henry 
II. "  Bateson,  Medieval  England,  pt.  II.  The  standard  work  on  the  universities 
is  H.  Rashdall,  The  Universities  of  the  Middle  Ages  (2  vols.,  1895) ;  II,  pt.  II,  is 
devoted  to  the  English  universities  to  1500,  with  particular  reference  to  Oxford. 
For  a  brief  account  of  the  origin  and  development  of  boroughs  see  D.  J.  Medley, 
Manual  of  English  Constitutional  History  (3d  ed.,  1902,  sec.  61). 

The  Church.   Wakeman,  chs.  VI,  VII.   W.  R.  W.  Stephens,  ch.  X. 

Selections  from  the  sources.   Adams  and  Stephens,  no.  21. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  REIGN  OF  JOHN  (1199-1216).  THE  LOSS  OF  NORMANDY,  THE 
QUARREL  WITH  THE  CHURCH,  THE  BARONIAL  REVOLT 
AND  MAGNA  CARTA 

Reign  of  John  and  Henry  III.  — In  1199,  after  years  of  intrigue 
against  his  brother  Richard  and  against  Richard's  next  lineal  heir, 
Arthur,  son  of  Geoffrey,  John  at  length  attained  the  crown.  ^His^ 
reign  and  that  of  his  son,  Henry  III,  mark  the  most  important  consti- 
tutional crisis  in  England's  history.  Ever  since  William  the  Norman  " 
overcame  the  Saxon  Harold,  the  monarchy,  save  for  a  temporary  lapse 
under  Stephen,  had  been  marching  along  the  road  of  absolutism.  In 
spite  of  Richard's  absenteeism  and  greed,  in  spite  of  the  forces  of  oppo- 
sition which  were  silently  shaping  themselves  against  the  royal  power, 
his  able  ministers  were  apparently  maintaining  it  as  strong  as  Henry  II 
had  left  it.  The  King's  Courts  were  supreme  over  all  others,  the 
sovereign  drew  his  revenues  both  from  feudal  dues  and  national  taxes, 
and  commanded  the  military  services  of  feudal  vassals  as  well  as  of 
subjects.  The  people,  as  a  whole,  still  preferred  the  rule  of  a  strong 
if  exacting  sovereign  to  the  manifold  and  capricious  exactions  of  many 
lords.  It  looked  as  if  the  thirteenth  century  might  witness  a  growth- 
in  the  same  direction  which  had  been  so  marked  in  the  twelfth.  Yet 
John  was  not  long  on  the  throne  before  a  storm  arose  which  nearly 
shook  him  from  his  seat,  a  storm  which  continued  to  rage  at  intervals 
through  the  following  reign.  The  barons  who  led  the  fight  failed  in 
their  effort  to  transfer  the  balance  of  power  from  the  Crown  to  their 
own  body.  Nevertheless  the  result  was  momentous.  /John's  grand- 
son, Edward  I,  found  it  necessary  to  recognize  limitations  to  the  royal 
power  which  transformed  an  absolute  into  a  constitutional  monarchy.} 
Moreover,  during  the  course  of  the  struggle  an_organization  came  into 
being  that  was  gradually  to  voice  the  will  of  the  nation  in  such  limita^ 
tions,  sharing  in  the  government  and  ultimately  controllingjt.  T?his__ 
was  the  English  Parliament.  ~ 

The  actors  in  the  great  movement  were  not  consciously  contending 
for  what  they  brought  about.  The  'battle,  or  series  of  battles,  was 
fought  on  specific  issues,  and  many  of  the  men  who  led  the  attack 
against  John  and  his  son  were  petty  or  even  selfish  in  their  aims.  Al- 
though the  people  suffered,  and  joined  in  the  resistance,  the  leaders 
were  the  barons  and  the  bishops  aiming  to  safeguard  their  rights, 
chiefly  feudal,  recognized  by  coronation  oaths  and  conceded  and  de- 

i33 


134  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

rived  by  grants  of  successive  sovereigns,  notably  by  the  famous 
charter  of  Henry  I.  The  chief  responsibility  for  precipitating  the 
crisis  must  be  laid  at  the  door  of  King  John.  A  mere  baronial  move- 
ment might  not  have  been  formidable,  as  past  experience  had  proved. 
But  John^by  his  lack  of  foresight,  his  cruelty,  oppression,  and  vicious- 
ness,  managed  to  antagonize  all  three  classes  of  his  subjects,  and,  by 
uniting  the  opposition,  to  insure  its  triumph.  His  son,  a  more  worthy 
man,  by  his  arbitrariness,  his  extravagance,  and  his  favor  to  foreigners, 
reanimated  the  opposition  and  widened  the  breach.  To  some  degree 
circumstances,  rather  than  either  John  or  Henry,  were  to  blame; 
the  existing  sources  of  supply  were  inadequate  to  meet  the  growing 
needs  of  the  State,  and  in  order  to  secure  sufficient  revenues  it  was 
necessary  to  demand  more  than  the  customary  services  and  taxes,  a 
demand  that  was  bound  to  be  resisted.  To  increase  the  revenues 
.and  meet  the  inevitable  discontent,  to  mold  the  representatives  of 
the  subjects  as  willing  instruments  of  the  royal  will,  would  have  been 
a  difficult  problem  for  any  ruler. 

Character  of  John.  —  Contemporary  writers  were  nearly  unani- 
mous in  their  denunciation  of  John.  To  Matthew  of  Paris  "  he  was  a 
tyrant  rather  than  a  king,  a  destroyer  rather  than  a  ruler,  an  oppressor 
of  his  own  and  a  favorer  of  strangers,  a  lion  to  his  subjects,  a  lamb  to 
his  enemies  and  foreigners."  William  of  Newburgh  described  him  as 
"  nature's  enemy,"  while  Giraldus  Cambrensis  declared  "  that  of  all 
tyrants  of  history  "  he  "  was  the  very  worst."  Truly  he  was  "  burden- 
some to  rich  and  poor."  There  was  no  truth  or  sincerity  in  him.  He 
was  a  "  mean  reproduction  of  all  the  vices  of  his  ancestors,  with  many 
others  besides,"  and  "  through  thirty  years  of  public  life,  we  search 
in  vain  for  any  good  deed,  one  kindly  act  to  set  against  his  countless 
off  endings."  •  A  younger  son,  greedy  of  lands  and  power,  he  plotted 
against  his  father  and  against  his  brother.  He  was  ungrateful  to 
them  and  to  the  ministers  who  faithfully  served  him.  One  glaring 
case  among  many  occurred  in  1209,  when  he  allowed  William  Marshall 
to  swear  allegiance  to  the  King  of  France  and  then  tried  to  bring  him 
to  judgment  for  treason.  He  was  cruel,  too,  beyond  measure.  He 
had  the  archdeacon  of  Norwich  seized,  loaded  with  chains,  and  crushed 
beneath  a  cope  of  lead  for  warning  men  against  serving  him  when  he 
was  excommunicated  by  the  Pope.  He  is  said  to  have  wrung  10,000 
marks  from  a  rich  Jew  of  Bristol  by  causing  a  tooth  to  be  drawn  every 
day  until  the  unfortunate  man  yielded  at  the  end  of  a  week.  John 
was  subject  to  attacks  of  rage  when,  it  was  said,  he  was  so  con- 
torted with  fury  that  he  could  scarcely  be  recognized.  When  forced 
to  concede  Magna  Carta,  though'he  appeared  gay  and  smiling  in  public, 
when  he  was  alone  "  he  gnashed  his  teeth,  rolled  his  eyes,  caught  up 
sticks  and  straws,  and  gnawed  them  like  a  wild  man."  He  was  fond 
of  the  pleasures  of  the  chase  and  excessive  in  his  forest  exactions.  He 
was  very  extravagant  and  self-indulgent,  he  gambled  heavily,  he 
adorned  himself  with  jewels  and  fine  clothes,  he  loved  rich  wines  and 


THE  REIGN  OF   JOHN  135 

costly  meats.  He  led  a  sinful  life  and  sought  to  atone  for  it  by  alms- 
giving. Some  kings  in  history,  equally  immoral  personally,  have  ruled 
ably  and  well.  He  manifested  an  ill-timed  levity  on  solemn  occasions 
and  was  often  strangely  apathetic  at  crises.  This  gained  him  the  title 
of  "  John  Softsword."  When  the  French  were  despoiling  his  terri- 
tories in  the  winter  of  1202  he  kept  the  Christmas  season  "  faring  sump- 
tuously every  day  and  prolonging  his  slumbers  till  dinner-time."  Yet 
he  was  personally  brave  and  not  unskilled  in  arms.  At  times  he 
showed  a  certain  fitful  energy,  and  was  possessed  of  a  certain  low  cun- 
ning. But  his  lack  of  foresight,  his  neglect  of  opportunity,  and  his 
rashness  led  him  to  situations,  political,  diplomatic,  and  military, 
which  almost  invariably  ended  in  defeat.  The  historian  Qreen's 
characterization  of  him  as  "  the  most  able  and  ruthless  of  the  Ange- 
vins  "  cannot  be  sustained. 

The  Three  Critical  Events  of  John's  Reign.  —  Many  circumstances 
combined  to  assist  John  in  attaining  the  throne.  He  was  thirty-two 
years  old,  in  the  prime  of  his  manhood.  Arthur  was  a  boy  of  twelve, 
and,  more  than  once,  a  child  had  been  passed  over  in  favor  of  a  mature 
member  of  the  royal  family.  Moreover,  Richard  had  designated  John 
as  his  successor.  The  three  leading  Englishmen  of  the  time,  Hubert 
Walter,  Geoffrey  Fitzpeter,  and  William  Marshall,  as  well  as  his 
mother  Eleanor,  lent  him  the  personal  weight  of  their  support,  and 
England,  Normandy,  and  Aquitaine  declared  for  him.  On  Ascension 
Day,  27  May,  1199,  he  was  crowned  at  Westminster  Abbey  by  Arch- 
bishop Hubert  Walter.  Within  a  few  months  Arthur  was  obliged 
to  do  homage,  and  Maine  and  Anjou,  which  had  hitherto  held  out  for 
him,  recognized  John  as  lord.  But  a  combination  of  impolicy  and  mis- 
haps soon  plunged  the  new  King  into  difficulties.  Three  successive 
crises  mark  the  remainder  of  the  reign.  First,  in  a  struggle  with 
Arthur,  backed  by  Philip  of  France,  though  he  was  able  to  dispose  of 
his  nephew,  he  lost  all  his  continental  possessions  except  Aquitaine. 
Next,  in  a  conflict  with  the  Papacy  he  ended  by  making  a  complete 
submission  to  Rome.  Finally,  a  series  of  breaches  with  his  subjects 
came  to  a  head  in  a  great  combination  of  all  classes  headed  by  the  barons 
which  resulted  in  the  great  charter  of  liberties  known  as  Magna  Carta. 

I.  The  French  War  and  the  Loss  of  Normandy.  —  Even  after 
John  had  been  recognized  as  King  the  situation  across  the  Channel 
was  fraught  with  menace.  Arthur  had  submitted,  but  he  was  still 
not  without  supporters.  Philip  Augustus,  one  of  the  most  astute 
kings  who  ever  ruled  France,  wanted  to  extend  his  power  at  John's 
expense  and  was  quite  ready  to  use  the  claims  of  his  rival  as  a  pretext. 
Moreover,  there  was  a  growing  sentiment  in  parts  of  northern  France 
against  continuing  under  English  rule.  In  the  face  of  all  this,  John 
committed  the  first  of  a  series  of  blunders  which  led  to  the  triumph 
of  Philip.  In  the  year  1200  he  divorced  his  wife  Isabel  (sometimes 
called  Avice)  of  Gloucester  and  married  Isabel  of  Angouleme.  By 
this  act  he  antagonized  not  only  the  powerful  family  of  his  discarded 


i36  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

wife,  but  a  large  section  of  the  Poitevin  nobles  as  well ;  for  the  new 
Isabel  had  been  betrothed  to  Guy  of  Lusignan,  one  of  their  number. 
In  order  to  anticipate  any  resistance  from  the  family  of  Guy,  John 
seized  some  of  their  castles,  charged  their  supporters  with  treason, 
and  offered  to  fight  them  with  hired  champions.  The  Lusignans 
appealed  to  Philip,  who,  early  in  1202,  summoned  John  to  appear  be- 
fore a  court  of  his  peers  at  Paris.  On  his  disregard  of  the  summons, 
Philip  declared  his  fiefs  forfeited,  and  proceeded  to  make  war  on  his 
Norman  possessions.  Intending  to  keep  Normandy  for  himself,  he 
invested  Arthur  with  Brittany,  Anjou,  Maine,  and  Touraine.  John 
in  one  of  his  spasmodic  bursts  of  energy  captured  his  nephew  while 
he  was  impiously  besieging  his  aged  grandmother  in  the  castle  of  Mire- 
beau  in  Poitou.  After  Hubert  de  Burgh  refused  to  obey  the  King's 
order  to  put  out  the  eyes  of  the  young  prisoner,  John,  so  the  story  goes, 
came  in  person  to  the  castle  of  Rouen,  whither  Arthur  had  been  re- 
.  moved,  and  had  him  stabbed  and  thrown  into  the  Seine,  April,  1203. 
Whether  true  or  not,  Arthur  disappeared  and  rumor  attributed  the 
crime  to  John.  Without  formally  charging  him  with  the  murder  of 
his  nephew,  Philip  continued  the  war  with  added  vigor.  One  by  one, 
John's  strongholds  opened  their  gates  to  him,  and,  one  by  one,  John's 
vassals  came  over  to  his  side.  In  March,  1 204,  weakened  by  assaults 
and  the  battering  of  its  walls,  Chateau  Gaillard,  the  strongest  fortress 
in  Christendom,  finally  yielded.  On  24  June,  Rouen,  "  the  uncon- 
quered  city,"  surrendered,  and  the  great  duchy  of  Normandy  passed 
out  of  English  hands.  Maine,  Anjou,  and  Touraine  had  already  been 
secured  by  the  French,  and  Poitou  soon  followed.  Aquitaine  held  to 
England,  partly  because  the  Gascon  merchants  feared  to  lose  their 
wine  trade,  partly  because  they  were  as  alien  to  the  King  of  France  as 
to  the  King  of  England,  and  clung  to  the  latter  from  the  likelihood  of 
a  less  rigorous  rule. 

The  loss  of  the  French  possessions  was  of  tremendous  significance. 
Withdrawn  from  their  Norman  support,  the  English  kings  were  brought 
"  face  to  face  with  their  subjects,"  while  the  barons,  on  their  side, 
broken  off  from  their  Norman  connections,  were  drawn  more  and  more 
to  make  common  cause  with  the  English  people.  It  would  have  been 
well  if  Aquitaine  had  gone  too ;  since,  thereby,  future  troubles,  and 
possibly  the  great  war  which  occupied  the  two  succeeding  centuries, 
might  have  been  avoided.  For  John  the  loss  in  prestige  was  immense, 
and  had  no  small  share  in  bringing  to  a  head  the  movement  resulting 
in  the  crowning  event  of  his  reign.  This  was  foreshadowed  when,  in 
the  spring  of  1205,  he  called  for  a  levy  to  recover  his  lost  dominions 
and  was  forced  to  give  it  up  in  the  teeth  of  a  strenuous  popular  resist- 
ance led  by  Hubert  Walter  and  William  Marshall. 

II.  The  Disputed  Archiepiscopal  Election,  1205.  —  The  death  of 
the  great  Archbishop  this  same  year  was  most  unfortunate  for  John, 
and  for  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  it  robbed  him  of  an  experi- 
enced and  faithful  councilor  whom  he  could  ill  spare,  though,  in  view 


THE   REIGN  OF  JOHN  137 

of  their  recent  quarrel,  he  failed  to  realize  this,  and  hailed  the  news  with 
the  joyful  exclamation :  "  Now  am  I  for  the  first  time  King  of  Eng- 
land." More  important  still,  the  attempt  to  fill  the  vacant  see  gave 
rise  to  complications  which  led  to  the  King's  second  great  humiliation  — 
the  submission  to  the  Papacy.  The  younger  monks  of  Christ  Church, 
Canterbury,  began  the  trouble  by  meeting  in  secret  and  choosing 
the  sub-prior  Reginald  as  Hubert's  successor.  But  the  King,  in  spite 
of  any  forms  of  free  election  which  had  been  conceded,  had  always 
claimed  a  deciding  voice  in  the  selection  of  bishops  and  archbishops. 
Moreover,  in  the  case  of  Canterbury,  the  bishops  of  the  province  had 
usually,  since  the  reign  of  Henry  I,  been  consulted.  In  the  course  of 
the  dispute  all  three  parties  sent  appeals  to  Rome.  The  Pope,  at  this 
time  Innocent  III,  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen  and  diplomats  who 
has  ever  occupied  the  papal  chair,  was  constantly  alert  to  extend  the 
powers  of  his  office.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  the  monks, 
fearing  the  royal  wrath,  had  in  the  meantime  held  a  new  election  and 
chosen  a  man  put  forward  by  John,  Innocent  made  no  attempt  to  de- 
cide between  the  rival  candidates ;  but,  rejecting  them  both,  ordered 
a  fresh  election.  This  was  in  1206.  Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of 
the  King,  the  choice  fell  upon  the  papal  candidate  Stephen  Langton, 
regarded  as  "  the  most  illustrious  lecturer  of  theology  of  his  day," 
and  as  preeminent  in  character  as  in  learning.  He  was  an  English- 
man, who,  though  he  had  lived  long  at  the  Roman  curia,  proved  him- 
self to  be  a  sincere  patriot. 

The  Struggle  between  King  and  Pope.  —  John  was  beside  himself 
with  rage.  Yet,  instead  of  resisting  the  election  as  an  invasion  of  his 
prerogative,  he  proceeded  to  denounce  Langton  as  an  obscure  individ- 
ual of  whom  he  had  never  heard,  though  he  had  previously  spoken  of 
him  in  the  highest  terms.  He  refused  to  admit  him,  seized  the  prop- 
erty of  the  monks  of  Christ  Church  and  the  Canterbury  estates,  and 
forbade  appeals  to  Rome.  Thereupon,  in  1208,  the  Pope  laid  the  land 
under  an  interdict ;  by  this  the  church  doors  were  closed,  all  services 
except  baptism  had  to  be  held  outside  and  the  dead  could  only  be  buried 
in  unconsecrated  ground.  John  sought  to  avert  the  impending  blow 
by  vain  bluster,  threatening  to  drive  all  ecclesiastics  out  of  the  country 
and  to  tear  out  the  eyes  of  the  messengers  from  Rome.  Many  of  the 
bishops  found  it  wise  to  flee,  much  of  their  property  was  confiscated, 
and  even  the  monks  and  lower  clergy  were  persecuted  and  pillaged. 
At  length,  the  King  found  it  necessary  to  issue  a  proclamation  to  pro- 
tect their  property  against  the  excessive  zeal  of  his  followers,  though, 
it  is  reported,  that  when  a  highwayman  robbed  and  murdered  a  priest, 
he  said,  "  Let  him  go,  he  has  only  killed  one  of  my  enemies."  After 
a  series  of  futile  negotiations  Innocent  finally,  in  1209,  declared  John 
excommunicate,  though  the  sentence  was  only  proclaimed  in  France, 
not  in  England. 

John's  Position  becomes  Critical.  —  During  the  course  of  this  and 
the  two  following  years  we  find  John  chiefly  occupied  with  Wales, 


i38  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Scotland,  and  Ireland.  He  made  some  head  against  Llywelyn  ap 
Jowerth,  prince  of  North  Wales,  though  he  was  unable  to  place  any 
binding  restrictions  upon  him.  However,  he  secured  a  recognition 
from  William  the  Lion  which  put  Scotland  practically  in  the  position 
of  a  vassal  state.  He  achieved  still  greater  results  in  Ireland.  Thither 
he  led  an  expedition  in  person,  he  received  homage  from  the  native 
chiefs,  he  overcame,  punished,  or  drove  out  his  enemies  among  the 
Anglo-Irish  lords,  introduced  and  extended  English  laws,  mapped  the 
country  under  English  rule  into  twelve  counties,  and  set  up  a  new 
coinage.  Says  one  of  the  chroniclers,  "  All  men  bore  witness  that 
never  since  the  time  of  Arthur  was  there  a  King  so  greatly  feared  in 
Wales,  in  Scotland,  or  in  Ireland."  l  But  such  triumphs  as  he  had 
gained  were  offset  by  the  loss  of  his  French  possessions  and  by  the 
fact  that  he  was  under  the  ban  of  the  Church.  Though  he  professed 
neither  to  fear  God  nor  to  regard  man,  the  term  of  his  momentary  suc- 
cesses was  nearly  over.  The  Welsh  broke  out  again  into  revolt  and 
his  English  subjects  turned  more  and  more  against  him.  Wars  and 
embassies  were  so  costly  as  to  require  more  than  could  be  wrung  from 
the  Church  and  the  Jews.  He  made  matters  worse  by  seizing  the 
castles  and  hostages  from  those  he  suspected,  until  he  had  almost  as 
many  enemies  as  he  had  barons.  Then  appeared  a  poor  half-crazed 
hermit,  Peter  of  Wakefield,  prophesying  that  by  Ascension  Day,  1213, 
John  would  be  no  longer  King.  Thoroughly  frightened,  he  sought  to 
strengthen  himself  and  to  avert  the  impending  danger  by  conciliation. 
He  caused  the  harsh  execution  of  the  forest  laws  to  be  softened,  he 
provided  for  a  relaxation  of  restraints  on  continental  trade  and  for  a 
better  administration  of  justice  throughout  the  land.  On  the  Con- 
tinent things  were  going  badly;  his  nephew  Otto  IV  had  been 
excommunicated  for  encroachments  on  papal  territory,  and  his  brother- 
in-law,  Raymond  VI  of  Toulouse,  was  under  a  similar  ban  for  shelter- 
ing Albigensian  heretics. 

John's  Surrender  to  the  Pope,  1213.  —  With  his  prospects  steadily 
darkening,  John  felt  it  necessary  to  resume  negotiations  with  the  Pope. 
Innocent's  terms  were,  in  substance :  that  he  should  accept  Langton 
as  Archbishop  ;  that  he  should  restore  all  bishops,  monks,  and  others ; 
clerk  or  lay,  who  had  been  deprived  during  the  late  struggle,  and  make 
them  full  compensation.  The  alternative  was  deposition.  John 
held  off,  until  Innocent,  to  bring  pressure  upon  him,  authorized  Philip 
of  France  to  invade  England  and  deprive  him  of  his  kingdom.  The 
French  King,  seeing  a  possible  chance  of  putting  his  son  Louis  on  the 
English  throne  and  making  the  country  a  vassal  state,  eagerly  made 
preparation.  He  pretended,  however,  that  his  sole  aim  was  to  defend 
the  Church  and  to  punish  John  for  his  murder  of  Arthur  and  other 
crimes.  John  made  frantic  efforts  to  meet  the  threatened  attack ; 

1  Seeking  to  strengthen  his  possessions  by  oversea  alliances,  he  even  went  so  far, 
in  1212,  as  to  send  an  embassy  to  the  Mohammedan  emir  of  Morocco,  offering, 
according  to  a  later  but  untrustworthy  legend,  to  embrace  that  religion. 


139 

but,  finding  that  he  could  count  on  little  support  from  his  subjects, 
decided  to  yield.  On  13  May,  1213,  he  met  the  papal  legate  Pandulf 
at  Dover  and  accepted  the  hard  terms.  Two  days  later,  of  his  own 
accord,  he  took  the  further  step  of  surrendering  his  kingdom  to  the 
Pope.  He  received  it  back  as  a  fief,  did  homage  to  Pandulf,  and  prom- 
ised, for  himself  and  his  heirs,  to  pay  an  annual  tribute  of  1000  marks. 
He  probably  felt  that  nothing  else  would  check  the  threatened  invasion 
and  counteract  the  growing  disaffection  of  the  barons.  To  many  the 
step  "  seemed  ignominious  and  a  heavy  yoke  of  servitude ;  "  and,  some 
years  later,  Matthew  Paris  denounced  it  "as  a  thing  to  be  detested 
for  all  time."  Yet  it  may  be  questioned  whether  this  represented 
the  prevailing  view.  The  state  of  vassalage  was  not,  in  those  times, 
regarded  as  degrading.  English  kings  since  the  Conquest  had  held 
their  continental  possession  as  fiefs  of  France,  and  even  the  lion-hearted 
Richard  had  agreed  to  yield  all  England  in  fief  to  the  Emperor.  The 
contemporary  Walter  of  Coventry  doubtless  voiced  the  attitude  of 
reasonable  sober  men  when  he  wrote  :  John  "  by  his  act  provided  pru- 
dently both  for  himself  and  for  his  people,  for  matters  were  in  such  a 
strait,  and  so  great  was  the  fear  on  all  sides,  that  there  was  no  ready 
way  of  avoiding  the  imminent  peril —  perhaps  no  other  way  at  all. 
For  when  once  he  had  put  himself  under  apostolical  protection,  and 
made  his  realms  a  part  of  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  there  was  not  in  the 
Roman  world  a  sovereign  who  durst  attack  him,  or  invade  them,  in- 
asmuch as  Pope  Innocent  was  universally  held  in  awe  above  all  his 
predecessors  for  many  years  past."  It  was  the  getting  into  the  diffi- 
culty rather  than  the  way  he  extricated  himself  that  was  most  detri- 
mental to  King  John,  and,  in  some  respects,  to  his  successors.  It 
furnished  the  Papacy  with  a  precedent  for  interfering  in  disputed 
elections,  while  the  ill  usage  of  the  clergy  alienated  a  class  hitherto 
generally  on  the  side  of  the  Crown.  Nevertheless,  his  submission  to 
Rome  was  a  confession  of  defeat,  and  he  had  been  forced  to  admit  as 
Archbishop  a  man  who  shortly  became  the  guiding  spirit  of  the  oppo- 
sition. Still,  Ascension  Day  passed  safely,  John  set  up  a  marquee  in 
which  he  gave  a  banquet,  and  poor  Peter  was  hanged.  Now  that  he 
was  a  vassal  of  the  Holy  See,  Innocent  prohibited  Philip  from  waging 
war  on  him.  Langton  arrived  in  July  and  solemnly  absolved  him  from 
his  excommunication,  but  the  interdict  was  not  yet  lifted,  for  the  va- 
cant benefices  were  still  unfilled  and  the  compensation  due  the  clergy 
had  yet  to  be  settled. 

III.  The  Opening  of  the  Struggle  with  the  Barons,  1213.  —  John's 
efforts  to  revenge  himself  against  Philip  brought  to  an  issue  the  third 
and  final  crisis  of  the  reign.  Directly  after  his  submission  he  began 
to  prepare  an  expedition  to  Poitou.  The  barons  refused  to  follow, 
mainly  on  the  ground  that  he  was  excommunicate.  When  the  ban 
was  removed,  they  took  the  ground  that  their  tenures  did  not  bind 
them  to  serve  abroad.  The  chief  opposition  came  from  the  northern 
barons;  but  Stephen  Langton  frustrated  the  King  in  his  design  of 


i4o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

punishing  them.  While  there  seems  to  have  been  no  legal  ground  for 
their  latter  contention,  they  had  many  and  excessive  causes  of  discon- 
tent. They  received  promises  in  plenty,  but  little  else.  On  20  July 
John  renewed  his  coronation  oath,  with  its  assurances  to  love  and 
defend  the  Holy  Church,  to  renew  the  good  laws  of  his  predecessors 
and  annul  all  bad  ones,  to  judge  all  men  according  to  just  judgments, 
and  to  restore  every  man  his  rights.  Further,  when,  4  August,  a 
Great  Council  was  summoned  to  St.  Albans  to  assess  compensation 
for  damages  due  the  clergy,  though  nothing  was  settled  on  that  point, 
the  Justiciar,  Geoffrey  Fitzpeter,  promised  to  observe  the  good  laws  of 
Henry  I,  and  all  sheriffs  and  other  officers  were  ordered  to  abstain  from 
injustice  for  the  future.  Still  again,  at  a  council  at  St.  Paul's  on  the 
25th  of  the  same  month,  Stephen  Langton  laid  a  copy  of  Henry  I's 
charter  before  the  assembled  clergy  as  a  model  on  which  reforms  should 
be  undertaken  by  the  King.  Geoffrey  died  in  October.  Though  he 
was  not  a  great  statesman  or  thoroughgoing  patriot,  having  suggested 
some  of  John's  most  vexatious  exactions,  he  was  an  efficient  adminis- 
trator and  seems  to  have  had  rare  ability  in  faithfully  serving  his 
master,  while  working  for  conciliation  and  against  excesses.  But 
John,  alienated  by  his  recent  attitude,  greeted  the  news  of  his  death 
with  the  remark  :  "  When  he  gets  to  hell  let  him  salute  Hubert  Walter 
whom  I  doubt  not  he  will  find  there.  Now  by  God's  feet  I  am  for  the 
first  time  King  of  England."  But  England  now  became,  in  the  words 
of  Matthew  Paris,  "  a  ship  in  storm  without  a  helm.  The  beginning 
of  tempest  was  the  death  of  Hubert ;  after  the  death  of  Geoffrey  the 
country  could  not  even  breathe." 

Existing  Grievances.  —  First,  there  were  the  grievances  purely 
feudal,  some  dating  from  the  past,  such  as  forcing  heiresses  into  un- 
equal marriages,  extorting  excessive  reliefs  and  scutages,  and  abusing 
the  right  of  wardship.  Others  bore  on  the  non-feudal  classes  as  well. 
Taxes  were  excessive  and  arbitrary.  Carucages  and  impositions  on 
movables  increased  in  frequency  and  amount.  Then  there  were  the 
exactions  from  the  Jews,  and  fines,  some  without  a  shadow  of  justice. 
One  case  is  recorded  in  the  treasury  roll  of  1201  of  two  men  of  Dover, 
who  owed  a  fine  "  because  they  had  been  out  with  Count  John," 
that  is,  for  supporting  him  in  his  rebellion  against  Richard  in  1193. 
Demands  for  foreign  service  were  not  unusual,  though  Henry  II  had 
usually  provided  mercenaries  paid  from  the  scutage.  These  reasons 
led  to  the  resistance  under  John.  In  the  first  place  his  demands  were 
more  frequent.  In  the  second  place  men  were  alienated  by  his  capri- 
ciousness  and  futility.  In  1201,  and  again  1205,  he  had  levied  men  for 
foreign  service  and  then  dismissed  them  with  a  fine,  while  in  1202-3 
he  had  failed  to  accomplish  anything  with  the  force  he  took  abroad. 
Finally,  the  interest  of  Englishmen  in  foreign  service  was  growing  less 
and  less.  For  some  time  it  had  been  the  custom  to  divide  estates  be- 
tween the  English  and  French  branches  of  baronial  families,  and  now 
all  but  Aquitaine  had  passed  out  of  English  hands.  The  successful 


THE   REIGN   OF   JOHN  141 

resistance  of  Hugh  of  Lincoln  some  years  before  was  significant  of  the 
changing  feeling.  John,  too,  had  allowed  his  royal  baronial  supporters 
to  oppress  the  people.  We  do  not  know  how  many  actually  took  arms 
against  him ;  but,  certainly  for  the  first  time  since  the  Conquest,  the 
great  majority  failed  to  range  themselves  on  his  side.  In  spite  of  the 
recent  reconciliation  with  the  Papacy,  the  Church  could  not  forget 
what  it  had  suffered  while  the  fight  was  raging.  In  1207,  John's  own 
half-brother,  Geoffrey  of  York,  had  gone  into  exile  because  he  would 
not  submit  to  the  taxes  imposed  upon  his  province.  In  short,  England 
was  suffering  under  "  all  the  evil  customs  which  the  King's  father  and 
brother  had  raised  up  for  the  oppression  of  the  Church  and  the  realm 
together  with  that  which  the  King  himself  had  added  thereto." 

The  Winning  of  Magna  Carta.  —  Such  was  the  situation  when  John, 
gathering  such  forces  as  would  follow  him,  started,  February,  1214, 
to  invade  Poitou.  After  gaining  a  few  momentary  successes  he  was 
obliged  to  retreat  before  the  French  forces,  since  the  Poitevin  barons 
would  not  fight  for  him  in  the  open  field.  While  he  was  planning  his 
next  move,  his  hopes  were  utterly  dashed  by  the  failure  of  a  great  coali- 
tion which  he  had  arranged.  On  27  July  an  army  led  by  his  nephew, 
Otto  the  Emperor,  by  his  half-brother,  William  Longsword,  Earl  of 
Salisbury,  by  the  Counts  of  Flanders,  Boulogne,  Brabant,  and  Holland, 
and  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  was  met  and  defeated  by  Philip  as  it  was 
hastening  down  to  attack  France  on  the  northern  border.  John  was 
obliged  to  make  peace,  18  September,  1214,  after  which,  isolated  and 
humiliated,  he  returned  to  England  in  the  following  month.  Unmind- 
ful of  his  precarious  situation  he  brought  matters  to  an  issue  by  de- 
manding a  scutage  from  the  barons  who  had  refused  to  accompany 
him  to  Poitou.  Thereupon,  the  hardier  spirits  united,  it  is  said, 
at  St.  Edmunds  under  pretense  of  a  pilgrimage,  demanded  the  con- 
firmation of  Henry  I's  Charter,  and  took  an  oath  to  wage  war  on  the 
King  in  case  he  refused  their  terms.  All  through  the  winter  the 
negotiations  went  on.  John  put  off  a  definite  answer  as  long  as  he 
could,  employing  the  interval  in  trying  to  circumvent  his  adversaries 
by  various  subterfuges.  He  sought  to  detach  the  clergy  by  a  charter 
granting  freedom  of  election  to  cathedral  churches  and  monasteries. 
Then  he  demanded  from  his  subjects  an  oath  of  allegiance  against  all 
men,  with  a  particular  provision  that  they  should  stand  by  him  against 
the  barons.  He  began  to  collect  mercenaries,  appealed  to  the  Pope, 
and  even,  on  Ash  Wednesday,  1215,  took  the  cross.  But  all  his  twist- 
ings  and  doublings  availed  him  nothing.  The  barons,  fearing  that  he 
might  overreach  them  in  the  end,  sent  him  their  demands  in  detailed 
form  at  Oxford,  where  he  happened  to  be  staying.  They  went  far  be- 
yond what  they  had  originally  asked.  John  furiously  swore  that  they 
were  "  idle  dreams  without  a  shadow  of  reason  "  and  that  he  would 
not  make  himself  a  slave  by  any  such  concessions.  Thereupon,  they 
decided  to  wage  war,  and  renounced  their  allegiance  on  the  ground 
that  the  King  had  ceased  to  observe  his  feudal  obligations.  They 


142  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

chose  Robert  Fitzwalter  as  commander  with  the  title  of  "  Marshall 
of  the  Army  of  God  and  the  Holy  Church,"  and  marched  down  and  oc- 
cupied London.  John,  finding  that  almost  no  one  but  his  mercenaries 
would  stand  by  him,  and  that  Stephen  Langton,  really  in  sympathy 
with  the  baronial  cause,  would  not  excommunicate  his  enemies,  was 
forced  to  yield.  After  some  further  parley  the  barons  met  him  at 
Runnymede  15  June,  1215,  where  he  set  his  seal  to  the  Great 
Charter. 

Magna  Carta,  its  Meaning  to  the  Men  of  John's  Time  and  to  Future 
Ages.  —  This  document  has  been  described  as  "  the  greatest  and  most 
enduring  landmark  of  English  constitutional  liberty  —  the  first  of  its 
creative  statutes."  But  the  importance  of  Magna  Carta  is  due  rather 
to  the  use  that  was  afterwards  made  of  it  by  the  champions  of  popular 
rights  than  to  what  was  actually  desired  by  the  men  who  framed  it. 
It  was  secured  by  the  barons  primarily  in  the  interests  of  their  own 
order,  to  safeguard  their  feudal  privileges  against  the  encroachments 
of  John  and  his  royal  predecessors.  Many  guarantees  of  popular 
government  and  popular  liberty,  subsequently  traced  back  to  the 
Charter,  are  not  to  be  found  among  its  provisions.  For  example,  it 
does  not  say  that  there  shall  be  no  taxation,  except  by  the  voice  of  the 
people.  Parliament  as  the  representative  of  all  classes  of  the  realm 
did  not  yet  exist.  Moreover,  the  two  most  effective  means  by  which 
the  common  man  is  protected  against  legal  injustice  to-day,  trial  by 
jury  and  habeas  corpus  —  the  latter  a  device  to  prevent  holding  a 
man  in  prison  without  cause  shown — are  not  worked  out  in  anything 
like  their  modern  form.  Another  notable  fact  is  that  five  sixths  of  the 
population  of  England  at  that  time  were  villeins  whose  chief  grievances 
were  at  the  hands  of  the  manorial  lords.  Very  little  is  done  for  them. 
More  than  a  third  of  the  sixty-three  clauses  into  which  Magna  Carta 
came  to  be  divided  relate  to  tenants  in  chief,  while  the  bulk  of  the 
rest  concern  under-tenants,  Churchmen,  merchants,  and  other  free 
classes,  comprising  together  a  sixth  of  the  inhabitants.  One  provi- 
sion restraining  the  King's  right  of  issuing  writs  of  prcecipe,  calling 
cases  to  his  courts,  would  have  been  a  serious  clog  on  justice  had  not  a 
means  been  found  to  evade  it.  Some  provisions,  too,  are  not  as  un- 
selfish as  they  seem.  As  an  instance,  that  which  declares  that  mer- 
chants shall  have  the  right  to  come  and  go  freely  in  the  kingdom  was 
really  in  the  interest  of  the  upper  classes  who  were  then  the  great  pur- 
chasers. Certain  great  general  principles  were  embodied  in  the  mo- 
mentous document ;  namely,  that  property  shall  not  be  taken  from  the 
subject  for  public  use  without  compensation,  that  punishments  shall 
not  be  cruel  or  unusual  (although  the  Bill  of  Rights  had  to  declare  on 
this  point  again  nearly  five  centuries  later),  that  fines  were  not  to  be 
excessive,  and  that  justice  was  to  be  open  to  all,  freely  and  fairly  ad- 
ministered. Still,  machinery  had  to  be  devised  to  make  these  prin- 
ciples operative,  and  there  were  long  stretches  of  English  history  when 
they  and  their  service  were  practically  forgotten.  Shakespere  in  his 


THE   REIGN  OF  JOHN  143 

great  drama  King  John,  while  he  touches  on  most  of  the  striking  events 
of  the  reign,  does  not  mention  Magna  Carta  at  all. 

The  Real  Significance  of  Magna  Carta.  —  In  what  then  does  its 
significance  consist  ?  It  consists  not  so  much  in  any  of  its  particular 
provisions  as  in  imposing  the  first  restrictions  upon  royal  absolutism, 
in  establishing  the  principle  that  the  King  must  observe  the  Law. 
The  law  which  the  barons  had  in  mind  was  the  feudal  law,  to  which 
they  and  the  King  were  the  contracting  parties.  The  principle  of  con- 
tract, or  of  reciprocal  obligation  definitely  defined  between  the  parties 
to  an  agreement,  is  an  essentially  feudal  principle ;  and  it  is  necessary 
to  bear  in  mind  that  that  dying  feudalism  left  this  priceless  contribu- 
tion to  the  cause  of  English  liberty.  While  there  is  no  evidence  of 
a  strictly  popular  rising  against  King  John,  while  the  barons  led  the 
movement  primarily  in  their  own  interest,  they  united  with  them  the 
Church,  they  kept  the  mass  of  freemen  from  supporting  the  sovereign, 
and  consequently,  to  some  degree,  undertook  the  business  of  these  two 
classes  as  well  as  their  own.  In  this  sense  only  is  the  oft-quoted  state- 
ment of  Bishop  Stubbs  true,  that  "  the  Great  Charter  is,  then,  the  act 
of  the  united  nation,  the  Church,  the  barons,  and  the  commons,  for 
the  first  time  thoroughly  at  one.". 

Summary  of  the  Provisions  relating  to  Each  of  the  Three  Estates 
Separately.  —  Its  provisions  have  been  most  conveniently  grouped 
under  two  main  heads  :  first,  provisions  relating  to  the  rights  and  priv- 
ileges of  the  three  separate  estates  as  political  classes  into  which  society 
was  divided ;  secondly,  provisions  relating  to  these  classes  as  a  whole. 

I.  The  following  provisions  relate  to  the  Church,  the  barons,  and 
the  commons,  respectively,  i.  The  Church  is  to  be  free  and  to  hold 
its  rights  entire  and  its  liberties  uninjured,  particularly  in  the  election 
of  bishops.  2.  The  baronage  is  promised  many  concessions.  Feu- 
dal abuses  in  the  matter  of  reliefs,  wardships,  marriages,  and  the  col- 
lection of  debts  shall  be  renounced.  No  scutage  or  aid  beyond  the 
three  customary  aids  shall  be  imposed  except  by  the  Common  Council 
of  the  tenants  in  chief.  The  same  conditions  which  the  King  agrees  to 
observe  toward  his  immediate  vassals  shall  be  observed  by  them  in 
dealing  with  their  mesne  or  under-tenants.  3.  Concessions  to  the 
commons  1  refer  to  all  freemen  or  freeholders  below  the  rank  of  nobles. 
Part  of  the  concessions  are  to  groups  and  part  to  individuals.  Ancient 
liberties  and  free  customs  are  guaranteed  to  London  and  other  towns. 
The  ancient  rents  of  the  counties  are  not  to  be  increased.  Merchants 
are  to  come  in  and  go  out  of  the  kingdom  free  from  all  evil  tolls  and  by 
the  ancient  and  rightful  customs.  All  goods  seized  for  the  King's 
use  are  to  be  paid  for.  Those  bound  to  render  labor  services  to  the 
King  shall  have  the  alternative  of  paying  money. 

Summary  of  Provisions  relating  to  the  Three  Classes  as  a  Whole.  — 
The  provisions  relating  to  the  kingdom  as  a  whole  have  mainly  to  do 

1  On  the  Continent  the  term  was  restricted  to  the  members  of  organized  civic 
communities. 


144  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

with  judicial  reforms.  Common  pleas,  or  suits  between  subjects,  are 
not  to  follow  the  King's  court,  but  to  be  held  in  one  fixed  place. 
Crown  pleas,  criminal  prosecutions  carried  on  in  the  name  of  the 
King,  must  be  conducted  by  judges  properly  qualified.  The  writ  of 
prcecipe  is  not  to  be  used.  The  two  most  celebrated  provisions,  teeming 
with  significance  for  the  future,  are  those  contained  in  clauses  XXXIX 
and  XL.  The  former  provides  that  "  no  freeman  shall  be  arrested, 
or  detained  in  prison  or  deprived  of  his  freehold,  or  outlawed,  or  ban- 
ished, or  in  any  way  molested,  and  we  will  not  set  forth  against  him, 
nor  send  against  him,  unless  by  the  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers  and 
by  the  law  of  the  land."  It  is  generally  thought  by  modern  scholars 
that  the  provision  concerning  judgment  of  peers  was  introduced  by  the 
barons  to  secure  their  exemption  from  accountability  to  the  King's 
judges.  It  has  survived  in  the  right  of  peers  in  certain  cases  to  be 
tried  by  the  law  of  the  land.  In  that  sense  the  provision  was  reac- 
tionary rather  than  progressive.  Moreover,  the  law  of  the  land  at 
that  time  recognized  forms  of  trial  other  than  and  quite  different  from 
jury  trial.  Clause  XL  declares :  "  To  no  one  will  we  sell,  to  no  one  will 
we  deny  or  delay  right  or  justice."  It  was  not  for  centuries  that  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  that  was  to  make  this  clause  fully  operative,  was 
developed.  But  the  germ  of  great  principles  is  to  be  found  in  this  and 
the  preceding  provisions.  Some  modifications  are  made  in  the  harsh 
forest  laws  which  had  been  a  growing  burden  since  the  Conqueror.  All 
forests  made  in  John's  reign  were  to  be  disafforested,  all  forest  abuses 
were  to  be  inquired  into  by  twelve  sworn  knights,  and  forest  laws  were 
to  apply  to  those  only  who  lived  within  their 'bounds.  Of  the  tempo- 
rary clauses  of  the  Charter  the  most  important  provided  for  the  dis- 
missal of  foreign  mercenaries. 

Means  of  Enforcement  and  Future  Importance  of  Magna  Carta.  — 
To  insure  the  inforcement  of  the  terms  of  the  charter  a  committee  of 
twenty-four  barons  and  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  were  appointed  who 
were  authorized  to  levy  war  on  the  King  until  any  transgression  of 
which  he  might  be  guilty  should  have  been  amended.  This  machinery 
for  securing  its  observance  was  the 'weakest  thing  about  it,  for  there 
could  be  no  peaceful  progress  under  any  such  arrangement.  It  was 
soon  given  up,  and  before  the  century  had  passed  we  find  a  body  in 
the  making  to  whom,  in  due  course  of  time,  the  maintenance  of  its 
great  principles  was  intrusted. 

Such  was  Magna  Carta :  "in  form  a  grant  from  the  King  to  his 
people,  in  reality  a  treaty  extorted  from  him  by  his  barons,  acting  with 
the  clergy  and  the  commons."  One  great  cause  of  its  enduring  sig- 
nificance is  that  it  kept  off  from  speculative  problems  and  dealt  with 
actual  conditions ;  it  aimed  not  so  much  to  create  new  liberties  and 
privileges  as  to  define  those  already  existent  and  to  guard  against  their 
infraction.  As  a  wise  historian  has  said,  the  Great  Charter  is  "  not 
the  foundation  of  English  liberty,  but  the  first,  clearest,  most  united, 
and  historically  the  most  important  enunciation  of  it";  truly  "it 


THE  REIGN  OF  JOHN  145 

was  the  revelation  of  the  possibility  of  freedom  to  the  medieval  world," 
and  "  the  maintenance  of  the  Charter  was  henceforth  the  watchword 
of  English  liberty." 

The  Baronial  War  and  the  Death  of  John,  1216.  —  Although,  for 
the  moment,  steps  were  taken  to  carry  out  its  provisions,  John  had 
made  concessions  which  he  could  not  afford  and  did  not  intend  to  keep. 
Moreover,  certain  of  the  extremists  among  the  northern  barons,  the 
"  Trans-Humbrians,"  had  refused  to  enter  into  the  agreement  at 
Runnymede  and  continued  in  arms.  In  August,  1215,  John  prepared 
to  renew  the  war ;  he  strengthened  the  royal  castles,  sought  out  allies, 
and  engaged  mercenaries.  Thereupon,  the  barons  made  ready  to 
depose  him.  The  Pope,  who,  since  John's  submission,  was  on  his  side, 
had,  already  before  the  sealing  of  the  Charter,  ordered  the  excommuni- 
cation of  the  disturbers  of  the  kingdom.  Then,  in  August,  he  issued  a 
bull  declaring  the  Charter  null  and  void  on  the  ground  that  it  had  been 
extorted  by  force,  and  forbidding  the  King  to  observe  it  or  the  barons 
to  enforce  its  observance.  Finally,  he  suspended  Stephen  Langton 
for  refusing  to  carry  out  his  sentence  of  excommunication.  The 
leaders  of  the  baronial  opposition  now  took  the  extreme  step  of  trans- 
ferring their  allegiance  to  Louis  of  France,  "  begging  him  and  praying 
him  that  he  would  come  with  a  mighty  arm  to  pluck  them  out  of  the 
hand  of  the  tyrant."  But  during  the  winter  months  of  1215-1216 
they  showed  the  greatest  lassitude,  while  John,  with  one  of  his  spasms 
of  fitful  energy,  harried  the  land  from  the  south  of  the  Thames  to  the 
Scottish  border.  In  spite  of  papal  prohibition  Louis  landed  at  Thanet, 
21  May,  1216,  two  months  after  John  had  returned  from  his  victorious 
northern  campaign.  The  English  King  retreated  before  the  invader 
to  the  border  of  Wales,  where  he  remained  inactive  until  the  end  of 
August,  when  he  marched  into  the  east  midlands,  ravaging  as  he  went. 
On  19  October,  he  died  at  Newark,  of  an  illness  brought  on  partly 
by  his  recent  exertion,  partly  by  an  excess,  it  is  said,  of  overeating. 
Turning,  in  his  last  hours,  to  the  Church  which  he  had  slighted  all  his 
life,  he  confessed,  received  the  last  sacrament,  and,  by  this  own  request, 
was  buried  in  the  habit  of  a  monk  in  Worcester  cathedral.  So  passed 
the  worst  of  the  Angevins.  Among  many  prophecies  foretelling  the 
downfall  of  his  line  is  the  beautiful  legend  of  Fulk  the  Good  of  Anjou, 
who  once  succored  a  leper  who  turned  out  to  be  an  angel  and  foretold 
that  his  descendants  should  flourish  to  the  ninth  generation.  John 
was  the  ninth  of  his  line.  No  king  of  England  has  since  borne  his 
name,  but  his  very  vices  and  incapacity  precipitated  the  downfall  of 
absolutism  and  the  rise  of  constitutional  liberty. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  The  most  recent  detailed  account  of  the  reign  of  John  is  Kate  Nor- 
gate's  John  Lackland  (1902).  Stubbs,  Historical  Introductions,  and  his  Constitutional 
History,  I,  ch.  XII,  are  both  valuable.  Other  accounts  may  be  found  in  Ramsay, 


i46  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Angevin  Empire,  chs.  XXIII-XXXI;   Adams,  Political  History,  chs.  XIX-XXI; 
and  Davis,  England  under  the  Normans  and  Angevins,  chs.  XIII-XV. 

For  a  discussion  of  the  constitutional  significance  of  the  reign  of  John  and  Henry 
III,  see  G.  B.  Adams,  "The  Critical  Period  of  English  History,"  American  His- 
torical Review,  July,  1900.  This  is  developed  in  his  Origin  of  the  English  Constitu- 
tion (1902).  Edward  Jenks,  "The  Myth  of  Magna  Carta,"  Independent  Review, 
November,  1904,  pp.  260-273,  is  stimulating  but  exaggerated.  The  standard  work 
on  Magna  Carta  is  W.  S.  McKechnie,  Magna  Carta:  A  Commentary  (1913),  which 
contains  an  historical  introduction,  also  the  text  of  the  Great  Charter,  both  in  Latin 
and  in  English  translation,  and  an  elaborate  commentary  on  each  clause.  The 
text  of  Magna  Carta  may  be  found  also  in  translation  in  Adams  and  Stephens,  no.  29. 


CHAPTER  X 

HENRY  III  (1216-1272).  THE  STRUGGLE  OF  THE  BARONS  TO 
MAINTAIN  THE  CHARTER,  TO  EXPEL  FOREIGN  INFLUENCE, 
AND  TO  CONTROL  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  THE  KINGDOM. 
CONDITIONS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REIGN 

A  Further  Stage  in  the  Transition  from  Absolute  to  Limited  Mon- 
archy. —  The  long  reign  of  Henry  III  marks  a  further  stage  in  the 
transition  from  an  absolute  to  a  limited  constitutional  monarchy. 
This  fact  must  be  kept  steadily  in  mind,  otherwise  the  period  will 
seem  one  of  the  dreariest  and  most  complicated  in  English  history. 
On  the  one  side  stood  a  King,  of  pure  life  and  refined  tastes  to  be  sure, 
but  mean,  petty,  selfish,  unstable,  and  un-English  in  his  interests;  on 
the  other,  a  body  of  barons  thwarting  him  at  every  turn,  devising 
clumsy  and  unworkable  schemes  to  restrict  his  power  and  to  obtain 
control  of  the  administration  in  their  own  interests.  They  failed  in 
their  immediate  aim,  but  it  was  due  to  their  efforts  and  the  royal  in- 
capacity that  Magna  Carta  was  made  a  reality,  that  the  nation  as 
distinct  from  the  King  came  to  realize  its  needs  and  its  power,  and  that 
the  first  steps  were  taken  to  develop  a  body  for  voicing  its  will. 

The  Expulsion  of  the  French,  1217.  —  Less  than  two  weeks  after  his 
father's  death,  Henry,  a  boy  of  nine  years,  was  crowned  at  Gloucester. 
Early  in  November  the  leaders  of  the  King's  party  met  at  Bristol  and 
elected  William  Marshall,  E^arl  of  Pembroke,  Regent  of  the  kingdom  — 
rector  regis  et  regni.  With  him  were  associated  as  councilors  Peter 
desJRoches,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  the  papal  legate,  Gualo.  Peter, 
a  wily  Poitevin,  had  been  an  adherent  of  John  and  was  to  give  the  king- 
dom trouble  for  years  to  come.  A  poet  of  the  time  describes  him  as 
skillful  at  accounts  but  lazy  in  turning  the  leaves  of  the  Bible,  as  loving 
lucre  more  than  Luke.  The  new  reign,  however,  opened  with  the 
brightest  of  prospects.  The  Regent  was  a  stanch  and  devoted  man, 
and  he  and  the  legate  proceeded  to  win  the  general  confidence  by 
voluntarily  confirming  the  Charter  which  had  only  been  wrung  from 
John  by  armed  force.  The  French  still  occupied  a  part  of  the  country, 
but  Louis  was  under  the  ban,  while  the  Church  was  lending  its  power- 
ful support  to  Henry's  government.  Moreover,  the  King's  very  youth 
and  innocence  were  a  source  of  strength.  The  barons  had  risen,  not 
against  the  royal  office,  but  against  an  unpopular  and  oppressive 
King.  Now  that  he  was  no  more,  most  of  them  turned  gladly  from  a 
foreign  invader  to  a  ruler  of  the  native  line.  The  legate  proclaimed 

i47 


148  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

a  crusade  against  the  French,  and  in  the  war  which  followed  Henry's 
supporters  wore  white  crosses.  After  his  forces  had  been  defeated  at 
Lincoln  in  May  and  in  a  sea  fight  off  the  Thames  in  August,  1217, 
Louis  was  ready  to  leave  the  country.  The  first  battle  is  known  as 
the  "  Fair  of  Lincoln,"  because  the  English  gained  such  an  easy  victory. 
The  second  marks  an  epoch  in  English  naval  tactics ;  it  is  the  first  case 
on  record  of  their  maneuvering  to  get  the  weather  gage.  From  their 
position  on  the  windward  side  they  sorely  distressed  the  enemy  by 
throwing  missiles  and  quicklime.  After  the  departure  of  the  French 
Prince  the  Charter  was  again  confirmed  and  a  new  Charter  of  Forests 
issued.  While  some  changes  were  made  in  this  and  in  the  previous 
confirmation,  it  was,  in  time  to  come,  though  often  renewed  and  con- 
firmed, never  materially  altered. 

Early  Years  of  Henry's  Minority,  1217-1224.  — The  fair  prospects 
under  which  the  new  reign  opened  did  not  remain  long  unclouded. 
Gualo,  who  had  the  good  of  the  country  at  heart,  was  soon  succeeded 
by  Pandulf,  "  a  meddlesome  and  imperious  intriguer,"  whose  only 
virtue  was  that  he  sought  to  keep  peace.  The  return  of  Stephen 
Langton,  in  May,  1218,  was  offset  in  the  following  year  by  the  death 
of  the  aged  Regent,  William  Marshall,  a  fine  type  of  the  medieval 
soldier-statesman,  who  had  labored  effectively  to  restore  peace  and  good 
government.  The  regency  ended  with  him,  and  the  chief  power  fell 
to  three  men,  each  representing  different  interests :  Pandulf,  those  of 
the  Pope  and  of  his  own  kinsman;  Peter  des  Roches,  those  of  the 
foreign  favorites  and  military  adventurers ;  Hubert  de  Burgh,  those 
of  the  loyal  English  party.  Hubert  had  been  the  faithful  servant  of 
Richard  and  John ;  he  had  shown  his  wisdom  in  advising  the  latter 
to  accept  Magna  Carta,  and  his  valor  and  naval  ability  in  the  defense 
of  Dover  Castle  and  the  defeat  of  Louis'  reinforcements  in  the  recent 
seafight.  His  watchword  was  administrative  reorganization  and 
Englishmen  in  English  offices.  One  element  of  opposition  was  over- 
come when  Pandulf  withdrew  in  1220,  in  consequence  of  a  promise 
which  Stephen  Langton  obtained  from  the  Pope  to  allow  no  papal 
legate  in  the  country  during  the  Archbishop's  lifetime.  The  harder 
task  remained  of  dealing  with  the  unreconciled  element  of  the  feudal 
barons  and  the  foreign  military  adventurers.  Although  at  times  they 
acted  in  conjunction,  the  former  party  was  led  by  William  of  Aumale 
(or  Albemarle),  and  his  successor  the  Earl  of  Chester;  the  latter,  by 
Faulkes  de  Breaute,1  who  was  instigated  and  abetted  by  Peter  des 
Roches.  After  some  futile  risings  the  restless  barons  were  for  the 
time  being  suppressed  in  1223,  and  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  and  his 
partisans  were  temporarily  excluded  from  the  royal  councils.  In 
1224  Faulkes,  who  for  a  time  "  was  more  than  King  of  England  "  was 
forced  to  leave  the  country  with  a  safe-conduct.  He  died  two  years 
later. 

1  Faulkes  had  been  captain  of  John's  mercenaries,  and  his  name  survived  in 
the  famous  Vauxhall. 


HENRY   III  149 

Last  Years  of  Henry's  Minority,  1224-1227.  —  Meantime,  trouble 
was  developing  in  Henry's  possessions  across  the  Channel.  The  com- 
mons of  Gascony,  although  they  preferred  English  to  French  rule, 
were  unwilling  to  spend  money  on  defense,  and  resented  any  inter- 
ference with  their  municipal  liberties,  while  they  expected  the  English 
governors,  or  seneschals,  to  protect  them  in  their  quarrels  with  the 
neighboring  barons.  These  barons,  particularly  in  Poitou,  were  so 
turbulent  that  one  English  seneschal  complained  that  they  respected 
him  "  no  more  than  a  horseboy."  Without  adequate  support  of  men 
or  money,  one  after  another  threw  up  the  office  in  despair.  Matters 
were  further  complicated  by  the  death,  in  1223,  of  the  cautious  and 
astute  Philip  Augustus,  who  had  done  so  much  to  enlarge  his  domin- 
ions at  the  expense  of  England.  As  a  matter  of  form,  Hubert  de- 
manded Anjou,  Maine,  and  Normandy  for  his  sovereign.  The  new 
King,  Louis  VIII,  replied  by  attacking  Poitou.  Thence  he  proceeded 
to  extend  his  operations  into  Gascony,  a  step  which  forced  Hubert, 
much  against  his  will,  to  prepare  an  expedition  to  defend  the  English 
possessions.  But  the  sudden  death  of  Louis  gave  him  his  opportunity 
to  patch  up  a  peace  with  the  French  Queen,  who  was  acting  as  Regent 
for  her  little  son,  the 'future  St.  Louis.  In  1227  the  Justiciar  pro- 
claimed Henry  of  age  and  succeeded  in  getting  rid  of  Peter  des  Roches, 
who  went  off  to  Palestine,  where  he  remained  four  years.  Neverthe- 
less, Hubert  was  unable  to  maintain  for  long  a  very  effective  control 
over  his  vain  and  unstable  master.  Henry,  who  was  burning  to  re- 
trieve the  lands  which  his  father  had  lost,  readily  listened  to  certain 
Norman  barons  who  sought  his  aid  in  revolt.  Hubert  reluctantly 
fitted  out  an  expedition  which  the  King,  early  in  1 230,  led  in  person. 
After  an  inglorious  campaign,  in  which  the  English  soldiers  performed 
greater  feats  in  deep  drinking  than  in  fighting,  he  returned  home,  in 
September,  having  accomplished  nothing.  Likewise,  a  large  royal 
levy  sent  in  1228  against  Llywelyn  of  Snowdon,  who  had  succeeded  in 
uniting  central  and  south  Wales  under  his  sway,  had  to  "  return  to 
England  in  shame."  Added  to  all  this,  in  1229,  the  aged  and  truculent 
Pope  Gregory  IX  levied  a  tax  of  a  tenth  of  all  clerical  property  in 
England  to  aid  him  in  a  stubborn  war  which  he  was  waging  against 
the  Emperor  Frederick  II.  Moreover,  his  agents  were  busy  filling 
English  church  livings  with  Italians,  a  step  which  led  to  riots  on  the 
part  of  patrons  whose  rights  were  thus  infringed. 

The  Fall  of  Hubert  de  Burgh,  1232.  Beginning  of  Henry's  Personal 
Rule.  —  This  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  Peter  des  Roches  returned 
in  1231  and  opened  an  attack  on  his  rival.  He  accused  him  of  abetting 
the  rioters,  and  of  mismanaging  the  public  funds,  which,  owing  to 
Henry's  extravagance  and  to  the  extensive  military  expenses,  were  in 
a  very  low  state.  While  the  first  charge  was  true,  the  Justiciar  could 
not  properly  be  blamed  for  the  second.  With  equal  injustice,  Hubert 
was  made  the  scapegoat  of  the  failure  of  the  recent  French  and  Welsh 
campaigns.  Nevertheless,-  the  King  with  indecent  readiness  dismissed 


ISO  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

him.  Once  out  of  office,  he  was  so  hard  pressed  that  he  had  to  take 
sanctuary,  but  this  proved  no  protection,  for  his  pursuers  starved  him 
out.  The  common  people  were  loud  in  their  sympathy,  and  a  coura- 
geous smith  who  was  ordered  to  fetter  him  refused  to  touch  one  who  had 
delivered  the  land  from  a  foreign  enemy.  But  part  of  his  property 
was  taken  from  him  and  he  had  to  spend  some  years  in  captivity. 
With  the  fall  of  Hubert  de  Burgh  the  Justiciar  ceased  to  be  the  first 
minister  in  the  kingdom  and  his  duties  were  thenceforth  purely  judi- 
cial. Henry's  personal  government  now  began,  and  "  during  twenty- 
six  years  he  gave  abundant  evidence  of  his  insincerity  and  incapacity." 
All  positions  of  trust  were  filled  with  foreign  favorites  under  the  thumb 
of  Peter  and  Henry.  Over  two  thirds  of  the  sheriffdoms  were  in 
the  hands  of  Peter's  dependents. 

Increasing  Abuses  and  Futile  Opposition.  —  Richard  Marshall, 
the  old  Regent's  second  son,  led  an  opposition  to  the  foreign  rule ;  but 
he  was  forced  to  flee  to  the  Welsh  border,  and  thence  was  enticed  to 
Ireland,  where  he  met  his  death  through  treachery  in  1234.  Before 
the  battle  in  which  he  received  his  death  wound  he  declared :  "I 
know  that  this  day  I  am  delivered  over  to  death,  but  it's  better  to 
die  honorably  for  the  cause  of  justice  than  to  flee  from  the  field 
and  become  a  reproach  to  knighthood."  From  him  the  leadership 
of  the  opposition  passed  to  Edmund  Rich,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 1 234-1 240,  a  holy  and  learned  man ;  but,  although  he  forced 
the  King  to  call  some  of  his  favorites  to  account  and  finally  to 
shake  off  the  influence  of  Peter  des  Roches,  he  lacked  the  vigor 
and  aggressiveness  to  accomplish  much.  Henry  returned  to  his  old 
courses,  and  his  marriage  with  Eleanor  of  Provence  in  1236  brought 
swarms  of  needy  kinsmen  and  followers,  among  them  four  or  five 
of  the  Queen's  uncles,  to  be  provided  for.  There  seemed  to  be  no 
leader  in  England  capable  of  withstanding  these  aliens.  Richard 
of  Cornwall,  Henry's  brother,  was  for  a  time  the  popular  hero  of  the 
opposition ;  but  he  did  not  long  maintain  this  unfraternal  attitude, 
and  his  marriage  in  1 243  with  Sanchia,  the  Queen's  sister,  bound  him 
firmly  to  the  court  party.  Besides  the  grievance  of  providing  for  greedy 
Provencals  and  Savoyards,  the  country  had  to  bear  the  burden  of 
renewed  exactions  from  the  Papacy.  In  1237  the  Pope,  at  the  royal 
request,  sent  a  cardinal  legate,  Otho.  He  began  by  getting  into  a 
conflict  with  the  University  of  Oxford,  when  his  brother,  whom  he  had 
brought  as  cook  for  fear  of  poison,  threw  a  plate  of  soup  in  the  face 
of  an  Irish  scholar  who  appeared  begging  for  bread.  During  the  four 
years  that  he  stayed,  Otho  steadily  increased  his  unpopularity  by 
the  heavy  contributions  which  he  demanded  from  the  clergy ;  indeed, 
it  is  said  that  he  took  away  almost  as  much  gold  and  silver  as  he  left 
in  the  country ;  in  addition,  he  claimed  for  his  master  the  right  to  fill 
three  hundred  livings  with  Italians,  while  the  spiritless  Henry  de- 
clared: "  I  neither  wish  nor  dare  to  oppose  the  Lord  Pope  in  any- 
thing." Truly,  said  Richard  of  Cornwall : . "  England  was  like  a  vine- 


HENRY   III  151 

yard  with  a  broken  hedge  so  that  all  who  went  by  could  steal  of  her 
grapes."  Edmund  Rich  died  abroad  in  1240.  He  was  succeeded  as 
leader  of  the  national  clerical  party  by  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men 
of  the  century  —  Robert  Grosseteste,  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  Both  at 
Oxford  and  as  lecturer  to  the  Franciscan  Friars,  Grosseteste  achieved 
a  preeminent  reputation  for  scholarship,  not  only  in  theology  but  in 
science.  Made  bishop  late  in  life,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the 
reform  of  his  diocese  and  to  politics,  with  the  aim  of  uniting  Church  and 
baronage  in  the  defense  of  their  common  liberties  and  in  resistance  to 
papal  encroachment.  Particularly  did  he  set  himself  against  foreign 
nominees  to  English  livings,  whom  he  described  as  intruders  "  who 
not  only  strive  to  tear  off  the  fleece,  but  do  not  even  know  the  features 
of  their  flock."  But,  wedded  to  the  theory  of  the  superiority  of  the 
Church  over  the  State,  and  a  stanch  advocate  of  clerical  immunity, 
he  was  not  a  man  to  lead  most  effectively  the  popular  cause. 

The  Baronial  Demand  for  Elective  Ministers.  —  In  1241  the  barons 
of  Poitou  attempted  another  revolt  against  the  King  of  France.  They 
drew  the  Gascons  into  the  combination,  and  Henry  led  a  small  expedi- 
tion to  their  aid.  Most  of  the  English  barons,  however,  refused  to 
support  him ;  he  was  defeated  in  battle  and  barely  escaped  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  So,  in  April,  1243,  he  was  obliged  to  make 
a  five  years'  truce  and  Poitou  was  incorporated  in  the  French  domin- 
ions. Henry  lingered  long  in  Gascony,  partly  because  he  wanted  to 
knit  the  towns  into  a  closer  union  with  England,  partly  because  he 
dreaded  to  face  his  subjects.  Nevertheless,  he  arranged  to  be  received 
with  ridiculous  pomp  on  his  return.  The  situation  grew  steadily 
darker.  London  became  disaffected,  and  another  papal  agent  came  to 
glean  after  Otho's  abundant  harvest.  The  King  fell  into  sore  financial 
straits,  so  that  the  barons,  taking  advantage  of  his  needs,  began  to 
demand  that  he  choose  ministers  of  native  birth  and  acceptable  to 
the  country.  The  most  striking  case  occurred  in  1244,  when  a  com- 
mittee appointed  to  fix  the  conditions  of  a  money  grant  set  down  as  one 
of  them  that  the  Justiciar,  the  Chancellor,  and  the  Treasurer  should  be 
chosen  in  the  Great  Council.  It  was  some  years  before  they  were  able 
to  carry  their  point.  Henry  might  yield  to  the  Pope,  but  he  maintained 
a  lofty  attitude  toward  his  subjects.  When  they  renewed  their 
demand  in  1248  and  requested  him  to  dismiss  the  aliens  who  were 
still  flocking  to  his  court  —  new  batches  had  arrived  the  previous 
year  —  he  replied :  "  Servants  do  not  judge  their  master,  vassals  do 
not  judge  their  prince  and  bind  him  by  conditions.  Much  rather  should 
they  put  themselves  at  his  disposal  and  be  submissive  to  his  will." 
In  consequence,  all  sorts  of  expedients  were  tried  to  supply  the  royal 
necessities.  Plate  and  jewels  were  sold,  likewise  grants  of  privileges, 
and  even  of  administering  justice,  while  the  forest  courts  imposed 
increasing  exactions.  Though  he  refused  to  accompany  Louis  IX 
on  a  crusade  to  Egypt,  Henry,  in  1252,  with  the  Pope's  support,  de- 
manded a  tithe  for  the  purpose.  When  the  barons  agreed,  on  con- 


152  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

dition  that  the  charters  be  confirmed  again  and  the  money  be  em- 
ployed solely  in  the  design  for  which  it  was  asked,  he  swore  with  great 
oaths  "  that  never  while  breath  was  in  his  body,  would  he  submit  to 
be  a  slave. ' '  Grosseteste  died  in  1 2 53 ,  prophesying  that  only  the  sword 
could  deliver  the  Church  from  her  Egyptian  bondage.  Curiously 
enough,  the  barons  were  at  length  to  find  a  leader  among  the  very 
foreigners  whom  they  were  seeking  to  oppose. 

Simon  de  Montfort  becomes  Leader  of  the  National  Party.  — 
Simon  de  Montfort  was  a  Norman  by  birth  who  first  came  to  England 
in  1229  to  prosecute  a  claim  on  the  earldom  of  Leicester  which  he 
inherited  from  a  marriage  of  his  grandfather  with  an  heiress  of  that 
house.  He  began  as  an  adherent  of  the  royal  party,  married  Henry's 
sister  Eleanor,  and  secured  the  title  and  estates  which  he  sought.  In 
1239,  however,  he  became  involved  in  a  bitter  personal  quarrel  with 
the  King,  and  the  next  year  departed  with  Richard  of  Cornwall  on  a 
crusade  to  the  Holy  Land.  On  his  return  he  began  to  identify  him- 
self with  Grosseteste  and  the  baronial  party ;  but  it  required  another 
quarrel  to  complete  his  rupture  with  the  King.  In  1248  he  was  sent 
to  rule  Gascony,  oh  the  express  condition  that  he  should  enjoy  full 
powers,  including  control  of  the  Gascon  revenue,  for  seven  years. 
The  situation  was  well-nigh  hopeless;  the  towns  were  in  revolt  and 
the  nobles  intriguing  busily,  some  with  France,  some  with  Navarre. 
Simon  was  energetic  and  put  down  resistance  with  a  high  hand.  He 
was  cruel  and  oppressive,  no  doubt,  and  reaped  a  harvest  of  discontent 
which  resulted  in  bitter  complaints  to  the  King.  Henry,  though  he 
acknowledged  to  his  brother-in-law  that  he  had  fought  bravely  for 
him, 'finally  yielded  to  the  hostile  representations,  and  in  spite  of 
Simon's  protests,  dismissed  him.  This  may  look  like  a  weak  desertion 
of  a  faithful  servant ;  but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that,  however  far 
the  Governor  may  have  been  at  fault,  he  had  been  rapidly  alienating 
a  people  whom  the  King  desired  to  conciliate.  Thus,  on  the  eve  of  the 
great  crisis  of  his  reign,  Henry  forced  into  the  enemy's  camp  the  most 
remarkable  man  of  his  generation,  a  man  destined  to  become  one  of 
the  most  notable  figures  in  English  history. 

The  Baronial  Opposition  comes  to  a  Head,  1254.  —  In  1254,  two 
years  after  this  event,  the  King  crowned  his  impolicy  by  an  act  of 
extravagant  folly  which  brought  to  a  focus  all  the  forms  of  opposition 
which  had  been  slowly  converging  against  his  misgovernment,  his 
futile  foreign  policy,  and  his  abject  submission  to  papal  exaction.  He 
accepted  for  his  second  son  Edmund  the  crown  of  Sicily  which  the 
Pope  had  long  been  striving  to  wrest  from  the  Imperial  House  of 
Hohenstaufen,  and  which  Richard  of  Cornwall  had  wisely  refused. 
Edmund  never  attained  the  Sicilian  throne;  but  the  efforts  which 
his  father  made  in  his  behalf  were  none  the  less  momentous.  He 
pledged  himself  to  provide  an  army  and  140,000  marks,  and  applied 
to  his  Great  Council  for  supplies  to  redeem  his  bond.  They  refused 
in  1255  and  again  in  1257,  when  Henry  brought  his  little  son  before 


HENRY  III  153 

them  in  Apulian  dress,  and  sought  to  work  on  their  sentiments.1 
Everything  combined  to  foster  discontent.  Rain,  flood,  bad  harvests, 
cattle  murrain,  and  high  prices  were  estranging  the  poor.  New  Church 
leaders  took  the  place  of  Grpssetestej  in  1256  the  Pope  had  added 
another  exaction  by  demanding  for  the  first  time  annates  or  first 
fruits  —  the  first  year's  annual  revenue  from  clergy  newly  inducted 
into  benefices.  Aside  from  the  new  grievances  old  ones  continued 
from  the  previous  reign,  for,  although  the  Charters  had  been  fre- 
quently confirmed,  their  concessions  had  been  disregarded.  Many 
castles  were  in  the  hands  of  foreigners;  sheriffs  and  itinerant 
judges  were  perverting  justice  and  levying  excessive  fines,  and  the 
forest  laws  were  unmitigated  in  their  severity.  The  storm  burst  in 
1258. 

The  Provisions  of  Oxford,  1258.  — On  28  April,  1258,  a  Great  Council 
of  magnates,  reenforced  by  representative  knights  from  the  shires, 
assembled.  When  the  King  in  the  face  of  the  gathering  discontent 
ventured  a  third  time  to  ask  for  money  for  the  Sicilian  campaign, 
the  barons  and  knights  in  full  armor,  though  they  laid  their  swords 
aside,  crowded  into  the  royal  presence  chamber  and  presented  their 
terms.  They  demanded  the  dismissal  of  all  aliens  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  of  twenty-four  —  half  from  the  royal  party, 
half  from  the  baronial  —  to  draw  up  a  scheme  of  reform  to  present 
at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Great  Council.  The  King  was  forced  to 
assent.  An  assembly  met  in  June  at  Oxford,  known  as  the  "  Mad 
Parliament."  To  it  the  committee  submitted  not  only  a  list  of  griev- 
ances but  a  plan  of  government  by  which  all  authority  was  to  be 
transferred  from  the  Crown  to  representative  bodies  of  the  baronage. 
Chief  among  them  was  a  permanent  committee  of  fifteen  which  was 
to  have  complete  control  of  the  administration  and  to  which  the  King's 
ministers  were  to  be  answerable.  Three  times  a  year  it  was  to  meet 
with  another  committee  of  twelve  chosen  from  the  Great  Council  to 
transact  the  business  formerly  in  the  hands  of  the  latter  body. 
Other  committees  still  were  to  undertake  the  work  of  financial  and 
Church  reform.  Such  were  the  Provisions  of  Oxford.  Their  merit 
was  in  putting  a  check  on  the  absolutism  of  an  unpatriotic  and  incom- 
petent King.  Yet  they  are  open  to  serious  criticism  in  that  they 
aimed  to  put  in  his  place  an  oligarchy  that  would  tend  to  become 
equally  self-seeking  and  ineffective,  and  would  be  far  more  likely  to 
hamper  the  executive  and  to  foment  discord  than  to  advance  the 
welfare  of  the  kingdom. 

The  Mise  of  Amiens.  Preparation  for  War,  1264.  —  No  sooner 
were  the  Provisions  acknowledged  than  the  baronial  party  split  into 
two  factions.  One  was  led  by  Simon  de  Montfort,  who  seems  to 
have  been  honestly  desirous  of  securing  the  interests  of  all  classes.. 
The  other,  led  by  Richard  de  Clare,  Earl  of  Gloucester,  was  selfishly 

1The  clergy,  however,  granted  52,000  marks. 


154  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

concerned  with  the  interests  of  its  own  order.  Simon  secured  a  mo- 
mentary ascendancy  by  attaching  Prince  Edward  —  Henry's  eldest 
son  —  to  his  cause,  and,  in  1259,  in  a  Great  Council  at  Westminster 
.  carried  the  passage  of  a  series  of  measures  known  as  the  Provisions 
7  of  Westminster,  by  which  the  powers  and  profits  of  the  private  feudal 
courts  were  greatly  curtailed.  For  a  time  the  King  worked  loyally 
with  the  new  council :  inquiries  were  made  into  abuses,  and,  willingly 
or  unwillingly,  Henry  issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  commanded 
all  true  men  "  steadfastly  to  hold  and  to  defend  the  statutes  that  bj 
made  and  are  to  be  made  by  our  councilors."  l  Yet  before  many 
months  he  managed  to  shake  himself  free  from  the  baronial  shackles 
which  had  been  imposed  upon  him.  He  made  an  alliance  with  Louis 
IX,  King  of  France,  he  drew  Gloucester  and  his  followers  to  his  side, 
he  reconciled  himself  with  Edward,  and  finally  appealed  to  Pope 
Alexander  IV  to  release  him  from  his  oath  to  observe  the  Provisions. 
This  last  request  was  granted  by  a  bull  dated  13  April,  1261,  which 
annulled  the  whole  legislation  of  1258-1259.  With  his  hand  thus 
strengthened  Henry  returned  to  his  old  courses.  The  renewal  of 
danger  drew  the  two  factions  of  the  barons  together  again  and  civil 
war  broke  out  in  1263.  But  Henry  was  stronger  than  he  had  been 
five  years  before,  and  the  opposing  forces  proved  so  evenly  balanced 
that  they  decided  to  arbitrate  and  appealed  to  Louis  IX  to  settle  the 
points  at  issue.  He  announced  his  decision,  23  January,  1264,  in  a 
document  known  as  the  Mise  of  Amiens,  deciding  almost  every 
question  in  favor  of  the  King.  He  pronounced  the  Provisions  invalid, 
and  declared  that  Henry  had  a  right  to  appoint  his  own  ministers  and 
custodians  of  castles.  He  was,  however,  to  be  bound  by  the  ancient 
charters  and  customs,  and  both  sides  were  urged  to  keep  the  peace. 
Simon,  whose  chief  following  was  now  among  the  lesser  folk,  refused 
to  be  bound  by  the  award,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had  promised 
to  abide  by  its  terms.  "  Though  all  men  quit  me,"  he  declared, 
"  I  will  remain  with  my  four  sons  and  will  fight  for  the  good  cause 
which  I  have  sworn  to  defend  —  the  honor  of  the  Holy  Church  and 
the  good  of  the  realm." 

Simon's  Victory  at  Lewes,  1264.  His  Famous  Parliament,  1265.  — 
In  the  civil  war  which  followed  he  was  able  to  win  a  great  victory  over 
the  royal  forces,  14  May,  1 264,  at  Lewes.  Before  the  battle  he  exhorted 
his  soldiers  to  beseech  the  Lord  for  strength  and  help,  and  each  one 
prostrated  himself  on  the  ground  with  arms  outstretched  to  form  a  cross, 
and  prayed.  Henry  was  forced  by  a  treaty  known  as  the  Mise  of 
Lewes  to  agree  to  uphold  the  Great  Charter,  the  Charter  of  the  Forests, 
and  the  Provisions  of  Oxford.  The  administration,  local  and  central, 

.  1  A  slight  incident  shows  his  awe  of  Simon.  One  sultry  day  in  July,  overtaken 
by  a  thunderstorm,  he  was  driven  to  shelter  in  a  house  by  the  Thames  occupied  by 
de  Montfort.  Seeing  he  was  much  afraid,  his  host  sought  to  reassure  him'.  Where- 
upon King  Henry  exclaimed:  "I  fear  thunder  and  lightning  exceedingly,  but  I 
fear  thee  more  than  all  the  thunder  and  lightning  in  the  world." 


HENRY  III  155 

and  the  custody  of  castles  passed  again  into  the  baronial  hands.  Then 
a  Parliament  was  called  which  constituted  a  body  of  three  electors, 
chief  of  whom  was  Simon,  to  choose  a  council  of  nine  to  control  the 
government  of  the  King.  Edward  was  to  be  a  hostage  for  the  good 
behavior  of  the  "  Marchers,"  or  men  of  the  Welsh  border,  who  were 
bitterly  hostile  to  the  baronial  leader  for  having  called  in  the  Welsh 
as  allies.  The  scheme  of  government  of  1264  has  the  merit  of  being 
much  simpler  and  less  oligarchical  than  that  of  1258.  During  the 
period  of  his  triumph  de  Montfort  had  the  King  issue  writs,  sum- 
moning a  notable  assembly  which  sat  from  January  to  March,  1265. 
This  has  often  been  spoken  of  as  the  first  Parliament  in  English  history 
because  it  was  the  first  body  in  which  both  knights  of  the  shire  and 
representatives  from  the  towns  sat  with  the  Great  Council,  but,  as  will 
be  shown  later,  it  was  a  partisan  body  and  far  from  being  completely 
representative  in  other  respects.  ("De  MontforJ^s  Parliament,  however, 
is  not  without  constitutional  significance,  as  a  stage  in  the  develop- 
ment from  the  Great  Council  to  the  institution  which  came  to 
represent  the  three  estates  of  the  realm.)  More  than  once  already 
knights  from  the  shires  had  sat  with  the  barons,  but  never  before 
had  they  been  reenforced  by  representatives  from  the  towns,  and 
it  was  a  matter  of  great  moment  that  Simon  had  called  in  this 
class  to  support  him  against  his  opponents  at  court  and  among  the 
magnates. 

The  Defeat  and  Death  of  Simon,  1265.  His  Character  and  Work.  — 
In  April,  1265,  war  broke  out  again.  The  standard  of  revolt  was 
raised  by  the  Marchers.  Disgruntled  members  of  Simon's  party  and 
old  royal  adherents  flocked  to  the  western  country.  Prince  Edward, 
who  had  escaped  from  his  keepers  while  hunting,  soon  appeared  as 
leader.  On  4  August  he  succeeded  in  entrapping  the  baronial  army 
at  Evesham,  on  a  narrow  tongue  of  land  formed  by  an  abrupt  bend  of 
the  Stratford  Avon.  Simon,  in  the  face  of  impending  disaster,  could 
not  but  admire  the  skillful  tactics  by  which  his  young  opponent  had 
undone  him.  "  By  the  arm  of  St.  James,"  he  cried,  "  they  come  on 
cunningly.  Yet  they  have  not  taught  themselves  that  order  of  battle, 
they  have  learnt  it  from  me.  God  have  mercy  upon  our  souls,  for 
our  bodies  are  theirs."  He  fell  bravely  fighting.  By  the  victory  of 
Evesham  and  the  death  of  Simon  the  royal  party  was  again  trium- 
phant. "  Sir  Simon  the  righteous,"  the  man  whom  Henry  feared 
more  than  thunder  and  lightning,  left  no  successor  capable  of  carrying 
on  his  work.  He  was  not  a  hero  without  blemish.  Coming  from  a  race 
of  poor  but  ambitious  counts  he  began  life  as  an  adventurer.  He  had 
sought  twice  in  vain  to  advance  his  fortunes  by  marriage  before  he 
attained  the  hand  of  the  King's  sister,  nor  did  he  begin  his  opposition 
as  a  disinterested  advocate  of  popular  liberty ;  it  was  occasioned  in 
the  first  instance  by  quarrels  with  Henry,  culminating  in  the  Gascon 
affair.  Even  after  he  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  national  party 
he  was  at  times  shifty  and  cruel,  and  always  masterful  and  impatient 


156  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  restraint.  But,  whether  from  interest  or  conviction,  he  threw 
himself  on  the  support  of  the  people  and  worked  sincerely  for  their 
interests.  He  secured  them  a  more  complete  representation  in  the 
National  Council  than  they  had  ever  enjoyed.  Edward  never  forgot 
the  lessons  he  had  learned  from  him  and  showed  it  in  the  constitu- 
tional character  of  his  long  and  prosperous  reign.  The  people  and 
the  lower  clergy  adored  their  departed  leader  as  a  saint,  and,  accord- 
ing to  report,  miracles  were  worked  at  his  tomb. 

Final  Submission  of  the  Barons,  1267.  Results  of  the  Struggle.  — 
A  few  of  the  barons  held  out  stubbornly  at  Kenilworth  until  December 
of  1266  when  disease  and  famine  compelled  them  to  surrender.  By 
the  Dictum  of  Kenilworth  they  were  allowed  to  redeem  their  estates 
on  payment  of  heavy  fines,  the  reenactment  of  the  Charters  was 
promised  as  well  as  the  redress  of  some  of  the  grievances  mentioned  in 
the  Provisions  of  1258.  But  another  revolt  had  to  be  faced,  some 
minor  risings  had  to  be  put  down,  and  Llywelyn  had  to  be  pacified 
before  the  country  was  really  at  peace.  In  1267  the  Statute  of  Marl- 
borough  reenacted  in  a  formal  fashion  the  chief  of  the  Provisions  of 
Westminster.  The  next  year  Edward  and  his  brother  Edmund  felt 
safe  in  taking  the  cross,  though  their  departure  was  delayed  by  financial 
difficulties  till  1270.  The  barons  had  failed  to  secure  the  supremacy 
at  which  they  aimed,  and  it  was  well  for  England  that  they  did ;  but 
they  had  broken  the  power  of  absolutism,  they  had  aroused  and 
kept  alive  the  national  opposition,  they  had  made  the  Charters  a 
reality,  they  had  taken  steps  to  make  the  Great  Council  a  popular  rep- 
resentative body,  and  the  result  of  their  work  was  to  manifest  it- 
self in  the  next  reign  and  live  on  in  time  to  come. 

Death  of  Henry,  1272.  His  Character.  —  While  his  sons  were 
away  on  the  Crusade  Henry  died,  16  November,  1272,  in  his  sixty- 
sixth  year.  Personally  he  had  many  commendable  qualities.  His 
private  life  was  blameless,  he  was  religious,  and  especially  faithful 
in  attending  mass.  He  had  a  refined  mind  and  cultivated  tastes.  He 
loved  "  fair  churches,  beautiful  sculpture,  delicate  gold  work,  and 
richly  illuminated  books,"  and  was  a  generous  patron  of  painting  and 
architecture.  His  most  enduring  monument  is  Westminster  Abbey, 
the  foundation  of  Edward  the  Confessor  which  he  caused  to  be  rebuilt. 
He  apparently  had  no  taste  for  literature.  Except  for  occasional 
flurries  of  temper  when  his  will  was  crossed,  he  was  mild  and  amiable. 
Above  all  things  he  had  a  "  horror  of  violence,"  and  is  said  to  have 
wept  bitterly  when  he  learned  that  his  name  had  been  used  to  lure 
Richard  Marshall  to  Ireland.  Physically  he  was  brave  and  loved 
a  bit  of  horse-play  with  his  nobles.  Matthew  Paris  tells  how  once 
in  the  abbey  orchard  they  pelted  each  other  with  apples  and  squeezed 
the  juice  of  unripe  grapes  in  each  other's  eyes.  As  to  his  faults,  they 
are  manifest  in  the  history  of  his  reign.  He  lacked  moral  courage, 
he  was  timid,  evasive,  weak,  and  obstinate.  He  had  no  talent  for 
administration,  or  grasp  of  politics,  and  was  un-English  in  feeling. 


HENRY   III 


157 


Dante  placed  him  in  the  region  of  purgatory  reserved  for  negligent 
and  incompetent  rulers. 

England  and  the  Intellectual  and  Religious  Movements  of  the 
Time.  —  There  was  one  good  side  to  the  un-English  policy  of  Henry 
III.  It  helped  to  open  the  country  to  the  best  fruits  of  continental 
civilization.  The  period  of  royal  misrule,  of  political  strife,  and  civil 
war  was,  by  a  strange  contrast,  one  of  high  achievement  in  art,  in 
religious  revival,  and  intellectual  progress,  truly,  as  has  been  happily 
said,  the  "  flowering  time  of  English  medieval  life."  In  England,  as 
elsewhere,  two  antagonistic  tendencies  were  at  work.  Politically, 
there  was  a  tendency  to  accentuate  national  differences.  This  ran 
counter  to  the  other  great  tendency  of  the  Middle  Ages,  that  toward 
unity,  toward  universality.  The  Catholic  Church  with  the  Pope 
at  the  head  was  the  church  of  all  western  Christendom ;  its  clergy, 
its  monks  and  friars  were  subjects  of  no  country  but  citizens  of  heaven, 
as  they  sometimes  pleased  to  call  themselves.  The  academic  system 
was  a  universal  one,  famous  scholars  were  equally  at  home  in  England, 
France,  and  Italy,  and  Latin  was  the  language  of  the  clerical  and  the 
learned  in  every  Christian  land.  The  Crusades,  too,  offered  a  com- 
mon enterprise  which  brought  together  men  from  the  north,  the  west, 
and  the  south  without  distinction  of  boundary.  Improved  means 
of  communication  were  bringing  increased  opportunities  for  religious, 
intellectual,  social,  and  commercial  intercourse.  The  friar,  the 
knight-errant,  the  scholar,  and  the  merchant  tended  to  maintain  and 
foster  a  union  which  a  growing  sense  of  nationality  threatened  to 
break.  Henry's  hospitality  to  foreigners  and  relations  with  the  Papacy 
resulted  in  the  spread  of  ideas  and  forces  which  the  exclusive  policy 
of  the  barons  might  have  checked.  The  most  potent  factor  in  the 
revived  intellectual  and  religious  life  of  the  age  is  to  be  found  in  the 
new  orders  —  the  friars. 

The  Franciscan  and  Dominican  Friars.  —  Two  of  these  orders  of 
brothers  (Latin  fratres)  came  into  being  at  about  the  same  time,  and 
they  supplemented  each  other.  That  of  the  Spanish  St.  Dominic 
was  strong  in  organization  and  the  defense  of  orthodoxy,  that  of  the 
Italian,  St.  Francis,  in  spiritual  impulse  and  the  service  of  humanity. 
Shortly  before  Henry  III  of  England  was  born,  a  young  merchant  of 
the  little  Italian  town  of  Assisi  —  Giovanni  Francesco  Bernardoni  by 
name  —  felt  prompted  by  a  divine  voice  to  renounce  his  past  life 
and  to  devote  himself  to  the  service  of  God  and  of  his  fellow  men.  In 
one  direction,  particularly,  there  was  an  abundant  field,  while  the 
laborers  were  few  and  unfitted  for  the  work.  The  towns,  growing  in 
wealth  and  importance,  had  scant  regard  for  the  poor  who  lived  on 
their  outskirts.  The  parish  priest,  however  effective  in  the  small 
rural  village,  proved  unequal  to  the  situation.  The  monk,  devoted 
to  prayer,  labor  and  study,  was  a  recluse  who  fled  from  the  crowded 
haunts  of  men.  St.  Francis,  for  so  he  came  to  be  known,  taking 
literally  the  words  of  Christ,  "  provide  neither  gold  nor  silver  nor 


158  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

brass  in  your  purses,  neither  scrip  for  your  journey,  nor  yet  staves," 
braved  his  father's  anger,  renounced  his  worldly  prospects,  and  went 
forth  to  teach  and  preach  and  minister  to  the  simple  and  needy. 
All  created  things,  the  birds,  the  flowers,  and  wild  beasts  as  well  as 
man  shared  in  the  love  of  this  gentle  holy  soul.  After  some  years 
he  went  to  Rome,  hatless  and  barefoot,  and  obtained  from  Innocent  III 
permission  to  establish  a  rule  of  life,  from  which  grew  his  famous 
order  of  friars.  It  was  not  formally  recognized  till  1223,  though  by 
1215  it  had  grown  to  such  proportions  that  provincial  ministers  had 
been  appointed  to  preside  over  the  French,  German,  and  Spanish 
members.  In  three  respects  the  Franciscan  friars  grew  away  from 
the  original  intention  of  their  founder.  He  started  with  the  idea  of 
wandering  missionaries,  with  no  formal  organization,  who  should  not 
concern  themselves  with  theology.  Even  in  his  own  lifetime  they 
came  to  center  chiefly  in  cities,  they  were  constituted  into  a  regular 
order,  and  as  time  went  on  they  became  famous  for  their  learned 
scholars.  Meantime,  in  southern  France,  Domingo  de  Guzman,  son 
of  a  noble  Castilian  house  and  trained  in  the  best  academic  traditions 
of  the  day,  was  devoting  his  rare  talents  and  wondrous  zeal  to  combat- 
ing heresy  and  schism.  He  showed  his  pitiless  orthodoxy  by  his 
support  of  the  bloody  war  against  the  Albigenses.  "  Lord,"  he  prayed, 
"  send  forth  thine  arm  and  afflict  them,  that  this  affliction  may  give 
them  understanding."  But  it  was  from  the  pulpit  rather  than  by 
the  sword  that  he  was  to  fight  for  the  true  faith.  He  founded  the 
order  of  preaching  friars  which,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  adopted 
the  Franciscan  principle  of  poverty  and  was  formally  recognized  in 
1220. 

The  Coming  of  the  Friars  to  England.  —  In  1221  a  band  of  thirteen 
Dominicans  landed  in  England.  They  established  themselves  in 
London,  whence  they  proceeded  to  Oxford.  There  they  set  up  schools 
and  gathered  disciples  about  them  whom  they  trained  as  preachers. 
The  Dominicans  were  followed  three  years  later  by  nine  Franciscans, 
who  grew  and  spread  until,  within  five  years,  they  were  domiciled  in 
almost  every  considerable  town  in  England;  Their  houses  were  held 
for  them  in  trust,  for  they  could  possess  no  property.  Settling  down 
outside  the  city  walls  among  the  destitute  and  lowly,  they  taught  and 
ministered  with  heroic  devotion.  Far  from  being  depressed  by  their 
surroundings  they  were  so  full  of  fun  that  "  a  deaf  man  could  hardly 
refrain  from  laughter  at  seeing  them."  Indeed  an  ordinance  had  to 
be  issued  at  Oxford  to  prevent  them  from  laughing  so  much  during 
their  prayers.  They  preached  to  the  people  in  a  homely  style,  spicing 
their  sermons  with  merry  jests  and  tales.  What  with  their  humor 
and  their  zeal,  they  gained  a  wonderful  hold  wherever  they  went. 
Popes  came  to  use  them  as  a  sort  of  "  flying  squadron  "  to  break  the 
power  of  the  bishops,  of  the  parish  priests,  and  of  such  monastic  bodies  as 
had  become  too  local  in  their  interests.  Though  at  first  King  Henry 
did  not  welcome  the  friars,  later  he  and  Edward  selected  their  con- 


HENRY   III  159 

fessors  from  them.  Although  the  English  Franciscans  produced  some 
of  the  most  famous  scholars  of  the  age,1  so  many  unworthy  recruits 
entered  the  ranks  as  time  went  on  that  by  Chaucer's  day  they  had  come 
to  be  generally  regarded  as  beggarly  rogues. 

The  Parish  Priest.  —  The  earlier  friars,  as  well  as  doing  their  pecul- 
iar work  in  the  towns  and  the  universities,  acted  as  evangelists,  con- 
ducting revivals  in  the  rural  districts.  Except  for  the  Jews,  however, 
there  were  almost  no  heretics  or  dissenters  in  England.2  Yet  in  spite 
of  the  activity  of  the  friars,  the  parish  church  was  still  the  center  of 
village  life,  though  the  gilds,  too,  had  a  marked  religious  aspect; 
for  they  provided  masses  for  the  souls  of  deceased  members;  they 
had  their  patron  saints  and  funds  for  charity.  The  parish  priests 
were  simple  men  of  very  scanty  learning,  with  just  enough  Latin  to 
say  mass.  This  office  they  were  expected  to  perform  devoutly  at 
least  once  a  week  and  not  more  than  once  in  the  same  day  except  on 
Christmas  and  Easter.  They  were  also  to  be  diligent  in  preaching 
and  teaching,  lest  they  should  be  regarded  as  "  dumb  dogs  when  they 
ought  by  their  timely  barking  to  repel  the  attacks  of  spiritual  wolves," 
and  they  were  to  be  cheerful  and  constant  in  visiting  the  sick.  In  a 
word  they,  with  their  superiors,  the  bishops  and  others,  "  were  ex- 
pected to  act  as  a  kind  of  moral  police,  enforcing  the  laws  of  Christian 
discipline  upon  every  class  of  society,  and  in  every  department  of 
human  life."  They  were  forbidden  to  accept  any  secular  office,  such 
as  that  of  steward  or  bailiff,  or  any  judicial  function  involving  power 
to  inflict  capital  punishment.  They  were  also  prohibited  from 
dressing  in  military  fashion  and  from  taking  part  in  "  scot  ales  "  or 
public  feasts  where  there  were  competitions  in  drinking.  While  there 
were  frequent  complaints  of  negligence  in  visiting  and  teaching,  of 
hurrying  through  the  service,  of  too  frequent  absence  from  the  parish, 
some  performed  their  duties  excellently  and  many  others  did  their 
best  according  to  their  lights.  Still,  ignorance  and  indolence  and  bad 
examples  of  conduct  were  the  despair  of  reformers  like  Grosseteste, 
and  led  them  to  welcome  the  friars.  Two  impediments  to  a  higher 
standard  were  the  presentation  to  church  livings  of  Italians  and  of 
boys  with  family  influence.  Riotous  sports,  gluttony,  especially  at 
funeral  feasts,  and  heavy  drinking  bouts  were  among  the  chief  offenses 
of  the  laity. 

The  Popular  Religion.  —  The  religion  of  the  age  was  very  real. 
The  people,  though  rude  and  boisterous,  were  simple  and  childlike 
and  ready  to  atone  for  their  sins  by  crusades  and  pilgrimages,  by  con- 

1  For  example,  Roger  Bacon  and  William  of  Ockham.     On  the  other  hand,  the 
most  famous  Dominicans  such  as  Thomas  Aquinas  and  Albertus  Magnus  were 
not  Englishmen. 

2  A  foreign  sect  which  appeared  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II  had  made  only  one  con- 
vert.    By  the  Assize  of  Clarendon  it  was  enacted  that  the  intruders  should  be 
excommunicated  and  branded,  and  that  if  any  should  receive  them,  their  houses 
should  be  carried  out  of  the  village  and  burned. 


160  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tributing  to  the  building  of  churches  and  monasteries,  and  by  gifts  at 
shrines  and  altars.  Anchorites  living  in  caves  and  on  the  banks  of 
lonely  streams  were  visited  by  pilgrims  marveling  at  their  faith  and 
holiness.  Worship  was  chiefly  a  matter  of  outward  form.  Though 
the  people  were  generally  instructed  in  the  creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  the  ten  commandments,  they  blindly  worshiped  images  and 
relics  and  sought  to  approach  God  mainly  through  the  medium  of  the 
saints.  Belief  in  witchcraft,  charms,  and  spells  was  practically  uni- 
versal. Some  of  the  popular  superstitions  were  very  touching  and 
pretty.  A  story  is  told  of  the  appearance  one  harvest  time  in  East 
Anglia,  "  no  man  knew  whence,"  of  a  boy  and  girl  "completely  green 
in  their  person,  and  clad  in  garments  of  a  strange  color  and  unknown 
materials."  These  strange  visitors  were  most  kindly^  welcomed, 
baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church,  and  cherished,  "  till  at 
length  they  changed  their  natural  color  through  the  natural  effect 
of  our  food." 

The  Universities.  —  At  the  beginning  of  Henry's  reign  the  two  es- 
sentials of  a  university  were  the  masters  and  the  scholars,  who  might 
migrate  wherever  they  would.  A  great  step  in  advance  was  taken 
when  men  began  to  found  colleges,  or  houses  with  a  master  and  scholars 
or  fellows,  with  the  object  of  providing  shelter  for  poor  students  and 
of  encouraging  systematic  study.  Their  originals  may  be  traced  to 
the  convents  which  the  mendicant  friars  caused  to  be  built  for  them 
at  great  academic  centers.  John  Balliol's  foundation  at  Oxford  in 
1260  was  hardly  more  than  an  almshouse  for  needy  scholars;  but 
Walter  de  Merton's,  three  years  later,  was  well  organized  and  furnished  a 
model  for  subsequent  college  benefactors.  The  universities  were  far 
from  being  centers  of  secluded  calm,  for  we  hear  of  riots  among  the 
students.  On  more  than  one  occasion  they  seceded  to  Northampton, 
to  Stamford,  and  elsewhere  for  temporary  sojourns.  Moreover,  they 
exercised  a  profound  and  active  influence  on  the  politics  and  govern- 
ment of  the  time ;  they  produced  men  who  took  prominent  places  at 
oourt  or  on  the  episcopal  bench.  Cambridge  took  the  side  of  Louis 
against  John,  while  later,  Oxford  was  a  stanch  supporter  of  Simon  de 
Montfort.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century  English  scholars,  as  a 
rule,  were  obliged  to  go  abroad  for  study,  but  in  later  generations 
many  names  appear  which  shine  brightly  in  the  annals  of  Oxford. 
Grosseteste  and  Adam  Marsh,  lecturers  to  the  Franciscans,  were 
famous  scholars,  though  their  fame  has  been  eclipsed  by  that  of 
Roger  Bacon  (1214-1294).  Since  the  eleventh  century  the  prevailing 
interest  of  the  learned  had  been  to  elaborate  the  great  philosophical, 
theological  system  known  as  Scholasticism,  which  aimed  to  organize 
the  belief  of  the  Church  by  weapons  of  logic  supplied  by  Aristotle. 
There  were  two  schools  of  philosophic  thought,  the  Realists  who 
asserted  that  general  ideas,  "  Universals "  as  they  called  them, 
alone  were  real,  and  their  opponents  the  Nominalists,  who  asserted 
that  such  general  ideas  had  no  real  existence  but  were  only  names. 


HENRY  III  161 

The  dominant  method  of  the  Schoolmen  was  deductive ;  that  is,  they 
proceeded  from  general  principles  to  particular  cases.  Bacon,  who 
mastered  all  the  scientific  learning  of  the  time  and  who  knew  Greek 
and  Hebrew  as  well,  sought  to  introduce  the  experimental  or  inductive 
method  by  which  general  principles  are  discovered  or  framed  from 
particular  facts.  "  Much  have  I  labored,"  he  once  wrote  to  Clement 
IV,  "  both  in  the  sciences  and  the  languages  for  forty  years  since  I 
first  learned  my  alphabet.  Except  for  two  years  of  the  forty  I  have 
been  always  studying."  He  spent,  we  are  told,  large  sums  of  money 
on  books,  experiments,  instruments,  and  in  purchasing  the  friend- 
ship of  the  wise.  Unfortunately,  he  was  ahead  of  his  time ;  he  was 
suspected  of  being  a  heretic  and  magician  and  spent  years  of  his  life 
in  exile  and  confinement.  Although  the  age  was  a  learned  one,  the 
tendency  was  toward  formalism,  toward  speculative  philosophy, 
rather  than  toward  elegant  culture,  broad  human  interests,  and  grace- 
ful literary  expression. 

Literature  and  Language.  —  In  this  period  the  only  historian  to 
compare  with  William  of  Malmesbury  and  William  of  Newburgh 
was  Matthew  Paris.  His  style,  though  overwordy,  is  graphic  and  per- 
sonal. He  set  himself  not  only  to  record  events,  but  to  comment  on 
their  significance  and  to  discuss  the  motives  and  character  of  the  men 
who  took  part  in  them.  He  was  fearless  in  his  condemnation  of 
the  evils  of  his  time.  His  knowledge  was  not  confined  to  purely 
English  affairs,  but  included  those  of  the  Continent  as  well.  The  fact 
that,  besides  being  a  monk  and  a  historian,  he  was  a  traveler,  a  courtier, 
and  a  politician,  mingling  in  the  affairs  of  the  busy  world,  though  it 
lent  to  his  work  the  partisanship  of  a  man  of  affairs,  gave  him  great 
opportunities  for  acquiring  information.  Then,  too,  St.  Albans, 
where  he  generally  dwelt,  very  accessible  to  London  and  to  the  great 
Northern  road,  was  most  favorably  situated  for  obtaining  the  news  of 
the  day.  The  Chronicles  were,  of  course,  written  in  Latin,  which  was 
still  the  language  of  the  learned.  French  remained  the  elegant  lan- 
guage of  the  court  and  upper  classes  and  of  the  romances  by  which 
they  were  diverted.  The  insular  dialect  of  it,  Anglo-French,  had 
begun  to  be  used,  too,  in  pleadings  in  the  law  courts  and  in  the  debates 
in  the  Great  Council.  As  a  result  of  growing  national  sentiment, 
English,  the  tongue  of  the  yeoman  and  the  lower  classes,  was  steadily 
developing  as  a  vehicle  of  literary  expression.  An  English  song  on 
the  Battle  of  Lewes  appeared,  while  King  Horn  and  Havelock  the  Dane 
are  national  epics  influenced  by  the  form  of  French  romance.  At 
village  alehouses  and  fairs  strolling  minstrels  sang  popular  ballads 
of  the  early  heroes  Arthur  and  Merlin,  Alexander  and  Charlemagne. 
Yet  more  than  a  century  was  to  pass  before  the  first  really  great 
creation  in  English  literature  was  to  see  the  light. 

Architecture.  —  "  Architecture,  the  great  art  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
was  in  its  perfection  "  in  this  reign.  The  transition  from  the  Norman 
to  the  Early  English  style,  with  its  delicate  spires  and  pointed  arches, 


l62 

was  complete  by  the  reign  of  John.  Under  his  successor  the  latter 
style  reached  its  maturity.  Salisbury  cathedral  (1225-1258)  is  a 
noble  example  of  pure  Early  English  work.  The  nave  and  west  front 
of  Wells  are  also  early  English.1  King  Henry's  chief  architectural 
interest  was  in  the  rebuilding  of  Westminster  Abbey.  Curiously 
enough,  this  national  monument  is  most  un-English  in  structure. 
The  building  is  French,  and  the  decorations  still  more  so.  Here 
stained  glass  seems  to  have  been  systematically  used  for  the  first  time, 
though  there  are  evidences  of  its  use  much  earlier.  Very  few  castles 
were  built  in  this  period  except  along  the  frontier  districts  facing  the 
Welsh  border.  One  great  change  came  in  from  France  during  the 
reign  of  John.  The  square  keep  was  replaced  by  round  towers. 
Earlier  castles  had  consisted  of  a  simple  keep,  but  as  time  went  on 
walls  came  to  be  built  fortified  by  towers  at  intervals.  Within  the 
walls  were  the  buildings  used  as  dwellings,  usually  of  wood.  Although 
increasing  attempts  were  made  to  render  castles  habitable  by  the 
addition  of  fireplaces  and  other  comforts,  the  fortified  manor  houses 
were  being  more  and  more  preferred  as  dwellings  for  the  great,  while 
the  poor  folk  still  lived  in  simple  wooden  houses. 

Foreign  Trade.  —  Merchants,  except  during  the  intervals  of  war 
with  France,  were  allowed  to  come  and  go  freely.  English  staples 
were  mainly  agricultural  —  grain,  cattle,  and  dairy  produce.  Such 
surplus  as  was  raised  was  sold  at  local  markets  and  fairs.  Wool, 
woolfells,  and  hides  had  come  to  be  the  chief  articles  of  export,  along 
with  tin,  lead,  and  iron.  The  crusaders  had  given  a  great  impulse  to 
intercourse  with  the  East,  and  the  great  nobles,  lay  and  clerical,  im- 
ported fine  cloths,  silks,  furs,  and  jewels,  wax,  spices,  and  wines.  Some 
fine  cloth  came  from  the  looms  of  Flanders  and  the  north  of  France, 
where  most  of  the  English  wool  found  a  market.  The  Rhine  cities  sup- 
plemented the  Gascon  ports  as  sources  for  the  wine  supply.  The  Han- 
seatic  League  controlled  the  Baltic  trade  and  brought  in  furs,  tar,  and 
fish.  The  Italians  cities  were  for  two  centuries  to  come  the  chief 
carriers  in  the  Oriental  traffic.  Although  the  foreign  trade  was 
mainly  in  the  hands  of  foreign  merchants,  English  shipping  was 
steadily  increasing.  Southhampton  was  the  port  of  entry  for  most 
of  the  Mediterranean  trade.  London  was,  of  course,  a  prominent 
shipping  center,  and  so  were  Bristol  and  Chester.  The  Cinque  Ports 2 
were  coming  into  importance  and  securing  peculiar  privileges  because 
of  the  ships  which  they  furnished  for  the  royal  navy.  They  were 

1  This  cathedral  is  notable  for  the  sculptured  figures  on  its  west  front,  over  three 
hundred  in  all,  nearly  half  of  which  are  of  life  size  or  larger.     They  are  arranged  in 
tiers  and  include  representations  of  the  leading  personages  of  Biblical  and  native 
history.     Executed  between  1230  and  1235,  there  was  nothing  then  to  compare 
with  them  north  and  west  of  the  Alps.     But  this  is  a  unique  exception,  for  the 
English  have  not,  as  a  rule,  excelled  in  sculpture  work. 

2  Originally  five  port  towns  in  Sussex  and  Kent  (Hastings,  Romney,  Hythe, 
Dover,  and  Sandwich),  to  which  two  (Winchelsea  and  Rye)  were  subsequently 
added. 


HENRY   III  163 

still  little  better  than  "  nests  of  chartered  sea  robbers,"  and  many 
complaints  were  brought  against  them  on  this  score ;  but  they  rendered 
indispensable  service  on  more  than  one  occasion.  So  they  were  sum- 
moned to  send  members  to  Simon  de  Montfort's  Parliament  of  1265, 
and  by  a  charter  of  Edward  I  they  were  recognized  as  a  corporate 
organization,  with  their  own  officers,  courts,  exemption  from  taxes, 
and  right  to  make  by-laws.  Henry's  reign  is  notable  in  many  ways 
as  a  stage  in  the  progress  of  maritime  affairs.  The  naval  tactics  off 
Dover  in  1217  foreshadow  a  method  of  fighting  which  the  English 
made  use  of  in  the  following  centuries  with  signal  success.  Licenses 
to  privateers  were  first  issued,  and  the  compass  began  to  be  employed. 

Internal  Trade.  Markets  and  Fairs. — The  danger  and  difficulty 
of  traveling,  as  well  as  the  innumerable  and  vexatious  charges  for  tolls 
and  ferries,  hampered  internal  trade.  There  were  some  good  roads, 
the  survival  of  Roman  times ;  for  example,  that  from  Dover  to  London ; 
but  many  were  almost  impassable  during  certain  seasons  in  the  year. 
Outside  the  beaten  path  the  country  was  infested  by  robbers.  By 
the  Statute  of  Winchester  (1285)  "it  is  commanded  that  highways 
leading  from  one  market  town  to  another  shall  be  enlarged  so  that 
there  be  neither  dyke,  tree,  nor  bush  whereby  a  man  may  lurk  to  do 
hurt,  within  two  hundred  feet  of  the  one  side  and  two  hundred  feet 
on  the  other  side  of  the  way."  Outside  the  local  markets  and  the 
towns,  trading  centered  in  the  great  annual  fairs.  The  most  famous 
of  these  were  at  Stourbridge  and  Winchester.  The  Stourbridge  fair 
controlled  the  trade  of  the  eastern  counties  and  the  Baltic  Sea.  Every 
trade  and  nationality  was  represented.  It  was  under  the  control  of 
the  corporation  of  Cambridge,  it  was  opened  annually  on  18  Sep- 
tember, when  temporary  booths  were  set  up,  and  it  continued  for 
three  weeks.  More  important  still  was  the  Winchester  fair  under  the 
control  of  the  Bishop  of  Winchester.  Lying  between  Southhampton 
and  London  it  was  the  great  mart  for  the  southeast.  It  opened 
every  year  on  the  eve  of  St.  Giles  (31  August)  and  lasted  for  sixteen 
days.  During  the  session  of  the  fair  all  trade  was  suspended  in  the 
neighborhood  and  weights  and  measures  were  carefully  scrutinized. 
The  fairs  had  a  special  law  administered  in  the  Pie  Powder  Court, 
so-called  from  the  French  Pieds  poudres  (dusty  feet)  in  reference  to 
the  traveling  merchants  and  others  who  came  under  its  jurisdiction. 
In  return  for  privileges  and  protection  the  merchants  paid  heavy 
toll  to  the  lord  who  controlled  the  fair,  and  curious  cases  are  on  record 
of  those  who  tried  to  evade  their  obligations  by  digging  their  way  in 
under  the  palisades.  Other  fairs  were  held  at  Boston,  St.  Ives,  Oxford, 
and  Stamford. 

Native  Industries,  Towns,  and  Gilds.  —  The  progress  of  the  native 
industries  was  not  as  yet  very  great.  Agriculture,  fishing,  and  mining 
were  the  chief  pursuits.  Such  cloth  as  was  manufactured  went  to 
supply  the  needs  of  the  household,  except  in  certain  towns  where  the 
Flemish  weavers,  dyers,  and  fullers  were  established.  Each  village 


164  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

had  its  own  tanner  and  bootmaker,  smith,  carpenter,  and  miller,  and 
usually  a  professional  hunter  of  wolves,-  cats,  and  otters,  and  moles 
whose  skins  were  mainly  used  for  hats.  As  the  kings  from  the  twelfth 
century  had  been  granting  charters  to  the  towns  so  now  the  great 
lords  were  beginning  to  concede  privileges  to  the  towns  under  their 
sway.  Even  the  smaller  ones  were  no  longer  the  homes  of  agricul- 
turists, but  contained  flourishing  organizations  of  trades  and  handi- 
craftsmen. The  division  of  labor  was  a  very  pronounced  feature. 
In  connection  with  the  production  and  distribution  of  each  of  the 
staple  commodities,  wool  and  leather,  we  find  ten  or  a  dozen  separate 
gilds  or  companies.  Each  had  its  special  quarters  or  market  in  the 
city.  Houses  were  arranged  with  the  dwelling  rooms  at  the  top,  the 
workshop  below,  while  the  goods  were  exposed  for  sale  under  the 
overhanging  porch  or  at  the  edge  of  the  street.  The  gilds  were  exer- 
cising an  increasing  influence  in  town  government;  their  members 
occupied  the  most  important  offices,  and  municipal  affairs  were  regu- 
lated in  their  interests.  Although  the  Lombards  and  Tuscans  were 
coming  to  be  known  as  money  lenders,  capital  was  still  largely  con- 
trolled by  the  Jews  who  were  excluded,  from  public  office,  from  in- 
dustry and  landholding,  owing  to  religious  obligations  involved,  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  since  the  Church  did  not  countenance  lending  at 
interest,  they  had  an  open  field  in  this  form  of  business  activity. 
The  power  of  the  towns  and  cities  was  being  recognized  in  politics 
from  the  fact  that  their  representatives  begin  to  be  summoned  to 
the  Great  Councils.  An  index  of  prosperity  is  seen  in  fact  that  their 
outward  appearance  grows  more  imposing.  Stone  houses,  formerly 
beyond  the  reach  of  any  but  Jews  and  nobles,  become  more  common 
as  places  of  residence. 

Rural  Life.  —  After  all,  however,  England  was  still  mainly  an  agri- 
cultural country.  The  long  vacations  of  the  universities  and  the  law 
courts  are  a  survival  of  this  time  when  the  students  and  the  prac- 
titioners were  needed  at  home  to  work  on  the  harvest.  All  evidences 
point  to  a  quiet,  steady  improvement  of  conditions.  Landlords  de- 
voted more  and  more  personal  attention  to  their  estates.  Though 
the  tenant  farmer  had  appeared,  he  played  little  part  in  rural  economy 
till  the  scarcity  of  labor  caused  by  the  Black  Death  in  the  middle  of 
the  next  century.  The  status  of  the  cultivator  continued  to  improve 
and  more  and  more  serfs  became  free  agricultural  laborers.  The 
clergy,  however,  were  constantly  preaching  to  the  tillers  of  the  soil 
to  remain  where  God  had  placed  them,  comparing  the  ambitious  to 
the  worm  that  thought  it  had  wings  or  the  rat  who  wished  to  marry 
the  sun's  daughter.  An  indication  and  a  cause  of  improvement  in 
agricultural  methods  is  the  appearance  of  treatises  on  the  subject. 
Grosseteste  wrote  one  in  Anglo-Norman  French  in  1240-1241  for  Mar- 
garet, Dowager  Countess  of  Lincoln.  The  most  celebrated  of  all, 
however,  is  Walter  of  Henley's  Treatise  on  Husbandry  for  the  guidance 
of  stewards  of  manors,  It  appeared  some  time  before  1283  and  re- 


HENRY  III  165 

mained  the  standard  for  nearly  two  centuries.  Owing  to  the  faulty 
communications  which  made  it  necessary  for  each  district  to  be,  so 
far  as  possible,  self-sufficing,  the  wasteful  system  of  mixed  farming 
persisted.  Wheat,  rye,  and  stock  were  all  raised  together  without 
regard  to  the  fitness  of  the  special  locality  for  one  or  the  other,  except 
in  certain  parts  of  Yorkshire  where  the  Cistercians  devoted  them- 
selves to  wool  growing.  Owing  to  the  same  difficulty  of  transporta- 
tion, the  lords  and  even  the  kings  wandered  about  from  manor  to 
manor  for  the  purpose  of  consuming  the  supplies  belonging  to  them. 
Some  magnates  had  as  many  as  ten  or  eleven  estates  scattered  over 
different  counties.  Each  had  a  bailiff  to  keep  its  accounts  and  was 
under  the  general  supervision  of  a  steward  whose  duties  were  mainly 
legal.  It  was  still  practically  impossible  to  keep  any  considerable 
amount  of  stock  over  the  winter.  There  was  a  heavy  famine  during 
the  years  1257-1 259  due  partly  to  bad  harvests  and  partly  to  the  drain 
of  heavy  taxes,  much  of  which  went  out  of  the  country.  In  1 288  the 
sheep  scab  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  English  history.  But  these 
were  exceptions  in  a  generally  prosperous  period. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Ramsay,  The  Dawn  of  the  Constitution  (1908),  chs.  I-XVI.  Davis, 
England  under  the  Normans  and  Angevins,  chs.  XVI-XVIII.  T.  F.  Tout,  Political 
History  of  England  (1905) ;  an  interesting  and  scholarly  account  of  the  period  from 
the  accession  of  Henry  III  to  the  death  of  Edward  I ;  the  appendix,  pp.  443-464,  on 
authorities,  is  especially  good  for  source  material.  Stubbs,  Early  Plantagenets 
(1886),  covering  the  years  from  1135  to  1327,  gives  the  best  brief  account  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  III,  owing  to  its  grouping  of  topics,  chs.  VIII,  IX.  Kate  Norgate, 
The  Minority  of  Henry  III  (1912)  is  the  fullest  and  most  recent  narrative  of  the  early 
years  of  Henry  III. 

Constitutional  and  legal.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  I,  bk.  I,  sees.  4-7.  Taswell- 
Langmead,  chs.  V-VII,  passim.  Stubbs,  Constitutional  History,  II,  ch.  XIV. 
Pollock  and  Maitland,  English  Law,  I,  bk.  I,  ch.  VII. 

Social,  industrial,  and  intellectual  conditions.  Traill,  Social  England,  I,  ch.  I. 
Bateson,  Mediaval  England,  pt.  II,  passim.  Davis,  ch.  XIX ;  Ramsay,  ch.  XVII ; 
Moody  and  Lovett,  ch.  II.  Taine,  I,  ch.  II.  Cambridge  History  of  Literature,  I,  II. 
Jusserand,  Literary  History,  I. 

Biography.  G.  W.  Prothero,  Simon  de  Montfort  (1877) ;  the  best  biography  in 
English.  F.  S.  Stevenson,  Robert  Grosseteste  (1899);  "the  most  complete  life  of 
Grosseteste."  M.  Creighton,  Historical  Lectures  and  Addresses  (1903) ;  containing 
three  brief  excellent  lectures  on  Grosseteste  and  his  times. 

The  Church.  Wakeman,  ch.  VII ;  W.  R.  W.  Stephens,  chs.  XI-XVI.  F.  A. 
Gasquet,  Henry  II  and  the  English  Church  (1905) ;  from  the  Roman  Catholic  stand- 
point. A.  Jessopp,  The  Coming  of  the  Friars  (1890),  ch.  I.  Creighton,  Lectures, 
"The  Friars,"  pp.  69-83,98-116. 

Selections  from  the  sources.     Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  30-36. 


CHAPTER  XI 

EDWARD  I  AND  EDWARD  II  (1272-1327).     THE  COMPLETION  OF  THE 
FOUNDATIONS  OF  THE  ENGLISH  CONSTITUTIONAL  SYSTEM 

Edward  I  (1272-1307),  Accession  and  Early  Life.  —  Henry  III  had 
been  dead  and  buried  for  nearly  two  years  before  Edward  I  returned 
from  the  Holy  Land.  His  succession  was  unopposed,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  English  history  the  new  reign  dated  from  the  close  of 
the  old  instead  of  from  the  day  of  the  coronation,  though  the  maxim 
that  "  the  King  never  dies  "  was  unheard  of  for  generations.  Born 
in  1239,  Edward  was  in  the  prime  of  his  young  manhood.  The  grand- 
son of  the  worst  and  the  son  of  the  pettiest  of  the  Angevins,  with 
a  foreign  mother  and  a  foreign  grandmother,  he  seemed  far  from 
fitted  to  lead  a  people  whose  national  and  patriotic  aspirations  were 
rapidly  awakening.  Nor  did.  his  childhood  or  early  youth  promise 
much.  At  his  birth  King  Henry  extorted  such  rich  presents  from 
his  subjects  that  the  cry  was  raised :  "  God  gave  us  this  infant  but 
our  Lord  the  King  sells  him  to  us."  At  fifteen  he  was  married  to  a 
foreign  princess,  Eleanor  of  Castile,  and  jousts,'  tournaments,  and  the 
pleasures  of  the  chase  caused  him  for  a  time  to  neglect  the  vast  es- 
tates and  jurisdictions  intrusted  to  his  care.  The  baronial  revolt, 
however,  brought  him  for  a  season  under  the  influence  of  de  Mont- 
fort,  from  whom  he  learned  lessons  in  military  and  political  affairs 
which  deeply  influenced  his  future.  His  royal  station  and  his  affec- 
tion for  his  father  soon  drew  him  from  the  ranks  of  revolt.  The  royal 
victory  which  followed  was  due  more  to  him  than  to  any  other  single 
man.  He  did  more  than  win  battles,  for  it  was  largely  due  to  his 
foresight  and  generosity  that  terms  were  made  with  the  barons  ena- 
bling them  to  return  to  their  allegiance.  His  departure  from  the 
country  after  the  wars  really  strengthened  his  hand,  since  it  with- 
drew him  from  association  with  his  unpopular  father.  Such  was  the 
early  life  of  the  Prince  who  was  crowned  at  Westminster  Abbey,  19 
August,  1274,  and  who  came  to  be  recognized  as  the  first  truly  English 
King  since  the  Norman  Conquest. 

Personal  Traits.  —  In  spite  of  his  ancestry,  and  of  some  unpromis- 
ing signs  in  his  youth,  Edward  was  well  qualified,  both  in  mind  and 
body,  to  become  the  representative  of  English  hopes.  His  very  name 
was  significant :  it  was  that  of  the  Confessor  who,  however  little  he 
deserved  it,  was  venerated  as  the  national  hero.  Then  his  fair  hair 
and  ruddy  cheeks  were  typically  Anglo-Saxon.  He  was  so  tall  that 

166 


EDWARD   I  AND   EDWARD   II  167 

he  got  the  name  of  "  Long-shanks,"  and  his  frame  was  well  knit  and 
athletic.  His  commanding  presence,  united  with  skill  in  chivalrous 
exercises,  military  ability,  and  love  for  hunting  and  hawking,  were 
bound  to  impress  the  medieval  Englishman.  Men  told  more  than 
one  story  of  his  bravery  and  resource.  On  one  occasion  while  he  was 
in  the  Holy  Land  an  assassin  attempted  to  stab  him  with  a  poisoned 
dagger  as  he  was  resting  on  a  couch.  Edward  caught  the  blow  on 
his  arm,  kicked  the  man  sprawling  on  the  floor,  and  killed  him  with 
his  own  weapon  before  help  came.  He  had  the  violent  temper  of 
his  Angevin  ancestors,  which  once  burst  out  so  furiously  that  the 
dean  of  St.  Paul's  fell  dead  with  fright.  Ordinarily,  however,  he 
held  himself  in  perfect  control.  While  prompt  to  resist  encroach- 
ments of  the  Church  or  the  Papacy  and  alert  in  detecting  superstition 
and  imposture,  he  was  genuinely  religious.  He  was  devout  in  visiting 
shrines,  he  made  vows  in  time  of  stress,  and,  when  delivered  from 
danger  and  difficulty,  never  failed  to  offer  public  thanks.  Usually 
he  retired  to  a  monastery  to  pass  the  quiet  Lenten  season.  Warm 
in  his  family  affection,  to  the  mass  of  men  he  appeared  stern  and  un- 
feeling. Naturally  frugal  and  abstemious,  he  kept  up  sufficient  of 
courtly  state  to  support  the  dignity  of  his  position.  He  prided  him- 
self on  his  truthfulness,  adopting  as  his  motto,  pactum  serva  ("  keep 
truth  ")  yet  he  was  not  above  legal  evasions,  for  often  he  kept  only 
the  letter  of  an  agreement  at  the  expense  of  the  spirit. 

His  Military  Policy.  —  Skilled  as  he  was  in  war,  he  took  no  joy  in 
battle  and  had  no  desire  to  extend  his  dominions  abroad.  Though 
he  engaged  in  war  with  the  King  of  France,  it  was  to  preserve  the  do- 
minions that  he  had  inherited  from  his  father,  not  to  regain  what 
John  had  lost.  He  did  aspire  to  be  the  arbiter  of  Europe  in  order 
to  maintain  the  balance  of  power  against  France ;  but  in  this  policy 
he  made  use  of  diplomacy  rather  than  arms.  He  was  not  altogether 
successful,  though  he  managed  to  raise  England  to  a  position  in 
Europe  second  only  to  her  ancient  enemy.  _ 

His  Work  as  Lawgiver  and  Administrative  Organizer.  -+  It  was 
as  a  lawgiver  and  as  an  administrative  organizer  that  Edward  did 
his  most  enduring  work.)  Henry  II  had  achieved  much ;  but  his 
successors  had  misused  the  great  powers  he  had  passed  on  to  them 
and  had  come  into  conflict  with  the  growing  spirit  of  nationalism  and 
independence.  Edward's  task  was  to  resume  what  Henry  had  begun ; 
to  preserve  what  was  best,  and  adapt  it  to  new  conditions ;  to  accept 
at  the  same  time  the  most  beneficial  and  necessary  of  the  reforms  which 
had  been  forced  on  the  Crown ;  and  to  fuse  the  old  and  the  new  into 
the  structure  of  the  Constitution.  Although  he  adapted  and  sup- 
plemented rather  than  originated,  he  completed  the  ground  plan  of 
the  English  government  as  it  exists  to-day.  Those  who  came  after 
had  only  to  complete  the  edifice  on  the  foundations  which  he  had 
^reared.  By  the  end  of  his  reign  the  principle  was  accepted  that  the 
(King  was  in  general  bound  to  respect  the  privileges  of  his  subjects\nd 


168  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

to  observe  the  laws  of  theland ;  ^the  voice  of  the  people  should  be 
.declared  in  Parliament,^  Dody  which  for  the  first  tune  came  to  com- 
pletely represent  all  mree  classes  of  the  realm  —  the  nobles,  the 
clergy,  and  the  commons  —  and  that(all  taxes,  except  those  sanc- 
tioned by  custom,  should  be  granted  by  this  body)  These  principles 
were  often  violated  in  subsequent  centuries ;  but  it  was  much  to  have 
secured  their  recognition  thus  early.  Through  the  efforts  of  Edward 
the  common  man  was  placed  more  securely  than  ever  before  under 
the  law  of  the  land  as  against  the  feudal  lord.  By  the  close  of  his 
reign  the  three  common  law  courts,  the  King's  Bench,  the  Common 
Pleas,  and  the  Exchequer,  had  taken  shape  each  with  its  distinct 
records,  and  they  continued  practically  unchanged  till  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  circuits  and  functions  of  the  itinerant 
justices  had  been  carefully  marked  out,  and  the -Council,  to  assist 
the  King  in  his  deliberations,  had  become  a  recognized  institution. 
Also  a  body  of  officials  under  the  Chancellor  was  emerging  which 
was  to  judge  suits  on  their  merits,  by  right  or  "  equity,"  when  the 
common  law  was  too  inelastic  to  meet  the  requirements  of  an  individ- 
ual case.  All  this  and  more  was  brought  about  largely  by  a  series  of 
laws  or  statutes  so  comprehensive  and  so  superior  in  numbers  and 
importance  that  the  reign  of  Edward  can  almost  be  said  to  mark  the 
beginning  of  English  legislation.  In  the  quaint  words  of  the  Canon 
of  Oseney :  "  Edward  revived  the  ancient  laws  which  had  slumbered 
through  the  disturbance  of  the  realm :  some  corrupted  by  abuse  he 
restored  to  their  proper  form :  some  less  evident  and*  apparent  he 
declared :  some  new  ones,  useful  and  honorable,  he  added." 

Wales.  Edward's  First  Campaign,  1277.  —  The  first  serious  prob- 
lem that  the  King  had  to  face  was  the  conquest  of  Wales.  We  have 
seen  how  the  Celtic  peoples  occupying  the  strip  of  coast  to  the  north 
and  south  of  the  peninsula  had  been  already  isolated  from  their  kins- 
men, and  conquered  and  absorbed,  and  how  the  Normans  had  set 
up  earldoms  to  protect  the  Marches,  or  border,  from  the  fierce  moun- 
taineers, who  remained  unsubdued.  During  the  time  of  John  and 
Henry,  Llywelyn  ap  Jorwerth  and  his  grandson  Llywelyn  ap  Gruffydd 
had  extended  their  authority  over  the  whole  of  Wales.  For  a  time 
they  seemed  destined  to  unite  the  scattered  and  mutually  hostile 
tribes  into  a  single  people  and  to  establish  an  independent  nation. 
The  older  Llywelyn,  by  making  common  cause  with  the  barons 
against  John,  secured  important  concessions  in  Magna  Carta.  The 
younger,  in  alliance  with  Simon  de  Montfprt,  took  an  active  part 
against  Henry  III  during  the  barons'  war.  By  the  Peace  of  Shrews- 
Jjury,  1267,  the  English  King  granted  him  extremely  liberal  terms ; 
^m  return  lor  homage  and  an  indemnity  to  the  Crown,  he  was  to  hold 
Wales  as  a  principality  and  to  be  recognized  as  immediate  lord  of  all 
the  Welsh  chieftains  outside  the  limits  of  the  Marches.  Llywelyn 
kept  reasonably  quiet  during  the  remainder  of  Henry's  reign ;  but 
he  refused  to  perform  any  homage  or  pay  any  indemnity  to  Edward ; 


EDWARD   I   AND   EDWARD   II  169 

he  failed  to  appear  at  the  coronation,  and  disregarded  frequent  sum- 
monses. In  1275  Edward  secured  possession  of  Llywelyn's  intended 
bride  and  refused  to  restore  her  except  on  terms  that  the  Welsh 
prince  rejected.  War  was  formally  declared,  and  in  August,  1277, 
Edward  led  an  invasion  into  Wales.  Llywelyn  was  hemmed  in  and 
starved  into  submission.  He  was  forced  to  render  homage  and  to 
have  his  possessions  reduced  to  the  district  around  Snowdon. 

Second  Campaign,  1282.  Subjugation  of  Wales.  Statute  of 
Rhuddlan.  —  The  peace  lasted  less  than  five  years.  The  English  offi- 
cials, however,  were  unscrupulous  and  brutal  in  their  administration,  and 
the  tactlessness  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  fanned  the  smolder- 
ing embers  of  resistance  again  into  a  flame.  Llywelyn  was  joined  by 
his  brother  David,  and,  on  Palm  Sunday,  £282,  they  opened  a  new 
war  by 'attacking  the  three  border  castles  of  Flint,  Rhuddlan,  and 
Hawarden.  Thence  the  revolt  spread  all  over  Wales.  Edward  took 
the  field  again,  and,  as  in  1277,  Llywelyn  was  forced  back  into  the 
mountainous  district  of  Snowdon  and  blockaded  by  sea  and  land. 
Fearing  to  face  starvation  again,  he  forced  his  way  out  and  was  slain 
in  a  skirmish  near  the  upper  waters  of  the  Severn.  His  head  was 
sent  to  London,  was  crowned  with  ivy,  and  displayed  upon  a  pole 
on  the  Tower.  With  his  death  the  backbone  of  the  resistance  was 
broken.  David  was  captured  and  sentenced  to  death  in  the  follow- 
ing year.  The  conquest  of  Wales  was  complete.  A  notable  feature 
of  these  Welsh  wars  is  the  fact  that  the  long  bow  was  first  used  effec- 
tively, a  weapon  which  was  to  play  sucn  a  part  in  the  wars  of  trie 
next  century.  Edward  at  once  began  to  secure  his  new  possessions. 
Snowdon  was  surrounded  by  a  chain  of  fortresses,  each  of  which  be- 
came the  center  of  a  town  whither  English  traders  and  colonists  were 
attracted  by  important  privileges.  In  other  parts  of  Wales  as  well, 
new  garrisons  and  fortresses  were  established  or  old  ones  rebuilt. 
In  1284  the  Statute  of  Wales  was  issued  at  Rhuddlan  to  provide  for 
governing  the  recent  acquisitions.  Wales  was  formally  annexed  to 
the  English  dominions,  and  the  English  shire  system  was  extended 
by  the  creation  of  four  shires  in  the  north  and  by  the  reorganization 
of  two  already  established  in  the  south.  English  law  administered 
by  English  sheriffs  was  introduced,  though,  wherever  possible,  Welsh 
local  customs  were  allowed  to  stand.  The  Marcher  lordships,  however, 
were  suffered  to  exist  and  to  retain  their  extensive  jurisdiction  for 
two  centuries  and  more,  and  an  equal  period  was  to  elapse  before  the 
Welsh  were  incorporated  into  the  English  parliamentary  system.  ( In 
1301  the  title  of  Prince  of  Wales  was  conferred  on  Edward's  oldest 
surviving  son,  born  at  Carnarvon  in  1284.)  This  has  been  the  cus- 
tomary title  of  the  heir  apparent  to  the  throne  ever  since. 

The  French  and  the  Scotch  Wars  and  their  Consequences.  —  From 
1286  to  1289  Edward  was  abroad.  Not  long  after  his  return  he  in- 
volved himself  in  complications  with  Scotland  that,  combined  with 
a  French  war  which  followed,  led  to  consequences  most  significant 


1 70  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

for  England's  foreign  and  domestic  history.  From  now  on  English 
kings  were  constantly  interfering  in  Scotch  affairs,  a  constant  source 
of  friction,  till  the  smaller  kingdom  was  finally  incorporated  with 
the  larger  in  1707^.  Moreover,  this  new  policy  threw  Scotland  into 
the  arms  of  England's  chief  enemy,  France,  and  in  1295  an  alliance 
was  made  between  the  two  countries  by  which  Scotch  manners  and 
customs  were  profoundly  influenced  by  the  French.  Also,  French 
intrigue  so  accentuated  the  natural  hostility  of  the  Scots  that  Eng- 
land had  to  reckon  with  her  northern  neighbors  in  every  crisis,  foreign 
and  domestic,  during  the  next  four  centuries.  The  constitutional 
progress  of  Edward's  reign  was  due  largely  to  these  wars.  The  King's 
need  of  money  in  1295  led  him  to  summon  the  "Model  Parliament," 
.the  first  body  completely  representative  of  all  three  political  classes. 
Requiring  more  than  he^gotfrom  Parliament,  Edward  was  obliged 
to  demand  increased  military  service  from  his  barons  and  to  squeeze 
further  contributions  from  the  clergy  and  the  merchants.  This 
led  to  a  threefold  combination  against  him,  in  the  face  of  which  he 
was  obliged  to  yield  a  new  confirmation  of  the  Charters  in  1297,  ad- 
mitting the  principle  that  all  taxes  over  and  above  those  regularly 
belonging  to  the  Crown  must  be  granted  by  Parliament. 

The  Disputed  Succession  in  Scotland.  —  The  trouble  with  Scot- 
land arose  over  a  disputed  succession.  The  country  ruled  by  the 
Scotch  kings  in  the  thirteenth  century  was  composed  of  many  diverse 
elements.1  Although  the  royal  race  was  Celtic,  the  Lowlands,  form- 
ing the  richest  and  most  populous  part  of  the  realm,  were  inhabited 
by  people  of  English  blood  with  English  institutions  and  bound  to 
England  by  close  feudal  ties.  Ever  since  the  time  of  Edward  the 
Elder,  English  kings  had  claimed  a  shadowy  overlordship  over  the 
Scots ;  but  its  extent  and  character  had  never  been  clearly  determined. 
Suddenly,  in  1286,  Alexander  III,  the  reigning  King,  was  killed  by  his 
horse  falling  over  a  cliff.  He  left  as  his  heir  a  little  granddaughter, 
Margaret,  known  as  the  "  Maid  of  Norway."  Edward  determined 
to  unite  the  two  countries  by  marrying  Margaret  to  his  son.  The 
Scots  gave  their  consent  with  certain  conditions ;  but,  in  September, 

1290,  Margaret^  died  on  her  way  from  Norway  to  Scotland.     In  May, 

1291,  Edward  ordered  the  Scotch  barons  and  clergy  to  meet  him  at 
Norham,  and  there  announced  his  intention,  as  Superior  and  Lord 
Paramount,   of  settling  the   succession.     There  were  no  less  than 
twelve  claimants,  of  whom  the  two  leading  ones  were  John  Balliol 
and  Robert  Bruce.     As  a  result  of  the  findings  of  a  body  of  commis- 
sioners, to  whom  the  law  of  the  case  was  referred,  Edward  pronounced 

1  Its  nucleus  was  the  district  north  of  the  Clyde,  settled  by  the  Scots  from  Ire- 
land in  the  sixth  century.  In  843  Kenneth  MacAlpine,  King  of  the  Scots,  acquired 
Pictland,  the  territory  of  the  ancient  Caledonians,  north  of  the  Forth.  The  north- 
ern Strathclyde  country,  or  Cumbria,  lying  south  of  the  Clyde,  was  added  in  the 
tenth  century.  Lothian,  between  the  Forth  and  the  Tweed,  was  next  conquered 
and  the  conquest  confirmed  by  Cnut  in  1018. 


SCOTLAND 

REIGN   OF  EDWARD   I 

SCALE  OF  ENGLISH  MILES 


EDWARD   I   AND   EDWARD   H  171 

in  favor  of  Balliol,  who  swore  fealty  to  him,  and  on  St.  Andrew's 
Day,  30  November,  1292,  was  crowned  at  Scone. 

The  Conquest  of  Scotland,   1296.     The  Deposition  of  Balliol.  — 

Though  Edward  had  intervened  in  the  interests  of  order,  he  took 
advantage  of  the  situation  to  press  his  claims  to  overlordship.  In 
pursuance  of  this  policy  he  demanded  that  English  courts  should 
decide  cases  appealed  from  the  courts  of  Scotland.  Balliol  sought 
to  evade  this  requirement,  contracted  an  alliance  with  France,  sent 
an  expedition  across  the  border,  and  ended,  in  1296,  by  renouncing 
his  allegiance.  "  Has  the  foolish  fellow  done  such  folly?  "  cried 
Edward  when  he  heard  that  Balliol  had  refused  his  summons  to  ap- 
pear before  him ;  "  if  he  does  not  choose  to  come  to  us,  we  shall  go  to 
him."  Before  the  close  of  the  summer  he  had  conquered  the  country 
and  reduced  Balliol  to  submission.  Appearing  with  a  white  rod  in 
his  hand  and  stripped  of  every  kingly  decoration,  the  latter  surrendered 
his  scepter  and  renounced  his  claim  to  the  kingdom.  Taken  to  Eng- 
land a  prisoner,  he  was  confined  in  the  Tower.  Afterwards  released 
at  the  request  of  the  Pope,  he  lived  for  twenty  years  in  France  in  in- 
glorious obscurity.  Though  Edward  was  far  from  harsh,  many  of 
his  measures  tended  to  gall  the  already  irritated  pride  of  the  Scots. 
He  made  a  triumphal  march  through  the  country ;  he  declared  the 
kingdom  forfeited ;  he  broke  the  Great  Seal,  and  placed  most  of  the 
great  offices  of  State  in  English  hands.  He  sent  many  of  the  patriot 
leaders  to  dwell  south  of  the  Trent  so  long  as  the  war  with  France 
continued,  and  carried  off  the  ancient  coronation  stone  of  Scone  to 
Westminster  Abbey,  where  it  has  remained  ever  since.1 

The  War  with  France,  1293.  —  The  breach  with  France  began  as 
early  as  1293.  Clt  arose  out  of  quarrels  between  English  and  French 
sailors  due  to  bitter  commercial  rivalry.)  In  the  course  of  the  struggle, 
Philip  IV  summoned  Edward  to  appear  before  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  January  1294.  The  English  King  sent  his  brother  Edmund  in 
his  place,  who  was  induced  by  the  wily  Philip  to  consent  to  a  French 
occupation  of  certain  Gascon  castles  and  to  the  formal  surrender  of 
the  duchy  pending  the  settlement  of  the  points  in  dispute.  When 
he  had  once  got  the  Gascon  possessions  in  his  hands,  Philip  declared 
the  English  King  contumacious  and  his  fiefs  forfeit  for  non-appearance. 
Edward,  furious  at  the  deceit  practiced  upon  him,  declared  war  in  a 
Parliament  held  in  June,  1294.  Heavy  taxes  were  imposed  and  other 
exactions  extorted.  The  clergy  were  assessed  half  their  spiritual 
revenues,  the  shires  a  tenth  of  their  incomes,  and  the  boroughs  a  sixth. 
The  coined  money  deposited  in  the  treasuries  of  the  churches  was 
appropriated,  the  wool  of  the  merchants  was  seized  and  only  given 
up  in  return  for  large  grants.  A  formidable  rising  of  the  Welsh,  who 
chafed  under  English  rule,  kept  Edward  occupied  till  July,  and  taxed 

1  An  old  prophecy  declaring  that  where  that  stone  was  a  Scotch  king  should 
rule  was  thought  to  be  fulfilled  when  James  VI  became  King  of  England  over  three 
hundred  years  later. 


172  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

his  resources  severely.  Then  a  Gascon  expedition,  sent  out  under 
his  nephew,  John  of  Brittany,  turned  out  a  failure.  Levies  were  de- 
manded from  Ireland,  Scotland,  Wales,  and  the  Marches  for  another, 
and  Edward  made  a  vain  attempt  to  organize  a  great  European  com- 
bination against  the  French.  The  effort  to  control  the  sea  marks  an 
important  step  in  the  maritime  history  of  both  countries.  It  led 
Edward  to  establish,  in  1295,  his  famous  coast  guard.  Philip,  on 
his  part,  planned  an  invasion  and  a  blockade  of  the  English  ports ; 
both  failed,  but  the  ships  which  he  prepared  mark  the  beginning  of 
the  French  royal  navy.  Then  came  the  alliance  with  Scotland. 
In  order  to  meet  it  Edward  took  the  decisive  step  of  appealing  to  the 
whole  body  of  his  subjects  by  summoning  the  Model  Parliament  in 
November, ji 295^  a  step  which  marks  the  culmination  of  the  growth 
of  representative  government  and  perhaps  the  most  important  stage 
in  its  history. 

The  Beginnings  of  Parliament  to  1265.  —  The  term  "  Parliament  " 
means  literally  a  speaking,  and  came  to  be  applied  to  the  body  in 
which  the  speaking  took  pTace.  The  term  is  now  understood  to  mean 
a  general  council  of  the  realm,  summoned  by  the  King,  to  consult  on 
the  affairs  of  the  realm  and  to  transact  its  business,  to  vote  taxes,  to 
enact  and  repeal  laws.  (The  body  now  consists  of  two  houses :  the 
House  of  Lords,  composed  of  the  nobles  and  most  of  the  bishops ; 
and  the  House  of  Commons,  composed  of  the  elected  representatives 
of  the  people.)  The  name  "Parliament"  was  first  applied  by  the 
chronicler  Matthew  Paris  to  an  assembly  of  the  Magnates  in  1246. 
This  body,  however,  was  no  more  representative  or  elective  than  the 
Witan,  or  the  Great  Council  which  followed  after  the  Conquest.  The 
complement  of  elected  representatives  from  the  Commons  had  yet 
to  appear.  From  the  earliest  Anglo-Saxon  times  the  reeve,  priest, 
and  four  men  from  each  township  had  appeared  in  the  hundred  and 
shire  courts.  These  courts,  however,  transacted  little  or  no  legislative 
business,  and,  with  the  growth  of  the  royal  power,  they  and  the  men 
who  came  to  them  decreased  steadily  in  importance.  It  is  from 
another  direction  that  the  growth  of  the  system  of  parliamentary 
representation  is  to  be  traced.  It  started  with  the  representative 
juries,  first  employed  regularly  under  Henry  II  to  bring  criminals 
to  justice,  to  decide  suits  at  law,  and  to  assess  taxes.  During  the  time 
of  Hubert  Walter,  these  juries  came  to  be  more  and  more  representa- 
tive in  character.  As  the  lesser  nobility  came  to  count  for  less  in 
the  Great  Council  they  began  to  identify  themselves  with  the  landed 
gentry  of  the  counties,  and  to  serve  in  juries  transacting  local  busi- 
ness. If  the  barons  in  their  growing  opposition  to  the  Crown  should 
unite  with  these  local  representatives,  or  if  the  King  should  throw 
himself  on  their  support  and  tMey  should  be  summoned  together  in 
one  place  to  grant  supplies  and  'assist  in  national  deliberations,  a 
Parliament  in  the  modern  sense  would  be  well  on  foot.  .This  is  pre- 
cisely what  happened.  Sometimes  the  Crown  and  sometimes  the 


EDWARD   I   AND   EDWARD   II  173 

barons  called  together  such  representatives  until  they  came  to  form 
a  part  of  the  regular  machinery  of  government.  Historians  have 
pointed  to  two  assemblies  held  in  1213  as  marking  an  important  stage 
in  the  making  of  Parliament.  In  one  case,  the  reeve  and  four  men 
from  certain  towns  were  summoned  to  meet  at  St.  Albans  to  assess 
damages  due  to  the  clergy  for  losses  incurred  during  John's  quarrel 
with  the  Pope.  In  the  other,  four  discreet  knights  of  each  shire  were 
called  to  Oxford  "  to  confer  with  the  King  on  the  affairs  of  the  king- 
dom." It  is  uncertain  whether  the  local  representatives  appeared  at 
either  place,  and  taxes  continued  for  many  years  to  be  voted  in  coun- 
cils of  great  tenants  in  chief  and  assessed  and  collected  in  the  separate 
shires  by  representative  knights.  Still  the  fact  that  such  summonses 
were  issued  at  all  is  interesting.  The  first  clear  case  of  a  central 
assembly  of  representative  knights  comes  in  1254,  as  the  result  of 
royal  necessity.  Henry  III,  absent  in  Gascony,  wanted  money  for 
his  campaign,  hut  the  bishops  and  barons  refused  to  vote  it.  There- 
upon the  Regents,  Queen  Eleanor  and  Richard  of  Cornwall,  summoned 
through  the  sheriffs  two  knights  from  each  shire  to  declare  what  the 
electors  were  willing  to  grant. 

The  Growth  of  Parliament  from  1265  to  1295.  —  The  next  step  was 
taken  in  1265,  when  Simon  de  Montfort  summoned  to  his  Parliament 
not  only  two  knights  from  each  shire,  but  also  two  citizens  or  bur- 
gesses from  each  of  twenty-one  cities  and  boroughs  which  he  selected. 
This  has  often  been  called  the  first  English  Parliament;  but  while 
Simon  deserves  credit  for  his  first  bringing  t^gpthpr  tVip  twn  pl^m^ntc 
that  makeup  the  later  House  of  Commons,  his  was  not  a  completely 
Representative  body.  It  consisted  exclusively  of  his  own  supporters^. 
Uie  Jower  clergy  "were  not  summoned  at  all,  the  barons  there  were 
only  of  his  following,  and,  in  the  case  of  the  towns,  the  writs  were 
directed  to  such  mayors  as  were  on  his  side,  and  not,  as  came  to  be 
the  case  later,  to  the  sheriffs  of  the  shires  in  which  the  towns  were 
situated.  All  that  one  can  say  is  that  the  Parliament  of  1265  repre- 
sented more  classes  than  any  which  had  met  up  to  that  time.  It  is 
doubtful,  too,  whether  Simon  intended  his  arrangement  as  permanent 
or  only  to  sanction  the  system  of  government  set  up  after  the  battle 
of  Lewes ;  at  any  rate,  writs  for  a  Parliament  for  the  following  June 
summoned  only  the  prelates  and  barons  without  any  mention  of  the 
clergy,  and  for  thirty  years  no  Parliament  met  which  included  repre- 
sentatives from  all  classes.  The  fact  must  also  be  taken  into  account 
that  the  towns  were  attaining  such  importance  that  they  would  soon 
have  secured  representatives  without  Simon.  Nevertheless,  he 
deserves  credit  for  initiating  a  very  important  step  in  parliamentary 
progress. 

The  Model  Parliament,  1295. —(Edward's  Parliament  of  1295 
was  the  first  to  represent  all  classes.)  Here  were  present  representatives 
from  the  nobility,  earls  and  barons ;  from  the  clergy,  archbishops  and 
bishops,  abbots,  priors,  heads  of  the  military  religious  orders,  deans 


174  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

of  cathedrals,  and  proctors  or  delegates  from  the  various  chapters 
and  dioceses  ;  from  the  commons,  two  knights  from  each  shire  and 
representatives  from  more  than  a  hundred  cities  and  boroughs.  The 
writs  of  summons  declared  that  :  "  Inasmuch  as  a  most  righteous 
law  of  the  Emperor's  ordains  that  what  touches  all  shall  be  approved 
by  all,  so  it  evidently  appears  that  common  dangers  should  be  met  by 
remedies  agreed  upon  in  common."  Edward  was  more  interested 
in  getting  money  for  his  wars  with  France  and  Scotland  than  in  per- 
fecting the  constitution  of  Parliament.  Also,  some  incomplete  as- 
semblies met  after  1295  ;  but  the  assembly  of  that  year  furnished  the 
model  for  time  to  come.  It  was  the  Work  of  the  next  century  to  de- 
cide how  the  estates  now  represented  should  arrange  themselves. 
The  lower  clergy  soon  dropped  out  and  transacted  their  business 
in  representative  bodies  of  their  own,  known  as  Convocations. 
There  were  two  of  these,  one  under  Canterbury  and  one  under 
York,  and  each  was  divided  into  two  houses,  an  upper  and  a  lower. 
The  higher  clergy  had  seats  both  in  the  upper  house  of  Convocation 
and  in  Parliament.  In  the  latter  body  they  soon  came  to  be 
organized,  together  with  the  temporal  peers,  into  the  House  of 
Lords,  while  the  knights  of  the  shire  and  the  representatives  of  the 
cities  and  boroughs  united  to  form  the  House  of  Commons.1  1  The 
first  distinct  record  of  a  session  of  these  two  houses  separately 
occurs  in  ^1332,  after  Edward  I  had  been  in  his  grave  a  quarter  of  a 
century.^ 

The  King  arouses  the  Opposition  of  the  Clergy,  the  Barons,  and 
the  Merchants,  1296.  —  It  was  with  the  money  granted  by  the  Model 
Parliament  that  Edward  was  able  to  conquer  Scotland  in  1296,  but 
an  expedition  to  Gascony,  led  by  his  brother  Edmund,  was  a  dismal 
failure.  While  the  barons,  knights,  and  burgesses,  assembled  in  a 
new  Parliament,  November,  1296,  made  liberal  grants  for  another 
campaign  against  Philip  the  Fair,  the  clergy  refused  absolutely  to 
contribute.  Their  leader,  Robert  Winchelsea,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, took  his  stand  on  a  bull  known  as  Clericis  laicos,  issued  the 


1  Although,  twice  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III,  it  was  enacted  that  there  should 
be  annual  Parliaments,  demands  for  frequent  sessions  never  came  except  in  times 
of  political  excitement  ;  only  a  few  far-sighted  political  leaders  realized  the  possi- 
bilities of  Parliament  as  a  constant  check  on  the  royal  powers.  Owing  to  the  fact 
that  they  were  usually  assembled  to  grant  supplies  ;  owing  to  the  expense  and  hard- 
ship of  the  journey  to  Westminster,  the  usual  place  of  meeting;  and  to  the  fact 
that,  as  individuals,  they  counted  for  very  little  when  they  got  there,  the  bulk  of 
the  Commons  regarded  attendance  as  a  burden  rather  than  a  privilege,  as  a  futile 
interruption  of  their  daily  occupations.  Even  the  payment  of  45.  a  day  to  knights 
of  the  shire  and  of  25.  to  burgesses  did  not  prove  very  tempting.  Most  of  the  parlia- 
mentary business  was  prepared  beforehand  by  the  King  and  his  council,  and  the 
sheriffs  usually  controlled  the  elections.  From  1330  on  a  determined  effort  was 
made  to  keep  lawyers,  who  were  regarded  as  an  undesirable  element,  from  sitting 
in  Parliament.  In  1372  they  were  excluded  from  the  country  representation,  and 
in  one  Parliament  at  least,  the  "  Unlearned  Parliament  "  of  1404,  not  a  single  lawyer 
was  admitted.  In  later  times  they  reappeared  in  constantly  increasing  numbers. 


EDWARD   I  AND   EDWARD   II  175 

of  the  previous  February  by  Boniface  VIII,  rvvhich  forbade  the  lay 
authorities  under  pain  of  excommunication  to  collect  taxes  from  the 
clergy  without  the  Pope's  consent.)  Edward  replied  by  putting  the 
clergy  outside  the  protection  of  the  law  so  that  any  man  might  plunder 
them  at  will.  "  Henceforth,"  so  ran  the  decree  of  the  Lord  Chief 
Justice,  "  a  clerk  may  have  no  redress  however  atrocious  may  be  the 
injury  from  which  he  may  have  suffered."  Thereupon  all  lay  fiefs 
of  clerks  in  the  see  of  Canterbury  who  refused  to  pay  were  seized  by 
royal  order.  This  brought  them  to  time.  Increased  necessity  soon 
forced  Edward  into  conflict  with  both  the  barons  and  the  merchants. 
In  a  baronial  assembly  held  at  Salisbury  in  February,  1297,  the  Mar- 
shal, the  Earl  of  Norfolk,  and  the  Constable,  the  Earl  of  Hereford, 
refused  to  serve  in  Gascony  unless  the  King  who  planned  to  attack 
Flanders  should  command  in  person.  Edward's  wrath  was  furious : 
"  By  God,  Sir  Earl,"  he  roared  at  the  Marshal,  "  thou  shalt  either  go 
or  hang."  "  By  that  same  oath,  Sir  King,"  replied  the  undaunted 
Marshal,  "  I  will  neither  go  nor  hang,"  and,  together  with  the  Con- 
stable, he  collected  men  at  arms  to  support  their  resistance.  The 
King  embittered  the  merchants  by  seizing  a  portion  of  their  wool  and 
subjecting  the  remainder  to  a  heavy  tax.  Disaffection  was  further 
spread  by  requisitions  for  grain  and  salt  throughout  the  kingdom. 

Edward's  Expedition  to  Flanders.  Wallace's  Rising  in  Scotland, 
1297.  —  Edward's  courage  and  resource  and  the  loyalty  of  his  sub- 
jects in  the  face  of  danger  enabled  him  to  tide  over  the  crisis.  With 
Winchelsea's  grudging  assent  —  "  Let  each  man  save  his  own  soul 
and  follow  his  own  conscience  "  —  the  clergy  yielded  their  quota ; 
the  merchants  were  satisfied  with  a  promise  that  they  would  be  com- 
pensated for  their  wool  when  peace  was  restored ;  and  the  King  paid 
for  his  requisitions  and  agreed  to  pay  for  the  services  of  all  who  would 
respond  to  his  "  affectionate  request."  Leaving  Prince  Edward  as 
Regent  with  Winchelsea  among  his  leading  councilors,  he  departed 
for  Flanders  in  the  summer  of  1297  with  a  goodly  following.  The 
Gascon  expedition  was  dropped.  Norfolk  and  Hereford  resigned 
their  offices  and  held  sullenly  aloof.  Meantime,  a  formidable  rising 
broke  out  in  Scotland,  headed  by  Sir  William  Wallace,  one  of  the  Low- 
Jand  barons.  Edward  refused  to  be  diverted  from  Flanders,  though 
lie  senr  some  of  his  best  warriors  to  the  North.  The  English  forces 
were  overcome  at  the  Battle  of  Stirling  Bridge,  n  September,  and 
Scotland  passed  for  the  moment  out  of  English  hands. 

The  Confirmation  of  the  Charters,  1297.  —  Just  as  the  King  was 
ready  to  embark,  the  barons  who  remained  disaffected  presented 
him  with  a  list  of  grievances  and  demanded  a  confirmation  of  the 
Charters.  He  had  been  able  to  evade  them ;  but  after  his  departure 
they  took  advantage  of  the  Scotch  crisis  to  renew  their  demands. 
They  came  to  Parliament  armed,  they  threatened  to  vote  no  more 
supplies,  and  12  October,  the  Regency  was  forced  to  give  way.  The 
concessions  were  embodied  in  a  famous  document  known  as  the 


176  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Confirmatio  Cartarum.  It  provided  that  the  Charter  of  Liberties 
and  the  Charter  of  the  Forests  should  be  confirmed,  and  that  the 
King's  recent  exactions  should  not  be  made  precedents,  particularly 
that  the  "  maletolte  "  1  should  be  discontinued.  Most  important  of 
all,  it  was  enacted  that  "  no  aids,  tasks,  or  prises  were  to  be  taken, 
but  by  the  common  consent  of  the  realm  and  for  the  common  profit 
thereof,  saving  the  ancient  aids  and  prises  due  and  accustomed."  2 
The  Confirmatio  was  ratified  by  the  King  at  Ghent.  By  specifying 
"  aids,  tasks,  and  prises  "  the  barons  sought  to  cover  all  forms  of 
taxes  known  to  them,  and  the  King  recognized  the  principle  that  no 
new  or  extraordinary  taxes  should  be  levied  without  the  consent  of 
Parliament.  Twice  afterwards,  however,  he  aroused  opposition 
by  his  tax  levies.  In  1304  he  collected  a  tallage  from  towns  on  the 
royal  demesne.  Here  he  was  within  his  rights,  but  it  was  a  mere 
legal  evasion  when,  in  1303,  he  imposed  certain  customs  duties  on 
foreign  merchants  on  the  ground  that  he  was  not  thereby  taxing  his 
subjects,  though  he  really  was  indirectly,  since  such  customs  were 
bound  to  affect  prices.  Quite  indefensible  also  was  his  action,  in 
1305,  in  securing  from  Clement  V  a  solemn  absolution  from  the  en- 
gagement of  1297.  Yet  in  spite  of  all  wriggling,  a  principle  had  been 
formulated  and  recognized  which  was  to  influence  profoundly  the 
course  of  English  constitutional  history. 

Peace  with  France,  1299.  Defeat  and  Execution  of  Wallace,  1305. 
-  Edward  accomplished  little  in  Flanders,  and,  as  Philip  IV  was  not 
keen  for  fighting,  a  peace  was  arranged  in  1297  —  concluded  1299  — 
on  terms  suggested  by  Boniface  VIII,  to  whom  the  matter  had  been 
referred.  Each  party  was  to  retain  what  he  had  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war,  and  the  arrangement  was  to  be  cemented  by  a  double 
marriage :  Edward,  now  a  widower,  was  to  marry  Philip's  sister, 
and  Prince  Edward,  the  French  King's  infant  daughter  Isabella. 
In  July,  1298,  the  English  King  was  ready  to  take  the  field  against 
the  Scots,  and,  on  the  22d,  he  met  and  defeated  the  forces  of  Wal- 
lace at  Falkirk.  The  Scotch  pikemen  proved  no  match  for  the  Eng- 
lish cavalry  combined  with  Welsh  archers.  In  spite  of  his  victory 
Edward,  owing  to  the  scarcity  of  provisions  and  desertions,  had  to 
march  south  in  the  early  winter  of  1299,  leaving  southern  Scotland 
still  unconquered.  Wrangles  with  his  barons  over  carrying  out  the 

1  A  tax  on  wool  of  405.  a  sack  in  excess  of  a  tax  fixed  in  1275. 

2  The  Statutum  de  Tall  agio  non  concedendo,  formerly  accepted  as  a  statute,  was 
probably  a  preliminary  draft  of  the  baronial  demands  granted  in  the  Confirmatio. 
It  is  much  more  sweeping  in  its  concessions  than  the  authorized  version  which  does 
not  yield  the  royal  right  of  tallage  and  does  not  contain  the  saving  clauses  to  be 
found  in  the  Statutum.     Some  progress  was  made  in  cutting  off  uncontrolled  sources 
of  supply.     Tallage  was  never  levied  after  1332.     A  statute  of  1340  directed  against 
it  may  have  had  some  influence,  though  its  disappearance  is  due  rather  to  a  sub- 
stitution of  general  for  special  forms  of  taxation.     The  subsidy,  or  tax  on  wool, 
taken  by  the  King  over  and  above  the  ancient  custom  fixed  by  Parliament  in  1275, 
was  steadily  protested  against,  but  it  required  two  statutes   the  second  passed  in 
1371,  to  put  an  end  to  it. 


EDWARD   I   AND   EDWARD   II  177 

terms  of  the  Confirmatio  and  negotiations  with  Philip,  who  still  clung 
to  Gascony,1  kept  Edward  occupied  for  some  years ;  but  at  length, 
in  1304,  he  completed  the  reduction  of  the  country.  William  Wallace, 
who  held  out  after  the  bulk  of  his  countrymen  had  submitted,  was 
betrayed  by  a  Scot  in  Edward's  service,  taken  to  London,  and  executed 
in  1305. 

Robert  Bruce.  Edward's  Last  Campaign  against  the  Scots,  1307.  — 
Edward  sought  to  make  amends  by  framing  wise  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country,  but  the  spirit  of  the  Scots  was  still  unbroken. 
A  leader  was  at  hand  in  Robert  Bruce,  the  grandson  of  Balliol's  old 
rival.  He  had  been  on  Edward's  side  during  the  earlier  struggles, 
but  he  was  bold  and  ambitious.  Crowned  at  Scone,  25  March,  1306, 
he  became  then  the  champion  of  national  independence.  Every  one 
has  heard  how  in  one  of  his  moments  of  discouragement,  when  he 
was  a  fugitive  in  the  lonely  wastes,  a  spider  taught  him  patience.  The 
devotion  of  his  followers  did  not  even  stick  at  treachery  to  the  Eng- 
lish. Bishop  Wishart  broke  his  sixth  oath  of  fealty,  and  took  the 
timber  which  Edward  gave  him  for  a  steeple  for  his  cathedral  to 
construct  siege  engines.  Edward,  regardless  of  the  infirmities  of 
age,  vowing  that  if  he  reduced  his  Scotch  enemies  he  would  never 
again  take  arms  against  Christian  man  but  devote  himself  to  a  crusade, 
hastily  made  preparations  and  started  northward.  Before  he  had 
got  far,  Bruce  was  defeated  and  put  to  flight  by  the  warden  of  Scot- 
land. Summary  vengeance  was  visited  on  such  of  his  supporters  as 
were  captured,  among  them  the  Countess  of  Buchan,  who  was  hung 
in  an  iron  cage  outside  the  walls  of  Berwick  Castle.  The  return  of 
Bruce  spurred  Edward  to  hasten  his  march,  but  death  overtook  him 
seven  miles  from  Carlisle,  7  July,  1307,  before  he  reached  the  border. 
The  approach  of  death  did  not  diminish  the  old  King's  hatred  toward 
his  opponents.  By  his  order,  Edwardus  Primus,  Scotorum  Malleus, 
Pactum  Serva,  was  inscribed  on  his  tomb,  while  he  further  ordered 
that  his  bones  should  be  carried  with  the  army  whenever  the  Scots 
rebelled,  and  only  buried  after  their  defeat.  His  idea  of  uniting  the 
various  races  of  Britain  into  a  single  nation  was  a  noble  one ;  but  to 
seek  to  carry  it  out  in  the  teeth  of  such  intense  opposition  was  criminal 
folly  which  involved  England  and  Scotland  in  untold  losses  of  men 
and  money.  It  was  not  till  centuries  later  that  that  poorer  northern 
country  came  to  see  that  her  interests  were  bound  to  those  of  her 
southern  neighbor. 

Although  Edward  failed  to  realize  his  dream  of  incorporating  Scot- 
land, his- management  of  affairs  elsewhere  beyond  the  English  borders 
was  not  unsuccessful.  He  had  reduced  Wales.  In  Gascony  few  com- 
plaints came  from  either  barons  or  commons,  and  he  frustrated  Philip's 
attempt  to  wrest  the  country  from  his  control.  The  Irish  situation 

1  Finally,  in  1303,  Philip  yielded  Gascony,  thus  falsifying  the  Pope's  prediction, 
"What  the  French  once  lay  hold  of  they  never  let  go,  and  to  have  to  do  with  the 
French  is  to  have  to  do  with  the  devil." 


i78  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

bristled  with  difficulties ;  but  he  was  able  to  increase  revenues  over 
expenditures,  and  to  give  the  country  a  comparatively  good  rule. 

The  Hundred  Rolls,  the  Quo  Warrantos,  and  the  Year  of  Legal 
Memory.  —  It  was  in  the  field  of  internal  administration  that  Edward 
achieved  his  greatest  triumphs.  He  began  in  1274  by  sending  out  a 
body  of  royal  commissioners  provided  with  articles  of  inquiry  to  be 
answered  by  sworn  jurors  of  every  hundred.  The  results  of  their 
investigation  are  recorded  in  documents  known  as  the  "  Hundred 
Rolls,"  from  the  fact  that  the  records  concerning  each  hundred  were 
preserved  on  separate  rolls  of  parchment  in  the  Government  archives. 
As  Domesday  Book  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  financial  and  agrarian 
conditions,  so  these  Rolls  tell  much  about  exemptions  from  royal 
jurisdiction;  about  privileges,  such  as  monopolies  of  mill  rights, 
fishing  rights,  ferry  rights,  hereditary  sheriffdoms ;  about  such  abuses 
as  bribery  and  unfair  administration  of  justice.  By  the  Statute  of 
Gloucester,  1278,  the  King  provided  for  a  judicial  visitation  to  find 
out  by  what  warrant,  quo  warranto,  local  privileges  encroaching  on 
the  power  of  the  Crown  were  enjoyed.  In  the  following  spring  the 
King's  judges  started  out  armed  with  writs  of  quo  warranto;  church- 
men, barons,  no  matter  how  powerful,  had  to  produce  a  charter  war- 
ranting their  privileges  or  else  pay  a  fine.  Naturally  there  was  great 
murmuring  and  even  resistance.  The  Earl  of  Warenne,  for  example, 
produced  a  rusty  sword  as  the  warrant  of  himself  and  his  ancestors, 
and  offered  to  defend  what  he  possessed  with  the  sword.  Finally,  a 
compromise  was  reached.  All  who  could  trace  back  their  claims  to 
1189,  the  year  of  the  accession  of  Richard  I,  might  retain  them  with- 
out further  evidence.  Any  privilege  acquired  since  required  a  written 
record.  So  the  year  1189  came  to  be  the  "  year  of  legal  memory," 
the  boundary  between  written  record  and  oral  tradition. 

The  First  and  Second  Statutes  of  Westminster,  1275  and  1285,  and 
the  Statute  of  Merchants.  —  Edward  was  determined  to  correct  the 
abuses  of  officials  acting  in  his  name  as  well  as  to  enforce  the  royal 
rights.  To  that  end  ordinances  were  issued  from  the  Exchequer  — 
the  financial  court  of  the  realm  —  to  prevent  extortion  and  specula- 
tion and  to  close  the  court  to  unauthorized  persons.  The  royal  atti- 
tude is  manifest  too,  in  the  first  and  second  Statutes  of  Westminster 
enacted  in  1275  and  1285,  respectively,  in  which  "great  zeal  and 
desire  "  was  expressed  "  to  redress  the  state  of  the  Realm  in  such 
things  as  require  amendment  .  .  .  that  the  peace  of  the  Holy 
Church  and  the  Land  be  well  kept  and  maintained  in  all  points,  and 
Common  Right  be  done  to  all,  as  well  Poor  as  Rich,  without  respect 
to  Persons."  These  two  statutes  are  mainly  a  restatement  and  sum- 
mary of  previous  enactments,  such  as  Magna  Carta  and  the  Provi- 
sions of  Westminster,  and  the  embodiment,  as  well,  of  the  best  fea- 
tures of  the  administrative  measures  of  Henry  II  and  his  successors. 
While  the  main  aim  in  both  is  to  deal  with  existing  abuses  in  royal 
and  feudal  jurisdiction,  and  to  regulate  the  procedure  of  the  courts 


EDWARD   I  AND   EDWARD   n  179 

rather  than  to  formulate  new  general  principles,  the  second  statute 
contains  one  important  new  provision.  This  is  the  clause  "  concern- 
ing conditional  gifts,"  de  donis  conditionalibus .  It  established  en- 
tailed estates ;  that  is,  estates  that  should  be  handed  down  in  an  order 
of  succession  established  by  the  original  donor,  failing  which  they 
should  go  back  to  him  and  his  heirs.  The  measure  was  acceptable 
both  to  the  King  and  to  the  great  nobles ;  to  the  former  because  it 
enabled  him,  when  the  conditions  were  not  fulfilled,  to  get  back  lands 
originally  granted  by  the  Crown ;  to  the  latter  because  it  prevented 
their  estates  from  being  diminished  by  division  among  heirs  or  in 
payment  of  debt.  The  latter  point  was  all  the  more  important  be- 
cause two  years  before,  in  1283,  a  statute  had  been  passed  for  the  pro- 
tection of  merchants.1  Foreign  merchants,  from  the  fact  that  they 
had  very  little  security  for  their  persons  and  none  for  collecting  debts, 
had  grown  shy  of  doing  business  in  the  country,  and  trade  had  suffered. 
To  remedy  the  situation  the  Statute  of  Merchants  provided  that 
creditors  could  force  their  debtors  to  acknowledge  their  debts  and  have 
them  enrolled ;  and,  in  event  of  non-payment,  could  have  the  debtor's 
land  and  chattels  seized  and  imprison  their  persons  until  the  claims 
were  satisfied. 

The  Statute  of  Mortmain  or  De  Religiosis,  1279.  —  In  1279  Edward 
attempted  to  deal  with  another  grievance.  The  Church  had  been 
increasing  its  possessions  till  at  length  it  absorbed  fully  a  third  of  the 
land  of  the  kingdom.  Church  lands  were  said  to  be  held  in  "  Mort- 
main " —  as  if  by  a  dead  hand  that  never  relaxed  its  grasp  —  for 
corporations,  unlike  families,  never  died.  Nor  was  this  the  chief 
grievance ;  ecclesiastical  holdings  were  exempt  from  most  of  the 
military  obligations  and  other  services,  such  as  wardships,  marriages, 
and  reliefs.  In  consequence,  the  custom  arose  for  those  who  wished 
to  evade  those  obligations  to  grant  their  lands  to  the  Church  on  con- 
dition of  enjoying  part  of  the  income.  In  order  to  check  this  abuse 
Edward  enacted  his  famous  statute  De  Religiosis  or  Mortmain,  pro- 
hibiting such  grants  without  royal  license.  The  effect  was  regulative 
rather  than  prohibitive,  for  many  licenses  for  alienation  were  given. 

The  Statute  of  Winchester,  1285.  —  By  the  Statute  of  Winchester 
the  King  sought  to  revive  and  reorganize  the  old  institutions  of  national 
police  and  defense.  Every  district  was  to  be  responsible  for  the 
robberies,  murders,  burnings,  thefts,  and  other  crimes  committed 
within  its  borders.  In  walled  towns  the  gates  were  to  be  shut  from 
sunrise  to  sunset ;  and,  during  the  summer  months,  from  Ascension 
Day  to  Michaelmas,  the  inhabitants  were  to  set  a  watch  at  each  gate. 
Strangers  were  to  be  arrested  and  examined,  "  and  if  they  will  not 
obey  the  arrest,  they  (the  watch)  shall  levy  Hue  and  Cry  upon  them, 
and  shall  .  .  .  follow  with  Hue  and  Cry  with  all  the  Town  and  the 

1  The  Statute  of  Merchants,  sometimes  called  the  Statute  of  Acton  Burnell,  be- 
cause it  was  drawn  up  at  the  manor  house  of  Edward's  grtjat  Chancellor,  Robert 
Burnell,  near  Shrewsbury. 


i8o  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Towns  near,  and  so  Hue  and  Cry  shall  be  made  from  Town  to  Town, 
until  that  they  be  taken  and  delivered  to  the  sheriff."  It  was  further 
enacted  that  every  man,  in  proportion  to  his  lands  and  goods,  was  to 
provide  himself  with  arms  and  armor,  according  to  the  ancient  Assize 
of  Henry  II.  View  of  armor  was  to  be  made  twice  every  year,  and 
in  every  hundred  and  franchise  two  constables  were  to  be  chosen  to 
perform  this  task  and  likewise  to  report  to  the  justices  all  failures, 
in  their  districts,  to  keep  arms  and  armor,  to  punish  crime,  to  follow 
the  hue  and  cry,  as  well  as  all  illegal  harboring  of  strangers.  The 
justices  were  in  their  turn  to  report  such  information  to  the  King  at 
every  Parliament.  The  appointment  of  constables  marks  another 
stage  in  bringing  the  local  government  into  closer  connection  with 
the  central.  In  succeeding  years  "  conservators  of  the  peace  "  were 
frequently  appointed  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  Statute.  These 
officials  are  the  direct  ancestors  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  who  be- 
came such  an  important  feature  of  English  local  government  from  the 
fourteenth  century  on.  An  ordinance  concerning  London  throws 
much  light  on  conditions,  social,  industrial,  and  political.  Ap- 
parently the  city  was  becoming  very  cosmopolitan,  attracting  hosts 
of  foreign  visitors,  some  of  whom  had  nothing  to  do  but  "  run  up  and 
down  the  streets  more  by  night  than  by  day,  and  are  well  attired  in 
clothing  and  array,  and  have  their  food  of  delicate  meats  and  costly." 
Expulsion  of  the  Jews,  1290.  —  One  step  of  a  different  kind  taken 
by  Edward  during  the  years  of  his  progressive  legislation  was  his  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Jews  in  1290.  Welcomed  by  the  Conqueror  and  his 
sons  as  agents  for  extorting  money  from  their  subjects  they  were 
carefully  protected  by  Henry  II.  Although,  legally,  chattels  of  the 
Crown,  practically,  they  became  masters  of  the  resources  of  the  king- 
dom. Usury  or  the  taking  of  interest  was  forbidden  by  the  law  of 
the  Church,  and,  though  this  restriction  was  sometimes  disregarded, 
the  bulk  of  the  business  of  money  lending  fell  into  Jewish  hands. 
The  abbey  church  of  St.  Edmunds  at  Bury  was  built  from  a  Jewish 
loan,  and  Aaron,  a  rich  Jew  of  Lincoln,  whose  stone  house  remains 
as  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  the  domestic  architecture  of  the  period, 
is  said  to  have  built  the  shrine  of  St.  Albans  and  to  have  furnished 
the  funds  for  nine  Cistercian  monasteries.  The  massacres  at  the 
opening  of  Richard's  reign  indicate  the  popular  hatred  against  them, 
due  largely  to  their  exemption  from  the  laws  of  the  land  and  to  their 
extortion  for  which  they  were  not  altogether  to  blame.  Also,  they 
were  accused  of  openly  mocking  at  the  belief  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Church,  and  wild  stories  were  circulated  of  their  buying  Christian 
boys  to  crucify  them.  Although  Richard  yielded  to  popular  senti- 
ment so  far  as  to  allow  their  persecutors  to  escape  with  light  punish- 
ments, he  took  steps  to  regulate  their  loans  and  to  protect  their  bonds 
by  establishing  in  1194  a  Jewish  exchequer  with  specially  appointed 
persons  to  witness  the  one  and  to  act  as  custodians  of  the  other. 
Even  the  pious  Henry  III  made  use  of  them,  though  great  men  like 


Grosseteste  and  de  Montfort  wanted  to  see  them  banished.  The 
old  accusations  were  repeated  in  the  reign  of  Edward  with  many  more 
besides ;  they  were  charged  with  playing  into  the  hands  of  the  rich  by 
making  over  small  mortgages  to  great  landowners,  and  even  of  forgery 
and  money  clipping.  Edward  was  prejudiced  against  them,  and  his 
mother,  Eleanor  of  Provence,  and  the  clergy  were  even  more  so.  Such 
being  the  situation,  he  very  readily  agreed  to  drive  them  out  in  return 
for  a  parliamentary  grant.  By  his  bigotry  he  deprived  himself  of  use- 
ful servants  and  no  doubt  seriously  retarded  the  financial  development 
of  the  country.  It  was  centuries  before  the  Jews  were  allowed  to 
return. 

The  Statute  of  Westminster  III.  Quia  Emptores,  1290.  —  The 
same  year,  1290,  is  notable  for  the  passing  of  the  last  of  the  great 
statutes  of  the  reign,  Westminster  III.  It  is  otherwise  known  as 
Quia  Emptores,  from  the  opening  words :  "  For  as  much  as  purchasers 
of  land."  It  aimed  to  prevent  the  process  of  increasing  subinfeuda- 
tion,  whereby  services  due  to  great  landowners  were  becoming  so 
subdivided  and  confused  that  it  was  difficult  to  keep  track  of  them. 
According  to  this  enactment,  lands  granted  by  a  tenant  ceased  to  be 
under  his  control,  but  passed  to  that  of  his  lord.  In  other  words, 
the  grantee  was  not  the  vassal  of  the  grantor,  but.  of  the  grantor's 
lord.  As  the  Statute  expressly  authorized  the  sale  or  alienation  of 
lands  under  such  conditions,  many  landowners,  from  financial  neces- 
sity, took  advantage  of  the  authorization,  in  spite  of  the  restriction. 
Since  the  King  was  in  many  cases  the  overlord  of  such  landowners, 
the  number  of  small  freeholders  directly  dependent  on  the  Crown  was 
greatly  increased. 

Edward  as  a  Ruler.  Significance  of  his  Reign.  —  Edward  I  was  a 
masterful  man  who  sought  to  be  every  inch  a  King,  but  he  had  the 
good  of  his  subjects  at  heart  and  spent  his  life  in  their  service.  While 
claiming  all  that  was  due  him,  he  was  wise  enough  to  recognize  the 
limitations  put  upon  the  royal  authority  in  the  struggles  of  the  cen- 
tury by  accepting  the  two  great  principles,  that  Parliament  should 
represent  all  classes,  and  that  it  should  have  a  voice  in  granting  all 
revenues  over  and  above  these  belonging  to  the  King  by  law  and 
ancient  usage.  Only  twice  in  English  history,  during  the  separation 
from  the  Church  of  Rome  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  during  the  epoch 
of  reform  in  the  nineteenth,  have  there  been  periods  of  more  significant 
legislative  activity  than  that  of  Edward  I.  When  his  other  work  is 
taken  into  account,  his  conquest  of  Wales,  his  Model  Parliament,  his 
Confirmation  of  the  Charters,  and  his  judicial  and  administrative 
reforms,  it  is  evident  that  his  reign  of  thirty-five  years  is  one  of  the 
most  notable  in  the  annals  of  the  country. 

Edward  II,  1307-1327.  Early  Training  and  Character.  —  Edward 
of  Carnarvon,  the  unworthy  son  of  a  worthy  father,  succeeded  to  the 
throne  at  the  age  of  twenty-three.  He  had  been  carefully  trained  in 
the  business  of  war  and  state.  During  the  critical  year  1297  he  had 


i82  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

acted  as  Regent.  Created  Prince  of  Wales  in  1301,  he  attended  his 
father  in  his  later  Scotch  campaigns.  The  "  frivolity  and  extrava- 
gance "  of  his  after  years  was  manifest  thus  early.  He  took  a  lion 
and  Genoese  fiddlers  on  his  journeys,  and  Piers  Gaveston,  his  earliest 
and  most  worthless  favorite,  had  already  begun  to  exercise  a  baneful 
influence  on  him.  The  chroniclers  have  left  graphic  descriptions  of 
the  new  King's  appearance  and  character.  Tall,  handsome,  and  of 
uncommon  bodily  strength,  he  had  no  liking  for  tournaments,  and 
was  a  coward  in  battle,  and  in  spite  of  his  father's  training  had  no 
inclination  or  aptitude  for  business.  Though  he  loved  pomp  and 
ceremony  and  fine  clothes,  his  natural  tastes  were  low.  He  sought 
the  society  of  grooms  and  watermen,  he  drank  deeply,  and  was  so 
ignorant  that  he  had  to  take  his  coronation  oath  in  French  instead  of 
Latin.  Although  a  good  musician,  his  main  occupations  were  racing, 
breeding  dogs  and  horses,  and  manual  labor  such  as  smith's  work, 
digging  trenches,  and  thatching  roofs.  Weak  and  good  natured,  a 
"  chatterer  "  with  no  dignity  or  self-restraint,  he  was  easily  swayed 
by  unscrupulous  men  who  cultivated  him  for  their  own  ends.  He 
neglected  his  wife  Isabella  —  at  one  time  even  reducing  her  to  twenty 
shillings  a  day  —  so  that  she  became  bitterly  estranged  from  him  and 
was  finally  the  instrument  of  his  downfall. 

Edward  began  his  reign  by  recalling  Piers  Gaveston,  whom  his 
father  had  recently  banished,  thus  choosing  the  worst  when  he  needed 
the  best.  Gaveston,  who  had  been  brought  up  as  the  Prince's  foster 
brother,  was  a  presumptuous  adventurer.  Attractive,  brave,  and 
accomplished,  he  was  also  intentionally  mischievous,  he  was  greedy 
for  money  and  power,  and  the  royal  attentions  turned  his  head.  He 
did  incalculable  harm  at  the  outset  in  estranging  the  great  lords  by 
his  levity  and  mockery  and  by  the  insulting  names  he  showered  upon 
them.  The  politics  of  this  reign  are  on  a  distinctly  lower  level  than 
those  of  the  last.  The  King  was  opposed  not  as  a  strong  man  seeking 
to  solve  national  problems  in  his  own  way,  but  because  he  was  childish, 
extravagant,  frivolous,  and  incapable.  He  complained  once  that  he 
was  treated  as  an  idiot,  and  so  he  was  and  with  justice.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  men  who  led  the  fight  against  him  were  even  less  patriotic 
and  large  minded  than  those  of  the  preceding  generation  in  seeking 
to  advance  personal  and  class  privileges  and  powers. 

Edward  comes  into  Conflict  with  his  Barons  (1308)  and  his  Parlia- 
ment. : —  Edward's  coronation  oath  contained  an  important  innova- 
tion. \In  addition  to  the  customary  promises  he  pledged  himself  to 
hold  and  keep  the  laws  and  righteous  customs  chosen  by  the  com-  ' 
munity  of  the  realm/)  This  is  all  the  more  significant  because  of  the 
complete  representation  accorded  in  1295.  Nevertheless,  he  began 
at  once  to  make  himself  unpopular.  He  made  peace  with  the  Scots, 
he  dismissed  ministers,  he  loaded  Gaveston  with  favors,  and  even 
appointed  him  Regent  while  he  went  to  France  for  his  bride.  The 
Great  Council  which  met  in  April,  1308,  raised  an  outcry  and  declared 


EDWARD   I  AND   EDWARD   II  183 

significantly  that  homage  was  due  to  the  Crown  rather  than  to  the 
King  in  person.  Edward  was  forced  to  banish  his  favorite,  though  he 
had  him  back  again  in  little  more  than  a  year.  In  April,  1309,  aparlia- 
ment  of  all  the  estates  assembled.  They  accompanied  apromise 
of  a  money  grant  with  a  petition  enumerating  a  list  of  grievances 

.which  indicate  that  the  complaints  were  confined  to  no  one  class." 
They  included  oppressive  requisitions  of  corn,  malt,  meat,  poultry, 
and  fish  from  subjects,  heavy  customs  on  the  wine,  cloth,  and  other 
merchandise  of  .foreign  merchants,  exactions  at  fairs,  and  faulty  ad- 
ministration of  justice.  Edward  returned  a  favorable  answer,  but 
the  return  of  Gaveston,  more  arrogant  than  ever,  led  to  a  crisis. 

The  Lords  Ordainers  and  the  Ordinances  of  1311. — In  March,  1310, 
the  barons,  in  the  teeth  of  the  royal  prohibition,  assembled  fully 
armed,  and  forced  the  King  to  assent  to  the  appointment  of  a  body  of 
twenty-one  commissioners  to  reform  the  administration.  These 
Lords  Ordainers,  as  they  were  called,  remind  one  of  the  baronial 
committee  of  1258.  (jThe  same  conditions  are  again  present,  a  weak 
King,  a  foreign  favorite,  and  incompetent  administration.^  The  y.  j 
Ordainers  drew  up  a  body  of  "  Ordinances  "  which  aimed  not  only 
to  reform  the  whole  system  of  finance  and  administration  of  justice, 
but  to  deprive  the  King  of  all  independent  power.  He  was  to  make 
no  gifts,  fill  no  great  offices  of  state,  nor  go  to  war  or  quit  the  realm 
without  the  consent  of  his  barons.  The  progress  in  representation 
made  under  Montfort  and  Edward  was  disregarded.  Parliament 
was  to  meet  once  or  twice  a  year  and  to  witness  important  acts,  but 
the  real  power  was  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  a  narrow  oligarchy. 
Bitterest  for  Edward,  the  banishment  of  Gaveston  was  again  insisted 
on.  To  avoid  this  he  put  off  ratifying  the  Ordinances  till  October, 
1311,  and  then  broke  his  pledge. 

Thomas  of  Lancaster  and  the  Baronial  Rising,  1312.  —  Thereupon, 
the  barons,  led  by  Thomas  of  Lancaster,  took  up  arms.  Thomas 
(1277-1322)  was  the  cousin  of  the  King.  By  virtue  of  his  high  con- 
nections, his  offices,  and  his  vast  estates  he  was  the  most  powerful  man 
in  the  kingdom.  Naturally  ambitious  and  self-seeking,  he  was  glad 

1  to  accept  the  position  of  leadeTagairist  the  Crown ;  but  in  addition  he 
had  personal  affronts  from  Piers  Gaveston  to  avenge.  He  was  coarse 
and  violent  and  showed  a  total  inability  to  use  for  any  good  or  lofty 
purpose  the  powers  which  circumstances  thrust  upon  him.  Edward 
made  vain  efforts  to  save  his  favorite,  even  offering  to  recognize 
Robert  Bruce  as  independent  King  of  Scotland  and  to  cede  Gascony 
to  Philip  the  Fair.  Gaveston  was  captured  by  the  baronial  forces 
and  after  a  trial  that  was  no  more  than  a  farce  was  beheaded  19  May, 
1312. 

The  Scotch  Victory  at  Bannockburn,  1314.  —  Edward  failed  to 
profit  by  the  lesson.  He  did  patch  up  a  peace  with  his  opponents, 
but  he  failed  to  recover  their  confidence  or  to  attach  them  to  his 
service.  In  consequence  of  their  aloofness  the  Scotch  were  able  to 


184  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

inflict  on  the  English  the  most  disastrous  defeat  in  the  centuries  of 
conflict  between  the  two  countries.  Robert  Bruce  uttered  no  vain 
boast  when  he  said  that  he  was  more  afraid  of  the  bones  of  Edward  I 
than  of  his  living  son.  After  the  old  King's  death  his  successes  were 
almost  uninterrupted  until  Stirling  Castle  was  the  only  stronghold 
of  importance  remaining  in  English  hands,  and  that  was  hard  pressed 
by  the  Scotch  King's  brother,  Edward  Bruce.  In  the  early  summer  of 
1314  Edward  II  marched  to  relieve  it.  The  hostile  barons  refused 
to  follow  in  person  and  only  grudgingly  sent  their  legal  contingents. 
Nevertheless,  the  English  army  was  the  greatest  ever  yet  sent  to 
invade  the  north  and  outnumbered  the  Scotch  more  than  two  to  one. 
The  chroniclers  state  that  it  numbered  100,000 l  and  that  the  war 
carriages,  if  put  one  before  the  other,  would  have  extended  twenty 
leagues.  Bruce  drew  up  his  forces  in  the  royal  park  between  Bannock- 
burn  and  Stirling  Castle.  Edward,  overconfident,  allowed  his 
troops  to  pass  the  night  before  the  conflict  in  noisy  revelry,  while  the 
Scots  spent  the  time  in  stillness  and  devotion.  The  engagement  was 
fought  24  June,  1314.  It  ended  in  a  complete  rout.  The  English 
King  fled  to  Dunbar,  whence  he  took  to  the  sea  and  never  stopped  until 
he  reached  his  own  kingdom.  The  disaster  at  Bannockburn  con- 
tributed greatly  to  his  inevitable  downfall.  During  the  remainder 
of  the  reign  the  northern  border  suffered  one  inroad  after  another. 
30  March,  1323,  after  two  more  ineffectual  campaigns,  Edward  con- 
cluded a  truce  for  thirteenyears,  though  he  still  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge Bruce  as  King  of  the^Scots.  This  truce  was  still  in  force  at  the 
close  of  the  reign. 

Temporary  Triumph  of  the  Lancastrians.  Rise  of  the  Despensers. 
—  Thomas  of  Lancaster  took  advantage  of  the  King's  humiliation  to 
make  himself  supreme.  He  was  appointed  commander-in-chief 
against  the  Scots,  he  was  named  chief  of  the  Council,  he  filled  the 
offices  of  State  with  his  nominees,  and  reduced  his  royal  master  to  an 
allowance  of  £10  a  day.  Yet  he  was  either  incapable  or  unwilling 
to  do  anything  for  the  defense  of  the  country.  He  would  not  lead 
an  army  to  the  Border,  he  would  not  even  attend  Parliament.  Finally 
he  retired,  and  a  permanent  council  was  set  up  which  practically  put 
the  royal  power  in  commission  .TEd  ward  found  new  favorites  in  the 
two  Despensers,  father  and  son?;  The  elder,  although  his  father  had 
died  for  the  baronial  cause  at  Evesham,  had  been  a  faithful  servant 
of  the  old  King  Edward  and  had  continued  his  allegiance  to  his  successor. 
About  1318  the  young  Despenser  also  joined  the  court  party.  Al- 
though "  neither  foreigners  nor  upstarts,"  they  were  regarded  with 
envy  by  the  barons  because  of  their  greed  and  ambition. 

Rising  against  the  Despensers.  Defeat  and  Death  of  Thomas  of 
Lancaster.  —  Thomas  started  the  cry  against  them  with  an  accusation 
that  they  had  received  gifts  contrary  to  the  Ordinances  of  1311.  The 

1  Probably  30,000  would  be  an  extreme  figure. 


EDWARD   I    AND    EDWARD   II  185 

Marcher  Earls  who  feared  that  the  younger  Despenser  would  extend 
his  power  on  the  Welsh  border,  where  he  claimed  the  lands  of  the  Earl- 
dom of  Gloucester,  were  the  first  to  take  up  arms.  The  King  sought 
vainly  to  avert  hostilities,  whereupon  in  a  Parliament,  held  in  1321, 
formal  charges  were  brought  against  both  father  and  son,  who  were 
condemned  to  forfeiture  and  exile  for  usurping  royal  powers  and  at- 
tempting to  estrange  the  King  from  his  people,  for  inciting  civil  war, 
and  perverting  justice.  Edward,  in  a  unique  flash  of  energy,  raised 
an  army  in  behalf  of  his  favorites.  Thomas,  who  had  prepared  some- 
what tardily  to  assist  the  Marcher  Lords,  was  defeated  and  captured 
by  the  royal  army  at  Boroughbridge,  16  March,  1322.  Tried  and 
sentenced  in  his  own  castle  of  Pomfret,  he  was  beheaded  six  days  later 
as  a  rebel  taken  in  arms  against  the  sovereign.  Although  of  a  piece 
with  his  own  treatment  of  Gaveston,  Thomas  of  Lancaster's  bloody 
end  in  a  struggle  against  royal  extravagance,  favoritism,  and  mis- 
government  gave  him  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  which  neither 
his  merits  nor  his  achievements  deserved.  He  became  a  popular 
idol,  miraculous  cures  were  said  to  be  performed  at  the  place  of  his 
execution,  his  effigy  was  set  up  in  St.  Paul's,  London,  and  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III  it  was  even  proposed  to  make  him  a  saint.1  Many 
others  of  the  baronial  captives  were  either  imprisoned  or  put  to  death. 

Four  Years  of  Misrule,  1322-1326.  —  Edward's  victory  marked 
an  interesting  attempt  to  restore  the  league  between  the  King  and  the 
commons  which  had  prevailed  up  to  the  time  of  John  and  to 
recognize  as  its  mouthpiece  that  body  which  the  struggles  of  the 
thirteenth  century  had  created.  In  a  Parliament  of  1322  the  Or- 
dinances, a  purely  baronial  production,  were  revoked  and  the  im- 
portant principle  enunciated  that,  "  matters  which  are  to  be  estab- 
lished for  the  estate  of  our  Lord  the  King  and  his  heirs,  and  for  the 
estate  of  the  realm  and  the  people,  shall  be  treated,  accorded  and 
established  in  Parliament  by  the  King  and  by  the  Council  of  the  prel- 
ates, earls  and  barons,  and  the  commonality  of  the  realm."  Yet 
Edward  proved  too  flighty  and  incapable  of  winning  the  people  any 
more  than  the  barons.  For  four  years,  from  1322  to  1326,  he  ruled 
completely  subject  to  the  Despensers,  whose  chief  aim  was  to  fill 
their  own  pockets  and  increase  their  own  power.  Disorder,  failure, 
treachery  were  the  result :  "  the  military  summonses  were  not  obeyed, 
the  taxes  were  not  collected,  the  country  was  overrun  by  bands  of 
lawless  men,  the  law  was  unexecuted."  To  cap  all,  the  Despensers 
affronted  Queen  Isabella.  A  woman  of  violent  passions,  lacking 
in  morality  and  scruples,  and  embittered  by  humiliation  and  neglect, 
she  eagerly  seized  an  opportunity  which  presented  itself  to  overthrow 
the  hated  counselors,  and,  as  it  turned  out,  her  husband  as  well. 

Overthrow  and  Imprisonment  of  the  King,  1326.  —  On  the  death 
of  Philip  V  of  France,  Edward  was  summoned  to  do  homage  for  Gas- 

1  His  reputation  was  further  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  the  House  of  Lancaster 
later  secured  the  throne. 


i86  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

cony  and  Ponthieu  to  his  successor.  The  Despensers  feared  to  let 
the  King  out  of  their  sight,  and  Isabella  got  permission,  in  1325,  to  go 
in  his  stead.  Aided  by  Roger  Mortimer,  one  of  the  Marcher  Lords 
who  had  been  imprisoned  in  1322  and  who  had  since  escaped  from  the 
Tower,  she  gathered  about  her  a  disaffected  party  and  planned  an 
invasion  of  England.  The  figurehead  was  the  King's  eldest  son  and 
heir,  Prince  Edward,  a  boy  of  thirteen,  who  was  abroad  with  his 
mother.  When  King  Edward  heard  of  the  plot  that  was  being  hatched 
against  him,  he  threatened  his  wife  and  son  with  outlawry  and  made 
belated  and  futile  attempts  to  defend  his  realm.  Isabella  landed  in 
Suffolk,  24  September,  declaring  herself  the  avenger  of  Earl  Thomas 
and  the  enemy  of  the  Despensers.  Deserted  by  all  save  a  scanty 
following,  the  King  fled  first  to  the  west,  thence  into  Wales.  Here 
after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  escape  to  Ireland,  he  took  refuge  in 
Neath  Abbey  and  offered  to  treat  with  his  wife.  Isabella,  however, 
marched  against  the  elder  Despenser,  whom  she  took  prisoner,  tried, 
and  hanged  as  a  traitor  on  the  common  gallows  outside  the  town  of 
Bristol.  His  head  was  sent  to  Winchester.  On  the  same  day,  26 
October,  1326,  Prince  Edward  was  proclaimed  guardian  of  the  realm 
which  his  father  had  deserted.  16  November  the  King  and  the 
young  Despenser  were  captured  by  the  Queen's  forces.  The  latter 
was  executed  a  few  days  later ;  but  a  longer  period  of  debasement  and 
suffering  was  in  store  for  his  royal  master. 

Deposition  and  Death,  1327.  —  Parliament  assembled  January, 
1327.  In  a  tumultuous  meeting  the  young  Edward  was  chosen  King. 
Then  six  articles  were  framed  to  justify  the  deposition  of  his  father. 
They  declared :  "  That  he  was  incompetent  to  govern,  that  he  had 
rejected  good  counsel  and  neglected  the  business  of  the  kingdom  for 
unbecoming  occupations,  that  he  had  lost  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Gas- 
cony,  that  he  had  injured  the  Church  and  imprisoned  her  ministers, 
and  also  had  imprisoned,  exiled,  and  put  to  death  many  of  the  noble 
men  of  the  land,  that  he  had  broken  his  coronation  oath,  especially 
in  the  matter  of  doing  justice  to  all,  that  he  had  ruined  the  realm,  and 
there  was  no  hope  of  his  correction."  The  reply  of  the  captive  King 
was  pitiful :  "  He  wept  and  said  it  grieved  him  much  that  he  deserved 
so  little  of  his  people,  and  he  begged  pardon  of  all  who  were  present, 
but  since  it  could  not  be  otherwise  he  thanked  them  for  electing  his 
eldest  son."  His  consent  having  been  extorted,  homage  and  fealty 
were  solemnly  renounced,  and  the  Steward  of  the  Household  broke 
his  staff  of  office  in  token  that  his  royal  master  had  ceased  to  reign. 
The  furious  Queen  pursued  him  with  unrelenting  ferocity.  He  was 
taken  from  one  prison  to  another,  denied  sufficient  food  and  cloth- 
ing, prevented  from  sleeping,  crowned  with  a  crown  of  hay,  and 
showered  by  the  roadside  with  ditch  water.  Finally  at  Berkeley 
Castle,  after  he  survived  confinement  in  the  charnel  house  used  as  a 
pest  chamber,  he  was  murdered  21  September,  1327.  Yet  he  was 
buried  with  great  pomp.  The  Welsh  celebrated  his  end  with  mourn- 


EDWARD   I   AND   EDWARD   II  187 

ful  dirges.  Later  legends  had  it  that  he  escaped  his  enemies,  and 
after  weary  wanderings  finally  passed  away  in  a  hermit's  cell  in 
Lombardy. 

Significance  of  his  Deposition.  —  The  folly  of  Edward  Carnarvon 
brought  upon  him  a  terrible  and  overheavy  retribution.  The  in- 
struments of  his  downfall  were  most  unworthy.  Isabella  had  sought 
to  right  her  deep  wrongs  by  still  deeper  sins.  Her  chief  counselors 
and  followers  were  impelled  by  personal  rather  than  patriotic  motives. 
Yet  one  step  in  their  procedure  was  fraught  with  significance.  ^They 
took  a  long  stride  in  the  direction  of  popular  liberty  when  they  called 
upon  parliament,  as  the  voice  of  the  people,  to  declare  the  great 
principle  that  allegiance  might  be  renounced  to  a  King  who  had  ceased 
to  govern  in  the  interest  of  his  subjects^ 


Narrative.  Ramsay,  The  Dawn  of  the  Constitution,  chs.  XVIII-XXXIII.  The 
Genesis  of  Lancaster  (1913),  I,  chs.  I-X.  Tout,  Political  History,  chs.  VII-XIV. 
K.  H.  Vickers,  England  in  the  Later  Middle  Ages  (1913),  chs.  I- VIII;  bibliography, 
pp.  509-517.  E.  Jenks,  Edward  Plantagenet  (1902) ;  chs.  IX  and  XIII  are  particu- 
larly good  for  the  legislation  of  Edward  I. 

Constitutional.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  I,  bk.  II,  ch.  IV,  sees.  8-10.  Taswell- 
Langmead,  ch.  VIII.  Stubbs,  Constitutional  History,  II,  ch.  XV.  Maitland,  Con- 
stitutional History  of  England  (i  908)  gives,  pp.  i-i  64,  an  excellent  account  of  the  public 
law  in  the  time  of  Edward  I.  Medley,  Manual  contains  a  good  summary  of  the 
origin  and  development  of  Parliament,  ch.  III.  C.  S.  Mcllwain,  The  High  Court  of 
Parliament  and  its  Supremacy  (1910)  contains  an  able  discussion  of  the  boundaries 
between  legislative  and  judicial  powers.  L.  O.  Pike,  The  Constitutional  History  of 
the  House  of  Lords  (1894) ;  the  standard  work  on  the  subject.  For  a  full  account  of 
the  origin  and  development  of  the  law  courts  see  W.  S.  Holdsworth,  History  of 
English  Law  (1903),  I. 

Selections  from  the  sources.   Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  37-55. 

Scotland.  P.  H.  Brown,  History  of  Scotland,  3  vols.  (1899-1909) ;  the  best  brief 
history,  I,  bk.  Ill,  chs.  I-IV. 


i88 


A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 


THE  LATER  ANGEVINS,  OR  THE  PLANTAGENETS,   1272-1399 


Henry  III,  1216-1272 
I 


EDWARD  I  =  (i)  Eleanor  of 
1272-1307  Castile; 

(2)  Margaret 
of  France 


Margaret, 

m.  Alexander  III 

of  Scotland 


Edmund, 

Earl  of 

Lancaster 


(i)  EDWARD  11= Isabella  of 
.       1307-1327         France 


EDWARD  III=Philippa  of 
1327-1377         Hainault 


(2)  Edmund, 
Earl  of  Kent, 
executed  1330 


Joan,  m. 

(1)  Sir  T.  Holland ; 

(2)  The  Black  Prince 


Thomas, 

Earl  of 

Lancaster, 

d. 1322 


Henry, 

Earl  of 

Lancaster, 

d.  I34S 


Henry, 

Duke  of 

Lancaster, 

d.  1362 


I 
Blanche = John  of  Gaunt 


Ed  ward = Joan  of 


Black 
Prince, 
d.  1376 


Kent 


Lionel, 
Duke  of 
Clarence 


RICHARD  II, 
1377-1390 


John  of  =  Blanche, 
Gaunt,  heiress  of 
d.  1399  Lancaster 


Edmund, 

Duke  of 

York 


1 

Thomas, 

Duke  of 

Gloucester, 

d.  1397 


Philippa  =  Edmund  Mortimer, 
d.  1380 


Roger,  Earl  of  March,  declared 
heir  of  Richard  II,  in  1385 ; 
killed  in  Ireland,  1398 


Henry  IV, 
1399-1413 


THE  KINGS  OF  SCOTLAND,  1163-1390 

Henry,  Earl  of  Huntingdon, 
son  of  David  I 


WILLIAM  THE  LION,  1165-1214 


David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon 


ALEXANDER  II,  1214-1249 

I 
ALEXANDER  III,  1249-1286 


Margaret=Eric,  King  of 
Norway 


Margaret,  Maid  of 
Norway,  1286-1290 


I 
Margaret 

Devorguilla=John  Balliol 


DAVID  BRUCE,  m.  Joan, 

sister  of  Edward  II, 

1329-137° 


Margaret  =  Walter  the  Steward 
or  Stuart,  ancestor 
of  the  Stuart  line 

ROBERT  II,  1370-1390 


1  Claimants  in  1292. 


Isabe! 


Ha 

Robert  Bruce,* 
d.  1295 


Margaret 

JOHN  BALLIOL,1 

Robert, 

1292-1296 

d.  1305 

John  Comyn, 

Edward  Balliol 

ROBERT  I, 

murdered 

1306-1329 

CHAPTER  XII 

THE  REIGN  OF  EDWARD  III  (1327-1377).  THE  BEGINNING  OF 
THE  HUNDRED  YEARS'  WAR.  CHIVALRY  AT  ITS  HEIGHT. 
THE  GROWING  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  COMMONS.  THE  IN- 
CREASE OF  NATIONAL  SENTIMENT.  FIRST  ATTACKS  ON 
THE  POWER  OF  ROME 

The  Misgovernment  of  Isabella  and  Mortimer.  —  The  boy  Edward 
had  only  reached  his  fifteenth  year  when  he  was  put  in  bis  father's 
place.  Parliament,  therefore,  appointed  a  Council  to  carry  on  the 
government  during  the  minority.  The  royal  guardian  and  nominal 
head  of  the  Council  was  Henry  of  Lancaster,  brother  of  Thomas,  but 
the  real  power  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Queen  Mother  and  Mortimer. 
They  appropriated  two  thirds  of  the  royal  revenue,  and  were  so  high- 
handed that  "  no  one  dared  to  open  his  mouth  for  the  good  of  the 
King  or  of  the  Kingdom."  To  be  sure  the  new  Government  made  many 
fair  promises  in  answer  to  a  petition  from  the  Commons ;  but  it 
proved  incompetent  as  well  as  corrupt  and  overbearing.  An  expedi- 
tion was  sent  against  the  Scots,  who  had  broken  the  truce  of  1323  by 
a  raid  into  England,  but  the  invaders  managed  to  elude  their  pursuers. 
The  consequence  was  the  'l^Shameful  Peace,"  in  1328^  by  which 
Edward,  in  return  for  a  moneypayment,  formally  renounced  his  claims 
of  overlordship.  Though  the  Lancastrian  lords,  anxious  to  protect 
their  northern  estates,  may  have  had  a  hand  in  it,  it  was  ascribed 
to  Isabella  and  Mortimer,  who  were  accused  of  pocketing  the  proceeds. 
Mortimer's  arrogance  grew  to  exceed  all  bounds,  so  that  his  own  son 
called  him  the  "  King  of  Folly."  He  boasted  of  a  retinue  of  180 
knights,  not  to  speak  of  esquires  and  other  followers.  He  sought  to 
overawe  Parliament  by  main  force,  and  when  the  nobles  banded  against 
him,  he  tempted  Edmund,  Earl  of  Kent,  uncle  of  the  King,  into  treason 
by  a  false  report  that  Edward  II  still  lived,  and  then  had  him  executed 
without  trial,  19  March,  1330. 

Their  Overthrow  by  Edward  III,  1330.  —  King  Edward,  who  had 
married  Philippa  of  Hainault,  became,  in  June,  1330,  father  of  a  son, 
later  famous  as  the  "  Black  Prince."  His  new  sense  of  responsi- 
bility, together  with  the  treacherous  murder  of  his  uncle,  determined 
him  to  assert  his  royal  rights,  and  to  put  an  end  to  the  intolerable 
rule  of  his  mother  and  Mortimer.  With  a  trusty  follower  and  a  body 
of  men  at  arms  he  seized  the  guilty  pair  in  Nottingham  Castle,  where 
they  had  taken  refuge,  and  issued  a  proclamation  that  henceforth  he 

189 


i9o  A   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

would  govern  himself.  Heavy  charges  were  framed  in  Parliament 
against  Mortimer ;  he  was  condemned  without  a  hearing,  and  hanged 
29  November.  Isabella  was  given  a  pension.  She  lived  in  honorable 
retirement  till  her  death  in  1358,  assuming  a  nun's  habit  in  her  later 
years. 

Character  of  the  New  King.  —  At  the  age  of  eighteen  Edward  was 
now  truly  King.  During  the  greater  part  of  a  long  and  eventful  reign 
he  shone  as  the  typical  hero  of  chivalry.  His  figure  was  striking  and 
graceful,  his  face  was  described  "  as  the  face  of  a  god."  Very  brilliant 
he  must  have  been  on  state  occasions  in  his  robe  of  crimson  velvet 
worked  with  leopards  of  gold.  Generous  to  a  fault,  with  a  bearing 
at  once  courtly  and  winning,  he  gained  the  name  of  "  Edwardus 
Gratiosus."  Devoted  to  hunting  and  hawking,  he  likewise  excelled 
in  "  beautiful  feats  of  arms,"  whether  in  the  tournament  or  in  serious 
war.  Yet  there  is  another  side.  Asa  ruler  and  general  he  was  showy 
rather  than  solid.  He  was  ambitious,  prodigal,  and  ostentatious, 
having  no  interest  in  his  people  except  in  so  far  as  they  contributed 
resources  for  his  pleasures  and  his  warlike  designs.  Hence,  while  he 
dazzled  them  for  a  time  by  the  glories  he  achieved,  he  failed  in  the 
long  run  to  win  their  hearts.  The  reverses  of  his  later  years  left  him 
a  broken  and  deserted  man.  He  ruled  without  a  settled  policy.  The 
measures  of  his  reign,  so  notable  in  political  and  commercial  progress, 
were  due,  not  to  enlightened  statesmanship,  but  were  forced  upon 
him  by  his  financial  necessities.  He  spent  most  of  his  life  fighting, 
now  with  France,  now  with  Scotland.  In  neither  case  was  he  the 
original  aggressor ;  but  not  content  with  asserting  his  just  rights  and 
vindicating  his  honor,  he  sought  to  extend  his  sway  over  two  peoples 
who  would  not  submit  to  the  rule  of  any  but  their  own  kings.  While 
he  made  himself  "  King  of  the  Sea"  and  brought  England  into  promi- 
nence that  she  had  never  before  enjoyed,  the  price  paid  was  a  heavy 
one,  and  the  ultimate  result  was  failure.  Other  aspects  of  his  reign 
less  dramatic  were  more  enduring.  Parliament  shaped  itself  into 
the  modern  House  of  Lords  and  House  of  Commons,  and  the  lower 
House  began  to  assert  rights  which  point  the  way  to  its  later  position 
as  mouthpiece  of  the  nation.  Commerce  advanced  with  tremendous 
strides,  though  Edward  Ill's  title  of  "  Father  of  English  Commerce  " 
is  hardly  deserved.  Feudalism  and  chivalry  yielded  to  the  rising 
importance  of  the  middle  class.  A  new  literature  in  the  national 
tongue  made  its  appearance.  Significant  religious  changes  mani- 
fested themselves,  forerunners  of  a  movement  which  was,  in  less 
than  two  centuries,  to  overthrow  the  universal  supremacy  of  the 
Church  of  Rome.  Finally,  labor  and  capital  began  a  conflict  which 
has  continued  with  varying  intensity  even  to  this  day. 

Disputed  Succession  in  Scotland.     Halidon  Hill,  19  July,  1333.  - 
In  April,  1328,  Robert  Bruce  died  of  leprosy,  leaving  a  seven-year-old 
son  David  as  his  heir.     This  enabled  Edward  Balliol  to  set  himself 
up  as  King.     Ed.ward  III  sent  an  expedition  across  the  Border  to 


THE   REIGN   OF   EDWARD   III  191 

support  him  and  on  the  igth  of  July,  1333,  the  Scotch  patriotic 
party,  riddled  by  English  arrows  which  flew  "  as  thick  as  motes  in  the 
sunshine,"  were  disastrously  defeated  at  Halidon  Hill.  They  were 
forced  to  send  David  Bruce  to  France,  but  they  doggedly  resisted 
Balliol's  attempts  to  subdue  them.  (Philip  VI  of  France  determined 
in  1336  to  aid  his  Scotch  allies,  and  England  embarked  in  a  war  which 
lasted  well  into  the  next  century.^ 

Significance  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.  —  "  The  Hundred  Years' 
War,"  as  it  is  called,  profoundly  affected  many  aspects  of  English 
history,  (in  the  first  place,  it  was  largely  responsible  for  the  downfall 
of  chivalry)  The  two  greatest  battles  of  the  war  were  won  by  the 
yeoman  archer  against  the  mailed  knight  whose  prestige  had  been 
due  mainly  to  his  unquestioned  superiority  in  arms.  Also  the  poverty 
and  discontent  resulting  from  the  constant  strain  on  the  country's 
resources  was  the  chief  cause  of  that  revolt  of  labor  against  capital 
which  Edward's  grandson  had  to  face.  Its  political  consequences 
were  equally  momentous.  It  forced  from  the  King  many  notable 
concessions,  while  the  restless,  turbulent  spirit  wrhich  it  fostered  con- 
tributed to  the  movement  that  set  aside  the  Plantagenet  for  the 
Lancastrian  House,  and  resulted  in  the  long  dynastic  struggle  of  the 
fifteenth  century  known  as  the  "  Wars  of  the  Roses."  In  addition 
to  its  social  and  political  consequences  the  Hundred  Years'  War 
strongly  influenced  the  religious  history  of  the  period ;  for  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  Papacy,  with  all  that  it  involved,  was  colored  by  hostility 
to  France.  From  1305  to  1378  the  Roman  pontiffs  were  settled  at 
Avignon  under  the  control  of  French  kings,  and  consequently  were 
regarded  as  opposed  to  English  interests.  Finally,  the  war  developed 
a  spirit  of  nationality  in  the  two  countries  such  as  had  never  before 
existed.  England  as  purely  English  and  France  as  purely  French  are 
largely  a  creation  of  this  struggle.  In  the  first  year  of  the  war, 
7  October,  1337,  Edward  assumed  the  title  of  King  of  France.  Al- 
though this  was  a  mere  pretext,  although  other  and  more  complex 
causes  made  the  conflict  inevitable,  it  is  necessary  to  understand  the 
grounds  on  which  he  based  his  claims. 

Edward's  Claim  to  the  Throne  of  France.  Hundred  Years' 
War.  —  With  the  death  of  Charles  IV  in  1328  the  direct  line 
of  the  House  of  Capet  which  had  ruled  France  for  more  than 
three  centuries  came  to  an  end.  It  was  maintained  in  behalf 
of  Edward  that  his  mother,  sister  of  the  late  King,  was  the 
next  lineal  heir.  The  peers  of  France  decided  in  favor  of  Philip, 
son  of  Charles  of  Valois,  uncle  of  Charles  IV.  The  lawyers  later 
justified  this  decision  on  the  ground  that  by  the  law  of  the  Salian 
Franks,  one  of  the  ancestral  tribes  of  the  modern  Frenchmen,  wornen 
could  neither  inherit  estates  nor  transmit  them  to  a  son.  After  some 
negotiations,  Edward  accepted  the  situation  and  did  homage  to  the 
new  monarch,  Philip  VI,  for  his  possessions  in  France.  Philip, 
however,  burning  to  extend  his  sway  over  Guyenne,  irritated  him  by 


i92  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

constant  encroachments.  Then  came  Philip's  espousal  of  the  cause 
of  the  Scots.  While  these  were  the  two  main  causes  which  led  to 
Edward's  resumption  of  his  pretensions  to  the  French  succession  and 
his  subsequent  invasions,  other  reasons  contributed  to  urge  him  on. 
Robert  of  Artois,  brother-in-law  of  Philip,  had  been  excluded  from 
the  succession  to  the  county  of  Artois  which  he  claimed  as  his  heritage. 
Forced  to  flee,  he  took  refuge  at  the  English  court  about  1335,  and 
spent  his  time  egging  Edward  on  against  his  enemy.  Another  cause 
was  the  English  King's  desire  to  get  a  foothold  in  the  county  of 
Flanders.  The  Flemings  were  the  great  cloth  makers  of  tfcfe  period, 
and  they  had  recently  revolted  against  their  overlord,  Qount  Louis, 
who  had  suppressed  them  with  French  aid.  He  sought  to  prevent 
Edward  from  entering  into  negotiations  with  his  disaffected  cities 
by  prohibiting  all  commercial  intercourse  with  the  English,  and  by 
seizing  their  merchants  and  confiscating  their  goods.  Edward  replied 
by  retaliatory  measures  which  caused  great  suffering  in  the  industrial 
centers ;  but  he  hoped  that  the  ultimate  effect  of  his  blows  would  fall 
on  Count  Louis,  the  subservient  vassal  of  France.  On  21  September, 
1336,  he  convoked  a  Parliament  to  deliberate  on  the  machinations  of 
Philip  in  Scotland  and  Guyenne,  and  to  devise  measures  for  the  safety 
of  the  realm. 

1  The  Opening  of  the  War,  1337.  —  England  was,  on  the  whole,  in 
a  better  position  for  fighting  than  France.  Although  small,  her 
territory  was  compact  and  united ;  she  had  the  better  army,  and  as 
an  offset  to  the  danger  from  Scotland,  she  possessed  strong  strategic 
points  on  the  Continent.  Before  embarking  on  a  campaign,  Edward 
sought  alliances  abroad.  He  attached  himself  to  most  of  the  petty 
princes  of  the  Low  Countries,  such  as  the  Counts  of  Hainault  and 
Guelders  and  the  Duke  of  Brabant,  and  15  July,  1337,  he  made  a 
treaty  with  the  Emperor,  Louis  of  Bavaria.  Philip  VI  busied  him- 
self with  forming  counterallianc.es.  Meantime,  he  had  begun  the 
war,  24  May,  1337,  by  ordering  the  seizure  of  Guyenne,  where  several 
castles  were  besieged  and  forced  to  capitulate.  Edward's  response 
was  the  assumption  of  the  title  of  King  of  France,  in  October.  The 
people  of  Ghent,  embittered  by  the  interference  with  their  trade,  put 
at  their  head  Jaques  van  Arteyekje,  a  rich  cloth  merchant.  The 
leading  Flemish  cities  joined  with  Ghent,  and,  in  February,  1338, 
made  a  preliminary  convention  with  England,  which  was  concluded 
by  a  treaty  of  commerce  in  June. 

Edward's  Expedition  to  Flanders,  and  his  Futile  Invasion  of  France, 
1338-1339. — In  July,  1338,  Edward  sailed  for  Flanders.  He  traveled 
about  in  pompous  state,  distributing  borrowed  money  with  a  lavish  hand. 
The  Emperor  Louis,  as  temporal  head  of  Christendom,  made  him  his 
Vicar-General  on  the  left  banks  of  the  Rhine,  and  solemnly  guaranteed 
his  title  to  the  crown  of  France.  Nevertheless,  his  allies  were  slow 
in  coming  to  his  aid,  his  finances  were  inadequate,  and  it  was  months 
before  he  was  ready  to  face  his  enemy.  Finally,  in  October,  1339, 


THE   REIGN  OF   EDWARD   III  193 

he  invaded  France.  Philip,  who  had  been  awaiting  his  advance,  sent 
a  herald  with  a  formal  challenge  to  a  pitched  battle.  He  had  a 
glorious  array :  "It  was  a  thing  of  exceeding  beauty  to  see,  the  banners 
waving  in  the  wind,  the  horses  mailed  and  caparisoned  down  to  the 
haunches,  knights  and  esquires  in  shining  armour.  Yea  nothing 
could  vie  with  it  in  magnificence."  Yet  when  the  English  King 
eagerly  accepted  his  challenge,  he  suddenly  turned  about  and  started 
for  Paris.  Edward  returned  to  Flanders,  and,  in  February,  1340, 
crossed  over  to  England,  leaving  his  queen,  two  sons,  and  two  earls 
as  hostages  to  the  Flemings  for  his  enormous  debts.  Aside  from  one 
unsuccessful  siege  the  campaign  of  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  had 
been  little  more  than  a  grand  parade.  While  he  gained  nothing,  the 
poor  folk  along  his  line  of  march  suffered  bitterly.  Flaming  towns 
and  villages  marked  the  wake  of  his  progress  through  a  fertile  and 
populous  district.  To  the  knightly  class  war  was  a  noble  pastime 
governed  by  an  elaborate  code  of  honor,  generosity,  and  bravery; 
to  the  peasantry  it  was  a  gruesome  reality. 

The  Campaign  of  1340.  — -  Equipped  with  new  supplies,  obtained 
from  Parliament  in  return  for  statutes  directed  against  crying  abuses, 
Edward  started  on  a  second  expedition,  22  June,  1340.  Two  days 
later  he  encountered  a  French  fleet  lurking  in  the  harbor  of  Sluys  to 
intercept  his  landing  on  the  Flemish  coast.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  enemy's  ships  were  so  numerous~that  they  rose  "  like  a  forest  " 
on  the  horizon,  he  gained  a  decisive  victory  which  made  him  master 
of  the  narrow  seas.  On  the  other  hand,  the  land  campaign  was  fully 
as  futile  and  inglorious  as  that  of  the  previous  year.  Philip  cautiously 
refused  a  challenge  to  fight  his  royal  opponent  either  singly  or  with 
a  hundred  knights  on  a  side.  Edward's  allies  proved  as  apathetic  as 
ever,  and  his  debts  accumulated  steadily.  So  he  patched  up  a  truce 
for  nine  months,  and  in  November  stole  "  away  privately  for  England 
to  elude  his  creditors."  The  next  year  the  Emperor  revoked  his 
title  of  Vicar-General,  and  one  by  one  his  allies  in  the  Low  Countries 
dropped  off.  The  last  to  go  were  the  Flemish  cities,  after  the  murder 
of  their  leader,  van  Artevelde,  in  a  popular  rising  in  1345. 

Parliamentary  Gains  of  1341.  —  In  England  the  year  1341  was 
marked  by  events  of  great  political  importance.  An  attempt  on  the 
part  of  King  Edward  to  bring  his  Chief  Minister,  John  Stratford, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  to  answer  certain  charges  in  the  Court  of 
Exchequer  brought  forth  a  declaration  from  the  House  of  Lords  that 
peers,  whether  Ministers  or  not,  should  on  no  account  be  brought 
to  trial  or  judged  except  in  full  Parliament  or  before  their  peers. 
Edward  was  forced  to  accede  to  the  Lords'  declaration.  Other  im- 
portant concessions  were  wrung  from  him;  namely,  that  com- 
missioners should  be  elected  in  Parliament  to  audit  accounts  of 
officers  who  had  received  money  for  the  King ;  that  the  Chancellor, 
as  well  as  other  great  officers  of  State,  and  the  judges  should  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  King  in  consultation  with  Parliament  and  sworn  to 


i94  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

obey  the  law;  and  that  at  the  beginning  of  each  Parliament  Ministers 
should  resign  their  offices  into  the  King's  hands  and  be  compelled  to 
answer  all  the  complaints.  As  the  joint  work  of  the  Lords  and  Com- 
mons the  concessions  of  1341  mark  a  distinct  gain  over  those  of  1258 
and  1311,  which  were  the  result  of  exclusively  baronial  activity. 
Their  immediate  effect,  however,  was  annulled  by  the  duplicity  of 
the  King.  Having  received  the  grant  which  Parliament  paid  as  the 
price  of  the  concessions,  he  repudiated  them  in  October,  admitting, 
with  brutal  frankness,  that  he  had  dissembled  "  in  view  of  public 
necessity." 

The  Truce  of  1343.  Increasing  Financial  Embarrassment.  —  In 
1342  a  disputed  sucession  to  the  Duchy  of  Brittany  caused  Edward 
to  lead  a  force  to  that  country  in  behalf  of  one  of  the  claimants. 
Philip  marched  against  him,  and  for  the  third  time  the  English  and 
French  armies  faced  one  another  without  righting.  In  January, 
1343,  a  truce  for  three  years  was  arranged.  This  truce  Philip  con- 
stantly disregarded  by  aggressions  in  Brittany  and  Guyenne,  but 
Edward  did  not  renew  the  war  till  1345.  The  delay  was  doubtless 
due  to  his  financial  embarrassments.  His  creditors  in  the  Nether- 
lands, the  Rhine  country,  and  in  Italy  clamored  for  payment,  and  his 
inability  to  meet  his  obligations,  at  which  he  grieved  and  even  blushed, 
caused  the  failure  of  such  great  banking  houses  as  the  Bardi  and  the 
PeruzzL-  The  cessation  of  foreign  loans  threw  the  King  back  on  his/ 
English  subjects;  and  Parliament  and  the  merchants  were  able  to 
secure  important  concessions  for  moneys  they  advanced.  In  spite 
of  his  poverty,  Edward  could  not  restrain  his  love  for  lavish  display. 
In  1344,  for  instance,  he  held  a  gorgeous  'ground  table,"  or  combined 
tournament  and  banquet  at  Windsor.  fTwas~at  th"is  time  that  he 
built  the  famous  Round  Tower  as  a  dining  hall  for  visiting  knights. 

The  Campaign  of  1346.  —  The  first  notable  English  triumph  in  the 
Hundred  Years'  War  was  achieved  in  1346.  Delayed  by  "  horrid 
storms,"  Edward  finally  landed  at  La  Hogue  on  the  Norman  coast, 
12  July.  Marching  toward  the  interior,  he  was  at  first  unopposed 
except  at  Caen.  "  God,"  says  Edward's  confessor,  "  had  struck  so 
great  terror  into  the  hearts  of  all  that  they  seemed  to  have  completely 
lost  courage."  He  had  intended  to  march  south,  and  join  Henry  of 
Lancaster  who  had  been  operating  in  Gascony  since  the  previous 
year,  but  the  main  French  army,  under  Philip's  son  John,  blocked 
his  way.  Therefore  he  made  for  the  Seine.  The  French  King,  as 
soon  as  he  learned  of  his  intention,  hastily  gathered  a  force  to  guard 
the  right  bank  of  the  river  and  destroyed  all  the  bridges  within  reach. 
Edward  now  decided  to  make  for  the  coast.  His  position  was  most 
critical.  He  had  devastated  the  country  behind  him,  the  road  south 
was  closed  to  him,  while  an  army  twice  the  size  of  his  own  lay  between 
him  and  the  Flemish  coast.  He  managed  to  cross  the  Seine  within 
fifteen  miles  of  Paris ;  but  the  Somme  was  still  ahead  of  him.  Philip 
sent  forces  to  occupy  Amiens  and  Abbeville  and  followed  leisurely 


THE  REIGN   OF   EDWARD   III  195 

after.  He  hoped  to  coop  up  the  exhausted  English  army  between  the 
mouth  of  the  Somme  and  the  sea.  Edward  sent  out  scouts  to  find 
a  place  to  pass  over.  When  he  learned  that  the  bridges  were  all 
destroyed  or  guarded,  he  left  camp  so  suddenly  that  Philip  found 
"  meat  on  the  spits,  bread  and  pastry  in  the  ovens,  wine  in  the  barrels, 
and  even  some  tables  ready  spread."  Unless  the  English  could  find 
a  ford  they  were  undone.  At  last  a  native  showed  them  a  place  where 
a  chalky  strip  rose  in  the  midst  of  the  sand  wide  and  high  enough  at 
full  tide  for  twelve  men  to  pass  abreast.  Philip  had  posted  a  strong 
force  on  the  opposite  bank  to  guard  the  passage,  but  under  a  destruc- 
tive fire  of  arrows  the  English  forced  their  way  over,  24  August, 
before  daybreak.  The  rising  tide  swept  in  just  in  time  to  cut  off 
the  main  body  of  Philip's  army  hurrying  in  pursuit. 

The  Battle  of  Crecy,  26  August. — Marching  north,  Edward  halted 
at  Crecy.  "  I  am  on  the  rightful  heritage  of  my  mother,"  he  declared, 
"  and  I  will  defend  it  against  my  adversary  Philip  of  Valois."  This 
time  there  was  to  be  a  battle.  The  English  force,  numbering  3900 
men  at  arms,  11,000  archers,  and  5000  Welshmen,  were  drawn  up  in 
three  divisions  or  "  battles  "  on  the  slope  of  the  hillside  just  east  of 
the  village.  The  right  was  commanded  by  the  Black  Prince,  a  boy  of 
sixteen,  who  was  making  his  debut  as  a  fighter.  The  slope  of  the  hill- 
side and  a  little  stream  at  its  base  furnished  some  protection.  Beyond 
the  right  of  the  hill  a  thick  forest  barred  a  flank  attack.  The  division 
on  the  left  was  likewise  protected,  though  less  effectively,  by  the  woods 
of  the  neighboring  village  of  Wodicourt.  The  third  division,  com- 
manded by  the  King  in  person,  was  posted  as  a  reserve  higher  up  the 
hill.  Edward  took  a  position  in  a  windmill  at  the  extreme  top, 
whence  he  could  survey  the  whole  field.  The  English  men  at  arms 
were  dismounted,  leaving  their  horses  in  the  rear.  Both  flanks  of 
the  two  forward  divisions  were  protected  by  bodies  of  archers  thrown 
out  at  angles.  The  English  forces  were  arranged  by  the  morning  of 
26  August  and  spent  the  day  digging  little  pits  to  catch  the  French 
horse. 

Philip,  who  had  crossed  the  Somme  at  Abbeville,  advanced  until 
his  van  was  within  a  mile  or  two  of  Edward's  army  before  his  scouts 
were  able  to  inform  him  of  its  exact  position.  As  his  forces  were 
strung  all  along  the  road,  he  decided  to  accept  wise  counsel  and  delay 
the  attack  till  the  following  day  when  he  could  bring  them  into  better 
order.  But  the  van  would  not  retire,  and  although  they  halted, 
the  rearward  kept  pushing  up  from  behind,  crying :  "  Death  to  those 
English  traitors !  Not  one  of  them  shall  ever  get  back  to  England." 
While  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  size  of  their  army,  it  may  have 
been  60,000.  Numbers  did  not  count,  however,  for  they  were  huddled 
together  in  a  struggling  mass,  and  the  setting  sun  glared  directly  in 
their  eyes.  The  first  advance  was  made  by  the  Genoese  crossbow- 
men,  followed  by  a  body  of  men  at  arms.  Their  arrows  fell  short, 
for  a  sudden  summer  storm  had  soaked  their  bowstrings,  since  they 


196  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

had  not,  like  the  English,  taken  the  precaution  to  cover  their  weapons. 
Exposed  to  the  arrows,  "  falling  like  snowflakes,"  of  Edward's  long- 
bowmen,  they  tried  to  retreat.  Instead  of  opening  ranks  to  let  them 
fall  back,  the  horsemen  behind  rode  them  down,  crying :  "Away  with 
those  faint-hearted  rabble !  They  do  but  block  our  advance." 
Fifteen  or  sixteen  successive  charges  were  made  by  the  French  knights 
who  never  waited  for  those  in  front  to  beat  a  retreat,  until  they 
plunged  into  the  writhing  swarm  of  men  and  horses  and  exposed 
themselves  to  the  deadly  flight  of  the  English  arrows.  Only  once 
did  a  body  of  them  get  far  enough  up  the  hill  to  menace  seriously 
the  Black  Prince,  whom  his  father  had  placed  where  he  could  win  his 
spurs  by  bearing  the  brunt  of  the  battle.  Night  ended  the  contest, 
when  Philip,  after  leading  a  vain  final  charge,  was  persuaded  to  with- 
draw. The  discomfiture  of  the  French  was  completed  the  next 
morning  when  fresh  forces  coming  up,  unaware  of  the  disaster,  were 
scattered  with  great  loss. 

Results  of  Crecy.  —  "  Not  for  two  hundred  years,"  wrote  the  chroni- 
cler Froissart,  "  had  so  many  princes  and  nobles  fallen  in  battle. 
God  have  their  souls,  for  valiantly  they  died  in  the  service  of  their 
King,  who  lamented  them  exceedingly  when  he  knew  the  dire  truth." 
Among  them  were  the  blind  King  of  Bohemia  ;  Louis,  Count  of  Flan- 
ders; the  Duke  of  Lorraine;  and  Philip's  brother,  the  Count  of  Alencon. 
The  heralds  counted  among  the  fallen  over  1500  lords  and  knights; 
the  loss  among  the  men  of  lesser  rank  is  not  known.  Estimates  vary 
from  10,000  to  40,000,  but  probably  the  former  number  is  nearer  the 
truth.  The  English  loss  was  slight,  not  more  than  40,  exclusive  of 
a  few  dozen  Welshmen  who  had  run  out  between  the  charges  to  slay 
or  plunder  the  disabled  knights.  Edward  had  completed  success- 
fully a  foolhardy  campaign  by  a  victory  due  to  splendid  tactics,  to 
the  choice  of  a  strong  position,  and  to  a  skillful  combination  of  archers 
and  men  at  arms.  The  immediate  consequences  were  important : 
he  had  struck  terror  to  the  French  by  his  ability  to  cut  his  way 
through  their  dominions  and  to  overcome  a  force  three  times  his 
own ;  moreover,  he  had  diverted  their  attacks  from  Guyenne.  (The 
remoter  consequences  were  momentous ;  the  very  foundations  of 
medieval  society  were  shaken  when  the  flower  of  French  mailed 
knighthood  had  to  yield  to  yeomen  archers  and  Welsh  and  Irish  serfs 
armed  with  knives  and  spears.  It  was  a  mortal  blow  at  the  old 
system  of  warfare  and  the  social  and  political  structure  built  upon  h.j 

Defeat  of  the  Scotch  at  Neville's  Cross,  27  October,  1346.  —  The 
Scotch,  who  had  recalled  David  Bruce  in  1341,  seized  the  occasion 
of  Edward's  absence  to  send  an  invading  force  across  the  border  in 
1346.  The  instigation  came  from  Philip,  but  the  moment  seemed 
peculiarly  favorable.  "  There  is  not  a  man  to  hinder  us,"  they  said, 
"  for  all  the  warriors  of  England  are  gone  to  France,  leaving  but  a 
pack  of  shoemakers,  skinners,  and  merchants  behind."  They  were 
sadly  mistaken.  On  27  October,  they  were  met  by  a  force  of  northern 


THE   REIGN   OF   EDWARD   III  197 

levies  at  Neville's  Cross  near  Durham  and  completely  routed.  Bruce 
was  taken  to  London  a  prisoner,  where  he  remained  in  captivity  for 
eleven  years.  His  old  rival,  Edward  Balliol,  died  in  1367.  On  his 
own  death  in  1371  he  was  succeeded  by  the  son  of  his  sister  Margaret, 
Robert,  High  Steward  of  Scotland,  the  first  of  the  Stuarts,  a  line  which 
was  later  to  rule  over  England  as  well. 

The  Siege  and  Capture  of  Calais,  1346-1347.  —  On  28  August, 
1346,  Edward  started  for  Calais,  the  most  important  town  in  nor  them 
France,  one  which  both  for  commercial  and  strategic  reasons,  he  was 
anxious  to  secure.  It  was  a  refuge  for  pirates  and  privateers  who 
devastated  English  shipping,  and,  with  Dover  on  the  opposite  shore, 
commanded  the  Channel ;  in  addition  it  offered  an  easy  means  of 
communication  with  Flanders  as  well  as  a  basis  for  operations  against 
France.  He  arrived  before  the  walls,  3  September,  when,  finding 
the  place  too  strong  to  carry  by  assault,  he  prepared  for  a  siege.  The 
inhabitants  held  out  through  all  the  long  winter,  and  until  well  into 
the  following  summer.  In  June  the  Governor  sent  a  despairing  letter 
to  his  King,  informing  him  that  everything  was  eaten  up,  horses, 
dogs,  and  cats,  and  soon  they  would  be  reduced  to  eat  each  other. 
Efforts  to  relieve  the  place  by  sea  failed,  and  finally  Philip  appeared 
with  an  army.  Once  more  he  challenged  Edward  to  pitched  battle ; 
then,  thinking  better  of  it,  suddenly  departed,  declaring  it  was  better 
to  lose  the  town  than  to  put  the  lives  of  his  men  in  jeopardy.  Thus 
deserted,  the  Governor  consented  to  treat.  According  to  a  familiar 
story,  Edward  required  six  leading  burgesses  to  come  forth  with  halters 
around  their  necks  and  the  keys  of  the  town  in  their  hands,  and  was 
only  dissuaded  from  putting  them  to  death  by  the  tears  of  his  Queen. 
Whether  the  story  is  true  or  not,  he  did  spare  the  lives  of  the  whole 
garrison,  though  he  replaced  the  old  population  by  English  settlers. 
For  two  hundred  years  Calais  was  held  as  an  English  market  and 
fortress.  On  28  September,  1347,  another  truce  was  signed,  and  12 
October,  Edward  returned  to  England. 

English  Magnificence  and  Ostentation.  —  The  capture  of  Calais 
was  the  turning  point  in  the  career  of  Edward  III.  Although  only 
thirty-five  years  old  he  withdrew  almost  entirely  from  the  war,  and 
occupied  himself  with  domestic  concerns,  with  hunting  and  hawking 
and  tournaments.  For  eight  years  hostilities  were  nominally  sus- 
pended ;  but  while  the  truce  was  frequently  renewed,  it  was  fre- 
quently broken  in  Guyenne,  where  the  "  unhappy  citizens  had  hardly 
more  quiet  in  peace  than  in  war."  In  England,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  seemed  as  if  a  "  new  sun  had  arisen  on  account  of  the  abundance 
of  peace,  the  plenty,  and  the  glory  of  the  victories."  "  There  was  no 
woman  who  had  not  got  garments,  furs,  feather  beds,  and  utensils, 
from  the  spoils  of  Calais  and  other  foreign  cities,"  and  "  then  began 
the  English  matrons  to  glorify  themselves  in  the  dresses  of  the  matrons 
of  Celtic  Gaul,  and  as  these  grieved  at  the  loss  of  their  things,  so  those 
rejoiced  in  their  acquisition."  The -upper  classes  seemed  to  live  only 


i98  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

for  pleasure.  From  October,  1347  to  May,  1348,  nineteen  tourna- 
ments were  appointed,  some  lasting  two  or  three  weeks.  Plays  also 
were  a  popular  amusement  for  the  King  and  his  courtiers.  Dress  was 
gorgeous  and  extravagant;  that  of  the  women  is  described  "  as  diverse 
and  wonderful."  Even  the  clergy  fell  victims  to  the  prevailing 
contagion,  wearing  their  hair  long,  curled,  and  powdered,  adorning 
themselves  with  rings,  girdles,  and  furred  gowns,  more  like  soldiers 
and  men  of  fashion  than  servants  of  God.  It  was  probably  in  this 
period  that  Edward  founded  the  celebrated  Order  of  the  Garter,  in 
imitation  or  memory  of  King  Arthur's  Round  Table,  an  order  which 
still  remains  the  most  exalted  in  England. 

Causes  for  Popular  Discontent.  —  The  reverse  side  of  this  picture 
of  glittering  magnificence  is  seen  in  the  popular  discontent  and  the 
grounds  upon  which  it  was  based.  While  the  war  brought  much 
booty,  it  involved  great  expense,  and  the  exactions  levied  to  meet  it 
aroused  stout  opposition.  Edward  was  ever  copious  with  promises 
which  he  did  not  observe ;  if  he  gave  up  a  tax,  he  made  arrangements 
with  merchants  in  which  they  shared  profits,  the  cost  of  which  fell 
ultimately  on  the  subject.  When  the  King  sought  the  advice  of  the 
Commons,  it  was  only  to  put  them  under  the  obligation  of  paying  for 
the  policy  in  which  they  acquiesced.  In  order  to  evade  responsi- 
bility they  professed  themselves,  in  1348,  too  ignorant  and  simple 
to  advise  him  in  military  affairs  ;  at  the  same  time  they  presented  no 
less  than  sixty  petitions  complaining  of  abuses,  such  as  monopolies 
of  wool  and  tin,  and  the  unauthorized  impost  on  manufactured  cloth. 
In  view  of  the  King's  usual  assurances,  they  granted  supplies  on 
conditions ;  but  their  attitude  is  an  indication  of  a  gathering  dis- 
content which  was  to  come  to  a  head  before  the  close  of  the  reign. 

The  Black  Death,  1348-1349.  —  Before  Parliament  met  again  the 
country  was  visited  by  a  frightful  scourge,  from  which  it  was  never 
again  wholly  free  for  more  than  three  centuries.  The  Black  Death, 
as  it  was  called,  appeared  first  in  Asia,  whence  it  spread  along  the 
trade  routes  to  Europe,  reaching  England  in  the  late  summer  of  1348. 
Its  appearance  was  foretold  by  all  manner  of  signs  and  wonders: 
"An  extraordinary  dreadful  comet;  earthquake  shocks;  a  star  shin- 
ing over  the  city  of  Paris  in  the  daytime  and  fading  away  at  night ; 
a  pillar  of  fire  on  the  papal  city  of  Avignon."  Even  wilder  tales  were 
told,  of  showers  of  blood,  and  of  the  appearance  of  strange  monsters, 
such  as  a  double-headed  serpent  with  faces  like  the  face  of  a  woman  and 
wings  like  a  bat.  More  to  the  point,  famine,  due  to  floods,  droughts, 
and  the  devastations  of  war,  and  the  unhealthful  conditions  of  ventila- 
tion and  drainage,  prepared  the  way  for  ravages  of  the  plague.  It  was 
a  most  loathsome  and  contagious  disease.  Among  its  symptoms 
were  black  patches  all  over  the  body  —  whence  its  name  —  boils, 
vomiting  of  blood,  and  fever.  So  great  was  the  dread  "  that  parents 
abandoned  their  infected  children  and  all  ties  of  kindred  were  dis- 
solved." The  young  and  vigorous  were  the  chief  victims,  while  the 


THE  REIGN  OF   EDWARD   III  199 

aged  and  infirm  were  less  subject  to  attack.  It  created  the  greatest 
havoc  in  the  overcrowded  parts  of  cities,  but  there  was  little  chance 
of  escape  for  such  as  had  once  breathed  the  tainted  air.  Those  who 
fled  to  the  fields  and  woods  fell  dead  and  spread  the  contagion  on  the 
way,  and  ships  were  found  at  sea  with  not  a  living  soul  on  board. 
Thousands  are  reported  to  have  died  in  London  alone.  The  living  were 
scarce  able  to  bury  the  dead.  Only  a  few  of  the  rich  had  separate 
graves ;  most  of  the  others  were  heaped  into  trenches.  The  sitting 
of  Parliament  was  suspended ;  the  administration  of  justice  ceased 
for  lack  of  judges ;  and  in  many  places  divine  service  stopped  be- 
cause the  priests  had  died  or  fled.  Many  villages  were  wholly 
deserted,  and  the  grass  grew  long  in  the  flourishing  port  of  Bristol. 
The  Scots,  who  mocked  at  the  "  foul  death  "  of  the  English,  caught 
the  infection  and  lost  a  third  of  their  population. 

Moral  and  Religious  Effects  of  the  Black  Death.  —  The  moral  and 
religious  effects  were  startling.  Some  gave  themselves  over  to  excesses 
of  drinking  and  reveling ;  but  the  greater  number,  regarding  the 
affection  as  a  divine  visitation  for  their  sins,  sought  to  avert  the  wrath 
of  God  by  exaggerated  religious  observances.  John  Wiclif,  the  first 
notable  English  opponent  of  the  Papacy,  wrote  a  book,  The  Last 
Age  of  the  Church,  in  which  he  predicted  the  approaching  end  of  the 
world.  A  queer  sect  known  as  the  "  Brotherhood  of  the  Flagellants  " 
(the  "  whippers  ")  was  revived.  They  passed  over  to  England  from 
Hungary  and  Germany  and  went  about  from  town  to  town  scourging 
one  another  with  iron-tipped  scourges  and  chanting  mournful  hymns. 
"  From  the  thighs  to  the  heels  they  were  enveloped  in  a  linen  cloth, 
the  rest  of  the  body  stark  naked,  except  the  head,  which  was  covered 
with  a  hood,  marked  with  a  red  cross  before  and  behind;  at  every 
third  step  they  threw  themselves  on  the  ground  in  the  shape  of  a  cross, 
and  the  last  one  in  the  line  rose,  whipped  his  neighbor,  so  on  till  they 
had  gone  along  the  whole  line."  Multitudes  on  the  Continent,  in- 
cluding monks  and  priests,  joined  the  ranks.  In  England  the  number 
was  fewer,  but  their  appearance  is  the  forerunner  of  a  religious  unrest 
which  soon  spread  widely.  The  Pope,  who  regarded  such  fanatical 
excitement  as  dangerous  to  established  order,  issued  a  bull,  20  October, 
1349,  for  their  suppression.  With  the  return  of  quieter  times  they 
gradually  disappeared.  Another  manifestation  of  superstition  was 
an  outburst  against  the  Jews,  who  were  accused  of  causing  the  plague 
by  poisoning  wells  and  the  air.  Although  many  in  authority,  including 
the  Pope,  set  their  faces  against  it,  the  popular  fury  was  only  stayed 
after  thousands  had  perished.  Luckily,  the  expulsion  of  this  unfortu- 
nate people  by  Edward  I  spared  England  from  sharing  in  this  disgrace. 

Social  and  Economic  Effects.  —  The  social  and  industrial  effects 
of  the  Black  Death  precipitated  a  crisis  in  English  economic  history. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  country  lost  from  a  third  to  a  half  of  its  popu- 
lation. The  number  of  laborers  was  so  diminished  that  they  began 
to  demand  excessive  wages  and  the  value  of  land  fell  steadily  from 


200  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

lack  of  cultivation.  "  Sheep  and  cattle  strayed  through  the  fields 
and  corn,  and  there  was  none  who  could  drive  them,"  harvests  rotted 
on  the  ground,  while,  to  make  matters  worse,  a  murrain  among  the 
cattle  accompanied  the  plague.  While  some  landlords  remitted  the 
rents  of  their  tenants  and  actually  reduced  the  service  due  from  villeins 
so  as  to  hold  them  on  the  land,  others  sought  vainly  to  get  their  lands 
cultivated  by  resorting  to  all  sorts  of  antiquated  claims  of  service, 
or  at  least  by  -claiming  strictly  such  as  were  actually  due.  On  18 
June,  1349,  the  King  issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  ordained  that, 
since  laborers  and  servants  either  demanded  excessive  wages  or  spent 
their  time  in  idleness  or  begging/all  unemployed  persons  should  be 
compelled  to  work  at  wages  prevalent  before  the  recent  calamity^ 
Penalties  were  fixed  for  those  who  refused,  and  also  for  those  who 
offered  higher  wages  or  gave  anything  by  way  of  charity  to  idle 
beggars.  As  an  offset,  it  was  provided  that  fish,  flesh,  and  fowl 
should  be  sold  at  a  reasonable  price.  The  Ordinance  proved  inef- 
fective, and,  in  1357,  Parliament  reenacted  its  measures  in  a  statute, 
the  Statute  of  Laborers,  one  of  a  long  series  to  follow.  The  laborers, 
however,  were  so  "  puffed  up  and  quarrelsome  "  that  they  would  not 
obey,  and  the  landlords  had  to  leave  their  crops  ungathered  or  violate 
the  law  by  paying  increased  rates.  It  must  be  said  that  the  laws  of 
supply  and  demand  and  the  decreased  purchasing  power  of  money  to 
some  extent  justify  the  laborers.  The  result  of  the  new  conditions 
was  to  change  the  whole  system  of  farming.  The  great  landlords 
ceased  to  farm  their  estates  with  the  aid  of  stewards,  and  leased  them 
to  tenant  cultivators  or  else  turned  them  into  sheep  pastures.  Still 
it  should  be  emphasized  that  the  Black  Death  only  accentuated  change, 
already  in  progress.  The  growth  of  manufactures,  the  spread  of 
commerce,  and  the  attraction  of  military  service  drew  many  from 
the  land,  and  the  landlords  would  have  suffered  had  there  been  no 
plague.  Laws  to  turn  back  the  hands  of  the  clock  were  unavailing. 

A  Decade  of  Important  Legislation. — Parliament,  during  the  decade 
following  the  Black  Death,  was  uncommonly  active.  In  1351  it 
passed  the  celebrated  Statute  of  Provisors,  which  declared  invalid 
all  appointments,  or  provisions  made  by  the  Pope  to  English  benefices, 
and  punished  with  imprisonment  all  who  accepted  such  appointments. 
Two  years  later,  1353,  the_S_tatute  of  Praemunir.e  !  enacted  —  "  at  the 
grievous  and  clamorous  complaint  of  the  great  men  and  commons  of 
the  realm  "  —  that  any  one  carrying  suits  to  foreign  courts  should 
be  liable  to  forfeiture  of  lands  and  chattels,  imprisonment  of  person, 
and  outlawry.  The  Pope  and  clergy,  against  whom  these  provisions 
are  clearly  aimed,  are  not  mentioned  in  the  Act.  More  than  once 
reenacted,  neither  of  the  two  above  statutes  were  obeyed  during  the 
fourteenth  century.  The  Act  of  Treasons,  1352,  is  important,  as  the 
first  legislative  attempt  to  define  the  crime,  and,  up  to  modern  times, 

1  A  corruption  of  the  Latin  pramonere  —  to  be  forewarned. 


THE   REIGN  OF   EDWARD   III  201 

that  definition  has  always  formed  the  kernel  of  the  law  on  the  subject. 
Seven  offenses  were  enumerated,  including  the  compassing  the  death 
of  the  King  or  his  consort  or  his  heir,  adhering  to  his  enemies,  slaying 
his  Ministers  or  his  judges,  counterfeiting  the  Great  Seal  or  the  royal 
coins.  Although  the  powers  of  the  courts  were  thereby  limited,  they 
took  occasion,  from  time  to  time,  to  extend  the  scope  of  the  Act  in 
cases  where  its  definition  proved  inadequate.  In  136.3  the  Chancellor 
opened  Parliament  with  a  speech  in  English.  In  the  previous  year 
It  had  been  enacted  that  English  should  be  the  language  of  the  law 
courts,  for  the  reason  that  the  "  people  have  no  knowledge  nor  under- 
standing of  that  which  is  said  for  or  against  them  "  —  and  that  the 
court  records  should  be  in  Latin.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however, 
cases  continued  to  be  argued  and  reported  in  French  till  the  eighteenth 
century ;  the  language  of  the  statutes  was  French  till  Henry  VII ;  and 
Latin  did  not  cease  to  be  the  language  of  writs,  charters,  and  records 
until  1731.  In  1362  it  was  enacted  that  no  subsidy  on  wool  should 
be  laid  without  the  consent  of  Parliament.  This  act  renewed  in  1371 
"  marks  a  tendency  to  deprive  the  Crown  by  very  definite  legislation 
of  its  power  of  ...  raising  money  by  direct  evasion  of  the  letter  of 
the  constitutional  law."  In  this  same  year,  1362,  the  vexatious 
right  of  purveyance,  or  seizing  goods  for  public  necessity,  was  re- 
nounced except  in  the  case  of  the  King  and  Queen,  and  it  was  provided 
that  goods  so  taken  should  be  paid  for  in  ready  money.  In  the  next 
year  a  sumptuary  law  regulated  very  minutely  matters  of  diet  and 
dress  to  prevent  the  impoverishment  of  the  country  exhausted  by 
plague  and  war.  If  part  of  the  people  were  intent  on  fighting  and 
display,  there  was  a  class  who  were  grappling  with  the  realities  of  life. 
English  Legislation  relating  to  Ireland.  The  Statute  of  Kilkenny, 
1366.  —  Laws  made  during  this  period  to  deal  with  the  situation  in 
Ireland  failed  to  allay  the  strife  and  confusion  which  prevailed  there, 
and  only  awakened  discontent.  Edward  I  had  valiantly  but  vainly 
sought  to  improve  the  administration.  The  native  chiefs  fought 
among  themselves,  the  Anglo-Norman  lords  -also  were  engaged  in 
constant  quarrels,  while  the  two  races  fought  each  other.  The  old 
shire  system  had  broken  down.  Beyond  the  Pale  1  the  power-  of 
English  officials  and  the  power  of  the  Irish  Parliament  was  naught. 
The  natives  had  shown  their  hatred  of  their  nominal  rulers  by  taking 
the  side  of  Bruce  in  the  time  of  Edward  II,  and  even  chose  Edward, 
Robert's  brother,  to  be  their  king  in  1316.  He  was  defeated  and  killed 
two  years  later,  but  the  English  feudal  party  were  as  far  off  as  ever 
from  subduing  the  country.  The  legislation  of  Edward  III  aimed 
to  prevent  absenteeism,  to  prevent  the  natives  from  holding  office, 
and  prevent  intermarriage  or  association  between  the  two  peoples. 
The  famous  Statute  of  Kilkenny,  1366,  dealt  with  the  last  of  these 
problems  most  drastically.  It  not  only  forbade  the  English  settlers 

1  The  district  under  English  control  surrouijding  Dublin. 


202  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

to  intermarry  with  the  Irish,  but  it  prohibited  them  from  using  the 
Irish  language  or  adopting  their  dress  or  manners.  The  Statute 
was  never  enforced,  and  the  attempt  to  rule  the  country  by  a  party 
solely  attached  to  the  English  interests  proved  futile. 

Progress  of  the  War.  End  of  the  Truce,  1355.  —  During  the 
period  when  there  was  nominally  a  truce  between  England  and  France, 
from  1347  to  1355,  more  than  one  stirring  engagement  was  recorded. 
In  1349  the  French  attempted  to  recover  Calais  by  bribing  the  Gov- 
ernor. When  the  plot  was  reported  to  Edward,  he  prepared  a  force  for 
its  defense  which  he  and  the  Black  Prince  accompanied  in  disguise. 
A  body  of  French  were  admitted  into  Calais  castle  on  the  pretense 
that  it  was  to  be  betrayed.  After  they  had  been  overcome,  Edward 
sallied  forth  at  the  head  of  his  followers  to  dispose  of  those  outside. 
"  Raging  like  a  wild  boar,"  he  fought  a  single  combat  with  the  bravest 
of  the  French  knights  that  was  "  right  pleasant  to  see."  Then  in  the 
true  fashion  of  chivalry  he  entertained  all  the  knights  at  supper, 
giving  his  late  opponent  a  chaplet  of  pearls  from  his  own  head.  In 
1350  Philip  VI  died,  and  "  there  were  no  tears  shed  by  the  nation." 
Unfortunately  for  the  French,  his  son  John,  who  succeeded  him,  while 
personally  brave  and  eager  for  martial  distinction,  had  even  less 
statesmanlike  capacity  than  his  father.  In  1355  war  was  renewed 
in  real  earnest.  In  July,  1356,  the  Black  Prince,  who  had  been  in 
Aquitaine  since  the  previous  year,  started  from  Bordeaux  for  a  raid 
through  central  France.  King  John  marched  south  to  defend  his 
threatened  territories.  Prince  Edward  made  a  vain  effort  to  intercept 
him  and  the  two  marched  south  in  a  parallel  direction,  neither  knowing 
exactly  the  position  of  the  other.  Finally,  the  French  army  reached 
the  town  of  Poitiers,  whither  the  Black  Prince  tracked  them. 

The  Battle  of  Poitiers,  16  September,  1356.  —  He  took  up  a  strong 
position  on  a  rolling  plateau,  protected  on  the  rear  and  flanks  by 
a  wood,  a  marsh,  and  a  winding  stream.  In  front  lay  a  thick  hedge 
behind  a  ditch  and  pierced  only  by  a  single  country  road  so  narrow 
that  only  four  men  could  march  abreast.  The  English  force  con- 
sisted of  about  3000  men-at-arms,  about  the  same  number  of  archers, 
and  a  few  hundred  Gascon  light-armed  troops.  As  at  Crecy  the  French 
outnumbered  them  about  three  to  one,  but  had  no  opportunity  to  use 
their  superior  force.  Lining  the  hedge  and  the  thickets  on  either 
side  with  archers,  Prince  Edward  awaited  the  advance  of  the  enemy. 
Except  for  a  small  contingent  of  horse  in  the  front  line,  the  French 
men-at-arms  were  all  dismounted.  But  mailed  knights,  however 
effective  for  defense,  were  not  adapted  for  marching  up  a  rough  road 
and  scrambling  through  bushes.  Moreover,  John  had  made  the 
mistake  of  not  covering  their  advance  with  archers  and  crossbowmen. 
Not  only  were  their  attacks  repulsed,  but  the  Black  Prince  sent  a 
small  force  to  attack  them  on  the  left  rear.  Then  he  led  a  charge 
down  the  hill,  and,  in  the  hand-to-hand  conflict  which  ensued,  fought 
himself  "  like  a  fell  and  cruel  lion."  King  John,  struggling  manfully, 


THE   REIGN  OF   EDWARD   III  203 

was  taken  prisoner,  together  with  his  young  son  Philip.  This  capture, 
and  the  confirmation  of  the  verdict  of  Crecy  that  the  day  of  the  mailed 
knight  had  passed  were  the  chief  results  of  the  Battle  of  Poitiers.  The 
Black  Prince  was  able  to  make  little  immediate  use  of  it  in  a  military 
way.  Too  weak  to  attempt  to  capture  the  city  whither  most  of  the 
vanquished  fled  for  refuge,  he  hurried  on  to  Bordeaux  with  his  booty 
and  his  more  important  prisoners.  On  23  March,  1357,  a  truce  was  ar- 
ranged for  two  years,  and  in  May  John  was  taken  a  captive  to  London. 

Suffering  and  Disorder  in  France  after  Poitiers.  —  The  condition  of 
France  after  the  defeat  of  Poitiers  was  deplorable.  Oppressive  taxes 
and  debasement  of  the  coinage  to  support  the  extravagance  of  the 
nobles  and  to  pay  the  King's  ransom,  bore  heavily  on  the  exhausted 
land.  Free  companies  of  French  and  English  soldiery  roamed  about 
the  country,  plundering  and  pillaging,  "  stripping  naked  those  to 
whom  the  lords  had  left  a  shirt."  The  suffering  and  discontent  mani- 
fested itself  in  a  furious  peasant  rising  known  as  the  Jacquerie.1,  But 
the  privileged  classes  were  too  much  for  the  rude  undisciplined  bands 
whom  they  put  down  and  massacred  without  mercy.  "  It  needed  not 
the  English  to  destroy  the  country,"  wrote  a  French  chronicler, 
"  for  in  truth,  the  English,  enemies  of  the  kingdom,  would  not  have 
done  what  the  nobles  did."  The  state  of  the  country  was  worse  than 
before.  "  Neither  corn  nor  vegetables  nor  vines  were  cultivated ; 
burnt  houses  and  churches  in  ruins  everywhere  met  the  eye ;  desolation 
universally  prevailed,  except  in  some  isolated  places  where  the  peasants 
resisted  the  royal  bandits.  .  .  .  Winter  increased  the  suffering  of  the 
people ;  the  price  of  food  became  enormous,  and  famine  raged  through- 
out the  land."  On  24  March,  1359,  King  John,  who  had  spent  his  cap- 
tivity pleasantly  in  the  chase  and  tournament,  signed  a  treaty  of  peace. 
Its  terms,  however,  were  such  that  the  French  regents  and  estates  gen- 
eral preferred  to  leave  their  sovereign  in  captivity  rather  than  accede. 

The  Peace  of  Bretigny,  1360.  —  Another  invasion  led  by  Edward 
and  his  four  sons  failed  to  achieve  any  notable  success.  The  French 
shut  themselves  up  in  their  strong  towns  and  castles,  and  it  was  prac- 
tically impossible  to  support  the  English  army  in  the  wasted  country. 
Terms  of  peace  were  arranged  at  the  little  village  of  Bretigny  in  May, 
1360,  and  ratified  at  Calais  in  October.  The  treaty  is  known  as  the 
Treaty  of  Bretigiyv.  It  was  tacitly  understood  that  Edward  should 
renounce  his  claims  to  the  French  throne.  In  return  he  received  all 
of  the  ancient  Aquitaine,2  including  Poitou  and  many  smaller  dis- 
tricts in  the  south;jKrithieiL-Controlling  the  mouth  of  the  Somme,  and 
Jjutne^.  the  district  in  which  Calais  was  situated,  in  the  north.  John's 
ransom  was  fixed  at  3,000,000  crowns,  a  sum  over  eight  times  the  ordi- 
nary revenue  of  England.  One  fifth  was  to  be  paid  down,  the  remain- 
der in  annual  installments,  the  payment  being  guaranteed  by  hostages. 

1  From  Jacques  bonhomme,  a  contemptuous  name  by  which  the  nobles  desig- 
nated the  peasant. 

2  It  included  Guyenne  and  Gascony. 


204  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

The  French  renounced  their  alliance  with  the  Scots  and  the  English 
theirs  with  the  Flemings.  "  Good  brother  France,"  said  Edward, 
"  you  and  I  are  now,  thank  God,  of  good  accord." 

Such  rejoicings  proved  premature.  In  spite  of  the  sincere  efforts  of 
King  John,  the  French  nobles  in  the  ceded  districts  stoutly  resisted  the 
transfer  of  their  allegiance,  and  towns  were  even  more  stubborn.  Some 
districts  refused  to  submit  at  all.  Mercenaries,  composed  of  disorderly 
spirits  from  many  lands,  continued  to  live  off  the  country  where  any- 
thing remained.  One  band,  swooping  down  from  the  Rhine  and  the 
Low  Countries,  called  themselves  the  Tard  Venus  (or  "  late  comers"), 
"  because  they  had  not  as  yet  much  pillaged  the  kingdom,"  and  did 
their  best  to  make  up  for  lost  time.  Moreover,  the  French  were  unable 
to  pay  the  installments  of  John's  ransom.  When  some  of  his  hostages, 
including  his  son  Louis,  broke  their  parole,  he  returned  to  England, 
where  he  died  in  1364. 

The  Tide  begins  to  turn  against  England.  —  Two  years  before,  King 
Edward  had  erected  Gascony  and  Guyenne  into  a  separate  principality, 
and  conferred  it  upon  the  Black  Prince.  In  view  of  the  Prince's  past 
successes  and  the  disordered  condition  of  France  the  prospects  of  the 
English  seemed  as  bright  as  those  of  the  French  seemed  dark;  but 
the  tide  was  on  the  turn.  John's  successor,  Charles  V,  though  weak 
in  body,  a  scholar,  a  reformer  of  court  manners,  and  an  administrator 
rather  than  a  warrior,  was  able  to  win  back  ground  that  his  more  mar- 
tial father  had  lost.  "  There  never  was  a  king  who  had  less  to  do  with 
arms,"  said  Edward  III,  "  yet  there  never  was  a  king  who  gave  me  so 
much  to  do."  Charles  was  greatly  aided  by  Bertrand  du  Guesclin,  a 
Breton  captain,  ugly  and  quarrelsome,  but  wary  and  capable,  ^who 
came  to  be  recognized  as  the  greatest  general  of  his  age.  The  new 
King  and  the  Pope  soon  succeeded  in  involving  Prince  Edward  in  war 
in  Spain,  with  consequences  so  disastrous  that  he  afterwards  lamented 
to  the  Bishop  of  Burgos :  "  The  devil  has  dragged  me  into  mixing  into 
the  affairs  of  your  kings."  Well  he  might.  He  damaged  his  reputa- 
tion, he  contracted  a  disease  which  led  to  his  premature  death,  he 
diverted  English  energies  from  France,  and  was  compelled  to  levy  taxes 
from  his  Gascon  subjects  which  prepared  them  for  rebellion  and  thus 
opened  the  way  for  the  loss  of  his  principality.  The  trouble  in  Spain 
arose  over  an  attempt  of  Henry  of  Trastamara  to  oust  his  lawless  and 
blood-thirsty  half  brother,  Pedro  the  Cruel,  from  the  throne  of  Castile. 
French  and  papal  forces  aided  him  in  driving  Pedro  out  of  his  kingdom. 
The  Black  Prince,  to  whom  he  fled,  took  up  his  cause  in  the  teeth  of 
the  opposition  of  the  Gascon  lords  and  against  the  advice  of  his  wisest 
English  councilors.  King  Edward  supported  his  son  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  bound  to  Pedro  by  treaties  of  alliance.  By  the  aid  of  the 
English  arms  he  was  restored  for  a  brief  season,  just  long  enough  to 
show  how  faithless  and  unworthy  he  was.  He  was  driven  out  again, 
taken  prisoner  by  Henry's  forces  in  March,  1369,  and  treacherously 
stabbed  by  his  half  brother  in  a  quarrel. 


THE   REIGN   OF   EDWARD   III  205 

The  Intrigues  of  Charles  V  in  Aquitaine  and  the  Renewal  of  the 
War.  —  Meantime,  Charles  V  had  taken  advantage  of  the  situation 
to  make  ready  for  war,  and  to  secure  the  alliance  of  such  of  the  Gascon 
nobles  as  were  opposed  to  their  ruler.  His  opportunity  came  when  the 
Prince  levied  a  tax  of  ten  sous  on  every  hearth  to  pay  his  mercenaries. 
Although  the  burden  fell  most  heavily  on  the  mass  of  the  people,  the 
nobles  led  the  opposition,  and  appealed  to  the  King  of  France.  He  had 
no  right  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Aquitaine,  yet  he  actually,  15 
January,  1369,  summoned  the  Prince  to  Paris  to  answer  the  complaints 
of  his  own  subjects.  "  I  shall  go  to  Paris,"  was  the  proud  and  indig- 
nant reply,  "  but  it  will  be  with  my  helmet  on  my  head  and  60,000  men 
in  my  train."  Charles,  in  his  desire  to  recover  his  French  possessions, 
had  scant  regard  for  the  law ;  but  he  had  one  real  grievance.  This 
was  the  pillaging  carried  on  by  the  English  companies,  which,  although 
discountenanced  by  King  Edward,  continued  apparently  without 
check.  Defied  by  the  Black  Prince  in  his  attempted  intervention,  he 
seized  Ponthieu,  and,  29  April,  1369,  sent  the  King  of  England  a  formal 
declaration  of  war,  choosing,  it  is  said,  a  scullion  as  a  messenger. 
Edward  replied  by  resuming  the  arms  and  title  of  the  King  of  France. 

The  English  lose  Ground  steadily  during  the  Remainder  of  Edward's 
Reign.  —  The  war  which  followed  "  never  rose  above  a  series  of  raids, 
skirmishes,  and  sieges."  Edward  III  was  premature  y  old,  his  good 
wife  Philippa  died  on  the  i5th  of  August  of  this  same  year,  1369,  and 
he  fell  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  Alice  Ferrers,  an  unworthy 
favorite  to  whom  he  was  already  inclined.  The  Black  Prince,  who  had 
been  for  years  bearing  the  burden  of  the  fighting,  was  suffering  from, 
dropsy  and  growing  steadily  weaker.  The  English,  in  spite  of  a  few' 
successes,  met  with  one  reverse  after  another  and  continually  lost 
ground.  Many  causes  besides  the  declining  capacity  of  Edward  and 
his  son  contributed  to  this  result.  The  English  army  had  deteriorated 
from  the  fact  that  the  depleted  ranks  of  the  archers,  who  had  won  the 
earlier  battles,  were  filled  by  a  motley  throng  of  foreign  auxiliaries, 
Germans,  Flemings,  and  Gascons.  Moreover,  the  French  employed 
more  and  more  a  species  of  tactics  that  exhausted  their  adversaries. 
On  the  English  approach  they  wasted  the  land  round  about  and  took 
refuge  in  a  castle  or  walled  town.  On  the  other  hand,*Bertrand  du 
Guesclin  was  constantly  appearing  in  Aquitaine,  attacking  remote 
and  ill-defended  garrisons.  He  never  stayed  to  face  a  relieving  force, 
and  wore  out  the  defenders  of  the  land  in  futile  marches  and  pursuits. 
The  last  military  feat  of  the  Black  Prince  was  the  sack  of  Limoges, 
October,  1370.  He  was  so  weak  that  he  had  to  be  carried  on  a  litter. 
In  January  of  the  following  year  his  health  was  so  completely  shattered 
that  his  brother,  John  of  Gaunt  (so-calledjroriL Ghent,  his  birthplace^ 
was  chosen  as  his  successor.  John  had  already  inclined  his  father  the 
King  to  set  up  a  court  of  appeal  in  Gascony  to  abate  the  taxes  and  to 
repeal  the  unfortunate  hearth  tax.  These  belated  measures,  however, 
had  only  weakened  the  authority  of  the  Prince  instead  of  conciliating 


206  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

his  subjects.  Bertrand  du  Guesclin,  now  Constable  of  France,  em- 
ployed his  harassing  methods  to  perfection  on  a  wider  scale.  He  hung 
on  the  flanks  of  invading  armies,  he  annoyed  them  by  petty  surprises, 
he  wasted  the  lands  on  their  line  of  march,  and  continued  to  avoid 
pitched  battles.  At  length  negotiations  for  peace  were  reopened,  but 
both  sides  were  so  stiff-necked  that  nothing  more  than  a  truce  resulted, 
which,  by  renewal,  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  reign,  when  all  that  re- 
mained of  the  former  vast  conquests  of  the  English  were  Bordeaux, 
Bayonne,  Calais,  and  Brest. 

Increasing  Discontent  in  England.  The  Good  Parliament,  1376.  — 
Owing  to  the  burden  of  taxation,  the  ill  success  of  the  war,  and  general 
maladministration,  public  discontent  grew  steadily.  Proceedings  in 
Parliament  show  that  the  Church  was  coming  in  for  a  share  of  the 
attacks.  In  1371  a  lord,  described  as  "  more  skillful  than  the  rest," 
proposed  that,  in  time  of  need,  the  goods  of  the  clergy  should  be  seized 
as  the  common  property  of  the  kingdom.1  As  yet,  however,  the  chief 
opposition,  led  by  the  Black  Prince,  was  directed  against  the  court 
party,  particularly  John  of  Gaunt  and  Alice  Perrers.  It  came  to  a 
head  in  the  "  Good  Parliament "  which  met  in  1376.  The  session, 
lasting  from  28  April  until  6  July,  was  very  important  as  an  index 
of  the  popular  excitement  and  the  growing  power  of  the  Commons, 
though  the  measures  of  reform  that  were  undertaken  scarcely  survived 
the  dissolution.  The  object  of  calling  the  Parliament  was  to  obtain 
money  for  continuing  the  war;  this  gave  an  opportunity  to  assert 
again  the  principle  that  redress  of  grievances  should  precede  supplies. 
^The  first  step  of  the  Commons  was  to  secure  a  committee  of  twelve 
magnates  —  four  bishops,  four  earls,  and  four  barons  —  to  assist 
them  in  their  deliberations^  Their  next  step  was  to  choose  as  their 
leader  Sir  Peter  de  la^Mjire.2  He  demanded  an  audit  of  accounts, 
and  proceeo^e^'to'Tay^arethe  iniquities  of  the  King's  counselors,  to 
whom  he  attributed  the  national  poverty.  Among  the  frauds  which 
he  enumerated  was  the  custom  of  the  courtiers  of  buying  the  King's 
debts  at  a  low  figure  and  then  obtaining  the  full  amount,  or  even  more, 
from  the  treasury.  John  of  Gaunt  tried  to  avert  the  attacks  of  these 
"  upstart  hedge  knights  "  by  an  adjournment,  but  when  he  was 
reminded  that  they  were  backed  by  the  Black  Prince  and  the  citizens 
of  London,  he  agreed  to  hear  their  further  complaints  and  the  remedies 
they  might  suggest. 

The  First  Parliamentary  Impeachments,  1376.  —  The  leading 
offenders  were  mentioned  by  name  and  brought  to  account.  William, 
Lord  Latimer,  the  King's  Chamberlain,  wras  accused  of  buying  up  debts, 
of  extorting  huge  sums,  of  selling  strong  places  to  the  enemy,  and  of 
intercepting  fines  which  should  have  been  paid  into  the  royal  treasury. 

1  His  speech  is  notable  for  a  quaint  comparison ;  he  represented  the  Church  as 
an  owl  dressed  in  feathers  of  other  birds.  On  the  approach  of  the  hawk  they  asked 
back  their  gifts ;  when  the  owl  refused,  they  seized  them  by  force. 

1  Sir  Thomas  Hungerford  was  the  first  to  receive  the  title  of  "Speaker"  in  1377. 


THE  REIGN  OF  EDWARD   III  207 

Richard  Lyons,  a  London  merchant  and  former  farmer  of  the  customs, 
had  been  associated  with  him  in  various  frauds ;  on  one  occasion  they 
had  lent  the  King  20,000  marks  and  received  back  £20,000 ;  they  had 
forestalled  the  markets  at  ports  and  raised  the  price  of  foreign  imports. 
On  these  charges  they  were  impeached.  This  is  notable  as  the  begin- 
ning of  impeachments,  a  process  which  consists  of  a  trial  by  the  House  of 
Lords  on  the  basis  of  an  accusation  brought  by  the  Commons  against  a" 
public  official  for  a  public  offense.  Both  Latimer  and  Lyons  were 
convicted.  They  made  a  vain  attempt  to  obtain  a  pardon  by  bribing 
the  King  and  the  Black  Prince,  though  the  King  accepted  the  money 
with  the  jest  that  he  was  but  taking  his  own.  They  were  sentenced  to 
imprisonment  and  forfeiture.  Latimer  was  released  on  bail  and,  in  the 
long  run,  managed  to  elude  the  execution  of  his  sentence  after  all. 

The  Death  of  the  Black  Prince,  1376.  —  In  the  midst  of  the  session 
the  Black  Prince  died,  6  June,  1376.  Only  forty-five  years  old,  he  had 
outlived  the  period  of  his  success  as  a  general.  He  was  a  brave  and 
dashing  soldier,  he  had  won  brilliant  victories;  but  they  were  due 
rather  to  the  blunders  of  his  enemies  and  the  efficiency  of  the  English 
archers  than  to  any  ability  of  his  as  a  tactician  or  strategist.  His 
illness  withdrew  him  from  the  French  war  in  time  to  save  his  waning 
reputation,  for  it  is  unlikely  that  he  would  have  proved  equal  to  the 
combined  wisdom  of  Charles  V  and  du  Guesclin.  His  barbarous  raids 
and  the  cruel  massacre  at  Limoges  are  dark  blots  on  his  character; 
his  chivalry  was  of  the  artificial  type  then  prevalent,  and  was  actuated 
by  no  real  gentleness  or  humanity.  Yet  his  patience  in  suffering  and 
his  manful  fight  against  corruption  and  misgovernment,  even  if  im- 
pelled by  hostility  against  his  brother,  made  him  deservedly  popular. 

The  Reforms  of  the  Good  Parliament  frustrated  by  John  of  Gaunt. 
—  Although  the  reform  party  attempted  some  important  work  during 
the  remaining  weeks  of  the  session,  the  work  of  the  Good  Parliament 
died  with  the  Black  Prince.  His  older  brother,  John  of  Gaunt,  now 
gained  the  ascendancy,  and  caused  the  late  Parliament  to  be  declared 
no  Parliament.  A  new  one,  which  met  27  January,  1377,  was 
wholly  under  his  influence.  This  is  the  first  of  the  "  packed_parlia- 
ments,"  so-called  because  composed  largely  of  members  pleHgebTto  do 
'  the  will  of  the  Government.  The  necessity  of  such  an  expedient  is  a 
striking  evidence  of  the  growing  power  of  the  Commons.  Alice  Perrers, 
driven  from  court  when  Latimer  and  Lyons  were  brought  to  account, 
was  allowed  to  return,  the  acts  against  her  and  Lord  Latimer  were 
reversed,  and  a  poll  tax  —  "  hitherto  unheard  of  "  —  of  a  groat  a  head 
was  imposed. 

Festivities  for  the  New  Prince  of  Wales,  1377.  —  A  pleasing  incident 
in  this  stormy  political  struggle  was  a  grand  Christmas  feast  held  at  the 
palace  of  Westminster,  in  1376,  by  the  old  King,  when  Richard,  son  of 
the  Black  Prince  and  recently  created  Prince  of  Wales,  was  formally 
invested  with  the  succession.  It  was  King  Edward's  last  appearance 
in  public.  On  the  Sunday  before  Candlemas  (2  February)  a  body  of 


2o8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

London  citizens  prepared  a  quaint  entertainment  or  "  mummery  " 
for  the  little  Prince.  Masked  and  disguised  as  knights  and  esquires, 
with  others  to  represent  the  Emperor,  Pope,  and  cardinals,  they  rode 
to  Kensington  Palace  near  Lambeth  and  played  with  him  for  rich 
gifts  which  they  caused  him  to  win  by  means  of  loaded  dice.  Then 
followed  a  mirthful  feast  and  dancing. 

John  Wiclif  (d.  1384).  — John  of  Gaunt,  head  of  a  corrupt  court 
clique,  was  opposed  to  clerical  ascendancy,  and  in  his  struggle  against 
it  took  to  himself  a  curious  ally.  This  wras  John  Wiclif,  the  first 
English  jreforai6,1"-  Born  some  time  about  1324,  in  Yorkshire,  Wiclif 
had  passed  most  of  his  life  at  Oxford  as  a  student  and  teacher  of  the- 
ology. In  course  of  time,  however,  he  began  to  supplement  his  aca- 
demic by  pastoral  work ;  he  held  various  livings,  the  last  of  which  was 
the  rectory  of  Lutterworth,  which  he  occupied  from  1374  till  his  death. 
Also  in  1374  he  was  appointed  one  of  a  royal  commission  to  treat  with 
papal  legates  at  Bruges  concerning  disputes  between  the  Crown  and 
Gregory  XI  in  the  matter  of  clerical  appointments.  Here  he  came  to 
know  John  of  Gaunt.  Finding  that  Wiclif  had  been  for  some  time 
occupied  in  framing  views  on  the  relations  between  the  spiritual  and 
the  temporal  power  of  the  Church,  John  undertook  to  make  use  of  him 
in  his  battle  against  ecclesiastical  influence  in  political  affairs.  His 
first  appearance  in  politics  was  shortly  before  the  meeting  of  the  Good 
Parliament,  when  he  published  a  treatise  against  the  papal  claim  to 
collect  arrears  of  the  annual  tribute  promised  by  King  John.  No 
payment  had  been  made  since  the  accession  of  Edward  III,  and 
Wiclif  was  but  voicing  protests  made  in  Parliament  as  early  as  1366 
against  its  renewal.  Convocation,  which  met  with  Parliament  in  the 
winter,  determined  to  call  the  reformer  to  account,  primarily  to  strike 
a  blow  at  his  champion.  On  19  February,  1377,  he  appeared  before 
the  assembled  bishops  at  St.  Paul's,  accompanied  by  Duke  John  and 
by  Henry  Percy,  the  Earl  Marshal.  The  trial  broke  up,  owing  to  a 
fierce  quarrel  between  his 'notable  supporters  and  William  Courtenay, 
the  Bishop  of  London,  first  because  they  pushed  their  way  rudely 
through  the  crowd,  and  then  because  they  insisted  that  their  charge 
should  sit  down  during  the  proceedings.  The  London  mob  who  hated 
John  and  the  Marshal,  because  of  encroachments  on  the  privileges  of 
the  city,  took  the  side  of  their  bishop.  The  next  day  the  uproar 
became  so  great  that  John  of  Gaunt  had  to  flee.  The  enemies  of 
Wiclif  next  applied  to  the  Pope,  who,  22  May,  issued  a  series  of  bulls 
against  him,  directed  to  the  University  of  Oxford,  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  the  Bishop  of  London,  but  they  did  not  arrive  till 
the  beginning  of  the  new  reign. 

Death  of  Edward  III,  1377.  Inglorious  End  of  his  Reign.  —  Since 
the  great  Christmas  feast  of  1376  the  old  King  had  remained  in  retire- 
ment. When  it  was  certain  that  the  end  was  near,  Alice  Perrers  stripped 
the  rings  from  his  fingers  and  fled.  The  courtiers  about  him  followed 
suit,  and  Edward  III,  once  the  glory  of  his  generation,  passed  away, 


THE  REIGN  OF  EDWARD  III  209 

21  June,  in  the  sixty-fifth  year  of  his  age  and  the  fifty-first  of  his  reign, 
deserted  except  for  a  single  priest,  who  remained  out  of  compassion  to 
minister  the  last  offices  of  the  Church.  The  pomp  and  circumstance, 
the  chivalrous  ideal,  the  strong  personal  power  of  the  monarch  had 
faded  away  before  Edward's  body  passed  to  the  grave.  New  forces, 
economic  discontent,  political  opposition,  and  religious  revolt,  and  the 
birth  of  a  new  literature  were  already  struggling  into  being ;  but  how 
they  grew  and  what  they  meant  was  not  left  for  him  to  see. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Ramsay,  Genesis  of  Lancaster,  I,  chs.  XI-XXIX;  II,  chs.  I- VII. 
Vickers,  England  in  the  Later  Middle  Ages,  chs.  IX-XIII;  Tout,  Political  History, 
chs.  XV-XVIII.  Stubbs,  Constitutional  History,  II,  ch.  XVI.  William  Longman, 
The  Life  and  Times  of  Edward  III  (2  vols.,  1869).  James  Mackinnon,  The  History 
of  Edward  III  (1900).  C.  H.  Pearson,  English  History  in  the  Fourteenth  Century 
(1876).  For  a  good  brief  account  of  the  period  see  William  Warburton,  Edward 
III  (1887). 

S.  Armitage  Smith,  John  of  Gaunt  (1904).  R.  P.  Dunn-Pattison,  The  Black  Prince 
(1910).  Both  scholarly  biographies.  G.  M.  Trevelyan,  England  in  the  Age  of 
Wycliffe  (1899)  gives  an  interesting  account  of  political,  social,  and  religious  his- 
tory in  the  last  years  of  Edward  III  and  the  early  years  of  Richard  II.  There  are 
various  translations  of  Froissart's  famous  chronicle;  the  best  is  that  of  Lord  Berners 
(1523-1525),  reprinted  in  Tudor  Translations  (1901),  and  there  is  a  useful  abridg- 
ment by  G.  C.  Macaulay  and  another  in  Everyman's  Library  (1906). 

Selections  from  the  sources.     Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  56-83. 

THE  KINGS  OF  FRANCE,  987-1380,  AND  THE  CLAIM  OF  EDWARD  III  TO  THE 
FRENCH  CROWN 
HUGH  CAPET,  987-996 
ROBERT  I,  996-1031 
HENRY  1, 1031-1060 
PHILIP  I,  1060-1108 
Louis  VI,  1108-1137 

Louis  VII,  1137-1180 

I 
PHILIP  II  (Augustus),  1180-1223 

Louis  VIII,  1223-1226  (invader  of  England,  1216) 
(Saint)  Louis  IX,  1226-1270 

PHILIP  III,  1270-1285 

I 


PHILIP  IV  (the  Fair),  1285-1314  Charles  of  Valois 


1  I  I  I 

Louis  X,       PHILIP  V,       CHARLES  IV,       ISABELLA, 
1314-1316      1316-1322          1322-1328       m.  Edward  II 

Edward  III  JOHN  II, 

1350-1364 


|  I 

JOHN  I,  d.  1316       Joan,  Queen  of  Navarre        CHARLES  V,  1364-1380 

Charles  the  Bad 


CHAPTER  XIII 

LIFE  IN  ENGLAND  UNDER  THE   FIRST  THREE  EDWARDS, 

(1272-1377) 

Parliamentary  Gains  in  the  Fourteenth  Century.  —  In  the  last 
decade  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  general  principles  had  been  deter- 
mined that  the  three  estates  of  the  realm  should  be  represented  in 
Parliament,  and  that  all  taxes,  except  those  sanctioned  by  custom, 
should  be  granted  by  this  body.  It  was  the  problem  of  the  fourteenth 
century  to  work  out  in  detail  these  general  principles,  to  determine, 
for  instance,  the  form  into  which  the  representatives  of  the  estates 
should  organize  themselves,  to  prevent  the  sovereign  from  evading  in 
particular  instances  the  general  limitations  placed  upon  the  taxing 
power  and  to  assert  the  rights  of  Parliament  in  legislation.  The 
separation  into  two  Houses  and  their  success  in  preventing  the  King 
from  collecting  subsidies  and  tallages  without  their  consent  have 
already  been  considered.  Other  gains  remain  to  be  pointed  out.  1111373 
Parliament  began  to  grant  the  King  tonnage  and  poundage.  These 
were  customs  on  wine  and  merchandise.  For  nearly  three  centuries 
they  furnished  an  important  supplement  to  tenths  and  fifteenths,1 
the  normal  form  of  direct  taxes,  also  granted  by  Parliament.  In  1334 
the  amount  of  one  tenth  and  fifteenth  was  fixed  at  £39,000.  The 
popular  cry  was  that  the  King  should  "  live  of  his  own  "  and  in  mo- 
ments of  stress  apply  to  Parliament.  Even  in  ordinary  times,  however, 
the  regular  Crown  revenues  did  not  suffice,  and  parliamentary  grants 
to  meet  war  and  other  special  expenses  were,  as  a  rule,  grudging  and 
inadequate.  It  was  by  this  tight  hold  on  the  pursestrings  that  many 
liberties  and  privileges  were  secured  to  the  subject.  While  the 
King,  after  his  immediate  need  was  supplied,  repudiated  many  con- 
cessions that  were  wrung  from  him,  they  nevertheless  furnished  valu- 
able precedents  in  future  struggles.  One  great  step  in  advance  was 
the  share  which  the  Commons  gained  in  making  the  laws.  At  first 
they  had  little  or  no  initiative,  they  were  only  asked  to  give  their 
consent  to  bills  framed  by  the  King  and  Council.  Not  infrequently, 
too,  royal  ordinances  were  issued  which  had  the  force  of  law  without 
parliamentary  sanction.  But  the  subjects,  either  individually  or 
collectively,  enjoyed  the  right  of  presenting  petitions.  Gradually 
such  petitions  began  to  be  framed  and  presented  by  their  representa- 

1  So-called  because,  originally  and  usually,  they  consisted  of  a  tenth  of  the  rev- 
enues or  chattels  of  burgesses  and  a  fifteenth  from  the  landholders  of  shires. 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE  FIRST  THREE  EDWARDS     211 

tives  in  Parliament.  The  advantage  was  twofold :  action  was  con- 
certed, and  Parliament  could  enforce  its  demands  by  its  control  over 
money  grants.  In  1339  the  Commons  tried  the  experiment  of  putting 
off  the  voting  of  supplies  until  the  last  day  of  the  session,  and  by  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  practice  had  become  fixed. 
Another  important  step  was  the. successful  assertion  of  the  claim  that 
answers  to  petitions  should  be  enacted  into  law  in  the  exact  words  in 
which  they  were  originally  presented.  When  the  claim  was  finally 
recognized  under  Henry  VI,  the  Commons  had  secured  an  initiative  in 
legislation.  Altogether,  then,  the  fourteenth  century  was  a  time  of 
great  parliamentary  advance.  Parliament's  form  of  organization  was 
determined ;  it  had  greatly  curtailed  the  right  of  arbitrary  taxation ; 
it  had  come  to  be  consulted  in  public  business ;  it  had  claimed  a  voice 
in  the  appointment  of  Ministers  and  the  right  to  call  them  to  account ; 
it  had  deposed  one  King ;  before  the  close  of  the  century  it  deposed 
another  and  even  established  a  new  line  of  succession.  In  all  this 
the  Lords  were  not  the  sole  leaders ;  the  Commons  as  well  played  a 
significant  part.  Later  events  were  to  show  that  most  of  the  gains 
were  premature,  but  they,  nevertheless,  contributed  powerfully  to  the 
ultimate  progress  of  the  English  Constitution. 

Trade  and  Industry.  Passage  from  Local  to  Central  Control.  — 
The  commercial  and  industrial  advance  of  this  period  is  equally  note- 
worthy, in  the  growth  of  the  wool  trade,  in  English  shipping,  and  in  the 
remarkable  development  of  the  English  cloth  manufacture.  Up  to  the 
time  of  Edward  I  regulation  and  control  of  trade  were  largely  local,  and 
merchants  were  hampered  by  vexatious  restrictions.  Privileged  towns 
and  local  magnates  levied  tolls  on  all  goods  bought  and  sold  at  markets 
and  fairs,  that  entered  city  gates,  that  unloaded  at  wharves,  or  that 
passed  along  certain  roads.  Merchants  of  chartered  boroughs,  banded 
together  in  their  gilds,  enjoyed  exclusive  privileges  of  trading  within 
their  district.  Regulations  in  force  in  London  early  in  the  thirteenth 
century  show  that  the  alien  merchant  had  a  hard  time ;  he  had  to  live 
in  the  house  of  some  citizen,  he  could  only  buy  from  those  who  had 
the  freedom  of  the  city,  and  could  only  sell  to  others  than  citizens  on 
certain  days,  and  was  forbidden  to  engage  in  retail  trade  at  all.  Aside 
from  certain  royal  enactments  regulating  the  price  of  bread,  ale,  and 
cloth  there  was  no  central  control  whatever.  Henry  III  encouraged 
Lombard  and  Provencal  merchants  to  settle,  and  protected  them  in 
the  evasion  of  local  restrictions;  but  his  reign  was  not  a  period  of 
industrial  or  commercial  enterprise.  The  regulations  of  Edward  I, 
made  "  with  the  counsel  and  consent  of  the  Commons  of  England," 
mark  an  epoch.  The  towns  which  had  hitherto  treated  separately 
with  the  Crown  were  now  united  in  Parliament  to  secure  measures  for 
their  class  as  a  whole.  Edward  "  laid  the  foundations  of  a  system  of 
national  regulation  of  commerce  and  industry,"  and  by  his  work  made 
it  possible  for  his  grandson  to  develop  an  international  commerce. 
In  1275  he  agreed  with  his  Parliament  to  accept  a  fixed  toll  on  wools, 


212  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

woolfells,  leather,  and  upon  wine.  Similarly,  in  1303,  he  made  an 
agreement  with  the  foreign  merchants  by  which  he  gave  up  arbitrary 
exactions  on  imports  and  exports  in  return  for  fixed  charges.  He 
appointed  officers,  called  "  customers,"  to  collect  revenue  and  to  put 
down  smuggling,  and  to  aid  in  this  work  he  named  certain  towns, 
known  as  "  staples,"  to  which  all  trade  in  wool,  the  chief  commodity 
of  the  kingdom,  should  be  confined.  In  order  to  encourage  and  pro- 
tect those  engaged  in  traffic  he  enacted  better  and  more  general  police 
regulations,  and,  by  the  Statute  of  Merchants,  provided  security  for 
creditors.  Finally,  he  took  measures  for  a  purer  and  more  reliable 
currency,  and  had  tables  set  up  at  Dover,  where  all  merchants  and 
pilgrims  should  exchange  the  money  they  brought  in  for  the  coin  of  the 
realm. 

The  Foreign  Merchants  and  Foreign  Trade.  —  Both  Edward  I 
and  his  grandson  favored  the  Gascon  merchants  who  imported  wine 
and  the  Flemings  who  exported  wool.  While  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews 
and  the  ruin  of  the  Italians  under  the  burden  of  Edward  Ill's  debts 
threw  much  business  into  the  hands  of  the  natives,  and  while  great 
efforts  were  made  to  exclude  foreigners  from  the  English  retail  trade, 
the  bulk  of  the  foreign  commerce  was  carried  on  by  the  latter  till  the 
reign  of  Richard  II.  There  is  much  confusion  and  contradiction  in 
the  commercial  legislation  of  the  period  of  the  three  Edwards,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  as  yet  no  general  theories  on  the  subject  had  been 
evolved,  and  each  measure  enacted  was  largely  experimental.  The 
main  aim,  however,  was  to  make  exports  dear  and  imports  cheap 
rather  than  to  build  up  English  shipping  and  industry. 

The  Wool  Trade.  —  By  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  England 
had  come  to  be  the  great  wool-producing  country  of  Europe,  with  her 
chief  market  among  the  Flemish  weavers.  Accordingly,  various  at- 
tempts were  made  to  fix  the  towns  or  staples  where  the  wool  should 
be  sold.  Sometimes  they  were  in  England,  sometimes  in  the  Low 
Countries,  while  for  a  short  period  in  the  reign  trade  was  free  and  the 
staple  towns  were  done  away  with  altogether.  In  1362  the  staple 
was  removed  to  Calais,  where  it  remained,  except  for  short  intervals, 
till  the  town  passed  back  to  the  French  in  1558.  The  Hundred  Years' 
War  had  its  good  and  bad  effects  from  the  industrial  standpoint. 
Among  the  bad,  were  heavy  subsidies,  seizure  of  ships  and  wool  for 
the  King's  necessities,  insecurity  of  travel,  the  ruin  of  the  French 
markets,  and  the  withdrawal  of  artisans  from  their  craft.  Among 
the  good  were  the  settling  of  skilled  Flemish  weavers  in  England,  the 
capture  of  Calais  which  cleared  the  sea  of  pirates,  and  the  royal  needs 
which  made  the  King  pay  some  attention  to  the  trading  classes. 
Nevertheless,  the  export  of  wool  was  forbidden  when  the  King  wanted 
to  control  the  market,  and  only  encouraged  when  he  wanted  to  collect 
customs.  At  times  the  export  of  various  other  commodities  was  pro- 
hibited in  order  to  keep  down  the  price  in  England.  A  curious  ordi- 
nance of  1363  provides :  "  That  no  wines,  corn,  beer,  animals,  whether 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   FIRST  THREE   EDWARDS     213 

flesh  or  fowl,  horses,  clergy,  foreigners,  or  others"  should  be  allowed  to 
pass  out  of  the  kingdom  without  special  license.  In  the  case  of  wine 
the  Gascon  traders  were  encouraged  in  order  that  the  King,  the 
courtiers,  and  the  nobility  might  buy  as  cheaply  as  possible.  It  was 
not  till  1390  that  any  measures  were  taken  to  protect  English  shipping. 
The  statute,  which  provided  that  merchants  in  England  should  freight 
only  in  English  ships,  was  not  observed.  Thereupon  the  Commons  in 
the  following  year  petitioned  that,  since  the  navy  was  thus  greatly 
impaired,  goods  shipped  in  a  foreign  vessel,  when  an  English  one  was 
available,  should  be  forfeited.  The  King  made  the  petition  into  a 
statute ;  but  apparently  it  was  not  very  effective. 

The  Merchant  Marine  and  the  Navy.  —  The  native  shipper  in  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III  had  to  contend  against  great 
obstacles.  The  foreigner  and  the  King's  agent  was  greatly  favored 
at  his  expense,  and  he  was  generally  prohibited  from  exporting  wool 
out  of  the  country ;  even  when  the  staple  was  fixed  at  Calais,  he  could 
only,  as  a  rule,  take  it  across  the  Channel.  Moreover,  the  North  Sea 
was  swarming  with  pirates,  and  the  coast  towns  were  frequently  subject 
to  hostile  raids.  Indeed,  the  bold  seamen  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  when 
not  engaged  in  the  royal  service,  often  preyed  on  the  commerce  of  their 
countrymen.  But  the  sovereignty  of  the  narrow  seas  asserted  by 
Edward  I  was,  for  a  time  at  least,  made  a  reality  by  Edward  III  in 
consequence  of  his  naval  victories  and  the  capture  of  Calais.  For  a 
while  the  seas  were  better  policed  than  ever  before.  Piracy,  however, 
did  not.  altogether  disappear.  With  the  decline  of  Edward's  vigor 
the  navy  fell  into  decay,  and  the  English  shipping  and  port  towns  be- 
gan once  more  to  suffer.  The  reign  of  Richard  II  was  even  more  dis- 
astrous from  the  naval  and  commercial  point  of  view.  The  attempt 
to  build  up  English  shipping  by  navigation  acts  came  to  nothing.  The 
ships  of  merchants  were  seized  for  the  royal  necessities,  yet  the  navy 
was  even  more  neglected  than  in  the  last  years  of  Edward  III.  Dis- 
cipline was  lax,  trade  was  unprotected,  and  the  country  was  in  con- 
stant danger  of  invasion.  The  most  brilliant  achievements  on  the 
sea  were  due  to  the  patriotism  and  gallantry  of  individuals.  An 
interesting  indication  of  the  daring  of  English  seamen  is  the  legend  of  a 
voyage  made  toward  the  North  Pole  in  1360  by  Nicholas  of  Lynn,  a 
monk  of  Oxford,  skilled  in  navigation  and  astronomy.  The  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  too,  marked  the  appearance  of  the  famous 
Travels  in  Turkey,  Tartary,  Persia,  India,  Egypt,  and  the  Holy 
Land,  attributed  to  Sir  John  Mandeville.  Some  improvement  began 
to  be  made  in  ship  structure.  Two  masts  became  common,  and  the 
rudder  was  invented,  though  the  more  primitive  steering  paddle 
continued  in  use.  Cannon,  used  almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
were  a  common  part  of  the  ship's  armament  before  the  close  of  the 
reign. 

Regulation  of  Native  Industry  and  the  Advent  of  New  Industries.  — 
Careful  provision  was  made  to  prevent  fraud  in  particular  callings; 


214      v  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

for  instance,  a  royal  proclamation  of  1340  prohibited  the  London 
butchers  from  sewing  the  fat  of  good  beef  on  joints  of  lean.  In  1363 
merchants  were  required  to  deal  in  one  sort  of  merchandise  only,  and 
handicraftmen  to  keep  to  one  "  mystery,"  or  craft,  except  women  who 
were  engaged  in  such  callings  as  brewing,  baking,  spinning,  and  the 
like.  Edward's  frequent  prohibition  of  the  export  of  wool  did  much 
to  encourage  the  native  manufacture.  This  he  did  in  another  way  by 
encouraging  the  Flemish  weavers  to  come  over  to  exercise  their  craft 
and  to  teach  others.  There  had  been  migrations  from  Flanders  ever 
since  the  Norman  Conquest,  but,  owing  to  the  political  and  economic 
conditions  in  their  native  country,  the  weavers  now  came  in  such 
numbers  as  to  mark  a  new  epoch  in  the  development  of  English  cloth 
manufacture.  It  must  have  been  an  era  in  the  lives  of  the  newcomers 
to  leave  hard  churlish  masters  and  a  fare  of  moldy  herring  and  cheese 
for  a  cordial  welcome  and  good  beef  and  mutton. 

Sumptuary  Legislation.  Regulation  of  the  Coinage.  —  Edward  III 
enacted  various  sumptuary  laws  which  were  aimed  partly  to  protect 
native  industries  against  foreign  importations,  partly  to  check  extrav- 
agance and  promote  thrift.  Needless  to  say,  this  legislation  had 
reference  to  the  lesser  folk  who  had  begun  to  imitate  the  upper  classes 
in  elaborate  dress  and  costly  meats,  even  before  the  temporary  enrich- 
ment of  the  country  from  the  loot  of  the  French  wars.  Such  excesses 
"  sore  grieved  "  the  great  men  of  the  realm,  who  saw  "  evil  therein  " 
"  as  well  to  the  souls  as  bodies."  A  most  serious  one  in  their  eyes,  no 
doubt,  was  that  it  impoverished  the  subjects  so  that  they  were  "  not 
able  to  aid  themselves  nor  their  liege  lord  in  time  of  need."  Sumptu- 
ary laws  were  as  old  as  the  Romans,  and,  as  early  as  1281,  an  ordi- 
nance regulating  apparel  had  been  passed  in  London.  Edward's  laws 
were  frequent  and  far  reaching.  They  regulated  the  amount  and 
quality  of  food  a  man  should  eat,  they  forbade  any  but  members  of 
the  royal  family  to  wear  cloth  except  of  English  manufacture,  and 
regulated  the  apparel  of  every  class  in  the  community  from  the  servant 
and  the  handicraftsman  to  the  noble.  Laws  of  Edward  III,  too,  sup- 
plemented those  of  Edward  I  for  the  regulation  of  the  coinage.  Their 
main  objects  were  to  prevent  debasement  at  home,  the  introduction  of 
bad  money  from  abroad,  and  the  carrying  of  bullion  out  of  the  realm. 
Twenty  ports  were  selected  where  good  money  and  articles  of  plate 
brought  from  other  countries  might  be  exchanged  for  English  coin. 
The  face  adopted  on  Edward's  coins  was  a  conventional  one :  it  was 
not  till  Henry  VII  that  any  were  struck  that  resemble  the  sovereign. 
One  new  coin,  the  noble,  worth  6s.  Sd.,  was  introduced. 

The  Gilds.  —  The  artisan  class  in  the  fourteenth  century  seems  to 
have  been  in  a  very  prosperous  state.  To  a  considerable  degree  this 
was  due  to  the  protection  of  the  Crown  and  Parliament,  faulty  and 
inadequate  as  it  was.  Concurrently  with  this  central  regulation, 
however,  that  of  the  local  organizations  survived  to  some  extent. 
But  the  merchant  gilds  were  gradually  disappearing,  either  by  merging 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   FIRST  THREE  EDWARDS     215 

with  the  municipal  organization  or  with  the  various  crafts  gilds. 
In  this  period  London  had  some  fifty  separate  mysteries.  Division  of 
labor  was  still  highly  developed.  The  bow  maker  could  not  make 
arrows ;  the  cordwainer  made  shoes,  while  the  cobbler  patched  them. 
Each  gild  had  its  masters,  its  journeymen  who  worked  by  the  day,  and 
its  apprentices  who  paid  a  sum  of  money  and  in  return  were  taught  the 
trade  and  supplied  with  food,  drink,  and  clothing.  Every  craft  had  a 
court  with  elected  officers  to  regulate  trade  disputes.  In  the  craft  as 
well  as  in  the  older  merchant  gilds  the  religious,  benevolent,  and  social 
aspects  were  prominent.  They  had  patron  saints,  processions  on  holy 
days,  they  provided  money  for  masses  for  the  souls  of  dead  members, 
they  maintained  altar  lights  at  the  parish  church,  and  often  supported 
a  chaplain.  They  relieved  the  poverty  of  their  poorer  brethren  and 
their  families,  they  contributed  money  for  the  marriage  portion  of  the 
daughters  of  members  or  for  sending  them  into  nunneries.  Finally, 
periodical  feasts  were  an  essential  part  of  their  organization.  In  a 
word,  "  the  gild  in  its  various  forms  supplied  to  the  people  of  the  four- 
teenth century  local  clubs,  local  trade  unions,  and  local  friendly 
societies." 

Ordinances  against  Usury.  —  A  striking  feature  of  medieval 
economics  is  the  sentiment  against  "  usury,"  as  any  lending  of  money 
at  interest  was  called.  An  Ordinance  of  1363  denounces  it  as  a  "  false 
and  abominable  contract,  under  colour  and  cover  of  good  and  lawful 
trading,"  which  "  ruins  the  honour  and  soul  of  the  agent,  and  sweeps 
away  the  goods  and  property  of  him  who  appears  to  be  accommo- 
dated." To  understand  this  attitude  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
business  conditions  were  quite  different  from  those  of  later  times. 
There  were  no  credit  systems  or  banks  in  the  modern  sense.  Money 
was  seldom  borrowed  except  for  emergencies  —  to  build  a  church  or  a 
monastery,  to  pay  taxes  suddenly  imposed,  to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  or 
crusade,  to  fit  out  a  military  expedition.  Rates  were  too  high  to  make 
borrowing  for  commercial  purposes  profitable,  and  the  usual  practice 
for  a  man  without  capital  who  wanted  to  embark  on  a  venture  was  to 
form  a  partnership  with  another  to  furnish  the  money  and  share  the 
risk.  The  nearest  approach  to  bankers  were  brokers  who  brought  the 
borrowers  and  lenders  together,  and  they  are  severely  dealt  with  by  the 
Ordinance  of  1363.  The  medieval  borrower  could  not  see  why,  if  he 
furnished  security  and  paid  his  loan  at  the  appointed  time,  he  should 
give  more  than  he  had  received  to  one  who  had  incurred  no  risk. 
Should  he  cause  his  creditor  inconvenience  by  failing  to  keep  his 
agreement,  then  and  then  only  was  he  prepared  to  pay  interest. 
Money  lending,  then,  was  regarded  as  a  barren  employment  of  funds 
which  the  lender  might  otherwise  invest  in  a  partnership  where  he 
shared  in  the  legitimate  gains  and  risks. 

Agriculture.  Increasing  Substitution  of  Rents  for  Services.  In- 
closures.  —  The  tendency  to  commute  the  personal  services  of  villein 
cultivators  into  money  rents,  already  evident  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 


216  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tury,  became  marked  in  the  fourteenth.  Lords  and  bailiffs  preferred 
to  hire  laborers  rather  than  to  depend  upon  unwilling  service.  More- 
over, the  pomp  and  ceremony  of  chivalry,  the  increasing  luxury,  and 
the  demands  of  building  called  for  ready  money.  More  and  more,  too, 
sheep  raising  began  to  be  substituted  for  tillage.  This  was  due  to  two 
causes :  to  the  widening  market  for  wool  both'  at  home  and  abroad, 
and  to  the  scarcity  of  labor  after  the  Black  Death.  This  resulted  in 
"  enclosing,"  so  called  from  the  means  taken  to  prevent  the  sheep  from 
straying.  Both  arable  land  and  the  old  common  fields  were  appro- 
priated by  the  lords  for  their  purpose.  As  the  population  began  to 
recover  during  the  next  two  centuries  inclosing  began  to  be  regarded 
as  a  hardship  because  it  required  much  land  and  few  laborers  and 
took  from  the  tillers  of  the  soil  their  means  of  subsistence. 

Life  of  the  People.  Lawlessness.  Justices  of  the  Peace.  —  The 
population  of  England,  probably  not  over  3,000,000  just  before  the 
Black  Death,  sank  to  less  than  2,000,000  after  the  first  visitation  of 
the  scourge.  Conditions  were  still  primitive  when  cows  could  be 
strangled  by  wolves  in  Lincolnshire.  The  state  of  the  country  was  so 
lawless  that  merchants  had  to  travel  in  large  parties  accompanied  by 
armed  horsemen  for  security.  The  woods  were  full  of  outlaws  who 
robbed  all  who  came  their  way,  and  even  on  occasion  seized  the  King's 
judges  and  held  them  for  ransom.  Some  were  even  bold  enough  to 
force  their  way  into  the  law  courts  and  overawe  the  justices.  The 
nobles,  instead  of  aiding  to  put  them  down,  often  kept  such  ruffians 
in  their  pay  and  protected  them,  a  custom  which  soon  became  wide- 
spread under  the  name  of  "livery  and  maintenance."1  London 
itself  was  not  free  from  disorders.  It  is  evident  from  a  law  of  1332 
that  it  was  a  favorite  amusement  of  boys  to  knock  off  the  hats  of 
pedestrians  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  palace  of  Westminster.  One 
means  of  keeping  order  was  the  establishment  of  the  justices  of  the 
peace  in  1362,  when  they  were  empowered  to  hold  four  sessions  a  year, 
known  as  "  quarter  sessions,"  to  try  certain  classes  of  cases  less  serious 
than  those  reserved  for  the  King's  judges.  Descendants  of  the  old 
custodians  or  keepers  of  the  peace,  already  in  1344  any  two  or  more 
had  been  intrusted  with  judicial  functions.  They  were  chosen  from 
the  best  county  families  and  from  the  borough  magistrates  and  served 
without  pay.  Besides  keeping  the  peace  and  trying  smaller  offenders, 
all  the  duties  of  local  administration  came  to  be  loaded,  upon  them, 
such  as  carrying  out  the  Statutes  of  Laborers  and  the  later  Poor  Laws. 
Punishments  were  barbarous,  aiming  at  retribution  and  vengeance 
rather  than  prevention  of  crime.  Prisoners  were  thrown,  sometimes 
naked,  into  horrible  dungeons,  dark,  damp,  indescribably  filthy,  often 
partly  filled  with  water  and  swarming  with  rats  and  vermin.  Their 

1  "Livery"  comes  from  the  provisions  and  clothes  which  were  delivered  as  pay, 
and  was  later  applied  to  the  badge  worn  by  such  retainers,  and  has  survived  in 
the  modern  servants'  uniforms.  "Maintenance"  came  from  the  lord's  custom  of 
"maintaining"  or  supporting  the  suits  of  his  servants  in  court. 


ENGLAND   UNDER   THE   FIRST  THREE   EDWARDS     217 

usual  fare  was  moldy  bread  and  stagnant  water.  Lesser  offenders 
were  put  in  the  stocks,  a  heavy  board  with  holes  for  the  ankles,  some- 
times for  the  neck  and  wrists  as  well,  frequently  with  no  other  support 
for  the  unfortunate  victim.  Torture  was  common  to  make  the 
accused  confess,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  the  peine  forte  et  dure,  to  make 
him  submit  to  jury  trial.  The  horrible  practice  of  breaking  on  the 
wheel,  where  a  man  was  stretched  out  and  his  limbs  broken  with  an 
iron  bar,  was  not  unknown.  Hanging  was  most  common,  and  as 
towns  and  local  lords  had  this  right,  gallows  were  often  seen,  gruesome 
spots  on  the  landscape.  In  cases  of  treason  a  man  was  cut  down 
while  his  body  was  still  warm,  and  his  bowels  were  drawn  or  taken 
out  and  burned,  and  his  body  quartered. 

Lack  of  Individual  Freedom.  Training  of  Children.  —  What  with 
royal  regulation,  town,  and  gild  and  church  regulation,  the  individual 
had  very  little  freedom.  It  was  natural  that  children  should  not 
escape.  "  A  child  were  better  to  be  unborn,"  it  was  said,  "  than  to 
be  untaught,"  and  numerous  rhymed  treatises  were  composed  for  their 
guidance.  The  boy  was  directed  what  to  do  from  the  time  he  got  up 
in  the  morning  till  he  went  to  bed  at  night,  how  he  should  dress,  how 
he  should  eat ;  how  he  should  act  on  his  way  to  school  —  he  was  to 
greet  passers-by,  not  to  throw  stones  at  hogs  and  dogs,  not  to  run 
away  bird-nesting  —  and  how  he  should  act  in  school  if  he  got  there. 
Equally  minute  were  the  directions  to  girls ;  some  of  the  injunctions 
we  should  think  rather  out  of  place,  such  as  those  against  attending 
cockfights  and  wrestling  matches  and  against  excessive  drinking. 

Eating  and  Drinking  and  Recreations.  —  Eating  and  drinking  were 
most  immoderate,  and  only  the  open-air  Sfe  and  exercise  made  it 
possible  for  medieval  English  folk  to  digest  the  huge  quantities  they 
consumed.  They  had  no  tea  or  coffee  and  little  fresh  meat  or  vege- 
tables, now  regarded  as  necessities.  Their  fare,  however,  was  not 
coarse  and  simple.  Medieval  cookbooks  and  kitchen  utensils  show 
that  there  were  all  sorts  of  dishes  highly  spiced,  complicated,  and 
delicate.  Nevertheless,  the  medieval  Englishman  relished  many 
things  that  would  hardly  tempt  the  modern  palate,  such  as  hedge- 
hogs, swans,  peacocks,  rooks,  porpoises,  and  sparrows.  Fast  days 
meant  merely  a  change  from  meat  to  fish.  Ale  was  the  drink  of  the 
lower  classes,  while  kings  and  nobles  regaled  themselves  on  costly 
wines  from  abroad.  The  monotony  was  varied  by  various  elaborate 
concoctions  such  as  mead  and  posset.  Owing  to  defective  means  of 
lighting,  meals  were  still  very  early.  Considering  the  coarseness  of  the 
times  and  the  heavy  drinking,  it  is  no  wonder  that  many  feasts  were 
nothing  more  than  carousals  which  broke  up  in  fighting  that  some- 
times proved  fatal.  Yet  there  were  many  peaceful  diversions:  the 
tales  of  knights  who  had  journeyed  or  fought  in  France  or  the  Holy 
Land,  songs  of  minstrels,  feats  of  jugglers,  and  dancing.  Then  there 
were  games  too :  dice ;  tables,  resembling  our  modern  backgammon ; 
chess,  learned  first  from  the  Saracens;  and  cards.  The  latter  were 


218  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

introduced  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  from  the  process  of  marking 
them  printing  developed.  For  the  younger  and  more  active  there  were 
hoodman  blind,  forfeits,  whipping  the  top,  and  ninepins,  to  mention 
a  few  which  have  survived.  The  chief  resource  of  women  was  spin- 
ning, weaving,  embroidery,  and  sewing,  while  the  men  devoted  much  of 
their  time  to  hunting  and  hawking.  Edward  II  and  Edward  III  were 
particularly  fond  of  the  mummeries,  which  took  the  place  of  the  theater 
in  those  days ;  the  mummers  parading  about  in  strange  masks  repre- 
senting lions,  elephants,  or  dressed  as  bats  and  satyrs  with  men's 
heads.  "  Round  tables  "  came  to  be  a  common  accompaniment  of 
the  more  elaborate  tournaments.  These  were  great  feasts  at  a  table 
arranged  around  the  walls  of  the  room,  the  guests  sitting  with  their 
backs  to  the  wall  facing  a  central  space,  where  the  minstrels  and  servers 
stood.  Chivalry  was  greatly  fostered  by  the  custom  of  sending  young 
boys  and  girls  to  serve  as  pages  or  maids  at  Court  or  at  the  castles  of 
great  nobles.  Here  the  page  learned  the  code  of  gentleness  and  cour- 
tesy which  were  the  ideal  of  the  medieval  knight. 

Warfare.  —  The  two  great  innovations  in  the  method  of  conduct- 
ing war  under  the  Edwards  were  the  long  bow,  and  cannon  with  gun- 
powder. The  former,  first  used  in  the  Welsh  and  the  Scotch  wars  of 
Edward  I,  won  a  European  renown  at  Crecy  and  Poitiers.  The  fatal 
cloth-yard  shaft  could  not  only  break  up  a  charging  squadron  by  killing 
or  wounding  the  imperfectly  protected  horses,  but  it  penetrated  the 
joints  of  the  horseman's  armor  or,  if  it  struck  fair,  even  the  plate  itself. 
In  seeking  to  meet  this  danger  by  thickening  the  plate,  the  armor  be- 
came so  unwieldy  as  to  incapacitate  the  wearer.  An  unhorsed  knight 
could  not  rise  without  help,  and  often  he  was  stifled  by  the  sheer  weight 
of  his  own  defense.  Gunpowder  completed  what  the  long  bow  had 
done  to  overthrow  the  old  system.  The  assertion  that  cannons  were 
used  by  the  English  at  Crecy  has  not  passed  without  question.  The 
Black  Prince  had  cannon  on  his  northern  raid,  though  he  did  not  use 
them  at  Poitiers.  Probably  Edward  III  employed  them  at  Calais, 
though  it  was  some  time  before  they  became  effective  in  sieges,  and 
still  longer  before  they  played  any  part  in  field  engagements. 

Travel,  Kings,  Nobles,  Clergy,  Merchants,  and  Minstrels.  —  In 
spite  of  the  badness  of  roads  and  bridges  there  was  much  traveling  in 
fourteenth-century  England.  The  King,  the  nobles,  and  bishops, 
made  stately  progresses,  accompanied  by  imposing  retinues  of  horse- 
men, and,  notwithstanding  the  statutes  limiting  purveyance,1  dealt 
havoc  with  the  goods  of  the  lesser  folk.  At  their  approach  people 
fled  to  hide  their  fowls  and  eggs  and  such  other  produce  as  their  lords 
might  seize.  Merchants  traveled  about  to  buy  and  sell  at  the  various 
fairs  and  staple  towns,  and  abbots  and  monks  journeyed  from  mon- 
astery to  monastery  on  business  connected  with  their  orders.  Most 
of  the  better  sort  rode  on  horseback.  Luggage  and  goods  too  were 

1  The  right  of  seizing  goods  for  the  royal  necessities. 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE  FIRST  THREE  EDWARDS     219 

carried  on  horses  and  mules ;  though  great  ladies  were  beginning  to 
use  litters  and  carriages,  cumbersome  and  gorgeously  ornamented. 
The  mass  of  the  people  traveled  on  foot.  There  were  peddlers  who 
supplied  the  country  folk,  there  were  strolling  players,  minstrels,  and 
jugglers.  On  great  occasions  the  minstrels  flocked  together  from 
every  part  of  western  Christendom.  At  the  marriage  of  Edward  I's 
daughter,  for  instance,  no  less  than  four  hundred  and  twenty-six  were 
present.  Some,  of  course,  were  regularly  attached  to  royal  and 
baronial  households,  and  in  many  cities  were  gilds  or  brotherhoods, 
formed  for  "  well-ordered  gaity,"  with  rules  for  membership,  singing 
contests,  and  processions.  Most  of  the  singers,  however,  were  wan- 
dering vagabonds  who  combined  tumbling  and  sleight-of-hand  per- 
formances with  minstrelsy.  They  were  often  newsmongers,  spies, 
and  stirrers-up  of  revolt. 

Beggars,  Friars,  and  Pilgrims.  —  In  addition  there  were  hosts  of 
beggars  and  wandering  laborers  whom  the  statutes  failed  to  check. 
More  numerous  still  were  those  who  claimed  to  be  servants  of  God 
and  the  Church.  Even  the  hermits  no  longer  sought  solitary  places ; 
but  settled  along  frequented  roads  to  ask  alms  of  the  passers-by. 
The  strolling  friars  were  as  great  a  nuisance  as  any.  Once  they  had 
rendered  manful  service  in  the  care  of  the  poor  and  the  furthering  of 
education;  but  the  majority  had  become  lazy  and  corrupt.  They 
thrust  themselves  as  guests  on  the  houses  they  passed,  eating  and 
drinking  immoderately;  they  lowered  their  sacred  calling  by  acting 
as  vendors  of  news  and  small  wares ;  and  encroached  upon  the  parish 
priests  by  assuming  the  rights  to  confess  members  of  their  flocks.  In 
spite  of  the  denunciations  of  reformers  and  of  ecclesiastical  authorities 
who  had  no  control  over  them,  they  continued  undisturbed  till  the 
Reformation.  Besides  the  friars  there  were  the  pardoners  who  acted 
as  special  agents  of  the  Church  for  the  remission  of  sins,  which  they 
sold  for  money,  and  who  supported  their  claims  by  exhibiting  curious 
relics  of  doubtful  pedigree.  The  roads  were  also  crowded  with  pil- 
grims on  their  way  to  or  from  some  holy  place.  Their  object  was  to 
perform  a  vow,  to  obtain  answer  to  a  prayer,  or  to  visit  the  shrine  of 
some  famous  saint.  The  two  most  popular  shrines  in  England  were 
those  of  St.  Thomas  at  Canterbury,  and  of  Our  Lady  of  Walsingham, 
where  there  was  a  wondrous  miracle-working  statue  of  the  Virgin. 
Many  even  went  to  Rome  or  the  Holy  Land.  The  professional  pil- 
grim or  palmer  wore  a  special  form  of  dress  and  carried  a  scrip  for  food 
and  a  bottle.  Many  inducements  were  offered  him  beside  the  hope 
of  divine  favor ;  he  was  exempt  from  tolls,  his  person  was  protected, 
and  he  received  free  food  and  shelter  along  the  road.  In  course  of 
time  others  joined  in  pilgrimages  from  varying  motives.  "  Some 
went  like  gypsies  to  a  fair,  to  gather  money ;  some  went  for  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  journey,  and  the  merriment  of  the  road."  Like  other  stroll- 
ers they  were  welcomed  as  bringers  of  news  and  letters.  They  told 
of  the  marvelous  relics  they  had  seen,  such  as  a  portion  of  the  burning 


220  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

bush  whence  the  Lord  had  appeared  to  Moses,  one  of  the  stones  which 
slew  St.  Stephen,  and  many  more.  In  spite  of  the  superstition  and 
trickery  which  they  fostered,  these  pilgrimages  were  of  immense  value. 
They  drew  people  together,  broke  down  local  prejudice,  spread  news 
and  civilization,  fostered  commerce,  and  gave  a  holiday  to  many  who 
would  have  got  it  in  no  other  way. 

Accommodation  for  Travelers. — Travelers  were  accommodated  in 
different  ways.  The  King  and  his  retinue  might  be  billeted  on  the 
inhabitants  of  places  along  their  road.  Monasteries  dispensed  hos- 
pitality to  all  classes ;  frequently  they  had  a  guest  house  outside  the 
walls  for  the  humbler  folk.  In  many  towns  there  were  lodgings,  the 
keepers  of  which  were  employed  by  the  burghers  to  lure  customers  to 
them.  In  the  country  there  were  vacant  buildings  where  merchants 
got  shelter  for  the  night,  providing  their  own  food  and  bedding ;  such 
places  were  called  "  cold  harbors."  The  inns  were  patronized  chiefly 
by  merchants.  Although  numerous  enough  they  were  not  overcom- 
fortable  or  clean.  The  landlords  were  not  infrequently  suspected  of 
being  in  league  with  robbers,  and,  when  not  so  bad  as  that,  were  often 
guilty  of  trickery  and  extortion.  A  favorite  device  was  to  draw 
guests  into  ordering  more  than  they  had  money  to  pay  for  and  then 
to  seize  their  baggage  and  clothes.  The  inns  were  favorite  resorts  for 
the  less  reputable  classes  who  spent  their  time  drinking,  gossiping,  and 
gaming.  By  the  roadside  and  in  the  smaller  villages  were  alehouses, 
advertised  by  a  stake  or  a  bush  projecting  over  the  door.  They 
furnished  no  lodging.  Many  were  kept  by  women  —  "  alewives  " 
who  had  a  bad  reputation  for  cheating  both  in  money  and  measure. 
Under  such  conditions  hospitality  was  regarded  as  a  great  virtue,  and 
was  general,  from  the  lord  of  the  manor  to  the  poorest  cotter.  Churl- 
ish and  miserly  persons  who  refused  to  take  in  travelers  are  held  up 
to  scorn  in  the  tales  of  the  time. 

Public  Health,  Medicine,  and  Surgery.  —  As  in  the  past,  lack  of 
fresh  food,  unsanitary  conditions,  and  inadequacy  of  transportation 
were  the  cause  of  famine  and  epidemics.  In  1315  heavy  rains  wrought 
such  destruction  with  the  harvest  that  great  misery  followed.  The 
pressure  of  hunger  was  so  great  that  not  only  horses  and  dogs,  but, 
it  is  said,  children  were  eaten,  and  felons  in  jail  tore  one  another  to 
pieces.  In  1322  there  was  another  visitation  of  famine  and  disease, 
when  fifty-five  poor  persons  in  London  were  crushed  to  death  in  a 
scramble  for  food  distributed  at  a  rich  man's  funeral.  All  this  oc- 
curred while  the  upper  classes  were  living  in  luxury,  though  there 
was  more  splendor  than  comfort.  Edward  III  dismissed  his  con- 
stable of  the  Tower  because  he  had  so  neglected  repairs  that  the  rain 
came  in  on  the  bed  of  his  sick  Queen,  and  in  1357  when  his  dead  mother 
was  brought  to  London  for  burial,  the  streets  had  to  be  cleared  of 
filth  for  the  passage  of  the  body.  The  Black  Death,  however,  started 
a  movement  for  better  sanitation.  An  act  was  passed  prohibiting 
the  throwing  of  refuse  and  garbage  in  heaps  outside  the  walls  and  in 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   FIRST  THREE   EDWARDS     221 

the  rivers.  Whether  effective  or  not,  the  water  of  the  ditch  about 
London  was  so  little  corrupted  that  it  contained  excellent  fish  in  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII.  Up  to  the  sixteenth  century,  however,  scaven- 
gers were  inspectors  of  nuisances,  and  the  duties  they  now  perform 
fell  on  the  householders.  Before  the  close  of  the  century  the  plague 
came  back  at  least  six  times,  causing  the  greatest  destruction  and 
demoralization,  and  preventing  the  natural  recovery  from  the  devas- 
tation of  1348-1349.  The  science  of  medicine  and  surgery  was  still  in 
a  primitive  state,  though  some  progress  was  made  during  the  century. 
Monks  and  Jews  had  been  the  first  to  practice  the  art  of  healing  in 
England,  deriving  their  knowledge  from  the  ancients  through  the 
Byzantine  Greeks.  By  the  twelfth  century  the  Arabian  school,  with 
its  chief  seats  at  Salerno  and  Montpellier,  had  come  to  supersede  the 
Byzantine.  After  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  the  bulk  of  the  practice 
fell  to  the  monks,  in  spite  of  prohibition  of  papal  bulls.  Prayers, 
ceremonies,  visits  to  shrines,  astrology,  charms,  and  spells  were  the 
commonly  accepted  means  for  curing  ills ;  and  were  sometimes  em- 
ployed as  adjuncts  by  the  practitioner.  Two  famous  names  appear 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  III :  John  of  Gaddesden,  the  first  English 
writer  on  medicine,  and  John  of  Burgoyne,  supposed  to  be  the  original 
of  Chaucer's  physician.  The  incorporation  of  the  Barber  Surgeons 
as  gilds  at  London  and  York  toward  the  end  of  the  century  marked 
an  era  in  surgery. 

Military  and  Domestic  Architecture.  —  Castles,  while  they  reached 
their  highest  degree  of  development  in  the  time  of  the  Edwards,  came 
to  be  employed  more  and  more  exclusively  as  governmental  and 
military  fortresses.  Curiously  enough,  by  the  time  the  art  of  building 
them  had  been  perfected,  the  introduction  of  cannon  and  gunpowder 
rendered  them  useless.  Fortified  manor  houses  largely  replaced  the 
old  private  castles.  The  causes  making  for  this  change  were  at  work 
long  before  the  new  implements  of  war  were  generally  adopted. 
Since  the  time  of  Stephen,  the  Crown  had  refused  to  tolerate  private 
castles,  except  in  rare  instances,  and  had  usually  been  strong  enough 
to  enforce  its  prohibitions.  Moreover,  the  cessation  of  feudal  warfare 
made  them  no  longer  necessary,  and  the  upper  classes  preferred  more 
comfortable  dwelling  places  just  strong  enough  to  protect  them  against 
robbers  and  occasional  disorders.  They  form  a  connecting  link  be- 
tween the  strong  gloomy  castles  of  the  feudal  period  and  the  country 
seats  of  the  Elizabethan  age  built  for  beauty  and  comfort.  These 
manor  houses  were  bare  and  inconvenient  according  to  modern 
standards.  The  buildings,  consisting  of  the  great  hall,  the  chambers, 
the  kitchen,  the  stables,  and  other  outhouses,  were  attached  so  as  to 
inclose  a  courtyard.  By  the  thirteenth  century  it  had  become  com- 
mon to  have  a  room  above  the  ground  floor,  which  was  called  the  solar 
and  was  approached  by  an  outside  stairway.  Among  the  improve- 
ments of  the  fourteenth  century  were  the  increase  of  separate  bed- 
rooms, the  custom  of  inserting  a  fireplace  at  one  or  both  ends  of  the 


222  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

hall  in  place  of  the  old  one  in  the  center,  and  the  replacing  of  holes  in 
the  wall  covered  by  shutters  with  glass  windows,  at  least  in  some  cases. 

Ecclesiastical  Architecture.  —  The  prevailing  style  of  church  archi- 
tecture during  the  period  of  the  three  Edwards  was  the  so-called 
"  decorated,"  an  elaboration  of  the  pointed  Gothic  or  early  English. 
The  new  type  is  distinguished  particularly  by  the  ornateness  of  its 
window  traceries.  With  all  its  warmth  and  richness  one  misses  the 
dignified  simplicity  of  the  style  which  it  displaced.  The  decorated 
style  reached  its  perfection  at  Exeter,  Wells,  and  York.  The  western 
front  of  York  has  been  regarded  as  "  one  of  the  chief  architectural 
glories  "  of  England.  In  the  reign  of  Edward  III  a  new  style  began 
to  appear,  the  perpendicular.  Examples  are  to  be  found  as  early  as 
1336 ;  but  the  real  period  of  transition  did  not  come  till  the  second 
half  of  the  century.  Gloucester  cathedral,  for  instance,  built  not 
long  after  1350,  mingles  both  styles.  During  the  fourteenth  century 
the  perpendicular  became  dominant.  The  chief  reason  for  the 
change  of  fashion  was  that  the  decorated  style  had  worked  itself  out 
by  the  very  excesses  of  its  elaboration,  although  the  Statutes  of 
Laborers  were  not  without  their  influence.  The  law  of  25  Edward  III, 
which  fixed  the  pay  of  master  free  masons  at  ^d.  a  day,  tended,  so  far 
as  it  was  observed,  to  reduce  the  number  of  skilled  workmen  or  to 
drive  them  out  of  the  country.  The  new  perpendicular  type  was, 
in  general,  stiff,  formal,  and  unadorned.  It  is  best  distinguished  by 
its  windows,  the  arch  was  flattened,  and  mullions,  or  divisions  between 
the  lights,  were  gradually  lengthened  until  they  extended  from  the 
sill  to  the  arch,  thus  cutting  through  the  flowing  tracery.  Gradually 
square  windows  replaced  the  round  ones  of  the  past,  and  square  headed 
doors  and  square  panels  became  the  rule.  Beautiful  curves  gave  way 
to  straight  lines  and  angularity.  Nevertheless,  elements  of  beauty 
were  not  wholly  lacking.  William  of  Wykeham,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
1367-1404,  the  last  of  the  great  episcopal  architects  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  in  his  chapels  at  Winchester  and  New  College,  Oxford,  furnished 
"  really  noble  specimens  of  this  ignoble  style."  One  of  the  notable 
features  which  did  much  to  relieve  the  prosaic  bareness  was  the  magnif- 
icent roofs,  both  open  timbered  and  vaulted.  A  splendid  specimen  of 
the  former  is  in  Westminster  Hall,  while  the  fan  vaulting  of  the  chapel 
of  Henry  VII  at  Westminster  Abbey  is  a  glorious  example  of  the 
latter.  Another  redeeming  feature  of  the  perpendicular  style  is  its 
towers,  even  though  they  do  not  equal  the  spires  which  they  replaced. 
The  latest  and  most  perfect  example  of  these  perpendicular  towers  is 
that  of  Magdalen  at  Oxford.  Built  early  in  the  Tudor  period,  it  stands 
"  whispering  .  .  .  with  ineffable  charm  .  .  .  the  last  enchantments  of 
the  Middle  Ages."  Many  parish  churches,  manor  houses,  and  college 
halls  which  survive,  while  lacking  in  the  unique  beauty  of  the  early 
English  or  Gothic  architecture,  are  dignified  and  comfortable. 

Learning  and  Literature.  The  Universities.  —  Following  the  trend 
of  the  times,  the  universities  became  more  and  more  national,  and 


ENGLAND   UNDER   THE   FIRST   THREE   EDWARDS     223 

English  scholars  ceased,  in  any  considerable  numbers,  to  migrate  to 
the  Continent.  Cambridge  was  unable  for  centuries  to  rank  with 
the  older  foundation  of  Oxford.  Its  situation  was  less  central  and 
more  unhealthy,  and  it  had  fewer  powerful  protectors.  Oxford,  how- 
ever, had  troubles  of  its  own.  The  friction  with  the  townsmen  was 
intense,  often  leading  to  open  fighting;  the  faculty  were  often  at 
odds  among  themselves ;  and  the  ill  feeling  between  students  from 
different  parts  of  the  country,  particularly  north  and  south,  was  so 
acute  as  to  lead  to  frequent  secessions.1  The  average  number  of 
students  in  the  fourteenth  century  could  not  have  been  over  3000, 
although  there  are  accounts  of  as  many  as  30,000.  While  the  higher 
ranks  were  represented,  the  majority  were  from  the  lower  walks  of 
life.  The  poorest  supported  themselves  by  the  work  of  their  hands 
or  even  begged  on  occasion.  Those  who  could  afford  it  spent  their 
vacation  at  the  University  in  private  study.  The  notable  educational 
achievements  of  the  century  were  the  work  of  William  of  Wykeham. 
About  1373  he  established  at  Winchester  the  preparatory  school  of 
St.  Mary's,  which  became  the  model  for  Eton,  Rugby,  and  the  other 
famous  so-called  "  public  schools."  His  foundation  at  Oxford  a  few 
years  later,  known  as  New  College,  was  the  first  where  teaching  by 
tutors  inside  the  college,  still  the  custom  at  Oxford,  was  tried.  Below 
the  universities  there  were,  in  connection  with  convents,  grammar 
schools  presided  over  by  secular  clerks.  The  convents  received  the 
fees  and  paid  the  teacher  a  stipend.  The  Inns  of  Court  at  London 
furnished  training  for  the  common  lawyer. 

Literature :  Chronicles  and  Romances.  —  History  was  still  mainly 
in  the  hands  of  the  monastic  chroniclers;  but  the  man  who  best 
voiced  the  chivalrous  and  martial  ideals  of  the  age  of  Edward  III  was 
Jean  Froissart  (1337-1410).  A  countryman  of  Edward's  Queen, 
Philippa,  he  came  from  Hainault  to  the  English  court  in  1361  and 
was  attached  to  the  Queen's  household  till  her  death,  when  he  went  to 
Flanders.  His  Chronicle  deals  with  the  events  in  which  England 
was  concerned  from  1325  to  1400.  Although  confused  and  inac- 
curate in  his  use  of  facts,  and  with  no  regard  for  the  common  people, 
he  tells  the  story  of  the  English  feats  in  the  Hundred  Years'  War 
with  a  richness  and  vividness  of  detail  that  has  made  his  book  a  joy 
for  all  time.  French  metrical  romances  continued  to  be  very  popular. 
They  told  of  the  wanderings  of  knights,  good  and  valiant,  of  their 
deeds  of  daring  in  overcoming  giants  and  paynims,  of  their  succoring 
ladies  in  distress,  and  of  their  service  to  religion.  Legends  which  had 
clustered  about  the  names  of  mighty  men  of  old  time,  Alexander, 
Charlemagne,  Brutus,  and  King  Arthur,  and  the  beautiful  story  of 
the  search  for  the  Holy  Grail  were  among  their  chief  subjects.  All 
of  them  were  worked  over  from  French  originals  in  the  new  English 
speech  which  was  shaping  itself  during  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 

1  One  to  Stamford,  in  1334,  was  so  notable  that,  until  1827,  every  candidate  for 
a  degree  had  to  swear  that  he  would  never  lecture  in  that  town. 


224  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

centuries.  The  most  charming  of  them  all,  Sir  Gawayne  and  the  Green 
Knight,  is  the  most  purely  English  in  its  setting.  By  an  unknown 
author,  it  relates  the  adventures  of  King  Arthur's  nephew,  his  en- 
counters, his  temptations,  and  his  ultimate  triumph.  It  has  been 
well  called  "  the  most  delightful  blossom  of  all  pre-Shakespearean 
romance." 

Religious  Literature  and  Plays.  Ballads.  —  Alongside  the  knightly 
romance  there  grew  up  a  mass  of  religious  literature,  mostly  in  verse, 
lives  of  saints,  sermons,  books  of  instruction,  and  Scripture  paraphrases. 
Some  of  these  works  aim  to  entertain  as  well  as  to  instruct  and  edify. 
More  popular  still  were  the  religious  plays.  The  earliest  were  the 
miracle  plays  —  which  dramatized  Bible  stories  and  the  wonders 
wrought  by  saints.  Beginning  in  certain  ceremonies  in  the  Church 
on  such  feast  days  as  Easter,  the  performances  were  soon  transferred 
to  the  churchyard  and  then  to  the  town  square.  By  the  fourteenth 
century  they  had  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  priests  to  the  gilds, 
which  gave  annual  exhibitions  on  Corpus  Christi  day.  Usually  each 
gild  had  a  cart,  drawn  by  apprentices,  with  a  stage  erected  upon  it. 
These  moving  stages  were  known  as  "  pageants."  l  Each  repre- 
sented one  scene  of  the  story,  and  the  whole  sequence  was  known  as  a 
cycle.  Somewhat  later  appeared  the  morality  plays,  which  dealt 
with  the  strife  between  good  and  evil  rather  than  with  theology.  The 
fight  of  the  seven  deadly  sins  and  of  the  seven  opposite  cardinal 
virtues  for  the  possession  of  the  human  soul  formed  the  theme  for  the 
earliest  and  best  of  these.  Vice,  greed,  innocence,  indeed  all  sorts 
of  human  traits,  were  personified.  To  these  plays  and  to  the  royal 
pageants  representing  scenes  from  classic  and  medieval  legend,  such 
as  the  fight  between  St.  George  and  the  Dragon,  may  be  traced  the 
beginnings  of  the  later  drama.  Christmas  "  mummings,"  too,  were 
very  popular,  in  which  Old  Father  Christmas,  Old  King  Cole,  and  the 
Merry  Andrew  came  to  be  well-known  figures.  Among  a  mass  of 
ballads  the  best  known  are  those  which  relate  the  deeds  of  the  legend- 
ary outlaw  Robin  Hood,  who  was  supposed  to  have  dwelt  in  Sher- 
wood Forest  in  the  later  twelfth  century,  protecting  the  poor  and 
robbing  their  oppressors.  His  many  adventures  and  those  of  Little 
John,  Friar  Tuck,  and  Maid  Marian  were  also  worked  up  into  plays. 

Geoffrey  Chaucer  (1340-1400). — The  great  name  in  the  litera- 
ture of  the  age,  indeed  one  of  the  great  names  in  that  of  the  world, 
was  that  of  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  "  the  father  of  English  poetry."  The 
son  of  a  London  vintner,  he  began  life  as  a  page  in  a  princely  house- 
hold. His  residence  at  the  English  court,  the  "most  brilliant  in  Europe, 
his  travels  in  many  lands,  his  association  with  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men  gave  him  rare  opportunities,  of  which  his  genius  made  the 
fullest  use.  Chaucer's  productive  literary  life  has  been  divided  into 
three  periods:  the  French  to  1372;  the  Italian  from  1372  to  1385; 

1  From  this  original  meaning  the  term  came  to  be  applied  to  the  play  and  then 
to  any  imposing  spectacle. 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE  FIRST  THREE   EDWARDS     225 

and  the  more  original,  which  marks  the  ripe  fruition  of  his  work. 
During  the  first,  he  was  under  the  spell  of  the  old  courtly  romances, 
his  chief  model  being  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  a  portion  of  which  he 
translated  into  English,  thereby  helping  to  sow  in  the  realm  "  the 
flowers  of  French  poesy."  His  most  important  work  of  this  period  is 
the  Death  of  Blanche  the  Duchess,  wife  of  John  of  Gaunt  (1369). 
A  royal  mission  to  Italy  in  1372-1373  marked  a  crisis  in  the  poet's  life, 
for  it  was  then  that  he  came  into  the  world  of  the  Renascence,  that 
marvelous  revival  of  learning  and  outburst  of  literary  and  artistic 
creations  which  came  to  birth  on  Italian  soil.  Here  he  learned  to 
know  the  sublime  vision  of  Dante,  the  exquisite  poetic  forms  of 
Petrarch,  and  the  tales  of  Boccaccio.  It  was  the  latter  which  may 
have  determined  the  form  of  Chaucer's  masterpiece,  and  furnished 
him  with  some  of  the  stories  which  he  included  in  it.  The  result  of 
his  Italian  sojourn  is  seen  in  four  works  which  he  produced  after  his 
return :  the  Parliament  of  Fowls,  probably  in  honor  of  the  nuptials  of 
young  King  Richard  and  Anne  of  Bohemia;  Troilus  and  Creseide, 
described  as  "  the  first  analytical  novel  in  the  English  language  " ; 
the  House  of  Fame,  "  a  playful  fantastic  allegory"  ;  and  the  Legends 
of  Code  Women.  In  his  third  period  came  the  crowning  achievement 
of  Chaucer's  life,  the  Canterbury  Tales,  at  once  "  a  gallery  of  living  por- 
traits of  his  time,"  and  an  inclusive  collection  of  almost  all  the  types  of 
narrative  known  to  literature  at  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages."  His 
plan  was  to  tell  the  tales  through  the  mouths  of  a  body  of  pilgrims 
journeying  from  the  Tabard  Inn  in  Southwark  to  the  shrine  of  Thomas 
Becket  at  Canterbury.  The  poet  completed  less  than  a  quarter  of  his 
projected  plan ;  but  he  depicted  the  peculiarities  of  individuals  repre- 
senting various  walks  of  life,  the  knight,  the  friar,  the  nun,  the  franklin, 
the  physician,  the  Oxford  scholar,  the  merchant,  the  miller,  and  many 
more,  with  a  fidelity,  a  vividness,  and  a  humor  unsurpassed  by  any 
writer  before  or  since.  But  wonderful  as  is  this  mirror  of  the  society 
and  writing  of  his  age  Chaucer  rendered  still  another  incalculable 
service.  He  was  not  only  "  the  father  of  English  poetry,"  but  "  the 
father  of  literary  English  "  as  well.  Writing  in  the  tongue  of  the 
southeast  midlands,  he  stamped  that  form  upon  written  English  to  the 
very  borders  of  Scotland  and  Wales.  Thence  it  spread  as  England  grew 
into  an  Empire,  so  that  the  speech  and  writing  of  a  large  part  of  the 
world's  population  owes  more  to  Chaucer  than  to  any  other  single  man. 
John  Gower (1325-1408) and  "William  Langland"  (i33o?-i4oo?). — 
John  Gower,  although  his  name  was  long  linked  with  that  of  Chaucer, 
does  not  stand  on  the  same  plane  with  his  great  contemporary.  His 
Vox  Clamantis,  containing  an  account  of  the  Peasant  Revolt  in  1381 
and  a  severe  denunciation  of  government  and  society  of  Richard  II  's 
time,  is  of  the  most  historic  interest.  But  the  social  unrest  of  this  age 
and  the  outcry  against  the  oppression,  folly,  and  vices  of  the  ruling 
classes  is  best  voiced  in  the  Vision  of  William  Concerning  Piers  the 
Plowman,  sometimes  attributed  to  William  Langland.  In  the  form  of 


226  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

an  allegory,  written  in  a  revival  of  the  native  alliterative  verse,  the 
Vision  traces  the  exaltation  of  the  common  man,  pictured  as  a  simple 
rustic,  until  he  becomes  a  mystical  type  of  Christ.  It  lashes  the  sins 
of  society  and  the  individual,  and  preaches  the  gospel  of  man  and  the 
glory  of  work.  In  spite  of  its  allegorical  and  abstract  form,  the  de- 
scriptions are  so  concrete  and  vital  that  men  and  women  seem  to  live 
and  breathe  before  the  reader.  It  may  well  have  influenced  Wiclif 
on  the  more  personal,  practical  side  of  his  work,  framed  the  views  and 
stimulated  the  opposition  which  was  to  break  out  in  the  Peasant 
Revolt. 

Wiclif  s  Views  of  Spiritual  and  Temporal  Lordship.  —  While  Piers 
Plowman  aimed  chiefly  at  men,  Wiclif  struck  at  a  system.  (  It  was 
his  work  to  mold  the  grievances  against  the  Church  and  the 
Papacy  into  tangible  form.*)  By  the  removal  of  the  Papacy  to  Avignon 
the  popes  had  become  so  subservient  to  the  French  that  thinking  men 
had  come  to  regard  them  with  contempt.  As  papal  exactions  in- 
creased, both  claims  for  money  and  in  the  matter  of  "  provisions," 
Englishmen  opposed  them,  not  only  because  of  the  financial  burden 
involved,  but  because  of  the  growing  national  sentiment  against  an 
institution  regarded  as  French.  Hence  the  views  which  Wiclif  devel- 
oped concerning  spiritual  and  temporal  lordship  became  very  popular. 
ge  rpaintaineH  that  jJTe_CJhmrj^  should  hold  no  property,  because  it 
_ndered  truly  spiritual  work.  Therefore  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
StaTfT  to~take  land  and  revenues  which  hampered  the  Church  in  the 
performance  of  its  proper  duties.  Lordship  depended  on  grace, 
which  a  man  forfeited  by  sin,  and  the  rank  of  a  man  in  the  eyes  of  his 
fellow  men  depended  upon  his  rank  in  the  eyes  of  God.  This  doctrine 
of  lordship  applied  even  in  the  case  of  the  Pope;  if  unrighteous  or 
unworthy,  he  lost  his  right  to  rule ;  and  his  decrees,  if  against  the  will 
of  God,  were  of  no  binding  force.  Moreover,  Wiclif  struck  a  blow  at 
the  hierarchy  by  declaring  that  even  a  simple  priest  could  administer 
any  sacrament  of  the  Church. 

The  Development  of  his  Views,  particularly  after  1378.  —  The 
papal  bulls  framed  against  him,  in  May,  1377,  arrived  in  England  in 
August.  Although  his  protector,  John  of  Gaunt,  had  been  out  of  power 
since  the  death  of  Edward  III,  Wiclif  was  recognized  as  the  national 
champion  and  was  protected  by  the  Queen  Mother,  widow  of  the 
Black  Prince.  When  Parliament  met  in  the  autumn  he  was  consulted 
on  the  question  as  to  whether,  when  the  kingdom  was  in  danger  of 
invasion,  it  could  refuse,  even  against  a  papal  order,  to  send  money 
out  of  the  realm.  His  reply  was  that  the  Pope  could  only  ask  for 
money  as  alms  or  charity,  and,  since  charity  begins  at  home,  it  would 
be  folly  to  obey  in  the  present  juncture.  Early  in  1378  he  was  brought 
before  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  London,  acting 
as  papal  commissioners  at  Lambeth.  Their  hands  were  tied,  for  the 
Queen  Mother  sent  a  message  forbidding  them  to  pass  sentence  on 
him.  Furthermore,  a  body  of  London  citizens,  accompanied  by  a  dis- 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   FIRST  THREE  EDWARDS     227 

orderly  rabble,  appeared  menacingly  before  the  archiepiscopal  palace. 
The  upshot  was  a  simple  request  from  his  judges  that  Wiclif  desist 
from  discussing  the  points  enumerated  in  bulls.  As  the  defender 
of  national  independence  against  the  Papacy  and  as  the  champion 
of  the  State  movement  against  the  power  and  wealth  of  the  Church, 
Wiclif  had  been  supported  by  all  the  laity  high  and  low.  In  this  very 
year,  1378,  he  was  led  by  the  Great  Schism  to  advance  far  beyond  his 
original  position,  to  an  attack  against  at  least  two  of  the  essential 
bases  of  the  Church.  Gregory  XI  had  moved  back  to  Rome  from 
Avignon,  and,  on  his  death,  two  rival  popes  were  elected,  Urban 
VI  by  the  Roman  party,  and  Clement  VII  by  the  French.  The 
resulting  struggle,  which  rent  the  Church  in  twain,  led  Wiclif  to 
question  the  authority  of  the  Papacy  altogether.  Nor  did  he  stop 
with  attacking  the  Church's  form  of  government,  but  proceeded  to 
strike  a  blow  at  her  central  dogma,  that  of  transubstantiation.  Ac- 
cording to  the  orthodox  belief  on  this  point,  the  bread  and  wine  used 
in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  were  transformed  by  the  con- 
secrating words  of  the  priest  into  the  very  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  medieval  "  realist  "  philosophers  the 
doctrine  was  more  explicable  than  it  might  seem  to  a  modern  Prot- 
estant ;  in  their  minds  the  reality  or  substance  of  a  thing  was  not  the 
visible  attributes  which  could  be  seen,  touched,  and  handled,  but  an 
inner,  invisible  essence.  That  was  what  was  believed  to  change. 
Two  good  reasons  explain  why  the  Church  fostered  the  belief  in  tran- 
substantiation. It  emphasized  the  human  side  of  Christ,  which  cer- 
tain of  the  early  sects  denied ;  and  it  exalted  the  priesthood,  who  were 
held  in  higher  reverence  from  their  ability  to  perform  the  miracle.  It 
was  to  combat  the  sacerdotal  power  that  Wiclif  framed  his  view.  He 
did  not  go  so  far  as  some  of  the  later  Protestants  and  deny  the  Real 
Presence  altogether.  He  maintained  that  after  consecration  the 
bread  and  wine  did  not  cease  to  exist,  but  that  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  came  and  dwelt  in  them.  In  other  words,  for  transubstantiation 
he  substituted  consubstantiation. 

Last  Years  and  Death.  —  His  doctrines,  now  too  extreme  for  many, 
were  condemned  in  1380  at  Oxford,  and  again  in  1382  at  London. 
He,  in  both  cases,  was  spared,  though  after  the  second  condemnation 
his  followers  were  persecuted  rigorously.  He  spent  his  last  years  in 
peaceful  retirement.  It  was  during  this  time  that  he  wrote  nearly  all 
of  his  English  works  and  revised  his  Latin  works ;  they  fill  together 
nearly  thirty  printed  volumes.  He  died  in  1384.  In  1428,  in  accord- 
ance with  a  decree  of  the  Council  of  Constance  passed  in  1415,  his 
remains  were  dug  up,  burned,  and  cast  into  a  neighboring  brook. 
"  Thus,"  in  the  quaint  language  of  the  seventeenth-century  writer 
Fuller,  "  this  brook  hath  conveyed  his  ashes  into  Avon,  Avon  into 
Severn,  Severn  into  the  narrow  seas,  they  into  the  main  ocean.  And 
thus  the  ashes  of  Wiclif  are  the  emblem  of  his  doctrine,  which  now 
is  dispersed  the  world  over." 


228  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Two  Channels  of  Wiclif ' s  Teaching.  —  Some  years  before  his 
death  Wiclif  had  devised  two  agencies  to  spread  his  teaching  among 
the  humbler  folk.  One  was  his  "  poor  preachers,"  a  body  of  men 
sent  out,  staff  in  hand  and  clad  in  coarse  russet  gowns,  to  preach  the 
simple  truths  of  the  gospel.  Those  who  accepted  his  teachings  came 
to  be  known  as  Lollards.  Although  they  often  differed  from  their 
master  and  even  from  one  another,  they  generally  opposed  the  tem- 
poral power  of  the  Church,  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  transubstantia- 
tion,  religious  orders,  pilgrimages,  image  worship,  and  many  other 
doctrines  and  practices  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  As  an  organized  sect 
they  did  not  long  survive  Wiclif 's  death.  They  were  accused  of  social- 
ism and  held  responsible  for  the  Peasant  Revolt;  their  doctrines 
shocked  the  orthodox ;  and  the  lowly  character  of  their  following  ex- 
cited the  contempt  of  the  great.  Nevertheless,  their  work  lived  after 
them.  They  struck  the  first  mortal  blow  at  the  Church  of  Rome  in 
England,  and  they  infused  a  spirit  of  earnestness  into  English  life 
which  reached  its  fruition  in  the  Puritan  Revolution  nearly  three 
centuries  later.  The  followers  of  Richard's  Queen  carried  their 
teachings  to  Bohemia,  and  John  Hus,  the  forerunner  of  Martin  Luther, 
felt;  their  influence.  Wiclir  s  second  agency  was  Ihe  translation  of  the 
Bible,  which  he  projected  and  supervised,  and  assisted  to  carry  out, 
though  the  bulk  of  the  work  was  done  by  his  associate,  Nicholas  of 
Hereford.  After  Wiclif 's  death  the  work  was  revised  and  reissued  in 
complete  form  by  John  Purvey.  Although  not  a  stylist  and  although 
none  of  his  controversial  treatises  are  works  of  art,  Wiclif's  achieve- 
ments in  spreading  the  Bible  among  the  people  exerted  an  influence 
which  entitle  him  to  be  called  the  "  father  of  English  prose."  1  By 
suppressing  the  Bible  the  GovernmenTTnot  only  arrested  the  progress 
of  the  new  religious  thought,  but  the  growth  of  English  prose  as  well. 

England  a  National  State.  —  In  the  wars  against  France,  in  the 
struggle  to  control  its  own  commerce  and  to  develop  native  industries, 
in  the  struggle  against  the  power  of  Rome,  in  the  rise  of  a  purely  Eng- 
lish literature,  one  great  fact  is  evident :  England  had  become  a  nation. 
As  the  barons  who  fought  selfishly  against  royal  despotism  and  the 
exploitation  of  their  country  by  foreigners  had  unconsciously  prepared 
the  way  for  a  constitutional  monarchy,  so  they  had,  again  unwittingly, 
taken  the  first  steps  to  awaken  a  national  spirit  which  first  came  to  a 
full,  conscious  realization  in  the  England  of  Edward  III. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Constitutional.  Stubbs,  Constitutional  History,  II,  ch.  XVII ;  III,  chs.  XX,  XXI ; 
the  two  latter  covering  both  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  The  develop- 
ment of  Parliament  under  the  first  three  Edwards  is  treated  in  White,  Making  of  the 
English  Constitution,  pt.  Ill,  ch.  Ill ;  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  I,  bk.  Ill,  ch.  I ; 
Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  VIII;  Wakeman  and  Hassall,  Constitutional  Essays, 
ch.  IV;  and  Medley,  Manual,  chs.  IV- VI. 

1  Thus  he  contributed  to  further  the  work  of  the  poet  Chaucer. 


ENGLAND   UNDER  THE   FIRST  THREE   EDWARDS     229 

Social,  industrial,  and  intellectual  conditions.  Traill,  Social  England,  II,  chs.  V, 
VI.  Cunningham,  English  Industry  and  Commerce,  I,  bk.  III.  Ashley,  English 
Economic  History,  II.  J.  E.  T.  Rogers,  A  History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices  (6  vols., 
1866-1887),  and  his  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages  (1890),  based  upon  it,  are 
both  valuable  but  not  to  be  relied  upon  implicitly.  Jessopp,  Coming  of  the  Friars, 
chs.  IV,  V.  Prothero,  English  Farming,  ch.  II.  E.  L.  Cutts,  Scenes  and  Characters 
in  the  Middle  Ages  (1872).  Jusserand,  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Middle  Ages 
(2d  ed.,  1899).  Bateson,  Medieval  England,  pt.  III.  Wright,  Homes  of  Other  Days. 
Tout,  Political  History,  ch.  XIX.  R.  L.  Poole,  Illustrations  of  the  History  of  Medie- 
val Thought  (1884).  Taine,  English  Literature,  I,  bk.  I,  ch.  III.  Moody  and  Lovett, 
ch.  III.  Cambridge  History  of  Literature,  I,  II.  Jusserand,  Literary  History,  I. 
E.  K.  Chambers,  The  Medieval  Stage  (1903). 

For  the  Black  Death,  see  Gasquet,  The  Great  Pestilence  (1893),  and  Charles  Creigh- 
ton,  History  of  Epidemics  in  Britain,  A.D.  664-1866  (2  vols.,  1891-1894). 

The  Church.  Wakeman,  Church  of  England,  ch.  VIII.  W.  W.  Capes,  History 
of  the  English  Church,  ch.  I-VII,  XI-XVII.  J.  Lechler,  John  Wiclif  and  his  English 
Precursors  (Eng.  tr.,  2  vols.  1878,  i  vol.  1884). 


CHAPTER  XIV 

RICHARD  II   (1377-1399).    THE  END   OF  THE  PLANTAGENET 

DYNASTY 

A  Boy  King.  Unsatisfactory  State  of  the  Country.  —  On  16  July, 
1377,  a  boy  of  ten,  "  Richard  of  Bordeaux,"  son  of  the  Black  Prince, 
was  crowned  King  of  England.  The  reign  began  with  a  prospect  of 
conciliation  between  contending  factions.  John  of  Gaunt  with- 
drew from  politics,  and  a  Council  of  twelve,  representing  the  court  and 
opposition  parties,  was  chosen  to  govern  the  kingdom,  while  the  guar- 
dianship of  the  King's  person  was  intrusted  to  his  mother,  a  gentle, 
kindly  woman.  Nevertheless,  "  William  Langland  "  had  prophesied 
truly  that  "  where  the  cat  is  a  kitten,  the  kingdom  is  full  miserable." 
The  pestilence  and  the  long  war  had  thinned  the  population  and  bur- 
dened the  country  with  heavy  taxes.  The  English  possessions  in 
France  had  been  reduced  to  marsh-girdled  Calais  and  a  portion  of 
Aquitaine  with  a  long  frontier  in  constant  peril  from  the  energetic 
Bertrand  du  Guesclin.  During  the  dotage  of  Edward  III  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Channel  had  been  lost  and  the  coast  was  left  exposed  to 
French  attacks.  Bands  of  armed  men  roamed  through  the*  land, 
plundering  and  disturbing  the  peace.  Wearing  the  badge  or  livery  of 
some  great  lord  and  protected  or  maintained  by  him  in  suits  at  law, 
they  defied  all  attempts  to  bring  them  to  justice.  In  the  face  of 
suffering,  danger,  and  disorder  the  Commons  viewed  with  increasing 
resentment  the  luxury  at  court. 

The  Poll  Taxes  of  1379  and  1380.  —  The  first  Parliament  of  the 
reign,  which  met  in  October,  1377,  was  able  to  obtain  important  con- 
cessions :  ^it  was  allowed  to  replace  certain  Lancastrian  l  members  of 
the  Council  by  men  of  its  own  choice ;  it  was  agreed  that  "  no  Act  made 
in  Parliament  should  be  repealed  save  by  the  consent  of  Parliament  "  ; 
it  was  given  the  right  to  appoint  the  great  officers  of  State  and  to  choose 
two  treasurers  to  oversee  expenditures  of  money  grants.  In  1380  the 
Council  was  abolished,  a  new  set  of  ministers  appointed,  and  the  King 
put  under  the  Earl  of  Warwick  as  guardian  and  tutor.  Nevertheless, 
the  Government  continued  ineffective  and  unpopular.  Its  war  meas- 
ures were  particularly  unsuccessful.  In  order  to  meet  the  expenses 
which  they  nevertheless  involved,  poll  taxes  were  devised.  The  first, 
levied  in  1379,  had  the  merit  of  being  graduated  according  to  wealth  — 
from  John  of  Gaunt,  who  was  to  pay  ten  marks  to  laborers  and  villeins 

1  Adherents  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  uncle  of  King  Richard,  and 
opposed  to  the  party  of  Richard's  late  father,  the  Black  Prince. 

230 


THE   END   OF  THE   PLANTAGENET  DYNASTY     231 

assessed  for  \d.  In  the  following  year  a  new  assessment  was  imposed 
at  a  rate  of  three  groats  on  every  person  in  the  realm  save  beggars. 
Although  it  was  arranged  that  in  the  separate  townships  the  rich  should 
pay  proportionately  more  than  the  poor,  the  burden  fell  heavily  on  the 
lower  classes,  causing  great  "  dismay  and  woe,"  and  furnishing  the 
occasion  for  a  revolt  which  had  been  brewing  for  years. 

Conditions  leading  to    the    Peasant  Revolt.  —  The    country  was 
seething  with  discontent,  jsocial  and  industrial  as  well  as  jpoKtical. 
The  peasantry  were  infuriated  at  the  attempts  made  since  the  Blade"* 
Death  to  enforce  or  rake  up  old  villein  services.     More  widespread 

still  was  the  opposition  to  the  Statutej_of_Laborer.s_jwhich_  aimed  to 

fix  the_j-ate  of  wagelT  TnTthe  towns^the  lesser  folk  chafed  at  the 
selfish,  arbitrary  policy  of  the  ruling  bodies.  In  the  majority  of  cases 
municipal  governments  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  little  oligarchies 
who  levied  taxes,  imposed  fines,  and,  in  short,  governed  solely  in  their 
own  interests  with  a  total  disregard  of  their  unprivileged  fellow- 
townsmen.  Another  grievance  was  the  restrictive  gild  ^regulation  c' 
which  bore  with  peculiar  harshness  on  tEe"  unskilled  laborers  in  pr&? 
venting  them  from  passing  from  one  employment  to  another.  —'In 
London  and  one  or  two  other  great  towns  combinations  of  journey- 
men —  forerunners  of  the  modern  trades  unions  —  were  formed 
against  their  masters,  but  those  lower  in  the  scale  had  no  such  organiza- 
tion. There  was  bitter  feeling,  too,  against  alien  merchants  and  manu-^ 
facturers  whom  trTeTnatives  looked  upon  as  interlopers.  There  were 
many  lather  uneasy  and  discontented  elements.  (Bands  of  armed 
men  ^released  from  the  war  and  disinclined  to  work,  were  ready  to 
share  in  any  disturbance  from  which  they  might  profit.  Fugitive 
villeins,  idlers,  and  criminals  swelled  the  throng.  Then  there  were 
the  extremists  among  the  followers  of  Wiclif,  though  he  himself  had 
not  sanctioned  force.  A  "  mad  priest,"  John  Ball,  went  about  teach- 
ing that  goods  should  be  held  in  common  and  the  distinction  between 
lord  and  serf  wiped  away.  A  rhyme  attributed  to  him  was  very  popu- 
lar :  "  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span,  who  was  then  the  gentle- 
man? "  T^henoll  tax.  received  with  "great  grudging  and  many  a 
bitter  curseT^was^ne  spark  that  fired  the  train.  The  burden  in 
itself  was  enough,  but  the  Government  made  matters  worse  if  possible. 
When  the  local  collectors  sent  in  false  returns  to  spare  the  poor,  royal 
commissioners  were  delegated  to  extort  the  utmost  farthing. 

The  Peasant  Revolt,  1381. — Although  the  chief  centers  of  dis- 
turbance were  in  the  south  and  east,  the  revolt  broke  out  nearly 
simultaneously  in  almost  every  part  of  the  country.  The  unity  of 
rising,  however,  was  not  prompted  by  any  unity  of  purpose,  and  the 
name  "  Peasant  Revolt,"  by  which  it  was  commonly  known,  is 
misleading  in  view  of  the  various  classes  that  took  part  in  it.  In  Kent^ 
for  example,  where  no  villenage  existed,  the  chief  grievances  were 
the^gojl_ig,x^and  the  maladministration.^ _The  plan  of  the  insurgents 
there  was  to  kill  all  lords  and  gentfemeirand  great  Churchmen,  to  burn 


232  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tax  rolls  and  title  deeds,  to  secure  possession  of  the  King,  and  to  take 
the  government  into  their  own  hands.  The  last  installment  of  the 
poll  tax  was  one  due  on  Whitsunday,  1381.  All  through  the  spring 
"  quaint  rhymes  "  passed  through  the  country  signed  "  Jack  the 
Miller,"  "  Jack  Trewman,"  and  the  like.  One  famous  one  read : 
"  John  Ball  greeteth  you  all,  and  doth  for  to  understand  he  hath  rung 
your  bell.  Now  right  and  might,  will  and  skill.  God  speed  every 
dele." 

Outbreak  in  Essex  and  Kent.  The  March  on  London.  —  The 
first  outbreak  occurred  in  Essex,  late  in  May,  when  certain  men  of 
Brentwood  stoned  one  of  the  royal  tax  commissioners  out  of  the  vil- 
lage. When  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  was  sent 
down  to  punish  the  rioters,  he  was  seized  and  forced  to  swear  that  he 
would  never  hold  another  such  session.  They  let  him  go,  but  beat 
to  death  three  clerks  and  beheaded  three  jurors.  Within  a  few  days 
the  Kentishmen  rose,  seized  Rochester  Castle,  and  chose  as  leader  one 
Wat  Teghler,  or  Tyler,  an  obscure  adventurer  of  ready  wit  and  sharp 
tongue.  Rapidly  swelling  in  numbers,  the  rioters  started  for  Lon- 
don, burning  houses  of  royal  officials,  lawyers,  and  unpopular  land- 
lords as  they  proceeded.  On  their  way  through  Canterbury  they 
released  John  Ball,  whom  the  Archbishop  had  imprisoned  for  his 
inflammatory  utterances.  On  the  evening  of  1 2  June  they  encamped 
on  Blackheath,  whence  parties  issued  forth  and  burned  the  King's 
Bench  and  Marshalsea  prisons,  and  Lambeth,  the  Archbishop's  palace. 
The  same  night  the  Essex  insurgents,  who  had  been  busy  destroying 
court  and  manorial  rolls,  reached  Mile  End,  thus  threatening  London 
from  the  north  and  east.  The  little  King  and  his  councilors  were  in 
the  Tower,  and  the  mayor  and  the  aldermen  were  at  the  Guildhall, 
trembling  with  indecision.  The  next  morning  John  Ball  preached  a 
fiery  sermon,  declaring  that  in  the  beginning  all  men  were  equal,  that 
the  wicked  had  reduced  them  to  servitude,  and  that  the  time  had  come 
to  shake  off  the  yoke.  In  response  to  the  request  of  the  insurgents 
that,  as  loyal  subjects,  they  wanted  to  lay  their  grievances  before  him, 
the  King  came  down  the  river  in  his  barge  to  meet  them ;  but  at  the 
sight  of  the  disorderly  rabble  on  the  banks  his  timid  councilors  forced 
him  to  turn  back.  Then  Wat  Tyler  marched  against  London  Bridge, 
traitors  lowered  the  draw,  and  the  mob  streamed  into  the  city.  With 
wise  moderation  they  spared  the  property  of  all  except  their  chief 
enemies.  Among  the  places  which  fell  victim  to  their  rage  were  the 
Savoy,  John  of  Gaunt's  palace,  and  the  lawyers'  quarters  in  the 
Temple.  "  It  was  marvelous  to  see  how  even  the  most  aged  and 
infirm  of  them  (the  lawyers)  scrambled  off  with  the  agility  of  rats  or 
evil  spirits." 

The  Conference  at  Mile  End.  —  On  the  morning  of  the  i4th,  the 
King  rode  out  to  meet  the  rebels  at  Mile  End,  a  favorite  recreation 
ground  northeast  of  the  city  walls.  A  boy  of  fourteen,  one  can  believe 
that  he  entered  the  howling  mob  as  a  "  lamb  among  wolves."  How- 


THE   END   OF   THE   PLANTAGENET   DYNASTY      233 

ever,  they  received  him  joyfully  on  bended  knees,  crying :  "  Welcome, 
our  Lord  King  Richard,  an  it  please  you  we  desire  no  other  King  than 
you."  Then,  through  Wat  Tyler,  they  asked  that  all  traitors  might  be 
put  to  death  and  that  the  King  would  grant  the  petition  that  they  were 
about  to  present.  Orchard  heard  it  article  by  article  and  granted 
everything.^  Their  ^hief  demands  were :  abolition  of  serfdom ;  full 
pardon  to  all  insurgents ;  the  right  oLjXiajiujniltejLserfs  to  buy  ancT 
jsell  freely ;  rents  of  lands  freed  frorn  villenage  should  not  exceed 
four  pencean  acre ;  andjiiat  no  one  should  serve  another,  hut  of  hi<^ 
pwjTfree Twilllmd forjwages  mutually  agreed  upon.  Further,  Richard 
should  acknowledge  that  he  Tiad  been  ill  advised,  and  henceforth  he 
would  be  directed  by  his  people,  and  that  all  who  had  been  imprisoned 
in  consequence  of  the  Statutes  of  Laborers  and  other  oppressive  legisla- 
tion since  1349,  should  be  released.  Of  course,  the  King  could  make 
no  such  sweeping  changes  in  the  laws  without  the  consent  of  Parlia- 
ment, and,  though  the  concessions  were  proclaimed  in  all  the  shires, 
the  Council  determined  to  revoke  them  at  the  first  favorable  oppor- 
tunity. 

Excesses  of  the  Rioters.  Murder  of  Wat  Tyler.  —  In  spite  of  the 
royal  concessions,  Wat  Tyler  led  a  band  of  rioters  from  the  conference 
and  sought  out  and  cruelly  murdered  Simon  Sudbury,  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  together  with  a  few  others  whom  they  specially  hated. 
They  fixed  the  heads  of  Sudbury  and  Hales,  the  Treasurer,  on  pikes, 
bore  them  around  the  city,  and  set  them  on  London  Bridge.  Fortu- 
nately for  John  of  Gaunt  he  was  abroad.  Satisfied  with  what  Richard 
had  granted  them,  "  the  simple  and  honest  folk  "  departed  to  their 
homes.  The  extremists,  however,  the  criminal,  and  the  disorderly, 
to  the  number  of  thirty  thousand,  remained  and  made  the  night  hide- 
ous with  slaughter,  plundering,  and  burning.  More  than  two  hundred 
lives  were  lost  in  their  carnival  of  blood  and  fire.  The  Council  made 
one  more  effort  the  next  day  to  placate  Wat  Tyler  with  new  conces- 
sions. A  meeting  was  arranged  at  Smithfield,  the  site  of  the  cattle 
markets  north  of  the  city.  Tyler  was  allowed  to  ask  what  he  would, 
to  which  Richard  replied  that  the  commons  should  have  all  he  could 
possibly  grant  "  saving  the  regalities  of  the  Crown."  The  rebel 
leader  was  then  ordered  to  ride  away,  but  was  surrounded  and  cut 
down  so  promptly  that  it  seemed  as  if  the  whole  thing  had  been 
planned.  Directly  they  realized  what  had  happened,  the  insurgents 
began  to  draw  their  bows.  At  this  critical  moment,  so  the  story  goes, 
little  Richard  showed  himself  a  worthy  son  of  the  Black  Prince. 
Speeding  toward  them  and  waving  them  back,  he  cried :  "  Sirs,  will 
you  shoot  your  King  ?  I  will  be  your  chief  and  captain ;  you  shall 
have  from  me  all  that  you  seek."  Pointing  to  the  open  meadows  to  the 
north,  he  ordered  them  to  meet  him  there.  The  Lord  Mayor,  taking 
advantage  of  the  delay,  hastened  to  the  city  and  rallied  the  citizens  who 
had  begun  to  recover  from  the  terror  of  the  night  before.  They 
marched  to  the  support  of  the  King  who  had  kept  the  rioters  quietly 


234  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

engaged  in  parley  all  the  while.  Thus  reenforced,  he  was  more  than 
a  match  for  the  rabble  demoralized  by  the  loss  of  their  chief.  Yet  he 
was  wise  enough  to  let  them  depart  in  peace,  though  he  ordered  Tyler's 
head  to  be  fixed  on  London  Bridge  in  place  of  Sudbury's.  Met  by  his 
mother  on  his  triumphal  return  to  the  city  he  cried,  "  Rejoice  and 
praise  God ;  for  to-day  I  have  recovered  my  heritage  that  was  lost, 
and  the  realm  of  England." 

Suppression  of  the  Revolt.  Results.  —  The  backbone  of  the  re- 
sistance in  London  was  broken.  Kent  submitted  without  fighting. 
The  Essex  insurgents  demanded  the  confirmation  of  Mile  End  con- 
cessions ;  but  King  Richard  led  an  army  against  them  and  put  them 
down,  declaring,  regardless  of  his  promises :  "  Villeins  ye  are  still, 
and  villeins  ye  shall  remain."  About  a  hundred  of  the  rebels  were 
tried  and  put  to  death,  among  them  John  Ball.  Outside  of  Kent  and 
Essex  risings  in  East  Anglia  caused  the  most  trouble ;  those  in  other 
parts  of  the  country  were  scattered  and  were  suppressed  without  diffi- 
culty, though  it  was  September  before  the  last  embers  of  the  confla- 
gration were  stamped  out.  Parliament  met  in  November.  All  the 
King's  promises  were  revoked;  but  a  general  amnesty,  excepting 
almost  two  hundred  names,  was  proclaimed;  a  new  Chancellor  and 
Treasurer  were  appointed ;  and  the  royal  household  was  remodeled. 
Encouraged  by  the  crushing  defeat  of  the  rebels  and  the  reactionary 
attitude  of  Parliament  many  lords  not  only  reasserted  their  rights, 
but  tightened  the  bonds.  It  was  the  growing  interest  in  sheep  farming 
and  the  custom  of  leasehold  farming  that  made  for  the  gradual  aboli- 
tion of  villenage.  QThe  revolt  of  1381  led  to  no  startling  changes,  but 
it  is  notable  as  the  first  great  struggle  of  labor  against  capital^)  Like 
Wiclif 's  movement  it  was  crushed  for  the  time ;  but  both  were  to  as- 
sert themselves  in  the  centuries  to  come.  ^^ 

Richard  and  his  Councilors,  and  Parlia^Pt.  — (In  1382  Richard, 
though  only  fifteen  years  old,  was  married  to  Anne  of  Bohemia^  Ami- 
able and  accomplished,  she  exercised  the  best  of  influences  over  her 
young  husband  during  the  twelve  years  of  her  married  life.  In  spite 
of  the  courage  and  address  that  Richard  had  displayed  at  Smithfield, 
Parliament  persisted  in  keeping  him  in  leading  strings.  His  edu- 
cation had  been  very  defective,  awaking  in  him  a  love  of  refinement 
and  luxury,  rather  than  of  work.  The  self-seeking  among  the  cour- 
tiers who  surrounded  him  flattered  him  with  exalted  notions  of  the 
royal  powers  and  urged  him  to  throw  off  the  parliamentary  yoke. 
The  two  men  who  enjoyed  his  chief  confidence  were  Robert  de  Vere, 
Earl  of  Oxford,  and  Michael  de  la  Pole.  The  former  was  certainly 
no  upstart,  for  his  family  was  one  of  the  oldest  in  England,  but  his 
merits  were  small  in  proportion  to  the  offices  and  honors  which  the 
King  showered  upon  him.  De  la  Pole,  on  the  other  hand,  belonged  to 
a  mercantile  family,  and  had  served  Edward  III  long  and  faithfully  as 
a  diplomat  and  general.  His  aim  was  to  make  peace  with  France  and 
to  restore  order  by  strengthening  the  royal  authority.  This  policy 


THE   END   OF   THE   PLANTAGENET   DYNASTY     235 

brought  him  into  conflict  with  Parliament,  with  the  Earl  of  Arundel  — 
an  arrogant  and  selfish  noble  recently  associated  with  him  as  tutor 
to  the  King  —  and  with  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  one  of  the  King's 
uncles,  who  was  seeking  to  get  the  management  of  affairs  into  his 
own  hands.  The  struggle  with  France  dragged  languidly  and  fitfully. 
Parliament  would  neither  grant  money  for  an  adequate  expedition  led 
by  the  King  in  person,  nor  would  they  accept  peace  on  the  French 
terms.  In  the  summer  of  1383  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  was  allowed 
to  head  a  motley  force  on  a  so-called  "  crusade  "  to  Flanders.  Osten- 
sibly to  support  Urban  VI  against  the  French  candidate  Clement  VII, 
it  was  really  backed  by  the  commercial  interests  with  a  view  of  aiding 
the  burghers  of  Ghent  in  another  revolt  against  the  Count  of  Flanders. 
Owing  to  the  prompt  intervention  of  the  French  King,  the  revolt  proved 
abortive,  and  Norwich's  poor  array  were  driven  out  of  the  country. 
In  the  year  following,  a  truce  between  England  and  France  was  ar- 
ranged for  nine  months. 

The  Breach  between  the  King  and  the  Opposition,  1384-1386.  — 
About  this  time  Richard  began  to  assert  himself  and  to  manifest  his 
fiery  and  headstrong  temper.  He  gave  the  lie  to  Arundel,  he  broke 
with  his  uncles,  John  of  Gaunt  and  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  and  he 
indulged  in  furious  gusts  of  passion,  throwing  his  hat  and  boots  out 
of  the  window  on  one  occasion,  and  slapping  the  face  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  on  another.  He  rejected  contemptuously  the 
demands  of  the  Commons  to  control  his  expenditures  and  to  be  con- 
sulted in  the  choice  of  ministers.  He  increased  the  powers  and  rev- 
enues of  de  Vere,  and  created  him  successively  Marquis  of  Dublin 
and  Duke  of  Ireland.  De  la  Pole  he  rewarded  with  the  earldom  of 
Suffolk.  Violent  as  he  was,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  have  chafed 
under  the  restraint  to  \^udi  he  had  been  subjected  and  should  have 
sought  to  throw  it  off  rJ^Wrengthening  his  friends.  And  it  must  be 
said  that  the  baronial  party  were  not  striving  for  reform  of  abuses. 
In  1386  John  of  Gaunt  started  for  a  war  against  Castile.  This  made 
matters  worse  instead  of  better ;  for  it  left  the  leadership  of  the  oppo- 
sition to  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  recently  created  Duke  of  Gloucester. 
In  the  face  of  a  threatened  attack  from  France,  Parliament  met  in 
October,  1386,  and  demanded  the  dismissal  of  his  chief  ministers  before 
they  would  grant  supplies.  Richard  declared  that :  "  He  would 
not  remove  the  meanest  scullion  from  his  kitchen  at  their  bidding." 
Thereupon  they  threatened  him  with  an  imaginary  statute  permitting 
Parliament  to  depose  a  King  who  should  cleave  to  evil  councilors. 
The  allusion  to  the  fate  of  Edward  II  was  so  pointed  that  Richard 
dared  resist  no  longer.  Suffolk'  was  dismissed  from  the  office  of  Chan- 
cellor and  impeached.  Though  the  charges  against  him  —  of  subvert- 
ing the  laws,  defying  Parliament,  and  filling  his  pockets  with  public 
funds  —  could  not  be  sustained,  he  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment, 
a  victim  of  the  evil  conditions  of  the  times  and  the  malice  of  his 
enemies. 


236  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Council  of  Eleven,  1386.     The  Lords  Appellant,  1387.  —  The 

victorious  opposition  proceeded  to  appoint  a  Council  of  eleven,  headed 
by  Gloucester  and  Arundel,  to  control  the  royal  household  and  the 
government  of  the  realm  for  a  year.  The  King,  however,  as  soon  as 
Parliament  dissolved,  released  Suffolk,  and  declared  that  he  would  not 
be  bound  by  anything  in  the  late  session  which  affected  his  liberties 
or  prerogatives.  Moreover,  he  secured  from  the  judges  an  opinion 
that  the  appointment  of  the  Council  was  against  the  ancient  rights  of 
the  Crown,  that  the  King  alone  could  dismiss  ministers,  and  that 
Parliament  had  no  right  to  impeach  without  his  consent.  Indeed, 
they  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  all  who  were  responsible  for  the 
recent  acts  in  Parliament  were  guilty  of  high  treason.  Meantime,  both 
parties  had  been  preparing  for  war.  Gloucester  and  Arundel  were 
far  more  successful  in  securing  a  following  than  their  King.  Among 
their  new  adherents  were  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  somewhat  later, 
Henry,  Earl  of  Derby,  John  of  Gaunt's  heir,  and  Thomas  Mowbray, 
Earl  of  Nottingham.  On  14  November,  1387,  they  "  appealed  of," 
or  charged  with  treason  five  of  the  royal  favorites,  including  Suffolk 
and  de  Vere.1  Richard,  seeing  that  resistance  was  useless,  advised 
his  friends  to  save  themselves,  and  they  fled  in  all  directions.  De 
Vere  attempted  to  march  on  London  with  such  forces  as  he  could 
gather,  but  was  intercepted  and  defeated  at  Radcot  Bridge,  on  the 
upper  Thames,  20  December,  1387.  De  Vere  himself  managed  to 
escape  in  a  fog. 

The  Merciless  Parliament,  1388.  —  In  February,  1388,  a  new  Par- 
liament met.  They  ordered  the  arrest  of  the  judges  who  had  signed 
the  opinion  in  favor  of  the  King,  and  the  "Lords  Appellant"  repeated 
their  original  appeal  against  the  royal  favorites,  supporting  it  by  thirty- 
nine  formal  charges.  These  were,  in  substance :  that  the  accused  had 
conspired  to  estrange  the  King  from  his  prefer  councilors ;  that  they 
had  raised  an  armed  force ;  and  had  sought  to  massacre  their  oppo- 
nents in  Parliament.  Suffolk  and  de  Vere  were  beyond  reach  and  died 
in  exile,  the  former  in  1389,  the  latter  in  1392.  Two  of  the  remaining 
three  were  executed.  C  In  addition,  Parliament  proceeded  to  sentence 
to  death  or  exile  a  number  of  others  whose  only  crime  was  their  faithful 
support  of  King  Richard.  It  is  for  this  that  it  got  the  name,  "  Merci- 
less Parliament.  "^  The  leaders  enriched  themselves  with  the  offices 
and  estates  of  their  fallen  enemies,  while  the  Lords  Appellant,  who  had 
been  preaching  economy  all  along,  actually  wrung  a  grant  of  £20,000 
from  Parliament  for  their  services.  With  the  appointment  of  minis- 
ters from  their  own  party  and  a  Council  to  control  the  King  their  vic- 
tory seemed  complete. 

Richard  recovers  Control,  1389,  and  rules  well  for  Eight  Years.  — 
Less  than  a  year  of  the  new  regime  was  enough  to  show  the  country 
that  it  was  far  from  being  an  improvement  over  the  old.  Richard  saw 

1  The  accusing  lords  were  known  as  the  "Lords  Appellant." 


THE   END   OF   THE   PLANTAGENET  DYNASTY     237 

that  his  time  was  come.  Entering  the  Council  one  day  in  May,  i  • 
he  suddenly  asked  his  uncle  Gloucester  how  old  he  was.  WherTtoI 
that  he  was  twenty-three,  he  declared  that  he  was  old  enough  to  choose 
his  own  ministers.  Thereupon,  he  took  over  the  government  into  his 
own  hands.  He  was  wise  enough,  however,  not  to  put  in  office  any 
of  his  old  favorites  or  to  recall  any  of  the  exiles.  He  even  promised 
to  take  no  vengeance  against  the  members  of  the  Merciless  Parlia- 
ment, and  for  eight  years  he  ruled  as_a,jcojiatitiitional  and  popular 

Important  Legislation,  1391-1393.  —  The  early  part  of  the  period 
was  fruitful  in  important  legislation.  Qn  1391  a  new  Statute  of  Pro- 
visors  was  passed  which  reenacted  the  famous  measure  of  1351  and 
imposed  still  heavier  penalties  on  those  who  received  from  Rome  any 
benefice  or  reservation  of  a  benefice  at  the  expense  of  the  rightful 
patron)  Commoners  who  violated  the  statute  were  liable  to  the  pen- 
alties of  treason,  prelates  to  exile  and  the  loss  of  their  temporal  posses- 
sions, while  lay  lords  incurred  the  penalty  of  forfeiture.  In  the  same 
year  a  statute  was  passed  against  livery  and  maintenance  which  pro- 
hibited the  promoting  of  other  men's  quarrels  and  forbade  the  grant- 
ing of  badges  or  livery  to  large  bands  of  retainers,  (in  1393  a  new 
Statute  of  Praemunire  imposed  forfeiture  of  goods  as  a  penalty  for  ob- 
taining bulls  or  other  instruments  from  RomeJ  (Other  measures  im- 
proved or  confirmed  laws  of  Edward  III  for  the  benefit  of  trade._} 

Richard  in  Ireland,  1394-1395.  — :  In  1394  Richard  went  to  Ireland, 
the  first  king  to  visit  the  country  since  the  time  of  John.  There  was 
much  to  demand  his  attention,  for  conditions  were  growing  steadily 
worse.  The  "  Pale  "  had  shrunk  to  a  small  bit  of  country  about 
Dublin,  and  the  other  districts  under  English  rule  "were  mere  patches," 
cut  off  from  it  by  native  tribes  who  were  constantly  in  revolt.  In 
spite  of  the  Statute  of  Kilkenny  many  of  the  original  English  settlers 
lived  like  the  native  Irish  and  their  leaders  ruled  as  independent  tribal 
chiefs.  Richard,  accompanied  by  a  large  army,  landed  at  Waterford, 
whence  he  marched  to  Dublin.  The  Anglo-Irish  and  the  Irish  chiefs 
as  well,  thinking  they  could  resume  their  old  courses  again  after  his 
departure  readily  made  their  submission.  He  sought  at  once  to 
dazzle  them  by  his  splendor  and  to  attach  them  by  his  generosity. 
He  published  an  amnesty  for  all  past  treasons  both  of  the  Englishry 
and  the  Irishry,  he  acknowledged  that  the  harshness  and  corruption 
of  his  officials  had  caused  much  of  the  rebellion  and  disorder  of  the 
past,  and  took  steps  to  reform  the  judiciary  and  general  administra- 
tion of  the  country.  Meantime  events  had  already  occurred  which 
paved  the  way  for  the  great  crisis  of  his  reign. 

Richard's  Attempt  to  resume  Absolute  Power,  1396.  —  In  June, 
1394;  some  months  before  his  departure  for  Ireland,  the  death  of 
Queen  Anne  deprived  the  King  of  a  wise  councilor  and  a  gentle  advo- 
cate of  peace.  It  was  the  occasion,  moreover,  of  a  quarrel  with 
Arundel,  whose  behavior  at  the  funeral  in  Westminster  Abbey  so  in- 


238  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

furiated  Richard  that,  unmindful  of  the  place  and  the  occasion,  he 
struck  him  in  the  face  with  a  wand.  In  consequence,  Arundel,  who 
had  been  reconciled  with  the  King,  again  took  sides  against  him  when 
the  time  came.  In  1396,  after  a  series  of  short  truces,  peace  for  thirty 
years  was  made  with  France,  and  in  November  of  the  same  year  Rich- 
ard married  Isabella,  the  seven-year-old  daughter  of  Charles  VI.  From 
the  moment  of  this  French  alliance  Richard  began  to  throw  aside  all 
the  caution  which  had  sustained  him  in  his  position  since  1389,  to 
indulge  in  the  wildest  extravagance  and  to  nourish  the  most  unre- 
strained ambitions.  He  thirsted  again  for  absolute  power,  and  even 
cherished  the  hope  that  he  might  succeed  the  brother  of  his  late  Queen 
as  Emperor  of  the  Germans.  He  increased  the  magnificence  of  his 
court,  filled  it  with  Frenchmen,  borrowed  money  right  and  left,  and 
resorted  to  all  sorts  of  irregular  and  oppressive  means  to  support  his 
growing  lavishness. 

Haxey's  Case,  1397.  Richard's  Attack  on  the  Lords  Appellant.  — • 
When  Parliament  met,  in  January,  1397,  a  "  Bill  of  Complaints  " 
was  introduced,  attacking  the  incompetence  of  the  administration  and 
the  abuses  of  the  royal  household.  Richard,  in  a  fury,  demanded  that 
the  Commons  produce  the  traitor  who  had  framed  the  bill.  Bowing 
before  his  wrath,  they  gave  the  name  of  Sir  Thomas  Haxey  and  humbly 
excused  themselves  for  their  part  in  the  matter.  Though  Haxey  was 
later  released,  the  incident  is  an  early  and  important  case  of  royal  in- 
terference with  parliamentary  liberty.  (Suspecting  that  Gloucester, 
Arundel,  and  Warwick,  three  Lords  Appellant,  were  plotting  against 
him,  he  had  them  seized  and  "  appealed  "  them  of  treason  for  their 
acts  of  1387-1388.)  This  was  in  a  Parliament,  packed  in  the  royal 
interest,  which  met  in  September.  All  of  them  were  speedily  dis- 
posed of.  Gloucester  was  shipped  off  to  Calais  and  met  his  death  on 
the  way.  It  was  reported  that  he  died  of  disease,  though  there  is  little 
doubt  that  he  was  murdered  by  royal  order.  Arundel  was  tried  and 
executed.  Warwick  by  tears  and  confession  saved  his  life,  but  had  to 
submit  to  forfeiture  and  exile.  Richard  rewarded  his  supporters  with 
unsparing  hand.  No  less  than  five  dukes  and  one  marquis  and  four 
earls  were  created.  Among  them  were  two  of  the  old  Lords  Appellant, 
his  former  opponents.  John  of  Gaunt's  son,  Henry,  Earl  of  Derby, 
became  Duke  of  Hereford,  and  the  Earl  of  Nottingham  became  Duke 
of  Norfolk.  London  was  seething  with  excitement.  It  was  believed 
that  miracles  were  wrought  at  Arundel's  tomb,  and  Richard  so  feared 
his  shade  that  he  dared  not  go  to  bed  without  a  guard  of  three  hundred 
knights.  Before  he  allowed  the  members  of  Parliament  to  separate, 
he  made  them  take  an  oath  at  the  shrine  of  St.  Edward  to  maintain 
all  the  acts  of  the  session. 

Parliament  of  Shrewsbury,  1398.  Richard's  Absolutism  at  its 
Height.  —  The  next  year  a  new  session  was  held  at  Shrewsbury. 
Overawed  by  an  armed  force,  measures  were  passed  in  the  short 
space  of  four  days  that  made  Richard  practically  absolute.  /The  acts 


THE   END   OF  THE   PLANTAGENET   DYNASTY     239 

of  the  "  Merciless  Parliament  "  were  annulled  \)a,  subsidy  on  wool  was 
granted  him  for  life ;  and,  to  crown  all,  this  subservient  body  agreed 
to  delegate  its  Authority  to  a_commission  of  eighteen  for  hearing  peti- 
tions and~Transactmg  aUundetermined  business^  To  make  his  vic- 
tory  sure  Kichard  obtameoTpapal  letters  censuring  all  who  should  seek 
to  reverse  what  the  "  Great  Parliament  "  had  done.  He  seemed 
justified  in  his  boast  that  he  had  crushed  his  enemies,  not  only  "  at 
the  bark  of  the  tree  but  at  the  root."  Inflated  by  soothsayers,  who 
foretold  that  he  would  become  Emperor  and  the  greatest  monarch  in 
the  world,  he  offended  his  subjects  by  the  wildest  statements.  "  The 
laws  were  in  his  mouth  and  in  his  breast,"  he  declared,  "  not  in  any 
statute  books,"  and  "  the  lives  and  lands  of  his  subjects  were  his  own, 
to  be  dealt  with  according  to  his  good  pleasure,  despite  all  legal 
forms."  But  the  day  of  his  overthrow  was  not  far  distant. 

Richard  alienates  Henry  of  Lancester  and  continues  in  his  Mad 
Course.  —  A  quarrel  between  Hereford  and  Norfolk  indirectly  fur- 
nished the  occasion  for  the  final  catastrophe.  They  appeared  armed 
and  equipped  to  fight  the  matter  out  when,  18  September,  1398, 
Richard  intervened  and  exiled  them  both,  Hereford  for  ten  years  and 
Norfolk  for  a  "  hundred  wynter."  By  this  action  he  furnished  his 
cousin  Henry  of  Hereford,  who  stood  next  but  one  in  the  line  of  suc- 
cession, with  a  grievance  which  helped  him  to  gain  a  party  of  sym- 
pathizers and  lead  a  movement  against  a  capricious  despot.  Richard's 
foolhardiness  during  the  next  few  months  almost  passes  belief.  He 
not  only  increased  his  exactions,  but  he  accused  whole  counties  of 
treason,  he  browbeat  judges,  and  imprisoned  hosts  of  persons  on  the 
slightest  pretext.  CTo  cap  his  folly  he  took  occasion  on  the  death,  in 
1399,  of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  to  seize  the  enormous 
estates  of  the  family}  This  was  in  defiance  of  a  promise  to  Henry 
that  his  rights  of  inheritance  would  be  in  no  wise  diminished  by  his 
banishment.  Indeed,  he  went  further  and  declared  his  cousin  exiled 
for  life. 

The  Landing  of  Henry  of  Lancaster  at  Ravenspur,  4  July,  1399.  — 
Having  thus  wronged  his  rival  beyond  endurance  and  fanned  the 
anger  of  his  subjects  to  a  white  heat,  Richard  departed  for  Ireland 
to  chastise  a  rebel  chief  who  had  broken  into  the  Pale  and  slain  the 
Lord  Lieutenant.  While  he  was  thus  occupied,  Henry  of  Lancaster 
landed,  4  July,  1399,  at  Ravenspur  in  Yorkshire.  His  following  was 
small,  but  half  of  England  had  sent  assurances  that  they  were  prepared 
to  take  up  his  cause.  Solemnly  he  declared  that  he  was  no  traitor 
aiming  at  the  throne ;  but  that  he  came  only  to  recover  the  heritage  of 
his  father,  John  of  Gaunt,  and  to  drive  away  the  "  King's  mischievous 
councilors  and  ministers."  Directly  he  heard  the  news  Richard 
hastened  back  from  Ireland,  but  his  kingdom  was  practically  lost 
before  his  arrival  and  almost  no  one  would  fight  for  him.  At  length, 
in  despair,  he  consented  to  surrender  and  even  to  abdicate  on  condition 
that  his  life  should  be  spared  and  that  the  followers  who  had  stood 


24o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

by  him  should  be  given  a  safe  conduct.  He  was  taken  a  prisoner  to 
London.  On  i  September  he  entered  the  city,  amid  the  hoots  of 
the  multitude,  riding  a  little  hackney  and  clothed  in  a  plain  black 
gown. 

The  "Abdication"  and  Deposition  of  Richard,  1399. — A  Parlia- 
ment was  summoned,  in  his  name,  to  meet  on  the  3oth.  Before  it 
came  together  he  had  read  before  Lancaster  and  other  witnesses  in  the 
Tower,  where  he  was  held  prisoner,  a  document  in  which  he  declared 
himself,  "  insufficient  and  useless,"  and  unworthy  to  reign.  It  was  a 
dismal  proceeding,  but  he  bore  the  ordeal  tranquilly  and  even  cheer- 
fully. This  abdication  was  next  read  before  Parliament,  together 
with  a  list  of  thirty  articles  setting  forth  at  length  the  acts  by  which 
Richard  had  violated  the  Constitution  and  oppressed  individuals. 
/"They  included  levying  civil  war,  raising  arbitrary  taxes,  and  forced 
loans,  alienating  the  royal  estates,  imprisonment  of  subjects  without 
trial,  forcing  the  Parliament  of  Shrewsbury  to  delegate  its  authority 
to  an  illegal  commission  and  extending  the  royal  prerogative  beyond 
reasonable  limits.  Among  the  particular  charges  enumerated  were 
the  murder  of  Gloucester  and  the  banishment  and  disinheriting  of 
Henry  of  Lancaster/  After  the  articles  had  been  recited  both  Houses 
voted  that  "  for  the  greater  security  and  tranquillity  of  the  nation  and 
the  good  of  the  realm  "  Richard  should  be  deposed. 

Henry  of  Lancaster  succeeds  to  the  Throne.  A  Parliamentary 
Dynasty.  —  Thereupon,  Henry  of  Lancaster  rose  and  claimed  the 
vacant  throne  "  as  by  the  right  of  blood  coming  of  King  Henry,  and 
through  that  right  that  God  of  His  Grace  hath  sent  me,  with  the  help 
of  my  kin  and  my  friends  to  recover  it,  the  which  realm  was  in  pain 
to  be  undone,  for  default  of  goverance  and  undoing  the  laws."  He 
thus  based  his  claim  on  two  grounds,  right  of  descent  from  Henry  III 
andjright_of  conquest.  In  going  back  to  Henry  III  he  avoided  a  diffi- 
culty^The  Earl  ofMarch  was  heir  presumptive,  since  his  grandfather 
had  married  Philippa,  daughter  of  Lionel,  Duke  Clarence,  second  son 
of  Edward  III.  Henry  by  blood  was  one  degree  removed  from  the 
line  of  descent,  since  his  father,  John  of  Gaunt,  was  a  younger  brother 
of  Lionel.  He  might  have  argued  that  the  claims  of  the  Earl  of 
March  were  weakened  by  the  fact  that  he  was  descended  from  Edward 
through  a  female,  but  he  did  not  press  that  point.  In  going  back  to 
Henry  III  he  was  impliedly  making  use  of  a  rumor  spread  by  his  fol- 
lowers that  Edmund  of  Lancaster,  the  founder  of  his  mother's  house, 
was  really  the  eldest  son  of  Henry  III,  whom  Edward  I  had  supplanted. 
In  any  event,  Henry's  claim  of  descent  was  merely  a  pretext.  His 
second  claim  was  the  decisive  one.  Parliament  chose  him  because,  as 
the  ablest  male  of  the  royal  house,  he  had  overcome  a  king  who  had 
defied  the  laws  and  oppressed  the  subject.  CThe  title  of  the  new  Lan- 
castrian house  was  then  a  parliamentary  onej)  In  the  end  it  had  to 
give  way  to  the  older  rival  line  which  it  had  supplanted;  but  its  ac- 
cession was  of  the  deepest  constitutional  significance.  (It  confirmed 


THE   END   OF  THE   PLANT AGENET   DYNASTY     241 

a  precedent  that  kings  could  be  deposed  for  misrule  and  established 
a  new  one  that  Parliament  could  choose  a  successor  not  necessarily 
the  next  in  blood^  The  fact  that,  as  elective  kings,  the  Lancastrians 
made  a  bargain  to  govern  in  accord  with  the  will  of  Parliament  was 
also  of  the  profoundest  importance. 

End  of  Richard.  Final  Estimate.  —  Richard  was  passed  on  from 
one  castle  to  another  and,  in  February,  1400,  he  was  reported  dead. 
According  to  some  accounts,  he  declined  food  on  hearing  that  a  rising 
in  his  favor  had  failed  and  pined  away.  More  likely  he  was  starved  to 
death  by  his  captors.  He  was  totally  unfitted  by  youthful  training  and 
natural  disposition  for  his  royal  duties.  At  certain  crises  he  showed 
courage,  firmness,  energy,  and  capacity ;  but  he  was  naturally  indo- 
lent and  pleasure-loving,  and  fond  of  pomp  and  show ;  moreover,  he 
was  subject  to  sudden  gusts  of  passion,  he  was  revengeful,  and  bent  on 
absolute  power.  All  this  counteracted  such  merits  as  he  possessed. 
His  heritage  from  his  grandfather  had  been  a  heavy  one,  "  debt,  un- 
lucky wars,  popular  discontent  " ;  but  he  lived  that  down  and  ruled 
for  years  as  a  constitutional  and  popular  king.  Then  he  suddenly 
plunged  into  a  mad  career  of  violence  against  his  enemies,  extravagance, 
"  vain  boasting,"  "  and  freakish  tyranny."  His  wrongs  to  Lancaster 
merely  furnished  the  occasion  and  the  leader  to  overthrow  him. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Ramsay,  The  Genesis  of  Lancaster,  II,  chs.  VIII  ff.  Vickers,  England 
in  the  Later  Middle  Ages,  chs.  XIV-XVI.  Oman,  Political  History  (1906),  chs.  I-VI ; 
a  good  clear  account,  but  marred  by  many  inaccuracies  of  detail;  there  is  a  full 
bibliography,  pp.  497-512.  For  the  Peasant  Revolt  see  Oman,  The  Great  Revolt 
of  1381  (1906);  and  G.  Kriehn,  "Studies  in  the  Sources  of  the  Social  Revolt  ol 
1381,"  American  Historical  Review,  VII,  254-285,  458-484. 

Selections  from  the  sources.    Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  84-103. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER  IN  THE  ASCENDANT,  AND  "THE 
CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPERIMENT"  IN  GOVERNMENT.  HENRY 
IV  (1399-1413);  HENRY  V  (1413-1422) 

The    Lancastrian    Period.     Its    Constitutional    Importance.  —  In 

1399  a  new  branch  of  the  old  Plantagenet  House  began  to  rule.  Rep- 
resented by  three  Henrys,  father,  son,  and  grandson,  it  occupied  the 
throne  for  over  sixty  years.  It  was  a  period  of  wars  at  home  and 
abroad,  lightened  by  picturesque  incidents,  but,  in  general,  dreary 
and  inglorious.  After  a  brief  moment  of  transcendent  triumph  against 
her  ancient  enemy  France,  England  had  to  retire  discomfited  from  the 
struggle,  retaining  practically  nothing  but  Calais  from  her  former  vast 
possessions  across  the  Channel.  With  the  country  torn  by  struggles 
of  contending  factions  of  the  nobles,  aflame  with  popular  discontent, 
weakened  in  resources  of  men  and  money,  the  last  of  the  line,  a  "  pious 
weakling,"  had  to  give  way  to  a  rival  claimant,  Edward  of  York.  Yet 
this  half  century  is  notable  for  something  more  than  the  rise  and  fall 
of  a  royal  family,  (its  real  significance  lies  in  the  fact  that  Parliament 
put  this  family  on  the  throne,  and  exercised  control  over  the  affairs 
of  the  kingdom  all  through  the  reigns  of  Henry  IV,  Henry  V,  and  well 
into  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.)  Privileges  which  had  been  only  occa- 
sionally asserted  under  previous  kings  were  now  recognized,  exercised, 
and  extended.  The  parliamentary  experiment  proved  premature. 
Nevertheless,  the  lesson  was  a  valuable  one  which  was  not  forgotten. 
When,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  Parliament  again  asserted  itself, 
it  was  the  system  prevailing  under  the  Lancastrian  which  it  sought  to 
restore. 

Henry  IV,  1399-1413.  Promising  Beginning  of  his  Reign.  —  The 
reign  of  Henry  IV  opened  full  of  promise.  He  was  welcomed  by  all 
classes,  he  was  related  to  most  of  the  great  barons  of  the  kingdom, 
he  was  in  close  alliance  with  the  Church  and  clergy,  he  was  reputed 
rich,  for  he  held  the  treasure  which  Richard  II  had  forfeited  his  throne 
to  amass,  and  he  possessed  six  earldoms,  including  the  vast  estates 
of  Lancaster,  in  his  own  right,  and  he  had  four  strong  sons  to  preserve 
the  line  of  his  succession.  He  had  declared  that  he  would  "  govern 
not  by  his  own  voluntary  purpose  and  singular  opinion,"  but  "  by 
common  council  and  consent."  He  was  anointed  with  a  miraculous 
oil  which,  as  legend  told,  had  been  presented  to  St.  Thomas  Becket 

242 


THE   HOUSE   OF  LANCASTER  243 

during  his  exile  and  which  his  maternal  grandfather,  Duke  Henry,  had 
brought  to  England.  He  was  hailed  as  the  one  whom  the  fabled 
prophet  Merlin  had  foretold  would  "  recall  the  scattered  flocks  to 
their  lost  pastures." 

Character  and  Problems.  —  Henry,  sometimes  known  as  Henry  of 
Bolingbroke  from  the  place  of  his  birth,  was  in  his  thirty-third  year. 
Although  of  "  mean  stature,"  he  was  strongly  built,  and,  as  a  young 
man,  he  had  been  distinguished  for  his  skill  in  knightly  exercises. 
His  life  had  been  a  stirring  one,  he  had  taken  part  with  the  Teutonic 
Knights  in  a  crusade  in  remote  Prussia,  and  had  traveled  as  far  as  the 
Holy  City  of  Jerusalem.  He  had  joined  the  Lords  Appellant  in  their 
movement  against  Richard,  but  had  become  reconciled  to  the  King 
through  his  father's  influence,  and  had  only  taken  up  arms  again  when 
deprived  of  his  birthright.  He  was  brave,  active,  temperate,  and  by 
nature  merciful,  though  hot-tempered  withal.  Unfortunately,  the 
bitter  experiences  of  his  later  years  made  him  suspicious,  calculating, 
and  politic,  and,  when  goaded  by  resistance  and.  rebellion,  cruel  in  re- 
taliation. Not  a  good  soldier,  he  was  a  careful  administrator  and  wise 
statesman,  knowing  when  to  stand  firm  and  when lo  yield  to  his  ParliaT" 
rhent. In  spite  of  his  seeming  popularity  and  his  apparent  wealth, 
his  position  was  insecure  and_trying.  His  title  might  be  taken  away 
by  those  who  gave  it,  liiftirfnlirewere  such  demands  upon  his  resources 
that  he  was  always  in  debt :  there  were  fleets  and  garrisons  to  main- 
tain, wars  to  wage,  and  rewards  to  distribute  to  his  supporters.  It  was 
estimated  in  the  third  year  of  his  reign  that  his  annual  revenue 
amounted  to  barely  more  than  two  thirds  the  sum  necessary  to  meet 
expenses.  The  French  refused  to  recognize  the  new  sovereign  and 
coveted  the  English  possessions  on  their  soil.  Scotland  was  restless, 
and  Wales  soon  broke  out  into  revolt.  In  addition,  Henry  was  teased 
by  his  Parliaments  and  harassed  by  risings  of  the  disaffected ;  he  was 
the  prey  of  factions ;  attempts  were  made  on  his  life ;  and  his  last 
years  were  darkened  by  attempts  of  his  son  to  supplant  him,  by  the 
pains  of  illness,  and  by  stings  of  conscience  over  his  usurpation. 
Shakespeare  could  make  him  say  with  truth : ("  Uneasy  lies  the  head 
that  wears  a  crown.") 

The  Beginning  of  a  Welsh  Revolt  under  Glendower,  1400.  —  Early 
in  the  first  year  of  his  reign  certain  of  the  earls  who  had  been  deprived 
of  lands  and  titles  formed  a  plot  to  seize  King  Henry  at  a  "  mumming  " 
and  tournament  which  he  had  planned  to  hold  on  Twelfth  Night  at 
Windsor.  The  plot  failed.  Richard,  whom  they  had  designed  to  re- 
store, ceased  to  live  soon  after,  and  many  of  his  supporters  were  exe- 
cuted. Henry  ordered  a  thousand  masses  for  the  soul  of  his  rival. 
France  stirred  up  the  Scots,  and  the  King  was  obliged  to  lead  an  expe- 
dition against  them  in  which  he  accomplished  little.  On  his  way  back 
he  had  to  turn  aside  to  deal  with  a  more  dangerous  movement  in  Wales. 
The  leader  was  Owen  Glendower,  a  Welsh  squire  who  had  studied  law 
in  the  courts  of  Westminster.  He  was  a  learned  and  cultivated 


244  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

gentleman,  so  versed  in  the  ancient  prophecies  of  the  native  bards 
that  he  was  held  to  be  a  wizard  who  could  even  walk  invisible  when  he 
chose.  He  was  stung  to  action  by  his  failure  to  obtain  redress  from 
the  King  against  a  grasping  neighbor  who  had  been  encroaching  on 
his  lands.  When  he  took  arms  to  right  wrongs,  he  found  that  his 
countrymen  were  prepared  to  follow  him.  Added  to  the  national  re- 
sentment against  English  rule  there  was  bitter  discontent  against  the 
oppression  of  the  English  justices,  the  arrogance  of  the  Lords  Marchers, 
and  the  greedy  exaction  of  the  bailiffs.  Welsh  students  in  England 
flocked  home  to  fight  under  the  banners  of  Owen  Glendower.  Year 
after  year  English  armies  marched  against  him,  but  though  they 
destroyed  many  lives  and  much  property,  Owen  always  eluded  them. 
He  framed  an  ambitious  plan  to  exterminate  the  English  tongue  and 
to  set  up  a  great  Celtic  empire.  To  that  end  he  negotiated  with  Irish 
chiefs,  with  the  King  of  Scotland,  and  with  a  number  of  English  barons. 
He  assumed  the  title  of  "  Our  most  dread  Sovereign  Prince."  He 
schemed  to  set  the  young  Earl  of  March,  Richard's  heir,  on  the  throne ; 
he  schemed  with  France,  and  he  schemed  with  the  Pope.  All  his 
designs  failed,  his  great  confederacy,  which  he  sought  to  bring  to  a 
head  in  1403,  was  crushed,  and  an  attempt  to  lead  a  French  invasion 
into  England  was  given  up,  partly  because  the  Welsh  could  not  supply 
provisions  to  maintain  it.  For  years  Glendower  lived  as  an  outlaw, 
a  local  terror  to  the  Lords  Marchers,  until  his  death,  in  1415,  finally 
put  an  end  to  all  chance  of  Welsh  independence.  Under  Henry  V 
the  more  uneasy  of  his  countrymen  found  vent  for  their  energies  in 
the  French  wars,  and  during  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  they  supported  first 
the  Yorkists  and  then  the  Lancastrians.  They  helped  in  1485  to  put 
Henry  Tudor  on  the  throne,  and  under  his  son,  Wales  was  completely 
incorporated  into  England.  But  the  common  people  still  dreamed  that 
Owen  Glendower  only  slept  and  would  finally  awake  to  deliver  them 
from  the  English  yoke. 

The  Rising  of  the  Percies,  1403.  —  In  the  early  stages  of  his  revolt 
he  had  counted  on  the  Percies  who  ruled  in  the  north  with  almost 
kingly  power.  Henry,  the  elder,  Earl  of  Northumberland,  with  his 
brother,  the  Earl  of  Worcester,  and  his  fiery  son,  Sir  Henry,  known  as 
"  Hotspur,"  had  aided  to  put  the  King  on  the  throne.  They  were 
richly  rewarded  and  had  been  intrusted  with  the  defense  of  the  Scotch 
and  Welsh  borders.  In  spite  of  scanty  supplies  from  the  royal  purse 
they  executed  their  duties  effectively  and  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat 
on  an  army  of  Scotch  invaders  in  1402.  The  result,  however,  was  a 
deadly  quarrel  between  the  Percies  and  their  sovereign  over  the  pay- 
ment of  expenses  incurred  and  the  disposal  of  the  prisoners.  In  a 
stormy  interview  with  Hotspur,  King  Henry  drew  his  dagger,  called 
him  traitor,  and,  it  is  said,  even  struck  him.  Hotspur,  "  intolerant 
of  the  shadow  of  a  slight,"  proceeded  to  organize  a  rebellion.  He 
opened  communications  with  Glendower,  and  marched  an  army  to 
join  his  Welsh  ally  on  the  upper  Severn.  To  draw  supporters  to  his 


THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER  245 

cause  he  issued  a  proclamation  in  which  he  charged  his  sovereign  with 
having  broken  his  promise  made  in  1399  when  he  came  to  seek  his 
inheritance,  with  usurping  the  crown  and  murdering  Richard.  Hastily 
levying  an  army  in  the  midland  shires,  the  King  marched  to  the  Welsh 
border,  and,  20  July,  1403,  attacked  his  enemies  at  Shrewsbury  before 
they  could  effect  a  junction  with  Glendower.  Ably  assisted  by  his 
fifteen-year-old  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  he  overcame  and  routed  the 
rebel  forces.  Hotspur  was  killed.  The  Earl  of  Northumberland,  who 
had  been  raising  an  army  in  Yorkshire,  disbanded  it  on  the  news  of 
the  royal  victory  and  begged  for  pardon.  The  King  foolishly  let  him 
off  with  a  short  imprisonment. 

Archbishop  Scrope's  Rising,  1405. — In  1405  Northumberland 
united  with  a  number  of  great  lords  in  another  rising.  Chief  among 
them  was  Richard  Scrope,  Archbishop  of  York,  who  desired  reforms 
in  the  administration.  Many  complaints  were  raised  against  King 
Henry,  and  a  free  Parliament  was  demanded,  before  which  grievances 
might  be  laid.  Deceived  by  fair  promises  made  by  the  royal  generals, 
Scrope  surrendered,  and,  against  his  better  judgment.  Henry  allowefl 
hjmjto  be  tried  and  sentenced  to  death.  He  was  beheaded  8  June. 
The~Archbishop  gained  a  greater  victory  through  his  execution  than  his^ 
plots^  He  was  vejierated  as  a  martyr  who  had  perished  in  trying  tcT 
deliver  his  people  from  oppression,  and  many  attributed  the  sickness, 
which  made  Henry's  last  days  a  burden,  to  his  laying  violent  hands  on 
a  servant  of  God.  However  that  may  be,  he  suffered  bitterly  from 
pangs  of  remorse. 

The  Last  Risings  of  Northumberland,  1408.  —  The  old  Earl  of 
Northumberland  persisted  in  his  efforts  to  unseat  the  King.  In  1406 
he  passed  from  Scotland  into  Wales  and  made  an  agreement  with 
Glendower  for  dividing  England  and  Wales  between  themselves  and 
the  Earl  of  March,  Richard's  lineal  heir.  This  done,  he  departed  for 
Paris.  One  piece  of  good  fortune  happened  to  King  Henry  at  this 
time.  English  privateers  captured  James  of  Scotland,  whom  his  dying 
father  was  sending  to  the  court  of  France  to  be  educated.  "  The 
Scots,"  exclaimed  Henry,  mirthfully,  "  might  have  sent  me  the  lad  to 
teach  and  train,  for  I  know  French  well  enough."  For  seventeen 
years  the  royal  captive  was  held  as  a  hostage.  He  was  well  taught, 
became  a  prince  of  rare  accomplishments,  and  a  poet  of  no  mean 
note.  In  1408  the  unquiet  and  slippery  Earl  of  Northumberland,  who 
had  again  returned  to  Scotland,  led  another  raid  across  the  Border, 
but  he  was  defeated  and  slain.  England  had  no  occasion  to  fight 
another  battle  on  her  own  soil  for  forty  years. 

Henry's  Last  Years,  1408-1412. — Henry  was  now  supreme. 
Owing  to  the  efficient  campaigns  of  his  son,  Prince  Hal,  the  Welsh 
from  this  time  ceased  to  be  dangerous.  The  King  of  Scotland  was  his 
prisoner.  France,  under  a  King  subject  to  frequent  fits  of  insanity — 
Charles  VI,  1380-1422  —  and  torn  by  strife  between  two  parties,  one 
led  by  the  house  of  Orleans,  the  other  by  the  house  of  Burgundy,  was 


246  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

only  too  glad  to  keep  peace.1  Yet  Henry's  last  years  were  not  happy. 
His  sufferings  rendered  him  at  times  unconscious  and  frequently  in- 
capacitated him  from  transacting  business.  In  consequence,  the 
government  passed  more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  his  son,  Prince 
Hal,  supported  by  the  ambitious  and  wary  Beauforts,2  who  were  egging 
him  on  to  secure  the  crown.  By  the  autumn  of  1412  the  King's  periods 
of  insensibility  were  more  and  more  frequent.  Remorse,  too,  weighed 
heavily  upon  him  for  the  death  of  Richard  II,  the  execution  of  Scrope, 
and  his  own  usurpation.  For  the  first  two  he  had  done  penance ; 
the  last,  he  told  his  confessor,  he  was  powerless  to  alter  because  of 
his  children.  As  he  lay  dying  he  sent  for  his  son,  forgave  him  for  the 
grief  which  the  young  man's  impatience  to  secure  the  royal  power 
had  caused,  and  gave  him  a  father's  blessing.  He  died  at  nightfall 
20  March,  1413. 

Constitutional  and  Parliamentary  Gains.  —  It  is  from  the  con- 
stitutional point  of  view  that  the  reign  is  most  significant,  for,  owing 
to  Henry's  necessities,  Parliament  secured  the  dominance  in  public 
affairs  which  they  retained  during  the  greater  part  of  the  Lancastrian 
period.  In  successive  sessions  they  established  the  principle  that 
redress  of^grieyances  should  precede  supply,  that  moneys  should  be 
voted  only  on  t&eyiastTday  of  the  session  after  their  petitions  had  been 
answered.  They  asserted  successfully  the.right  of  freedom  of  debate^ 
They  scolded  the  King  for  the  "  unthriftiness  "  of  his  government,  for 
the  disorders  of  the  administration ;  and  —  often  with  scant  justice  — 
they  cut  down  or  revised  his  expenditures.  In  1404  they  fixed  the 
custom  of  granting  moneys  to  "  treasurers  for  war  "  appointed  by 
themselves,  and  made  the  King  publish  the  names  of  his  councilors. 
In  1406  we  find  them  demanding  redress  of  "  good  and  abundant 
grievance  "  and  telling  their  sovereign  that  his  household  was  com- 
posed not  of  "  valiant  and  sufficient  men  but  of  rascalry."  This  same 
year  they  appointed  a  commission  to  audit  alLpublic  accounts.  They 
went  even  further :  they  suggested  plans  for  the  national  defense  and 
the  conduct  of  wars  outside  the  land.  (.They  forced  the  King  to  agjee 
that  he  would  do  nothing  without  the  consent  of  a  continual  council 
of  their  own  choosing^  (Had  this  scheme  remained  permanent  the 
present  Cabinet  system  would  have  been  anticipated  by  many  cen- 
turies. In  1407  they  secured  recognition  of  the  important  principle 
that  money  grants  should  originate  in  the  Commons,  receive  the  as- 
sent of  the  Lords,  and  be  reported  through  their  Speaker^ 

Measures  against  the  Lollards.  —  Parliament,  too ,  passed  cruel 
and  searching  acts  against  the  Lollards,  though  the  initiative  came 

1  Indeed,  the  English  were  strong  enough  to  take  the  aggressive  and  to  send  two 
expeditions,  in  1411  and  1412,  respectively,  to  meddle  in  the  French  affairs.    The 
second  was  bought  off  by  the  mad  King  who  had  an  interval  of  sanity,  and  united 
the  contending  factions  for  a  brief  interval. 

2  There  were  three  brothers,  sons  of  John  of  Gaunt  by  his  third  wife  Katherine 
Swynford  —  John,  Henry,  and  Thomas,  who  took  their  family  name,  from  Beaufort, 
John  of  Gaunt's  castle  in  Anjou  where  they  were  born. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER  247 

from  the  clergy  and  the  King.  Henry  IV,  from  policy,  and  his  son, 
from  conviction,  were  both  very  orthodox.  Jn  i4oithe  impor- 
tant Statute  de  h&retico  comburendo  was  enacted,  providing  tfiaT 
impenitent  heretics,  after  conviction  by  ecclesiastical  courts, 
should  be  handed  over  to  the  lay  authorities  to  be  burned,  "  in 
order  to  strike  terror  into  the  minds  of  others."  After  this 
statute  had  been  framed,  but  before  it  went  into  operation,  William 
Sawtre,  the  first  Lollard  martyr,  perished  in  the  flames.  He  was 
burned  under  the  common  law.  In  1406,  at  the  special  instance  of 
Prince  Henry  and  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  another  act  was 
passed  against  the  Lollards,.  They  were  accused  of  denying  rights^oT 
property,  of  spreading  the  rumor  that  Richard  was  still  alive,  and  of 
preparing  men's  minds  for  rebellion ;  and  all  who  were  detected  teach- 
ing or  defending  any  Lollard  doctrine  were  t(T15e~~affested  as  public^ 
enemiesT^JIn  1409  Archbishop  Arundel,  probably  the  instigator  of  the 
previous  acts,  issued  a  series  of  constitutions  condemning  the  doc- 
trines of  Wiclif ,  forbidding  the  translation  of  the  Bible  without  author- 
ity, and  prohibiting  all  discussion  upon  points  determined  by  the 
Church.  In  1386  Richard  had  suppressed  a  measure  introduced  by 
the  Lollards  urging  the  reformation  and  disendowment  of  the  Church 
and  condemning  many  of  its  practices  and  doctrines.  Two  more 
notable  attempts  on  the  wealth  of  the  Church  were  made  in  Parliament 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.  In  1404  a  bill  to  appropriate  the  revenues 
of  the  clergy  to  the  needs  of  the  State  for  one  year  was  introduced  and 
failed  to  pass.  The  Parliament  of  1410  contained,  we  are  told,  an 
"  execrable  crowd  of  Lollard  knights,"  "  true  satellites  of  Pontius 
Pilate."  They  showed  their  anticlerical  feeling  in  a  petition  that  the 
enactment  against  heretics  might  be  softened,  and  in  proposals  for  the 
complete  disendowment  of  the  Church.  The  King  refused  to  listen 
and  Prince  Henry  "  openly  reprobated  their  malice,  and  bade  them 
never  for  the  future,  dare  to  put  such  stuff  together."  ^Parliament 
was  progressive  in  politics,  in  religion  the  orthodox  party  was  in  the 
majority.  The  King  identified  himself  with  both  tendencies.) 

Henry  V,  1413-1422.  Accession  and  Character. — Henry  v,  when 
he  succeeded  his  father,  was  nearly  twenty-six  years  old.  His  first 
act  was  to  go  to  a  holy  man  who  dwelt  near  Westminster  Abbey,  to 
frankly  confess  his  sins,  and  ask  for  absolution.  The  promises  that  he 
then  made  he  lived  up  to  during  the  remainder  of  his  short  and  busy 
life.  He  was  crowned  on  a  snowy  April  day,  which  some  interpreted 
to  augur  a  stormy  reign,  others  to  mark  the  end  of  a  winter  of  discon- 
tent and  confusion.  He  had  already  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Welsh  wars,  he  had  fought  bravely  at  Shrewsbury,  and  he  had  con- 
siderable experience  in  government.  In  spite  of  all  this,  his  youth  had 
been  wild  .and  boisterous.  His  accession  changed  him  into  another 
man,  "studying,"  we  are  told,  "to  be  honest,  grave,  and  modest,"  and 
he  acquired  the  reputation  of  "  being  the  most  virtuous  and  prudent 
of  all  the  princes  reigning  in  his  time."  He  excelled  in  outdoor  sports, 


248  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

such  as  wrestling,  leaping,  running,  casting  great  iron  bars  and  heavy 
stones.  He  kept  a  fondness  for  these  and  for  books  and  music  even 
after  he  became  engrossed  in  his  work  as  a  warrior,  diplomatist,  and 
administrator.  He  was  rigid  in  his  attachment  to  the  Church,  and 
most  strict  in  the  performance  of  his  religious  duties^  He  has  been 
blamed  for  his  relentless  persecution  of  heretics,  but  he  believed  with 
the  best  minds  of  the  age  that  such  persons  should  be  made  to  recant 
for  their  own  salvation,  or  disposed  of  to  prevent  them  from  contami- 
nating others.  Moreover,  the  Lollards  menaced  the  social  order  which 
he  supported,  joined  in  conspiracies  against  him,  and  leagued  with  his 
enemies  the  Welsh  and  the  Scotch.  He  lived  in  a  grim  age,  and  when 
he  awoke  to  his  responsibilities  he  was  impatient  to  acquire  the  royal 
power  that  he  might  grapple  with  the  problems  that  he  felt  himself 
capable  of  mastering.  His  appearance  indicated  his  character,  his 
thin  lips,  his  square  jaw,  his  slight  muscular  frame.  He  was  hardy, 
frugal,  cautious,  alert,  and  active,  devoid  of  geniality  and  gentleness, 
aman  to  follow  and  obey,  not  to  love. 

Henry  and  the  War  with  France.  — Ut  was  from  his  exploits  in  the 
struggle  against  France  that  Henry  V  achieved  his  greatest  fame.} 
War  was  then  regarded  as  "  the  highest  and  noblest  work  of  kings  , 
his  great-grandfather  and  his  great-uncle  had  won  a  name  for  their 
house  and  for  their  country  which  had  been  lost  by  subsequent 
inaction  and  defeat,  and  great  possessions  which  had  once  been 
England's  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  To  recover  Eng- 
lish prestige  and  to  regain  territory  which  he  believed  to  be  rightfully 
his,  Henry  renewed  the  war  with  France.  He  had  another  motive  as 
well,  to  unite  his  subjects  in  a  common  undertaking.  (He  accomplished 
all  that  he  set  out  to  do.  He  allied  himself  with  almost  every  power 
of  western  Christendom,  he  not  only  made  himself  supreme  in  France, 
but  the  first  monarch  in  Europe.  He  even  dreamed  of  leading  a  new 
crusade  to  recover  the  Holy  Land  and  stay  the  advance  of  the  Turks/) 
At  home,  where  his  father  had  to  struggle  with  inadequate  supplies 
and  discontent,  he  enjoyed  an  ample  revenue,  and  awakened  a  genuine 
national  enthusiasm.  It  should  be  said  for  him,  too,  that  while  he 
was  stern  and  even  harsh  toward  all  who  resisted  him,  he  was  just  and 
merciful  to  those  who  accepted  his  authority.  He  forbade  plundering, 
and  violence  toward  women  and  churchmen,  and  punished  those  who 
disobeyed.  But  his  success  rested  on  foundations  that  could  not 
prove  lasting,  on  his  personal  capacity  and  popularity,  and  the  weak 
condition  of  France.  She  was  bound  to  rise  from  the  degradation  to 
which  he  had  reduced  her  and  to  drive  out  the  conqueror  so  soon  as  a 
ruler  succeeded  less  able  than  Henry  himself.  In  the  long  run  the 
result  was  to  exhaust  and  demoralize  England  and  to  contribute  to  the 
downfall  of  the  house  of  Lancaster. 

Henry  V  and  the  Lollards.  Oldcastle's  Rising,  1413-1414.  —  Next 
to  the  war  with  France,  the  most  pressing  problem  which  confronted 
Henry  V  was  what  attitude  he  should  adopt  toward  the  Lollards 


THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER  249 

While  his  father,  in  order  to  conciliate  the  Church,  had  persecuted  a 
few  heretics  of  the  lesser  sort,  he  had  spared  those  of  position  and  in- 
fluence and  even  employed  them  in  the  royal  service.  (The  Lollard 
leader  was  Sir  John  Oldcastle.}  He  was  a  learned  and  accomplished 
gentleman  who  had  served  in  the  French  and  Welsh  wars  and  who  had 
obtained  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords  by  his  marriage  with  Lady 
Cobham.  Under  the  more  orthodox  regime  he  was  tried  for  holding 
heretical  opinions,  and,  after  the  King  had  sought  in  vain  to  make  him 
recant,  he  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower.  On  19  October,  1413,  he  es- 
caped, and  planned  a  great  Lollard  rising  and  the  seizure  of  his  sover- 
eign. Henry,  with  great  promptitude,  scattered  the  insurgents  as  they 
were  assembling  in  St.  Giles'  fields,  northwest  of  the  city.  Some  were 
slain,  many  were  captured.  Of  the  prisoners,  thirty  were  hanged  as 
traitors,  seven  were  burned  as  heretics,  and  thirty-two  were  fined  and 
imprisoned.  Oldcastle  again  escaped,  and  for  three  years  he  wandered 
about,  a  proscribed  outlaw,  intriguing  with  the  King's  enemies.  Late 
in  1417  he  was  captured  in  Wales  and  taken  to  London,  where  he  was 
hanged  and  his  body  burned.  The  failure  at  St.  Giles  marked  the 
death  of  Lollardy  as  a  political  and  social  force.  Early  in  1414  Parlia- 
ment replied  to  the  recent  demonstration  by  another  heresy  act,  which 
provided  that  any  of  the  King's  officers  might  seize  suspected  persons 
and  hand  them  over  to  the  Church  courts  for  trial.  In  the  same 
session  an  act  was  passed  authorizing  the  King  to  confiscate  the  prop- 
erty of  alien  priories,  that  is,  of  monastic  houses  in  England  subject  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  a  foreign  abbot.  This  was  solely  a  political  measure 
to  prevent  their  revenues  from  going  to  France.  Henry  showed  his 
piety  by  devoting  what  he  acquired  to  two  religious  foundations  of  his 
own,  Sion  and  Sheen.  Another  important  measure  of  this  Parliament 
enacted  that  petitions  should  be  enrolled  on  the  statute  book  in  the 
exact  language  in  which  they  were  framed.  Provision  was  also  made 
for  the  King's  brothers.  Thomas  was  confirmed  in  his  title  of  Duke 
of  Clarence ;  John  and  Humphrey  were  created,  respectively,  Dukes 
of  Bedford  and  Gloucester. 

Henry  resumes  the  War  with  France,  1414.  —  Although  the  peace 
with  France  did  not  expire  till  February,  1415,  Henry  took  advantage 
of  the  condition  of  Charles  VII  and  the  strife  between  the  Burgundian 
and  Orleanist  factions  not  only  to  intervene  again  in  French  affairs, 
but  to  regain  the  position  of  Edward  III  at  the  height  of  his  triumph. 
In  the  spring  of  1414  the  Orleanists,  led  by  the  Count  of  Armagnac, 
were  on  top  and  controlled  the  King.  So  Henry  made  a  treaty  with 
John  the  Fearless,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  31  May  sent  ambassadors 
to  demand  from  Charles  VI  the  "  restitution  of  his  ancient  rights  " 
in  France,  by  which  he  meant  to  include  not  only  all  the  lands  ceded 
by  the  treaty  of  Bretigny,  but  the  Crown  of  France.  He  sent  instruc- 
tions, however,  to  yield  on  the  latter  point  on  condition  that  the  French 
King's  daughter  Katherine  be  given  to  him  in  marriage,  that  all  terri- 
tories which  English  kings  or  queens  had  ever  possessed  or  claimed 


250  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

since  Henry  II  should  be  ceded  to  him,  and  that  he  should  be  recog- 
nized as  feudal  superior  over  Flanders.  While  he  later  lowered  his 
demands  somewhat,  he  was  bent  on  war  and  would  not  listen  to  the 
liberal  terms  offered  by  the  French  because  they  fell  short  of  what  it 
was  impossible  for  them  to  concede.  According  to  an  ancient  story, 
it  was  during  the  course  of  these  negotiations  that  the  French  Dauphin 
sent  him  a  barrel  of  tennis  balls  as  more  fitting  for  him  to  play  with 
than  to  undertake  a  war  with  France. 

The  Invasion  of  France,  1415. — After  months  of  preparation  Henry 
was  nearly  ready  to  embark  when  he  was  delayed  by  a  plot  to  put  the 
Earl  of  March  on  the  throne  during  his  absence.  It  was  disclosed  by 
the  Earl  of  March  himself.  The  King  only  lingered  to  make  examples 
of  some  of  the  chief  conspirators  and  then  set  sail  for  France,  10  August, 
1415.  His  army  consisted  of  about  2000  men  at  arms,  6000  archers, 
and  forty  peers,  including  three  royal  dukes  and  two  bishops.  While 
the  English  had  hitherto  been  content  with  mere  plundering  raids, 
Henry  came  prepared  to  systematically  conquer  Normandy.  He 
selected  Harfleur,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Seine,  as  a  base,  and  be- 
sieged it  for  five  weeks  before  the  burghers  opened  the  gates.  Owing 
to  the  coldness  of  the  season  and  the  fact  that  nearly  half  his  army 
were  sick,  he  decided  to  attempt  no  more  sieges,  but  to  march  overland 
to  Calais.  He  had  two  aims  in  view :  to  overawe  the  country  and, 
possibly,  to  tempt  the  enemy  to  battle.  In  this  latter  design  he  was 
successful.  When  he  reached  the  Somme,  the  waters  of  which  were 
much  swollen  by  the  autumn  rains,  he  found  the  opposite  bank  strongly 
guarded  by  the  vanguard  of  the  French  army.  He  was  obliged  to 
march  a  long  way  inland  before  he  could  effect  a  passage.  At  Agin- 
court,  halfway  along  the  road  to  Calais,  the  French  army,  swelled  by 
reinforcements  until  it  outnumbered  Henry's  three  or  four  fold,  as- 
sembled to  block  his  advance.  He  cheered  a  doubting  follower  with 
the  reflection  that  "  God  Almighty  is  able  with  this  humble  few  to 
conquer  the  many  if  he  so  please,"  and  prepared  for  battle. 

Agincourt,  25  October,  1415.  — The  English,  in  spite  of  their  small 
numbers,  had  a  great  advantage.  The  plowed  fields  on  either  side 
of  the  road  impeded  the  movements  of  the  heavily  armed  French,  and 
the  English  archers,  further  protected  from  the  charges  of  the  enemy 
by  rows  of  sharpened  stakes,  hastily  driven  into  the  ground,  shot 
deadly  clouds  of  arrows  into  the  densely  packed  ranks  of  the  enemy. 
Having  reduced  their  enemies  to  confusion,  they  issued  forth  and  com- 
pleted the  destruction  with  their  axes  and  clubs  loaded  with  lead. 
After  two  or  three  hours  of  hard  fighting  the  English  were  completely 
victorious,  with  a  loss  of  little  more  than  100,  while  the  death  roll 
of  the  French  numbered  not  far  from  6000.  Among  the  prisoners 
was  Charles,  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  was  taken  to  England  where  he 
remained  a  captive  for  twenty-five  years.  The  next  day  Henry 
resumed  his  march  to  Calais,  whence  in  November  he  sailed  back  to  > 
England.  He  had  executed  a  daring  feat,  and  won  a  remarkable 


THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER  251 

victory ;  but  the  only  fruit  of  his  costly  expedition  was  the  capture 
of  Harfleur. 

The  Emperor  Sigismund  visits  England,  1416.  —  It  was  almost  two 
years  before  Henry  led  another  expedition  across  the  Channel,  but 
the  interval  was  filled  with  busy  preparations.  In  May,  1416,  an 
august  visitor  arrived,  Sigismund,  Emperor  of  the  Germans.  He  was 
seeking  by  means  of  the  Council  of  Constance  (1414-1418)  to  restore 
unity  to  distracted  Christendom,  by  healing  the  Great  Schism,  repress- 
ing heresy,  and  reforming  the  Church.  John  Huss,  the  Bohemian 
reformer,  had  been  burned,  the  doctrines  of  Wiclif  had  been  condemned, 
but  the  papal  question  was  still  unsettled;  for  one  of  the  opposing 
claimants  —  there  had  been  three  since  1409  —  obstinately  refused 
to  abdicate.  Sigismund  hoped  to  induce  England  and  France  to  sink 
their  differences  and  join  in  the  common  work.  Henry,  who  had 
entertained  him  with  splendid  feasts  and  tournaments,  was  unwilling 
to  grant  terms  which  the  French  would  accept,  and  the  Emperor 
finally  agreed  before  his  departure  in  August  to  recognize  him  as  King 
of  France  and  to  assist  him  in  asserting  his  claims.  The  Imperial  aid, 
however,  never  went  further  than  promises. 

Henry's  Second  Expedition  to  France,  1417.  —  On  23  July,  1417, 
Henry  sailed  on  his  second  expedition  to  France,  with  an  army  twice 
the  size  of  his  first.  It  is  said  that  the  ordinances  which  he  framed 
for  its  governance  laid  the  foundation  of  much  of  the  later  maritime, 
military,  and  even  international  law.  He  spent  more  than  a  year  in 
reducing  the  strong  places  of  Normandy.  Rouen  offered  the  most 
obstinate  resistance,  and  held  out  from  29  July,  1418,  to  19  January, 
1419.  Henry  entered  into  negotiations  with  both  the  Orleanists  and 
the  Burgundians ;  but  since  he  still  insisted  on  impossible  terms  the 
two  factions  patched  up  a  peace  "  to  resist  the  damnable  enterprises 
of  our  ancient  enemies,  the  English."  But  the  Dauphin,  Charles, 
a  boy  of  sixteen,  under  the  thumb  of  the  Orleanists,  used  this  agreement 
merely  as  a  decoy  for  the  destruction  of  the  Burgundian  leader.  John 
the  Fearless  was  lured  to  a  conference  at  Montereau  and  slain  as  he 
was  kneeling  to  do  homage  to  his  royal  cousin.  The  result  of  this 
base  crime  was  to  throw  the  Burgundian  party  into  the  arms  of  the 
English,  and  to  make  effective  resistance  out  of  the  question.  In  the 
following  spring,  Charles  VI,  who  was  momentarily  lucid,  and  "  bore 
himself  prudently  enough  and  like  a  king,"  Isabella,  his  consort,  and 
Philip  the  Good,  the  new  Duke  of  Burgundy,  concluded  with  the  King 
of  England  the  Treaty  of  Troyes,  which  was  signed  21  May,  1420. 
By  the  terms  of  this  "  very  marvelous  and  shameful  treaty,"  Henry  V 
was  recognized  as  heir  of  the  King  of  France  and  Regent,  he  was  to 
marry  the  Princess  Katherine,  and  "  Charles,  who  calls  himself  the 
Dauphin,"  was  formally  disinherited  "  for  his  enormous  crimes." 
Henry,  who  spent  the  next  few  months  in  reducing  Orleanist  strong- 
holds, marred  his  triumph  by  steadily  increasing  cruelty  and  arro- 
gance. He  deliberately  put  prisoners  to  death  to  terrify  those  still 


252  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  arms,  and,  on  his  entry  into  Paris  in  December,  he  alienated  the 
citizens  by  his  overbearing  manners.  Late  in  the  same  month  he  re- 
turned to  England  after  an  absence  of  three  and  a  half  years,  but  in 
the  few  months  that  he  remained  in  the  country  he  devoted  more  time 
to  pageants  and  progresses  than  to 'affairs  of  state. 

Henry's  Third  and  Final  Expedition  to  France,  1421-1422.  —  In 
March,  1421,  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  who  was  carrying  on 
war  against  the  Dauphin's  forces  in  Maine  and  Anjou,  was  defeated 
and  slain.  In  consequence  of  this  disaster  the  King  departed,  10  June, 
1421,  on  his  third  and  final  expedition.  The  burdens  of  these  succes- 
sive campaigns  were  at  last  beginning  to  be  felt,  and  the  "  grievous 
exactions  "  imposed  to  meet  the  expenses  of  this  last  enterprise  were 
accompanied  by  "  numerous  and  smothered  curses."  Having  chased 
the  Dauphin  south  of  the  Loire,  Henry  occupied  himself  in  reducing 
the  few  strongholds  which  still  held  out  in  the  neighborhood  of  Paris  ; 
but  the  strain  and  hardship  of  the  winter  were  too  much  for  his  already 
overtaxed  strength.  In  July  he  was  obliged  to  take  to  his  bed,  and  he 
died  31  August,  1422.  Before  his  death  he  made  arrangements  for 
carrying  on  the  government  during  the  minority  of  his  infant  son, 
born  to  him  6  December,  1421.  He  appointed  his  brother,  John  of 
Bedford,  Governor  of  Normandy  and  Regent  of  France,  and  Humphrey 
of  Gloucester,  his  younger  brother,  Regent  of  England.  The  guard- 
ianship of  his  child  he  intrusted  to  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Exeter,  and 
two  other  noblemen.  These  arrangements  proved  no  more  stable 
than  his  conquest  of  France.  The  glamor  of  his  military  achievements 
must  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  Henry  V  had  plunged  his  country 
into  a  war  in  which  permanent  success  was  hopeless,  and  which  was 
largely  responsible  for  the  disorders  and  confusion  in  which  his  royal 
line  went  down  to  destruction. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Mainly  narrative.  Ramsay,  Lancaster  and  York  (2  vols.,  1892),  I,  chs.  I-XXI,  pays 
particular  attention  to  military  and  financial  history.  Oman,  Political  Historv, 
chs.  VII-XI.  Vickers,  England  in  the  Later  Middle  Ages,  chs.  XVI-XX.  Stubb's, 
Constitutional  History,  II,  ch.  XVIII.  J.  H.  Wylie,  History  of  England  under 
Henry  IV  (4  vols.,  1884-1898)  is  a  scholarly,  exhaustive  study  of  the  reign.  C.  L. 
Kingsford,  Henry  V  (1901)  is  a  good  brief  biography. 

Constitutional.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  I,  bk.  Ill,  ch.  II,  sees.  1-5.  J.  F. 
Baldwin,  The  King's  Council  in  England  during  the  Middle  Ages  (1913)  is  the  author- 
ity  on  the  subject. 

Selections  from  the  sources.     Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  104-118. 


THE   HOUSE   OF   LANCASTER 


253 


THE  HOUSES  OF  YORK  AND  LANCASTER 

Edward  III,  1327-1377 

I 


Lionel,                            Edmund, 
Duke  of  Clarence                 Duke  of  York 
(ad  son),  d.  1368             (4th  son),  d.  1401 

1 
John  of  Gaunt=  Blanche  of  Lancaster 
(3d  son), 
d.  1399 

HENRY  IV, 
I399-UI3 

i 
Philippa  =  Edmund  Mortimer, 
d.  1381          Earl  of  March 
(great-grand- 
son of  Roger 
Mortimer,  who 
was  executed 
1330) 

HENRY  V, 
1414—1422 

HENRY  VI, 
1422-1461 

Thomas, 
Duke  of 
Clarence, 
killed  1421 

John,             Humphrey, 
Duke  of              Duke  of 
Bedford,          Gloucester, 
d.  1435                d.  1446 

r~~          ~n 

Elizabeth,                Roger, 
m.  Henry         Earl  of  March, 
Hotspur              killed  1398 

1                                    1 
Edmund,                       Anne  = 
Earl  of  March, 
d.  1424 

1 
=            Richard, 
Earl  of  Cambridge, 
executed  1415 

I 
Edward, 
Duke  of  York 
(elder  son), 
killed  at  Agincourt,  1415 

Richard,  Duke  of  York, 
killed  at  Wakefield,  1460 


EDWARD  IV, 
1461-1483 

1 

1 
George,  Duke  of  Clarence, 
executed  1478 

RICHARD  III, 
1483-1485 

EDWARD  V, 
1483 

Richard,  Duke  of  York, 
believed  to  have  been  murdered 
in  the  Tower,  1483 

Elizabeth  =  Henry  VII 

THE  KINGS  OF  FRANCE  AND  DUKES   OF  BURGUNDY 
JOHN  II,  1350-1364 


CHARLES  V,  1364-1380 


1 

I 

CHARLES  VI, 

Louis  of  Orleans, 

1380-1422 

murdered,  1407 

1 

1 

CHARLES  VII, 

Charles,  Duke  of  Orleans, 

1422-1461 

captured  at  Agincourt 

1 

grandfather  of 

Louis  XI, 

Louis  XII, 

1461-1483 

1498-1515 

1 

CHARLES  VIII, 

Philip,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
d.  1404 

John,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
murdered,  1419, 
at  Montereau 

Philip,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
d.  1467 

Charles  (the  Bold), 
Duke  of  Burgundy, 

d.  1477, 

m.  Margaret, 

sister  of  Edward  IV 


THE  BEAUFORTS  AND  THE  TUDORS 

John  of  Gaunt  =  Katharine  Swynford 
I 


John,  Earl  of  Somerset,  d.  1410 


Henry,  Cardinal  Beaufort,  d.  1447 


Katherine  of  France = Owen  Tudor 


Edmund  Tudor 
Earl  of  Richmond 


John,  duke  of 
Somerset,  d.  1444 

Margaret 


HENRY  VII, 
1485-1509 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  FALL  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  LANCASTER.    HENRY  VI  (1422-1461) 

The  Council  and  the  Parliament  set  aside  the  Will  of  Henry  V.  — 

There  was  the  greatest  difference  imaginable  between  the  two  brothers 
to  whom  Henry  V  in  his  will  had  intrusted  the  government  of  England 
and  France.  Bedford  was  a  serious,  high-minded  man,  unselfish  in 
his  devotion  to  public  duty,  while  Gloucester,  clever  andjcultivated, 
the  patron  of  scholars,  and  at  the  same  time  master  of  the  arts  wHich 
please  the  people,  was  ambitious,  self-seeking,  and  unprincipled. 
He  was  always  stirring  up  dissension  at  home  and  abroad ;  indeed, 
his  uneasy  scheming  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  prepare  the 
way  for  the  later  downfall  of  his  nephew.  Distrusting  him  from  the 
start,  the  Council  and  Parliament,  led  by  his  uncle,  Henry  Beaufort, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  set  aside  the  will  of  the  late  King  and  declared 
Bedford  protector  of  the  realm,  though  they  allowed  Humphrey  to 
act  in  that  capacity  during  his  elder  brother's  absence.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  however,  the  real  powers  of  government  were  exercised  by 
the  Council  which  was  nominated  by  Parliament. 

Bedford's  Problems  in  France,  1422-1424.  —  On  21  October,  1422, 
the  poor  mad  King  Charles  VI  (Le  Bien  Aime)  followed  Henry  V 
to  the  grave.  The  party  of  the  Dauphin  at  once  proclaimed  him  King 
as  Charles  VII,  while  the  English  party  proclaimed  little  Henry. 
France  was  exhausted  and  demoralized,  and  Charles,  weak  and  pleasure- 
loving,  the  tool  of  worthless  and  ruffianly  councilors,  seemed  totally 
unequal  to  the  great  task  imposed  upon  him.  Slowly,  however,  na- 
tional sentiment  was  gathering  against  the  foreign  conquerors  who  had 
brought  so  much  misery  upon  the  land.  Moreover,  Bedford,  who 
had  great  capacity  in  war  and  diplomacy,  and  who  sought  to  rule 
with  justice  and  moderation,  was  greatly  hampered  by  his  meddlesome 
brother,  who  nearly  broke  up  the  Burgundian  alliance.  Humphrey 
married  Jacquelaine,  Countess  of  Hainault  and  Holland,  the  divorced 
wife  of  the  Duke  of  Brabant.  In  October  of  1424  he  crossed  over  to 
Calais,  bent  on  recovering  his  wife's  inheritance  of  Hainault.  This 
brought  him  into  conflict  with  Philip  of  Burgundy,  who  was  cousin 
of  the  Duke  of  Brabant.  Determined  to  retain  the  Hainault  lands 
in  his  family,  Philip  opened  negotiations  with  Charles  VII.  Hum- 
phrey proved  inefficient  and  unsuccessful,  he  deserted  his  wife  for  her 
lady-in-waiting,  Eleanor  Cobham,  and  returned  to  England.  Jacque- 
laine fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Burgundians,  and  Bedford  was  able  to 
pacify  Duke  Philip. 

254 


THE   FALL    OF  THE   HOUSE   OF  LANCASTER       255 

Quarrel  between  Humphrey  and  Henry  Beaufort.  —  Gloucester 
was  as  troublesome  in  England  as  he  was  abroad.  He  attached  the 
people  to  his  side  by  arts  which  won  for  him  the  name  "  Good  Duke 
Humphrey,"  and  sought  to  undermine  his  uncle,  Henry  Beaufort, 
by  accusing  him  of  aiming  to  seize  the  King  and  rule  without  the 
Council.  Affairs  reached  such  a  state  that  Bedford  had  to  leave  his 
work  in  France  and  spend  a  year  in  England  to  avert  civil  war.  Hav- 
ing effected  a  reconciliation  and  secured  a  promise  from  his  brother 
that  "  he  would  be  ruled  and  governed  by  the  lords  and  Council " 
and  do  nothing  without  their  consent,  he  returned  to  France  early  in 
1427.  Beaufort  started  at  the  same  time  on  a  crusade  against  the 
Hussites.  On  reaching  France  he  unwisely  accepted  the  office  of 
cardinal  legate.  Humphrey  was  able  to  make  good  use  of  this  with 
the  antipapal  party,  and  profited  by  the  absence  of  his  brother  and 
uncle  to  renew  his  claims  to  authority  against  the  Council. 

The  Siege  of  Orleans,  October,  1428,  to  April,  1429.  Jeanne  D'Arc. 
—  In  the  late  summer  of  1428  Bedford  sent  an  army  against  Orleans, 
the  chief  stronghold  which  acknowledged  Charles  VII.  Having 
failed  to  take  the  town  by  assault,  the  English  determined  to  reduce 
it  by  famine,  and  a  siege  began  which  lasted  from  October,  1428,  to 
April,  1429.  For  the  French  the  outlook  was  of  the  gloomiest.  Their 
armies  had  been  driven  off  the  field,  the  English  were  everywhere 
in  possession,  the  treasury  was  empty,  Charles'  council  was  torn  by 
intrigues,  and  the  more  despairing  even  advised  him  to  retire  to 
Spain  or  Scotland.  Suddenly,  6  March,  1429,  a  simple  maid,  barely 
turned  seventeen,  appeared  before  the  French  King  at  Chinon,  in- 
spired, she  told  the  doubting  and  astonished  court,  by  a  divine  com- 
mission to  relieve  the  sorely  pressed  Orleans  and  to  lead  her  royal 
master  to  Rheims  to  be  crowned.  Jeanne  D'Arc  was  a  peasant  girl 
of  Domremy,  a  village  on  the  borderland  between  Champagne 
and  Lorraine.  Always  a  devout  and  imaginative  child,  she  had 
begun  about  her  thirteenth  year  to  see  visions  of  saints  and  angels, 
and  to  hear  mysterious  voices  which  at  length  directed  her  to 
go  forth  and  save  France.  Securing  the  half-willing  support  of 
the  commander  of  a  neighboring  garrison,  she  put  on  a  man's 
doublet  and  hose,  mounted  a  horse,  and  rode  straight  to  Chinon. 
She  easily  singled  out  the  King  from  a  group  of  courtiers,  among  whom 
he  sought  to  hide  himself,  and  in  a  secret  interview  told  him  things 
that  made  him  trust  her  mission.  In  a  suit  of  plain  armor,  girt  with 
a  "  miraculous,  holy  sword,"  with  a  white  banner  borne  before 
her  on  which  was  painted  a  figure  of  Christ  between  two  angels,  the 
"  Maid  of  God  "  marched  to  raise  the  siege  of  Orleans.  Making  her 
way  past  the  English,  she  so  inspired  the  garrison  that  they  soon  put 
the  besiegers  to  flight,  and  defeated  the  forces  sent  to  support  them. 
Her  advent  discouraged  the  English  "  in  marvelous  wise."  To  the 
French  she  was  a  God-given  deliverer ;  to  Bedford  "  a  disciple  and 
limb  of  the  fiend  .  .  .  that  used  false  enchantments  and  sorcery." 


256  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Charles  at  Rheims  and  Henry  at  Westminster  crowned  Kings  of 
France,  1429.  —  Having  raised  the  siege  of  Orleans,  Jeanne  D'Arc 
performed  the  second  part  of  her  mission  by  leading  Charles  to  Rheims. 
He  was  crowned  17  July,  1429,  whereat  she  fell  at  his  feet  weeping 
for  joy.  The  coronation  marked  the  height  of  her  meteoric  achieve- 
ment. From  now  on  voices  ceased  to  guide  her,  she  became  dis- 
couraged by  opposition  of  the  royal  councilors,  "  she  had  fulfilled 
her  task,"  she  said,  and  she  wished  that  the  Lord  "  would  take  her 
back  to  her  father's  sheep."  Nevertheless,  she  advised  an  immediate 
advance  on  Paris  and  demanded  that  Burgundy  make  peace  with  his 
King.  The  Duke  refused  to  comply,  a  belated  and  ill-considered 
attack  on  the  city  was  repulsed,  and  the  self-seeking  courtiers  were 
able  to  recover  their  ascendancy  over  the  feeble-minded  Charles.  As 
a  reply  to  the  coronation  at  Rheims,  Henry,  although  not  eight  years 
old,  was  crowned  at  Westminster  on  the  8th  of  November.  The 
little  King  during  the  ceremony  "  beheld  the  people  all  about  sadly 
and  wisely,"  and  behaved  with  "  great  humility  and  devotion." 

Jeanne  D'Arc  captured,  tried,  and  burned,  1430-1431. — In  May, 
1430,  Jeanne  D'Arc,  while  attempting  to  defend  the  fortress  of  Com- 
piegne,  was  captured  by  the  Burgundians.  The  Duke  sold  her  to 
the  English ;  she  was  taken  to  Rouen  and  brought  to  trial  in  February 
of  the  following  year,  before  a  court  presided  over  by  the  Bishop  of 
Beauvais,  in  whose  diocese  she  had  been  captured/  In  vain  she  pro- 
tested that  "  she  had  done  nothing  save  by  the  command  of  God,"  and 
that,  "  if  she  saw  the  faggots  laid  and  the  torch  ready,  she  could  say 
nothing  else."  For  three  months  she  was  bullied  and  ill  treated  by 
judges  and  jailers  to  whom  her  simple  courage  and  transparent  honesty 
made  no  appeal.  Finally,  worn  out  by  suffering  and  brutal  usage, 
she  was  forced  to  declare  that  "  her  voices  were  delusions  and  that 
she  had  sinned  in  putting  on  men's  clothes  and  going  to  war."  On 
29  May,  1431,  she  was  burned  in  the  market  place  at  Rouen.  Bedford's 
animosity  can  be  understood  if  not  excused,  for  Jeanne  was  an  enemy 
of  his  cause.  The  French  clergy  and  the  doctors  of  the  University 
of  Paris  made  a  sad  exhibition  of  short-sighted  bigotry,  but  Charles 
VII  cut  the  sorriest  figure  of  all,  for  he  made  no  attempt  to  deliver 
this  heroic  maiden  whose  only  crime  was  to  fight  for  her  King 
and  her  country.  But  France  was  startled  from  its  lethargy,  and 
the  "Maid  of  God"  had  been  in  her  grave  scarcely  more  than 
twenty  years  before  her  countrymen  had  driven  the  English  from 
the  land. 

Death  of  Bedford,  1435.  —  For  the  moment  Bedford  seemed 
triumphant.  In  December,  1431,  Henry  was  taken  to  Paris  and 
crowned ;  but  one  reverse  after  another  followed,  far  from  balanced 
by  occasional  gains.  Burgundy  began  to  draw  off  from  the  English 
alliance.  In  1433  Bedford  was  obliged  again  to  cross  over  to  England, 
where  he  remained  for  more  than  a  year  in  a  vain  effort  to  keep  his 
brother  Humphrey  quiet  and  to  restore  "  restful  rule  and  governance." 


THE   FALL   OF   THE   HOUSE   OF   LANCASTER       257 

In  the  summer  of  1435  the  English  rejected  terms  of  peace  offered 
at  a  Congress  at  Arras  by  which  King  Henry  might  have  retained 
Normandy  and  Guyenne  on  condition  of  yielding  the  other  territories 
held  by  the  troops  and  giving  up  his  claim  to  the  crown  of  France. 
On  15  September,  a  few  days  after  the  English  envoys  withdrew 
from  the  Congress,  John,  Duke  of  Bedford,  died  at  the  age  of  forty- 
eight,  worn  out  by  his  arduous  duties.  Burgundy  now  finally  went 
over  to  the  French  side.  Bedford's  death  was  an  irreparable  loss  to 
the  English.  Many  stout  and  experienced  generals  still  remained, 
such  as  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  Lord  Talbot,  later  Earl  of  Shrews- 
bury, and  young  men  of  promise,  chief  among  them,  Richard,  Duke  of 
York,  and  Richard  Neville,  Earl  of  Salisbury.  But  the  high  ideals 
and  lofty  statesmanlike  conceptions  which  Bedford  had  labored  to 
realize  perished  with  him. 

England  loses  Ground  in  France.  Struggle  between  the  War  and 
the  Peace  Parties.  —  The  English  continued  to  fight  with  stubborn 
courage  and  persistency,  but  they  steadily  lost  ground.  Gloucester, 
free  from  his  brother's  restraint,  led  the  war  party,  while  his  uncle,  the 
Cardinal,  led  those  who  favored  peace.  In  1437  the  King  began  to 
disregard  Parliament  in  his  appointments  of  councilors,  and  the 
Privy  Council  came  to  be  more  and  more  the  prey  of  court  factions. 
In  November  of  this  year  the  French  King  once  more  entered  Paris 
which  his  forces  had  recovered  the  previous  year.  In  1441  an  event 
happened  which  lost  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  such  influence  as  he 
still  possessed  in  the  English  councils.  Eleanor  Cobham,  whom  he 
had  married  some  years  before,  was  arrested,  together  with  an  astrol- 
oger and  a  woman  commonly  known  as  the  Witch  of  Eye,  on  charges 
of  sorcery.  They  were  accused  of  reading  the  stars  to  determine  the 
life  of  the  young  King,  and  then  of  endeavoring  to  destroy  him  by 
melting  a  waxen  image  made  in  his  likeness  over  a  slow  fire.  Her 
accomplices  were  put  to  death,  and  the  Duchess  Eleanor  was  made  to 
do  penance  by  walking  barefoot  for  three  days  about  the  city,  robed 
in  a  sheet  and  bearing  a  candle  in  her  hand,  and  she  was  sentenced  to 
imprisonment  for  life.  The  offenses  charged  against  her  would  seem 
absurd  in  .modern  times ;  but  the  motive  which  lay  back  of  them 
was  serious.  She  was  doubtless  guilty  of  aiming  to  secure  the  succes- 
sion of  her  husband  who  was  Henry's  next  heir  in  the  Lancastrian 
line.  Gloucester,  who  lacked  courage  to  take  any  part  in  the  affair, 
had  to  yield  to  his  rivals,  the  Beauforts,  and,  aside  from  obstructing 
them  whenever  he  could,  spent  most  of  the  remaining  six  years  of 
his  life  collecting  books  and  posing  as  a  patron  of  learning. 

Henry's  Marriage  to  Margaret  of  Anjou,  1444.  — As  Cardinal 
Beaufort  was  growing  old,  the  conduct  of  affairs  fell  more  and  more 
into  the  hands  of  his  nephew  Edmund,  successively  Earl  and  Duke 
of  Somerset,  and  of  William  de  la  Pole,  Earl  and  finally  Duke  of 
Suffolk,  a  grandson  of  Richard  II's  old  minister.  In  1444  Suffolk  was 
sent  over  to  France  to  obtain  peace.  He  negotiated  a  marriage  be- 
s 


258  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tween  King  Henry  and  Margaret  of  Anjou,  niece  of  Charles  VII.  But 
the  best  he  could  secure  was  a  truce  at  the  cost  of  ceding  Maine 
and  Anjou,  by  an  agreement  which  he  did  not  dare  to  make  public. 
Margaret,  a  handsome,  well-grown  girl  of  fifteen,  directly  the  opposite 
of  her  pious,  kindly,  and  weak  consort,  arrived  in  England  in  the 
spring  of  1445.  The  sacrifices  which  her  marriage  involved,  her 
French  origin,  and  her  decidedly  French  sympathies,  made  her  un- 
popular almost  from  the  start.  Then  she  joined  the  Beaufort-Suffolk 
faction  against  Gloucester's  old  party  soon  to  be  led  by  the  House 
of  York,  a  House  destined  within  less  than  twenty  years  to  secure  the 
crown.  Margaret  fought  with  a  furious  courage  and  energy,  which 
excites  the  admiration ;  but  her  high-handedness,  her  greediness,  and 
her  brutality  contributed  one  of  the  many  causes  leading  to  the  down- 
fall of  the  Lancastrians. 

Richard,  Duke  of  York.  His  Claim  to  the  Throne.  —  Richard,  Duke 
of  York,  who  came  to  the  front  about  this  time  as  the  leader  of  the  party 
opposed  to  the  Queen,  derived  his  dukedom,  through  his  father,  from 
one  of  the  younger  sons  of  Edward  III.  From  his  mother  he  in- 
herited a  claim  to  the  crown  itself.  By  blood  his  title  was  better 
than  that  of  King  Henry,  since  he  was  descended  from  Lionel,  Duke 
of  Clarence,  an  elder  brother  of  John  of  Gaunt.  Parliament,  however, 
had  declared  for  the  younger  line,  which  had  the  further  advantage 
of  unbroken  descent  through  males.  Richard  was  a  "  cautious,  ret- 
icent, and  resolute  "  man,  who  had  already  distinguished  himself 
as  Regent  of  France.  In  spite  of  his  political  activity,  it  was  some 
years  before  he  asserted  his  claims  to  the  throne;  indeed,  he  might 
never  have  done  so,  but  for  Henry's  inability  and  misfortunes. 

The  Impeachment  of  Suffolk,  1450.  —  When  the  news  of  the 
cession  of  Maine  and  Anjou  became  known,  a  storm  of  abuse  descended 
on  the  head  of  Suffolk.  Nevertheless,  his  policy,  humiliating  as  it 
seemed,  had  something  to  be  said  for  it.  Realizing  that  England  could 
not  hope  to  retain  her  hold  on  the  whole  of  France,  he  doubtless  hoped 
by  timely  concessions  to  save  Normandy  and  Guyenne.  But  the 
French  troops  in  Maine  and  Anjou  were  freed  for  service  elsewhere, 
and  Somerset,  who  went  over  as  lieutenant  general  in  1448,  was  rash, 
and  either  incompetent  or  exceedingly  unlucky.  One  strong  place 
after  another  was  torn  from  his  grasp,  until  by  the  summer  of  1450 
the  French  had  recovered  the  whole  of  Normandy.  Suffolk,  in  the 
meantime,  had  paid  the  penalty  for  the  losses  across  the  Channel 
and  for  the  mismanagement  of  affairs  at  home.  The  infuriated  Eng- 
lish could  see  no  reason  for  their  continued  ill  success  but  treason. 
Early  in  the  year  charges  of  impeachment  were  framed  against  him. 
Waiving  a  trial  by  his  peers,  he  threw  himself  on  the  King's  mercy. 
Henry  ordered  him  to  absent  himself  from  the  kingdom  for  five  years. 
On  his  way  abroad  his  ship  was  intercepted  by  a  fleet  of  a  half  dozen 
vessels ;  Suffolk  was  seized  and  beheaded.  Just  who  were  his  enemies 
was  never  known.  ~"~ 


THE   FALL   OF   THE   HOUSE   OF   LANCASTER       259 

Jack  Cade's  Rebellion,  1450.  —  The  popular  discontent  against  the 
feebleness  of  the  government  was  manifested  in  a  rising  known  as 
"  Jack  Cade's  Rebellion,"  which  broke  out  in  Kent  and  Sussex  in  May, 
1450,  and  lasted  for  six  weeks.  The  grievances  complained  of  were 
mainly  political :  the  losses  in  France,  the  miscarriage  of  justice,  the 
wasting  of  the  King's  treasure,  and  the  shelving  of  York  who  had  been 
sent  in  1447  as Lord  Lieutenant  to Irelandv  (The insurgents  demanded 
administrative  reforms  and  a  change  of  ministers.  One  social  griev- 
ance alone  was  mentioned,  —  the  Statute  of  Laborers,  —  and  this  was 
probably  to  attract  the  lower  classes.)  Who  the  leader  was  who 
called  himself  Jack  Cade  is  unknown.  He  posed  as  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Mortimer;  he  may  have  been  a  tool  of  the  anti-Suffolk 
faction  or  a  mere  adventurer.  His  followers  occupied  London,  put  to 
death  some  of  the  officials,  and  sacked  the  houses  of  the  leading  citizens. 
The  propertied  classes  at  length  roused  themselves,  drove  the  in- 
surgents from  the  City,  and  by  false  promises  of  pardon  induced  them 
to  disband.  Cade  was  killed  in  struggling  against  arrest,  many  of 
those  who  had  risen  with  him  were  executed,  and  various  scattered 
revolts  were  crushed.  Henry,  however,  aggravated  the  discontent  by 
receiving  Somerset  with  favor  and  making  him  Constable  of  England. 

The  Return  of  Richard  of  York,  1450.  —  In  September  Richard 
returned  from  Ireland,  "  posing  ...  as  the  saviour  of  England  from 
anarchy,  and  the  avenger  of  Normandy."  While  as  yet  he  went  no 
further  than  to  demand  reform  of  abuses,  his  royal  descent  made  him 
a  natural  object  of  fear  to  those  in  power.  Not  a  general,  statesman, 
or  administrator  of  marked  ability,  he  was  welcomed  as  a  popular 
champion  in  consequence  of  his  opposition  to  the  unlucky  and  unpopu- 
lar Somerset.  Much  against  the  will  of  the  rival  party  Henry  was 
forced  to  receive  him.  He  promised  never  again  to  exclude  him  from 
the  Council,  and  to  call  a  Parliament.  When  Parliament  met,  both 
York  and  Somerset  appeared  with  enormous  retinues,  and  London 
was  filled  with  armed  men.  Henry  refused  to  banish  Somerset,  or 
even  to  deprive  him  of  office,  and  when  Thomas  Yonge,  a  member 
from  Bristol,  proposed  that  the  Duke  of  York  should  be  declared  heir 
to  the  throne,  Parliament  was  dissolved  by  royal  command  and 
Yonge  put  in  the  Tower.  (This  proposal  was  the  first  intimation  of 
the  dynastic  struggle  between  the  Lancastrians  and  the  Yorkists, 
known  as  the  War  of  the  Roses,  —  a  name  not  strictly  correct,  however, 
for  while  the  white  rose  was  the  symbol  of  the  Yorkist,  the  red  rose 
was  not  a  Lancastrian  symbol.1  Actual  war  did  not  break  out  till 
1455!)  Although  the  question  of  the  succession  came  to  be  the  most 
prominent  issue,  other  causes  contributed  to  bring  it  forward  and  to 
determine  the  final  result:  Henry's  incapacity;  the  masterful,  in- 
triguing character  of  his  wife ;  the.  ill-success  of  the  war ;  the  acute 
financial  situation ;  the  discontent  and  disorder  throughout  the  land ; 

1  It  was  first  used  by  Henry  Tudor  at  Bosworth  in  1485. 


260  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

the  King's  refusal  to  listen  to  Parliament,  especially  in  the  retention 
of  Somerset ;  and  the  jealousies  of  the  great  nobles  who  ranged  them- 
selves on  the  side  of  Somerset  and  Yorkist  families,  respectively. 

The  Critical  Year  1453.  End  of  the  Hundred  Years'  War.  —  The 
year  1453  witnessed  events  of  the  greatest  consequence.  After  con- 
quering Normandy  the  French  had  turned  their  armies  into  Guyenne. 
The  Gascons  clung  to  the  pnglish  with  intense  loyalty,  and  with  their 
aid,  stout  John  Talbot,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  a  veteran  of  sixty-five 
years,  managed  for  a  time,  not  only  to  hold  back  the  invaders,  but 
even  to  recover  lost  ground.  In  July,  however,  he  was  cut  down 
bravely  fighting  at  the  battle  of  Castillon.  In  October,  Bordeaux 
finally  yielded,  and  the  Hundred  Years'  War  was  over.  The  im- 
possible task  of  conquering  France,  begun  by  Edward  III  and  revived 
so  brilliantly  by  Henry  V,  was  at  length  abandoned,  and  England  re- 
tired from  the  contest  retaining  only  Calais  of  her  former  broad 
territories  across  the  Channel.  Meantime,  in  August,  the  King  was 
suddenly  bereft  of  his  faculties.  He  lost  his  reason,  his  memory,  and 
even  his  power  of  motion,  he  had  to  be  fed  with  a  spoon  and  lifted 
from  his  chair  to  his  bed.  For  sixteen  months  he  continued  in  this 
helpless  state.  The  •  way  seemed  clear  for  Richard  as  the  nearest 
heir;  but  his  chances  of  succeeding  peacefully  and  of  right  were 
quickly  dashed  by  the  news  that  Margaret,  13  October,  had  given 
birth  to  a  son.  Although  the  Queen  kept  the  King's  condition  secret 
for  some  time,  and  although  Richard  was  not  invited  to  the  council 
finally  summoned  to  consider  the  regency,  he  managed  to  get  control. 
In  December  an  inquiry  was  made  into  the  administration  of  Somerset 
at  home  and  abroad,  with  the  result  that  he  was  put  into  the  Tower, 
though  no  attempt  was  made  to  bring  him  to  trial.  Parliament  met, 
attended  by  the  supporters  of  each  party  in  arms ;  Margaret's  little 
son  was  created  Prince  of  Wales,  but  Richard  was  declared  "  Protec- 
tor and  Defender  of  the  Realm"  with  all  the  powers  of  Regent.  Dur- 
ing his  term  of  power  he  acted  with  great  moderation,  refraining  from 
punishing  his  enemies,  though  he  strengthened  himself  by  putting  his 
friends  in  power. 

Beginning  of  the  War  of  the  Roses,  1455.  —  When  all  seemed  going 
well  the  King's  recovery  of  his  reason  on  Christmas  Day,  1454,  reopened 
the  old  strife.  Richard  and  his  supporters  were  removed  from  office, 
and  Somerset  was  released  and  returned  to  favor.  The  Yorkists 
submitted  to  all  this  and  retired  quietly  to  their  estates,  but  when  a 
council  was  summoned  to  provide  "  for  the  safety  of  the  King's  person 
against  his  enemies,"  Richard  gathered  an  armed  following  and  marched 
toward  London.  Professing  his  loyalty  to  the  King,  he  stated  that  he 
and  his  kinsmen  were  coming  as  "  true  and  loyal  liegemen,"  and  that 
they  only  demanded  an  audience  with  their  sovereign  to  convince  him 
of  the  "  sinister,  fraudulent,  and  malicious  labors  and  reports  of  their 
enemies."  In  addition,  however,  they  demanded  the  arrest  of  certain 
councilors  of  the  opposite  party.  But  they  were  refused  a  hearing,  and, 


Ick 

10LY  ISLE 
,1NDISF»RNE) 


THE  WARS 
OF  THE  HOSES 


EXPLANATION 

England £ 

Welsh  Principalities | 

The  Marches.  _____j 


4  West  3      Longitude         2  from  1        Greenwich      0  EMC 


THE   FALL   OF   THE   HOUSE   OF   LANCASTER       261 

2 1  May,  1455,  Somerset  marched  from  the  City  with  the  King  and  a  great 
following  of  lords.  The  two  armies  met  in  the  ancient  monastic  town  of 
St.  Albans.  Henry  rejected  a  final  attempt  at  negotiations  on  the  part 
of  his  adversaries  with  one  of  the  few  flashes  of  anger  which  he  ever 
showed  in  his  life.  "By  the  faith  that  I  owe  to  St.  Edward  and  the 
crown  of  England,"  he  cried,  "  I  will  destroy  them  every  mother's 
son."  The  encounter  which  followed  was  little  more  than  a  street 
fight,  but  it  was  big  in  consequences,  for  it  opened  the  War  of  the 
Roses.  The  Duke  of  Somerset  was  killed  and  the  King  was  taken 
prisoner.  The  Queen  now  came  forward  as  the  head  of  the  royal 
party.  The  civil  war  thus  begun  was  waged  intermittently  for  fifteen 
years,  until  Henry  was  put  to  death  and  Margaret  driven  from  the 
realm. 

~5~Period  of  Outward  Calm,  1455-1459.  —  The  "  ill-day  of  St. 
Albans,"  however,  was  followed  by  more  than  four  years  of  com- 
parative peace.  The  Yorkists  remained  dominant  in  the  Council 
untiljOctober  of  1456,  during  a  part  ot  which  period  Richard  agairf 
actecTas  .Protector,  while  the  King  suffered  from  a  second  attack  of 
insanity.  On  Henry's  recovery  he  voluntarily  laid  down  his  office, 
nor  did  he  protest  when  his  supporters  were  removed  from  Council. 
But  his  moderation  and  the  pacific  temper  of  King  Henry  were  only 
able  to  postpone,  not  to  arrest,  a  recurrence  of  conflict.  Hatreds 
were  bitter,  private  feuds  were  waged  unsuppressed,  and  both  sides 
were  preparing  to  take  arms.  The  people  complained  that  the  King 
was  in  debt,  though  he  "  held  no  household  nor  maintained  no 
wars,"  yet  they  refused  the  supplies  to  enable  him  to  maintain  a 
household  or  to  keep  out  of  debt.  The  Queen  and  her  friends  were 
accused  of  accumulating  "  riches  innumerable."  Her  jointure  was 
no  doubt  large ;  but  for  years  she  had  of  necessity  been  surrendering 
a  good  part  of  it  for  royal  expenses.  Unpopular  as  she  was  already, 
Margaret  made  herself  more  so  by  courting  the  aid  of  France  and 
Scotland. 

The  Reopening  of  the  War,  1459.  The  Yorkists  in  Exile.  —  By 
the  summer  of  1459  both  parties  were  again  arrayed  in  arms.  Queen 
Margaret  struck  the  first  blow.  In  September  she  advanced  with  an 
army  to  intercept  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  who  was  marching  from 
Yorkshire  to  join  Duke  Richard  at  Ludlow  in  Shropshire.  Salisbury 
succeeded  in  eluding  the  royal  army  and  in  scattering  a  levy  of  Lan- 
castrians from  Cheshire  who  attacked  him  at  Blore  Heath  on  the 
22d.  Although  he  and  his  son,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  managed  to 
join  Duke  Richard,  the  united  Yorkist  forces  were  still  too  small  to 
think  of  fighting  the  army  of  the  Queen.  They  first  drew  back  into 
the  Welsh  Marches,  and,  then,  when  they  received  none  of  the  ree'n- 
forcements  on  which  they  had  counted,  they  became  panic-stricken. 
Most  of  them  either  disbanded  or  deserted  to  the  enemy.  Richard 
fled  to  Ireland,  while  his  son  Edward,  Earl  of  March,  together  with 
Salisbury  and  Warwick,  risked  a  wild  ride  through  a  hostile  country, 


262  A  HISTORY  OF    ENGLAND 

and  crossed  over  to  Calais  in  a  little  fishing  smack.  The  victorious 
royalists  called  a  Parliament  which  they  filled  with  Lancastrian  sup- 
porters and  passed  an  act  of  attainder  against  the  Duke  of  York  and 
his  more  prominent  followers.  Henry,  however,  reserved  the  right 
of  pardon  and  actually  spared  some  who  fell  into  his  hands.  Mar- 
garet at  the  head  of  affairs  made  no  profit  from  her  victory.  She  took 
no  effective  measures  to  guard  against  future  attacks,  and  the  govern- 
ment continued  as  weak  and  ineffective  as  ever.  The  King,  led  by  a 
"  covetous  Council,"  counted  for  little,  and  "  owed  more  than  he  was 
worth."  More  and  more  in  the  face  of  poverty,  disorder,  and  selfish 
faction  the  hearts  of  the  people  were  turned  to  the  leaders  in  exile 
who  might  bring  them  relief. 

The  Return  of  the  Yorkists,  1460.  Richard's  Defeat  and  Death 
at  Wakefield,  1460.  —  In  June,  1460,  Warwick,  Salisbury,  and  the  Earl 
of  March  landed  in  Kent.  The  Duke  of  York,  who  had  secured  a 
strong  following  in  Ireland,  was  in  communication  with  them  and 
had  planned  a  simultaneous  invasion  from  the  west.  The  invaders 
issued  a  manifesto  in  which  they  set  forth  their  grievances  and  the 
distempers  of  the  realm.  Joined  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
and  a  large  following  of  Kentishmen,  the  three  Earls  entered  London, 
2  July.  Reenforced  by  musters  that  came  streaming  in  from  every 
side  they  passed  north.  Henry,  who  had  been  holding  a  Council  at 
Coventry,  advanced  to  meet  them  and  was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner 
at  Northampton.  But  the  Queen  who  had  been  rousing  the  northern 
lords  was  still  at  large  with  her  son.  Instead  of  hunting  her  down  and 
crushing  the  remaining  forces  who  had  risen  for  her  in  the  north 
country,  Warwick  returned  to  London,  where  he  busied  himself  putting 
his  supporters  in  office  and  making  ready  for  the  arrival  of  the  Duke 
of  York.  Richard  landed  in  Lancashire,  2  September.  Thence  he 
proceeded  slowly  to  London  in  royal  state.  Parliament  had  already 
been  opened  before  his  arrival.  He  "  challenged  and  claimed  the 
realm  and  crown  of  England  as  heir  of  Richard  II,"  and  installed  him- 
self by  force  in  the  royal  apartments.  His  claim  to  assume  the  crown 
at  once  was  not  acceptable  to  the  lords,  to  the  judges,  nor  even  to 
his  faithful  champion  Warwick.  However,  late  in  October,  a  com- 
promise was  arranged  by  which  Henry  was  to  remain  King  for  life 
and  Richard  was  to  be  recognized  as  his  heir.  This  arrangement, 
to  which  Henry  gave  his  consent  "  for  the  further  eschewing  of  Chris- 
tian blood,"  was  ratified  by  Parliament.  Meanwhile,  Margaret, 
after  distressing  hardships  and  harrowing  adventures,  had  mustered  a 
strong  force  north  of  the  Humber.  Richard,  underestimating  her 
strength,  marched  against  her  with  a  small  army  and  was  defeated 
and  slain  at  the  battle  of  Wakefield,  29  December,  1460.  His  head 
was  cut  off,  crowned  with  a  crown  of  gold  paper  and  set  up  over  the 
south  gate  of  the  city  of  York.  Salisbury,  who  was  taken  prisoner, 
was  beheaded  the  next  day.  They  and  the  lords  who  fell  in  battle 
or  perished  by  the  executioner's  ax  were  to  be  pitilessly  revenged. 


THE   FALL   OF  THE   HOUSE   OF  LANCASTER       263 

"  The  war  which  had  begun  as  a  struggle  to  vindicate  constitutional 
liberties,  degenerated  after\i46o  into  a  mere  blood  feud  between  two 
reckless  factions." 

Warwick,  the  Kingmaker.  — On  the  death  of  Richard  of  York  and  the 
Earl  of  Salisbury,  Salisbury's  son,  Richard  Neville,  Earl  of  Warwick, 
became  the  recognized  leader  of  the  Yorkist  party ;  for  Richard's  son, 
Edward,  Earl  of  March,  a  youth  of  eighteen,  was  as  yet  distinguished 
for  nothing  save  his  strength,  his  beauty,  and  the  great  bravery  which 
he  had  displayed  at  the  battle  of  Northampton.  Warwick  was  not  a 
man  of  preeminent  abilities  either  as  a  statesman  or  general  and  his 
personal  courage  was  not  above  question ;  but  he  was  a  skilled  diploma- 
tist and  a  ready  speaker.  His  energy  was  tireless,  he  was  wise  and  court- 
eous, true  to  his  friends  and  relentless  against  his  enemies.  Through 
the  marriage  of  his  aunt  to  the  late  Duke  of  York  he  was  first  cousin 
to  Edward  and  he  was  the  greatest  landowner  in  England ;  he  kept  a 
vast  band  of  retainers,  and  dispensed  lavish  hospitality.  His  chief 
power,  however,  lay  in  his  ability  to  secure  the  trust  both  of  the  lords 
and  the  people.  He  was  regarded  as  the  leader  of  the  party  of  reform 
and  good  government  and  had  strengthened  his  hold  on  the  popular 
confidence  by  resisting  his  uncle's  efforts  to  snatch  the  crown  from 
Henry  of  Lancaster.  Yet  the  historian  Hume  very  appropriately 
styled  him  "  the  last  of  the  barons  "  ;  for  he  was  the  last  representative 
of  that  class  of  great  noble  families  to  exercise  almost  royal  powers 
and  powerfully  to  influence  English  destiny  by  force  of  arms.  He 
was  not  above  the  ambitions  of  his  class,  and  the  cry  of  reform 
which  he  raised  and  the  movement  which  he  led  was  really  to  secure 
more  power  for  himself  and  his  house.  For  that  reason  he  ingra- 
tiated himself  with  the  people  by  fair  promises,  and  for  that  reason 
he  made  and  sought  to  unmake  a  king.  When  Edward  later  refused 
to  do  his  bidding  he  plunged  the  country  again  into  civil  war  and  made 
common  cause  with  all  his  old  enemies. 

Edward  becomes  King  of  England,  4  March,  1461.  —  After  Richard's 
defeat  and  death,  Margaret  marched  south  to  release  her  husband ; 
her  army,  however,  alienated  any  possible  supporters  along  the  line 
of  march  by  ruthless  plundering,  pillaging,  and  sacking  of  towns. 
While  Warwick  undertook  to  defend  London,  Edward  set  himself 
to  watch  the  Welsh  Lancastrians,  whom  he  met  and  defeated  at  Mor- 
timer's Cross,  13  February,  1461.  Thence  he  set  out  to  join  Warwick ; 
but  before  he  could  effect  his  purpose  his  cousin  had  met  with  a  crush- 
ing defeat.  He  had  drawn  up  his  army  to  await  the  approach  of 
Queen  Margaret's  forces  but  was  completely  surprised  at  St.  Albans, 
and,  either  owing  to  his  own  blundering  or  to  treachery,  was  out- 
manoeuvered  and  overwhelmingly  defeated,  17  February,  146 1.1 
Henry  was  rescued  from  his  enemies.  Owing  to  his  persuasions,  for 
he  was  anxious  to  avoid  more  pillaging  and  bloodshed,  Margaret 

1  At  this  second  battle  of  St.  Albans  hand  firearms  were  used  for  the  first  time  in 
English  history. 


264  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

did  not  march  at  once  on  London.  While  she  was  negotiating  for 
its  capitulation,  Warwick  and  Edward,  who  had  at  length  joined 
forces,  pressed  into  the  City  and  seized  the  fruits  of  her  victory. 
Edward  was  declared  King  by  a  mass  meeting  of  the  citizens  and  the 
Yorkist  lords.  Though  he  was  not  legally  elected,  he  took  his  seat 
on  the  throne  at  Westminster,  4  March,  1461,  with  the  crown  on  his 
head  and  the  scepter  in  his  hand,  and  received  the  homage  of  the 
magnates. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Ramsay,  I,  chs.  XXII-XXXIII ;  II,  chs.  I-XVI ;  Vickers,  chs.  XXI-XXIII ;  and 
Oman,  XII-XVI,  treat  the  narrative  history  of  the  period.  Kriehn,  The  English 
Rising  of  1450  (1892)  throws  new  light  on  Cade's  Rebellion.  K.  H.  Vickers, 
Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester  (1907)  is  a  full  and  scholarly  account. 

Selections  from  the  sources.     Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  119-128. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  HOUSE  OF  YORK.     EDWARD  IV  (1461-1483) ;    EDWARD  V  (1483) ; 
RICHARD   III   (1483-1485) 

Causes  of  the  Triumph  of  the  Yorkist  Line.  —  Margaret's  army  was 
so  discouraged  that  she  was  obliged  to  retreat  northward.  Edward 
and  Warwick  started  in  pursuit.  They  overtook  her  near  Towton 
on  the  high  road  to  York,  and,  29  March,  overcame  the  Lancastrian 
forces  in  a  bloody  battle  fought  in  a  blinding  snowstorm.  The  fugi- 
tive King  and  Queen  fled  across  the  Border  "  full  of  sorrow  and  heavi- 
ness." After  making  a  detour  to  the  north  to  prevent  any  prospect  of 
a  Scottish  invasion,  Edward  returned  to  London,  leaving  Warwick 
to  watch  the  enemy.  On  28  June,  1461,  the  victorious  King  was  for- 
mally crowned  at  Westminster,  and  forthwith  showered  titles,  offices, 
and  estates  upon  his  relatives  and  followers.  He  made  his  brothers, 
George  and  Richard,  Dukes  of  Clarence  and  Gloucester,  respectively. 
The  Yorkist  line  had  at  length  displaced  its  Lancastrian  rival. 
Henry  IV  had  come  in  as  the  champion  of  constitutional  government 
against  a  capricious  tyrant,  and  Henry  V  had  made  himself  a  national' 
hero  by  his  brilliant  successes  against  France.  But  the  constitutional 
scheme  had  broken  down  and  the  war  had  ended  in  failure.  Henry  VI 
was  a  pious  kindly  puppet  dominated  by  an  energetic  and  masterful 
wife  from  the  enemies'  camp.  Hated  from  her  very  entrance  into 
the  country,  she  had  chosen  to  support  unpopular  ministers  whose 
incompetence  accelerated  the  final  expulsion  of  the  English  from 
France.  In  the  struggle  with  York,  who  sought  to  oust  the 
unpopular  ministers,  she  set  herself  in  opposition  to  a  party  that, 
whatever  its  motives,  posed  as  the  party  of  reform.  She  had 
sought  the  aid  of  the  French,  the  Irish,  and  the  Scotch,  and  she 
had  led  a  northern  army  against  the  capital  of  the  realm,  and  allowed 
it  to  plunder  the  rich  cities  of  the  south.  The  people,  exhausted  and 
weary  of  disorder  at  home  and  disgusted  at  the  losses  in  France, 
eagerly  accepted  a  change  in  hopes  of  better  things.  Poor  Henry 
had  to  give  way  to  a  stronger  and  more  spirited  ruler. 

Personal  Traits  of  the  New  King.  —  Edward  Plantagenet  was 
described  as  the  handsomest  prince  in  Europe.  Three  inches  over 
six  feet  tall,  he  must  have  been  a  striking  figure,  and  in  battle  he  was 
the  equal  of  any  two  men.  He  was  jovial,  hearty,  and  familiar  with 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  people.  On  one  occasion,  when  he  was 
exacting  gifts  from  his  subjects,  a  city  dame  gave  £20.  Edward 
thanked  her  with  a  loving  kiss  and  she  doubled  the  amount.  He  loved 

265 


266  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

hunting,  fine  clothes,  pageants,  and  banquets.  He  was  naturally 
indolent,  and,  therefore,  prone  to  trust  to  others.  But  there  were 
opposite  sides  to  his  nature.  He  had  a  streak  of  thrift  which  pre- 
vented him  from  running  into  reckless  extravagance.  Moreover, 
he  kept  his  coffers  filled  by  profitable  trading  on  his  own  account  and 
by  heavy  exactions.  By  the  order  which  he  sought  to  maintain  and  by 
his  care  for  trade  and  commerce,  he  not  only  made  the  country  more 
capable  of  paying  what  he  demanded,  but  raised  the  general  level  of 
prosperity.  At  crises,  too,  he  could  rouse  himself  and  act  with  great 
decision  and  vigor.  As  time  went  on  his  worst  qualities  became  more 
pronounced;  his  love  of  pleasure  turned  to  viciousness  and  dissipa- 
tion ;  he  became  cruel,  bloodthirsty  and  extortionate.  He  died  at  forty, 
worn  out  by  self-indulgence.  Yet  he  helped  to  draw  the  country  from 
the  poverty  and  confusion  in  which  he  found  it  and  his  cruelty  can  be 
excused  partly  by  the  state  of  the  times,  by  the  men  and  the  problems 
with  which  he  had  to  deal.  He  was  a  moderate  patron  of  art,  archi- 
tecture, and  letters,  and  gave  sparingly  to  religious  houses.  But  he 
was,  after  all,  a  splendid  animal,  good  natured  when  he  was  contented 
or  enjoying  himself,  cunning,  brave;  but  capable  of  great  ferocity, 
and  lacking  altogether  in  moral  sense. 

The  Attainder  of  the  Leading  Lancastrians.  —  Although  Parlia- 
ment was  to  meet  in  July,  1461,  the  country  was  still  in  such  a  state  of 
confusion  that  members  were  afraid  to  travel,  and  the  Houses  did  not 
assemble  till  November.  Edward  was  recognized  as  the  rightful  heir 
of  the  realm.  Henry,  the  "  usurping  heir  of  John  of  Gaunt,"  his  wife, 
his  son,  and  over  a  hundred  of  the  Lancastrian  party,  including  fourteen 
lords,  were  attainted  of  treason.  But,  owing  to  the  completeness  of 
the  Yorkist  victory  and  to  the  moderation  of  the  Nevilles,  there  were 
few  executions.  Defeated  in  England,  the  undaunted  Margaret 
strove  with  feverish  energy  to  draw  Scotland  and  France  into  her 
quarrel ;  but,  although  she  was  able  to  keep  the  northern  border  astir, 
she  lost  rather  than  gained  by  her  tactics ;  for  many  Englishmen  were 
alienated  from  her  cause  by  her  appeal  to  their  national  enemies.  Yet 
it  was  not  till  1464  that  Edward  was  fully  master  of  England. 

Edward's  Estrangement  from  Warwick,  1464.  —  At  the  very 
moment  when  his  position  seemed  assured  he  took  a  step  which  es- 
tranged him  from  Warwick  to  whom  he  owed  more  than  to  any  other 
man.  In  September,  1464,  he  announced  his  marriage  to  Elizabeth, 
widow  of  Sir  John  Grey,  and  daughter  of  Richard  Woodville.  Her 
connections  were  wholly  Lancastrian ;  indeed,  her  mother  had  married 
for  her  first  husband  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  the  celebrated  uncle  of 
Henry  VI.  Edward  was  apparently  weary  of  the  domination  of  the 
Nevilles,  and,  with  his  customary  easy  good  nature,  he  seems  to  have 
yielded  to  his  infatuation  for  Elizabeth,  who  was  beautiful,  and  am- 
bitious for  the  advancement  of  her  family.  At  any  rate,  he  began  to 
heap  gifts,  favors,  and  offices  on  her  relatives,  and  to  neglect  his  former 
friends  and  advisers.  The  marriage  gave  rise  to  all  sorts  of  dissension. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  YORK  267 

It  not  only  created  new  rivals  for  Warwick,  but  it  proved  a  serious 
obstacle  to  his  foreign  policy.  His  aim  was  to  forge  alliances  with 
France,  and  possibly  Burgundy,  and  to  marry  Edward  to  a  foreign 
princess.  He  had  all  but  completed  arrangements  for  a  match  with 
the  sister  of  the  Queen  of  France  when  his  plans  were  discredited  and 
baffled  by  the  astounding  news.  For  the  moment  he  swallowed  his 
wrath.  Louis  XI,  too,  who  had  succeeded  his  father  Charles  VII 
in  1461,  was  obliged  to  overlook  the  slight ;  for  he  was  threatened  by 
a  conspiracy  headed  by  Charles,  son  of  the  reigning  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
and  some  of  the  most  powerful  of  the  French  nobility  —  "  The  League 
of  the  Public  Weal."  Therefore,  he  agreed  to  a  truce,  to  give  no  aid 
to  Margaret,  and  to  expel  all  Lancastrian  exiles  from  France,  on  con- 
dition that  Edward  withhold  all  aid  from  his  enemies. 

King  Henry  again  a  Prisoner,  1465.  —  Meantime,  the  Scots  had 
also  concluded  a  truce  with  England,  and  poor  Henry,  deprived  of 
this  asylum,  had  been  lurking  in  one  after  another  of  the  Lancastrian 
strongholds  in  the  wild  hill  country  between  Yorkshire  and  Lancashire. 
In  July,  1465,  he  was  betrayed  by  one  of  his  entertainers  and  taken 
to  London.  For  five  years  he  was  kept  a  prisoner  in  the  tower, 
"  dirty,  sickly,  ill-dressed,  neglected  " ;  but  indifferent  to  the  loss  of 
his  earthly  kingdom  so  long  as  he  was  allowed  the  comfort  of  the 
sacraments.  Nor  was  he  really  abused ;  for  Edward  was  anxious  to 
keep  him  alive  as  a  hostage  while  his  son,  the  Prince  was  at  large. 

Breach  with  Warwick  and  threatened  War  with  France,  1467.  — 
The  growing  estrangement  between  Edward  and  Warwick  came  to  a 
final  breach  in  1467,  when  Edward_betrothed  his  sister  Margaret  to 
Charles  of  Burgundy^ against  Warwick's  wishes,  removed  the  latter 's 
brother,  Archbishop  Neville,  from  the  Chancellorship,  and  treated  with 
marked  coldness  ambassadors  sent  from  France  on  Warwick's  repre- 
sentation. The  Earl  departed  from  court  in  a  fury  and  busied  him- 
self in  organizing  his  kinsmen  and  supporters  for  a  revolt  when  the 
time  should  be  ripe.  Even  yet,  however,  he  was  ready  for  reconcilia- 
tion ;  but  Edward  was  bent  on  war  with  France,  and  announced  his 
intention  to  lead  an  army  across  the  seas  to  recover  what  had  been 
lost  under  the  late  King.  Louis  XI  at  once  resumed  his  alliance  with 
Margaret  of  Anjou,  recalled  the  Lancastrian  exiles,  and  kept  Edward 
so  busy  dealing  with  plots  that  he  had  no  time  to  think  of  invasions. 
Louis  succeeded,  moreover,  in  bribing  Charles  of  Burgundy  to  make 
a  truce. 

Robin  of  Redesdale's  Rising,  1469.  —  Warwick  now  saw  his  chance. 
At  his  instigation,  the  Neville  adherents  and  other  discontented  per- 
sons rose  in  Yorkshire  under  a  leader  who  called  himself  Robin  of 
Redesdale.  The  army  sent  to  put  them  down  was  defeated,  and  Ed- 
ward himself  was  taken  prisoner  soon  after  the  battle.  Thus  England 
was  in  the  curious  situation  of  having  two  Kings,  both  in  captivity. 
On  the  eve  of  the  rising,  Warwick  himself  had  hurried  across  the 
Channel,  taking  with  him  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  Edward's  brother 


268  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  possible  heir,  a  weak,  vain,  and  faithless  boy  of  twenty,  whom 
he  bound  to  his  cause  by  marrying  him  to  his  eldest  daughter,  Isabella 
Neville.  Returning  to  England,  after  the  victory  of  the  northern 
insurgents,  Warwick  put  his  leading  enemies  to  death,  secured  par- 
dons for  himself  and  Clarence,  released  the  King,  and  resumed  his 
old  position  as  leading  councilor  of  the  House  of  York. 

Edward  IV  driven  out  of  England.  Release  of  Henry  VI,  1470.  — 
Edward  submitted  to  the  dictation  of  Warwick  less  than  a  year. 
Early  in  1470  a  Lancastrian  rising  in  Lincolnshire  gave  him  a  chance 
to  raise  a  great  levy.  Marching  to  the  scene  of  revolt,  he  defeated 
the  insurgents  in  a  battle  known  as  Lose-coat-field  from  the  fact  that 
they  drew  off  their  tabards  to  flee  more  quickly.  With  a  victorious 
armed  force  at  his  back  he  proclaimed  Clarence  and  Warwick  as 
traitors.  Hotly  pursued,  they  took  refuge  in  France,  where  Louis  XI 
succeeded  in  reconciling  Warwick  to  his  lifelong  enemy,  Margaret  of 
Anjou.  The  Earl  married  his  second  daughter  Ann  to  Margaret's 
son,  Prince  Edward,  and  they  sealed  the  compact  by  an  oath  sworn  on 
a  fragment  of  the  true  cross.  Supported  by  the  French  King,  Warwick 
landed  on  the  south  coast  of  England ;  the  Nevilles  rose  again  in  the 
north,  and,  deserted  by  the  bulk  of  his  forces,  King  Edward  fled  to 
Holland  in  October.  Warwick  marched  to -London  and  released  Henry 
from  the  Tower.  But  the  bewildered,  demented  King,  like  a  "  mere 
shadow  on  the  wall,"  meekly  assented  to  all  that  the  Earl,  who  made 
himself  lieutenant  of  the  kingdom,  was  pleased  to  do.  The  Lancas- 
trian victory  was  marked  by  only  one  notable  execution,  that  of 
Edward's  constable,  John  Tiptoft,  "  the  butcher  Earl  of  Worcester"  ; 
also  famous,  strangely  enough,  as  the  greatest  patron  of  learning  of 
his  day.  The  people  looked  on  with  apathy,  for  they  saw  "  little 
to  choose  from  between  the  weak  government  of  Henry  and  the  strong 
government  of  Edward  "  ;  they  had  looked  for  prosperity  and  peace, 
"  but  it  came  not,  but  one  battle  after  another,  and  much  trouble 
and  great  loss  of  goods."  The  majority,  however,  accepted  Warwick 
because  he  seemed  the  stronger.  But  London  resisted,  under  the 
lead  of  the  merchants,  who  were  attached  to  Edward  because  he  owed 
them  money,  and  because  of  their  interest  in  the  Flemish  trade. 

The  Return  of  Edward  and  the  Defeat  of  the  Lancastrians  at 
Tewkesbury,  1471. — A  combination  between  Warwick  and  Louis  XI 
against  Burgundy  forced  Charles  actively  to  support  King  Edward. 
He  furnished  him  with  ships,  money,  and  men,  and,  thus  equipped, 
Edward  landed  at  Ravenspur,  the  very  spot  where  Henry  of  Boling- 
broke  had  landed  seventy  years  before.  His  brother,  "  false,  fleeting, 
perjured  Clarence,"  went  over  to  his  side,  and  Warwick  did  not  feel 
strong  enough  to  intercept  his  march  to  London.  Gradually,  however, 
the  Earl  rallied  his  supporters  round  him.  Edward,  after  he  had 
secured  the  City  and  made  King  Henry  again  a  prisoner,  marched 
forth  against  him.  The  two  armies  met  on  Easter  Sunday,  14  April, 
1471,  at  Barnet,  a  little  town  eleven  miles  north  of  London.  War- 


THE  HOUSE  OF   YORK  269 

wick's  forces  were  defeated,  and  he  was  slain  as  he  attempted  to  flee. 
The  very  afternoon  of  Edward's  victory,  Margaret  and  the  Prince 
landed  at  Weymouth  in  Dorset.  In  spite  of  the  disaster  of  Barnet 
she  pressed  on  up  the  Severn  valley,  hoping  to  gather  recruits  and  to 
join  her  supporters  in  Wales.  Edward  hastened  west  and  came  up 
with  her  at  Tewkesbury.  There  a  battle  was  fought  on  4  May ;  the 
Lancastrian  army  was  overwhelmingly  defeated ;  Margaret  was  taken 
prisoner ;  and  Prince  Edward  either  killed  as  he  sought  to  escape,  or, 
according  to  another  account,  brought  before  the  King  and  slain  by 
his  orders.  After  the  battle  several  of  the  Lancastrian  leaders  were 
put  to  death  by  royal  command.  On  21  May  Edward  reached 
London  in  triumph,  and  within  a  few  hours  Henry  was  dead.  It 
was  given  out  that  he  had  died  "  of  pure  displeasure  and  melancholy," 
but  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  was  murdered,  and  that  Edward  and 
his  brother  Richard  of  Gloucester  were  responsible  for  the  deed. 

Character  of  Henry  VI.  —  Henry  _VI  was  one  of  the  most  gentle  and 
well  meaning,  and,  perhaps,  the  most  unfortunate  King  who  ever 
reigned  in  England. '  He  inherited  the  weakly  physique  of  the  Lan- 
castrians and  the  mental  debility  of  his  maternal  grandfather,  Charles 
VI.  Well  educated  and  deeply  versed  in  Scriptures,  he  sought  to  live 
as  a  pious  recluse.  He  cared  little  for  amusements,  and,  despising 
pomp,  extravagance,  and  brilliant  array,  he  dressed  by  preference  in 
the  sober  colors  of  the  London  citizen.  On  one  occasion  he  gave  his 
State  robes  to  a  begging  abbot.  Liberal  to  a  fault,  he  wasted  his 
revenue  in  foolish  presents,  and  was  so  merciful  that  he  hated  to 
punish  even  thieves  and  murderers.  He  sought  to  inspire  a  higher 
standard  of  morality  in  the  royal  household,  and  he  was  a  generous 
patron  of  learning  and  letters.  King's  College,  Cambridge,  and  the 
famous  school  of  Eton  were  his  foundations.  He  took  the  keenest 
interest  in  his  Eton  boys,  to  whom  he  never  tired  of  giving  presents 
and  good  advice.  While  he  might  have  ruled  a  quiet  people  in  quiet 
times,  he  had  not  a  single  qualification  for  ruling  in  the  situation  in 
which  he  was  thrown.  He  was  faithfully  devoted  to  his  wife,  who  con- 
tributed to  his  undoing.  Indeed,  he  was  ever  the  puppet  of  stronger 
natures,  and  his  weak  mind  broke  dowrn  under  the  strain  of  the  disorders 
of  his  kingdom  that  he  was  unable  to  avert.  Pure,  honest,  merciful, 
and  wholly  deserving  a  more  happy  fate,  he  was  long  worshiped  in 
the  north  country  as  a  saint  and  martyr. 

Edward's  Rule  after  Tewkesbury.  —  Edward  had  shown  remark- 
able generalship  in  his  last  two  campaigns,  and  his  restoration  had 
been  due  almost  solely  to  his  own  efforts.  That  helps  to  account  for 
the  extortion  and  cruelty  which  followed  his  victory.  "  The 
rich  were  hanged  by  the  purse  and  the  poor  by  the  neck,"  while  none 
dared  oppose  him.  After  having  spent  a  large  part  of  the  confiscations 
wrung  from  his  vanquished  enemies,  he  called  a  Parliament  and 
declared  his  intention  of  renewing  war  on  France.  His  object  was  at 
once  to  get  money  and  to  divert  his  subjects  from  domestic  discord. 


270  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  war,  however,  was  delayed  for  a  while  on  account  of  the  insta- 
bility of  his  ally,  Charles  of  Burgundy.  In  the  meantime,  Edward 
used  all  the  money  of  Parliament  that  he  could  get  his  hands  on,  and, 
in  addition,  exacted  "  benevolences"  —  grants  supposed  to  be  volun- 
tary, but  usually  forced  from  the  unwilling  subject.  Nevertheless, 
the  King,  if  he  was  extravagant  and  extortionate,  was  careful  enough 
not  to  exceed  his  revenues,  and  politic  enough  to  pay  his  bills. 

Edward's  Expedition  to  France  and  the  Treaty  of  Pecjjuiny,  1475.  — 
In  1474  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  Burgundy  by  whTchCharles  under- 
took to  assist  Edward  to  recover  his  "  rightful  inheritance  "  of  Nor- 
mandy and  Guyenne,  and  also  the  crown  of  France  from  the  "  usurper 
Louis."  In  return,  Edward  was  to  lead  an  army  of  not  less  than  10,000 
men  across  the  Channel,  and  to  cede  to  Charles,  "free  from  all  superi- 
ority," certain  frontier  lands  which  the  Duke  held  in  fief  from  the 
French  King.  It  is  doubtful  if  Edward  ever  had  any  more  serious 
intention  than  to  raise  large  grants  from  his  subjects  for  the  ex- 
pedition, and  then  to  force  Louis  XI  to  buy  him  off  by  grants  of 
money  or  territory:  At  any  rate,  when  he  landed  at  Calais  with  an 
army  of  nearly  15,000  men,  the  largest  that  had  ever  left  the  shores  of 
England,  he  found  that  Charles  was  not  able  to  render  him  any  assist- 
ance. The  French  troops  were  massed  in  force  beyond  the  Somme ; 
but  Louis  was  willing  to  treat.  The  two  Kings  met  on  the  bridge 
of  Pecquiny,  near  Amiens,  separated  from  one  another  by  a  grating 
of  trellis  work.  Louis  agreed  to  pay  down  to  Edward  75,000  gold 
crowns  with  an  annual  pension  of  50,000  in  addition.  A  truce  of 
seven  years  was  arranged  and  a  league  of  amity  during  life,  each  King 
binding  himself  to  assist  the  other  against  his  rebellious  subjects. 
Margaret  of  Anjou  was  released  on  payment  of  a  ransom  of  50,000 
crowns.  She  died  poor  and  lonely  in  1482.  Charles  the  Bold  failed 
in  his  design  of  reviving  the  ancient  Burgundian  kingdom,  and,  in 
January,  1477,  after  a  repulse  at  Nancy,  his  dead  body  was  found 
naked  in  a  frozen  ditch.  The  astute  and  unheroic  Louis  XI  had 
triumphed  over  his  two  adversaries.  He  had  bought  off  one,  the 
other  owed  his  end  to  his  own  blind  fury. 

Attainder  and  Execution  of  Clarence,  1478.  —  The  Duke  of  Clarence 
was  constantly  involved  in  quarrels  with  his  brother  the  King  and 
his  brother  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester.  His  trouble  with  Richard 
began  over  the  division  of  the  lands  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  both  of 
the  brothers  having  married  daughters  of  the  "  king- maker. "  In  conse- 
quence, they  became  irreconcilable  enemies.  Edward  had  never  trusted 
him  after  his  attempted  treachery  of  1469-1471,  and,  as  the  years 
went  on,  various  causes  of  friction  developed.  On  his  wife's  death, 
in  1476,  Clarence  sought  to  marry  Mary,  the  heiress  of  Charles  the 
Bold.  When  Edward  blocked  the  project,  Clarence  declared  that  his 
late  wife  and  infant  son  had  been  poisoned,  and  had  the  accused  con- 
demned and  executed  on  his  own  authority,  and,  moreover,  he  was 
rash  enough  to  denounce  the  royal  justice  on  account  of  the  execution 


THE  HOUSE  OF  YORK  271 

of  two  of  his  own  followers  for  treason  and  sorcery.  In  1478  he  was 
seized  and  thrown  into  the  Tower,  and  an  act  of  attainder  was 
passed  in  a  subservient  Parliament,  accusing  him  of  spreading  scan- 
dalous tales  about  the  King,  of  compassing  his  death  by  necromancy, 
and  of  plotting  an  armed  rebellion.  Sentence  was  passed  on  him 
by  a  Court  of  Peers  presided  over  by  a  High  Steward.  Worthless  and 
false  as  Clarence  was,  his  trial  was  a  mere  travesty  on  justice.  Shortly 
after  his  condemnation  he  perished  in  the  Tower,  no  one  knows  how. 
The  common  story  is  that  he  was  drowned  in  a  butt  of  Malmsey  wine. 
Although  it  rid  him  of  a  troublesome  rival,  the  tragic  fate  of  Clarence 
seems  to  have  embittered  the  remainder  of  Edward's  life.  When 
asked  to  pardon  a  criminal,  he  would  burst  out,  "  O  unfortunate 
brother,  for  whose  life  not  one  creature  would  make  intercession !  " 
Edward's  Last  Years.  —  After  his  peace  with  France  he  gave  him- 
self over  more  and  more  to  his  ease  and  pleasure,  though  he  still  kept 
a  sharp  eye  on  his  revenues  and  was  rigorous  in  the  execution  of  jus- 
tice. His  confiscations,  his  French  pension,  and  his  private  trading 
ventures,  particularly  in  wool,  made  him  practically  independent  of 
Parliament.  Indeed,  he  was  able  to  lend  money  to  subjects  in  whom 
he  had  confidence.  The  export  of  gold  and  silver  coin,  bullion  and 
plate  was  forbidden  without  royal  license.  Alien  merchants  were 
obliged  to  invest  their  gains  from  imports  in  English  commodities.  To 
keep  up  the  practice  of  archery,  unlawful  games  were  forbidden, 
among  them  dice,  quoits,  football,  and  ninepins  or  skittles.  In- 
formers were  encouraged  by  dividing  among  them  the  proceeds  of 
fines.  The  severe  administration  of  the  laws,  though  employed  as  a 
means  of  swelling  the  revenues,  was  necessary  after  the  weakness  and 
disorder  which  had  prevailed  so  long.  Edward  was  too  wise,  however, 
_to  damage  his  popularity  by  systematic  oppression,  and  to  the  last 
he  was  a  favorite  with  the  people  of  London  and  the  other  great  towns. 
His  reign,  beginning  with  violence  and  oppression,  ended  in  peace  and 
quiet.  One  of  his  main  aims  was  to  establish  his  dynasty  by  foreign 
alliances  and  marriages.  In  this  he  failed,  partly  because  European 
sovereigns  regarded  him  "  as  somewhat  of  an  outlaw."  The  dowager 
Duchess  of  Burgundy  was  Edward's  sister,  but  her  daughter  Mary 
married  Maximilian,-  who  succeeded  as  Emperor  of  the  Germans  in 
1493,  and  the  English  King  went  no  further  with  them  than  to  negotiate 
a  commercial  alliance  for  a  hundred  years,  providing  for  unrestricted 
trade  on  payment  of  "  ancient  dues  and  customs  and  no  others." 
His  Burgundian  policy,  however,  was  determined  chiefly  by  his  desire 
to  preserve  friendship  with  Louis  XI,  partly  because  he  wanted  to 
retain  his  French  pension,  and  partly  because  he  wanted  to  reestablish 
the  English  overlordship  over  Scotland  and  recover  Berwick  which 
Margaret  had  surrendered  in  1461.  James  III  —  devoted  to  architec- 
ture, music,  and  astrology  —  cared  little  for  affairs  of  State  and  was 
quite  incompetent  to  govern,  while  a  strong  party,  headed  by  his  exiled 
brother,  the  Duke  of  Albany,  was  intriguing  against  him.  So  in  1483 


272  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Edward  agreed  to  set  Albany  on  the  throne,  if  he  would  do  homage,  re- 
store Berwick,  and  marry  the  third  daughter  of  the  English  King. 
Gloucester  and  Albany  led  an  expedition  against  Berwick  and  cap- 
tured it ;  but  the  latter  came  to  terms  with  his  brother,  and  for  the 
time  gave  up  his  pretensions  to  the  throne.  Louis  XI,  too,  repudiated 
the  agreement  which  he  had  made  to  marry  the  Dauphin  to  Edward's 
eldest  daughter,  Elizabeth,  and  pledged  him  instead  to  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Maximilian  and  Margaret.  Edward's  rage  at  Louis' 
treachery  was  a  fatal  shock  to  his  constitution  already  undermined 
by  debauchery.  He  had  summoned  a  Parliament  and  was  making  great 
preparations  for  revenge  when  death  put  an  end  to  his  plans,  9  April, 
1483.  His  own  excesses  and  the  turbulence  and  treachery  with  which 
he  was  called  upon  to  deal  had  warped  his  character,  and  blasted  the 
fair  prospects  of  his  reign.  (His  premature  death  marked  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end  of  the  house  of  York) 

Nominal  reign  of  Edward  V,  9  April  to  25  June,  1483.  —  Edward 
left  two  little  sons,  the  eldest  of  whom  was  not  yet  thirteen  years  old. 
The  few  short  weeks  during  which  this  unhappy  boy  Edward  was 
nominally  King  were  merely  a  scramble  for  supremacy  between  the 
relatives  of  his  Queen  Mother  and  his  uncle  Richard,  who  had  been  in- 
trusted with  the  care  of  the  King  and  kingdom.  On  the  news  of  the 
death  of  Edward  IV,  the  little  Prince  had  been  taken  from  Ludlow, 
under  the  care  of  his  maternal  uncle,  Lord  Rivers,  and  his  half  brother, 
Sir  Rkhard  Grev.  Richard,  who  was  in  Yorkshire,  hastened  to  in- 
tercept the  royal  party,  seized  Rivers  and  Grey,  sent  them  off  as 
prisoners  to  Pomfret  Castle,  and  with  the  utmost  professions  of  loyalty, 
conducted  his  young  charge  to  London.  They  arrived  on  the  day 
fixed  for  coronation,  4  May;  Richard  was  proclaimed  Protector  by 
the  Council  and  Edward  was  lodged  in  the  royal  apartments  in  the 
Tower.  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  had  been  scheming  to  make  herself 
Regent,  at  once  took  sanctuary  in  Westminster  Abbey  with  her 
daughter  and  her  other  son  Richard,  Duke  of  York. 

Richard  of  Gloucester,  his  Character  and  Policy.  —  Gloucester, 
while  pretending  to  secure  his  position  as  Protector,  was  really  aiming 
to  make  himself  King.  Born  in  1452,  he  had  grown  up  in  troublous 
times.  His  father  had  been  killed  before  he  was  nine  years  old.  He 
had  served  his  brother  faithfully  as  a  general  and  administrator. 
He  had  shared  his  brief  exile  in  1470,  and  as  a  lad  of  eighteen  had 
fought  valiantly  at  Barnet  and  Tewkesbury.  He  was  suspected  of 
the  murder  of  Henry's  son,  of  Henry  himself,  and  of  procuring  the 
death  of  his  own  brother  Clarence.  Still,  if  these  charges  be  true, 
he  had  acted  primarily  as  the  agent  of  the  King  in  revenging  enemies 
of  the  Crown.  Edward  had  rewarded  him  liberally  with  offices  of 
honor  and  trust ;  but,  while  the  King  was  idle  and  dissipated,  Richard 
was  sober  and  industrious.  Had  his  brother  lived  he  would  doubtless 
have  continued  as  his  trustworthy  right-hand  man.  His  opposition 
was  first  excited  by  the  design  of  the  Queen's  family;  but  when  he 


THE  HOUSE  OF  YORK  273 

saw  a  chance  to  make  himself  King,  he  was  unable  to  resist  the  temp- 
tation, and  hesitated  at  no  fraud  or  bloodshed  to  attain  his  end. 
Doubtless,  however,  he  intended,  once  he  got  to  power,  to  rule  as  a 
strong,  just  monarch. 

Richard  proclaimed  King,  25  June,  1483.  —  He  bribed  all  the  sup- 
porters he  could,  and  set  out  to  dispose  of  all  persons  of  influence  whom 
he  could  not  win  over.  On  13  June  he  appeared  at  the  Tower  with 
an  armed  force  and,  working  himself  into  a  pretended  rage,  he  accused 
the  Queen  and  her  party  of  working  spells  upon  him.  By  way  of 
proof  he  bared  his  left  arm,  all  shrunk  and  withered,  and  displayed 
it  as  their  work,  although  it  had  been  so  since  boyhood.  On  the 
ground  that  Lord  Hastings  hesitated  to  believe  him,  he  had  him 
beheaded  without  form  of  trial.  On  the  i6th,  he  terrified  the  Queen 
into  sending  Richard  to  join  his  brother  in  the  Tower.  He  spread 
charges  that  the  late  King's  marriage  had  been  illegal  and  that  his 
sons  had  no  right  to  rule.  On  25  June  an  assembly  of  the  represent- 
atives of  the  three  estates  of  the  realm,  which  met  in  place  of  the 
Parliament  summoned  in  the  name  of  Edward  IV,  offered  the  crown 
to  Richard.  In  a  strange  petition  they  denounced  the  character  and 
administration  of  the  late  Sovereign,  and  exalted  Richard's  princely 
virtues,  praying  that  "  after  great  clouds  .  .  .  the  sun  of  justice 
and  grace  may  shine  upon  us."  Accepting  with  a  show  of  reluctance, 
he  was  proclaimed  King  the  next  day  and  crowned  6  July. 

Richard's  Crimes  undo  his  Attempts  to  win  his  Subjects.  —  Once 
on  the  throne,  Richard  sought  by  various  means  to  make  himself 
popular:  he  went  on  a  progress  soon  after  his  coronation,  he  helped  the 
poor,  he  issued  proclamations  to  suppress  immorality,  he  ordered  the 
judges  to  judge  justly,  and  he  even  refused  gifts  from  London  and 
other  towns,  saying  he  would  rather  have  the  hearts  of  his  subjects 
than  their  money.  But  he  undid  any  possible  effects  of  his  good  works 
by  ruthless  bloodshed.  On  the  very  day  that  he  accepted  the  crown 
Lord  Rivers  and  Sir  Richard  Grey  were  put  to  death  in  far-off  Yorkshire 
after  the  barest  pretense  of  a  trial,  while,  shortly  after,  Richard  sent 
CSir  James  Tyrell,  a  trusted  henchman,  with  orders  to  kill  the  two  innocent 
little  princes  in  the  Tower.N  It  is  probable  that  Tyrell,  assisted  by  a 
groom  and  one  of  the  keepers,  smothered  them  while  they  slept.1  /The 
destruction  of  these  two  harmless  lads  caused  all  right-thinking  men 
to  turn  from  Richard  with  loathing,  while  it  eave  others  a  handle  to 
turn  against  him  when  the  fitting  time  came.  J  Henry  Stafford,  Duke 
of  Buckingham,  a  descendant  of  the  youngest  son  of  Edward  III, 
who  haoT  up  to  this  time  been  his  most  slavish  adherent,  was  soon  in 
communication  with  Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond,  the  male 
representative  of  the  Lancastrians  who  had  taken  refuge  in  France, 
and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  great  combination  to  overthrow 

1  Two  skeletons  discovered  in  1674  may  not  have  been  those  of  Edward  and  his 
brother;  but  attempts  to  prove  that  they  survived  the  reign  of  Richard  III  and 
were  put  to  death  by  his  successor  have  not  been  generally  accepted. 


274  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  usurper.  Great  floods,  however,  disarranged  Buckingham's  plans ; 
he  was  captured  at  Salisbury  and  put  to  death,  while  Richard  re- 
mained on  the  throne  for  two  more  years.  He  continued  his  vain 
efforts  to  win  the  hearts  of  his  subjects  and  to  secure  himself  against 
his  enemies.  He  worked  to  do  away  with  extortion,  to  reform  justice, 
and  to  promote  trade.  In  a  Parliament  of  1484  he  abolished  the  hated 
benevolences  of  which  his  brother  hadjnacIersuL'li  us_e|  but  the  neces- 
'slties'oT'military  preparation  forced  him  to  counteract  this  measure  by 
levying  large  loans.  As  a  means  of  securing  his  title  he  planned  to 
marry  his  niece  Elizabeth ;  but  the  murmuring  of  the  people  obliged  him 
to  renounce  this  unnatural  project.  Nobody  resisted  him,  but  he  could 
trust  no  one,  and  he  lived  in  constant  disquiet  and  alarm.  When  he 
went  abroad  his  hand  was  always  on  his  dagger,  and  his  rest  at  night 
was  constantly  broken  by  the  remembrance  of  his  "  abominable 
deeds."  In  vain,  when  the  hour  of  danger  came,  did  he  call  on  his 
subjects  "  like  good  and  true  Englishmen  "  to  "  endeavor  themselves 
in  defense  of  their  wives,  children,  goods,  and  inheritances." 

The  Landing  of  Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond,  1485.  —  Mean- 
time, Henry  Tudor,  having  secured  supplies  of  men  and  money  in 
France,  issued  a  manifesto  to  his  English  supporters  against  the  "  un- 
natural tyrant  who  bore  rule  over  them."  With  the  way  thus  pre- 
pared, he  crossed  the  Channel  and  landed  at  Milford  Haven,  7  August, 
1485.  On  touching  the  shore  he  kneeled  down  and  recited  the  43d 
Psalm :  "  Judge  me  O  God,  plead  my  cause  against  an  ungodly 
nation."  Then  he  "  kissed  the  ground  meekly,"  crossed  himself, 
rose,  and,  in  the  name  of  God  and  St.  George,  ordered  his  men  to  set 
forward.  Calling  on  all  true  subjects  to  support  him  as  he  went,  he 
marched  eastward  to  the  Severn.  Richard  was  at  Northampton, 
which  he  had  chosen  as  a  central  point  whence  he  could  march  readily 
in  any  direction.  Although  in  "  great  agony  and  doubt,"  he  pre- 
tended to  receive  the  news  of  Henry's  landing  with  great  satisfaction, 
declaring  that  he  "  feared  him  little."  Advancing  westward,  he  met 
the  invaders  at  Bosworth  near  Leicester.  Supporters  had  been  nock- 
ing steadily  to  join  Richmond;  the  forces  of  Richard,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  lukewarm  and  suspected  of  treason. 

The  Battle  of  Bosworth,  22  August,  1485.  —  While  he  trusted  in  his 
own  energy,  valor,  and  military  skill,  Richard,  haunted  by  dismal  fore- 
bodings, passed  a  sleepless  night  and  appeared  haggard  and  pallid  on 
the  morning  of  the  fray.  Yet  he  addressed  his  captains  in  a  fiery 
speech,  contrasting  their  courage  and  prowess  with  those  of  their  foes, 
whom  he  scornfully  pictured  as  thieves,  traitors,  beggarly  faint- 
hearted fellows.  He  would  triumph,  he  declared,  "  by  glorious  victory 
or  suffer  death  for  immortal  fame."  Henry's  speech  was  equally 
stirring.  He  came,  he  said,  to  vindicate  justice  and  avenge  murder 
against  a  tyrant  whose  forces  served  him  from  fear  rather  than  love, 
and  who  at  the  test  would  prove  friends  rather  than  adversaries. 
And  so  the  event  proved.  Lord  Stanley  went  to  Henry's  side,  and  the 


THE  HOUSE  OF  YORK  275 

Earl  of  Westmoreland  withdrew  his  troops  and  remained  an  idle 
spectator.  Richard  fought  manfully,  he  slew  Henry's  standard  bearer, 
and  sought  to  engage  Henry  himself  in  a  hand-to-hand  encounter. 
Wearing  his  crown  on  his  head,  he  cried,  "I  will  die  King  of  England." 
Deserted  and  surrounded  by  his  enemies,  shouting  "  treason  !  trea- 
son !  "  he  struggled  until  he  fell  pierced  by  deadly  wounds.  His 
battered  crown  was  found  hidden  in  a  hawthorn  bush,  and  was 
placed  on  the  head  of  the  victorious  Earl  of  Richmond  by  Lord  Stanley, 
while  the  troops  hailed  him  as  Henry  VII.  Richard's  body,  covered 
with  dirt  and  gore,  stripped  perfectly  naked,  with  a  halter  about  the 
neck,  was  strapped  across  a  horse's  back.  With  the  head  and  arms 
dangling  on  one  side  and  the  legs  on  the  other,  it  was  borne  to  Leicester. 
After  being  exposed  to  the  people  for  two  days  to  prove  that  he  was 
really  dead,  the  corpse  was  buried  in  the  Abbey  of  Grey  Friars. 

Estimate  of  Richard.  —  The  bloody  usurper  had  sold  his  life  with  a 
heroic  courage  that  commanded  the  admiration  of  even  his  enemies. 
In  aftertimes  men  pictured  him  as  a  monster  in  body  and  mind,  a 
dwarf  with  a  fiend's  face,  a  crooked  back,  and  a  withered  arm.  As  to 
his  appearance,  this  is  a  violent  distortion  of  the  truth.  He  was  below 
average  height,  his  left  shoulder  was  lower  than  his  right,  and  his  left 
arm  somewhat  withered ;  but  he  was  well-knit  and  active,-  in  battle 
more  than  a  match  for  men  of  heavier  and  more  imposing  frame.  His 
face  was  long  and  lean,  his  expression  joyless  and  nervous,  yet  cer- 
tainly not  forbidding  like  that  of  a  hardened  villain.  While  naturally 
calculating  and  distrustful,  he  could  be  very  engaging.  He  was  liberal 
in  gifts,  particularly  to  the  Church,  though  that  may  have  been  mainly 
to  ease  his  conscience  and  to  stand  well  before  men.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  he  aimed  to  be  a  just  and  merciful  ruler ;  but  the  crimes  by  which 
he  had  forced  his  way  to  power  brought  their  final  punishment.  His 
defeat  at  the  two  hours'  Bosworth  fight  marked  the  downfall  of  the 
house  of  York. 


Reasons  for  the  Failure  of  the  Lancastrian  and  Yorkist  Dynasties.  — 

Richard's  usurpation  merely  hastened  a  crisis  that  seemed  inevitable. 
Events  had  made  it  evident  that  neither  of  the  rival  dynasties  was 
fitted  to  rule.  The  situation  under  Henry  VI  had  shown  that/England 
was  not  ready  for  the  liberties  fostered  by  his  father  and  grandfather.) 
On  the  other  hand,  the  rule  of  Edward  and  Richard  had  shown  that 
the  country  haH  outgrown  the  age  when  it  would  submit  to  violence 
and  despotism.  The  Lancastrian  Henrys,  particularly  the  first  two, 
had  done  much  for  England.  They  had  nurtured  parliamentary  gov- 
ernment,  protected  trade,  maintained  universities,  made  far-reaching 
alliances,  and  increased  English  prestige  abroad.  But  wars,  famine, 
pesTIIence,  and,  chiefest  of  all,  want  of  governance,  administrative 
feebleness,  destroyed  the  last  of  the  line.  The  Crown  was  constantly 
in  need  of  money ;  the  treasury  was  always  low ;  peace  was  not  well 
kept  nor  the  laws  effectively  executed.  Individual  life  and  property 
were  never  secure ;  robbery,  riot,  and  factional  strife  kept  the  country 


276  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  continual  turmoil.  The  remedies  sought  —  more  power  to  Parlia- 
ment, remodeling  the  Council  and  reforming  statutes  —  proved  of  no 
avail.  (A  strong  hand  was  necessary,  and  the  dynasty  that  had  failed 
to  govern  perforce  ceased  to  rule)  That  was  why  Henry  VI  was  set 
aside;  otherwise  his  adversaries  would  never  have  established  their 
title,  nearer  in  descent  though  they  were.  (^The  Yorkists'  rule,  though 
stronger,  failed  to  remedy  the  evils,  'to  secure  peace,  or  to  inspire 
national  confidence.) The  perversion  of  justice,  robbery,  violence 
and  factional  struggles  were  still  rife.  A  new  man  arid  a  new  policy 
were  needed.  As  Henry  VII  united  the  dynastic  claims  of  the  two 
Houses  so  he  combined  their  policies.  Observing  the  forms  of  con- 
stitutional liberty  accepted  by  the  Lancastrians,  he  ruled  with  a 
strong  hand  like  the  Yorkists.  What  the  country  wanted  most  was 
peace  and  prosperity  under  rulers  who  could  keep  order.  The  line 
oTHenry  Vll  gave  them  that.  It  erected  a  new  absolutism,  but  an 
absolutism  based  on  popularity.  This  new  absolutism  prevailed  until 
the  country  nad  recovered  from  exhaustion,  emancipated  itself  from 
the  bonds  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  was  prepared  to  make  use  of  the 
liberty  which  it  had  at  an  earlier  time  prematurely  acquired.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  result  of  the  struggle  between  Lancaster  and  York 
as  to  arrest  the  progress  of  English  freedom  for  more  than  a  century, 
its  beginning  Parliament  had  established  freedom  from  arbitrary 
taxation,  legislation,  "and  imprisonment,  and  the  responsibility  of  even 
the  highest  servants  of  the  Crown  to  itself  and  the  law.  From  the 
time  of  Edward  IV  parliamentary  life  was  checked,  suspended,  or 
turned  into  a  mere  form.  The  legislative  powers  were  usurped  by  the 
royal  Council,  parliamentary  taxation  gave  way  to  forced  loans  and 
benevolences,  personal  liberty  was  encroached  on  by  a  searching  spy 
system  and  arbitrary  imprisonment,  justice  was  degraded  by  bills  of 
attainder,  by  the  extension  of  the  powers  of  the  Council,  by  the  sub- 
servience of  judges  and  the  coercion  of  juries.  It  took  a  revolution  in 
the  seventeenth  century  to  recover  from  the  Crown  what  had  been 
recognized  and  observed  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth.^ 

FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING 

Ramsay,  II,  chs.  XVI  ff. ;  Vickers,  chs.  XXIV-XXV ;  Oman,  chs.  XVII-XX ; 
and  Stubbs,  III,  ch.  XVIII,  all  deal  in  more  or  less  detail  with  the  period  covered  by 
this  chapter.  The  Paston  Letters,  1422-1509  (6  vols.,  1904)  throw  a  flood  of  light 
on  the  public  life  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the  introduction  by  the  editor,  James 
Gairdner,  is  a  valuable  commentary.  C.  R.  Markham,  in  "  Richard  III :  A  Doubtful 
Verdict  Reviewed,"  English  Historical  Review,  VI,  250-283,  806-813,  took  the 
ground  that  Henry  VII,  rather  than  Richard  III,  was  the  murderer *of  the  sons  of 
Edward  IV ;  but  his  contention  was  effectually  answered  by  James  Gairdner,  "  Did 
Henry  VII  murder  the  Princes  ?"  English  Historical  Review,  VI,  444-464,  813-815. 
Gairdner,  Life  and  Reign  of  Richard  III  (1898)  is  the  best  account  of  the  reign. 

The  constitutional  aspects  of  the  period  are  dealt  with  in  Stubbs,  III,  chs.  XIX- 
XXI;  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  I,  bk.  Ill,  ch.  II,  sees.  6-10;  Wakeman  and 
Hassall,  Constitutional  Essays,  ch.  V ;  Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  IX. 

Selections  from  the  sources.     Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  129-133. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  YORK  277 

THE  WOODVILLES  AND  COURTENAYS 

Richard  Woodyille, 
created  Earl  Rivers 

I 

Anthony,  Earl  Rivers,  Elizabeth  =  Edward  IV 

executed,  1483 


Edward  V  Elizabeth,  Katharine, 

m.  HENRY  VII  m.  Sir  Wm.  Courtenay 

Henry,  Marquis  of 
Exeter;  executed,  1538 

! 
Edward  Courtenay 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM.     HENRY  VII 

(1485-1509) 

The  New  Absolutism.  —  The  victory  of  Henry  Tudor  brought 
England  peace  and  a  strong  settled  government  which  endured  for 
over  a  century.  During  the  same  period,  however,  the  growth  of 
parliamentary  power  was  checked.  The_revival  of_absolutism,  the 
renewed  triumph  of  the  royal  power  over  opposing  forces,  jvas  due  to 
two  causes  —  tothe  personal  character  of  the  Tudor  sovereign^  and 
to  the  situation  of  The  country.  The  three  notable  rulers  of  this  line, 
Henry  VII,  Henry  VIII,  and  Elizabeth,  were  alike  in  many  ways ; 
possessed  of  unbounded  courage,  physical  and  moral,  they  were  also 
keen  politicians  in  discerning  the  needs  and  temper  of  the  people. 
Because  they  possessed  force  and  discretion  they  were  able  usually  to 
get  things  done  as  they  wished.  When  they  saw  that  a  measure  was' 
going  to  be  resisted,  they  drew  back.  But  their  wishes  and  those  of 
their  subjects  were  in  most  respects  the  same.  So  they  were  absolute, 
not  because  they  had  a  standing  army,  or  any  oth"eF~of  the  common 
props  of  absolutism,  but  because  they  were  popular,  they  were  needed. 
Henry  VII,  founder  of  the  line,  was  extortionate,  but  he  was  frugal 
and  politic,  moral,  and  generally  upright.  He  fostered  trade  and 
industry ;  he  maintained  peace  abroad  and  order  at  home,  and  kept 
the  country  out  of  debt,  (in  consequence,  he  left  a  strong  central 
government,  a  large  treasure,  and  a  people  attached  to  the  Crown.^ 
But  there  was  another  side  to  the  question.  The  power  of  the  mon- 
archy depended  largely  upon  his  relations  to  the  political  classes  of  the 
realm,  the  nobles,  the  clergy,  and  the  commons.  The  nobles  were  no 
longer  in  a  po_sition_seriously  to  menace  the  Crown!  SinceT  theTntro- 
duction  of  the  longbow,  and  more  particularly  of  gunpowder,  their 
armor  had  ceased  to  be  invulnerable,  and  their  castles  were  not  im- 
pregnable against  cannon.  Moreover,  the  strain  of  the  Hundred 
Years'  War  and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  l  had  reduced  their  numbers 
and  their  wealth,  and  made  them  more  and  more  dependent  on  the 
increasingly  prosperous  middle  class  with  whom  they  had  discredited 
themselves  by  their  turbulence,  extravagance,  and  self-seeking.  _Th£ 
Church,  top,  was  losJQg  the  assured  position  it  had  once  held.  It  had 
indeed  survivecT  theattacks  oi  wiclii  andJ  the  Lollards,  and  the 

1  It  is  no  longer  believed  that  the  bulk  of  the  nobility  were  killed  off  in  the  Wars 
of  the  Roses. 

278 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE  TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM     279 

Reformation  was  still  a  generation  off;  but  its  influence  had  been 
threatened,  and  covetous  eyes  had  been  more  than  once  cast  on  its 
vast  wealth.  While  it  still  retained  a  strong  hold  on  the  lesser  folk, 
they  counted  for  little,  and  it  had  to  look  to  the  monarchy  for  support. 
The  commons,  the  middle  classes  in  town  and  country,  busy  in  accumu- 
lating material  resources,  wanted  peace  and  protection  rather  than 
liberty.1  As  the  nobles  and  the  Church  were  unable,  so  the  commons 
were  unwilling  to  oppose  the  new  Tudor  absolutism  in  which  they  saw 
a  friend  and  protector.  Parliament  had  been  developed  as  a  weapon, 
first  by  the  nobles  and  then  by  the  Lancastrians.  The  Tudors  were 
minded  to  call  it  very  infrequently  or  to  make  it  the  trusty  servant  of 
their  policies.  In  this  Parliament  was  generally  content  to  acquiesce. 

Henry's  Problems.  —  Henry  VII,  then,  was  a  strong,  wise,  cautious 
man  who  found  himself  in  a  situation  most  favorable  for  the  reestab- 
lishment  of  the  royal  power  on  a  secure  basis.     He  was  confronted  by 
many  problems,  and  he  dealt  with  them  prudently  and  skillfully.   .  He_ 
Jiad  toestablish  his  title,  to  dispose  of  rival  claimants,  to  suppress^ 
disorder, to  come  to  terms  with  Scotland,  to  settle  conditions  in  Ireland^ 
ami  to_secure  England's  position  abroad.     Each  of  these  problems 
mustTBe  considered  in  turn. 

Henry's  Means  of  securing  His  Title.  —  Henry's  first  need  was  to 
secure  his  title.  He  could  base  his  claim  to  rule  on  right  of  conquest ; 
but  he  might  have  to  yield  to  any  one  who  could  gather  an  army 
strong  enough  to  drive  him  out.  His  claim  by  descent  had  at  least  a 
color  of  legitimacy.  He  was  the  nearest  male  representative  of  the 
Lancastrian  line.  Through  his  mother,  Margaret  Beaufort,  he  traced 
his  descent  from  John  of  Gaunt  and  Katherine  Swynford.  But  the 
legitimacy  of  the  Beauforts  was  not  above  question,  while  the  line 
had  been  barred  from  the  succession  during  the  reign  of  Henry  IV. 
Moreover,  Henry  derived  his  claim  from  a  female.  So,  quite  wisely,  he 
secured  from  Parliament  in  1485  an  act  vesting  the  royal  inheritance 
in  his  person  and  the  heirs  of  his  body  without  stating  any  reasons. 
This  done,  he  married,  early  in  1486,  Elizabeth,  the ^eldest  Daughter  o£ 
,  Edward  IV,  thus  uniting,  in  the  person  of  any  children  born^toTHem, 
the  claims  of  the  two  rival  Houses.  His  next  step  was  to  secure  from 
the  Pope  in  the  same  year  a  bull  recognizing  his  title.  Finally,  to 
remove  all  fear  from  the  minds  of  his  supporters,  he  made  Parliament 
pass  an  act  in  1495  that  it  was  no  treason  to  obey  ade facto  King. 

Royal  Pretenders.  Lambert  Simnel,  1487.  —  There  were,  however, 
male  representatives  of  the  Yorkist  line  still  alive,  and  many  doubted 
whether  the  young  sons  of  Edward  IV  were  actually  dead.  Naturally, 
the  enemies  of  Henry  VII  were  glad  to  make  use  of  such  opportunities 
to  rise  against  him.  In  1487  they  put  forward  one  Lambert  Simnel, 
son  of  an  Oxford  organ  maker,  as  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  son  of  the  Duke 

1  In  Shakespeare's  King  John,  produced  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  Magna  Carta, 
which  Englishmen  came  to  regard  as  the  foundation  of  popular  liberty,  is  not  even 
mentioned. 


28o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  Clarence,  although  the  real  Earl  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower. 
Simnel  was  conveyed  to  Ireland,  where  the  sentiment  was  strongly 
Yorkist.  There  he  was  crowned  King,  and  there  a  body  of  supporters 
gathered,  including  some  of  the  English  nobility  and  a  force  of  German 
mercenaries  sent  over  by  Margaret,  widow  of  Charles  the  Bold  and 
sister  of  Edward  IV  and  Richard  III.  Landing  on  the  coast  of 
Lancaster,  the  invaders  marched  southeast.  But  "  the  snowball 
did  not  gather  as  it  went,"  because  "  it  was  an  odious  thing  for  the 
people  of  England  to  have  a  King  brought  to  them  upon  the  shoulders 
of  the  Dutch."  They  were  met  by  the  royal  forces  at  Stoke  in  Lin- 
colnshire and  defeated.  The  Yorkist  nobles  were  mostly  killed  or 
disappeared.  The  mock  king  was  made  a  turnspit  in  the  royal  kitchen, 
and  was  later  promoted  to  the  position  of  a  royal  falconer. 

Perkin  Warbeck,  1492-1499.  —  Another  pretender  bothered  the 
King  for  nearly  eight  years.  This  was  Perkin  Warbeck,  son  of  a 
boatman  of  Tournay,  put  forward  as  Richard,  Duke  of  York.  He 
received  support  in  Ireland,  in  Flanders,  and  in  Scotland,  and  after 
two  previous  unsuccessful  attempts  at  invasion  he  landed,  August, 
1497,  in  southwest  England.  The  King's  army,  however,  was  too 
much  for  him.  When  an  attempt  to  take  Exeter  miscarried,  his  cour- 
age failed.  He  took  sanctuary  in  the  Abbey  of  Beaulieu,  where  he 
gave  himself  up  and  was  taken  thence  to  the  Tower.  In  November, 
1499,  after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  escape,  he  was  hanged,  drawn, 
and  quartered.  A  few  days  later,  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  the  last  of  the 
Yorkist  princes,  having  been  seduced  into  a  plot  by  those  who  hoped 
to  profit  by  his  death,  ended  a  fifteen  years'  imprisonment  by  following 
Warbeck  to  the  grave. 

Henry's  Exactions  in  Consequence  of  the  Plots.  —  Henry  VII 
turned  most  of  the  plots  and  risings  against  him  to  his  own  advantage. 
Refraining  so  far  as  possible  from  shedding  blood,  he  contented  him- 
self with  the  safer  and  more  profitable  method  of  levying  fines  on  those 
implicated.  This  was  only  one  of  his  many  devices  to  fill  his  coffers. 
Another  very  familiar  one  is  known  as  "  Morton's  Fork,"  because  its 
invention  was  attributed  to  his  ChancellorjTKomasMoTton.1  Accord- 
ing to  this  device  persons  who  lived  in  great  magnificence  were  forced 
to  yield  large  sums  on  the  ground  of  their  manifest  wealth,  while 
those  who  lived  plainly  were  subjected  to  equal  burdens  on  the  ground 
of  their  supposed  savings.  The  royal  extortion  increased  as  the  years 
went  on,  and  two  of  Henry's  agents,  Empson  and  Dudley,  were  so 
generally  hated  that  they  were  described,  over  a  century  later,  as 
"  caterpillars  of  the  commonwealth." 

The  Court  of  Star  Chamber,  1487.  —  Neither  the  Lancastrians  nor 
the  Yorkists  had  been  able  to  suppress  disorder.  Great  nobles  still 
had  large  bands  of  retainers  who  wore  their  badge  or  livery  and  who 
bullied  and  plundered  their  weaker  neighbors  at  will.  It  was  impossi- 

1  More  likely  Richard  Foxe,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  was  the  author. 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE  TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM     281 

ble  to  punish  any  of  them  if  they  were  caught,  because  their  powerful 
patrons  appeared  at  the  county  courts  with  hordes  of  their  fellows, 
and  "  maintained  "  their  cause  by  terrifying  judge^  jury,  and jgrpsecu^_ 
tors._  Statutes  of  "  livery  and  maintenance/'  had  been  directed  in 
vairTagainst  this  abuse.  In  1487  Henry  VTTdevised  a  new  expedient. 
Selecting  certain  great  officers  of  State  from  the  Privy_Council,  together 
with  two  judges,  he  gave  them  a  special  jurisdiction,  not  only  over 
livery  and  maintenance,  but  over  misconduct  of  sheriffs,  over  riots  and 
unlawful  assemblies.  They  constituted  a  court  known  as  the  Staf~ 
Chamber,  probably  because  of  the  Camera  Stellata,  where  the  meetings 
were  held.  Since  it  sat  in  London  and  had  very  summary  jurisdiction, 
it  was  able  to  act  more  effectively  than  any  of  the  existing  courts. 
Later,  more  and  more  members  were  added,  till  it  came  to  be  ajudiciaL, 
^session  of  the  whole  Privy  Council  plus  two  judges^  It  continued  to 
act  long  after  the  original  need  for  it  had  passed  away,  and  was  used 
by  the  later  Tudors  and  the  first  two  Stuarts  as  an  engine  of  oppres- 
sion, political  and  ecclesiastical.  It  was  suppressed  in  164.1. 

The  Irish  Situation.  Poynings's  Law,  1494.  —  Ireland  was  a  serious 
problem.  The  only  place  where  the  English  possessed  a  shadow  of 
authority  was  in  the  Pale.  Attempts  to  prevent  the  Anglo-Irish  lords 
from  identifying  themselves  with  the  natives  had  proved  futile. 
The  most  powerful  family  of  them  all,  the  Fitzgeralds,  or  "  Geraldines," 
whose  head  was  Gerald,  Earl  of  Kildare,  Lord  Deputy  since  the  time 
of  Edward  IV,  were  passionate  Yorkists.  The  Earl  had  supported 
Simnel  and  had  been  accused  of  abetting  Warbeck  on  the  latter's 
first  appearance  in  Ireland  in  1491.  In  spite  of  his  declaration  that  he 
had  never  lent  his  aid  to  "  the  French  lad,"  Kildare  was  deprived  of  his 
office  in  1492.  Two  years  later,  Henry  sent  over  Sir  Edward  Povnings 
and  a  body  of  English  officials  and  judges  with  the  object  of  establish- 
ing and  extending  English  rule.  The  new  Deputy  secured  the  passage 
of  the  celebrated  "  Poynings's  Law. ".providing  that  no  Parliament 
should  meet  or  pass  any  act  without  the  consent  of  the  King  in  Council, 
and  that  all  English  statutes  should  be  in  force  in  Ireland.  Although 
these  enactments  put  a  check  on  Irish  legislation,  they  had  the  merit 
of  protecting  the  colonists  against  the  arbitrariness  of  the  English 
officials.  In  1496  the  Earl  of  Kildare,  who  had  in  the  meantime 
been  seized  and  put  in  the  Tower  of  London,  was  released  and  sent  back 
as  Lord  Deputy.  His  audacity  had  appealed  to  the  King.  He  said 
he  had  burned  the  cathedral  of  Cashel  because  the  Bishop  was  inside. 
"  All  Ireland  cannot  rule  him,"  said  the  Bishop  of  Meath.  "  Then," 
replied  the  King,  "  he  is  meet  to  rule  all  Ireland."  So  the  "  great 
Earl  "  continued  to  hold  office  till  his  death  in  1513. 

Henry's   Foreign   Policy.     The    Peace    of    Etaples,    1492.  —  The 

economical  and  peace-loving  Henry  sought  to  avoid  war  and  to  secure 

his  relation  to  other  countries  by  marriages  and  treaties.     Maximilian 

and  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  were  anxious  to  prevent  the  growth  of  the 

.  French  power.     Charles  VIII,  who  had  succeeded  Louis  XI  in  1483, 


282  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

was  aiming  to  annex  Brittany,  a  purpose  which  he  effected  in  1491  by 
marrying  Anne,  who  had  fallen  heir  to  the  Duchy.  Henry,  in  alliance 
with  Maximilian  and  Ferdinand,  led  an  army  across  the  Channel  the 
following  year,  but  his  aim  was  to  threaten,  not  to  fight.  So,  3  Novem- 
ber, 1491,  he  signed  a  peace  at  Etaples,  by  which  the  French  agreed  to 
pay  him  620,000  crowns  due  him  from  Anne  for  the  defense  of  her 
heritage,  together  with  125,000  crowns  for  two  years'  arrears  of  the 
pension  which  Louis  XI  had  promised  to  pay  Edward  IV.  Each 
King  agreed  not  to  assist  the  enemies  of  the  other.  If  Henry  gave  up 
Maximilian  and  Ferdinand,  Charles,  on  his  part,  could  not  shelter 
rebels  against  the  King  of  England.  Therefore  Perkin  Warbeck,  who 
was  then  in  France,  had  to  take  himself  off  to  the  Netherlands.  Finan- 
cially, Henry  was  a  twofold  gainer :  he  had  collected  large  sums  from 
his  subjects  to  make  war  and  he  had  been  paid  by  the  French  King  to 
keep  peace.  This  profitable  and  prosaic  ending  of  Henry's  one  and 
only  foreign  war  was  bitterly  resented  by  many  of  his  subjects. 

The  Scotch  Marriage  Alliance,  1502. — The  vigorous  and  active 
but  licentious  and  unstable  James  IV,  King  of  Scotland  since  1488,  had 
caused  much  trouble  by  taking  up  the  cause  of  Perkin  Warbeck. 
Henry  sought  to  meet  danger  from  this  quarter  by  marrying  James  to 
his  little  daughter  Margaret.  On  7  August,  1502,  the  wedding  took 
place  at  Edinburgh,  the  gayest  and  most  splendid  the  poor  northern 
capital  had  ever  witnessed.  In  years  to  come  many  wars  and  rumors 
of  wars  followed;  but  only  a  century  elapsed  before  a  descendant 
of  this  marriage  became  King  of  England.  The  far-sighted  Henry 
had  foreseen  such  an  event,  but  had  sagely  predicted  that  if  it  came  to 
pass,  the  greater  would  draw  the  less.  And  so  it  proved. 

The  Marriage  Alliance  with  Spain.  —  Meantime,  15  November, 
1501,  Henry  had  married  his  eldest  son  Arthur  to  Catharine,  daughter 
of  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  Isabella  of  Castile,  those  celebrated  mon- 
archs  who  sent  Columbus  on  his  voyages  of  discovery  to  our  western 
world.  Spain  was  at  this  time  the  leading  power  in  Christendom. 
Not  only  had  she  discovered  lands  of  fabulous  wealth,  but  she  had 
driven  the  Moors  out  of  Granada,  and  had  gained  brilliant  victories  in" 
Italy,  the  battle  ground  of  western  Europe.  Henry  drove  a  hard 
bargain  by  which  he  secured  for  his  heir  a  substantial  marriage  portion 
of  200,000  crowns,  half  of  which  was  to  be  paid  immediately  after  the 
ceremony.  He  boasted  with  justice  that  by  his  alliances  he  had 
built  a  wall  of  brass  around  his  kingdom.  Arthur,  however,  died  less 
than  six  months  after  his  marriage,  and  before  the  second  half  of  the 
marriage  portion  had  been  paid.  Henry  was  determined  not  to  give 
it  up,  and  since  his  own  wife  had  died  recently,  he  even  proposed  to 
marry  his  daughter-in-law  himself.  At  another  time  he  entertained  a 
project  of  marrying  her  sister,  the  crazy  Joanna,  whose  mental  condi- 
tion made  no  difference  to  him,  for  she  was  heiress  to  the  vast  and  rich 
Spanish  dominions.  Joanna  subsequently  fell  to  Philip,  the  son  of 
Maximilian,  and  eventually  Catharine  was  betrothed  to  Henry's 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE   TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM     283 

second  son,  the  future  Henry  VIII.  A  papal  dispensation  was  ob- 
tained for  this  purpose,  since  it  was  against  the  law  of  the  Church 
for  a  man  to  marry  his  deceased  brother's  widow.  The  marriage  did 
not  take  place  until  six  months  after  the  younger  Henry's  accession. 
These  matrimonial  schemes  of  the  old  King  are  of  a  piece  with  the 
increasing  sordidness  of  the  later  years  of  his  rule ;  after  the  death  of 
his  wife  Elizabeth  and  his  best  councilors,  he  became  more  and  more 
despotic  and  more  and  more  greedy. 

The  Transition  from  the  Medieval  to  the  Modern  World.  —  Never- 
theless, England  owes1  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to  this  thrifty  and 
sagacious  ruler,  in  a  period  of  transition  when  she  was  leaving  the 
medieval  and  entering  the  modern  world.  New  tendencies  were  in 
the  making,  but  the  rags  of  the  old  had  not  been  altogether  discarded. 
These  diverse  characteristics  are  manifest  both  in  the  King  and  his  age. 
Henry,  plain,  businesslike,  and  unheroic,  absorbed  in  amassing 
treasure  and  avoiding  war,  was  the  direct  contrast  of  the  medieval 
knight ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  he  chose  Churchmen  for  councilors, 
went  on  pilgrimages,  and  founded  religious  houses  with  true  medieval 
piety.  He  gave  John  Cabot  a  patent  to  search  for  a  northwest  pas- 
sage, but  he  contributed  to  a  papal  crusade  against  the  Turks.  He 
negotiated  free  trade  treaties,  but  he  also  enacted  a  law  against  usury. 
English  ships  began  to  make  their  way  to  the  New  World,  but  it  was  not 
till  the  reign  of  Henry's  granddaughter  that  England  became  a  great 
sea  power.  Certain  men,  known  as  the  "  Oxford  Reformers,"  began 
to  teach  the  New  Learning  which  had  nourished  in  Italy  for  over  a 
century ;  but  its  effect  was  not  realized  in  the  separation  of  England 
from  Rome  till  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  The  old  fighting  nobility 
had  been  crushed,  but  the  new  nobility  of  wealth  had  not  yet  risen. 
In  international  affairs  a  new  policy  —  balance  of  power  —  was  just 
emerging ;  but  it  had  not  yet  developed  into  a  fixed  principle. 

State  of  the  Country.  Agriculture.  —  It  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the 
misery  as  it  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the  prosperity  of  the  laboring  classes 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  Agriculture,  once  the  basis  of  England's 
livelihood,  was  certainly  in  a  backward  state.  No  improved  methods 
were  introduced  from  the  time  of  the  Peasant  Revolt  till  after  the 
Reformation.  The  soil  was  exhausted,  for  draining  and  fertilizing 
were  little  practiced,  and  artificial  grass  and  clover  were  unknown. 
Hop  growing,  later  so  profitable,  was  not  general  until  after  the  Ref- 
ormation.1 

Cattle  could  not  be  kept  over  the  winter  to  any  extent ;  for  turnips, 
later  used  for  fodder,  had  not  yet  been  introduced.  Oxen  were  still 
used  as  draft  animals ;  they  were  cheaper  than  horses  to  feed,  and 
their  flesh  could  be  eaten  when  they  were  killed. 

1  Though  according  to  a  familiar  couplet : 

"Turkies,  hops,  reformation,  and  beer 
Came  into  England  all  in  one  year." 


284  A  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

Causes  for  Lack  of  Agricultural  Progress.  —  Many  things  contrib- 
uted to  retard  the  progress  of  agriculture.  Owing  to  the  scarcity  of 
labor,  caused  by  the  Black  Death  and  other  plagues,  the  great  land- 
owners had  ceased  to  take  a  personal  interest  in  the  cultivation  of  their 
estates  and  leased  them  to  tenant  farmers.  Then  the  wars,  foreign 
and  civil,  had  further  drained  the  population  and  discouraged  and 
unsettled  the  surviving  cultivators.  Also,  the  monasteries,  which  had 
once  taken  the  lead  in  clearing  the  wastes,  building  roads,  and  improv- 
ing tillage,  Jiad_faJJkjnj3f^^  The  increasing  bare- 
ness of  Jthe  soil,  the  scarcity  of  labor,  and  the  growing  demand  for  wool 
turned  a  steadily  increasing  number  to  sheep  raising.  Both  common 
pastures  and  tenant  holdings  were  enclosed  for  grazing  lands.  As 
sheep  raising  became  more  and  more  profitable,  more  and  more  farms 
were  taken.  This  caused  great  hardship  as  the  population  began  to 
recover  again.  Great  outcry  was  made,  and  laws  were  passed  to  check 
the  practice,  —  e.g.  in  1436,  1463,  and  1488,  —  but  without  avail, 
and  a  chaplain  of  Henry  VIII  complained  that  "  where  hath  been  many 
houses  and  churches  to  the  honour  of  God,  now  you  shall  find  nothing 
but  shepe-cotes  and  stables  to  the  ruin  of  man."  Nor  did  enactments 
to  encourage  the  exportation  of  corn  so  as  to  raise  the  price  (1436), 
and  to  prevent  import  until  the  cost  was  so  high  as  to  cause  hardship 
(1463),  materially  help, the  situation.  It  was  not  until  decades  later, 
after  the  laborers,  driven  from  the  soil,  had  found  a  new  occupation  in 
manufacturing  and  a  new  demand  arose  for  food  to  supply  them,  that 
agricultural  prosperity  revived. 

Condition  of  the  Agricultural  Laborer.  The  Dark  Side.  —  The 
condition  of  the  lower  classes  would  seem  insupportable  now.  Their 
homes  were  mere  hovels  with  walls  of  clay  and  reeds,  with  floors  of 
mud  strewn  with  rushes.  Fires  were  built  in  a  cleared  space  in  the 
middle  of  the  floor,  and  the  smoke  escaped  through  the  door  or  a  hole 
in  the  roof  after  half  choking  the  occupants.  It  is  small  wonder  that 
even  women  left  these  "  dark,  cheerless,  and  unhealthy  dwellings  "  to 
seek  company  and  diversion  in  the  neighboring  alehouse.  Tea, 
coffee,  and  wheaten  bread  were  luxuries  yet  undreamed  of.  We  are 
told,  however,  that  meat,  beer,  house  rent,  and  fuel  were  cheap,  and 
foreigners  were  struck  by  the  quantities  of  meat  consumed  by  the 
English.  But  they  saw  only  the  tables  of  the  gentry,  the  city  folk, 
and  the  inns.  The  remote  rural  classes  seem  to  have  lived  largely 
on  peas,  beans,  and  suchlike  food  in  summer,  while  the  salt  meat  and 
fish  consumed  in  winter,  together  with  bad  air,  lack  of  drainage,  and 
stagnant  water,  were  fruitful  sources  of  all  manner  of  ills,  such  as 
scurvy,  scrofula,  and  typhoid.  The  lot  of  the  poorer  classes  in  towns 
was  just  as  bad.  The  plague  still  continued  its  ravages1;  infant 

1  A  new  form  of  disease,  known  as  the  sweating  sickness,  came  in  in  1485,  brought, 
it  is  supposed,  by  the  invading  troops  of  Henry  VII.  It  was  marked  by  alternate 
chills  and  fever  and  profuse  perspiration,  and  its  action  was  so  rapid  that  the 
patient  either  died  or  recovered  within  twenty-four  hours.  Unlike  the  plague,  it 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE  TUDOR   ABSOLUTISM     285 

mortality  was  appalling,  and  it  has  been  estimated  that  "  as  large  a 
number  of  persons  now  live  to  seventy  years  as  lived  to  forty  "  in 
the  year  1500.  Each  little  community  still  lived,  for  the  most  part, 
isolated  and  self-sufficing,  making  its  own  clothes  and  providing  its 
own  food.  Roads  were  foul  and  miry  during  a  greater  part  of  the  year, 
and  infested  by  thieves.  Bridges  were  few  and  badly  kept,  and  those 
who  controlled  river  commerce  were  opposed  to  their  increase.  ^This 
lack  of  means  of  communication  accounts  for  many  of  the  famines 
and  was  another  cause  for  retarding  the  progress  of  agriculture  .3  No 
one  cared  to  raise  a  surplus  which  could  not  easily  be  transported  for 
sale. 

The  Brighter  Features.  —  Yet  there  are  some  rays  of  light  in  the 
prevailing  darkness.  Even  the  lower  classes  were  better  off  than 
they  had  been  in  the  previous  century,  and  better  off  than  their  neigh- 
bors in  France.  The  monks  were  easy  landlords  who  seldom  pressed 
for  their  rent  from  poor  tenants,  and  sometimes  even  remitted  it  alto- 
gether in  the  hard  seasons,  and  a  number  of  the  lay  landlords  seem 
to  have  followed  the  monastic  example.  The  small  farmers  or  yeomen 
were  reasonably  prosperous.  One  such  was  the  father  of  Hugh  Lati- 
mer,  a  famous  bishop  and  preacher  of  the  Reformation  period.  He 
was  able  to  keep  arms  and  armor  and  a  horse  for  the  king's  service,  to 
send  his  children  to  school,  to  dispense  hospitality,  and  even  to  give 
alms  to  the  poor.  Moreover,  there  was  a  chance  for  peasants  to  rise 
from  their  lowly  station  by  avenues  other  than  the  Church.  For 
instance,  a  son  of  Clement  Paston,  a  small  freeholder,  some  say  a 
bondman,  who  rode  his  horse  barebacked  to  the  mill  and  drove  his 
own  cart  to  market,  rose  to  be  a  judge  of  Common  Pleas.  Indeed, 
the  family  went  on  growing  in  wealth  and  prosperity  till  they  attained 
the  earldom  of  Yarmouth  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Owing  to  a  grow- 
ing jealousy  of  prosperous  leaseholders,  the  franchise  was,  in  1430, 
restricted  to  the  forty  shilling  freeholders,  while,  in  1463  and  1482, 
Statutes  of  Apparel  were  passed  in  order  to  check  extravagance  and 
pretentiousness  among  the  lower  classes.  Still,  the  laborer's  lot  was, 
on  the  whole,  a  hard  one.  He  might  have  a  piece  of  ground  to  till  and 
a  share  in  a  common  pasture  while  the  rich  were  not  so  far  above  him 
as  now ;  but,  what  with  irregular  work,  poor  food,  unhealthy  homes, 
wars,  riot,  famine,  and  pestilence,  he  was  ever  so  much  worse  off  than 
he  would  be  to-day. 

The  Nobles.  —  The  nobility  lived  in  barbarous  state  and  rude 
magnificence  with  huge  bands  of  household  men.  The  Earl  of  War- 
wick, for  example,  had  six  hundred  liveried  servants  in  his  train, 
and  the  flesh  of  six  entire  oxen  was  sometimes  consumed  at  a 
single  meal.  Visitors,  always  welcome,  often  carried  off  meat  from 
the  table.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham,  who  had  rentals  in  seventeen 
counties,  frequently  entertained  more  than  two  hundred  guests  at 

attacked  chiefly  the  wealthier,  well-fed  classes.  It  is  no  longer  heard  of,  at  least 
under  that  name,  after  the  next  reign, 


286  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

breakfast  or  dinner.  When  a  nobleman  passed  through  a  parish, 
bells  were  rung,  caps  were  doffed  in  reverence ;  indeed,  even  in  great 
towns,  burghers  and  journeymen  flocked  to  see  them  as  they  stalked 
or  rode  along  the  streets.  We  hear  of  one  clothed  in  a  scarlet  robe 
twelve  yards  wide  with  sleeves  trimmed  with  costly  fur  hanging  to  the 
ground,  which  were  held  up  by  servants  to  prevent  their  dragging 
through  the  mud  and  filth.  The  leading  nobles  kept  courts  like 
princes,  with  "  great  idle  routs"  to  wait  upon  them,  to  fight  for  them, 
and  to  provide  pastime.  Yet  most  of  them  had  been  living  from  hand 
to  mouth  for  a  long  time  on  the  produce  of  their  estates  and  their 
plunder  from  war.  Their  silks,  satins,  furs,  jewels,  and  plate  repre- 
sented an  immense  but  unproductive  capital.  They  were  often  hard 
put  to  it  for  ready  money,  and  borrowed  in  all  directions.  When 
they  could  not  longer  carry  their  debts,  their  fine  things  were  scattered 
and  sold.  The  Tudors  cut  down  their  retinues  and  excluded  them 
from  their  council,  but  the  advent  of  peace  and  new  conditions  made 
their  decline  inevitable.  Constant  war,  which  no  longer  yielded 
plunder,  had  contributed,  with  their  pageantry,  their  magnificent  dress, 
and  their  enormous  households,  to  cripple  their  resources.  Living 
isolated  on  their  country  estates,  they  rarely  possessed  sufficient 
knowledge  or  training  to  participate  in  public  business.  In  conse- 
quence, with  no  wars  to  occupy  them  any  longer,  they  devoted 
themselves  to  dress,  cards,  and  dice,  and  steadily  declined,  not  only 
in  wealth,  but  in  character  and  physical  vigor.  A  new  age  was 
dawning  in  the  later  fifteenth  century.  Wealth  increased,  though 
in  uneven  distribution ;  while  the  agricultural  laborers  were  badly  off 
and  the  nobility  were  going  to  the  wall,  other  classes  were  rising  — 
the  landed  gentry,  the  commercial,  and  the  industrial. 

The  Middle  Class.  —  The  middle  classes  grew  steadily  better  off, 
and  many  a  yeoman  and  merchant  became  a  landed  gentleman.  A 
new  aristocracy  arose  —  of  energy  and  skill,  of  material  prosperity. 
Possessed  of  lands  and  fine  raiment,  the  new  men  were  hard  to  dis- 
tinguish from  the  old  whom  in  a  measure  they  were  supplanting. 
"  Sometime,  afar  men  might  lords  know  by  their  array  from  other  folk, 
now  a  man  might  stand  or  muse  a  long  throw  which  is  which."  The 
rich  merchant  princes  kept  houses  of  great  magnificence.  William 
Cominges,  who  had  once  entertained  Edward  IV  at  Bristol,  had  tiled 
floors,  bay  windows  of  richly  stained  glass,  embroidered  hangings, 
and  stores  of  plate  and  glass.  There  was,  however,  more  pomp  and 
show  than  real  comfort.  Great  houses  had  rarely  more  than  two 
or  three  beds,  and  bare  benches  and  window  seats  generally  did  duty 
for  chairs.  The  most  significant  fact,  however,  was  what  all  these 
signs  of  wealth  indicated.  As  a  result  of  a  great  industrial  revolution 
a  new  class  was  coming  to  be  a  power  in  politics  and  society. 

Distribution  of  Population  and  Industry.  —  The  total  population  of 
England  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  has  been  estimated  at 
2,500,000,  not  much  over  a  third  of  present-day  London.  The  pro- 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE  TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM     287 

portion  of  urban  to  rural  was  about  one  to  twelve,  although  perhaps  a 
fifth  were  engaged  in  industrial  pursuits.  In  spite  of  a  steady  influx  of 
laborers  to  the  towns,  London  did  not  in  all  likelihood  contain  over 
50,000  inhabitants,  and  there  were  probably  not  ten  communities 
larger  than  a  small  modern  country  town,  with  an  average  population 
of  less  than  10,000.  Bristol  ranked  second  to  the  capital  in  wealth 
and  importance.  Middlesex,  in  which  London  was  situated,  was  the 
richest  county ;  Oxford  was  second,  owing  to  its  productive  pasture 
lands ;  Norfolk,  from  its  manufactures  and  its  trade  with  Flanders, 
ranked  third.  The  poorest  communities  were  in  the  north,  though 
the  west  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  as  a  wool-producing  district,  was  forging 
ahead. 

The  Gilds  and  Their  Decline.  —  England's  chief  industry  was  the 
.raising  of  wool  and  its  manufacture  into  cloth.  Cloth  making  was 
still  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the  gilds,  who,  moreover,  had  come  to 
furnish  their  own  materials,  formerly  provided  by  the  monasteries  and 
landlords  acting  as  capitalists.  With  their  royal  or  municipal  charters 
these  gilds  still  had  a  practical  monopoly  of  trade  and  industry.  Em- 
ployed since  the  time  of  Edward  I  as  agents  in  regulating  the  economic 
activities  of  the  land,  they  had  done  much  to  keep  up  the  standard 
of  work  and  to  prevent  unfair  competition ;  but  various  indications 
show  that  they  were  on  the  decline.  They  became  entangled  in  fre- 
quent and  acute  struggles  with  the  municipal  organizations,  where 
the  two  were  not  identical.  They  were  accused  by  the  journeymen 
of  oppression,  of  extravagance  and  pageantry  and  feasting,  and  they 
stifled  even  healthy  competition.  Henry  VII,  therefore,  sought  to 
check  the  evils  involved  in  the  overgreat  powers  which  they  exer- 
cised. In  1503  an  act  was  passed  preventing  them  from  making  any 
new  laws  or  ordinances  concerning  prices  of  wares  until  they  had  been 
approved  of  by  the  Lord  Chancellor  or  other  royal  officials.  Thus  a 
check  was  imposed  on  the  very  bodies  employed  as  agents  of  the 
Crown.  More  than  this,  the  whole  gild  system  was  on  the  eve  of 
downfall.  Old  medieval  combinations  everywhere  were  giving  place 
to  new  ones;  the  New  Learning  and  the  Reformation  which  fol- 
lowed in  its  train  were  to  dissolve  old  traditions ;  and  the  gild  system 
was  destined  to  go  the  way  of  feudal  survivals,  the  monasteries,  and 
the  universal  Papacy. 

The  Domestic  System.  —  In  the  case  of  the  gilds,  however,  the 
most  particular  cause  for  their  downfall  was  the  fact  that  their  organi- 
zation was  too  narrow  and  exclusive  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  widening 
markets.  So  merchants  began  to  send  wool  to  farmers  and  villagers 
to  be  worked  up  into  cloth.  The  "  domestic  system,"  as  it  was 
called,  began  to  be  employed  in  the  fifteenth  century,  grew  steadily 
through  the  two  following,  and  only  gave  way  to  the  factory  system 
in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth.  The  domestic  system  had  the  two- 
fold advantage  of  more  adequately  supplying  the  growing  demand 
for  cloth,  and  of  opening  a  new  field  of  occupation  for  the  agricultural 


288  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

laborers  and  small  farmers,  suffering  from  the  substitution  of  sheep 
raising  for  tillage. 

Money  Lending  and  Coinage.  —  The  growth  of  English  capital 
was  still  handicapped  by  the  survival  of  the  medieval  notion  that  all 
lending  at  interest  was  usurious  and  wrong.  So  late  as  the  third 
year  of  Henry  VII  an  act  was  passed  which  declared  "  usurious  bar- 
gains "  to  be  null  and  void,  and  provided  that  the  lenders  should  be 
heavily  fined,  and  then  still  further  punished  for  their  soul's  good  by 
the  Church  authorities.  This  reign,  on  the  other  hand,  marks  the 
beginning  of  modern  coinage.  The  shilling,  formerly  a  measure  of 
value,  first  appeared  as  a  real  silver  coin.  The  gold  sovereign,  too, 
dates  from  this  time,  and  the  head  of  the  King  began  to  be  a  genuine 
likeness.  Business,  both  commerical  and  financial,  was,  by  the  close 
of  the  reign  of  Henry  VII,  in  the  hands  of  Englishmen.  Edward  I 
had  expelled  the  Jews,  and  Edward  III  had  ruined  his  Lombard  and 
Tuscan  creditors.  Foreign  trade,  nevertheless,  remained  chiefly 
in  the  hands  of  German,  Flemish,  Spanish,  French,  and  Italian  mer- 
chants all  through  the  Yorkist  period.  Under  Henry  VII,  however, 
native  merchants  largely  superseded  foreigners,  while  even  aliens 
who  had  once  been  welcomed  to  teach  continental  handicrafts  were 
jealously  excluded. 

Trade  and  Commerce.  "  Mercantilism."  —  The  fifteenth-century 
sovereigns  continued  to  regulate  commerce,  though  with  an  object 
quite  different  from  that  of  their  predecessors.  The  new  policy,  while 
it  did  not  originate  with  him,  was  most  effectively  and  extensively 
carried  out  by  Henry  VII.  The  aim  of  Edward  III  had  been,  in 
general,  to  encourage  the  foreigner  in  the  interests  of  the  consumer 
at  the  expense  of  native  producers  and  merchants.  Under  Richard  II 
the  policy  was  initiated  of  building  up  native  trade  and  industry,  of 
developing  English  shipping,  and  of  accumulating  treasure  in  the 
realm  by  excess  of  exports  over  imports.  This  often  meant  higher 
prices  to  the  consumer.  Money,  however,  came  to  be  regarded  as 
the  sole  source  of  wealth,  and  English  control  of  commerce  and  indus- 
try as  a  matter  of  prime  importance.  If  concessions  were  from  time 
to  time  made  to  foreigners,  it  was  only  to  secure  some  reciprocal  advan- 
tage. The  new  policy  —  money  is  wealth,  sejlmore^tha^you^^buy  to 
preserve  a  "  balance  of  trade  "  and  so  bringtreasure  info  the  realm , 
develop  resources  at  the  expense  of  cheapness,  aim  at  power  rather 
than  plenty  —  was  called  "  mercantilism,"  and  resembles  the  modern 
doctrine  of  protection.  -v^w**- 

Measures  to  encourage  English  Shipping,  Richard  II  to  Henry  VIII. 
—  The  Navigation  Act  of  Richard  II  was  followed  by  another  in  1463, 
limited,  however,  to  three  years.  At  the  opening  of  the  reign  of  Henry 
VII  there  was  great  complaint  of  the  decay  of  English  shipping  and 
the  lack  of  employment  of  English  mariners.  In  consequence,  the 
King  took  effective  measures.  He  offered  bounties  for  large  ships,  he 
prohibited  foreigners  exporting  wool  to  the  Netherlands,  and,  in  1489, 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE  TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM     289 

passed  an  act  that  wines  and  woad  from  Gascony  must  be  imported 
in  English  ships,  manned  by  English  sailors.  While  he  enforced  these 
provisions,  they  became  practically  non-operative  under  Henry  VIII 
through  licenses  of  exemption.  Toward  the  close  of  the  reign,  how- 
ever, a  new  Navigation  Act  was  passed  (1540)  for  the  "  maintenance 
of  the  English  shipping." 

Measures  for  protecting  English  Manufactures.  —  As  early  as  the 
reigns  of  Edward  IV  and  Richard  measures  were  taken  for  the  pro- 
tection of  textile  industries  and  of  hardware  goods,  harnesses,  and 
saddlery.  Henry  VII  carried  on  the  same  policy,  and  strove  to  en- 
courage the  manufacture  of  wool  and  to  develop  English  capital  by 
discouraging  the  importation  of  luxuries  and  the  export  of  gold.  His 
Chancellor  Morton  directed  Parliament  to  set  the  people  on  "  works 
and  handicrafts  "  in  order  "  that  the  realm  might  subsist  of  itself  "  and 
so  stop  the  draining  of  "  our  treasure  for  manufactures."  And,  in  the 
nineteenth  year  of  the  reign,  an  act  was  passed  prohibiting  the  import 
of  silks  wrought  in  forms  that  the  English  were  beginning  to  manufac- 
ture. The  English  Merchants  of  the  Staple  still  exported  a  large 
amount  of  raw  wool ;  but  English  artisans  were  not  only  supplying 
most  of  the  home  demand  for  cloth,  but  furnishing  a  large  amount  for 
markets  abroad.  The  cloth  export  was  largely  in  the  hands  of  the 
Merchant  Adventurers,  who,  during  the  sixteenth  century,  gradually 
came  to  supplant  the  Staplers,  as  the  export  of  wool  declined  and  that 
of  cloth  increased. 

The  Intercursus  Magnus,  1496.  —  While  efforts  were  thus  made  to 
encourage  English  shipping  and  manufactures,  commerical  treaties 
were  made  with  various  foreign  countries,  with  France,  Prussia,  Den- 
mark,  Castile,  Portugal,  and  the  Mediterranean  cities.  The  most 
important  of  them  all  was  concluded  with  the  Netherlands  in  1496! 
fBy  the  "  Great  Intercourse  "  the  merchants  of  the  respective  coun- 
tries were  to  have  the  unrestricted  right  of  buying  and  selling  at  rates 
of  duty  which  had  prevailed  when  intercourse  was  freest.  Rights  of 
fishing  were  to  be  free  as  well.  Each  country  was  to  aid  the  other 
against  pirates  and  not  to  harbor  each  other's  rebels.^  Ten  years 
later,  Philip  of  Burgundy,  on  his  way  to  Castile,  was  blown  ashore  on 
the  coast  of  Dorset  by  violent  winds.  He  visited  the  English  King  at 
Windsor,  on  which  occasion  Henry  secured  large  concessions  for  the 
sale  of  English  woolens  in  Philip's  dominions.  On  the  revolt  of  the 
Netherlands  and  the  sack  of  Antwerp,  London  became  the  greatest 
trading  center  in  the  western  world. 

England  and  the  New  World.  The  Cabots.  —  The  capture  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  which  Fesulted  in  the  blocking  of  the 
overland  trade  routes  to  India  and  China,  led  to  the  search  for  an 
ocean  route  to  those  regions,  a  search  which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of 
America,  and,  ultimately,  in  the  supremacy  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
states  over  the  Italian  cities  of  the  Mediterranean.  Among  the 
former,  England  did  not  take  an  assured  position  till  the  reign  of 


29o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Elizabeth,  and  her  supremacy  as  a  World  Power  was  not  established  till 
the  eighteenth  century.  None  of  the  medieval  explorers  were  Eng- 
lishmen. Norsemen,  Spaniards,  Portuguese,  Dutch,  and  French  had 
all  won  distinction  before  England  entered  the  field.  Christopher 
Columbus,  however,  sent  his  brother  Bartholomew  to  lay  his  project 
before  Henry  VII,  but  he  was  captured  by  pirates  and  retarded  by 
other  reverses,  so  that  when  he  at  length  presented  himself  before  the 
King,  although  he  obtained  a  favorable  hearing,  it  was  too  late.  But 
Henry,  5  March,  1495,  issued  a  patent  to  John  Cabot  and  his  three 
sons,  Venetians  residing  in  Bristol,  to  sail  forth  in  search  of  a  north- 
west passage,  and  for  the  discovery  and  annexation  of  heathen  lands. 
In  May,  1497,  they  started  on  their  first  voyage.  Sailing  north  so 
far  that  they  found  "  monstrous  great  lumps  of  ice  swimming  in  the 
sea  and  continual  daylight,"  they  reached  what  was  probably  the  coast 
of  Labrador,  and  brought  home  "  three  islanders  dressed  in  skins," 
whom  they  presented  to  the  King.  They  made  two  or  three  subse- 
quent voyages,  exploring  the  coast  southward,  possibly  as  far  as 
Florida.  In  the  early  years  of  the  sixteenth  century  English  ships 
went  in  increasing  numbers  to  the  fishing  grounds  off  Newfoundland. 
Such  were  the  beginnings  of  England's  share  in  the  discovery  of  the 
north  continent  of  America,  a  continent  which  she  was  afterwards  to 
dominate. 

The  Literature  of  the  Fifteenth  Century.  —  The  transitional  char- 
acter of  the  age  is  manifest  in  the  literature  and  learning.  The  foreign 
wars,  the  domestic  turmoil,  and  the  absorption  of  the  best  minds  in 
material  pursuits  were  unfavorable  to  literary  or  scholarly  productive- 
ness. Chaucer  was  the  model  throughout  the  fifteenth  century ;  not 
only,  however,  were  his  imitators  —  chief  among  them  John  Lydgate 
(1372-1451)  — •  men  of  infinitely  lesser  gifts,  but  they  chose  to  fashion 
their  work  after  his  earlier  French  and  medieval  rather  than  his 
maturer  and  more  distinctively  English  form.  The  "  one  great  oasis  " 
in  this  period  so  dry  and  barren  of  literary  creation  is  J>ir_Thpmas 
_Malory_'s  Morte  d' Arthur,  finished  in  1470.  It  relates  the"  glorious 
and  stirring  adventures  of  King  Arthur  and  his  Knights  of  the  Round 
Table  in  simple  but  mobile  and  graphic  language.  Scholars  value  it 
as  one  of  the  earliest  examples  of  worthy  English  prose,  while  the 
stories  which  it  preserves  have  been  a  source  of  delight  for  those  who 
prize  beautiful  lessons  of  knightly  courtesy  and  daring.  Sir  John 
Fortescue  (1394-1476),  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench,  an  adherent 
of  the  Lancastrians  who  afterwards  made  his  peace  with  Edward  IV, 
wrote  various  works  on  the  constitution  and  laws  of  England.  Sir 
Thomas  Littleton  (1402-1481),  author  of  the  famous  Tenures,  ranks 
among  the  half  dozen  greatest  legal  authorities  that  England  has 
produced. 

Caxton  and  the  Introduction  of  Printing  into  England,  1476.  — The 
English  language  and  literature  are  immeasurably  indebted  to  William 
Caxton,  who,  by  introducing  the  art  of  printing  into  England  in  1476, 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE   TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM     291 

first  brought  books  within  easy  reach  of  the  common  man.  Even  so 
early  as  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  a  primitive  form  of  print- 
ing had  been  in  use.  Letters  were  cut  on  a  block  of  wood,  inked,  and 
stamped  on  paper ;  but  it  was  only  with  the  invention  of  movable 
type  that  the  real  revolution  began.  The  inventor  was  probably 
John  Gutenberg  (1400-1481)  of  Mainz,  who  seems  to  have  printed 
his  first  book  about  the  middle  of  the  century.  Caxton,  who  spent 
many  years  in  Flanders,  learned  the  art  at  Cologne,  practiced  it  at 
Bruges,  and  brought  it  thence  to  his  native  land.  Besides  printing 
proclamations  and  other  works  of  immediate  use  he  busied  himself 
as  an  editor  and  translator.  He  printed  all  the  important  English 
poetry  of  the  preceding  century,  the  works  of  Chaucer,  Gower,  and 
Lydgate,  as  well  as  chronicles  and  tales,  with  some  editorial  care,  and 
rendered  selected  classical  works  into  English.  His  influence  sup- 
plemented Chaucer's,  in  helping  to  make  the  dialect  of  London  the 
literary  language  of  all  England  and  by  reducing  it  to  print  gave  it  not 
only  extent  of  circulation,  but  also  permanence. 

Education.  —  During  the  fifteenth  century  a  number  of  new  col- 
leges were  added  both  at  Oxford  and  at  Cambridge.  From  the  time 
of  the  Black  Death,  however,  to  the  age  of  Henry  VII  the  universi- 
ties were  on  the  decline.  This  has  been  attributed  to  various  reasons  : 
to  the  shrinkage  in  agricultural  profits  by  which  they  were  supported ; 
to  the  fact  that  the  medieval  scholastic  philosophy  was  worn  out ; 
and  that  since  the  failure  of  the  Lollard  movement  there  had  been 
no  other  vivifying  influence;  to  the  papal  custom  of  filling  English 
church  offices  with  Italians,  which  turned  English  students  from 
theology  to  the  more  promising  field  of  law;  and,  finally,  to  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  so  disturbing  to  leisurely,  scholarly  speculation. 
With  restoration  of  peace  and  prosperity,  a  change  came,  the  influence 
of  the  Renascence  began  to  make  itself  felt,  and  before  the  close  of 
the  century  we  find  in  the  so-called  "  Oxford  reformers  "  a  group  of 
famous  scholars  perhaps  unequaled  in  the  history  of  the  University 
before  or  since. 

Death  and  Estimate  of  Henry  VII,  1509. — Henry  VII  died  21 
April,  1509,  at  the  age  of  fifty-two.  Unusually  intelligent  from  his 
boyhood,  he  was  carefully  educated  in  spite  of  the  rough  times  in 
which  he  grew  to  manhood,  while  his  exile  gave  him  a  schooling  of 
another  sort.  He  was  called  "  the  Solomon  of  England,"  and  was 
regarded  as  one  of  the  wisest  princes  of  his  time.  While  strong  and 
graceful  and  handsome,  he  is  described  as  "  reverend  and  like  a 
Churchman  "  in  appearance.  He  called  to  his  councils  plain  able 
men  and  none  of  the  ostentatious,  swaggering  nobility.  Determined 
to  rule  rather  than  to  be  ruled,  he  had  no  court  favorites.  He  kept 
his  hand  on  everything,  sought  information  from  every  quarter,  and 
made  careful  notes  of  all  sorts  of  business,  "  especially  touching  per- 
sons :  as  whom  to  employ,  whom  to  reward,  whom  to  enquire  of,  whom 
to  beware  of,  ...  what  were  the  factions  and  the  like."  He  was 


292  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

pious,  free  from  arrogance,  but  not  over-refined  (according  to  modern 
standards).  If  he  was  unheroic,  calculating,  and  greedy,  he  answered 
the  needs  of  the  age,  he  put  an  end  to  discord,  he  raised  England  to  a 
high  place  in  the  councils  of  Europe,  he  furthered  shipping,  com- 
merce, and  industry,  and  handed  on  to  his  son,  not  only  a  great  treas- 
ure, but  a  rich  heritage  of  popularity  as  well. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  H.  A.  L.  Fisher,  Political  History  of  England,  1485-1547  (1906),  chs. 
I-IV ;  a  scholarly  work,  brilliantly  written.  A.  D.  Innes,  England  under  the  Tudor-: 
(1905)  chs.  I-III.  Cambridge  Modern  History  (1903),  ch.  XIV.  This  cooperative 
work  in  14  vols.  contains  a  number  of  chapters  on  England.  There  are  annotate  1 
bibliographies  in  Fisher,  pp.  484-496,  and  Innes,  pp.  446-456,  and  there  is  in  the 
Cambridge  Modern  History  a  list  of  authorities  without  comments,  pp.  770-772. 

Legal  and  constitutional.  Maitland,  English  Constitutional  History,  period  II. 
Taylor,  II,  bk.  IV,  ch.  II.  Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  X.  Maitland,  English  Law  and 
the  Renaissance  (1901).  Henry  Hallam,  English  Constitutional  History  (3  vols., 
1855),  I,  ch.  I;  dry  and  to  some  degree  out  of  date,  but  still  indispensable  for  the 
period  from  1485  to  1760. 

Biography.  Francis  Bacon,  History  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  VII  (1621,  in  Spedding 
and  Ellis'  edition  of  Bacon's  works,  vol.  VI,  1861).  James  Gairdner,  Henry  VII 
(1889) ;  a  good  brief  account. 

Conditions,  social,  industrial,  and  intellectual.  Traill,  Social  England,  II,  chs.  VII, 
VIII.  W.  Denton,  Life  in  the  Fifteenth  Century  (1888).  Alice  S.  Green,  Town  Life 
in  the  Fifteenth  Century  (2  vols.,  1894).  A.  Abram,  English  Life  and  Manners  in  the 
Middle  Ages  (1913).  Fisher,  ch.  VI,  "The  Dawn  of  the  English  Renaissance  "; 
Innes,  ch.  IV.  Vickers,  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  chs.  IX,  X,  "The  Italian 
Renaissance  in  England"  and  "The  Revolution  in  English  Scholarship."  Creigh- 
ton,  "The  Early  Renaissance  in  England,"  in  Historical  Lectures,  pp.  188-212. 
F.  A.  Gasquet,  The  Eve  of  the  Reformation  in  England  (1899)  from  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic standpoint.  Stubbs,  Lectures  on  Medieval  and  Modern  History;  two  scholarly 
and  brilliant  lectures,  XV,  XVI,  on  "The  Reign  of  Henry  VII."  F.  Seebohm, 
The  Oxford  Reformers  (1877).  Cunningham,  English  Industry  and  Commerce,  I,  bk. 
V.  Prothero,  English  Farming,  ch.  III. 

The  Church.    Wakeman,  chs.  VIII,  IX,  X ;    Capes,  chs.  XI-XVII. 

Selections  from  the  sources.    Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  134-140. 

THE  HOUSE  OF  TUDOR 


HENRY  VII,  1485-1509  = 
great-great-grandson 
of  John  of  Gaunt,  by 
his  mother,  Margaret 
Beaufort 

Elizabeth  of  York, 
daughter  of 
Edward  IV 

Arthur, 
d.  1502 

HENRY  VIII,               Margaret, 
1509-1547                m.  James  IV 
of  Scotland 

Mary  =  (i)  Louis  XII  of  France, 
d.  1515 
(2)  Charles  Brandon, 
Duke  of  Suffolk 

1 
MARY, 
IS53-IS58 

1 
ELIZABETH,              EDWARD  VI, 
1558-1603                 I547-IS53 

THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE   TUDOR  ABSOLUTISM     293 


KINGS  OF  SCOTLAND,  1370-1603 
ROBERT  II,  1370-1390 

! 

ROBERT  III,  1390-1406  Robert,  Duke  of  Albany, 

|  d.  1420 

JAMES  I  =  Jane  Beaufort 
1406-1437 

JAMES  II,  1437-1460 
JAMES  III,  1460-1488 

(i)  JAMES  IV  =  Margaret  Tudor  =  Earl  of  Angus 
1488-1513   I 


JAMES  V, 
1513-1542 

MARY,  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS  = 
1542-1567 

JAMES  VI 
and  I  oi 
1567 

Margaret  =  E, 
1 

irl  of  Lenox 

=  Lord  Darnley, 
murdered  1567 

of  Scotland 
England 
-1625 

Charles, 
Earl  of  Lenox 

Arabella  Stuart 

CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  (1509-1529)  AND  THE  EVE  OF 
THE    SEPARATION    FROM    ROME 

The  Beginning  of  a  New  Reign,  1509.  —  Henry,  eighth  of  the  name, 
became  King  of  England,  22  April,  1509.  The  new  reign  began  with 
the  happiest  prospects.  Crabbed  age  had  made  way  to  youthful 
ardor  and  enthusiasm ;  for  the  new  ruler  was  barely  eighteen.  Enter- 
ing into  the  reward  of  his  father's  labors,  he  found  a  full  treasury,  a 
secure  title,  and  a  body  of  subjects  attached  to  the  Crown  from  self- 
interest,  and  he  enjoyed  as  well  a  personal  popularity,  based  on  ad- 
miration and  affection.  He  soon  exhausted  the  treasure  which  he 
inherited ;  but  without  an  independent  revenue,  without  a  standing 
army,  and  without  openly  violating  constitutional  forms,  he  was  able 
to  work  his  will,  to  wrench  the  Church  of  England  free  from  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Pope,  to  set  himself  up  as  ecclesiastical  head,  and  to 
end  his  days  as  an  absolute  king.  But  many  years  were  to  elapse 
before  Henry's  subjects  were  to  realize  what  a  masterful  man  he  was. 
At  first  he  appeared  to  be  only  a  big,  athletic,  pleasure-seeking  boy, 
intent  on  softening  the  rigors  of  his  father's  government.  Thus,  he 
issued  a  general  pardon,  excepting  only  a  few;  he  released  many 
Crown  debtors ;  and  he  had  Empson  and  Dudley  imprisoned  and 
beheaded.  In  the  case  of  the  two  latter,  however,  he  disclosed  a 
foretaste  of  his  future  methods.  They  were  disposed  of  on  a  charge 
of  treason,  an  offense  of  which,  in  spite  of  their  manifold  oppression, 
they  were  innocent. 

The  Personal  Qualities  of  the  New  King.  —  The  young  Henry 
was  described  as  the  handsomest  prince  in  Europe,  and  was  vain  of 
his  looks  too.  He  was  tall,  strong,  and  well-proportioned ;  his  eyes 
were  gray,  his  hair  and  beard  auburn,  and  his  complexion  fair  and 
ruddy.  Altogether,  in  his  youth  he  was  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
huge,  bloated  figure  of  mature  manhood.  He  excelled  in  strength 
and  skill  in  the  use  of  the  long  bow,  in  wrestling,  in  tennis,  and  in 
tilting,  and  in  hunting  he  could  tire  eight  or  ten  horses  in  a  day. 
Like  most  of  his  line  he  was  both  accomplished  and  learned.  Not 
only  did  he  keep  a  band  of  musicians  constantly  about  the  court,  but 
he  performed  excellently  himself  on  the  organ,  the  lute,  and  the 
harpsichord,  and  even  tried  his  hand  as  a  composer.  His  anthem, 
"  0  Lord,  the  maker  of  all  thyng,"  is  still  rendered  in  English  churches. 

294 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  295 

He  spoke  Latin,  French,  and  Spanish,  and  understood  Italian,  and, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  his  tutor,  had  a  "  remarkable  docility 
for  mathematics."     Theology,  too,  was  a  subject  to  which  he  gave 
much  attention.     In  1521,  he  published  a  book  against  Luther,  The 
Defense  of  the  Seven  Sacraments.     It  was  this  work  that  earned  for 
English  sovereigns  the  title  "  Defender  of  the  Faith,"  a  title  which 
they  still  bear.     Others  may  have  had  a  hand  in  the  Defense  and  in 
his  other  compositions ;   but  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  thought  for 
himself  and  expressed  his  ideas  with  terseness  and  vigor.     After  mak- 
ing all  discounts  for  inevitable  exaggeration  in  the  contemporary 
accounts  of  his  beauty  and  talents,  the  admiration  and  hope  which  he 
inspired  in  Englishmen  and  foreigners  alike  must  rest  on  some  founda- 
tion.    "  Love  for  the  King,"  wrote  the  Venetian  ambassador  in  the 
early  years  of  the  reign,  "  is  universal  with  all  who  see  him,  for  his 
Highness  does  not  seem  a  person  of  this  world,  but  one  descended  from 
heaven."     The  heavens  might  "  laugh,"  the  "  earth  exult,"  and  all 
things  be  full  of  mirth  at  his  coming,  yet  more  and  more  the  mailed 
fist  was  to  appear  from  under  the  velvet  glove.     In  1513  he  caused 
the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  an  enemy  of  the  Tudor  house,  to  be  executed,  and, 
in  1521,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  a  possible  claimant  to  the  throne. 
But  these  are  scattered  instances  of  later  ruthlessness.     "  If  a  lion 
knew  his  own  strength,"  said  More,  destined  to  be  a  victim  of  royal 
policy,  "  hard  were  it  for  any  man  to  hold  him."     Until  his  passions 
and  his  political  ambitions  called  forth  that  strength,  Henry  occupied 
himself  mainly  with  masks  and  revels,  fine  clothes,  dancing  and 
music,  hunting  and  birding,  and  the  excitement  of  war  and  diplomacy. 
Foreign  Affairs.     Henry  enters  the  Holy  Alliance,  1511.  —  The  cool 
and  cautious  policy  of  Henry  VII  had  only  just  begun  to  recover  for 
England  the  foreign  prestige  which  she  had  lost  amid  the  disasters 
that  followed  the  death  of  Henry  V.     At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII  the  leading  continental  sovereigns  were  all  men  of  years 
and  experience.     Ferdinand,  King  of  Aragon,  Regent  of  Castile,  and 
King  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  was  fifty-seven ;   Maximilian,  Emperor  of 
the  Germans  (1493-1519)  was  fifty ;  Louis  XII,  King  of  France  (1498- 
1515)  was  forty-seven;   and  the  warlike  Pope  Julius  II  (1503-1513) 
was  sixty-six.     Henry  made  his  appearance  in  European  politics  by 
joining,  in  1511,  the  Holy  Alliance  formed  by  Julius  for  the  purpose  of 
expelling  the  French  King  from  Italy,  where  he  had  obtained  a  danger- 
ous ascendancy.     Ferdinand,  the  astutest l  of  the  papal  allies,  deter- 
mined to  use  the  high-spirited  and  ambitious  Henry  for  his  own  de- 
signs.    So,  when  in  May,  1512,  an  English  force  was  sent  under  the 
Marquis  of  Dorset  to  cooperate  with  a  Spanish  force  in  an  attack  on 
Guyenne,  he  sent  no  contingents,  but  instead  profited  by  the  diversion 
against  the  French  to  conquer  the  little  kingdom  of  Navarre,  which 
he  had  long  coveted.     Thus  deserted,   Dorset's  expedition,  badly 

1  Once  accused  of  cheating  a  brother  sovereign  twice,  he  cried,  "He  lies !  f  I 
cheated  him  three  times." 


296  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

equipped  at  best,  returned  home  in  August,  having  accomplished 
nothing.  This  dismal  failure  was  partially  counterbalanced  by  the 
gallant  and  brilliant  work  of  the  English  fleet  under  Lord  Admiral 
Howard,  who,  however,  lost  his  life,  the  following  spring,  in  a  foolhardy 
attack  on  Brest. 

Henry's  Successes  in  Flanders.  Defeat  of  the  Scots  at  Flodden, 
1513.  —  Henry,  anxious  to  restore  the  English  prestige  by  a  memo- 
rable victory,  led  in  person  a  large  army  across  to  Calais  in  1513.  Pro- 
ceeding with  all  the  pomp  and  magnificence  of  a  royal  progress,  he 
overcame  the  French  forces,  16  August,  at  Guinegate  in  an  engage- 
ment known  as  the  "  Battle  of  the  Spurs  "  from  the  panic  of  the 
enemies'  horsemen.  He  followed  up  his  victory  by  the  capture  of 
two  fortified  towns,  Therouanne  and  Tournay.  Before  the  fall  of 
the  latter  the  English  at  home  had  won  a  great  victory  on  the  north. 
In  spite  of  the  marriage  between  James  IV  and  Margaret,  the  Scotch 
had  clung  to  the  French  alliance.  Moreover,  Margaret  was  at  odds 
with  her  brother  over  some  jewels  which  she  claimed  for  her  dowry, 
while  border  forays,  together  with  the  summary  chastisement  of  some 
Scotch  pirates,  fomented  the  ill-feeling.  So,  taking  advantage  of 
Henry's  absence,  the  Scotch  King  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  Louis  XII 
and  led  an  army  across  the  border  in  August.  Queen  Catharine 
promptly  hurried  levies  to  the  threatened  district  and  placed  the 
Earl  of  Surrey,  a  veteran  of  nearly  seventy,  in  command.  On  9  Sep- 
tember, 1513,  he  overcame  the  invaders  at  Flodden,  the  last  great 
border  battle  in  English  history.  James  fell,  "  riddled  with  arrows 
and  gashed  with  bows  and  bills."  The  Scottish  nobility  and  gentry 
who  perished  are  commemorated  in  the  beautiful  song,  "  The  Flowers 
of  the  Forest." 

Henry  turns  from  Ferdinand  to  France.  —  Before  his  return  in 
October,  1513,  Henry  concluded  a  treaty  with  Ferdinand  and  Maxi- 
milian for  a  joint  invasion  of  France  the  following  year.  Yet  all  the 
while  they  were  busy  making  their  own  terms  with  their  professed 
enemy  Louis.  When  Henry  discovered  the  treachery  of  his  allies, 
he  declared  that  he  saw  no  faith  in  the  world,  and,  in  August,  1514, 
made  a  treaty  of  his  own  with  France,  an  alliance  which  he  confirmed 
two  months  later  by  marrying  his  young  and  beautiful  sister  to  the 
elderly  and  gouty  Louis.  The  French  King,  however,  died  the  fol- 
lowing January,  whereupon  Mary  secretly  married  Charles  Brandon, 
the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  who  was  sent  to  bring  her  home.  It  was  a  love 
match  on  both  sides ;  for  Suffolk  was  a  vigorous  and  valiant  knight. 
Henry,  angry  for  the  moment,  forgave  them  in  the  end,  and  later 
devised  the  throne,  in  case  of  the  death  of  his  own  children  without 
issue,  to  the  heirs  of  his  favorite  sister. 

The  Rise  of  Thomas  Wolsey  (1475 7-1530). — The  triumph  of 
Henry's  arms  and  diplomacy  at  this  time  was  due  chiefly  to  one  re- 
markable man,  Thomas  Wolsey,  who  was  destined  for  over  a  decade 
to  shape  England's  policy  abroad,  and  to  be  the  leading  figure  in 


THE  FIRST  YEARS   OF  HENRY  VIII  297 

Church  and  State  at  home.  The  son  of  a  wool  merchant  or  grazier  l 
of  Ipswich,  he  was  educated  for  the  Church.  In  1506  he  entered  the 
royal  service  in  which  his  extraordinary  talents  and  industry  brought 
him  rapidly  to  the  front.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Council  in  1511, 
and  to  him  fell  the  work  of  organizing  and  equipping  the  expeditions 
of  1512-1513 ;  likewise,  it  was  he  who  negotiated  the  peace  and  the 
French  marriage  of  1 5 14.  All  sorts  of  offices  and  honors  were  showered 
upon  him.  In  1514  he  was  made  Archbishop  of  York,  in  1515  Car- 
dinal and  Lord  Chancellor,  and  in  1518  papal  legate  a  later e.  But 
these  were  only  the  most  important  of  the  many  positions,  ecclesias- 
tical and  secular,  which  he  held.  His  income  was  enormous  and  came 
from  manifold  sources ;  he  received,  for  example,  revenues  from 
France,  Spain,  and  the  Emperor,  all  of  whom  sought  his  favor.j  He 
built  Hampton  Court  Palace  and  York  House ;  he  founded  Cardinal's 
College  (later  Christ  Church)  at  Oxford,  and  projected  a  grammar 
school  for  boys  at  Ipswich.  ) 

His  Pomp  and  Dominating  Influence.  —  He  was  described  as  the 
"  proudest  prelate  that  ever  breathed,"  and  he  lived  in  magnificent 
state.  He  had  a  household  of  five  hundred  men,  including  noble- 
men, gentlemen,  "  singing  men,"  clerks,  and  grooms.  His  servants 
were  attired  in  rich  crimson  livery.  It  was  necessary  to  pass  through 
eight  rooms,  all  hung  with  gorgeous  tapestries,  to  reach  his  audience 
chamber.  He  kept  a  bountiful  table  for  rich  and  poor  alike  and 
dispensed  charity  at  his  gates.  Great  noblemen  waited  on  him  at 
royal  feasts,  and  on  great  occasions  when  he  said  mass  brought  water 
to  wash  his  hands.  When  he  walked  out,  two  crosses  of  silver  were 
borne  before  him  by  two  of  the  "  tallest  and  comeliest  priests  in  the 
realm."  During  the  period  of  his  ascendancy  only  one  Parliament 
was  held,  and  Henry  gave  him  a  free  hand  in  all  matters  domestic 
and  foreign.  He  was  regarded  as  king  by  the  ambassadors  of  the  time, 
carrying  himself  so  high  that  they  preferred  to  neglect  Henry  rather 
than  the  Cardinal,  lest  he  should  resent  the  precedence  accorded  to 
his  sovereign.  He  was  certainly  "  lofty  and  sour  to  them  that  loved 
him  not."  Once,  at  least,  he  laid  violent  hands  on  a  papal  nuncio ; 
at  another  time  he  confined  the  Imperial  ambassador  to  his  house 
and  intercepted  all  his  correspondence,  while,  besides,  he  used  the 
power  of  the  State  against  his  own  countrymen  who  aroused  his 
jealousy.  One  can  readily  understand  that  he  was  "  feared  by  all, 
loved  by  few  or  by  none  at  all."  Although  he. did  somewhat  reform 
the  Church  by  suppressing  a  few  of  the  smaller  monasteries,  his  aim 
was  primarily  to  get  money  for  his  educational  foundations.  Indeed, 
his  own  life  was  quite  the  opposite  of  that  of  a  truly  spiritual  pastor. 
He  was  lax  in  visiting  his  dioceses,  though  he  once  applied  for  a  general 
legatine  power  for  that  purpose ;  he  did  not  preach ;  he  rarely  said 
mass ;  and  he  was  a  pluralist  to  an  extent  unusual  even  for  those 

1  Not  of  a  butcher,  as  was  once  believed. 


298  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

times.  He  was  interested  in  the  New  Learning  which  was  making 
its  way  into  England ;  but  his  engrossing  occupations  prevented  him 
from  taking  a  very  active  part  in  its  promotion.  If  he  was  mild  in 
his  treatment  of  those  who  opposed  the  teachings  of  the  ancient 
Church,  his  attitude  was  due  to  contempt  and  indifference  rather  than 
to  any  deeply  grounded  principles  of  toleration.  Yet  he  had  great 
and  preeminent  qualities.  He  was  thoroughly  devoted  to  his  master's 
interests,  he  was  just,  except  where  his  personal  enemies  were  con- 
cerned, and  a  good  friend  to  the  poor,  among  whom  he  enjoyed  a 
repute  "  seven  times  more  than  if  he  were  Pope."  His  learning  and 
abilities  were  vast  and  his  industry  prodigious.  As  an  administrator 
he  was  most  effective,  and  as  a  diplomat  he  played  a  leading  role. 
His  ambition  was  to  be  the  arbitrator  of  Christendom.  But  his  suc- 
cess in  this  field  can  best  be  estimated  after  a  survey  of  the  events  in 
which  he  was  concerned. 

Wolsey's  Treaty  of  Universal  Peace,  1518.  — Louis  XII  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Francis  I,  a  brilliant  and  ambitious,  but  dissipated  and  un- 
scrupulous young  man  of  twenty.  Having  an  hereditary  claim  on 
Milan,  he  was  bent  on  the  conquest  of  northern  Italy,  and,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1515,  he  gained  a  decisive  victory  at  Marignano.,  This  vic- 
tory aroused  the  jealousy  of  the  .English,  who  likewise  resented  French 
aid  to  the  anti-English  party  in  Scotland.  Without  breaking  openly 
with  France",  Wolsey  sent  subsidies  to  the  Emperor  to  pay  Swiss 
mercenaries  in  checking  Francis.  But  Maximilian  failed  to  accom- 
plish anything,  while  the  English  designs  were  revealed.  Suddenly, 
23  January,  1516,  the  veteran  intriguer  Ferdinand  died,  and  the  crown 
of  Spain  passed  to  his  grandson  Charles,  ruler  of  the  Netherlands 
and  prospective  heir  to  the  Hapsburg  dominions.  Since  France  lay 
between  the  Netherlands  and  Spain,  Charles  found  it  necessary  to 
court  her  alliance  until  he  secured  his  power  and  developed  his  re- 
sources .  But,  in  1 5 1 8,  Wolsey  succeeded  in  including  England,  France, 
Spain,  the  Empire,  and  the  Papacy  in  a  treaty  of  universal  peace. 
The  contracting  powers  agreed  to  undertake  a  crusade  against  the 
Turkish  Sultan  Selim  I,  who  had  annexed  Syria,  Palestine,  and  Egypt ; 
the  English  restored  Tournay  in  return  for  a  large  sum ;  and  the 
French  consented  to  detain  Albany,  who  had  been  declared  Regent  and 
heir  to  the  throne  of  Scotland  by  the  party  opposed  to  Margaret. 
The  treaty  seemed  a  great  triumph,  and  London,  where  it  was  con- 
cluded, was  regarded  for  the  moment  as  the  center  of  European 
diplomacy.  The  permanent  result  on  the  balance  of  power,  however, 
was  almost  nothing.  No  crusade  was  undertaken,  Albany  was 
destined  to  cause  trouble  in  Scotland  for  years  to  come,  while 
an  event  soon  occurred  which  set  the  three  great  Powers  by  the 
cars. 

The  Struggle  for  the  Imperial  Crown.  The  Election  of  Charles, 
1519.  —  On  19  January,  1519,  the  gay,  needy,  and  erratic  old  adven- 
turer, Emperor  Maximilian,  died.  Francis  set  himself  up  as  a  can- 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  299 

didate  and  showered  gold  upon  the  electors.  Henry,  too,  made  his 
bid.  The  prize,  however,  went  to  Charles  of  Spain,  who  was  elected, 
28  June,  1519.  Henry,  who  as  a  mere  boy  had  been  drawn  into  the 
whirl  of  European  politics  to  match  his  wits  and  strength  against 
veterans,  was  now,  at  twenty-eight,  the  Nestor  of  the  three  monarchs 
who  had  in  their  hands  the  destinies  of  European  Christendom. 
The  Emperor-elect  was  a  youth  of  nineteen,  cold,  reserved,  sickly, 
at  once  irresolute  and  obstinate,  the  champion  of  the  Church.  The 
vast  dominions  which  he  ruled  and  his  claim  to  his  recently  acquired 
office,  long  a  perquisite  of  the  Hapsburgs,  had  come  to  him  through 
a  succession  of  notable  marriages.  In  1477  his  grandfather  Maxi- 
milian, then  heir  to  the  Austrian  possessions,  had  married  Mary, 
daughter  of  Charles  the  Bold,  from  whom  she  inherited  the  Nether- 
lands and  a  claim  on  Burgundy.  Philip  the  Fair,  son  of  Maximilian 
and  Mary,  married  the  mad  Joanna  of  Castile,  heiress  to  the  Spanish 
lands  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  and  to  claims  on  Naples  and  Sicily. 
Charles  was  born  of  the  marriage  of  Philip  and  Joanna.  In  addition 
to  his  great  inheritance  his  recent  election  placed  him  at  the  head  of 
the  mass  of  states  which  made  up  the  German  Empire,  and  gave  him 
a  claim  on  Milan  as  a  fief  of  that  Empire. 

The  Rivalry  of  Charles  and  Francis.  —  The  kingdom  of  Francis, 
if  smaller,  was  more  compact,  while  the  German  portion  of  Charles' 
Empire  was  greatly  weakened  by  the  opposition  of  such  leading  states 
as  Saxony,  Brandenburg,  and  Hesse,  who  took  the  side  of  the  great 
Protestant  reformer,  Martin  Luther,  partly  on  religious  grounds, 
partly  because  they  wished  to  make  themselves  independent  of  Im- 
perial as  well  as  papal  control.  For  over  a  quarter  of  a  century  Charles 
V  and  Francis  I  struggled  for  the  balance  of  power  in  western  Europe. 
At  first,  various  reasons  inclined  England  to  support  the  Emperor. 
As  ruler  of  the  Netherlands  he  controlled  the.  chief  market  for  Eng- 
lish wool ;  then  he  was  the  nephew  of  Catharine,  consort  of  Henry  VIII, 
who  retained  for  some  years  an  influence  over  her  husband,  and,  finally, 
because  Charles  had  a  voice  in  swaying  papal  elections.  Wolsey  was 
anxious  to  be  Pope,  possibly  as  a  means  of  reforming  the  existing  Church 
system,  but  more  especially  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  himself  and 
his  master  in  foreign  affairs. 

Henry  and  Wolsey  ally  with  the  Emperor,  1520.  — The  universal 
peace  sworn  at  London  was  still  nominally  in  force,  and  Francis  was 
anxious  to  cement  it,  so  far  as  England  and  France  were  concerned, 
by  a  personal  interview  with  Henry.  The  two  Kings  met,  7  June, 
1520,  in  a  valley  between  Guisnes  and  Ardres,  not  far  from  Calais,  the 
celebrated  Field  of  Cloth  of  Gold.  It  was  a  final  outburst  of  medieval 
splendor.  "The  buildings7~lEe  costumes,  and  everything  connected 
with  the  meeting  were  superb.  For  nearly  three  weeks  the  two  mon- 
archs and  their  wives  held  interviews,  feasts,  jousts,  and  attended 
solemn  masses.  But  no  substantial  result  followed.  Late  in  May, 
before  crossing  the  Channel,  Henry  had  received  a  visit  from  Charles  V 


300  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

on  his  way  from  Spain  to  Flanders,  and  at  Canterbury  the  two  sover- 
eigns arranged  a  treaty  of  alliance  which  was  concluded  in  later  inter- 
views at  Gravelines  and  Calais,  after  the  magnificent  fooling  at  the 
Field  of  Cloth  of  Gold  was  over.  When  the  inevitable  war  broke  out 
between  Francis  and  Charles,  England  was  on  the  side  of  the  Emperor. 
Wolsey's  idea  was  to  crush  France,  but  did  he  not  foresee  that  an  all- 
powerful  Emperor  would  be  as  dangerous  to  the  balance  of  power  as 
an  all-powerful  King  of  France  ?  The  events  of  the  next  years  were 
to  show. 

Just  a  week  after  England  had  bound  herself  to  the  Imperial  cause, 
Leo  X  died,  December,  1521.  In  spite  of  promises  which  the  Emperor 
had  made  at  Canterbury,  the  Cardinals  chose,  not  Wolsey,  but  Charles' 
old  tutor,  Adrian  of  Utrecht,  "  a  homely  Flemish  monk,"  well-meaning, 
but  frail  in  health,  narrow-minded,  and  wholly  unfit  for  the  position. 
Even  after  this  Charles  visited  Henry  again  in  June,  1522,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  visit  Surrey,  the  eldest  son  of  the  victor  at  Flodden, 
was  sent  to  ravage  the  French  coast.  The  only  result  was  a  further 
drain  on  English  men  and  money  and  increased  loss  and  suffering  for 
the  French  peasantry. 

The  Parliament  of  1523.  —  Need  of  supply  forced  Henry  for  the 
first  time  in  eight  years  to  call  a  Parliament.  It  met  15  April  with 
Sir  Thomas  More  as  Speaker.  Wolsey  appeared  and  demanded  sub- 
sidies amounting  to  £800,000  to  be  levied  by  an  assessment  of  45.  in 
the  pound  on  every  man's  land  and  goods.  The  demand  was  stoutly 
resisted.  Wolsey  determined  to  visit  them  again  and  to  harangue 
them  on  their  duties.  After  some  discussion,  More  recommended 
that  he  be  admitted  "  in  all  his  pomp,  with  his  maces,  his  pillars,  his 
poleaxes,  his  crosses,  his  hat,  and  his  great  seal  too."  The  members, 
however,  refused  to  debate  in  his  presence.  Upon  the  Cardinal's 
remonstrating,  the  Speaker,  on  his  knees,  explained  that  it  was  against 
the  custom  of  the  House  to  debate  before  strangers,  and  Wolsey  had 
to  leave  in  confusion.  At  length  about  half  of  the  sum  asked  for  was 
voted.  With  this  partial  grant  supplemented  by  a  tax  from  the 
clergy,  Henry  and  Wolsey  undertook  to  carry  out  a  scheme  arranged 
with  the  Emperor  and  the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  Constable  of  France,  for 
the  dismemberment  of  the  kingdom  of  Francis.  Charles  was  to  re- 
cover Burgundy,  Henry  the  title  of  King  of  France  and  the  old  Eng- 
lish possessions  across  the  Channel,  while  Bourbon  was  to  be  rewarded 
with  certain  of  the  southern  provinces.  An  English  expedition  was 
sent  out  under  the  Duke  of  Suffolk  in  the  late  summer  of  1523,  but  it 
failed  to  accomplish  anything,  because  the  Emperor,  opposing  Henry's 
plan  of  campaign,  failed  to  furnish  the  requisite  support.  Moreover, 
when  the  death  of  Adrian  yi,  14  September,  left  the  Papacy  vacant, 
Charles  again  played  "Wolsey"  false  by  throwing  the  weight  of  his  in- 
fluence to  secure  the  election  of  Giulio  de  Medici,  cousin  of  the  late 
Leo  X,  a  reserved,  irresolute  man  whom  he  thought  would  do  his 
bidding. 


THE   FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  301 

The  Emperor  Triumphant.  The  "  Amicable  Loan,"  1525.  —  The 
new  Pope,  however,  who  took  the  name  of  Clement  VII,  formed  a 
league  with  Francis  I,  with  Venice  and  other  Italian  states,  to  drive 
the  Emperor,  who  had  recently  recovered  Milan,  out  of  northern 
Italy.  It  was  always  the  papal  policy  to  combine  against  the  domi- 
nant- power  in  the  peninsula.  The  Imperial  army  was  too  strong  for 
him;  24  February,  1525,  they  defeated  the  French  while  they  were 
besieging  Pavia,  and  took  Francis  prisoner.  In  spite  of  recent  re- 
buffs, Henry  at  once  prepared  to  join  the  Emperor  in  dismembering 
the  realms  of  the  vanquished.  In  order  to  supply  the  necessary  funds, 
Wolsey  devised  a  loan  of  a  sixth  from  lay  and  a  fourth  from  ecclesias- 
tical property.  The  "  amicable  loan,"  as  it  was  called,  was  in  reality 
a  tax ;  for  it  was  assessed  by  royal  commissioners,  and  men  were  to 
be  forced  to  pay.  Resistance  was  stubborn  and  widespread.  "  There 
was  sore  grudging  and  murmuring  among  the  people  "  of  Kent,  where 
one  squire  declared,  "  if  people  should  give  their  goods  by  a  commis- 
sion, then  it  would  be  worse  than  the  taxes  of  France,  and  England 
should  be  bond,  not  free."  In  the  eastern  counties  opposition  was 
even  more  bitter.  The  weavers  of  Suffolk  rose  in  arms,  and  when 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk  asked  who  was  their  captain,  one  elderly  man 
replied :  "  Forsooth  his  name  is  Poverty,  for  he  and  his  cousin  Neces- 
sity have  brought  us  to  this  doing."  On  promising  submission  and 
asking  for  mercy  they  were  pardoned.  In  London,  where  a  benevo- 
lence was  demanded  in  place  of  the  loan,  the  Lord  Mayor  declared  that 
it  would  cost  him  his  life  if  he  agreed  to  such  a  grant.  In  the  face  of 
such  manifestations  from  his  subjects,  Henry,  with  true  Tudor  in- 
sight, gave  way.  Wolsev  who  had  only  acted  by  his  master's  com- 


mand, bore  the  brunt  of  tne  unpopularity. 

England  withdraws  from  the  European  War,  1525.  The  Preparation 
for  the  Separation  from  Rome.  —  In  August  a  truce  was  arranged 
with  France,  and  it  was  nearly  twenty  years  before  another  English 
army  crossed  the  Channel.  This  change  of  policy  was  due  partly 
to  failure  to  obtain  supplies,  partly  to  prevent  the  now  triumphant 
Emperor  from  "  climbing  any  higher."  He  had  taken  the  French 
King  prisoner  to  Madrid,  and  by  a  treaty,  concluded  14  January,  1526, 
agreed  to  release  him  only  on  condition  that  Francis  surrender  Bur- 
gundy and  withdraw  from  Italy.  Encouraged  by  the  attitude  of 
England,  Francis,  once  he  was  free,  repudiated  the  treaty  of  Madrid 
on  the  ground  that  its  terms  had  been  extorted  from  him  by  com- 
pulsion. Clement  VII  then  formed  with  him  and  various  of  the 
Italian  states  a  new  Holy  League,  22  May,  1526.  Charles'  response 
was  to  send,  May,  1527,  an  Imperial  army  under  Bourbon  into  Italy, 
which  seized  and  sacked  Rome  and  besieged  the  Pope  in  the  Castle  of 
St.  Angelo.  These  events  were  to  exert  a  profound  influence  on  the 
course  of  English  history ;  for  Henry  was  just  on  the  point  of  seeking 
papal  aid  in  obtaining  a  divorce  from  Catharine  of  Aragon.  Since 
she  was  aunt  of  Charles  V,  the  timid  and  shifty  Clement  VII,  even 


302  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

had  he  wished,  was  in  no  position  to  grant  the  request  of  the  English 
King  while  he  was  cooped  up  a  prisoner  by  an  Imperial  army.  The 
result  was  that  Henry,  after  futile  efforts  to  gain  his  point  by  negotia- 
tion, threw  off  the  papal  authority  and  made  himself  head  of  the 
English  Church.  Yet,  while  his  motives  were  personal  and  political, 
he  would  have  been  unable  to  accomplish  his  purpose  if  he  had  not 
found  himself  in  a  peculiarly  strong  position,  and  if  the  nation  had 
not  been  in  a  measure  prepared  for  the  change.  He  was  strong  in 
the  weakness  of  barons  and  the  Church,  and  in  the  support  of  the 
middle  class  who  dominated  the  Commons,  and  whose  material  in- 
terests were  dependent  on  royal  favor.  Moreover,  many  forces  were 
working  against  the  old  ecclesiastical  order.  For  one  thing,  a  new 
intellectual  spirit  was  making  its  way  into  the  country,  bound  in  the 
long  run  to  shake  the  basis  of  an  authoritative  tradition.  Also,  there 
was  much  in  the  existing  Church  system  open  to  attack:  its  vast 
possessions,  its  burdensome  taxation,  and  the  extensive  jurisdiction 
which  it  exercised.  While  the  mass  of  the  common  people  were  still 
under  the  authority  of  their  priests,  and  had  shown  no  open  hostility 
to  ancient  beliefs  and  practices,  the  Lollard  tradition  had  not  wholly 
died  out,  and  their  social  and  industrial  condition  filled  them  with  a 
real  if  vague  discontent.  So  they  were  ready,  as  they  had  been  for  a 
century  or  two,  to  welcome  any  change  that  promised  relief. 

The  New  Learning,  or  Renascence.  —  Already  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VII  the  effects  of  that  wonderful  intellectual  and  spiritual  movement 
known  as  the  "  Renascence  "  had  penetrated  into  England.  The 
word  means  literally  "  re-birth,"  anois  applied  to  the  revival  of 
classical  learning  which  began  in  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  century  and 
reached  its  height  in  the  sixteenth.  All  through  the  Middle  Ages 
clerks  had  studied  certain  Latin  authors  1  simply  as  a  means  of  train- 
ing in  language  and  methods  of  argumentation,  not  for  any  human  or 
literary  interest.  The  men  of  the  Renascence  began  to  study  them 
for  their  own  sake,  and  the  Greek  authors  as  well.  The  movement, 
although  it  had  begun  more  than  a  century  earlier,  received  a  great 
impetus  from  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks  in  1453, 
which  resulted  in  driving  Greek  scholars  westward,  chiefly  to  Italy, 
bringing  their  manuscripts  with  them  and  spreading  their  learning. 
The  revival  of  learning  and  literature  brought  with  it  a  new  spirit,  a 
new  attitude  toward  life.  The  medieval  man,  at  least  in  ideal, 
was  mainly  concerned  with  things  above  and  beyond  this  existence, 
with  God  and  his  Church,  and  the  hereafter.  The  prevailing  prin- 
ciple was  received  authority ;  the  individual  was  bound  by  or  absorbed 
into  one  or  more  great  systems,  outside  of  which  his  thoughts  and 
actions  had  no  play.  His  theology  and  philosophy  were  fettered  by 
the  traditions  of  the  Schoolmen.  His  religious  life  was  comprehended 
in  the  universal  Church  under  the  headship  of  the  Pope.  If  a  monk, 

1  And  Aristotle  in  Latin  translations. 


THE   FIRST  YEARS   OF  HENRY  VIII  303 

he  was  bound  by  the  rules  of  his  order ;  if  he  tilled  the  soil,  he  was 
enchained  by  the  feudal  system ;  if  an  artisan,  his  industrial  activity 
was  cramped  by  the  gild  organization.  The  dominant  art  —  church 
building  —  was  a  collective,  not  an  individual  art.  With  the  Renas- 
cence came  a  revival  of  interest  in  this  life,  with  all  its  joy  and  beauty, 
for  itself  alone.  A  new  ideal,  fitly  called  "  humanism,"  arose.  The 
humanists  who  followed  it  broke  away  from  the  medieval,  received 
authority ;  they  shook  themselves  free  from  the  once-accepted  systems, 
they  were  impelled  by  a  novel  spirit  of  curiosity,  by  an  irresistible 
impulse  to  assert  their  individualism.  As  time  went  on  this  humanism, 
this  curiosity,  this  individualism  manifested  itself  in  all  fields :  in  litera- 
ture, in  art,  in  science,  in  religion. 

Its  Manifestations  and  Achievements.  —  Boccaccio,  Chaucer,  and 
those  who  followed  told  tales  of  real  men  and  women.  Painters  and 
sculptors  arose  who  drew  and  fashioned ,  beautiful  human  forms. 
Columbus,  Cabot,  and  Vasco  da  Gama  sojught  new  trade  routes  to 
enrich  the  world,  and  discovered  and  exploded  unknown  seas  and  un- 
known lands.  Copernicus  overthrew  the  qW~)Ptolemaic  astronomy, 
accepted  for  more  than  twelve  centuries,  anornade  it  known  that  the 
earth  was  not  the  center  of  the  universe,  but  only  a  member  of  a  vast 
planetary  system  that  revolved  about  the  sun.  Finally,  the  New 
Learning  furnished  Martin  Luther  with  the  means  by  which  he  could 
put  the  papal  claims  to  the  test  of  Scripture  as  well  as  of  the  practices 
of  the  primitive  Church.  In  Italy,  however,  the  attitude  of  the  New 
Learning  to  the  Church  was  contemptuous  and  indifferent  rather  than 
hostile.  The  Italian  humanists  were  pagans,  unreligious  rather  than 
irreligious.  Moreover,  their  hands  were  stayed  from  attacking  the 
existing  system  because  most  of  them  drew  their  living  from  ecclesias- 
tical revenues.  More  than  one  Pope  of  the  fifteenth  century  was  a 
disciple  of  the  New  Learning,  and  so  was  Leo  X  (1513-1517).  the  Pope 
with  whom  Luther  first  came  in  conflict.  ~Everf  the  greatFlorentine 
reformer  Savonarola  struck,  not  at  the  Church  organization,  but  at 
its  abuses  and  the  men  whom  he  regarded  as  responsible  for  them. 
The  only  attack  on  the  claims  of  the  Church  coming  out  of  Italy  dur- 
ing this  period  was  that  of  Lorenzo  Valla,  directed  against  the  "  Forged 
Donation  of  Constantine  "  in  1440. 

Its  Slow  Penetration  into  England.  —  In  the  northern  lands  the 
interest  in  the  New  Learning  was  primarily  religious.  This  was  par- 
ticularly the  case  in  England,  where,  however,  the  new  movement 
penetrated  very  slowly.  England  was  far  removed  from  the  center 
of  things ;  it  was  torn  by  wars,  and  its  interests  were  mainly  in  mate- 
rial progress.  Chaucer  had  visited  Italy,  and  the  result  was  manifest 
in  much  of  his  later  work.  A  few  of  the  fifteenth  century  nobles  were 
patrons  of  the  New  Learning,  chief  among  them  Humphrey  of  Glouces- 
ter, Henry's  unstable  and  turbulent  uncle,  who  made  the  first 
considerable  contribution  of  books  to  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford. 
John  Tiptoft  of  Worcester,  the  "  Butcher  Earl,"  traveled  and  studied 


3o4  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  Italy,  and  when  he  was  executed,  it  was  said  that  "  the  ax  at  one 
blow  cut  off  more  learning  than  was  left  in  the  heads  of  the  surviving 
nobility."  Earl  Rivers,  brother  of  Elizabeth  Woodville,  was  another 
of  the  small  band.  Also,  some  lesser  men  went  to  Italy  and  an  oc- 
casional Italian  came  to  England.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  re- 
sults of  the  Italian  Renascence  in  England  were  most  scanty  before 
the  advent  of  the  Tudors. 

The  Oxford  Reformers.  —  The  real  influence  began  with  the  Oxford 
Reformers  who  took  up  the  study  of  Greek  mainly  as  a  means  of  be- 
coming more  closely  acquainted  with  the  origins  of  the  Church  and 
the  sources  of  the  Christian  faith.  Far  back  in  the  thirteenth  century 
Grosseteste  and  Roger  Bacon  had  known  Greek ;  but  the  knowledge 
had  practically  died  with  them.  The  first  man  in  this  period  to  re- 
vive it  was  William  Selljng,  of  All  Soul's,  Oxford,  who  went  to  Italy 
and  brought  back  Greek  manuscripts.  He  later  became  a  Benedic- 
tine monk  and  Prior  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury.  Greek  lectures 
at  Oxford  were  initiated  by  William  Grocyn  (1446-1519).  He  exer- 
cised a  strong  influence  on  the  men  of  his  time,  though  his  only  written 
remains  consist  of  an  epigram  on  a  lady  who  once  threw  a  snowball 
at  him.  Grocyn  was  soon  joined  by  Thomas  Linacre  (1460-1524). 
Inspired  by  Selling,  Linacre  journeyed  to  Italy,  studied  philosophy  at 
the  famous  Platonic  Academy  founded  by  the  Medicis  at  Florence, 
and  took  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine  at  Padua.  After  lecturing 
for  a  time  at  Oxford,  he  became  a  physician  to  Henry  VIII.  He 
translated  Galen  into  English,  and  helped  to  found  the  College  of 
Physicians  in  London.  Tohn  Cplet  (1466-1519),  the  son  of  a  rich 
London  merchant,  applied  himself  to  study  for  the  purpose  of  under- 
standing the  Bible  better.  He  devoted  the  whole  force  of  his  fervid 
personality  to  raising  the  standards  of  scholarship  and  life  of  his  time, 
and  was  unsparing  in  his  denunciation  of  the  worldliness  and  greed 
of  the  Church  and  clergy.  When  he  was  later  made  dean  of  St.  Paul's, 
he  set  an  example  of  simplicity  by  wearing  a  plain  black  gown  instead 
of  the  gorgeous  robes  of  his  predecessors. 

Erasmus  (1465-1536).  —  Erasmus,  who  visited  England  for  the 
first  time  in  1498-1499,  was  unstinted  in  his  praises  of  the  Oxford 
group.  This  spare,  alert  little  Dutchman  became  himself  the  best- 
known  scholar  of  his  time.  Brought  up  a  monk,  he  had  rebelled 
against  the  narrow  and  petty  life  of  his  convent  and  became  a  wanderer. 
At  Paris  he  accepted  the  invitation  of  a  young  English  nobleman  to 
visit  Oxford,  because  in  his  poverty  he  despaired  of  ever  getting  to 
Italy  to  study  Greek.  While  not  strikingly  original,  or  overprofound, 
or  exact  in  his  learning,  Erasmus  exercised  a  deep  and  widespread 
influence  on  the  reformation  of  society,  religions,  moral  and  intellec- 
tual. He  attacked  the  monks  and  he  attacked  the  scholastic  theolo- 
gians, whom  he  measured  by  the  standards  of  the  Bible  and  of  rational 
thinking  and  learning.  He  Bought  for  the  abolition  of  glaring  abuses 
and  superstitious  observances,  for  the  limitation  of  papal  power  by 


THE   FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  305 

general  councils,  and,  above  all,  he  worked  for  the  wider  diffusion  of 
education.  In  1511  he  published  his  Praise  of  Folly,  a  famous  satire  . 
in  which  he  scored  the  men  and  tendencies  of  the  age  by  means  of  an 
oration  delivered  by  Folly,  dressed  in  her  cap  and  bells,  to  her  fellow 
fools.  Later,  he  contemplated  retirement  "  from  a  world  which  is 
everywhere  rotten,"  where  "  ecclesiastical  hypocrites  rule  in  the  court 
of  princes,"  where  "  the  Pope  and  Kings  count  the  people  not  as  men, 
but  as  cattle  in  the  market."  Yet  Erasmus  was  no  mere  scolder. 
In  his  way  he  labored  to  help  dispel  the  corruption  and  ignorance  at 
which  he  railed.  He  wrote  a  stirring  devotional  manual,  the  Enchirid- 
ion Militis  Christiani  (the  manual  of  a  Christian  soldier),  and  he 
prepared  an  edition  of  the  New  Testament  in  Greek  with  a  Latin 
translation  in  parallel  columns  which  was  used  as  a  source  for  later 
English  and  German  renderings  of  the  Gospel.  Constantly  struggling 
against  ill  health  and  poverty,  vain,  sensitive,  and  prone  to  flatter 
those  from  whom  he  might  obtain  preferment,  he  was  a  curious  com- 
bination of  boldness  in  speech  and  of  timidity  in  action.  And  his 
attack  was  aimed  rather  at  abuses  in  the  administration  of  the  Church 
than  at  the  system.  Nevertheless,  he  forged  weapons  for  more  un- 
compromising fighters :  "  He  laid  the  egg  of  the  Reformation  and 
Luther  hatched  it." 

Thomas  More  (1478-1535).  — Doubtless  the  most  charming  of  the 
Oxford  set  was  Thomas  More,  whose  intense  piety  was  brightened  by 
his  warm  affections,  and  his  cheerful,  merry  wit.  The  pupil  of  Grocyn 
and  Linacre  and  the  friend  of  Colet  and  Erasmus,  he  once  thought  of 
studying  for  the  priesthood,  but  finally  chose  the  law  and  public  life. 
He  served  the  State  on  foreign  embassies,  in  Parliament,  and  as  Lord 
Chancellor.  While  he  always  courageously  opposed  absolutism,  he 
was  for  many  years  a  trusted  and  intimate  associate  of  his  sovereign. 
A  reformer  of  lofty  ideals,  the  growth  of  Protestantism  and  the  radical 
measures  accompanying  the  separation  from  Rome  appalled  him,  he 
became  a  persecutor  of  heretics,  and  finally  lost  his  life  for  opposing 
Henry's  will. 

His  Utopia,  1516.  —  More's  greatest  work  is  his  Utopia  l  which  ap- 
peared in  Latin  in  1516  and  was  first  published  in  an  English  trans- 
lation thirty-five  years  later.  In  the  form  of  a  satire  it  contrasts 
the  conditions  of  the  time  with  those  on  an  imaginary  island,  an  ideal 
commonwealth  which,  the  author  pretends,  was  described  to  him  by 
a  sailor  whom  he  met  at  Antwerp.  The  evils  of  contemporary  Eng- 
land are  exposed  with  unsparing  hand :  the  poverty  of  the  laboring  * 
classes,  beasts  of  burden  for  the  idle  and  luxurious  rich ;  the  licentious- 
ness and  greed  of  those  in  high  places ;  the  burden  of  inclosures ;  the 
cruelty  of  the  criminal  law ;  and  the  readiness  of  princes  to  engage 
in  war.  In  Utopia,  on  the  contrary,  all  goods  were  in  common,  and 
every  one  was  obliged  to  work.  Meals  were  taken  in  common  halls, 

1  Meaning,  literally,  "no  place." 


3o6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

though  each  house  was  separate,  with  its  own  garden  and  its  own 
supply  of  fresh  water.  A  public  system  of  education  was  provided 
for  all,  male  and  female  alike,  and  work  was  limited  to  six  hours  a 
day  to  leave  time  for  the  study  of  art,  literature,  and  science.  The 
welfare  of  the  community  was  the  aim  to  which  every  individual 
must  give  way.  Crime  was  punished  for  prevention  and  reformation 
rather  than  for  retribution.  There  were  to  be  no  wars  except  for  self- 
defense,  an  ideal  not  yet  realized.  The  Utopian  sovereign  was  "  re- 
movable on  mere  suspicion  of  a  design  to  enslave  his  people."  Here, 
More  took  a  position  which  he  maintained  through  life ;  for  he  was 
always  a  loyal  supporter  of  Parliament  against  royal  despotism. 
In  his  religious  views  he  was  not  so  consistent.  Religion  in  Utopia 
was  founded  on  nature  and  reason ;  the  suffering  of  pain  and  dis- 
comfort for  its  own  sake  was  denounced  and  was  only  extolled  when 
it  served  the  good  of  the  whole.  Toleration  was  provided  for  every 
form  of  belief  and  worship:  there  was  a  common  public  worship  in 
which  all  participated ;  but  each  family  was  allowed  to  have  its  own 
private  form  as  well.  This  ideal  combination  of  religious  unity  and 
liberty  of  conscience,  however,  proved  impossible  for  a  man  of  More's 
intense  nature  in  the  unsettled  times  which  followed. 

English  Patrons  of  the  New  Learning.  —  Chief  among  the  patrons 
of  the  New  Learning  in  high  places  was  Archbishop  Warham  of 
Canterbury.  In  spite  of  his  absorption  in  affairs  of  Church  and 
State  his  house  was  freely  open  to  scholars  and  his  purse  to  the  needy 
among  them.  He  was  a  special  patron  of  Erasmus,  and  delightful 
bits  of  their  correspondence  survive.  When  his  protege  was  pining 
on  sour  beer  and  unsavory  fare  at  Cambridge,  he  sent  him  a  purse 
containing  fifty  angels,1  expressing,  with  proper  episcopal  wit,  a  wish 
that  there  might  be  thirty  legions  of  them.  Wolsey,  so  far  as  his 
absorbing  administrative  duties  would  permit,  was  interested  in  the 
new  educational  movement.  Henry,  too,  showed  his  zeal  for  scholar- 
ship by  assembling  many  of  the  Oxford  set  about  him.  Erasmus 
states  that  his  court  was  an  example  to  Christendom  for  learning 
and  piety,  and  resembled  a  museum  more  than  a  court.  He  sought  to 
promote  instruction  among  the  clergy  and  defended  the  Greek  party 
at  Oxford  against  their  opponents  of  the  old  school  known  as  the 
"  Trojans."  Nor  did  he  negl'ect  his  own  studies,  employing  his 
intervals  of  leisure  in  reading  and  scholastic  disputation,  which  latter, 
according  to  Erasmus,  he  conducted  "  with  remarkable  courtesy  and 
unruffled  temper." 

Conservatism  of  the  New  Learning  in  its  Early  Stages.  —  As  yet, 
however,  the  New  Learning  was  confined  to  the  small  circle  at  Oxford 
and  at  court.  The  attitude  of  the  nobility  was  doubtless  voiced 
by  one  of  its  number  who  declared :  "  By  the  body  of  God  I  would 
sooner  have  my  son  hanged  than  a  bookworm.  It  is  a  gentleman's 

1  An  angel  was  a  gold  coin  worth  from  6  to  tos.  It  got  its  name  from  the  figure  of 
the  archangel  Michael  stamped  upon  it. 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  307 

calling  to  be  able  to  blow  the  horn  to  hunt  and  to  hawk.  He  should 
leave  learning  to  the  clodhoppers."  Moreover,  the  Oxford- E£=. 
.formers  were  essentially  religious  in  their  interests.,  and,  however 
sharply  they  might  tilt  against  its  abuses,  they  were  all  sincerely 
attached  to  the  ancient  Church,  which  they  only  desired  to  restore 
to  its  primitive  purity.  Nevertheless,  they  prepared  the  way  for 
the  great  transformation  soon  to  sweep  over  the  country.  Governor 
Berkeley  of  Virginia,  in  a  report  to  the  Home  Government  in  1670, 
took  occasion  to  say :  "  Learning  has  brought  disobedience  and  heresy 
and  sects  into  the  world  and  printing  has  divulged  them.  .  .  .  God 
keep  us  from  both."  The  studies  which  the  Oxford  Reformers 
fostered  were  bound  to  produce  a  critical  spirit,  to  lead  to  a  probing 
of  the  foundations  on  which  the  old  established  order  rested.  Henry, 
himself,  was  the  soul  of  orthodoxy,  and,  until  his  purposes  were  crossed, 
a  stanch  supporter  of  the  Papacy.  He  was  very  pious,  hearing  mass 
daily  even  when  he  hunted ;  he  was  diligent  in  attending  sermons, 
and  was  generous  in  almsgiving.  One  of  his  chief  aims  in  entering 
the  Holy  League  was  to  help  the  Pope,  and,  besides  the  title  "  De- 
fender of  the  Faith,"  he  received  other  marks  of  papal  favor,  for  ex- 
ample, the  Golden  Rose  in  1510,  and  the  sword  and  cap  of  maintenance 
in  1513.  Yet  signs  are  not  wanting  in  his  earlier  years  of  the  attitude 
he  was  one  day  to  assume.  In  1515,  during  a  discussion  concerning 
the  respective  limits  of  lay  and  clerical  jurisdiction  he  declared: 
"  Kings  of  England  have  never  had  any  superior  but  God  alone. 
Know  well,  therefore,  that  we  will  ever  maintain  the  right  of  our 
Crown  and  of  our  temporal  jurisdiction."  But  it  was  more  than  a 
decade  after  this  before  the  crisis  came. 

The  Church  at  the  Eve  of  the  Reformation  and  the  Lutheran 
Attack.  —  The  Church  still  possessed  many  elements  of  strength.  In 
England  it  had  30,000  clergymen,  8000  parish  churches,  and  about 
a  fifth  of  the  national  wealth,  and,  in  spite  of  their  misery  and  dis- 
content, it  still  held  the  masses,  partly  by  sentiment  and  devotion, 
partly  by  superstition  and  force.  CBut  among  the  middle  classes 
religious  feeling  was  steadily  giving  way  to  material  interests  ,^  the 
monasteries  were  on  the  decline,  and  the  popes  of  the  time  wefe  far 
from  being  true  shepherds  of  their  flocks.  In  1517  Martin  Luther 
struck  the  first  mortal  blow  at  the  dominant  system  by  posting  his 
thesis  at  Wittenberg,  in  which  he  denied  the  papal  power  of  remitting 
sin  for  money  payments.  He  then  proceeded  to  develop  his  revolu- 
tionary view  of  justification  by  faith,  in  which  he  maintained  that 
the  salvation  of  the  individual  depended  upon  his  own  attitude  to 
God  and  not  on  works  prescribed  by  the  Church.  In  1522  Luther 
contemplated  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  and  twelve 
years  later  the  whole  Bible  was  given  to  the  German  people  in  their 
native  tongue.  Luther's  work  was  supplemented  by  that  of  Zwingli 
in  Switzerland,  acting  at  first  independently,  and  then  in  opposition 
to  the  German  reformer.  Lutheran  and  Zwinglian  tracts  were 


308  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

launched  into  England,  though  for  a  long  time  their  effect  was  slight. 
At  first  the  momentous  results  of  Luther's  attack  on  the  Papacy 
were  not  foreseen.  Before  this  time  there  had  been  quarrels  between 
kings  and  popes  and  they  had  ended  in  compromise.  Reformers 
like  Wiclif  and  Hus  had  struck  at  the  Church  and  had  been  suppressed. 
Reformers  within  the  Church  had  risen,  such  as  St.  Francis  and  his 
followers,  and,  after  doing  a  glorious  work,  had  lapsed  into  supineness 
and  even  worse.  General  councils  had  failed  to  capture  the  papal 
stronghold ;  grave  abuses  still  existed  and  grew ;  masses  and  pardons 
were  sold ;  saints  and  images  were  worshiped  by  the  ignorant ; 
and  the  clergy,  even  if  the  stories  of  their  immorality  and  vice  were 
exaggerated  by  interested  agents  of  temporal  rulers  and  Protestant 
zealots,  were  unquestionably  lax  and  worldly.  It  was  just  because 
these  conditions  persisted  at  the  time  of  the  great  intellectual  revival 
that  Luther's  and  Henry's  hands  were  strengthened.  Conditions 
peculiar  to  each  country  contributed  to  the  final  result :  in  Germany 
the  desire  of  the  leading  states  to  shake  themselves  free  from  the 
Emperor,  in  England  the  royal  absolutism  on  which  the  prosperity 
of  the  most  influential  class  depended.  Neither  Henry  nor  Luther 
would  have  prevailed  but  for  a  conjunction  of  causes  which  showed 
that  the  time  was  ripe  for  separation. 

The  Origin  of  the  Divorce.  —  It  was  not  till  1527  that  the  question 
of  Henry's  divorce,  which  precipitated  the  crisis  in  England,  began  to 
be  openly  discussed.  In  1503,  when  Julius  II  issued  the  dispensation 
authorizing  the  Prince's  marriage  with  the  widow  of  his  deceased 
brother  Arthur,  some  doubt  was  expressed  as  to  whether  the  Pope 
was  not  exceeding  his  powers.  A  little  later  Henry,  at  his  father's 
instance,  protested  against  a  contract  which  was  made  for  him 
while  he  was  under  age,  but  this  was  merely  a  political  move  to  hold 
the  door  open  for  an  alliance  that  might  prove  more  advantageous. 
A  few  months  after  his  accession,  the  young  King  married  Catharine, 
and,  though  she  was  six  years  older  than  her  husband,  they  lived 
happily  together  for  many  years.  From  1510-1518  six  or  seven 
children  were  born  to  them ;  but  of  these  only  one,  the  Princess  Mary, 
survived.  The  death  of  a  little  son,  together  with  the  treachery  of 
Ferdinand,  may  have  temporarily  inclined  Henry  to  break  with 
Catharine.  If  he  ever  thought  of  such  a  thing  he  soon  gave  it  up, 
and  took  no  step  in  that  direction  till  about  1525.  By  that  time 
there  was  little  hope  that  Catharine  would  bear  any  more  children. 
Moreover,  that  date  marked  his  break  with  Charles,  whose  relation- 
ship to  Henry's  Queen  had  doubtless  told  in  her  favor,  if  Henry  had 
cherished  any  previous  thoughts  of  putting  her  away. 

Reasons  for  the  Divorce.  —  The  triumph  of  the  imperial  arms  in 
Italy  in  1527  convinced  France  and  England  that  they  could  not 
be  too  closely  united.  So,  as  a  means  of  binding  the  alliance  formed 
two  years  before,  proposals  were  made  to  marry  the  Princess  Mary 
to  a  member  of  the  French  royal  house.  According  to  Henry,  queries 


THE   FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  309 

raised  as  to  this  daughter's  legitimacy  by  the  Bishop  of  Tarbes  during 
these  negotiations  strengthened  doubts  which  he  himself  had  long 
entertained  as  to  the  validity  of  his  marriage.  Most  likely  it  was 
the  need  for  a  male  heir  which  really  set  the  King's  thoughts  working 
in  this  direction.  During  the  previous  century  England  had  been 
torn  asunder  by  a  bloody  war  of  succession,  and  one  pretext  for  ex- 
cluding the  Yorkists  had  been  the  fact  of  their  descent  through  the 
female  line.  Only  once  since  the  Conquest  had  a  woman  l  claimed 
the  crown,  and  the  result  had  been  nineteen  years  of  anarchy.  Later 
experience  was  to  show  that  under  the  rule  of  a  woman  England 
would  enjoy  a  security  and  achieve  glories,  equaling  if  not  surpassing, 
those  under '  her  greatest  kings.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  past, 
however,  the  prospect  seemed  hopeless.  If  a  future  queen  remained 
unmarried,  her  death  -without  an  heir  would  invite  civil  war,  while 
the  same  result  seemed  likely  to  follow  if  she  married  a  subject.  On 
the  other  hand,  marriage  with  a  foreign  prince  would  drag  the  country 
into  all  manner  of  European  wars  and  might  mean  absorption  into  one 
or  another  of  the  great  continental  kingdoms.  Another  considera- 
tion seems  to  have  weighed  heavily  with  Henry  when  his  thoughts 
came  to  center  upon  it.  He  began  to  ask  himself  why  the  male  heir 
so  necessary  to  his  dynasty  and  the  State  was  denied  him.  Why  had 
all  his  children  except  a  puny  girl  been  taken  away  from  him  in  their 
infancy?  In  all  else  he  was  so  great,  so  glorious,  and  so  fortunate: 
he  was  a  leader  in  the  councils  of  Europe ;  the  champion  of  the  Pope ; 
the  Defender  of  the  Faith.  Since  this  great  boon  alone  was  withheld, 
he  persuaded  himself,  that  it  must  be  because  God  was  pointing  a 
warning  against  the  sinfulness  of  his  uncanonical  marriage.  Such 
was  the  state  of  affairs  when  he  fell  violently  in  love  with  Anne 
Boleyn,  a  dark-haired,  bright-eyed  girl  who  came  to  court  in  1522, 
after  having  served  for  three  years  as  maid  of  honor  to  the  Queen  of 
France.  Just  when  he  determined  to  marry  her  is  uncertain.  It 
is  at  least  likely  that  it  was  after  he  determined  to  break  with  Catharine, 
and  that  his  passion  for  Anne  rather  strengthened  his  determination 
than  caused  it.2 

The  Opening  of  the  Divorce  Proceedings,  1527.  —  At  any  rate,  in 
May,  1527,  Wolsey.,  after  an  understanding  with  the  King,  summoned 
him  to  appeaf~Eefore  his  legatine  court  to  answer  to  a  charge  of  living 
in  pretended  marriage  with^his  late  brother's  wife.  It  was  soon 
evident  that  Catharine  would  be  very  strfFand~o5stinate,  arid  so  the 
case  was  referred  to  the  Pope  for  authority.  It  was  feared  that  if  the 
Queen  appealed,  Clement  might  reverse  the  decision,  or  if  he  referred 
it  to  a  legate  for  further  inquiry  he  would  not  choose  Wolsey,  once  he 
had  committed  himself  to  an  opinion.  For  these  reasons,  Wolsey 

1  Matilda,  daughter  of  Henry  I. 

2  There  is  no  evidence  for  Henry's  attachment  to  Anne  before  the  divorce  pro- 
ceedings opened  in  1527.     He  had  shown  favors  to  the  Boleyn  family,  but  these 
can  be  explained  by  an  earlier  attachment  to  Anne's  sister  Mary. 


3io  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

thought  it  better  to  act  with  the  papal  sanction  from  the  beginning. 
He  realized  that  his  very  existence  depended  upon  his  bringing  the 
affair  to  a  successful  issue.  Yet,  while  he  strove  with  might  and  main 
to  secure  the  divorce,  his  plan  was  that  Henry  should  marry,  not 
Anne,  but  Renee,  the  daughter  of  Louis  XII.  In  August,  1527,  while 
he  was  in  France  on  diplomatic  business,  the  King's  "  secret  matter  " 
leaked  out.  Thereupon,  since  the  Pope  was  still  a  prisoner,  Wolsey 
made  an  effort  to  convoke  the  College  of  Cardinals  at  Avignon,  to  be 
made  temporary  president,  and  thus  to  settle  the  case.  The  cardinals, 
however,  refused  to  fall  in  with  the  plan. 

Henry's  Application  to  the  Pope,  1527.  The  Legatine  Commission. 
—  Meantime  in  September,  Henry,  who  had  determined  to  marry 
Anne  Boleyn,  sent,  without  consulting  Wolsey,  an  agent  of  his  own, 
one  Dr.  Knight,  to  procure  from  the  Pope  a 'commission  to  nullify 
his  marriage  with  Catharine  and  a  dispensation  to  marry  Anne.  The 
wily  Italian  diplomats  of  the  Curia  hoodwinked  Knight  by  granting 
a  document  that  proved  to  be  worthless.  Henry  turned  again  to 
Wolsey  and,  in  February,  1528,  they  sent  new  agents  to  Rome.  Since 
France  had  for  the  moment  gained  the  upper  hand  in  Italy,  the  Pope 
was  induced  to  intrust  Wolsey  and  Cardinal  Campeggio  with  legatine 
powers  to  try  the  case  in  England.  Nevertheless,  he  still  feared  the 
Emperor,  and  had  no  inclination  to  declare  invalid  the  act  of  a  pred- 
ecessor. So  he  instructed  Campeggio  to  try  to  divert  the  King  from 
his  purpose,  and,  failing  in  that,  to  urge  the  Queen  to  enter  a  nunnery. 
Only  as  a  last  resort  was  he  to  allow  the  trial  to  proceed.  At  the  same 
time,  Clement  sent  assurances  to  Charles  V  that  nothing  would  be 
done  to  the  detriment  of  Catharine,  and  that  the  whole  case  would 
finally  be  referred  to  Rome. 

The  Trial  of  Queen  Catharine,  1529.  — Campeggio,  delayed  by  gout, 
probably  "  diplomatic  gout,"  traveled  so  slowly  that  he  only  arrived 
in  England  in  October,  1528.  By  that  time  the  Emperor  had  re- 
covered his  supremacy.  Henry  was  so  fixed  in  his  determination 
that  Campeggio  reported  that  he  did  not  believe  that  "  an  angel 
from  heaven  "  would  be  able  to  move  him.  Catharine  was  equally 
inflexible.  She  told  the  legates  that  she  was  truly  married,  that  she 
was  resolved  to  live  and  die  in  the  state  of  matrimony  to  which  God 
had  called  her,  and  that,  though  she  were  torn  limb  from  limb,  she 
would  never  alter  her  opinion.  After  a  winter  of  negotiations  and 
wrangling,  during  the  course  of  which  Henry  threatened  to  join  the 
Lutheran  sect,  Campeggio  had  to  consent  to  a  trial.  The  court  was 
opened  at  Blackfriars,  31  May,  1529,  though  the  King  and  Queen  were 
not  cited  to  appear  till  18  June.  Whatever  the  royal  motives  or  State 
necessities  may  have  been,  Catharine's  situation  was  pitiful,  and  she 
showed  the  courage  of  a  noble  and  injured  woman.  She  protested 
against  the  competence  of  the  court.  When  it  met  to  consider  her 
protest  she  kneeled  at  her  husband's  feet,  pleading  to  him  as  a  poor 
woman  and  a  stranger  without  friends  or  good  counsel.  "  She  took 


THE   FIRST  YEARS  OF  HENRY  VIII  311 

God  to  witness  that  for  twenty  years  she  had  been  a  true,  humble, 
and  obedient  wife,"  whose  marriage  had  been  arranged  by  two  "  wise 
and  excellent  kings,"  and  thought  lawful  by  learned  men.  She  begged 
him  to  consider  her  honor,  his  daughter's,  and  his  own.  Though 
Henry  raised  her  up  and  seemed  much  touched  by  her  appeal,  the 
legates  denied  her  protest,  and  the  case  went  on  without  her.  On 
23  July,  after  a  series  of  fruitless  sessions,  Campeggio,  using  as  a 
pretext  the  custom  of  the  Roman  Curia  which  did  not  sit  during  the 
hot  Italian  summer,  adjourned  the  hearings  till  i  October.  By  that 
time  Clement  VII  had  called  the  case  to  Rome,  and  all  hope  of  securing 
his  sanction  was  passed. 

The  Fall  of  Wolsey,  1529.  —  Henry  now  saw  that  the  only  way  to 
gain  his  end  was  to  settle  the  matter  in  his  own  courts.  Moreover, 
he  had  for  some  time  determined  to  take  over  all  power  into  his  own 
hands.  So  Wolsey  — whose  splendor  eclipsed  his  own,  who  had  ruled 
as  more  than  king,  who  had  advised  the  futile  appeal  to  the  Pope  — 
was  sacrificed  to  the  royal  wrath  and  to  the  new  royal  policy.  He 
fell  from  his  high  place  amidst  the  rejoicings  of  all  classes.  The 
courtiers  were  jealous  of  the  man  whom  the  King  had  delighted  to 
honor,  and  resented  the  power  he  held,  as  well  as  the  way  he  exercised 
it.  The  monks  were  embittered  by  his  attacks  on  their  establish- 
ments, while  the  secular  clergy  and  the  laity  grudged  the  taxes  which 
his  public  policy  involved.  The  trading  classes  were  soured  by  his 
recent  French  alliance,  which  threatened  their  trade  in  the  Nether- 
lands. The  Londoners  expressed  the  hope  that  he  would  be  sent  to 
the  Tower,  and  the  clothiers  of  Kent  even  proposed  to  set  him  adrift 
in  an  open  boat  with  holes  bored  in  it. 

His  Death,  1530.  —  Early  in  October,  1529,  the  Cardinal  was 
charged  with  praemunire,  under  the  old  statutes  of  1353  and  1393, 
on  the  ground  that  he  had  exercised  legatine  powers  contrary  to  law, 
quite  regardless  of  the  fact  that  he  had  done  this  not  only  with  the 
King's  knowledge  and  consent  but  in  an  attempt  to  further  the  royal 
interests.  The  Great  Seal  was  taken  from  him  and  given  to  Sir 
Thomas  More,  and  Wolsey  himself  was  ordered  to  retire  to  Esher, 
a  manor  belonging  to  the  see  of  Winchester,  one  of  the  various 
bishoprics  which  had  been  awarded  to  him  during  his  ascendancy. 
His  submission  was  absolute.  He  had  already  given  over  Hampton 
Court  Palace,  and  now  he  executed  a  deed  acknowledging  himself 
guilty  of  praemunire,  and  requesting  the  King  to  take  over  all  his 
temporal  possessions.  When  Henry  on  his  departure  to  Esher  sent 
him  a  gracious  message  and  a  gold  jeweled  ring,  he  jumped  from  his 
mule,  like  a  young  man  "  kneeled  down  in  the  dirt  upon  his  knees, 
holding  up  his  hands  for  joy,"  and  tore  the  laces  off  his  cap  to  bare 
his  head.  Offices,  lands,  practically  everything  that  had  once  been 
his,  were  taken  from  him ;  a  bill  of  attainder  was  even  introduced 
into  Parliament  which  met  in  November,  1529,  but  after  passing 
through  the  Lords  was  defeated  in  the  Commons.  Subsequently 


3i2  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  archbishopric  of  York,  together  with  a  small  sum  of  money,  was 
restored  to  him  and  he  was  ordered  to  his  diocese  to  get  him  out  of 
the  way.  There  his  hospitality,  his  devoutness,  and  his  faithful 
discharge  of  his  pastoral  duties  won  him  many  friends.  But  early 
in  November,  1530,  doubtless  because  of  his  growing  popularity,  the 
Cardinal  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  treasonable  correspondence 
with  the  French  ambassador,  though  he  had  merely  sought  the  latter's 
aid  in  trying  to  get  Francis  I  to  intercede  for  him  with  Henry.  On 
his  way  to  London,  Wolsey,  much  broken  in  health  since  his  disgrace, 
was  taken  with  his  final  illness,  and  had  to  stop  at  Leicester  Abbey. 
"  I  am  come  to  leave  my  bones  among  you,"  he  said  to  the  abbot,  and 
there  he  died  on  St.  Andrew's  Eve,  29  November. 

With  a  small  army  and  navy,  solely  by  his  diplomatic  skill  and  a 
not  overlarge  •  expenditure  of  money,  he  had  gained  for  England  a 
leading  place  in  the  councils  of  Europe.  It  may  be  questioned 
whether  the  country  was  the  gainer ;  for  it  took  resources  and  energy 
which  might  better  have  been  devoted  to  pressing  problems  at  home 
—  the  pacification  of  Ireland,  the  reduction  of  Scotland,  the  care  of 
the  poor,  the  reform  of  the  Church,  and  the  diffusion  of  education. 
Moreover,  the  Emperor  made  use  of  the  English  hostility  to  France 
to  establish  his  own  supremacy  on  the  Continent.  Yet,  some  time 
before  that  happened,  Wolsey  had  seen  the  wisdom  of  shifting  over 
to  the  side  of  France,  and  was  prevented  by  Henry,  who  in  the  mean- 
time had  come  to  assert  himself,  from  breaking  off  the  Imperial 
alliance  until  it  was  too  late.  Then  came  the  failure  to  secure  the 
papal  sanction  to  the  divorce.  Still,  in  whatever  Wolsey  accomplished 
and  in  whatever  he  failed  to  accomplish  there  is  no  question  of  his 
devotion  to  Henry's  interests.  His  last  words  are  the  best  com- 
mentary on  his  life  work :  "  If  I  had  served  my  God,"  he  said  as  he 
lay  dying,  "  as  diligently  as  I  have  done  the  King,  He  would  not  have 
given  me  over  in  my  gray  hairs." 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Fisher,  Political  History,  chs.  VI-XI.  Innes,  England  under  the 
Tiidors,  efts.  t^-VII.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  II,  ch.  XIII.  (pp.  789-794  for  a 
list  of  authorities).  John  Lingard,  History  of  England,  (ist  ed.,  1819-1830,  reprint 
of  1902,  10  vols.),  IV,  chs.  VI-VIII;  the  authority  on  the  Reformation  from  the 
moderate  Roman  Catholic  point  of  view.  J.  S.  Brewer,  The  Reign  of  Henry  VIII 
(2  vols.,  1884) ;  reprinted  from  his  introductions  to  the  Letters  and  Papers  of  the  Reign 
of  Henry  VIII.  Creighton,  Cardinal  Wolsey  (1888)  is  a  good  brief  account  of  this 
part  of  the  reign,  but  overfavorable  to  Wolsey.  G.  Cavendish,  Life  (written  in 
1557,  first  published  in  1815,  and  available  in  many  editions)  is  a  beautiful  tribute 
by  a  faithful  follower.  E.  L.  Taunton,  Thomas  Wolsey,  Legate  and  Reformer  (1902) 
is  an  estimate  mainly  of  Wolsey's  ecclesiastical  work  from  the  Roman  Catholic 
standpoint.  A.  F.  Pollard,  Henry  VIII  (1905),  chs.  I- VII;  the  most  recent  and 
scholarly  biography,  rather  favorable  to  Henry. 


THE   FIRST  YEARS   OF  HENRY  VIII  313, 

THE  STAFFORDS 

Edmund  =  Anne,  daughter  of  Thomas,  Duke  of 


fifth  Earl  of 
Stafford 


Gloucester,  fifth  son  of  Edward  III 


Humphrey, 

created  Duke  of  Buckingham, 
killed  at  Northampton,  1460 

I 

Humphrey, 

Earl  of  Stafford, 

killed  at  St.  Albans,  1455 

I 

Henry, 

Duke  of  Buckingham, 
beheaded, 1483 

Edward, 

Duke  of  Buckingham, 
beheaded,  1521 


CHAPTER  XX 

HENRY  VIII  AND  THE  SEPARATION  FROM  ROME   (1529-1547) 

Thomas  Cranmer  (1489-1556).  —  Although  Henry  appointed  More 
Chancellor  and  called  the  Dukes  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  to  office, 
he  now  made  use  of  two  new  men  as  his  chief  councilors.  One  was 
Thomas  Cranmer,  a  young  Cambridge  divine  who  gained  the  royal 
ear  by  an  opinion,  expressed  in  the  summer  of  1529,  that  the  question 
of  the  validity  of  the  marriage  be  submitted  to  the  learned  men  of 
the  universities  of  Europe,  and  that,  if  they  decided  against  it,  the 
case  might  be  settled  in  the  King's  own  courts.  Cranmer  was  taken 
into  the  royal  service  and  rose  to  be  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  To 
him  we  owe  the  lofty  and  beautiful  language  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  and  he  had  a  large  share  in  shaping  the  articles  of  faith  for 
the  Church  of  England.  He  was  a  gentle,  holy,  and  scholarly  man, 
but  he  was  too  timid  and  cautious  to  fill  the  duties  of  his  high  office 
with  vigor  and  independence,  especially  under  a  master  so  self-willed 
as  Henry  VIII. 

Thomas  Cromwell  (1485?-!  540).  — The  other  was  Thomas  Crom- 
well, who  for  ten  years  acted  as  Henry's  right-hand  man,  and  sug- 
gested most  of  the  fertile  expedients  for  increasing  the  royal  power 
and  swelling  the  royal  revenue.  The  son,  it  is  said,  of  a  Putney 
blacksmith,  Cromwell  was  born  about  1485,  and  as  a  youth  was  forced 
to  leave  England  under  a  cloud.  After  spending  his  early  years  as 
a  soldier  and  trader  in  Italy  and  Flanders,  he  returned  to  his  native 
land,  where  he  set  up  as  a  scrivener1  and  merchant.  Wolsey,  recogniz- 
ing his  ability,  made  him  his  secretary  and  chief  agent  in  suppressing 
the  smaller  monasteries.  He  amply  repaid  the  Cardinal's  trust  by 
his  effective  efforts  in  securing  the  defeat  of  the  bill  of  attainder  in 
1529.  This  devotion  to  his  fallen  master  really  advanced  his  own 
interests,  for  Henry  shrewdly  concluded  that  such  faithfulness  would 
be  invaluable  in  the  royal  service.  Really,  Cromwell  had  been 
fighting  to  save  himself;  he  had  been  the  Cardinal's  main  instru- 
ment in  the  matters  charged  against  him,  and  so  stood  a  chance  of 
sharing  in  his  master's  punishment.  (^Cromwell  advised  the  King  to 
/  settle  the  divorce  in  his  own  courts  by  another  means  than  that 
advocated  by  Cranmer ;  namely,  by  discarding  the  authority  of  the 
Pope  and  declaring  himself  supreme  head  of  the  Church  of  England^) 
Adopting  the  views  of  Machiavelli's  Prince,  the  new  councilor 

1  A  combination  of  lawyer  and  money  lender. 
3H 


THE   SEPARATION  FROM  ROME  315 

argued  that  it  should  be  the  aim  of  the  State  to  execute  the  will  of  the 
ruler.  Henry  ultimately  went  to  the  lengths  which  he  advised. 
Cromwell  rose  steadily :  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  Council,  royal 
secretary,  and,  at  length,  Vicegerent  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  He 
possessed  all  the  qualities  requisite  for  the  work  intrusted  to  him. 
He  was  affable  and  witty,  he  had  a  wide  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs, 
extraordinary  business  skill,  and  was  thoroughly  unscrupulous. 
While  he  took  the  extreme  Protestant  side,  apparently  he  had  no  real 
religious  feeling,  for  he  left  money  in  his  will  for  masses  for  his  soul 
and  died  professing  himself  a  true  Catholic.  Indispensable  as  he  was 
to  the  King,  he  maintained  his  position  only  by  extreme  servility  and 
patience  under  insult.  "  The  King,"  it  is  recorded  in  one  period 
of  his  career,  "  beknaveth  him  twice  a  week  and  sometimes  knocketh 
him  about  the  pate,"  yet  he  would  "  come  out  into  the  great  chamber 
.  .  .  with  as  merry  a  countenance  as  though  he  might  rule  all  the 
roost."  Only  great  rewards  and  unusual  buoyancy  could  withstand 
such  abuse. 

The  Reformation  Parliament,  1529-1536.  —  By  way  of  reply  to 
the  papal  revocation  of  the  divorce  suit  to  Rome,  Henry,  9  August, 
1529,  summoned  a  Parliament  to  meet,  3  November.  Clement  VII, 
by  citing  the  King  of  England  to  appear  in  Italy  which  was  under 
Imperial  domination,  played  into  the  hands  of  his  opponent,  since 
he  thereby  aroused  English  national  sentiment.  By  calling  Parlia- 
ment Henry  "  opened  the  floodgates  of  antipapal  and  antisacerdotal 
sentiment  which  Wolsey  had  kept  shut."  Combining  force  and 
management,  he  carried  through  a  series  of  measures  which,  beginning 
with  a  design  of  forcing  the  Pope's  hand,  culminated  in  annihilating 
his  authority  in  England.  The  manipulation  consisted  in  bringing 
to  expression  sentiments  against  clerical  privileges  and  exactions 
which  hitherto  had  not  been  widely  or  openly  voiced.  The  work 
of  the  "  Reformation  Parliament,"  extending  over  seven  years,  is, 
with  one  possible  exception,  the  most  notable  in  English  history. 
Besides  putting  Henry  in  place  of  the  Pope  as  head  of  the  English 
Church,  it  increased  vastly  the  royal  jpowers.  It  decreed  the  dis- 
solution of  the  monasteries,  which  not  only  greatly  augmenteoTtEe" 
royal  revenue,  but  reduced  the  spiritual  party  in  the  House  of  Lords 
and  bound  a  large  class  to  the  Reformation.  It  deprived  the  clergy 
of  independent  powers  of  legislation  in  Convocation,  and  broke  the 
power  of  the  bishops  by  making  them  practically  nominees  of  the 
Crown.  Nor  was  Parliament  as  subservient  as  it  seems  at  first  sight. 
It  indorsed  the  royal  will  in  legislation  against  the  Church  and  clergy 
because  it  suited  the  interest  and  inclination  of  the  majority.  Qln 
more  than  one  case,  however,  especially  those  touching  the  pocket 
of  the  subject,  it  stood  out  against  the  royal  dictation. )  Contrary  to 
the  policy  of  Wolsey,  Henry  and  Cromwell  made  use  of  Parliament 
constantly  to  give  their  measures  an  appearance  of  national  sanction. 
Thus,  while  Parliament  appeared  to  be  a  mere  register  of  the  royal 


316  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

will,  it  was  gainins^invaluable  experience  and  accumulating^ prece- 
dents for  an  increasing  share  in  public  business. "  The  result  was  seen 
under  sovereigns  less  strong  and  less  popular  than  Henry  VIII.  In 
other  ways,  too,  the  work  of  the  Reformation  Parliament  was  far- 
reaching  in  its  effects.  By  handing  over  the  monastic  lands  to  the 
lesser  gentry  and  merchants  it  fostered  a  class  who,  while  bound  to 
the  Tudors  by  ties  of  gratitude,  would  grow  to  be  the  destroyers  of 
the  absolutism  of  their  successors.  Furthermore,  Henry  and  his 
Parliament,  by  breaking  the  spell  of  the  ancient  traditional  Church, 
started  forces  of  opposition,  which,  not  content  with  mere  separation 
from  Rome,  came  in  the  course  of  a  century  to  assert  successfully 
the  principle  that  the  Reformation  should  be  moral  and  religious  as 
well  as  political,  and  that  extremer  forms  of  Protestantism  than 
those  provided  for  in  the  Church  established  by  law  should  receive 
recognition. 

Parliament  storms  the  Outworks,  1529.  —  In  the  very  first  session, 
probably  at  the  instigation  of  Henry  and  Cromwell,  a  number  of 
grievances  against  the  clergy  were  introduced:  against  excessive 
mortuaries l ;  against  extreme  charges  for  the  probate  of  wills 2 ; 
against  the  custom  of  employing  priests  as  surveyors  and  stewards 
to  bishops  and  abbots ;  against  monasteries  that  kept  tanneries, 
that  bought  and  sold  woolen  cloth  and  other  merchandise ;  against 
clerical  non-residence  and  pluralities.  Although  the  bishops  "  frowned 
and  grunted,"  and  one  protested  that  Parliament  sought  the  "  goods 
and  not  the  good  of  the  Church,"  bills  were  passed  mitigating  these 
abuses.  This  was  the  result  of  an  understanding  between  the  King 
and  the  laity  that  he  would  help  them  against  the  clergy,  if  they 
would  help  him  against  the  Pope.  The  outworks  of  the  clerical 
position  had  been  successfully  stormed. 

The  Divorce  referred  to  the  Universities,  1530.  — (Following  Cran- 
mer's  suggestion,  the  "  King's  matter "  was  referred  to  the  uni- 
versities 7\  The  opinions  returned  had  little  to  do  with  the  merits 
of  the  case.  It  required  manipulation  to  secure  a  scant  majority 
at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Five  of  the  French  universities,  under 
the  influence  of  Francis,  also  declared  for  Henry,  while  in  Italy 
decisions  were  largely  determined  by  the  bribery  and  influence  which 
the  respective  parties  of  King  and  Emperor  "were  able  to  exert.  Spain 
was,  of  course,  for  Catharine,  and  the  King  gained  no  ground  in  Ger- 
many. 

Henry's  Persecution  of  Heretics.  —  Henry  still  posed  as  the 
orthodox  Defender  of  the  Faith.  Only  occasionally,  as  a  means  of 
putting  pressure  on  the  Pope  or  Emperor,  did  he  make  any  advances 
to  the  Lutherans  and  other  opponents  of  the  old  doctrines.  From 
1528  to  1532  more  than  sixty  heretics  were  compelled  to  abjure,  and 
during  a  period  slightly  longer,  nine  were  burned  and  three  hanged 

1  Fees  claimed  by  the  priest  on  the  death  of  a  parishioner. 

2  The  registering  and  testing  of  the  authenticity  of  wills. 


THE   SEPARATION  FROM   ROME  317 

in  chains.  Some  were  proceeded  against  for  circulating  a  recent  ver- 
sion of  the  New  Testament  in  English.  In  1533  John  Frith,  a  learned 
scholar,  suffered  at  the  stake  for  declaring  that  belief  in  purgatory 
and  transubstantiation  were  not  necessary  to  the  Christian  faith. 

The  Restrictions  of  the  Powers  of  ^pnvpcation^.  1531,  and  the 
"  Submission  of  the  Clergy,"  1532.  —  Meantime,  Henry,  who  in 
1529  had  given  the  clergy  a  foretaste  of  what  they  might  expect, 
proceeded  to  a  more  direct  attack.  At  the  meeting  of  Convocation,  -/ 
in  1531,  he  threatened  the  whole  body  with  the  penalties  of  praemunire 
for  having  submitted  to  Wolsey's  legatine  jurisdiction.  As  the  price 
for  pardon  from  forfeiture  and  imprisonment  they  were  obliged  to 
grant  him  £118,000,  and  to  acknowledge  him  as  their  Supreme  Head 
"  so  far  as  the  law  of  Christ  allows."  Even  with  this  qualifying 
clause,  the  proposal  was  received  gloomily.  "  Whoever  is  silent," 
said  the  Archbishop  Warham,  "  seems  to  consent."  "  Then  we  are 
all  silent,"  was  the  reply,  and  the  measure  was  carried.  It  was 
necessary  to  make  as  much  capital  as  possible  out  of  the  hostility 
to  the  clergy;  for  the  attack  on  Catharine  was  unpopular,  because 
she  was  personally  loved  and  because  her  divorce  might  involve  war 
with  Charles.  This  would  mean  war  taxes  and,  possibly,  the  closing 
of  Flemish  markets  to  English  trade.  Nevertheless,  the  King  went 
ahead  undaunted,  counting  much  on  the  Emperor's  fear  of  Francis 
and  of  his  Lutheran  subjects  as  well  as  on  the  fact  that  the  Flemings 
were  as  dependent  on  England  as  England  was  on  them.  In  the 
session  of  1532  a  petition  was  introduced  into  Parliament  complain- 
ing of  other  clerical  abuses :  their  powers  of  legislation ;  the  excessive 
fees  and  the  wide  jurisdiction  of  their  courts ;  and  their  unjust  ad- 
ministration. Again  Convocation  had  to  yield,  and,  by  the  "  sub- 
mission of  the  clergy,"  they  agreed  to  make  no  new  laws  without 
royal  consent,  and  to  submit  the  existing  ecclesiastical  laws  to  a  com- 
mittee of  clergy  and  laity  for  revision.  This  was  too  much  for  Sir 
Thomas  More,  who  resigned  the  chancellorship  the  next  day. 

Act  of  Annates,  1532.  Henry's  Marriage  to  Anne,  1533.  — Also  in 
the  session  of  1532  Parliament  passed  an  act  providing  that  annates 
or  first  fruits  l  should  no  longer  be  paid  to  the  Pope.  For  the  time 
being  Henry  refrained  from  enforcing  the  Act,2  preferring  to  hold  it 
as  a  weapon  over  the  Pope's  head.  On  25  January,  1533,  he  was 
secretly  married  to  Anne  Boleyn,  and,  in  February,  he  made  Cranmer 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  succession  to  Warham,  who  had  died 
the  previous  August.  Henry's  aim  was  to  employ  the  new  Primate 
to  declare  against  the  validity  of  his  first  marriage  and  for  the  legal- 
ity of  his  second.  Papal  recognition  of  the  appointment,  however, 
was  necessary  in  order  for  the  decision  to  carry  weight.  By  threat- 
ening to  withhold  annates,  Henry  secured  the  requisite  bulls.  This 
done,  he  strengthened  his  hand  by  two  more  important  enactments. 

1  The  first  year's  revenues  of  a  church  living.        z  He  ratified  it  9  July,  1533. 


318  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Act  of  Appeals.     Divorce  of  Catharine,  1533.  —  By  the  Act  of 

Appeals,  Parliament  provided  that  all  spiritual  cases  should  be 
finally  determined  within  the  King's  jurisdiction  and  not  elsewhere, 
and  Convocation  was  forced  to  declare  that  Henry's  marriage  with 
Catharine  was  against  divine  law.  Thus  fortified,  Cranmer,  in 
a  court  held  in  Dunstable,  at  which  Catharine  refused  to  appear, 
pronounced  the  final  sentence  which  deprived  her  of  her  position  as 
Queen,  23  April,  1533. CHer  rival  Anne  was  crowned  i  June^>  In 
September  a  child  was  born,  but  to  the  infinite  disappointment  of 
the  King  it  proved  to  be  a  girl.  Yet  the  little  Elizabeth,  despised 
by  her  father  and  pronounced  illegitimate  by  the  whole  Catholic 
world,  grew  up  to  rule  England  during  one  of  the  most  glorious  epochs 
in  her  history.  The  Pope's  reply  to  the  marriage  and  coronation  of 
Anne  was  to  draw  up  a  bull  of  excommunication  against  the  royal 
couple,1  and  at  Easter  of  the  following  year  to  issue  a  formal  decision 
that  Catharine  was  Henry's  lawful  wife  and  that  he  should  take  her  back. 
But,  some  time  before,  Henry  had  declared  that  if  the  Pope  launched 
ten  thousand  excommunications  he  would  not  care  a  straw  for  them. 
The  Memorable  Sessions  of  1534.  —  In  the  year  1534  Parliament 
held  two  memorable  sessions  and  passed  a  series  of  acts  by  which  the 
authority  of  the  Pope  in  England  was  completely  abolished  and  that 
of  the  King  set  up  in  its  place,  (i)  The  Act  of  AnnajLes,was  confirmed 
and  extended.  By  the  new  Act,  among  other  things,  the  election  of 
bishops  and  abbots  was  virtually  vested  in  the  Crown.  The  deans 
and  chapters  of  cathedrals  and  the  monks  of  monasteries  still  went 
through  the  form ;  but  as  they  prayed  for  guidance,  it  came  to  them 
in  a  royal  letter  naming  the  candidate.  (2)  Another  act  forbade  the 
payment  of  Peters  Pence  and  all  other  pensions  and  fees  to  Rome. 
The  right  ofHie~Pope  to  issue  licenses  and  dispensations  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury ;  no  clerk  was  to  pay  any  more 
money,  nor  take  any  oath  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome ;  and  no  abbey  or 
monastery  was  to  be  visited  by  his  authority  or  his  agents.  (3)  A 
third  act  confirmed  the  Submission  of  the  Clergy  of  1532,  and  re- 
affirmed the  Act  of  Appeals  by  providing  that  appeals  in  ecclesiastical 
causes  should  go  from  the  Church  courts  to  the  King  in  Chancery.2 
(4)  Finally,  an  Act  of  Succession  settled  the  succession  to  the  throne 
on  the  heirs  of  Henry  by  Anne  Boleyn.  It  was  declared  high  treason 
to  slander  their  marriage,  "  by  writing,  print,  deed,  or  act,"  and  an 
oath  was  imposed  on  all  subjects  to  observe  the  whole  contents  of 
the  Statute  upon  pain  of  misprision  of  treason.3  Parliament  ad- 
journed 30  March. 

1  The  excommunication  was  drawn  up  n  July,  1533;  it  was  eventually  dated 
August,  1535,  and  published  in  December,  1538.     A  bull  of  deposition  drawn  up  in 
1535  was  never  published. 

2  A  court  known  as  the  High  Court  of  Delegates  came  to  be  summoned  from 
time  to  time  to  deal  with  special  cases  of  appeal.     It  was  superseded  in  1833  by 
the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council. 

3  Complicity  involving  penalties  less  severe  than  those  visited  on  the  main  of- 
fenders. 


THE   SEPARATION  FROM   ROME  319 

Executions  under  the  Act  of  Succession,  1534.  "  The  Nun  of 
Kent."  -  During  the  summer,  commissioners  went  about  administer- 
ing the  oath  of  succession,  and  many  who  withstood  the  royal  will 
paid  dearly,  even  with  their  lives.  Some,  however,  were  put  to  death 
on  other  grounds.  The  first  to  suffer  was  Elizabeth  Barton,  "  the 
Nun^of  Kent  " ;  she  was  a  poor  servant  girl,  who,  in  1525,  after  a 
serious  illness,  had  come  suddenly  into  fame  by  falling  into  trances, 
when  she  saw  visions  and  foretold  the  future.  Crowds  flocked  to  her 
to  learn  their  fate  in  this  life  and  the  life  to  come.  If  in  her  hysterical 
mania  she  deceived  herself  and  others,  she  meant  to  do  good,  seeking 
to  turn  those  who  came  to  her  from  worldly  to  heavenly  things.  In 
an  evil  moment  she  was  drawn  into  the  King's  affair,  and  led  to 
declare  against  his  treatment  of  Catharine,  and  to  prophesy  his  speedy 
death.  She  wras  lodged  in  the  Tower,  a  confession  of  fraud  was  ex- 
torted from  her,  a  bill  of  attainder  was  drawn  up,  and  20  April,  1534, 
she  and  five  companions  were  put  to  death  at  Tyburn. 

Imprisonment  of  More  and  Fisher.  —  Among  those  included  in 
the  attainder  were  More  and  Fisher,  the  saintly  Bishop  of  Rochester. 
More  had  had  some  conversation  with  the  "  Nun,"  though  in  the  end 
he  had  pronounced  her  a  "  false,  deceiving  hypocrite,"  yet,  while 
he  was  prepared  to  accept  loyally  any  constitutional  arrangements 
which  Henry  chose  to  make  as  a  temporal  ruler,  he  could  not  bring 
himself  to  believe  that  the  treatment  of  Catharine  was  right,  or  that 
as  a  Catholic,  he  could  give  his  sanction  to  the  renunciation  of  papal 
authority.  Henry  was  determined  not  to  allow  a  subject  of  More's 
position  to  hold  such  views,  because  of  the  encouragement  it  might 
offer  to  others.  It  would,  so  he  argued,  gravely  menace  the  system 
he  was  constructing  so  laboriously,  and  might  lead  even  to  civil  war 
and  foreign  invasion.  Hence,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  cram  his  policy 
down  the  ex-Chancellor's  throat  or  to  destroy  him.  For  the  moment, 
however,  after  More  had  been  allowed  to  speak  privately  in  his  own 
defense,  his  name  was  withdrawn  from  the  bill.  Fisher,  who  had 
accepted  the  Nun's  revelations,  though  he  heard  nothing  that  was 
concealed  from  the  King,  was  convicted  of  misprision  of  treason  and 
sentenced  to  a  fine  of  £300.  The  next  step  was  to  make  More  and 
Fisher  take  the  oath  of  succession.  Although  they  were  willing  to 
accept  the  line  of  succession  as  regulated  in  the  act,  they  refused  the 
oath  because  it  repudiated  the  primacy  of  the  Pope  and  involved  an 
acknowledgment  that  the  marriage  of  Henry  and  Catharine  had 
been  unlawful  from  the  first  and  that  the  Princess  Mary  was 
illegitimate.  For  their  refusal  both  were  sent  to  the  Tower. 

Proceedings  against  the  Friars  and  the  Carthusian  Monks.  — 
The  royal  commissioners  for  imposing  the  oath  also  busied  themselves 
silencing  preachers,  both  papal  and  Lutheran.  Partly  from  terror  and 
partly  because  the  bulk  of  the  laity  were  on  the  royal  side,  the  King's 
orders  were  generally  obeyed  by  the  secular  and  some  of  the  regular 
clergy.  The  only  unanimous  resistance  came  from  the  friars,  and 


320  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

17  June,  two  cartloads  were  driven  to  the  Tower.  The  Observants  l 
at  Richmond  and  Greenwich  refused  flatly  to  take  the  oath,  which 
offered  an  excuse  for  suppressing  the  Order  throughout  England. 
Their  houses  were  seized,  and  such  of  their  members  as  had  not  already 
been  imprisoned  were  distributed  among  various  monasteries,  loaded 
in  chains,  and  subjected  to  other  harsh  treatment.  The  Bridgettine 
Monks  of  Sion  and  the  Carthusians  in  London,  whose  foundation 
was  more  familiarly  known  as  the  "  Charterhouse  "  were  equally 
obstinate.  The  latter  were  a  little  community  of  devoted  men  who, 
in  the  heart  of  the  City,  lived  in  quiet  contemplation,  and  were  famed 
for  their  sanctity  and  self-denial.  While  they  had  not  openly  opposed 
the  divorce,  it  was  only  after  considerable  persuasion  and  pressure 
that  they  were  induced  to  take  the  oath.  This  gained  them  only 
a  short  respite.  Their  prior,  John  Houghton,  a  man  of  noble  birth, 
of  refined  taste,  and  rare  personal  charm,  foresaw  what  was  in  store 
for  them.  "  Our  hour  "  he  told  his  little  band,  "  is  not  yet  come." 

Henry  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  in  England,  1534-1535.  — 
On  3  November,  the  Parliament  of  1534  reassembled  to  resume  its 
work  of  completing  the  separation  from  Rome,  and  of  transferring 
the  control  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  from  the  Pope  to  the  King.  First, 
an  act  was  passed  declaring  Henry  "  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  of 
England,"  this  time  without  the  qualification  made  by  Convocation 
in  1531.  A  new  Treason  Act  imposed  the  death  penalty  on  any  one 
who  called  the  King  a  "heretic,  schismatic,  tyrant, infidel,  or  usurper  "  ; 
the  Act  of  Succession  was  reenforced  by  defining  precisely  the  terms  of 
the  accompanying  oath ;  and  an  Act  of  Attainder  was  drawn  up  against 
More  and  Fisher  for  refusing  to  take  the  oath,  which  had  not  hitherto 
been  framed  in  statutory  form.  On  15  January,  1535,  the  new  title 
of  Supreme  Head  was  incorporated  into  the  royal  title  by  letter  patent. 
Henry  was  now  absolute  ruler  over  Church  as  well  as  State  in  his  own 
land.  He  said  that  three  things  especially  satisfied  him  in  what  had 
been  accomplished ;  the  increase  of  his  revenue,  the  union  of  his 
kingdom,  andjpeace_of  conscience  in  having  thrown  off  subjection 
lo~Rome.  But  alF  that  he  had  done  and  acquired  only  whetted  his 
appetite  for  more. 

The  Executions  of  Houghton,  Reynolds,  More,  and  Fisher,  1535.  — 
Houghton,  together  with  two  other  Carthusian  priors,  and  Dr.  Rey- 
nolds of  the  monastery  of  Sion,  who  refused  a  new  oath  tendered 
them  under  the  Acts  of  Supremacy  and  Succession,  were  executed 
4  May,  1535,  with  barbarous  cruelty.  Reynolds  was  bold  enough 
to  declare  at  his  trial  that  "  all  good  men  in  the  kingdom  were  on  his 
side,  while  many  who  professed  the  King's  side  did  so  merely  from  fear 
or  hope."  Their  unflinching  courage,  and  the  French  King's  refusal 
to  repudiate  the  Pope,  sealed  the  fate  of  More  and  Fisher.  More, 
confronted  with  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  declined  to  accept  or  deny  it ; 

1  They  were  the  Franciscans  of  the  stricter  branch. 


THE   SEPARATION  FROM   ROME  321 

for,  he  declared,  it  was  like  a  two-edged  sword,  "if  he  said  it  were 
good,  he  would  imperil  his  soul,  if  he  said  contrary  to  the  Statute,  it 
was  death  to  the  body."  Yet  he  professed  himself  a  faithful  subject : 
"  I  say  no  harm,  I  think  no  harm ;  but  I  wish  everybody  good.  And 
if  this  be  not  enough  to  keep  a  man  alive  ...  I  long  not  to  live." 
Although  Fisher  was  old  and  broken  in  health,  the  case  against  him 
was  clearer.  He  had  fought  Catharine's  cause  valiantly  in  the  legatine 
court ;  he  would  not  accept  the  Act  of  Supreme  Head ;  and,  to  crown 
all,  the  new  Pope,  Paul  III,  created  him  a  cardinal.  When  the  news 
reached  Henry  he  cried  in  a  burst  of  wrath  :  "  Let  the  Pope  send  him 
a  hat  when  he  will ;  but  I  will  provide  that  ...  he  shall  wear  it  on 
his  shoulders ;  for  head  he  shall  have  none."  Fisher  was  beheaded, 
22  June,  at  Tower  Hill.  Removing  his  haircloth  shirt  and  donning 
his  best  apparel  as  if  for  a  wedding  ceremony,  he  ascended  the  scaffold 
joyfully :  "he  spoke  to  the  people  boldly,  telling  them  to  be  loving 
and  obedient  to  the  King,  who  was  good  by  nature,  but  had  been 
deceived  in  this  matter,"  and  said  he  died  contentedly  for  the  honor 
of  God  and  the  Holy  See.  More  followed  him  to  the  grave  6  July. 
At  his  last  examination  he  denounced  the  Act  of  Supreme  Head  as 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  God  and  the  Holy  Church,  a  violation  of  Magna 
Carta  and  the  coronation  oath.  When  he  was  reproached  by  the 
Chancellor  for  setting  up  his  opinion  against  that  of  all  the  nobles 
and  bishops  of  the  realm,  he  flashed  back :  "  for  one  bishop  of  your 
opinion  I  have  a  hundred  saints  for  mine,  and  for  one  Parliament  of 
yours,  and  God  knows  what  kind,  I  have  all  the  general  councils  for 
a  thousand  years."  As  he  reached  the  steps  of  the  scaffold  he  said 
to  the  lieutenant,  "  I  pray  thee  see  me  safely  up,  and  for  my  coming 
down  let  me  shift  for  myself."  With  his  dying  words  he  prayed  God 
to  send  the  King  good  counsel. 

The  Death  of  Catharine,  8  January,  1536.  —  More  and  Fisher 
died  martyrs  to  their  faith,  which  was  grounded  on  the  tradition  of 
ages  and  the  universal  beliefs  of  Christendom.  In  Henry's  opinion 
they  merited  death  because  they  defied  his  authority,  thereby  threaten- 
ing the  stability  of  the  system  he  had  set  up  and  the  unity  of  his 
kingdom.  The  executions  sent  a  shock  through  Catholic  Europe  and 
put  an  end  to  the  last  hope  of  a  settlement  with  the  Pope.  On  Crom- 
well's advice  Henry  sought  an  alliance  with  the  Lutheran  princes 
ranged  against  the  Emperor.  It  came  to  nothing,  for  they  would 
only  agree  on  condition  that  he  accept  the  Augsburg  Confession,1 
whereas  Henry,  "  being  a  king  reckoned  somewhat  learned,"  accord- 
ing to  his  own  description  of  himself,  insisted  upon  settling  the  faith 
of  England  in  his  own  way.  Notwithstanding,  the  articles  of  faith, 
soon  to  be  issued  by  royal  command,  show  distinct  traces  of  Lutheran 
influence.  Ever  since  her  unmerited  disgrace  Catharine  had  been 
living  in  retirement  under  the  title  of  "  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales." 

1  The  Lutheran  Confession  of  Faith  presented  to  the  Emperor  at  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg,  1539. 
Y 


322  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Death  finally  released  the  poor  Queen  from  her  unhappiness,  8 
January,  1536.  It  is  now  believed  that  she  died  from  cancer  of  the 
heart,  but  the  event  was  so  welcome  to  Henry  that  many  have 
suspected  that  she  was  poisoned.  "  God  be  praised  !  "  cried  the  King 
when  he  heard  the  news,  and  the  next  day  he  appeared  at  a  ball  with 
a  white  feather  in  his  hat,  and  clad  from  head  to  foot  in  festive  yellow. 
The  Condition  of  the  Monasteries  on  the  Eve  of  their  Dissolution, 
(f —  Having  made  himself  supreme  head  of  Church  as  well  as  State, 
Henry's  next  step  was  to  secure  lesources  to  maintain  his  absolutism,^ 
and  by  a  judicious  distribution  of  bribes  to  guard  against  a  return 
to  the  old  order.  A  way  was  discovered  in  the  dissplutionjof_the  mofl- 
asteries,  which  offered  the  further  attraction  of  crushing^  class  which 
contained  the  most  determined  opponents  of  the  royal  policy.  These 
were  the  real  reasons  for  the  step,  suggested,  no  doubt,  by  the  resource- 
ful Cromwell,  who  boasted  that  he  would  make  his  King  the  richest 
prince  in  Christendom.  On  .21  January,  1535,  he  received  a  com- 
mission as;  Vicar-General  and  Vicegerent  to  hold  a  general  visitation 
of  all  the  churches  and  monastic  and  collegiate  bodies  in  the  realm. 
The  King  and  his  supporters  represented  to  Parliament  that  they 
were  proceeding  against  the  monasteries  because  of  .the  "slothful 
and  ungodly  lives  "  led  by  the  inmates.  This,  however,  was  largely 
a  pretext,  and  the  charges  brought  forward  to  support  it  were  doubt- 
less greatly  exaggerated ;  moreover,  the  manner  in  which  the  work 
was  carried  out  cannot  be  justified.  On  the  other  hand,  the  condition 
of  the  monasteries  was  such  as  to  lend  at  least  a  color  of  justice  to 
the  movement  against  them.  Formerly  they  had  been  the  pioneers 
in  husbandry,  felling  the  forests,  draining  the  marshes,  and  cultivating 
the  waste  places,  or,  in  the  case  of  the  Cistercians,  in  sheep  raising. 
They  had  served  as  inns  for  travelers,  as  depositories  for  articles  of 
value ;  they  had  cared  for  the  poor,  and  had  fostered  learning  and 
education.  But  they  no  longer  filled  the  place  which  they  had  in  the 
past.  Their  agricultural  methods  were  antiquated,  and  they  no 
longer  drew  from  the  capital  in  their  possession  the  returns  which 
>  might  be  expected  from  efficient  management.  Their  method  of 
promiscuous  giving  tended  to  nourish  poverty  rather  than  to  check 
it,  while  their  scholastic  and  educational  methods  were  quite  out  of 
date.  As  their  influence  declined,  the  merchant  and  agricultural 
classes  began  more  and  more  to  hunger  after  their  vast  wealth.  All 
through  the  fifteenth  century  their  numbers  had  fallen  off  steadily. 
From  1399  to  1509  only  eight  houses  of  religion  and  seventy  houses 
of  learning  and  charity l  had  been  founded.  Of  twelve  hundred 
monasteries  established  since  the  introduction  of  Roman  Catholicism 
into  England  hardly  more  than  half  had  survived  into  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.  Further,  religious  orders  had  been  subject  to  inter- 
mittent attacks  on  the  part  of  the  temporal  power  from  a  period  as 

1  I.e.,  colleges,  schools,  and  hospitals. 


THE   SEPARATION  FROM   ROME  323 

early  as  the  reign  of  Edward  II,  when  twenty-three  preceptories  of 
the  Knights  Templars  were  destroyed.  The  pious  Henry  V,  as  a  blow 
against  France,  suppressed  the  alien  priories.  In  1506,  when  Bishop 
Foxe  of  Winchester  was  thinking  of  making  monastic  endowments, 
a  brother  bishop  declared  that  "  the  monks  have  already  more  than 
they  are  like  to  keep,"  and  Wolsey's  dissolution  of  some  of  the  smaller 
monasteries  followed  not  many  years  after.  The  extent  of  the 
monastic  wealth  was  doubtless  exaggerated.  According  to  some 
accounts  the  monks  owned  at  least  a  quarter  of  the  realm,  but  more 
sober  and  reliable  estimates  put  it  at  about  one  tenth.1 

Cromwell's  Monastic  Visitors,  1535-1536.  —  In  July,  1535,  visitors 
appointed  by  Cromwell  began  their  rounds.  Armed  with  articles 
of  inquiry,  they  hurried  from  house  to  house,  asking  all  sorts  of  ques- 
tions about  revenues  and  debts,  about  relics,  pilgrimages,  supersti- 
tions, and  immoralities.  They  were  an  ambitious,  greedy,  and  un- 
scrupulous set,  chiefly  concerned  with  securing  the  sort  of  information 
that  would  suit  their  purpose.  The  letters  and  reports  or  "  comperts  " 
which  they  sent  to  the  Vicegerent  seem  to  have  been  based  upon  the 
scantiest  as  well  as  the  most  partial  investigation ;  for  they  feared  to 
lose  any  time  lest  the  monks  might  seize  the  opportunity  to  dispose 
of  their  plate  and  jewels.  By  no  means  all  the  houses  were  visited ; 
but  enough  to  frame  a  case  for  Parliament.  Besides  the  articles  of 
inquiry  the  visitors  carried  with  them  a  series  of  injunctions  which 
they  were  authorized  to  impose  upon  the  monasteries  which  they 
visited.  Some  were  obviously  designed  to  destroy  the  communities 
against  which  they  should  be  enforced.  Monks  were  not  only  to 
accept,  but  to  teach  royal  supremacy  and  repudiation  of  papal  claims ; 
they  were  forbidden  to  leave  their  grounds  and  buildings,  which 
made  the  management  of  their  distant  estates  impossible ;  and  they 
were  ordered  to  spy  on  and  report  their  disobedient  superiors,  thus 
subverting  all  discipline.  Some  of  the  injunctions,  however,  provided 
for  salutary  reforms.  (Victuals  were  not  to  be  distributed  to  sturdy 
and  idle  beggars ;)  tables  were  to  be  "  not  over  sumptuous,  and  full 
of  delicate  and  strange  dishes,  but  honestly  furnished  with  common 
meats"  ;  reading  and  study  of  the  Scriptures  was  enjoined ;  and  each 
house  was  to  maintain  a  monk  or  two  at  the  universities  to  better 
prepare  him  to  teach  and  preach  the  word  of  God. 

The  Act  Suppressing  the  Smaller  Monasteries,  1536.  —  When 
Parliament  met,  4  February,  1536,  popular  feeling  in  the  City  was 
inflamed  by  means  of  sermons,  caricatures,  and  pamphlets.  Cran- 
mer  declared  at  Paul's  Cross  that  the  destruction  of  the  monasteries 
would  relieve  the  people  of  a  great  burden  of  taxation.  It  is  stated 
that  "  when  the  enormities  were  first  read  in  Parliament  House  they 
were  so  great  and  abominable  that  there  was  nothing  but  '  down 
with  them,'  "  and  an  act  was  carried  suppressing  all  monastic  houses 

1  The  total  ecclesiastical  revenue  has  been  computed  at  £320,000;  of  this  about 
£150,000  was  monastic. 


324  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

with  an  income  under  £200  a  year  or  with  less  than  twelve  inmates.1 
Commissions  composed  of  local  gentry,  appointed  to  wind  up  the 
affairs  of  the  houses  denounced  by  Cromwell's  agents,  testified  to  the 
fair  character  of  many.  Nevertheless,  aside  from  biased  reports 
of  the  visitors  and  the  charges  in  contemporary  satires  and  ballads, 
the  correspondence  of  men  high  in  the  Church  testifies  that  there  was 
much  need  of  reform.  It  might  have  been  well,  too,  for  economic 
reasons,  to  suppress  or  consolidate  the  smaller  and  poorer  houses, 
but  it  seems  very  strange  to  have  drawn  the  line  between  virtue  and 
vice  at  £200  a  year  or  at  groups  of  twelve.  There  is  a  story  that 
Henry  resorted  to  great  pressure  to  carry  the  measure,  that  he  sum- 
moned the  Commons  before  him  and  announced  that  he  would  have 
the  passage  of  the  bill  or  some  of  their  heads.  •  In  the  Upper  House 
one  speaker  referring  to  the  smaller  houses  said :  "  These  were  the 
thorns,  but  the  great  abbots  were  the  petrified  old  oaks  and  they  must 
follow."  This  prophecy  was  soon  realized. 

In  accordance  with  the  Act  some  376  monasteries  were  dissolved. 
A  portion  of  their  inmates  went  into  larger  houses,  others  were  provided 
with  pensions.  By  paying  large  sums  of  money  a  few  houses  were 
allowed  to  continue  for  a  time.  As  near  as  can  be  estimated,  about 
2000  monks  and  nuns  were  dispossessed,  and  of  servants,  farm 
laborers,  and  others  dependent  upon  them,  perhaps  four  times  as 
many  more  were  affected.  Aside  from  lands  and  buildings,  money, 
plate,  and  jewels,  as  well  as  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  lead,  bells, 
cattle,  and  furniture,  passed  into  the  King's  hands.  For  dealing  with 
all  this  property  a  special  court  known  as  the  Court  of  Augmenta- 
tions was  created.  The  smaller  monasteries  having  been  disposed  of, 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  were  next  visited,  measures  were  framed 
against  the  old  learning,  and  others  were  adopted  to  encourage  the 
study  of  Greek  and  Hebrew. 

The  Execution  of  Anne  Boleyn,  1536. —On  14  April,  1536,  the 
Reformation  Parliament,  after  nearly  seven  years  of  epoch-making 
legislation,  was  dissolved.  Within  a  month,  that  "  principal  nurse  of 
all  heresies,"  the  woman  about  which  so  many  of  its  measures  centered, 
had  been  put  to  death.  Even  before  the  decease  of  her  unhappy 
rival,  Anne  had  begun  to  lose  the  King's  affection.  She  was  light  and 
frivolous,  to  be  sure ;  but  her  worst  offenses  were  her  unpopularity  and 
her  failure  to  give  birth  to  a  male  heir.  Early  in  May,  charges  were 
brought  against  her  so  monstrous  that  Cranmer  expressed  himself 
as  "  clean  amazed  "  at  them.  After  condemnation  by  a  body  of 
peers  summoned  by  the  King  her  marriage  was  dissolved  by  an  ecclesi- 

1  Besides  the  comperts,  later  writers  speak  of  a  famous  ."Black  Book,"  contain- 
ing the  results  of  the  visitors'  findings,  which  was  laid  before  Parliament.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Protestant  writers  of  Elizabeth's  reign  it  was  destroyed  during  the  Catho- 
lic reaction  under  Queen  Mary,  while  historians  of  the  opposite  party  have  insisted 
that  it  was  disposed  of  earlier,  because  it  contained  charges  that  could  not  be  sub- 
stantiated. There  is  no  good  evidence  that  such  a  book  ever  existed. 


THE   SEPARATION   FROM   ROME  325 

astical  court  presided  over  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  On 
the  igth,  Anne  was  beheaded.  Submissive  to  the  law,  accusing  no 
one,  she  met  her  death  cheerfully  and  courageously.  Yet,  in  spite 
of  her  melancholy  end,  she  had  been  so  arrogant  during  her  ascendancy 
that  few  regretted  her  fate.  On  that  very  19  May,  Cranmer  issued 
a  dispensation  permitting  the  King  to  marry  Jane  Seymour.  The 
wedding  took  place  on  the  3oth.  A  week  later  a  new  Parliament 
packed  in  the  King's  interest  met.  Anne's  daughter  was  declared 
illegitimate,  and  the  succession  settled  upon  Henry's  issue  by  his  new 
marriage. 

Need  for  a  Doctrinal  Settlement.  —  As  yet  the  King  had  been  too 
much  occupied  with  other  business  to  undertake  any  doctrinal  settle- 
ment. Religious  belief  was  in  a  state  of  ferment.  An  extreme  Prot- 
estant wing  was  forming,  favored  by  leaders  like  Cranmer  and  Bishop 
Latimer  of  Worcester,  the  greatest  preacher  of  his  day.  Extremists 
were  giving  vent  to  the  most  extravagant  views.  One  said  that 
goods  should  be  in  common,  another  that  priests  and  churches  were 
unnecessary,  another  that  the  singing  the  service  was  but  "  roaring, 
howling,  whining,  juggling,"  while  still  another  declared  that  it  was 
of  no  more  use  to  pray  to  the  saints  than  to  hurl  a  stone  against  the 
wind.  These  streams,  unless  they  were  dammed  at  once,  threatened 
to  swell  into  an  irresistible  torrent  of  anarchy.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Catholics  were  raising  their  heads  once  more.  In  June,  1536, 
a  book  against  the  King,  entitled  Liber  de  Unitate  Ecclesia,  arrived  in 
England.  It  was  written  by  Reginald  Pole,  a  grandson  of  the  Yorkist 
Duke  of  Clarence.  Once  a  favorite  of  Henry's  and  educated  at  the 
royal  expense,  he  had  broken  with  him  and  had  taken  refuge  in  Italy, 
where  he  was  busy  striving  to  unite  the  Catholic  powers  against  his 
former  sovereign. 

The  Ten  Articles  "  for  Establishing  Christian  Quietness,"  1536.  — 
Convocation,  which  met  9  June,  1536,  contained  two  well-defined 
parties,  a  conservative  and  a  reactionary.  With  a  view  to  establish- 
ing order,  Henry  caused  a  body  of  articles  to  be  introduced,  adopted, 
and  imposed  on  the  whole  country.  Five  dealt  with  matters  of  faith, 
which,  it  was  stated,  were  ordained  of  God,  and  hence  necessary  to 
salvation;  five  dealt  with  matters  instituted  by  the  Church,  which 
were  to  be  observed,  though  not  essential  to  salvation.  In  the  first 
group  were  all  the  things  contained  in  the  Bible  and  the  Three  Creeds1 ; 
together  with  three  of  the  seven  sacraments :  baptism,  penance,  and 
the  Holy  Eucharist.2  Confession  and  the  Real  Presence  were  defined 
as  essential  elements  of  the  two  latter,  respectively.  Luther's  doctrine 

1  The  three  fundamental  creeds  of  the  Christian  Church  were  the  Apostles',  the 
Nicene,  and  the  Athanasian. 

2  A  sacrament  was  defined  as  ah  outward  and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and 
spiritual  grace.     The  seven  which  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  had  adopted  were  :^ 
baptism,  confirmation,  the  eucharist,  penance,  ordination,  marriage,  and  extreme' 
unction. 


326  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  justification  by  faith  was  also  included  in  this  first  group.  Passing 
to  the  second  group,  images,  though  they  were  not  to  be  worshiped, 
were  declared  allowable,  as  "  lively  aids  to  faith."  Honor  and  prayers 
to  saints  were  permitted,  though  they  were  not  to  receive  the  honor 
due  to  God.  Rites  and  ceremonies,  such  as  the  use  of  holy  water, 
vestments,  and  candles,  were  continued.  Prayers  for  departed  souls 
were  also  retained  as  a  good  and  charitable  custom;  but  the  claim  of 
the  Church  of  Rome  to  deliver  souls  from  purgatory  was  rejected. 
As  a  supplement  to  the  articles,  royal  injunctions  were  issued  which 
suppressed  pilgrimages,  curtailed  the  excessive  number  of  holy  days, 
and  forbade  the  worship  of  images  and  relics.  Many  of  the  latter 
were  destroyed,  partly  to  weaken  the  hold  of  the  ancient  Church  over 
superstitious  minds,  and  partly  to  swell  the  Crown  revenues.  Yet 
Henry  still  aimed  to  preserve  the  Catholic  faith,  merely  purged  of  what 
he  regarded  as  glaring  immoralities.  He  repealed  the  act  of  Henry  IV, 
de  hceretico  comburendo,  because  it  gave  too  much  power  to  the  bishops, 
but  he  reenacted  the  measures  of  Richard  II  and  Henry  V  which  made 
heresy  an  offense  at  common  law.  Nor  were  his  recent  changes  as 
radical  as  they  seemed.  Leaders  in  the  Church,  Pole,  for  example, 
accepted  justification  by  faith,  while  worship  of  images  and  pil- 
grimages to  shrines  had  long  been  discontinued  by  many  devout  and 
orthodox  men.  Moreover,  although  he  borrowed  from  the  Augsburg 
/Confession,  Henry  refused  to  swallow  it  whole. 

/  The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  and  its  Causes,  1536. — The  recent 
^  changes,  however,  produced  a  serious  revolt  in  the  North  Country. 
There  the  people,  much  under  the  influence  of  the  priests  and  nobles, 
clung  to  the  old  forms,  and  their  natural  hostility  to  innovations  was 
fanned  into  flame  by  the  dispossessed  monks  who  wandered  about, 
pouring  complaints  into  their  willing  ears.  The  primary  cause  of 
the  "  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,"  as  it  is  generally  called,  was  religious ; 
but  political  and  social  factors  contributed  to  make  the  rising  a  com- 
plex and  general  manifestation  of  discontent.  That  is  why  the  move- 
ment was  so  widespread  and  why  it  failed  to  hold  together  for  any 
length  of  time.  All  classes  had  grievances.  The  nobles  were  jealous 
of  the  leading  part  played  by  the  commons  in  the  Reformation  Parlia- 
ment and  of  the  preference  given  to  "  base-born  councilors  "  like 
Cromwell.  The  country  gentry  were  especially  aggrieved  at  the  dis- 
possession of  the  monks,  to  whom  they  were  indebted  for  jovial 
hospitality  and  for  the  education  of  their  children.  Another  grievance 
which  the  gentry  felt  with  particular  keenness  was  the  Statute  of 
Uses,  just  passed.  In  those  days  the  law  did  not  permit  the  devising 
of  lands  by  will,  and  it  had  been  the  custom  to  evade  this  restriction 
by  leaving  them  to  the  "  use  "  of  another.  The  statute  of  1536  — 
aimed  against  this  practice  —  worked  a  great  hardship  to  the  land- 
owner, for  it  prevented  him  from  providing  for  his  younger  sons  or 
from  raising  money  by  mortgages  hitherto  secured  by  the  use  of  their 
lands.  Other  grievances  weighed  heavily  upon  the  small  free- 


THE   SEPARATION  FROM   ROME  327 

holders  and  leaseholders :  statutes  against  the  abuse  of  enclosures 
were  less  effectively  enforced  in  the  north  than  elsewhere,  while  a 
recent  enactment  removed  to  Westminster  cases  which  had  been 
formerly  tried  in  the  northern  courts.  In  an  area  so  generally  dis- 
affected it  needed  only  sparks  to  kindle  a  flame.  These  came  from 
three  commissions  which  were  making  their  rounds  in  the  late  summer 
of  1536.  One  was  collecting  the  second  portion  of  a  subsidy  voted  in 
1534.  Another  was  enforcing  a  series  of  religious  injunctions  issued 
by  Cromwell,  and  examining  the  character  and  competence  of  the 
parish  clergy.  The  third  was  supervising  the  dissolution  of  the  mon- 
asteries. All  sorts  of  rumors  were  afloat.  It  was  said  that  Cromwell, 
who  was  planning  the  excellent  system  of  parish  registers  which 
England  owes  to  him,  was  about  to  impose  a  tax  on  every  baptism, 
wedding,  and  funeral,  and  even  that  he  meditated  the  destruction  of 
all  parish  churches. 

The  Lincolnshire  Rising.  —  The  outbreak  occurred  at  Louth  in 
Lincolnshire  on  Sunday,  i  October.  From  there  the  revolt  spread ; 
bells  were  rung,  beacon  lights  were  kindled,  priests,  monks,  and  com- 
mons joined  together,  and  soon  the  whole  neighboring  district  was 
in  arms.  The  royal  representatives  were  seized  and  forced  to  take 
an  oath  to  be  true  to  the  King,  Church,  and  Commonwealth,  while 
rich  men  and  knights  were  made  to  join  the  cause  by  threats  of  hang- 
ing. The  objects  of  the  insurgents  were  stated  in  a  petition  sent  to 
the  King.  It  demanded  that :  (i)  Religious  houses  be  restored^: 
(2)  the  subsidy  be  remitted ;  (3)  the  clergy  pay  no  more  tenths  and 
firstiruits  to  the  Crown ;  (4)  the  Statute  of  Uses  be  repealed;  (5)jyj1-— 
lein  bloo/1  fop  rFrnmrprl  t'rnm  *hp  Privy  fVmpril  •  (6)  that  the  "  heretic 
bishops'7'  Cranmer  arifl  T.ntimpr  chrmjd  frp  Deprived  and  punished.^ 
The  chancellor  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  was  clubbed  to  death,  ancTone 
or  two  men  were  hanged ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  rising  was  astonish- 
ingly free  from  violence.  Within  a  week,  an  army  of  40,000  assembled 
at  Lincoln  under  a  linen  banner  inscribed  with  the  five  wounds  of 
Christ,  a  chalice  with  the  host,  a  plow,  and  a  horse.  At  Lincoln 
they  received  the  royal  answer  to  their  demands.  It  was  utterly 
uncompromising  and  scornfully  denounced  the  presumption  shown 
by  a  rude  and  ignorant  people  in  dictating  the  policy  of  the  realm. 
Meantime,  the  inactivity  of  the  rebels,  due  to  unwilling  leaders, 
had  given  the  shire  levies  under  the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury  and  a  royal 
army  under  Suffolk  time  to  assemble.  The  ill-organized  rebel  force 
was  compelled  to  disperse.  In  spite  of  Henry's  bloody  orders  to  the 
contrary,  Suffolk  was  wisely  merciful,  and  the  Lincolnshire  rising 
cost  no  more  than  the  lives  of  forty-six  of  the  leaders. 

The  Northern  Rising  under  Robert  Aske.  —  By  this  time,  however, 
the  rising  had  spread  to  Yorkshire,  under  the  leadership  of  Robert 
Aske,  who  had  been  caught  in  the  toils  of  the  rebellion  while  passing 
through  Lincoln  on  his  way  to  London.  On  the  King's  denial  of  the 
Lincolnshire  petition  he  fled  across  the  Trent  and  became  the  heart 


328  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  soul  of  the  movement.  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland  cast  in 
their  lot  with  Yorkshire,  and  erelong  most  of  the  great  northern 
families  were  represented  in  the  insurgent  ranks.  Aske,  whose  forces 
had  swelled  to  nearly  40,000  men,  took  a  position  a  short  distance  north 
of  Doncaster  which  was  held  by  an  army  of  less  than  10,000  under 
the  Duke  of  Norfolk.  Realizing  the  hopelessness  of  his  position, 
Norfolk  finally  promised  a  pardon  for  all  and  a  free  Parliament  if  the 
rebel  leader  would  disband  his  forces.  Henry  regarded  the  conces- 
sion as  a  humiliating  surrender,  and  when  certain  rash  spirits,  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  Aske,  started  a  new  rising,  he  made  it  a  pretext 
for  a  bloody  reprisal.  Aske,  together  with  a  few  of  the  other  rebel 
leaders,  was  seized  and  placed  in  the  Tower.  Notwithstanding  their 
efforts  in  subduing  the  recent  outbreak,  they  were  tried  and  con- 
victed of  treason.  Aske  was  hanged  in  chains  at  York,  and  many 
more  were  either  hanged  or  beheaded.  VOne  permanent  result  of  the 
Northern  Rebellion  was  the  establishment  of  a  new  court,  "  The 
President  and  Council  of  the  North."") Primarily  for  maintaining 
order  in  the  tumultuous  border  counties,  it  gradually  absorbed  much 
other  business  and  came  to  be  a  great  engine  of  oppression. 

The  Dissolution  of  the  Larger  Monasteries,  1536-1539.  —  Many 
of  the  abbots  in  the  disturbed  districts  were  attainted  of  treason,  and 
by  a  great  stretch  of  the  law  their  houses  were  suppressed.  The  pro- 
cess, thus  facilitated  by  the  part  which  the  monks  took  in  the  rising, 
went  on  until  not  a  single  religious  house  remained  in  England. 
Henry  had  no  legal  right  to  the  larger  monastic  houses,  especially 
those  not  involved  in  the  rebellion.  So  he  employed  through  his 
agents  the  method  of  "  voluntary  surrender."  Those  heads  who 
consented  to  yield  were  promised  pensions  and  other  rewards,  while 
such  benefits  were  withheld  from  those  who  proved  "  wilful  and 
obstinate."  Thus,  chiefly  during  the  years  1538  and  1539,  some 
150  monasteries  and  50  convents  of  women  were  surrendered  into 
the  royal  hands.  During  the  autumn  of  1538  and  the  spring  of  the 
following  year  the  English  friars  were  destroyed.1  Parliament  in 
1539  dealt  the  final  blow  by  passing  an  act  vesting  in  Henry  and  his 
heirs  all  the  monasteries  which  had  already  or  should  surrender  for 
the  future.  The  abbots  of  Reading,  Colchester,  and  Glastonbury 
were  executed  for  pretended  treason.  With  the  surrender  of  Waltham, 
23  March,  1540,  the  last  of  the  abbeys  fell  victim  to  the  royal  rapacity 
and  the  irresistible  assertion  of  supremacy,  though  the  pretext  that 
their  inmates  led  "  slothful  and  ungodly  lives  "  was  still  insisted  on. 

The  War  on  Ecclesiastical  Frauds  and  Shrines.  —  In  order  to  make 
the  proceedings  acceptable  to  the  people  that  did  not  share  in  the 
spoils,  efforts  were  made  to  reach  out  and  expose  frauds  and  decep- 
tions. A  famous  opportunity  was  found  in  the  "  Rood 2  of  Grace  "  at 

1  The  leading  orders  were :  the  Franciscans,  the  Dominicans,  the  Austins,  and 
the  Carmelites.    They  had  about  200  houses  and  1800  members. 

2  A  rood  is  a  cross  or  crucifix. 


329 

Boxley  in  Kent.  It  consisted  of  a  figure  on  a  cross  which  had  amazed 
and  edified  thousands  by  moving  its  eyes  and  lips.  .It  was  discovered 
that  the  miraculous  effects  were  produced  by  concealed  wires.  Al- 
though its  use  had  apparently  been  discontinued  for  some  time,  the 
rood  was  taken  up  to  London  and  exhibited  to  the  populace.  So, 
too,  a  phial  at  the  abbey  of  Hailes  containing  a  substance  purporting 
to  be  Christ's  blood  was  found  to  be  only  colored  gum.  A  great 
wooden  image,  called  Darvell  Gadarn  and  supposed  to  possess  mar- 
velous powers,  was  taken  from  Wales  to  Smithfield  and  used  to  burn 
Friar  Forest,  a  former  confessor  of  Catharine,  who  had  clung  to  his 
papal  beliefs.  During  the  same  year  in  which  all  this  was  done,  1538, 
war  was  waged  on  shrines,1  partly  to  shatter  belief  in  their  wonderful 
properties,  and  partly  for  the  sake  of  booty.  The  papal  world  was 
shocked  in  proportion  to  the  swelling  of  the  royal  coffers  by  the 
spoliation  of  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  Becket  at  Canterbury,  whence 
wagon  loads  of  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones  and  richly  embroid- 
ered vestments  were  carried  off,  while  the  bones  and  relics  of  the 
Saint  were  contemptuously  burned. 

The  Results  of  the  Dissolution  of  the  Monasteries.  —  It  has  been 
estimated  that  over  8000  monks,  canons,  and  friars  were  dispossessed, 
while  at  least  ten  times  that  number  of  dependents  were  affected. 
The  annual  value  of  property  secured  seems  to  have  been  from 
£150,000  to  £200,000.  Of  this  only  about  £45,000  was  retained  by 
the  King,  the  rest  was  either  appropriated  for  public  purposes  or 
given  or  sold  to  royal  supporters.  The  melting  value  of  the  gold  and 
silver  was  probably  about  £85,000.  Altogether,  what  with  proceeds 
of  sales  and  annual  revenues,  the  King  secured,  exclusive  of  vestments, 
ecclesiastical  furniture,  and  jewels,  close  to  £1,500,000,  an  amount  equal 
in  the  present  day  to  almost  £15,000,000.  Of  the  property  thus 
acquired,  some  was  given  in  pensions  to  the  dispossessed  monks, 
a  very  small  proportion,  however,  of  what  had  been  taken  from  them ; 
some  was  devoted  to  the  erection  of  six  new  bishoprics,2  and  some 
was  applied  to  coast  defenses.  But  the  greater  part  went  to  certain 
favored  nobles  and  gentry.  In  this  way  some  of  the  best  known  of 
the  present  English  families  —  the  Russells,  Dukes  of  Bedford,  and 
the  Cavendishes,  Dukes  of  Devonshire  —  started  on  their  upward 
road.  The  purpose  and  effect  of  the  King's  seeming  generosity  was 
to  ensure  the  permanence  of  the  separation  from  Rome ;  for  men 
gorged  with  church  plunder  would  never  return  to  the  fold.  An- 
other result  of  the  dissolution  was  to  weaken  the  spiritual  power  of 
the  House  of  Lords,  since  the  bishops  were  no  longer  reenforced  by 
abbots  and  priors.  Finally,  the  economic  and  social  situation  was 
profoundly  affected.  A  further  impulse  to  enclosures  was  given, 

1  A  shrine  is  a  tomb  above  ground  containing  the  bones  of  a  saint  or  other  sacred 
person.     At  present  there  are  only  two  in  England,  one  of  St.  Alban  in  his  cathe- 
dral in  that  city,  one  of  Edward  the  Confessor  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

2  Five  of  which  exist  to-day. 


330  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

and  the  State  was  forced  to  give  more  attention  than  would  have  been 
immediately  necessary  to  the  subjects  of  education  and  poor  relief. 
Although  the  monasteries  had  outlived  their  usefulness  and  had 
ceased  to  make  the  best  use  of  their  resources,  the  method  employed 
by  Henry  and  his  agents  to  suppress  them  was  marked  by  great 
cruelty  and  injustice,  and  caused  much  suffering  to  innocent  people. 

The  Translation  of  the  Bible  into  English.  —  In  spite  of  Henry's 
attachment  to  old  forms,  something  was  done  with  his  sanction 
toward  breaking  down  ecclesiastical  exclusiveness  by  putting  the 
Bible  and  portions  of  the  service  into  English.  In  Anglo-Saxon  times 
parts  of  the  Scripture  had  been  done  into  English.  Mainly  through 
Wiclif's  efforts  a  complete  version  had  appeared  toward  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  The  Wiclif  Bible,  however,  failed  to  meet 
the  needs  of  the  Englishmen  of  Henry  VIII 's  day,  and  so  was  not 
reprinted.  Its  language  was  scarcely  intelligible  to  the  masses; 
it  was  based  on  the  old  Latin  Vulgate,1  and  was  associated  in  the  minds 
of  the  authorities  with  the  Lollard  heresy.  William  Tyndale  of 
Cambridge  was  the  first  to  take  up  the  work  anew.  He  began  with 
the  New  Testament,  basing  his  translation  on  the  Greek  text  of 
Erasmus.  Owing  to  his  extreme  Protestant  views  he  was  obliged 
to  leave  England  in  the  midst  of  his  work.  He  wandered  about  the 
Continent,  visited  Luther  at  Wittenberg,  and  finally  brought  out  his 
translation  at  Worms  in  1525,  whence  copies  were  secretly  introduced 
into  England  during  the  following  year.  While  at  work  in  the  Nether- 
lands on  the  Old  Testament,  Tyndale  was  seized  by  order  of  Charles 
and  strangled  and  burned  as  a  heretic.  In  1536  Cromwell  issued 
injunctions  that  a  Bible  in  Latin  or  English  should  be  placed  in  the 
choirs  of  all  parish  churches  for  every  one  to  read.  The  first  version 
to  receive  authorization  was  that  of  Cromwell's  friend  Miles  Cover- 
dale,  published  at  Zurich  in  1535.  It  was  a  rendering,  not  from 
original  texts,  but  from  German  and  Latin,  and  was  not  well  enough 
done  to  give  general  satisfaction.  Then  appeared  the  so-called 
"  Matthews's  Bible,"  2  which  incorporated  Tyndale's  work  so  far  as 
it  was  completed,  and  which  was  sold  with  authority.  Revised  in 
1538,  and  commonly  known  as  the  "  Great  Bible,"  it  was  first  appointed 
to  be  read  in  churches  and  became  the  standard  edition.  From  the 
fact  that  Cranmer  wrote  the  prefaces  to  some  of  the  editions  it  fre- 
quently bears  his  name.  The  placing  of  the  Bible  before  the  people 
in  their  own  tongue  had  a  profound  effect.  (  It  opened  to  them  a 
wonderful  literature  expressed  in  language  of  unequaled  beauty  and 
strength,  and  first  enabled  them  to  compare  the  religion  founded  by 
Christ  and  his  Apostles  with  that  of  their  own  day.  )A  trace  of  re- 
action, characteristic  of  Henry's  conservatism,  appeared  in  an  act 

1  The  Latin  version  prepared  by  Jerome  in  the  fourth  century  and  authorized 
by  the  Church  of  Rome. 

2  From  "Thomas  Matthews,"  who  dedicated  it  to  the  King;  supposed  to  be 
John  Rogers,  a  Protestant  martyr  of  Mary's  reign. 


THE   SEPARATION  FROM  ROME  33! 

of  Parliament  of  1542,  which  forbade  the  perusal  of  the  Bible  to 
"  wpjnerL.Ja.borFrg,  nri^  nnprJnrQtP^  persons,"  One  translation  after 
another  followed  until  the  celebrated  King  James  version  of  1611, 
which  was  exclusively  used  in  England  till  tKef  recent  "  Revised 
Version  "  appeared.1 

The  King's  Primer,  1545.  —  The  English  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
the  authorized  form  of  worship  in  the  Church  of  England,  dates  from 
Edward  VI ;  but  portions  of  the  service  were  translated  into  English 
in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  The  old  Latin  form  was  not  contained 
in  a  single  book :  the  prayers  for  the  various  hours  of  the  day  were  in 
the  Breviary,  the  order  for  celebrating  mass  in  the  Missal,  and  other 
services,  such  as  baptism,  in  the  Book  of  Occasional  Offices.  Even 
before  the  Reformation,  manuals  of  private  devotion,  called  "  Primers," 
were  current  in  England.  With  the  beginning  of  the  breach  with 
Rome  these  manuals  began  to  multiply.  Finally  an  edition,  much 
revised  and  supplemented,  appeared  in  1545.  It  was  known  as  the 
King's  Primer,  and  comprised  the  Creed,  the  Ten  Commandments, 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Collects,  the  Canticles,  and  the  Litany. 

The  Six  Articles,  1539. —Yet,  while  Henry  could  issue  articles 
tinged  with  Lutheranism,  while  he  could  reform  or  abolish  what  he 
regarded  as  abuses  in  the  Romish  system,  and  give  his  subjects  the 
Bible  and  portions  of  the  service  in  their  native  tongue,  he  was  too 
orthodox  and  conservative  to  permit  any  decided  departures  toward 
Protestantism.  The  extravagance  of  the  extremists  so  soon  as  they 
received  the  slightest  encouragement  served  to  strengthen  his  an- 
tipathy to  innovation.  This  explains  the  passage,  in  I53Q,2  of  an  act 
for  "  abolishing  diversity  of  opinion  in  certain  articles  concerning 
Christian  religion,"  which  marks  a  decided  reaction  from  the  position 
taken  in  1536.  The  act  commonly  known  as  "  The  Six  Articles," 
or  "  The  Whip  with  Six  Strings,"  affirmed  that :  (i)  after  consecra- 
tion of  the  elements  in  the  Holy  Eucharist,  the  bread  and  wine  dis- 
appeared and  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  entered  in  their  place ; 
(2)  communion  in  both  kinds  was  not  essential  to  salvation;  (3)  by 
the  law  of  God  priests  could  not  marry ;  (4)  monastic  vows  must  be 
observed;  (5)  private  masses  should  be  continued,  for  their  godly 
consolation  and  benefits,  and  as  agreeable  to  God's  law ;  (6)  auricular 
confession  was  expedient  and  should  be  retained.  The  penalty  for 
denying  the  first  article,  i.e.  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  was 
death  by  burning  with  forfeiture  of  goods.  In  the  case  of  the  other 
five,  the  penalty  for  the  first  offense  was  forfeiture  and  imprison- 
ment during  the  King's  pleasure,  for  the  second  offense  death  as  a 
felon. 

Birth  of  Prince  Edward,  1537. — In  October,  1537,  a  male  heir, 
the  future  Edward  VI,  had  been  born  to  Henry.  Jane  Seymour's 

1  The  New  Testament  appeared  in  1880,  the  Old  in  1886. 

2  It  is  reported  that  in  the  course  of  the  debate  Henry  went  to  the  House  of  Lords 
in  person,  and  "confounded  them  all  with  God's  learning." 


332  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

death  a  few  weeks  later  left  the  King  free  to  marry  a  new  wife.  The 
situation  was  critical,  for  Charles  and  Francis  were  discussing  an 
alliance  which  came  to  a  head  the  following  year  in  a  ten  years'  truce. 
In  order  to  forestall  the  combination,  the  English  negotiated  with 
each  power  in  turn  for  a  matrimonial  alliance.  Neither  came  to  any- 
thing, and  England  was  menaced  with  invasion  from  without  and  with 
plots  from  within.  Pole  was  most  active  in  stirring  up  the  latter, 
and  his  family  suffered  the  consequences.  His  elder  brother,  Lord 
Montague,  and  his  cousin,  the  Marquis  of  Exeter,  were  put  to  death 
in  December,  1538,  and  his  mother,  the  Countess  of  Salisbury, 
was  disposed  of  two  years  later. 

Henry's  Marriage  to  Anne  of  Cleves,  and  the  Fall  of  Cromwell, 
1540.  — •  Henry's  failure  to  ally  himself  either  with  France  or  the 
Emperor,  induced  him  to  listen  to  Cromwell,  who  advocated  a  Prot- 
estant marriage  and  a  league  with  the  Protestant  princes.  The  bride 
selected  was  Anne,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Cleves.  She  was  a  plain, 
meek  creature,  quite  lacking  in  grace  and  accomplishments.  The 
famous  Holbein  was  dispatched  to  paint  her  portrait,  and,  it  is  said, 
at  a  hint  from  Cromwell  produced  most  flattering  results.  Moreover, 
the  Vicegerent  and  the  courtiers  sent  to  arrange  the  match  were 
lavish  in  praising  her  charms.  Unhappily  for  all  concerned,  Henry 
committed  himself  on  these  representations,  and  the  marriage  treaty 
was  signed  6  October,  1539.  Anne  came  to  England,  and  the  King  was 
disillusioned  at  first  sight ;  "  he  became  very  sorrowful  and  amazed," 
and  returned  to  his  palace  at  Greenwich  "  very  sad  and  pensive." 
He  declared  that  "  if  he  knew  as  much  then  as  he  knew  now,  she  would 
never  have  come  within  the  realm,"  but  he  saw  nothing  for  it,  except 
to  go  on  with  the  marriage.  To  make  matters  worse,  nothing  came 
of  the  projected  alliance.  Cromwell,  who  had  already  served  his 
turn,  paid  the  penalty  with  his  head.  He  was  arrested  10  June,  1540, 
and  a  bill  of  attainder  was  framed  against  him.  He  was  charged  with 
favoring  Protestants,  obtaining  money  by  bribery  and  extortion,  and 
usurping  royal  powers.  No  doubt  all  this  was  true;  but,  as  in  the 
case  of  Wolsey,  his  main  fault  was  that,  by  miscarriage  of  his  policy, 
he  had  incurred  the  royal  displeasure.  He  was  executed  28  July,  1540. 

Henry  Divorced  from  Anne,  and  Marriage  to  Catharine  Howard, 
1540.  —  Henry,  with  his  great  power  and  ingenuity,  found  it  easy  to 
get  rid  of  Anne.  On  the  strength  of  various  pretexts,  chief  among 
them  the  fact  that  she  was  precontracted  to  the  Duke  of  Lorraine's 
son,  the  obedient  Convocation  pronounced  the  marriage  null  and  void. 
Anne  was  amply  provided  for,  and  it  was  reported  in  August,  the 
month  following  the  divorce,  that  "  she  is  as  joyous  as  ever  and  wears 
a  new  dress  every  day."  Parliament  now  besought  the  King  "  for  the 
good  of  his  people  to  marry  again."  He  chose  Catharine  Howard,  a 
niece  of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk.  Marrying  her  secretly  on  the  very 
day  of  Cromwell's  execution,  he  openly  acknowledged  her  as  Queen 
a  month  later.  Catharine  had  a  winning  countenance,  but  was  ill- 


THE   SEPARATION   FROM   ROME  333 

educated,  and  of  questionable  morals.  Scarcely  more  than  a  year  had 
passed  when  charges  of  grave  misconduct  were  brought  against  her. 
She  was  executed,  14  February,  1542,  on  Tower  Hill,  where  Anne 
Boleyn  had  suffered  six  years  before. 

Henry's  Designs  on  Scotland.  —  In  June,  1542,  Francis  I,  who  was 
ambitious  to  recover  Milan  and  the  French  ascendancy  in  Italy,  broke 
off  his  treaty  with  the  Emperor  and  declared  war.  Henry  seized  the 
opportunity,  which  he  had  long  coveted,  to  make  an  effort  to  extend 
his  sway  over  Scotland.  The  death  of  James  IV  at  Flodden  in  1513 
had  left  the  country  a  prey  to  another  of  those  long  minorities  which 
had  been  its  bane  for  a  century.  James  had  selected  Margaret  for 
Regent  and  guardian  of  his  infant  heir.  The  truculent  estates  re- 
pudiated her  and  chose  the  Duke  of  Albany,  cousin  of  the  late  King.1 
At  length,  after  an  arduous  struggle  between  the  two,  Albany  left  the 
country  in  1524,  never  to  return.  Then  the  uneasy  Margaret  began 
to  quarrel  with  her  second  husband,  Archibald  Douglas,  Earl  of 
Angus.  In  1528,  however,  James  V,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  made  him- 
self master  of  the  distracted  kingdom  and  sought  to  restore  peace. 
To  that  end,  he  put  down  the  Highland  chiefs  and  the  Lowland  earls, 
while,  as  a  counterpoise  to  these  turbulent  elements,  he  sought  alli- 
ance with  the  Church  and  strengthened  the  clergy  with  increased 
powers  and  privileges.  This,  and  the  fact  that  he  clung  to  the  French 
alliance,  marrying  two  French  wives2  in  succession,  kept  him  at  swords 
points  with  his  uncle,  Henry  VIII,  to  whom  he  attributed  designs  of 
fostering  disorders  along  the  border  and  broils  among  the  nobility. 
Twice,  once  in  1536  and  again  in  1541,  Henry  proposed  a  conference 
at  York;  but  James,  fearing  that  his  uncle  planned  to  kidnap  him, 
evaded  the  meeting  each  time.  The  second  evasion  gave  Henry  a 
good  pretext  for  assuming  hostilities.  He  had  plenty  of  others  as 
well.  David  Beaton,  high  in  James's  favor,  had  been  made  a  cardinal, 
with  a  view  of  executing  the  bull  of  deposition  still  hanging  over 
Henry ;  James  had  intrigued  both  with  Charles  and  Francis ;  he  had 
welcomed  refugees  from  the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace ;  and ,  finally,  the 
Scotch  had  defeated  a  border  raid  at  Halidon  Rig  which  the  English 
were  burning  to  avenge.  Such  was  the  situation  when  the  turn  of 
affairs  on  the  Continent  gave  Henry  his  chance  to  strike. 

So  in  October,  1542,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  led  an  invasion  across  the 
eastern  border.  But  the  transport  and  equipment  was  bad,  and  the 
expedition,  after  some  harrying  and  burning,  turned  homeward.  The 
Scotch  King  retaliated  by  throwing  a  force,  under  Oliver  Sinclair,  across 
the  western  border.  Through  the  bungling  of  its  leaders  it  got  en- 
tangled in J?ol way  Moss  and  was  defeated,  24  November,  1542,  with 
heavy  loss.  James~V,  heartbroken  at  the  news,  died  less  than  a  month 
afterwards,  leaving  a  week-old  baby  as  his  heir.  She  is  known  to 

1  He  was  a  grandson  of  James  II. 

2  His  first  wife  was  Madeleine,  daughter  of  Francis  I.     She  died  in  1537.     James 
then  married  Mary  of  Lorraine,  daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Guise. 


334  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

history  as  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  James  feared  that  her  birth  marked 
the  end  of  his  line.  "  It  came  with  a  lass,  and  it  will  go  with  a  lass," 
he  said  sadly  when  it  was  reported  to  him.  Encouraged  by  the  victory, 
Henry  asserted  the  English  sovereignty  over  Scotland  in  stronger 
terms  than  ever,  and  proposed  to  bind  the  two  countries  by  marrying 
Edward  and  Mary  when  they  came  of  age.  A  treaty  was  arranged 
at  Greenwich,  though  his  proposal  that  Mary  be  sent  to  England  as 
a  hostage  was  rejected  by  the  Scots.  In  general,  they  opposed  the 
idea  of  absorption  by  England,  while  a  strong  party  still  clung  to  the 
French  alliance.  At  length  this  French  party,  headed  by  Cardinal 
Beaton,  gained  possession  of  the  Queen  Mother  and  the  little  Princess, 
crowned  Mary  as  Queen,  and  assembled  a  parliament  which  annulled 
the  recent  marriage  treaty. 

War  with  France,  1543-1546. — To  prevent  this  French  Catholic 
party  from  securing  aid  from  across  the  Channel,  Henry  concluded  a 
treaty  with  Charles  V,  and  plunged  into  war  with  France.  It  was 
agreed  that  neither  the  Emperor  nor  the  King  should  make  a  separate 
peace  with  their  common  enemy,  and  that  they  should  join  forces  and 
march  on  Paris.  Henry  crossed  over  to  Calais  in  July,  1544,  at  the  head 
of  an  English  force,  but,  against  the  wishes  of  his  ally,  he  stopped 
on  his  way  south  to  besiege  Boulogne,  which  surrendered  14  September, 
1544.  Five  days  later,  Charles,  unable  to  arrange  terms  to  which  the 
English  King  would  agree,  concluded  a  separate  peace.  Freed  from 
her  ancient  enemy  in  the  rear,  France  sent  a  fleet  to  attack  the  English 
coast,  while  the  Scots,  stung  to  madness  by  an  invasion  under  Hert- 
ford,1 which  burned  Leith  and  sacked  Edinburgh,  massed  on  the 
border,  and  threatened  to  inundate  the  north.  Henry's  subjects  rallied 
valiantly  to  his  support,  and  the  French  fleet,  twice  repulsed  off  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  and  much  thinned  by  plague,  were  obliged  to  return  home 
August,  1545.  Hertford  averted  the  danger  from  the  border  by  lead- 
ing another  expedition  into  Scotland.  At  length  in  June,  1546,  Henry 
and  Francis  made  peace.  Boulogne  was  to  remain  in  English  hands 
for  eight  years,  after  which  it  was  to  be  restored  to  France  for  a  large 
indemnity.  Scotland  was  not  included  in  the  peace.  In  his  relations 
with  that  country  Henry,  who  had  shown  himself  neither  tactful 
enough  to  conciliate  nor  strong  enough  to  coerce,  left  a  serious  prob- 
lem to  his  successors. 

Relations  with  Ireland. — The  King's  Irish  policy  proved  in  the  long 
run  to  be  no  more  successful.  The  petty  chiefs  outside  the  Pale 
fought  constantly  among  themselves,  but  were  united  in  their  hostility 
to  English  rule.  The  impenetrable  forests,  the  trackless  bogs,  and  the 
wild  inhabitants  whose  names  belonged  rather  to  "  devouring  giants 
than  to  Christian  subjects,"  would  have  made  conquest  and  a  military 
occupation  well-nigh  impossible.  Henry,  unable  to  maintain  an  army, 
preferred  "sober  ways,  politic  drifts,  and  amiable  persuasion."  Kil- 

1  Edward  Seymour,  Earl  of  Hertford,  brother  of  Henry's  third  wife,  was  the 
leading  general  in  the  kingdom  at  this  time. 


THE   SEPARATION   FROM   ROME  335 

dare,  the  Lord  Deputy,  kept  the  country  in  order  so  long  as  he  lived. 
When  he  died,  1513,  his  son  Gerald,  the  ninth  earl,  succeeded  him  in 
office.  After  being  twice  called  to  account  he  was  seized  in  1534, 
taken  to  England,  and  thrown  into  the  Tower.  On  a  rumor  of  his 
death  his  son  "  Silken  Thomas,"  *  a  big,  irresponsible  boy,  broke  out 
in  revolt;  Dublin  Castle  was  besieged  and  the  Archbishop  foully 
murdered.  In  October  Skeffington  came  over  as  Deputy ;  but  it  was 
only  under  his  successor,  Lord  Leonard  Grey  (1535-1540) ,  that  Thomas 
made  his  submission.  On  3  February,  1537,  the  rebel  Earl  was  hanged 
with  five  of  his  uncles,  leaving  a  small  child  to  represent  the  line. 
Grey  sought  to  carry  out  Henry's  policy  of  conciliation ;  but,  accused 
of  arrogance  toward  the  English  officials  and  of  favoring  the  Irish, 
he  was  recalled  in  1540,  attainted,  and  executed.  Next  came  Sir 
Anthony  St.  Leger,  who  seemed  more  successful  for  the  time  being. 
In  1541  Henry  took  the  title  King  of  Ireland,2  and,  one  by  one,  the  chiefs 
agreed  to  acknowledge  him  as  sovereign  and  head  of  the  Church ;  to 
hold  their  lands  of  him  for  an  annual  rent ;  to  renounce  all  illegal  ex- 
actions ;  and  to  serve  the  royal  army. 

Peace  seemed  now  established,  and  at  St.  Leger's  departure,  in  1546, 
powerful  earls  dwelling  as  far  apart  as  Tyrone  of  Ulster  and  Desmond 
of  Munster  testified :  "  We  confess  there  lives  not  any  one  in  Ireland, 
were  he  of  the  age  of  Nestor,  who  has  seen  the  country  in  a  more  peace- 
ful state."  These  fair  hopes,  however,  proved  delusive.  Not  many 
years  were  to  elapse  before  Ireland  was  again  seething  in  rebellion, 
and  for  this  Henry  was  partly  to  blame.  His  fatal  mistake  was  that 
in  conciliating  the  chiefs  he  thought  to  bind  the  clans,  whereas  he 
really  antagonized  the  latter  bodies  by  bribing  their  leaders  with  lands 
claimed  by  the  tribes  as  a  whole.  So  it  was  in  his  religious  arrange- 
ments. Henry  might  bribe  the  chiefs  to  abjure  the  Pope  and  con- 
sent to  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  by  handing  them  a  share  of  the 
spoils  ;  but  the  lesser  folk,  who  saw  the  shrines  and  relics  demolished, 
the  pilgrimages  suppressed,  the  sacred  buildings  defaced,  and  the 
familiar  Latin  replaced  by  the  alien  English  service,  were  bound  to 
nourish  sullen  resentment.  Thus  Henry  ruthlessly  disregarded  the 
customs  of  the  centuries  and  trampled  upon  the  superstitions  and 
sentiments  of  Irishmen.  Moreover,  men  like  Archbishop  Browne 
aimed  rather  at  establishing  English  ascendancy  and  accumulating 
wealth  and  power  than  at  advancing  the  cause  of  religion.  The  prac- 
tice of  Henry's  daughters,  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  of  appropriating  Irish 
lands  for  English  and  Scotch  settlers,  further  widened  the  breach, 
and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  labors  of  Jesuit  missionaries  and 
the  intrigues  of  the  Pope  and  the  Catholic  monarchs,  which  culminated 
in  dangerous  revolts  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

Henry's  Closing  Years.  —  After  the  passing  of  Cromwell  Henry  acted 
as  his  own  Chief  Minister.  In  spite  of  "  marvelous  excess  in  eating 

1  So-called  from  the  silken  fringe  about  his  helmet. 

1  Chiefly  because  the  ancient  title  of  Lord  of  Ireland  was  a  papal  creation. 


336  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  drinking,"  of  increasing  bulk,  and  of  an  ulcer  on  his  leg  which 
caused  him  intense  pain,  he  was  constantly  occupied  and  watchful. 
In  the  King's  Book  in  1543,  he  set  forth  "  a  true  and  perfect  doctrine 
for  all  his  people,"  and  he  insisted  that  the  Church  system  which  he 
had  denned  and  organized  should  be  strictly  obeyed.  Nevertheless, 
the  penalties  attached  to  the  Six  Articles  served  mainly  as  a  ferocious 
warning  and  were  only  fitfully  enforced.  This  was  due  largely  to 
Cromwell  so  long  as  he  lived,  while,  after  his  death,  Cranmer  and 
Catharine  Parr  acted  as  moderating  influences.  Already  twice  a 
widow  when  she  became  Henry's  sixth  wife  in  1543.  Catharine  herself 
survived  to  marry  a  fourth  husband.  She  was  a  good  woman  and 
nursed  her  royal  master  tenderly  during  his  last  years  of  pain.  In 
1545  Parliament  granted  to  the  Crown  all  the  chantries,  hospitals,  and 
free  chapels  of  the  realm ;  but  it  remained  for  another  reign  to  gather 
the  spoil.  The  religious  unrest  was  so  great  as  to  draw  from  Henry 
at  his  last  appearance  in  Parliament,  December,  1545,  an  eloquent 
and  characteristic  reproof :  "  I  hear,"  he  said,  "  there  was  never  more 
dissension  and  lack  of  love  between  man  and  man.  .  .  .  Some  are 
called  Papists,  some  Lutherans,  and  some  Anabaptists.  I  am  very 
sorry  to  know  and  hear  how  irreverently  that  precious  jewel,  the  word 
of  God,  is  disputed  and  rhymed,  sung  and  jangled  in  every  alehouse 
and  tavern.  ...  Of  this  I  am-sure,  that  charity  was  never  so  faint 
among  you,  and  God  himself  among  Christians  was  never  less  rever- 
enced, honored,  and  served."  Protestantism  was  spreading,  and  Cran- 
mer and  the  Queen  favored  it ;  yet  the  old  faith  was  gaining  ground 
again.  At  least  so  thought  John  Hooper,  who  wrote  early  in  1546: 
"  As  far  as  religion  is  concerned,  idolatry  is  nowhere  in  greater  vigor. 
The  King  has  destroyed  the  Pope,  but  not  Popery."  Among  the  last 
victims  of  the  "  Whip  with  Six  Strings  "  was  Anne  Askew,  of  an  old 
landed  Devonshire  family,  who,  in  spite  of  repeated  examinations  and 
finally  of  torture  on  the  rack,  persisted  in  her  denial  of  transubstantia- 
tion,  and  16  July,  1546,  was  burned  at  Smithfield. 

Surrey's  Plot.  Henry's  Stormy  and  Wrathful  Exit,  1547.  —  At  the 
close  of  Henry's  life  the  heir  of  the  greatest  conservative  family  in 
England  brought  the  progress  of  the  Catholic  party  to  an  abrupt 
check.  On  12  December,  1546,  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  his  son,  the 
Earl  of  Surrey,  were  rudely  thrown  into  the  Tower.  Surrey,  de- 
scribed as  "  the  most  foolish  proud  boy  in  England,"  wras  a  poet  of 
recognized  place  in  English  literary  history ;  but  he  was  headstrong, 
aspiring,  and  indiscreet.  As  a  grown  man  he  had  already  been  twice 
arrested  for  roaming  the  streets  of  London  and  breaking  the  windows 
of  citizens.  In  the  struggle  for  control  between  the  two  factions  in 
the  royal  Council  it  was  discovered  that  he  quartered  the  royal  arms 
with  his  own  on  an  escutcheon  in  his  private  chamber  and  had  boasted 
that  his  father  would  one  day  be  Regent.  Tried  before  a  special  com- 
mission, he  was  beheaded,  19  January,  on  Tower  Hill.  A  bill  of  at- 
tainder was  passed  against  Norfolk  wrho  confessed  to  concealing  his 


THE   SEPARATION  FROM   ROME  337 

son's  acts.  It  received  the  royal  assent,  but  before  it  could  be  carried 
out  Henry  was  dead.  He  had  of  late  become  so  unwieldy  that  he  could 
neither  walk  nor  stand,  and  28  January,  1547,  he  passed  away,  master- 
ful against  opposition  to  the  last.  A  selfish,  ruthless  despot,  he  had 
accomplished  a  momentous  work.  He  had  transformed  the  whole 
ecclesiastical  system  without  a  civil  war ;  he  had  established  a  National 
Church  free  from  the  dominion  of  the  Pope  ;  he  had  given  his  subjects 
the  Scriptures  in  their  native  tongue ;  he  had  secured  for  England  a 
recognized  position  among  foreign  powers ;  he  had  worked  his  will 
unopposed ;  and  he  died  in  his  bed  stanchly  supported  by  the  major- 
ity of  his  subjects. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Fisher,  Political  History,  chs.  XI-XVIII.  Innes,  England  under  the 
Tudors,  chs.  VIII-X.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  II,  ch.  XIII.  Pollard,  Henry 
VIII,  chs.  VII-XVI.  J.  A.  Froude,  History  of  England,  from  the  Death  of  Wolsey 
to  the  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada  (12  vols.,  1870-1872) ;  this  is  the  most  complete 
work  on  the  period  and  a  masterpiece  of  style,  but  strongly  biased,  especially  in 
favor  of  Henry  VIII.  Lingard,  History  of  England,  V,  chs.  I-III. 

Biography.  P.  Friedmann,  Anne  Boleyn  (2  vols.,  1884).  R.  B.  Merriman,  Life 
and  Letters  of  Thomas  Cromwell  (2  vols.,  1902),  the  standard  biography.  W.  Roper, 
Biography  of  Sir  Thomas  More  (first  printed  in  Paris,  1626 ;  many  later  editions)  is 
a  classic.  Roper  was  More's  son-in-law.  A.  F.  Pollard,  Life  of  Cranmer  (1904) 
is  perhaps  the  most  scholarly  life  of  the  Archbishop.  A.  D.  Innes,  Ten  Tudor 
Statesmen  (1906),  and  M.  A.  S.  Hume,  The  Wives  of  Henry  VIII  (1905)  are  both 
useful.  Dom  Bede  Camm,  Lives  of  the  English  Martyrs  (1904)  is  from  the  Ro- 
manist standpoint. 

Ecclesiastical.  F.  A.  Gasquet,  Henry  VIII  and  the  English  Monasteries  (1902) ; 
the  most  exhaustive  work  on  the  subject,  manifestly  in  sympathy  with  the  monas- 
teries. Wakeman,  chs.  XI-XIII.  James  Gairdner,  History  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land (1904),  chs.  I-XII;  a  brief  treatment  by  an  acknowledged  authority  on  the 
period.  R.  W.  Dixon,  History  of  the  Church  of  England  (6  vols.,  1878-1902)  covers 
the  period  1529-1570,  thorough  and  scholarly  —  from  the  High  Church  standpoint. 
B.  F.  Westcott,  History  of  the  English  Bible  (1868). 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and.Stephens,  nos.  141-158,  for  the  whole  reign. 

THE  DE  LA  POLES  AND  POLES 


Richard 

Duke  of  York 

1 

1                          1 

EDWARD  IV                     Elizabeth  =  John  de  la  Pole,1                   George,  Duke  of 
JDuke  of  Suffolk                           Clarence 
1 

1 
John  de  la  Pole, 
Earl  of  Lincoln, 
killed  at  Stoke, 
1487 

i 
Edmund  de  la 
Pole,  Earl  of 
Suffolk, 
beheaded,  1513 

1 
Margaret  = 
Countess  of 
Salisbury, 
beheaded; 
IS4I 

Reg  in  a 

1 
=  Sir  R.  Pole               Edward,  Earl 
of  Warwick, 
executed,  1496 

d  Pole, 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
1556-1558 


1  Great-grandson  of  William,  Earl  of  Suffolk  (d.  1388)  minister  of  Richard  II,  and  son  of  William, 
Duke  of  Suffolk,  minister  of  Henry  VI  (impeached  and  murdered,  1450). 


CHAPTER  XXI 
THE  HENRICIAN  REGIME   (1509-1547) 

Distinctive  Features  of  Henry's  Absolutism.  —  While  Henry  VIII 
was  dependent  for  his  triumph  upon  the  absolutism  inherited  from  his 
father,  he  succeeded  in  carrying  that  absolutism  far  beyond  the  point 
which  it  had  reached  at  his  accession.  The  Church  was  reduced  by 
his  measures  to  a  mere  creature  of  the  Crown.  The  old  nobility,  al- 
ready eating  themselves  up  with  their  "  feudal  grandeur  and  sump- 
tuous livery,"  diminished  in  numbers,  and  discredited,  were  pushed 
farther  along  the  road  to  ruin  by  the  extravagance  of  Henry's  court, 
while  his  hostile  watchfulness  prevented  their  leaders  from  recovering 
their  old  position  in  public  affairs.  The  fate  of  Suffolk,  of  Bucking- 
ham, of  the  Poles,  the  Courtenays,  and  the  Howards  indicated  what 
befell  those  who  aspired  to  raise  their  heads.  The  King  chose  new 
men  —  mainly  servants  at  court,  merchants,  manufacturers,  lawyers 
—  to  sit  in  his  Council  and  to  execute  his  decrees ;  to  them  he  gave 
offices,  revenues,  and  lands.  And  he  had  an  eye  for  picking  competent 
ministers  from  the  ranks  of  obscurity.  Wolsey  and  Cromwell  are 
merely  the  best  known  of  the  many  names  that  might  be  selected. 
In  this  way,  as  well  as  by  the  spoils  of  the  monasteries,  by  the  checking 
of  the  more  glaring  abuses,  and  by  the  maintenance  of  stable  govern- 
ment, the  middle  class,  already  closely  attached  to  the  father,  were 
bound  still  more  closely  to  the  son. 

Henry's  Management  of  Parliament.  —  Henry's  adroit  manipula- 
tion of  Parliament  was  another  means  by  which  he  strengthened  his 
absolutism.  His  father  who  depended  upon  that  body  through  the 
first  half  of  his  reign,  by  reason  of  his  economy  and  his  extortion,  got  on 
without  it  during  the  second.  Under  Henry  VIII  this  policy  was  re- 
versed. Wolsey  preferred  to  call  Parliament  as  infrequently  as  pos- 
sible, and,  so  long  as  the  inherited  royal  treasure  lasted  and  so  long 
as  the  King  held  aloof  from  public  business,  it  was  possible  to  follow 
out  this  plan.  From  1529,  however,  when  he  embarked  on  his  peculiar 
policy,  Henry  made  use  of  frequent  parliaments  to  give  a  real  or  seem- 
ing popular  sanction  to  his  measures.  While  Cromwell  was  royal 
agent,  there  are  evidences  of  coercion  and  corruption,  of  interference 
with  elections,  bribery,  creation  of  new  boroughs,  and  of  pressure  on 
members.  But  the  amount  of  all  this  has  been  exaggerated,  and  it 
was  mainly  employed  by  Cromwell  for  himself,  to  procure  and  main- 
tain a  majority  against  the  reactionary  party  in  the  Council.  Such 
methods  were  scarcely  necessary  in  the  royal  behalf.  The  forty  shil- 
ling freehold  qualifications  and  the  borough  oligarchies  kept  the  rep- 

338 


THE  HENRICIAN  REGIME  339 

resentation  mainly  in  the  hands  of  the  landed  gentry  and  the  pros- 
perous commercial  classes  who  were  stanch  supporters  of  the  Crown. 
Discontent  there  was,  but  it  was  social  and  economic,  not  political, 
aimed  mostly  against  enclosures  and  monopolies.  And  the  very  of- 
fenders against  whom  it  was  directed  were  of  the  class  which  controlled 
Parliament.  In  general,  their  interests  were  identical  with  Henry's ; 
in  the  case  of  the  anticlerical  legislation,  for  example,  if  he  stirred  up 
the  hostility,  he  did  not  invent  the  grievances.  When  these  interests 
clashed,  Parliament  did  not  hesitate  to  resist  stoutly.  Henry  professed 
to  be  a  champion  of  parliamentary  forms  and  privileges,  but  when  he 
was  put  to  it  and  blandishments  and  bargaining  would  not  avail,  he 
was  not  above  trickery.  When  in  1529  the  Lords  refused  to  pass  the 
measures  of  the  Commons  against  the  clergy,  he  proposed  a  conference 
between  eight  members  of  each  House ;  knowing  that  the  committee 
of  the  Commons  would  vote  solidly  and  that  the  temporal  peers  would 
support  them,  he  carried  the  bill  by  procuring  a  committee  of  four  lay 
lords  and  four  bishops  from  the  Upper  House.  When  important 
measures  were  being  discussed,  he  generally  visited  both  Houses  in  per- 
son, and  if  the  terror  of  his  presence  was  not  enough,  even  resorted  to 
dire  threats  to  secure  their  passage.  As  a  means  of  blocking  legisla- 
tion wrhich  he  opposed  he  could  always  resort  to  the  veto.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  however,  most  of  the  measures  of  the  reign  were  initiated  by 
Henry  or  his  ministers.  Perhaps  an  even  greater  proportion  of  legis- 
lation is  introduced  by  the  Government  to-day  than  during  his  time, 
but  the  ministers  now  represent,  not  the  sovereign,  but  the  majority 
party  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

Composition  of  the  Houses.  —  The  number  of  lay  peers  was  little 
altered  by  Henry.  Except  when  an  old  peerage  had  become  extinct 
he  made  comparatively  few  new  creations.  The  chief  change  came 
from  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  which  deprived  the  abbots 
and  priors  of  their  seats.  The  bishops,  of  course,  after  the  break  from 
Rome,  became  practically  royal  nominees,  and  their  influence  was 
further  lessened  from  the  fact  that  Convocation  was  deprived  of  inde- 
pendent powers  of  legislation.  The  composition  of  the  Commons 
was  scarcely  changed  by  Henry  in  England  proper,  where  he  created 
only  six  new  boroughs.  But  by  granting  representation  to  Wales,  to 
Chester,  and  Calais,  he  added  thirty-two  knights  and  burgesses  to  the 
Lower  House.  In  his  reign  a  burgess  was  chosen  Speaker  for  the  first 
time,  but  that  officer  was  usually  a  nominee  of  the  Crown. 

Summary  of  Henry's  Methods.  —  Altogether,  Henry's  power  was 
acquired,  not  so  much  by  juggling  with  the  representation  as  by  the 
identity  of  interest  between  him  and  the  dominant  classes,  by  his  force 
of  will,  and  by  his  dexterous  politics.  He  had  the  tact  and  foresight  to 
draw  back  when  he  saw  that  he  was  going  too  far.  Moreover,  he  had 
the  unscrupulous  cunning  to  intrust  great  powers  to  his  principal  agents 
and  to  make  them  the  scapegoats  for  his  unpopular  policies.  Finally, 
he  had  the  wisdom  not  to  demand  excessive  taxes.  He  called  upon 


340  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Parliament  primarily  to  sanction  grants  which  he  had  extorted  from 
some  other  quarters  —  forced  loans,  for  instance,  which  were  remitted 
by  statute  in  1529  and  1543;  forfeitures;  the  tenths  and  first  fruits 
which  formerly  went  to  the  Pope ;  and  the  spoils  from  monasteries 
and  shrines.  The  pension  from  France  under  the  treaties  of  Edward 
IV  and  Henry  VII,  the  exaction  wrung  from  the  clergy  under  threat  of 
praemunire  in  1531,  and  occasional  "  devotion  money,"  e.g.  a  grant 
in  1544  nominally  for  a  crusade  against  the  Turks,  furnished  further 
additions  to  his  rather  scanty  ordinary  revenues.  On  the  whole,  in 
finance  Henry's  was  "a  hand-to-mouth  policy  assisted  by  occasional 
godsends."  He  borrowed  and  extorted  so  long  as  he  could,  and  only 
applied  to  Parliament  when  it  was  absolutely  necessary. 

The  Royal  Extravagance.  —  Henry  dissipated  his  father's  savings 
with  a  lavish  hand.  Much  went  for  costly  raiment ;  for  example,  in 
1515  he  spent  £5000  on  silks  and  velvets,  enough  money  to  maintain 
a  thousand  families  in  "  rude  comfort,"  in  those  days,  for  a  year. 
More  was  consumed  in  revels,  feasts,  tournaments,  and  other  forms  of 
ornate  display.  When  the  King  took  the  field  in  1513,  he  had  an 
enormous  train  of  hundreds  of  wagons  and  thousands  of  horses  to  carry 
his  tents,  his  wardrobe,  his  cooks,  his  confectioners,  and,  most  amazing 
of  all,  the  choir  of  his  chapel  royal,  consisting  of  115  chaplains  and 
singers.  The  splendors  of  the  later  meeting  at  the  Field  of  Cloth  of 
Gold  were  the  wonder  of  that  age  and  of  generations  to  come.  The 
sumptuousness  of  Henry  and  his  courtiers,  of  course,  stimulated  trade, 
furnished  employment  for  many,  and  opened  up  many  new  industries ; 
yet,  in  the  long  run,  the  effect  was  injurious,  since  the  example  was 
ruinous  to  the  lesser  folk,  and  it  raised  the  prices  out  of  all  proportion 
to  the  increase  of  wages.  For  instance,  the  cost  of  agricultural  prod- 
ucts nearly  doubled  from  1495  to  1533,  while  wages  rose  only  25  per 
cent.  Moreover,  the  King  was  in  constant  need  of  money  to  support 
such  extravagance,  and  taxes  were  only  kept  within  the  normal  limits 
by  loans,  confiscations,  and  other  irregular  methods. 

The  Debasement  of  the  Coinage. — One  of  the  most  baneful  means  em- 
ployed was  the  debasement  of  the  coinage.  This  process,  which  Henry 
began  as  early  as  1526,  went  on  until,  in  1551,  a  silver  coin  contained 
only  a  seventh  of  the  pure  metal  of  one  issued  twenty-five  years  before. 
During  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  there  had  been  several 
such  debasements,  but  with  less  injurious  effects ;  because  of  the  con- 
stant drain  of  money  to  the  Orient  for  the  purchase  of  goods  and  to 
Rome  for  the  payment  of  papal  dues.  This  scarcity  of  specie  lowered 
prices,  and  thus  counteracted  the  upward  trend  due  to  debasement. 
In  Henry's  time  trade  was  more  evenly  balanced,  and  papal  dues 
ceased ;  moreover,  money  was  growing  steadily  more  plentiful,  owing 
to  the  treasure  brought  by  the  Spanish  from  .the  New  World.1  Since 

1  But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  great  mines  of  Cerro  and  Potosi  were 
not  opened  till  1545,  and  that  England  was  not  affected  by  the  great  increase  of 
specie  from  this  source  for  some  years  to  come. 


THE  HENRICIAN  REGIME  341 

debased  coins  circulated  at  their  face  value,  good  coin  was  hoarded  or 
exported,  and  prices  went  on  soaring  without  a  check. 

The  Laboring  Classes  in  Town  and  Country.  —  While  the  pro- 
ducers, the  manufacturers,  and  the  exporters  of  wool  and  cloth  were 
waxing  fat,  the  condition  of  the  mass  of  the  small  farmers  and  agri- 
cultural laborers  was  growing  steadily  worse.  Enclosing  went  on  in- 
creasing, and  not  only  leaseholders,  but  copyholders  and  even  free- 
holders were  evicted  from  their  tenements.  The  process  received  a 
fresh  impulse  from  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  which  trans- 
ferred great  estates  from  the  easygoing  monks  to  the  hands  of  keen, 
greedy  capitalists,  bent  on  realizing  the  utmost  profit  from  their  pos- 
sessions. Multitudes  were  thrown  out  of  work,  and  the  land  was  over- 
run with  beggars.  Disorder  multiplied  to  a  degree  that  taxed  even 
the  iron  rule  of  Henry.  Supported  by  his  ministers  and  by  leading 
thinkers  and  preachers  he  sought  to  put  new  checks  on  enclosures. 
Measures  were  enacted  limiting  the  number  of  sheep  that  a  single 
owner  could  hold  and  ordering  a  return  to  tillage  under  penalty  of  for- 
feiture till  the  law  was  obeyed.  But,  since  profits  from  wool  were 
tempting,  and  since  the  King  needed  the  support  of  the  class  against 
which  the  measures  were  formed,  the  legislation  proved  futile.  Simi- 
lar disturbing  conditions  prevailed  in  the  towns,  the  rich  were  growing 
richer  and  the  poor  poorer.  The  restrictive  policy  of  the  gilds  was 
only  slowly  breaking  down  and  remained  a  great  clog  on  trade.  Labor 
and  capital  withdrew  from  the  old  towns  where  the  system  was  in- 
trenched and  poured  into  the  smaller  places,  which  grew  as  their 
ancient  rivals  declined.  The  competition  of  those  displaced  from 
agricultural  pursuits  and  the  increase  of  population,  however, 
largely  offset  the  benefit  which  the  proletariat  gained  from  their 
migration.1 

Public  Health  and  Sanitation.  —  The  plague,  which  continued  a 
frequent  and  destructive  visitor,  was  not,  however,  an  unmixed  evil. 
Flourishing  chiefly  in  the  miserable  and  crowded  centers,  it  checked 
the  natural  increase  of  population  among  the  poorer  classes,  and  thus 
worked  in  favor  of  a  higher  standard  of  well-being.  A  system  of  quar- 
antine was  already  in  operation  in  some  of  the  continental  cities  and 
in  the  Firth  of  Forth,  but  English  efforts  were  still  mainly  directed 
to  protecting  the  sovereign  and  the  court  from  persons  who  might 
bring  the  contagion  from  abroad.  In  London,  enactments  were  passed 
requiring  that  infected  houses  be  marked  with  wisps  of  straw  and  that 
exposed  persons  carry  a  white  rod  in  their  hands.  Gradually  rules 
for  isolating  plague-stricken  houses  became  more  rigid,  searchers  were 
appointed  to  give  notice  of  the  presence  of  the  disease,  and  severe 
penalties  were  imposed  for  concealment.  Weekly  bills  of  mortality 
survive  from  Henry's  reign,  though  they  may  have  existed  earlier. 
They,  too,  had  the  result  of  making  public  the  existence  and  cause  of 

1  It  is  estimated  that  the  population  increased  from  2,500,000  to  4,000,000  dur- 
ing the  reigns  of  Henry  VII  and  Henry  VIII. 


342  A  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

sickness.  Measures  for  disposing  of  the  refuse  of  shambles,  against 
stray  dogs  and  cats,  and  for  cleansing  filthy  streets,  are  not  unheard  of, 
though  they  were  apparently  not  enforced  till  Elizabeth's  time. 

Poor  Relief.  —  Among  the  most  interesting  measures  of  Henry's 
reign  were  those  taken  to  relieve  the  deserving  poor  and  to  put  a  check 
on  the  idle  and  disorderly  beggars.  During  the  Middle  Ages  the  care 
of  the  destitute  was  left  to  private  persons  and  institutions  —  to  vol- 
untary alms,  to  hospitals  1  and  gilds,  and,  most  of  all,  to  monasteries. 
This  medieval  system  was  very  inadequate.  The  monks  in  particular 
gave,  in  pursuance  of  the  divine  command  to  clothe  the  naked  and  to 
feed  the  hungry.  Since  they  did  not  inquire  sharply  into  the  needs 
of  applicants  they  were  often  imposed  upon  by  the  unscrupulous ; 
and,  by  their  indiscriminate  almsgiving,  tended  to  foster  poverty 
beyond  the  point  where  they  could  deal  with  it.  Even  before  the 
Reformation  and  the  consequent  destruction  of  ecclesiastical  founda- 
tions, certain  continental  municipalities  had  taken  up  the  problem 
and  devised  measures  of  public  relief.  In  England  the  breaking  up 
of  the  system  and  the  industrial  changes  had  put  such  a  strain  on  the 
old  faulty  and  inadequate  methods  that  something  more  effective 
would  have  been  necessary  in  any  event.  The  dissolution  of  the  mon- 
asteries made  it  immediately  imperative.  Great  numbers  of  needy 
persons  were  suddenly  thrown  upon  the  country,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  chief  means  of  providing  for  them,  ineffective  as  it  had  been,  was 
cut  off. 

As  early  as  1530-1531  an  act  had  been  passed  directly  in  line 
with  the  old  Statutes  of  Laborers.  These  statutes  had  been  con- 
tent with  recognizing  that  the  impotent  should  be  relieved  by  Chris- 
tian charity  and  had  devoted  their  provisions  to  repressing  sturdy 
beggars  and  forcing  them  to  work  for  fixed  wages.  Henry's  act  pro- 
vided that  persons  compelled  to  live  by  alms  should  be  settled  in  their 
native  district,  registered,  and  licensed  to  beg  within  these  limits ; 
and  that  unlicensed  beggars,  of  those  straying  beyond  their  districts, 
should  be  whipped  and  sent  home.  For  a  second- offense  their  ears 
were  to  be  cropped,  while  for  a  third  they  were  to  be  put  to  death. 
Fines  were  imposed  upon  officers  or  parishes  that  harbored  unlicensed 
beggars  or  failed  to  enforce  the  laws  against  them.  As  yet  no  public 
provision  was  made  for  the  relief  of  the  impotent,  or  for  the  reforma- 
tion or  employment  of  vagabonds  after  they  reached  their  native  place. 
The  year  in  which  the  first  attack  on  the  monasteries  was  opened 
marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  policy.  By  an  act  of  1536  the  dispens- 
ing of  private  alms  was  forbidden.  In  each  parish  a  fund  for  the  re- 
lief of  the  poor  was  to  be  collected  on  Sundays  and  festival  days  by 
the  church  wardens  and  other  parish  officials.  While  the  clergy  were 
enjoined  to  stir  up  the  congregation  to  give  freely,  no  means  of  com- 

1  A  hospital  was  originally  a  place  for  the  aged  and  destitute  as  well  as  the  sick. 
A  few  parishes  had  poor  funds,  and  so  had  some  of  the  towns  by  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, but  these  were  rare  exceptions. 


THE  HENRICIAN  RfiGIME  343 

pulsion  was  provided  for.  Also,  sturdy  beggars  were  to  be  set  to  work, 
though  the  law  did  not  state  how.  This  act  foreshadows  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  more  famous  laws  of  Elizabeth  —  the  responsibility  of  the 
parish  for  the  relief  of  those  unable  to  work,  and  for  the  employment 
of  the  able-bodied  —  which  remained  in  force  down  to  the  nineteenth 
century.  But  under  Henry  the  principles  were  not  yet  worked  out 
in  detail. 

The  Navy.  —  A  portion  of  the  spoils  from  the  monasteries  the  King 
devoted  to  coast  defenses  and  shipbuilding.  The  southeastern  shore 
was  studded  with  castles  provided  with  permanent  garrisons,  which 
were  reenforced  by  local  levies  in  time  of  need.  Henry  VII  had 
fostered  the  navy,  directly,  to  some  extent,  by  building  ships  of  war, 
and  indirectly  by  developing  the  merchant  marine,  but  it  was  Henry 
VIII  who  marked  a  real  advance.  Up  to  his  reign  there  had  been 
only  a  few  ships  owned  by  the  sovereign,  which  in  time  of  peace  were 
either  used  for  police  purposes  or  let  out  to  merchants.  At  his  death 
there  was  a  royal  fleet  of  71  vessels.  Moreover,  he  organized  the  navy 
into  a  standing  force  and  placed  it  under  a  separate  Government  De- 
partment. The  Navy  Office  which  he  constituted  consisted  of  a  set  of 
officials  known  as  the  "  Principal  Officers  of  the  Navy,"  who,  under  the 
Lord  High  Admiral,  managed  all  the  civil  branches  of  the  service, 
such  as  Equipping  the  fleets  for  sea.  The  King  did  much,  too,  for  mak- 
ing rivers  navigable,  and  harbors  safer  and  more  accessible ;  he  founded 
dockyards  on  the  Thames ;  and  organized  the  pilots  into  the  corpora- 
tion of  Trinity  House.  Exploration  was  still  largely  a  monopoly  of 
the  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  although  a  few  northern  voyages  were 
undertaken  by  Bristol  merchants,  and  John  Hawkins,  father  of  the 
more  celebrated  William,  made  two  voyages  to  Brazil.  Trade  to  the 
Levant  flourished  lustily.  Tall  ships  carried  English  cloths  and  hides 
to  the  ports  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  brought  back  the  wines,  oils, 
carpets,  and  spices  of  the  East  to  English  markets. 

Warfare.  —  In  the  art  of  war  England  failed  to  keep  pace  with  the 
Continent.  The  long  rivalry  between  France  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
Emperor  on  the  other,  which  extended  from  the  invasion  of  Italy  by 
Charles  VIII  in  1495  to  the  Peace  of  Cateau  Cambresis  in  1559,  led 
to  the  creation  of  standing  armies  and  the  general  use  of  firearms ; 
in  short,  marked  the  final  transition  from  the  medieval  to  the  modern 
system.  But  England  had  no  standing  army  till  Oliver  Cromwell 
fashioned  his  famous  "  New  Model  "  in  the  middle  of  the  next  cen- 
tury. It  was  not  till  Elizabeth's  reign  that  the  lance  for  horsemen 
and  the  bow  and  bill  for  footmen  yielded  to  firearms,  and  in  the  civil 
wars,  nearly  a  century  later,  the  more  primitive- weapons  were  still 
employed.  Henry's  reign  evolved  no  distinguished  commanders  and 
witnessed  no  memorable  victory,  except  possibly  Flodden,  and  that 
was  due  rather  to  the  blundering  of  James  IV  than  to  the  brilliancy  of 
Surrey.  Wolsey,  relying  on  diplomacy,  had  sought  to  evade  military 
operations.  The  new  nobility  were  unable  to  maintain  the  authority 


344  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

over  their  troops  which  the  older  baronage  had  wielded,  and  the  ex- 
peditions of  Dorset  in  1512,  and  Suffolk  in  1523,  had  been  wrecked  by 
mutinies.  When  Henry  headed  the  army,  in  1513  and  1544,  he  was 
able  to  maintain  discipline  and  to  make  a  respectable  showing ;  but 
the  cumbersome  magnificence  of  his  train,  more  like  a  royal  progress 
than  a  military  invasion,  impeded  the  movement  of  his  troops  and 
drained  the  resources  of  his  subjects.  For  this  reason,  and  owing  to 
the  shiftiness  of  his  allies,  he,  too,  was  unable  to  achieve  any  permanent 
results. 

Learning  and  Education.  —  Scholars  of  Henry's  day  were  turning 
their  backs  on  the  old  learning  and  pursuing  the  new ;  they  were  de- 
vising more  rational  systems  of  education  to  replace  the  worn-out 
medieval  methods,  and  the  King  encouraged  them  by  his  own  enlight- 
ened zeal,  by  his  studious  pursuits,  and  by  the  training  of  his  children. 
Colet's  foundation,  St.  Paul's,  was  a  model  of  what  a  boys'  school 
should  be.  Wolsey's  school  at  Ipswich  perished  with  him ;  but  before 
the  close  of  the  reign  some  fifty  others  were  founded,  including  five 
attached  to  Henry's  new  bishoprics.  Yet  it  was  in  the  theory  of  edu- 
cation that  the  real  strides  of  progress  were  taken.  Erasmus  left 
England  for  the  last  time  in  1514,  but  his  later  writings  must  have 
penetrated  and  influenced  the  circle  in  which  he  had  lived  and  worked. 
His  Education  of  a  Christian  Prince  (1516)  was  an  excellent  guide 
for  the  prospective  ruler  of  a  nation,  and,  quite  fittingly,  a  copy 
was  presented  to  Prince  Edward  in  his  eleventh  year.  The  First 
Liberal  Education  for  Boys  (1529),  embodying  the  results  of  Erasmus' 
maturest  thought  and  experience,  was  designed  for  all  intrusted 
^  with  the  responsibility  of  teaching  youth,  and  its  sage  precepts 
and  recommendations  form  a  shining  contrast  to  the  prevailing 
mechanical  methods,  in  which  flogging  was  employed  as  the  chief 
incentive. 

Further  evidences  of  advance  are  manifest  in  the  writings  of  those 
whom  Henry  selected  to  educate  his  own  family.  A  Spaniard, 
Ludovicus  Vives,  for  five  years  was  the  tutor  of  Princess  Mary. 
His  treatise  Of  Studies  (De  Disciplinis)  contains  many  wise  views. 
He  insisted  upon  the  value  of  observation  and  experiment,  he  believed 
that  much  should  be  left  to  the  independent  exertions  of  the  pupil,  and 
advocated  a  sane  distinction  between  the  method  of  teaching  Latin, 
and  the  living  languages.  Roger  Ascham  taught  Lady  Jane  Grey  and 
Elizabeth,  while  Sir  John  Cheke,  perhaps  the  ablest  Greek  scholar  of 
his  time,  performed  the  like  duty  for  Edward.  And  certainly  the  royal 
pupils  did  their  tutors  credit.  Ascham's  famous  treatise,  The  Schole- 
master,  was  not  printed  till  1570,  but  already  in  1545  he  was  putting 
in  practice  the  broad  and  liberal  views  therein  advocated.  Although 
this  book,  on  account  of  its  learning,  kindly  humor,  appreciation  of 
boy  nature,  and  rational  views  has  deservedly  become  an  English 
classic,  its  methods  involved  too  much  pains  and  patience  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher  to  make  it  acceptable  at  the  time.  Sir  Thomas  Elyot, 


THE  HENRICIAN  REGIME  345 

a'  pupil  of  More's  and  a  distinguished  diplomat,  in  The  Governor,  was 
equally  judicious  in  pleading  for  kindness,  regard  for  individual  apti- 
tude, and  attention  to  the  meaning  and  spirit  rather  than  the  dry  bones 
of  the  subjects  of  study. 

Nevertheless,  while  Henry's  reign  marks  an  epoch  in  the  theory  of 
education,  and  while  the  King  deserves  much  credit  for  his  encourage- 
ment of  education  and  for  the  example  which  he  himself  set,  he  con- 
tributed little  material  aid  in  the  way  of  money  and  endowment, 
especially  in  view  of  what  he  took  from  the  monastic  institutions. 
Their  schools  and  those  of  the  chantry  priests  l  were  inadequate  and 
out  of  date,  but  their  destruction  was  serious  when  Henry  devoted  a 
major  part  of  their  resources  to  rewarding  his  greedy  supporters  in- 
stead of  establishing  new  schools.  At  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  after 
Cromwell's  commissioners  had  expelled  the  Schoolmen  and  their 
commentators,  and  abolished  lectures  and  degrees  in  common  law, 
provision  was  made  for  fixed  and  regular  lectures  on  Greek  and  Latin, 
and  for  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  Moreover,  in  1540,  Regius2  Pro- 
fessorships in  divinity,  civil  law,  physics,  Greek,  and  Hebrew  were 
established  and  endowed.  But  Henry  founded  only  one  new  college,3 
and  the  total  cost  of  this  foundation  and  the  professorships  was  com- 
paratively small.  Furthermore,  before  the  close  of  the  reign,  the 
interest  in  pure  learning  at  the  universities  gave  place  largely  to  theo- 
logical controversy.  Altogether,  in  education  it  was  a  time  of  great 
promise  but  scanty  achievement. 

Literature.  —  So  it  was  in  literature.  Few  notable  works  were 
produced,  but  the  reign  represents  the  transition  from  a  bygone  age 
to  that  wonderful  outburst  which  signalizes  the  last  years  of  Elizabeth 
as  one  of  the  two  greatest  periods  in  the  literary  history  of  the  world. 
Breaking  away  from  the  influence  of  the  French  medieval  romance, 
the  men  of  Henry's  day  began  to  study  the  classics,  both  directly 
and  indirectly,  through  the  Renascence  writers,  chiefly  those  of  Italy. 
Much  of  the  writing  of  the  period  can  be  passed  by  with  a  mere  allu- 
sion. The  disordered  social  conditions  and  the  break  from  Rome 
produced  a  mass  of  controversial  pamphlets  which,  valuable  as  they  are 
to  the  historian,  hardly  rank  as  literature.  Latimer's  sermons  are 
vivid  and  eloquent,  but  he  was  a  preacher  rather  than  an  author. 
Cranmer  was  a  master  of  the  art  of  expression,  but  his  greatest 
achievement,  the  English  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  was  the  work  of 
the  next  reign.  John  Skelton,  "  the  incomparable  light  and  ornament 
of  British  letters,"  as  one  admirer  calls  him,  was  versatile  and  witty ; 
but  his  style  is  partly  eccentric  and  partly  of  the  past  age.  The 
laborious  Historia  Anglicana,  of  the  Italian  Polydore  Vergil,  shows 
much  breadth  and  critical  acumen,  and  is  graphic  in  places  but  is  rather 
a  work  of  erudition  than  of  art. 

1  A  chantry  was  a  foundation  for  a  priest  to  sing  masses  for  the  souls  of  pious 
contributors.     Often  he  acted  as  schoolmaster  in  addition. 

2  I.e.  royal.  3  Trinity  at  Cambridge  in  1546. 


346  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Four  men  of  the  reign  stand  above  their  contemporaries  and  herald 
the  coming  age  —  Sir  Thomas  More,  Roger  Ascham,  Henry  Howard, 
Earl  of  Surrey,  and  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt.  More's  most  notable  produc- 
tion was  his  Utopia,  one  of  those  rare  books  which,  written  primarily 
as  a  protest  against  existing  abuses,  has  survived  as  a  classic.  As- 
cham's  Toxophilus,  or  treatise  on  archery,  was  published  two  years 
before  Henry's  death.  Puttenham,  the  Elizabethan  critic,  refers 
quaintly  to  Surrey  and  Wyatt  as  "  two  courtly  makers,  who  having 
traveled  into  Italy  and  there  tasted  the  sweet  and  stately  measures 
of  Italian  poesy,  greatly  polished  our  rude  and  homely  manner."  It 
is  unlikely  that  Surrey  ever  went  to  Italy,  but  Wyatt  did.  The  two 
introduced  the  sonnet  into  English  poetry,  and  their  "  songs  and 
senates  "  were  first  published  in  a  collection  of  verse  known  as  Tottel's 
Miscellany  in  1557.  Moreover,  Surrey  in  his  translation  of  the 
second  and  fourth  books  of  the  Mneid  marked  an  epoch  by  employing 
the  use  of  blank  verse  for  the  first  time  in  English.  So  the  Henrician 
era,  if  the  writers  were  few  and  their  product  inconsiderable,  was 
significant  in  literary  development. 

The  King  and  the  Age.  —  The  age,  like  many  another,  has  its  grim 
and  unlovely  and  its  gracious  and  heroic  sides.  It  was  "  instinct  with 
vast  animal  life,  robust  health  and  muscular  energy,  terrible  in  its  rude 
and  unrefined  appetites,  its  fiery  virtues  and  fierce  passions."  Henry 
and  his  officials  were  self-seeking,  ruthless,  regardless  of  human  life 
and  suffering.  The  merchants,  the  wool-growers,  and  the  cloth- 
makers,  intent  on  gain,  were  content  to  let  the  King  have  his  will,  and 
joined  in  the  oppression  of  the  lesser  folk.  Callousness  to  pain  and  lack 
of  pity  were  all  too  general  in  those  times.  All  classes  flocked  with 
equal  alacrity  to  a  cock  fight,  to  a  bear  baiting,  or  to  witness  a  martyr 
burning  at  the  stake.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  strong,  earnest 
men  and  women  who  were  content  to  suffer  rather  than  to  sacrifice  their 
faith,  were  it  Protestant  or  Roman  Catholic.  There  were  those  who 
had  prophetic  visions  of  a  new  era  in  literature,  in  education,  in  reli- 
gion, in  industry,  and  did  their  part  in  pulling  down  the  old  medieval 
edifice.  There  was  much  hardship  and  misery  while  the  new  structure 
was  abuilding  ;  but  there  was  sound  and  vigorous  health  in  the  workers 
who  were  striving  for  better  things.  In  the  midst  of  this  complex  age 
Henry  VIII  stands  out  as  the  great  commanding  figure  embodying  its 
most  striking  tendencies,  good  and  bad. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Constitutional.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  IV,  ch.  II.  Hallam,  Constitu- 
tional History,  I,  ch.  II ;  Taswell-Langmead,  chs.  X,  XI.  A.  F.  Pollard,  Factors  in 
Modern  History  (1907),  chs.  III-V;  on  the  "New  Monarchy,"  the  "Reformation," 
and  the  "Composition  of  Parliament."  Stubbs,  Lectures,  chs.  XI,  XII. 

General  conditions.  Traill,  Social  England,  III,  ch.  IX.  Froude,  History  of 
England,  I,  ch.  I.  Innes,  ch.  XI.  Thomas  More,  Utopia  (first  published  in 


THE  HENRICIAN  REGIME  347 

Latin  1516,  later  translated  and  often  reprinted).  R.  H.  Tawney,  The  Agrarian 
Problem  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  (1912).  E.  P.  Cheney,  Social  Changes  in  England 
in  the  Sixteenth  Century  (1895).  D.  Hannay,  A  Short  History  of  the  English  Navy 
(1898).  H.  Oppenheim,  A  History  of  the  Administration  of  the  Royal  Navy  (1897). 
W.  L.  Clowes,  The  Royal  Navy  (vol.  i,  1897). 

Scotland  and  Ireland.  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  I,  bk.  IV,  ch.  VIII ;  II,  bk.  V,  ch.  I. 
A.  G.  Richey,  Short  History  of  the  Irish  People  (1887).  R.  Bagwell,  Ireland  tinder 
the  Tudors  (1885),  I.  J.  E.  Morris,  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  1485-1910  (1914). 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE    PROTESTANT    EXTREMISTS    IN    POWER.     EDWARD    VI 

(1547-1553) 

The  Situation  at  Henry's  Death.  —  Henry  left  as  his  successor  a 
child  not  yet  ten  years  old,  when  the  situation  demanded  a  strong  man 
of  ripe  wisdom  and  tried  capacity.  "  Abroad,  Paul  III  was  scheming 
to  recover  the  allegiance  of  the  schismatic  realm ;  the  Emperor  was 
slowly  crushing  England's  national  allies  in  Germany;  France  was 
watching  her  opportunity  to  seize  Boulogne;  and  England  herself 
was  committed  to  hazardous  designs  on  Scotland.  At  home  there  was 
a  religious  revolution  half  accomplished  and  a  social  revolution  in  fer- 
ment; evicted  tenants  and  ejected  monks  infested  the  land,  centers 
of  disorder  and  raw  material  for  revolt ;  the  treasury  was  empty,  the 
kingdom  in  debt,  the  coinage  debased.  In  place  of  the  old  nobility 
of  blood  stood  a  new  peerage  raised  on  the  ruins  and  debauched  by  the 
spoils  of  the  Church,  and  created  to  be  docile  tools  in  the  work  of 
revolution." 

Hertford  becomes  Lord  Protector  and  Duke  of  Somerset,  1547.  — 
During  Henry's  last  days  the  representatives  of  the  old  and  the 
new  order  had  been  almost  evenly  balanced.  Norfolk  and  Stephen 
Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  had  served  as  a  counterpoise  to 
Cranmer  and  Hertford.  At  the  King's  death,  however,  Norfolk 
was  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  and  Gardiner's  name  did  not  appear  in 
the  list  of  sixteen  executors  whom  Henry  had  named  as  a  Council 
of  Regency  during  Edward's  minority.  This  body  was  composed 
mainly  of  men  of  much  ambition  and  little  scruple.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  Hertford,  whom  they  chose  Governor  and  Protector  of  the 
Realm,  they  gave  full  rein  to  the  policy  of  reform  which  the  more  con- 
servative Henry  had  held  in  check.  At  the  same  time,  they  did  not 
neglect  their  own  interests.  On  18  February,  1547,  two  days  before 
his  coronation,  on  the  ground  that  such  was  his  father's  will,  they 
made  the  little  King  distribute  a  number  of  peerages.  Among  those 
promoted  were  Hertford,  who  became  Duke  of  Somerset,  and  his  future 
rival,  John  Dudley,  Viscount  Lisle,  who  became  Earl  of  Warwick. 
In  March,  the  executors,  with  a  body  of  assistants,  were  constituted  a 
royal  Council.  Somerset  was  confirmed  in  his  office  with  enlarged 
powers.  The  Protector  was  slightly  over  forty  years  old,  of  handsome 
features  and  graceful  bearing.  He  was  already  known  as  a  dashing 
and  successful  general.  While  greedy  of  power,  he  meant  to  serve 

348 


THE   PROTESTANT  EXTREMISTS   IN  POWER       349 

his  country  well.  He  lived  a  pure  life,  and  he  was  overflowing  with 
large  ideas  and  lofty  aims.  In  addition  to  carrying  the  Protestant 
Revolution  to  its  extreme  limits,  he  strove  to  unite  England  and 
Scotland,  and  labored  to  alleviate  the  wretchedness  of  the  poor.  But 
he  was  a  dreamer  rather  than  a  practical  ruler  of  men.  He  failed  to 
realize  the  difficulties  which  stood  in  his  way,  he  underrated  the 
strength  of  his  opponents,  and  he  lacked  the  tact  and  firmness  to  make 
his  ideas  prevail.  In  the  interests  of  progress  and  toleration  he 
allowed  a  freedom  of  speech  and  action  to  extremists  that  resulted  in 
the  greatest  confusion  and  disorder.  He  was  unable  to  comprehend 
that  the  consent  of  the  Scots  was  essential  to  any  real  union,  and,  by 
attempting  to  carry  it  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  he  only  inflamed  their 
already  bitter  opposition.  In  seeking  to  befriend  the  poor  he  only 
excited  hopes  which  he  was  unable  to  satisfy,  he  alienated  the  landed 
interests  and  widened  the  breach  between  the  classes.  He  was  vain, 
arrogant,  impatient  of  advice,  and,  unfortunately,  prejudiced  his 
reputation  for  disinterestedness  by  his  rapacity  and  display.  He 
enriched  himself  with  the  spoils  of  the  Church,  and  applied  the  fabric 
of  consecrated  edifices  to  building  himself  a  magnificent  palace.  Yet 
with  all  his  faults  and  incompetence,  he  was  a  shining  contrast  to  his 
successor. 

The  Protector's  First  Parliament,  1547-1548.  —  The  first  Parlia- 
ment of  the  new  reign,  which  sat  from  November,  1547,  to  January, 
1548,  passed  a  series  of  measures,  all  important,  and  many  of  them 
praiseworthy.  The  bulk  of  the  treason  acts  since  the  famous  25 
Edward  III  were  done  away  with;  and  it  was  enacted  that,  hence- 
forth, charges  of  treason  should  be  preferred  within  thirty  days 
after  the  offense  and  supported  by  two  sufficient  witnesses.  An  act 
of  1539  giving  royal  proclamations  the  force  of  law  was  repealed,  as 
were  also  the  heresy  laws  of  Richard  II  and  Henry  V,  and  the  Act  of 
the  Six  Articles,  with  its  savage  penalties.  At  the  request  of  Con- 
vocation communion  in  both  kinds  was  legalized ;  but  a  law  sanction- 
ing clerical  marriages  had  to  wait  for  a  year.  The  Chantries  Bill  of 
1545  was  renewed  and  enforced,  and  the  fruits  of  their  suppression, 
together  with  the  religious  property  of  gilds,  were  turned  over  to  the 
Council.  Some  was  appropriated  by  those  in  control,  while  a  very 
inadequate  portion  was  later  applied  to  the  founding  of  schools. 

Protestant  Excesses.  —  The  greatest  confusion,  license,  and  pro- 
fanity prevailed.  Each  parish  became  a  law  unto  itself,  and  individ- 
uals likewise  threw  off  all  restraint.  Some  were  honest  zealots, 
others  made  war  on  the  ancient  order  solely  for  gain.  Foreigners 
poured  in :  Lutherans  from  Germany ;  Calvinists  from  Geneva ; 
Zwinglians  from  Zurich,  as  well  as  "  heretics  of  every  hue,"  so  that 
England  was  regarded  by  the  horrified  men  of  the  old  stamp  as  "  the 
harbor  of  all  infidelity."  Neither  Lutheranism  nor  Zwinglianism 
exercised  any  abiding  influence,  nor  was  the  church  organization  of 
Calvin  ever  generally  accepted ;  but  his  theology,  especially  his  doc- 


350  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

trine  of  predestination,  and  his  political  principles,  came  to  affect 
Englishmen  profoundly.  Though  the  extremists  went  to  such  lengths 
that  the  Council  had,  in  the  interests  of  property  and  order,  to  devise 
means  to  check  them,  progressive  measures  followed  one  another  in 
quick  succession.1  A  Book  of  Homilies  2  was  launched  which,  five 
years  before,  had  failed  to  receive  the  assent  of  the  King  and  Convoca- 
tion. During  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1547  a  general  visitation 
was  held  which  enforced  the  use  of  English  in  the  services,  the  destruc- 
tion of  "  abused  "  images,3  and  the  acknowledgment  of  the  royal 
supremacy.  Various  ceremonies  were  done  away  with,  such  as  the 
creeping  to  the  cross  on  Good  Friday,  the  use  of  ashes,  palms,  candles, 
and  holy  water.  The  clergy  were  forbidden  to  preach  outside  their 
own  dioceses  without  a  special  license.  Although  this  was  aimed 
at  the  extremists  of  both  factions,  it  was  the  Protestants  alone  who 
received  any  exemption. 

Somerset's  Growing  Unpopularity,  1548.  —  These  measures  were 
merely  temporary  expedients  until  a  "  uniform  and  godly  "  order 
of  service  could  be  enacted.  Gardiner,  and  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London, 
resisted  so  stoutly  that  they  were  imprisoned,  and  the  latter  was  not 
long  afterwards  deprived  of  his  see.  This  was  the  nearest  to  religious 
persecution  that  the  Protector  ever  came.  Indeed,  his  ecclesiastical 
policy  met  with  comparatively  little  opposition.  Other  measures, 
good  in  themselves,  he  found  it  impossible  to  carry,  which  made  him 
only  the  more  violent  and  high-handed.  He  appointed  an  agricultural 
commission  to  deal  with  evasions  of  the  statutes  of  enclosures,  and, 
when  Parliament,  in  December,  1547,  under  the  influence  of  the  landed 
classes,  rejected  three  new  bills 4  based  on  its  reports,  he  set  up  in  his 
own  house  a  Court  of  Requests  where  the  poor  might  appeal  to  him 
over  the  heads  of  the  judges. 

The  First  Act  of  Uniformity  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  1549. 
—  In  January,  1549,  Parliament  passed  an  Act  of  Uniformity  which 
imposed  on  all  subjects  the  form  of  service  contained  in  a  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  drawn  up  by  a  commission  headed  by  Cranmer. 
This  book  was  based  largely  on  the  form  prevalent  in  England  before 
the  Reformation  and  known  as  the  Sarum  Use.5  Done  in  that  im- 
posing yet  simple  language  of  which  Cranmer  was  master,  it  departed 
little  from  its  medieval  model  except  that  it  was  shorter  and  less^ 
complicated.  The  act  of  1549  was  mild  compared  with  the  later  acts. 
It  was~~Iimited  to  the  clergy,  it  insisted  only  upon  uniformity  of 

1  The  orders  were  issued  by  the  Council  under  color  of  royal  authority,  but  the 
details  were  suggested  mainly  by  Cranmer. 

2  A  series  of  discourses  appointed  to  be  read  in  churches  in  place  of  the  sermons. 

3  These  included  stained    glass    windows,  paintings,   and  carvings,   extended 
subsequently  to  all  images. 

4  They  dealt  with  the  education  of  poor  men's  children,  security  of  tenure., 
and  decay  of  tillage  and  husbandry. 

5  So  called  because  it  was  drawn  up  for  the  diocese  of  Sarum  at  Salisbury  by 
Bishop  Osmund,  who  occupied  the  see  1078-1099. 


THE  PROTESTANT  EXTREMISTS   IN  POWER       351 

outward  observance,  and  no  attempt  was  made  to  impose  a  doctrinal 
test.  Princess  Mary,  who  refused  to  conform,  was  allowed  by  the 
Protector  to  hear  mass  in  her  own  house. 

Religious  Revolt  in  Devon  and  Cornwall,  1549.  —  Yet  the  new 
arrangement  satisfied  neither  of  the  extreme  parties.  It  still  savored 
too  much  of  Rome  for  the  "hot  gospellers,"  while  the  country  folk, 
under  the  influence  of  the  parish  priests,  resisted  even  the  moderate 
changes  which  it  introduced.  In  July  the  men  of  Devon  and  Cornwall 
rose  in  revolt,  demanding  the  restoration  of  the  old  services,  and  images 
and  monastic  endowments.  The  insurgents  proceeded  to  besiege 
Exeter,  which  was  only  relieved  in  August  by  a  government  force 
assisted  by  foreign  mercenaries. 

Kett's  Rebellion,  1549. — While  the  mainspring  of  the  revolt  in 
the  southwest  was  religious,  widespread  discontent  existed  throughout 
the  country,  due  to  agrarian  distress,  to  the  steady  rise  of  prices  re- 
sulting from  the  debased  currency,  and  to  the  repressive  vagrancy 
laws.  The  failure  of  Somerset's  efforts  to  improve  the  situation 
brought  on  a  revolt  which  centered  in  the  eastern  counties.  It  was 
led  by  one  Robert  Kett,  a  prosperous  landlord  whose  sympathies 
with  the  rioters  had  been  accidentally  enlisted.  Early  in  July  he  es- 
tablished a  camp  on  Mousehold  Heath,  near  Norwich,  and  set  up  a 
court  under  an  oak  tree,  to  which  offending  landlords  were  brought 
for  judgment.  He  kept  his  forces  in  good  order,  prohibited  all  blood- 
shed, had  prayers  morning  and  evening,  and  frequent  addresses  from 
preachers.  A  petition  was  drawn  up,  begging  that  enclosures  and  other 
oppressive  practices  might  be  diminished.  "  We  pray,"  it  plain- 
tively declared,  "  that  all  bondmen  be  made  free ;  for  God  made  all 
free  with  his  precious  blood-shedding."  A  pardon  brought  by  a 
royal  herald  was  rejected  on  the  ground  that  "  Kings  were  wont  to 
pardon  wicked  persons  and  not  innocent  and  just  men."  Thereupon, 
Kett  seized  the  town  of  Norwich  and  defeated  an  army  sent  to  recover 
it.  Finally,  the  insurgents  were  defeated  by  a  force  under  Warwick, 
reenforced  by  French  and  Italian  mercenaries.  Kett  was  captured 
and  later  executed.  Somerset  had  been  obliged  to  employ  force 
against  the  very  class  whose  hopes  he  had  raised,  and  Warwick  saw 
the  opportunity  which  he  had  long  sought  for  overthrowing  his  rival. 
Many  other  things,  besides,  had  contributed  to  discredit  the  Protector. 

Failure  of  Somerset's  Scotch  and  French  Policy.  —  His  foreign 
policy  had  failed.  He  had  accentuated  the  hatred  of  the  Scots,  he 
had  helped  to  cement  more  closely  their  alliance  with  France,  and  had 
been  unsuccessful  in  averting  a  French  war.  To  be  sure,  he  had  tried 
to  proceed  cautiously,  he  had  declined  a  Lutheran  alliance  to  avoid 
angering  Charles  V,  and  he  had  sought  an  alliance  with  Henry  II, 
who  had  succeeded  Francis  I  in  March,  1547.  But  Henry  was  keen 
on  combining  with  the  Scots  and  recovering  Boulogne.  So  Somerset 
turned  to  Scotland.  He  offered  to  give  up  Henry  VIII's  claim  to 
sovereignty,  and  urged  the  acceptance  of  a  union ;  but  he  insisted  that 


352  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  treaty  of  1543  should  be  carried  out,  and  when  the  Scotch  refused, 
he  crossed  the  border  and  defeated  their  forces  at  Pinkie  Cleugh. 
10  August,  1547.  Making  allowance  for  all  difficulties,  Somerset 
bungled  his  Scotch  policy.  In  May  of  the  previous  year  a  body  of 
nobles  of  the  anti-French,  anti-Catholic  party,  had  murdered  Cardinal 
Beaton  and  seized  the  castle  of  St.  Andrews.  Somerset  neglected 
the  opportunity  and  allowed  the  French  to  send  assistance  to  the 
Government,  which  was  thus  enabled  to  overcome  the  insurgents. 
If  he  had  sent  timely  help  to  the  men  at  St.  Andrews,  he  might  have 
built  up  a  strong  anti-French  party  and  dictated  his  own  terms. 
Moreover,  the  effect  of  his  victory  at  Pinkie  was  disastrous.  He  was 
unwilling  or  unable  to  follow  it  up  by  a  military  occupation,  and  the 
Scots,  goaded  to  fury  by  the  defeat  and  the  ensuing  pillage,  proposed 
a  marriage  between  the  Princess  Mary  and  the  Dauphin  Francis. 
More  French  troops  were  sent  over,  Mary  was  taken  to  France,  and 
the  marriage,  concluded  in  course  of  time,  drew  still  closer  England's 
two  most  dangerous  enemies.  On  8  August,  1549,  while  the  south- 
western insurgents  and  Kett's  rebellion  were  still  on  foot,  France  took 
occasion  to  besiege  Boulogne. 

Summary  Treatment  of  His  Brother.  —  Another  handle  against 
the  Protector  was  found  in  the  summary  treatment  of  his  brother 
Thomas,  Baron  Seymour  of  Sudeley  and  Lord  High  Admiral  —  an 
unscrupulous  man  of  boundless  ambitions.  He  sought  to  become 
guardian  of  the  King's  person,  and  he  aspired  to  marry  the  Princess 
Elizabeth,  even  before  the  death  of  his  own  wife,1  whom  he  was  accused 
of  murdering.  He  allied  himself  with  the  Channel  pirates,  and  with 
the  master  of  the  mint  of  Bristol,  with  whom  he  shared  the  profits 
of  debasing  the  coinage;  he  gathered  a  party  to  further  his  aims; 
stored  up  arms  and  ammunition,  and  started  a  private  cannon  fac- 
tory. When  his  treasonable  practices  were  brought  to  light,  Parlia- 
ment passed  an  act  of  attainder  against  him,  and  he  was  executed 
without  trial,  20  March,  1549.  Although  he  richly  deserved  his  fate, 
the  Protector  was  blamed  for  thus  arbitrarily  disposing  of  his  own 
flesh  and  blood. 

The  Fall  of  Somerset,  1549.  —  So  Warwick  and  the  other  leaders 
of  the  Council,  who  nourished  grievances  or  hoped  for  gain  and 
power,  had  many  charges  to  bring  forward  against  the  Protector: 
the  strife  engendered  by  his  religious,  social,  and  agrarian  policy ;  his 
mismanagement  of  foreign  affairs ;  his  treatment  of  his  brother ;  his 
arrogance  and  heedlessness  of  advice ;  and  his  profuseness  and  greed. 
When  Somerset  realized  the  full  danger  of  his  position,  he  made  a  vain 
effort,  by  means  of  inflammatory  pamphlets,  to  rouse  the  lesser  folk 
to  rise  in  his  defense  against  the  "  great  masters  "  and  extortioners 
who  were  attacking  him  because  he  was  the  people's  friend.  He 
fled  from  London,  taking  the  young  King  with  him ;  but,  10  October, 

1  Catharine  Parr,  widow  of  Henry  VIII. 


THE  PROTESTANT  EXTREMISTS   IN  POWER      353 

he  was  induced  by  fair  promises  to  surrender.     Immediately  upon  his 
submission,  he  was  arrested  and  thrown  into  the  Tower. 

Warwick's  Supremacy  in  the  Council.  —  The  control  of  affairs  now 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  a  brilliant  soldier,  a 
cunning  diplomat,  and  a  polished  man  of  the  world,  but  utterly  un- 
scrupulous and  unprincipled,  masking  ambition  under  a  show  of  def- 
erence, and  religious  indifference  under  a  pretended  zeal  for  the  Prot- 
estant cause.1  His  first  step  was  to  secure  himself  and  his  followers 
in  the  Council  by  law,  and  to  undo  so  far  as  possible  the  work  of  the 
Protector.  To  this  end  he  procured  a  series  of  acts  from  Parliament, 
which  met  in  November,  1549.  It  was  made  high  treason  for  persons 
to  assemble  for  the  purpose  of  killing  or  imprisoning  a  member  of 
the  Privy  Council  or  of  "  altering  the  laws."  Enclosures  were  legal- 
ized, and  it  was  declared  a  treasonable  offense  to  meet  with  a  view  of 
breaking  them  down  or  of  abating  rates  and  prices,  while  those  who 
summoned  such  meetings  or  incited  such  acts  were  pronounced 
felons.  On  24  March,  1550,  a  treaty  was  made  with  France  by  which 
Boulogne  was  given  up  for  400,000  crowns ;  all  strongholds  which  the 
English  held  in  Scotland  were  surrendered;  the  marriage  of  Mary, 
Queen  of  Scots,  to  the  Dauphin  was  accepted;  and  England  agreed 
to  make  no  war  on  France  without  fresh  cause  of  offense.  Ignomin- 
ious as  these  terms  were,  the  peace  was  inevitable  and  not  without 
immediate  advantages.  Boulogne  was  hard  pressed,  and  the  English 
finances  were  too  depleted  to  continue  the  war.  Relieved  of  her 
enemies,  she  was  able  to  cut  down  her  armaments  and  turn  her  atten- 
tion to  the  religious  problem. 

Warwick's  Protestant  Zeal,  1550. — Warwick  acted  his  part  of 
advanced  Protestant  reformer  with  such  zeal  that  he  was  hailed  by 
Hooper,  one  of  the  greatest  enthusiasts  of  the  party,  as  "  a  most  holy 
and  fearless  instrument  of  the  word  of  God."  Not  only  did  he  keep 
Norfolk,  Bonner,  and  Gardiner  in  prison,  but  he  deprived  the  latter  of 
his  see,  and  imprisoned  and  deprived  half  a  dozen  more  of  the  bishops 
as  well.  With  the  bishoprics  thus  acquired  he  rewarded  the  leaders 
of  the  reform  party.  The  destruction  of  the  altars,  images,  and  painted 
windows  went  on  merrily,  and  the  ecclesiastical  lawlessness  increased. 
Nevertheless,  Joan  Bocher,  an  Anabaptist,  condemned  by  a  church 
court  under  Somerset,  was  burned  in  May,  1550,  and  another  heretic 
followed  her  to  the  stake  during  the  next  year.  Warwick's  adherents 
were  as  greedy  of  pelf  as  ever  Somerset  had  been.  In  March,  1551, 
the  Government  seized  such  church  plate  as  remained  unappropriated. 
Moreover,  the  proceeds  from  the  chantry  lands  which  had  been  charged 
with  the  support  of  the  displaced  chantry  priests,  and  "  the  erecting 
of  Grammar  Schools  for  the  education  of  youth  in  virtue  and  godliness, 
and  the  further  augmenting  the  better  provision  of  the  poor  and 
needy,"  were  largely  diverted  to  less  pious  and  laudable  uses. 

1  He  was  the  son  of  Henry  VII's  extortioner,  Dudley,  and  father  of  Elizabeth's 
notorious  favorite,  the  Earl  of  Leicester. 

2A 


354  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  "  Judicial  Murder  "  of  Somerset,  1552.  — Between  February, 
1550,  and  January,  1552,  Warwick  got  on  without  a  Parliament.  He 
packed  the  Council  with  his  own  followers,  he  made  himself  its  presi- 
dent, and  he  had  himself  created  Duke  of  Northumberland,  though 
he  did  not  venture  to  assume  the  title  of  Lord  Protector.  His  old 
rival  was  released  from  the  Tower,  6  February,  1550,  and  readmitted 
to  the  Council  in  April.  While  the  two  patched  up  a  reconciliation,  it 
was  natural  that  Somerset  should  oppose  the  policy  of  the  President 
and  seek  to  recover  his  lost  power.  Consequently,  16  October,  1551, 
he  was  suddenly  arrested  with  certain  of  his  adherents,  and  again  sent 
to  the  Tower.  The  story  was  circulated  that  he  had  plotted  to 
murder  Northumberland  and  others  of  the  Council,  to  seize  the  crown, 
and  to  destroy  the  city  of  London.  He  was  tried  before  a  court  con- 
sisting of  26  of  the  47  peers  of  England,  among  them  Northumberland 
and  his  satellites  who  had  framed  the  accusation  and  examined  the 
witnesses.  Even  then  all  the  charges  against  him  were  finally  dropped 
except  one  of  felony  for  inciting  an  unlawful  assembly.  Nor  did  that 
rest  on  any  sound  basis.  On  22  January,  1552,  he  was  executed  by  a 
royal  order  fraudulently  obtained  for  the  purpose.  The  popular 
opposition  was  so  intense  almost  as  to  provoke  a  riot.  Parliament, 
which  met  the  following  day,  showed  its  abhorrence  of  the  deed  by 
passing  a  new  treason  act  restoring  the  obligation  to  present  a  charge 
within  three  months *  and  to  substantiate  it  by  the  evidence  of  two 
witnesses. 

The  Second  Act  of  the  Uniformity,  1552.  —  Voicing  the  increasing 
Protestant  sentiment,  this  same  Parliament  proceeded  to  sanction 
a  revised  edition  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  In  the  new  Book 
the  priest  is  called  a  "  minister,"  the  altar  a  "  table,"  and  in  the  com- 
munion service  the  memorial  idea  supersedes  the  doctrine  of  the  Real 
Presence.2  But  the  sacrament  was  still  to  be  received  kneeling,  and 
was  defended  in  the  famous  "  Black  Rubric,"  3  which  declared  that  the 
posture  meant  "  no  adoration  to  any  Real  Presence  of  Christ's  natural 
flesh  and  blood."  A  second  Act  of  Uniformity  enjoining  the  use  of 
the  Book  thus  revised  also  imposed  penalties  for  non-observance  upon 
the  laity  as  well  as  the  clergy.  Any  one  neglecting  to  attend  service 
on  Sundays  and  holidays  was  liable  to  ecclesiastical  censure  and  ex- 
communication. The  penalty  for  attending  any  other  form  was 
six  months'  imprisonment  for  the  first  offense,  a  year  for  the  second, 
and  life  for  the  third.  Cranmer,  who  had  been  in  charge  of  the  work 

1  Treason  was  among  the  original  charges  against  Somerset,  though  he  was 
convicted  of  felony. 

2  Where  the  priest  had  said  formerly :  "The  Body  and  Blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  which  was  given  for  thee,  preserve  thy  body  and  soul  unto  everlasting  life," 
the  minister  now  said,  in  proffering  the  bread  to  the  communicant :   "Take  and  eat 
this  in  remembrance  that  Christ  died  for  thee  and  feed  on  him  in  thy  heart  by  faith 
with  thanksgiving."     A  similar  exhortation  was  made  in  offering  the  wine. 

3  A  "rubric"  is  an  explanatory  note,  getting  its  name  from  the  fact  that  they 
were  originally,  and  are  usually,  printed  in  red. 


THE   PROTESTANT  EXTREMISTS   IN  POWER       355 

of  revision,  also  drew  up  a  series  of  forty-two  articles  defining  the  faith. 
These  were  not  submitted  to  Parliament,  but  were  sanctioned  by  a 
royal  proclamation  in  June,  1553. 

Northumberland's  Plot,  1553.  —  In  spite  of  increased  spoliation  of 
the  Church,1  and  renewed  debasement  of  coinage,  there  was  a  constant 
dearth  of  money.  Moreover,  the  Duke,  with  all  his  acuteness  and 
ability,  lacked  the  art  of  making  himself  popular ;  and,  as  the  financial 
situation  grew  worse  and  his  arbitrariness  and  self-seeking  became 
more  and  more  evident,  lost  ground  steadily.  Even  the  preachers 
who  had  hailed  him  as  a  new  Moses  or  a  new  Joshua  began  to  de- 
nounce him  as  Achitophel.2  His  hold  over  the  sickly  boy  King 
remained  almost  his  only  source  of  strength.  Realizing  that  Edward's 
brief  life  was  drawing  to  a  close,  he  devised  his  last  and  most  daring 
scheme,  designed  to  secure  a  successor  over  whom  he  might  exercise 
control.  The  last  succession  act,  passed  in  1544,  had  decreed  that, 
failing  issue,  Mary  should  succeed  Edward,  and  Elizabeth  should  suc- 
ceed Mary.  Beyond  that  point  Parliament  had  empowered  Henry 
VIII  to  regulate  the  succession  by  will.  Passing  over  the  heirs  of 
his  elder  sister  Margaret,  represented  at  this  time  by  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scots,  he  had  devised  the  crown  to  the  line  of  his  sister  Mary,  Duchess 
of  Suffolk.  Although  Edward's  two  sisters  were  still  alive,  Northum- 
berland determined  to  get  him  to  pass  them  over  and  vest  the  succes- 
sion in  the  Suffolk  line ;  not,  however,  in  Frances,  the  nearest  repre- 
sentative, but  in  her  daughter,  Lady  Jane  Grey,  whom  he  married 
to  Guilford  Dudley,  his  fourth  son.  This  was  clearly  illegal ;  for 
Henry's  will  was  authorized  by  Parliament,  while  Northumberland 
sought  only  the  Council's  sanction  of  his  scheme.  Indeed,  that  body 
only  assented  with  extreme  reluctance.  The  timorous  Cranmer  was 
the  last  to  sign.3  The  judges  were  only  brought  over  by  promises  and 
threats.  This  was  in  June,  1553.  On  6  July,  King  Edward  VI  died  at 
Greenwich  in  his  sixteenth  year.  The  matter  was  kept  secret  as  long 
as  possible,  and  10  July,  Lady  Jane  Grey  was  proclaimed  in  London. 

Edward's  Characteristics.  — Edward  is  described  as  a  short,  slender, 
fair-haired  youth  of  sedate  bearing,  weak-eyed  and  slightly  deaf. 
Carefully  educated  and  always  cheerful  at  his  books,  he  learned  Greek 
and  Latin  as  a  mere  child,  though  he  diverted  himself  with  hunting, 
hawking,  and  tilting.  He  was  devoted  to  his  tutor,  Sir  John  Cheke ; 
but  he  associated  only  rarely  with  the  youth  of  his  own  age  or  with 
his  sisters,  each  of  whom  had  a  separate  household.  His  uncle  Somer- 
set failed  to  gain  any  personal  influence  over  him,  and  when  the  move- 
ment to  drive  the  Protector  out  of  office  was  launched,  he  noted  dryly 
in  his  diary  the  following  items  against  him :  "  ambition,  vain-glory, 
entering  into  rash  wars  in  my  youth  .  .  .  enriching  himself  of  my 

1  Church  bells  and  organs  were  seized,  and  lead  was  stripped  from  the  roofs  of 
sacred  buildings. 

2  From  the  fraudulent  councilor  of  Absalom. 

3  Though,  by  virtue  of  his  high  office,  his  name  stands  first  on  the  list. 


356  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

treasure,  following  his  own  opinion,  and  doing  all  by  his  own  author- 
ity." Indeed,  Edward's  natural  affection  was  small,  and  as  he  grew 
older,  he  began  to  exhibit  more  and  more  his  father's  masterful  temper 
and  regal  dignity.  Northumberland  managed  to  gain  an  ascendancy 
over  him,  though  it  is  most  unlikely  that  he  would  have  maintained  it 
had  the  King  reached  manhood.  His  precocity  of  intellect  and  the 
intensity  of  his  religious  ardor  were  equally  marked.  He  was  assid- 
uous in  hearing  sermons,  would  gravely  note  the  points  that  impressed 
him,  and  discuss  them  afterwards.  On  15  May,  1550,  a  contemporary 
reports :  "  No  study  delights  him  more  than  that  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, of  which  he  reads  daily  ten  chapters  with  the  greatest  atten- 
tion," and  a  few  days  later  it  is  recorded  in  a  letter  to  Calvin :  "  The 
King  is  exerting  all  his  powers  for  the  restoration  of  God's  Kingdom." 
But,  in  January,  1553,  he  was  attacked  by  consumption,  resulting  from 
a  cold  which  he  caught  at  tennis,  and  his  death,  which  soon  followed, 
was  a  sudden  check  on  the  course  of  the  Reformation. 

Edward's  Educational  and  Charitable  Foundations.  —  In  spite 
of  the  greedy  adventurers  who  surrounded  him,  the  young  King  was 
able  to  do  something  for  learning  and  charity.  From  the  sale  of  chap- 
els, chantries,  and  other  church  property  he  endowed,  or  reendowed, 
upwards  of  thirty  grammar  schools.  Christ's  Hospital,  founded  for 
the  sons  of  the  poor,  formerly  the  Grey  Friars  monastery,  became  the 
famous  Blue  Coat  School.  Funds  were  given  to  the  hospitals  of 
St.  Thomas  and  St.  Bartholomew  for  the  medical  treatment  of  the 
indigent,  and  the  Savoy  palace  was  turned  into  an  institution  of 
the  same  sort.  The  royal  palace  of  Bridewell  became  a  workhouse  or 
a  house  of  correction  for  "  ramblers,  dissolute  and  sturdy  beggars." 
Inadequate  as  all  this  was,  it  was  more  than  Henry  VIII  had  at- 
tempted. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  A.  F.  Pollard,  History  of  England,  from  the  Accession  of  Edward  VI 
to.  the  Death  of  Elizabeth  (1910),  chs.  I-V  (full  list  of  authorities,  with  comments, 
pp.  418-503).  Innes,  England  under  the  Tudor s,  chs.  XII,  XIII.  Cambridge  Modern 
History,  II,  ch.  XIV  (list  of  authorities,  pp.  794-801).  Froude,  History  of  England, 
chs.  IV,  V.  Lingard,  History  of  England,  V,  ch.  IV.  A.  F.  Pollard,  England  under 
Protector  Somerset  (1900) ;  the  standard  work  on  the  Protector,  rather  in  the  nature 
of  an  apology. 

Constitutional.     Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  IV,  ch.  III. 

Ecclesiastical.  Wakeman,  chs.  XIII,  XIV.  Gairdner,  History  of  the  English 
Church,  chs.  XIII,  XIV,  XV.  Dixon,  History  of  the  Church  of  England,  chs.  II,  III. 

Selections  from  the  sources.   Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  159-162. 


THE  PROTESTANT  EXTREMISTS   IN  POWER       357 


THE  GRAYS  AND  THE  SEYMOURS 

HENRY  VII,  1485-1509 

I 


HENRY  VIII, 
1509-1547 

Margaret=  James  IV           Mary 
of  Scotland             m. 
(i)  Louis  XII 
of  France 

=  (2)  Charles  Brandon, 
Duke  of 
Suffolk 

Frances  = 

Henry  Grey, 
Marquis  of  Dorset 
and  Duke  of 
Suffolk 

Jane  Grey=Guilford  Dudley 


Catherine  Grey = Edward  Seymour, 
|          Earl  of 
Hertford 
I 

Edward  Seymour, 

Lord  Beauchamp, 

d.  1612 


Edward, 
d. 1618 


I 

William, 

afterward 

2d  Duke  of 

Somerset 

(1588-1660), 

m.  Arabella 

Stuart, 
see  p.  293 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE  ENGLISH  COUNTER-REFORMATION.    MARY   (1553-1558) 

Defeat  of  the  Northumberland  Plot,  1553.  — When  Mary  learned 
of  the  events  in  London,  she  took  refuge  in  Framlingham,  a  fortified 
manor  house  in  Suffolk.  She  chose  her  position  wisely ;  it  was  within 
the  area  of  Kett's  rebellion,  hence  in  a  country  bitterly  hostile  to 
Northumberland,  and  it  was  near  the  seacoast  whence,  if  need  arose, 
she  could  easily  flee  to  the  Flemish  dominions  of  her  cousin,  Charles 
V.  Forthwith,  loyal  gentlemen  and  their  retainers  began  to  flock  to 
Mary's  support,  bringing  with  them  money,  plate,  and  jewels.  Lon- 
don, on  the  contrary,  showed  no  enthusiasm  for  Lady  Jane  Grey, 
and  Northumberland,  as  he  departed  with  an  army  against  the  Marian 
forces,  was  heard  to  exclaim :  "  The  people  press  to  see  us,  but  not 
one  sayeth  '  God  speed  ye.'  '  He  had  not  gone  far,  however,  before 
the  citizens  awakened  from  their  lethargy,  and  when,  19  July,  Lady 
Jane's  own  father  proclaimed  Mary  on  Tower  Hill  and  Paul's  Cross, 
they  manifested  their  joy  by  the  ringing  of  bells,  by  bonfires,  by 
salvos  of  cannon,  and  shouts  of  applause.  The  attempts  to  set  aside 
a  will  authorized  by  Parliament,  the  hard  conditions  under  which 
Mary  had  grown  up,  and  the  religious  excesses  of  the  late  reign,  all 
combined  to  incline  the  people  to  support  their  rightful  Queen.  Nor- 
thumberland's troops  began  to  drop  away  as  he  marched,  and  when 
he  learned  that  the  crews  of  the  Channel  fleet  had  deserted  his  cause, 
he  declared  for  Mary  himself,  in  the  market  place  at  Cambridge,  20 
July,  protesting,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  that  he  knew  her  to  be  a  merciful 
woman.  Ordered  by  the  Council  to  disband  his  army,  he-was  arrested 
and  taken  to  London.  On  3  August,  1553,  the  new  Queen,  accom- 
panied by  a  glittering  escort, 'rode  into  the  City.  Her  first  act  was 
to  release  Norfolk,  Gardiner,  and  others.  Gardiner  was  restored  to 
his  see  of  Winchester  and  made  Chancellor  and  Chief  Minister,  though 
Mary  herself,  for  the  first  year  or  two  of  her  reign,  rose  at  daybreak 
and  worked  till  midnight  on  affairs  of  State.  Of  those  who  had  plotted 
against  her  accession  seven  were  tried  and  condemned,  but  only  three 
were  executed.  Northumberland  tried  in  vain  to  avert  his  richly 
deserved  fate  by  professing  himself  a  Catholic.  Mary  refused  to 
put  Lady  Jane  Grey  to  death,  though  she  sent  her  to  prison. 

Mary's  Character  and  Policy.  —  The  Queen,  who  had  now  come 
to  her  own,  was  in  her  thirty-seventh  year.  In  spite  of  contemporary 
accounts  of  her  beauty,  her  portraits  represent  her  as  prim  and  un- 

358 


THE  ENGLISH  COUNTER-REFORMATION          359 

prepossessing.  She  was  of  low  stature,  and  extremely  short-sighted. 
Though  thin  and  delicate,  she  had  a  deep-toned,  masculine  voice. 
After  a  few  brief  years,  when  she  was  courted  by  the  leading  princes  of 
Europe,  she  had  shared  in  her  mother's  disgrace,  and  because  of  her 
unflinching  loyalty  to  her  religion,  had  been  exposed  to  the  brutality 
of  Henry  VIII  and  his  agents.1  At  length  she  was  reconciled  to  her 
father,  but  only  on  hard  and  humiliating  terms.  Restored  to  the 
succession  in  1544,  she  was  kept  apart  from  her  brother  and  had  to 
face  continued  hardships  and  opposition.  She  was  highly  educated, 
and  her  mental  endowments  and  accomplishments  were  uncommon. 
In  her  lonely  and  joyless  life  study,  music,  and  embroidery  formed 
her  only  resource.  Yet,  withal,  and  in  spite  of  occasional  bursts 
of  temper,  partly  a  result  of  ill  health,  she  was  loved  by  all  about  her 
for  her  generosity  and  kindness.  Her  dearest  wish  was  to  restore 
England  to  the  Catholic  fold.  For  that  she  had  embittered  her  life 
and  all  but  lost  her  birthright. 

First  Measures  of  the  Reign.  —  A  fortnight  after  her  entry  into 
London  she  issued  a  proclamation  urging  all  men  to  return  to  the  old 
faith,  she  ordered  the  restoration  of  much  church  plate  which  had 
been  stolen,  she  gave  warning  to  "  busy  meddlers  in  religion,"  and 
forbade  the  "  private  interpretation  of  God's  own  word  after  men's 
own  brains."  Married  clergy  who  refused  to  give  up  their  wives 
were  deprived.  Elizabeth,  though  she  refused  to  declare  her  con- 
version, agreed  to  attend  mass  and  was  left  in  peace.  The  formal 
settlement  of  religion  was  reserved  to  Parliament.  In  order  to  relieve 
the  financial  situation,  Mary  remitted  the  tax  imposed  by  Edward's 
last  parliament  —  a  step  which  "  caused  a  marvelous  noise  of  rejoic- 
ing "  —  and  sought  to  regulate  the  coinage.  Yet  her  coronation, 
i  October,  was  a  very  gorgeous  affair/intended  to  impress  the  people. 
The  procession  to  and  from  the  Abbey  was  most  imposing  from  its 
profusion  of  crimson  velvet,  furs,  silks,  and  gold  and  silver  lace. 

Marriage  Projects.  —  The  Queen's  marriage  presented  a  serious 
problem.  Her  subjects  were  anxious  to  settle  the  succession;  but 
the  majority  wanted  her  to  marry  among  her  own  people  and  to  keep 
clear  of  foreign  complications  and  papal  control.  Some,  however, 
backed  by  Charles  V,  desired  her  union  with  a  foreign  prince  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith,  who  would  aid  her  to  restore  the  power  of  the 
Pope,  and  counteract  the  Franco-Scotch  alliance.  The  latter  party 
looked  to  Philip,  son  of  the  Emperor,  and  heir  to  his  Spanish  domin- 
ions, a  widower  eleven  years  the  junior  of  Mary.  He  was  opposed 
not  only  by  the  majority  of  Englishmen,  but  by  the  two  men  high  in 
royal  favor,  —  Gardiner  and  Pole. 

The  System  of  Henry  VIII  restored  by  Parliament,  1553.  —  Par- 
liament met  5  October,  1553.  Its  chief  work  was  to  pass  an  act  re- 
pealing all  laws  of  Edward's  reign  affecting  religion  and  the  Church, 

1  Norfolk  and  Sussex  once  declared  to  her  face  that,  if  she  were  their  daughter, 
"they  would  knock  her  head  against  the  wall  till  it  was  as  soft  as  a  baked  apple." 


360  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  restoring  the  service  as  it  was  in  the  last  year  of  Henry  VIII. 
This  did  away  with  both  Books  of  Common  Prayer,  with  communion 
in  both  kinds,  and  the  marriage  of  the  clergy.  Parliament  would  go 
no  further;  for  the  majority  had  no  desire  to  reverse  the  policy  of 
Henry  VIII  and  again  accept  papal  rule.  As  a  protest  against  the 
projected  Spanish  match,  the  Commons  prepared  an  address  praying 
the  Queen  to  marry  an  English  noble.  Mary,  who  had  already  de- 
termined on  Philip,  rebuked  them  sharply  for  presuming  to  control 
her  choice  of  a  husband.  (In  January,  1554,  the  marriage  articles 
~~ta  were  arranged,  and  upon  terms  most  favorable  to  England/)  Although 
Philip  was  to  have  the  title  of  joint  sovereign  and  to  aid^his  consort 
in  the  government  of  England,  the  country  was  to  preserve  its  ancient 
laws  and  privileges  independent  of  Spain.  None  but  English  were  to 
hold  office,  and  if  the  Queen  should  die  without  issue,  her  husband 
/was  to  make  no  claim  on  the  succession.  On  the  other  hand,  any 
child  born  of  the  marriage  would  succeed  both  to  the  English  kingdom 
and  to  Philip's  inheritance  in  the  Low  Countries.  Finally,  Philip 
agreed  not  to  engage  England  in  his  father's  wars  with  France. 

Wyatt's  Rebellion,  1554.  — The  people  showed  their  hatred  of  the 
match  by  nearly  tearing  Philip's  ambassador  to  pieces  when  he  landed 
in  Kent,  mistaking  him  for  the  bridegroom;  and  by  pelting  with 
snowballs  Courtenay  who  went  to  meet  him  at  Westminster.  Those 
were  indications  of  a  feeling  which  gave  Mary's  enemies  a  chance  to  plan 
a  widespread  rebellion,  which,  while  professing  to  free  her  from  her 
evil  councilors  and  to  prevent  the  Spanish  marriage,  really  aimed, 
with  French  help,  to  depose  the  Queen  and  to  set  up  Lady  Jane  Grey 
or  Elizabeth  in  her  place.  But  theTdesign  leaked  out,  and  Gardiner 
wrung  a  complete  confession  from  Courtenay.1  Three  separate  out- 
breaks were  suppressed  in  detail.  One  led  by  Sir  Peter  Carew  and 
the  gentry  of  Devon,  with  the  aim  of  setting  Elizabeth  and  Courtenay 
on  the  throne,  broke  up  in  a  panic  when  Courtenay  failed  to  appear. 
Carew,  who  fled  abroad,  was  nearly  dispatched  in  Venice  by  hired 
assassins.  A  second,  centering  in  the  midlands  and  conducted  by  the 
Duke  of  Suffolk  in  favor  of  his  daughter,  Lady  Jane  Grey,  was  easily 
crushed.  Suffolk  was  lodged  in  the  Tower.  A  third  rising  in  Kent 
caused  more  trouble.  The  leader,  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,2  a  young  Roman 
Catholic,  succeeded  in  crossing  the  Thames  at  Kingston  above  London, 
whence  he  penetrated  into  the  City  as  far  as  the  Temple  Bar  before 
he  could  be  overcome.  Mary,  thus  threatened  on  many  sides,  showed 
the  true  Tudor  spirit  and  tact.  On  i  February  she  made  a  stirring 
speech,  declaring  that  the  conspirators  were  simply  making  her 
marriage  "  a  Spanish  cloak  to  cover  their  pretended  purpose  against 
our  religion,"  and  offering,  if  the  Lords  and  Commons  deemed  it 
for  the  best  interests  of  her  subjects,  to  remain  single  as  long  as  she 
lived.  In  spite  of  urgent  appeals  she  refused  to  leave  Whitehall  which 

1  He  was  the  son  of  the  Marquis  of  Exeter  executed  by  Henry  VIII  in  1538. 

2  He  was  a  son  of  the  poet. 


THE  ENGLISH   COUNTER-REFORMATION          361 

lay  in  the  rebel  line  of  march.  About  sixty  of  the  insurgent  leaders, 
including  Wyaj<tLj^^Siif£olk^j^re^jit_tq  death.  Lady  Jane  Grey 
and  her  husband  were^  executed  for  their  part  in  the  old  Northumber- 
land plot.  Elizabeth,  brought  to  London  and  held  in  durance  for  a 
time,  was  finally  reconciled  to  her  sister.  In  spite  of  various  sus- 
picious circumstances,  no  proof  of  her  complicity  was  discovered. 

The  Arrival  of  Philip,  1554.  —  Wyatt's  rebellion  was  followed  by 
more  rigorous  measures  against  the  Protestants.  Foreign  congrega- 
tions were  ordered  to  quit  the  realm,  married  clergy  were  forced  to 
give  up  their  wives  or  to  leave  their  benefices,  and  country  gentry  were 
commanded  to  set  up  altars  in  the  village  churches.  Parliament, 
which  sat  from  the  2  April  to  5  May,  while  it  sanctioned  the  marriage 
treaty,  refused  to  exclude  Elizabeth  from  the  succession  or  to  reenact 
the  Six  Articles  and  the  old  heresy  laws.  On  20  July,  Philip  landed 
at  Southhampton,  where  he  met  a  deputation  of  the  Council,  to  whom 
he  showed  himself  most  gracious  and  conciliatory.  Declaring  that 
he  came  to  live  among  them  as  an  Englishman,  and  that  his  attendants 
would  conform  to  the  English  law,  he  drank,  as  a  pledge  of  his  goodwill, 
a  tankard  of  English  ale.  This  last  was  no  doubt  an  ordeal  for  a 
Spaniard.  Mary  met  him  at  Winchester,  where,  on  the  25th,  they 
were  married  in  the  ancient  cathedral.  After  a  month  of  festivities 
the  royal  pair  journeyed  to  London  with  a  stately  train,  including 
twenty-eight  carts  filled  with  bullion  amounting  to  £50,000,  which 
Philip  brought  as  a  present  to  the  kingdom.  While  he  strove  to  please, 
his  formal  manner  and  his  strict  devotion  to  his  religious  duties  seemed 
to  strengthen  the  natural  aversion  with  which  he  was  regarded,  and 
his  attendants  were  hustled  and  beaten  in  the  streets. 

The  Return  to  Rome,  1554.  —  Parliament  met  again,  12  November, 
1554.  In  order  that  the  royal  wishes  might  be  carried  out,  the  sheriffs 
had  been  ordered  to  return  men  of  "  a  wise,  grave,  and  Catholic  sort." 
Cardinal  Pole,  recently  appointed  papal  legate,  landed  in  England 
a  few  days  after  the  opening  of  the  session.  Mary  welcomed  him  with 
boundless  delight,  declaring :  "  The  day  I  ascended  the  throne,  I  did 
not  feel  such  joy."  In  answer  to  a  petition  from  Parliament  the 
Legate,  on  St.  Andrew's  Day  (29  November),  solemnly  received  the 
realm  "  again  into  the  unity  of  our  own  Mother  the  Holy  Church." 
This  reunion  would  never  have  come  to  pass,  even  in  a  packed  parlia- 
ment, but  for  his  assurance  that  the  Pope  had  consented  to  waive  the 
restoration  of  the  Church  lands.  Parliament  then  completed  the 
revival  of  the  old  order  by  repealing  "  all  statutes,  articles,  and  pro- 
visions against  the  See  Apostolic  of  Rome  since  the  twentieth  year  of 
King  Henry  VIII,"  and  restoring  all  the  heresy  laws. 

The  Marian  Persecutions,  1555-1558.  — Then  began  four  horrible 
years  of  persecution  which  have  stained  indelibly  the  memory  of  the 
Queen  and  fastened  upon  her  the  name  of  "  Bloody  Mary."  Up  to 
this  time  she  had  been  comparatively  lenient.  The  national  opposi- 
tion which  had  manifested  itself  in  armed  rebellion  really  marked  the 


362  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

turning  point  in  her  reign.  Other  causes,  however,  contributed  to 
change  her  policy.  Philip,  who  had  married  her  purely  for  reasons  of 
State,  grew  colder  and  colder,  and  soon  left  the  country,  to  return 
only  once  again  when  he  wanted  aid;  then  Mary  was  denied  what 
she  most  desired,  an  heir  to  perpetuate  her  name;  and  finally  her 
health,  never  robust,  grew  steadily  worse.  While  these  facts  help  to 
explain  the  cruelty  of  her  methods,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Mary 
regarded  it  as  her  duty  to  extirpate  heresy  and  restore  the  purity  of 
the  faith ;  in  her  own  words,  "  She  had  been  predestined  and  preserved 
by  God  to  the  succession  of  the  crown  for  no  other  end  save  that  He 
might  make  use  of  her  above  all  else  in  bringing  back  the  realm  to 
the  Catholic  faith."  x  Moreover,  there  was  no  idea  of  toleration  in 
those  days,2  heresy  was  regarded  as  a  loathsome  disease  to  be  stamped 
out  at  all  cost ;  thousands  on  the  Continent  suffered  for  their  faith ; 
Mary  was  not  alone  in  thinking  that  obstinate  heretics  should  suffer 
death  for  "  the  great  horror  of  their  offense  and  the  manifest  example 
of  other  Christians " ;  and  disregard  of  suffering  and  of  human  life 
were  a  feature  of  the  age.  Still,  if  Mary's  lot  had  been  a  happier 
one  and  her  subjects  had  not  risen  against  her,  she  might  have  softened 
her  stern  sense  of  duty  by  considerations  of  policy  and  humanity. 

Parliament  shares  the  blame  for  the  persecutions  which  followed. 
Gardiner  advised  the  step ;  but  he  hoped  that  a  few  examples  would 
be  sufficient,  and  he  died  less  than  a  year  after  the  persecutions  had 
begun.  Even  while  he  lived,  his  hands  were  tied ;  because  having 
separated  from  Rome  with  Henry  VIII,  his  orthodoxy  was  not  above 
suspicion.3  Pole  was  too  gentle  a  spirit  to  enter  into  heresy  hunting 
with  any  zeal,  but  Mary  forced  him  into  line  and  persuaded  him  that 
hitherto  he  had  been  too  mild.  Nevertheless,  he  more  than  once 
admonished  the  bishops  to  moderation.  Philip,  keen  scenter  and 
torturer  of  heretics  in  his  own  dominions,  took  no  share  in  the  pro- 
ceedings in  England4;  he  saw  that,  with  inadequate  machinery 
and  the  trend  of  opinion  against  it,  such  a  policy  could  not  succeed, 
and  for  political  reasons  he  desired  to  be  popular.  Bishop  Bonner 
.has  often  been  charged  with  exceptional  activity  and  cruelty8;  but 
he  seldom  spoke  at  the  examinations,  while  after  an  accused  person 
had  been  condemned  he  often  worked  secretly  to  make  him  recant. 
His  reputation  seems  to  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  there  were  more 
executions  in  his  diocese  than  elsewhere.  It  contained,  however,  the 
bulk  of  the  heretics ;  and,  furthermore,  the  Queen  frequently  had  to 

1  An  example  of  her  attitude  may  be  seen  in  an  order  that,  during  executions  in 
London,  "some  good  and  pious  sermons  should  be  preached." 

2  The  violence  of  the  reformers  did  not  tend  to  encourage  it;  when,  for  example, 
a  dog  was  tonsured  like  a  priest,  a  cat  was  dressed  in  clerical  vestments,  and  the  most 
violent  and  abusive  pamphlets  were  circulated. 

3  Not  a  single  person,  however,  was  burned  in  his  diocese,  while  he  lived. 

4  Renard,  the  Imperial  ambassador,  also  suggested  less  rigorous  methods. 

8  The  historian  Froude  calls  him  "  the  common  cut-throat  and  slaughter-general 
of  all  the  bishops  of  England." 


THE  ENGLISH  COUNTER-REFORMATION          363 

spur  his  lagging  zeal.  When  he  felt  duty  bound,  he  proceeded  with 
energy;  he  was  hot-tempered  and  treated  prisoners  roughly,  but  more 
likely  to  frighten  them  into  recanting  than  because  he  was  blood- 
thirsty. 

The  Martyrs.  —  Mary's  victims  numbered  nearly  300,  a  total 
greater  than  that  in  Henry  VIII's  reign  of  thirty-eight  years  or  Eliza- 
beth's of  forty-five.1  The  area  of  persecution  was  confined  mainly 
to  southeastern  and  eastern  England.2  London  furnished  128,  or 
almost  one  half.  John  Rogers,  famous  for  his  version  of  the  English 
Bible,  was  the  first  to  suffer.  Originally  a  priest  of  the  old  faith,  he  had 
been  converted  to  Protestantism  by  William  Tyndale,  whom  he  met 
in  the  Low  Countries.  On  4  February,  1555,  he  was  burned  at  Smith- 
field  in  the  presence  of  his  eleven  children.  Little  in  stature  he 
was  of  great  courage,  and  his  wife  comforted  him  "  in  such  manner 
that  it  seemed  as  if  he  had  been  led  to  a  wedding."  A  few  days  after 
he  was  followed  to  the  stake  by  Dr.  Rowland  Taylor,  esteemed  for  his 
learning  and  loved  for  his  faithfal  pastoral  ministration.  He,  too, 
had  once  been  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  He  was  burned  in  his 
own  parish  at  Hadleigh  in  Suffolk,  where  he  had  refused  to  allow  a 
priest  to  say  mass.  He  parted  serenely  from  his  wife  and  children 
and  a  throng  of  sorrowing  parishioners.  As  the  flames  crept  round 
him  one  of  the  executioners  cast  a  fagot  and  hit  him  on  the  head.  As 
the  blood  ran  down  his  face  he  said  gently :  "  O  friend,  I  have  harm 
enough,  —  what  needed  that?"  Then  he  stood  without  crying  or 
moving  till  he  was  struck  with  a  halberd  and  fell  dead  in  the  fire.  On 
the  same  day  and  at  the  same  hour,  in  his  former  diocese  of  Gloucester, 
Bishop  Hooper  suffered  martyrdom  with  noble  courage.  On  16 
October  Latirnerr  the  matchless  popular  orator  —  "  downright  father 
Hugh"  —  and  Bishop  Ridley  were  burned  at  Oxford,  whither 
they  had  been  taken  some  time  before  to  defend  their  position  in  solemn 
disputation.  Latimer  had,  at  the  opening  of  the  reign,  been  offered 
a  chance  to  flee,  but  though  "  a  sore  bruised  man,  about  threescore 
and  seven  years  of  age,"  he  stoutly  refused.  While  in  prison  he 
joked  merrily  with  his  keeper,  telling  him  that  "  if  he  did  not  guard 
him  better,  he  would  escape,"  and  that  "  he  thought  he  would  burn, 
but  he  was  like  to  starve  for  cold."  At  the  stake  he  called  to  his 
weaker  companion :  "  Be  of  good  comfort,  Master  Ridley ;  we  shall 
this  day  light  such  a  candle  by  God's  grace  in  England  as,  I  trust, 
shall  never  be  put  out."  At  the  last  he  received  the  flame  as  if  embrac- 
ing it,  and  stroking  his  face  with  his  hands,  bathed  them  in  the  fire, 
crying  out  vehemently  in  his  own  English  tongue :  "  Father  in  Heaven, 
receive  my  soul." 

1  Yet  this  is  less  than  half  the  number  that  suffered  in  Spain  in  a  single  year. 

2 They  were  distributed  mainly  as  follows:  London,  128;  Canterbury,  55; 
Norwich,  46;  Oxford,  7;  the  other  31  were  spread  through  various  counties.  As 
to  classes:  5  were  bishops;  21  clergy;  8  gentlemen;  84  artisans;  100  husband- 
men and  laborers,  55  women  and  4  children. 


364  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Execution  of  Cranmer,  1556.  —  Cranmer,  who  had  served  as 
Primate  under  the  Pope,  was  tried  under  a  papal  commission.  Per- 
plexed and  fearful  of  suffering,  he  signed  at  least  six  recantations  before 
he  was  finally  condemned.  Yet  his  end  was  truly  heroic.  Confessing 
himself  "  a  wretched  caitiff  and  a  miserable  sinner,"  he  thrust  first  into 
the  flam  esjLhehand  which  had  signed  the  recantation,  crying :  "  Thfs 
hand  .hath  offended. 7 ' '  So^p~eHshed7TorMarcF~iy567^ The  gentle  souf 
"of  wavering  courage,  the  man  born  to  pass  peaceful  days  in  cloistered 
shades,  torn  from  them  to  be  the  unwilling  pilot  of  revolution."  The 
effect  upon  the  people  was  tremendous.  The  chosen  leader  of  the 
ecclesiastical  system  of  Henry  VIII,  the  author  of  the  eloquent  and 
beautiful  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the  Primate  of  the  National  Church, 
had  been  martyred  in  the  interest  and  through  the  agency  of  a  potentate 
whom  the  sovereign  and  Parliament  had  once  discarded.  Of  the 
humbler  victims  the  number  is  too  great  to  speak,  though  their  con- 
stancy deserves  to  be  proclaimed  through  the  ages.  It  shows  the 
hold  that  the  new  doctrines  had  gained  on  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
Plainly  such  examples  encouraged  rather  than  frightened  the  weaker. 
Even  the  most  devoted  Romanists  recoiled,  but  the  stern,  misguided 
Queen  persisted  in  the  useless  butchery.  The  very  week  before  her 
death  five  went  to  the  stake. 

The  Departure  of  Philip,  1555.  —  Everything,  however,  worked 
against  her.  Cardinal  Caraffa,  who  became  Pope  as  Paul  IV,  in- 
sisted upon  the  restoration  of  the  church  lands,  thus  alienating  many 
of  her  Roman  Catholic  supporters.  On  29  August,  1555,  Philip  left 
her.  Devoted  as  she  was  to  him,  Mary's  temper  was  very  trying ; 
he  was  growing  steadily  more  unpopular,  and  he  had  given  up  hope  of 
succeeding  to  the  English  throne.  On  25  October,  his  father  handed 
over  to  him  the  Flemish  provinces  and,  in  January,  1556,  the  kingdom 
of  Spain.  Besides  the  extirpation  of  heretics,  Mary's  chief  occupation 
during  her  loneliness  was  to  discharge  her  conscience  by  restoring  to 
the  Church  the  revenues  torn  from  it  by  the  Crown.  She  set  up  anew 
some  of  the  ancient  monastic  establishments  and  gave  money  to  edu- 
cate poor  children. 

War  with  France,  1557.  Loss  of  Calais,  1558. — Late  in  1556 
war  broke  out  between  France  and  Spain.  From  18  March  to  3  July, 
1557,  Philip  was  again  in  England,  seeking  aid  against  his  enemy. 
His  efforts  were  furthered  most  opportunely  by  the  landing  in  York- 
shire, 24  April,  of  a  body  of  exiles  led  by  Thomas  Stafford,  grandson 
of  the  last  Duke  of  Buckingham,  who  declared  that  he  came  to  defeat 
the  "  devilish  devices  "  of  Mary  and  to  deliver  the  country  from  a 
foreign  usurper.  He  was  quickly  disposed  of.  The  French  King 
denied  all  connection  with  the  undertaking;  nevertheless,  England 
declared  war  on  him,  7  June.  On  6  January,  1558,  Calais,  the  last 
English  possession  on  French  soil,  was  captured  by  the  Duke  of  Guise. 
Three  months  later  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  was  married  to  the  French 
Dauphin.  At  home  the  English  prospects  were  as  dark  and  threaten- 


THE  ENGLISH   COUNTER-REFORMATION          365 

ing  as  they  were  abroad.  An  ague  fever  raged  through  the  land  during 
the  summer  and  autumn  of  1557  and  1558,  corn  was  dear,  trade  and 
agriculture  languished,  and  heavy  taxes  were  imposed  to  meet  the 
cost  of  the  unsuccessful  and  unpopular  war.  "  The  Queen  does  all  she 
can,"  wrote  Philip's  ambassador ;  "  her  will  is  good  and  her  heart 
stout,  but  everything  else  is  wrong." 

Death  of  Queen  Mary,  1558.  —  In  the  midst  of  sullen  discontent  en- 
gendered by  persecution,  foreign  and  papal  intermeddling,  financial 
stress,  and  national  humiliation,  for  which  she  was  largely  to  blame 
and  for  which  her  subjects  held  her  wrholly  responsible,  Mary  suc- 
cumbed to  the  prevailing  epidemic.  She  had  suffered  for  years  from 
headache,  palpitation  of  the  heart,  and  dropsy,  and  this  combined  with 
mental  anguish  due  to  the  hatred  of  subjects,  the  failure  of  her  policy, 
and  the  neglect  of  Philip,  made  her  an  easy  victim.  The  loss  of 
Calais,  "  the  fairest  jewel  "  of  her  kingdom,  was  the  crowning  grief. 
"  When  I  am  dead  and  opened,"  she  said  in  her  last  illness,  "  you  will 
find  Calais  lying  upon  my  heart."  She  died  17  November,  1558. 
By  her  own  request  she  was  buried  in  the  habit  of  a  nun  and  not  in  her 
robes  of  state.  Pole,  who  had  succeeded  Cranmer  as  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  followed  her  to  the  grave  within  a  few  hours.  To  zealous 
Protestants  she  was  "  Bloody  Mary,"  the  "  Wicked  Jezebel  of 
England,"  cruel,  vindictive,  one  who  delighted  in  shedding  innocent 
blood.  Yet  by  nature  she  was  kind  and  charitable.  At  her  acces- 
sion she  declared  that  "  she  minded  not  to  compel  any  of  her  subjects  " 
to  embrace  the  old  faith  "  until  such  time  as  further  order  by  common 
assent  shall  be  taken  thereunto,"  and,  until  Wyatt's  rebellion,  she 
spared  many  who  had  plotted  to  exclude  her  from  the  throne.  Her 
marriage  to  Philip  was  the  greatest  mistake  of  her  life.  It  outraged 
national  sentiment  and  ruined  what  chance  there  was  of  making  her 
religious  policy  prevail.  The  oppositions  which  it  excited,  and  its 
other  unhappy  consequences,  accentuated  her  austere  sense  of  duty 
into  blind  fanaticism,  and  made  her  persist  with  sickening  savageness 
in  burning  the  bodies  of  her  subjects  to  save  their  souls.  In  a  prayer 
book  said  to  be  hers,  the  pages  which  contain  the  prayers  for  the  unity 
of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  are  stained  with  tears  and  much  handling. 

The  Results  of  the  Marian  Exile.  —  The  activity  of  the  Marian 
exiles,  who  flooded  the  country  with  furious  and  inflammatory  writings, 
made  the  lot  of  those  who  remained  behind  much  harder  than  it  might 
otherwise  have  been.1  At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  all  foreign  exiles 
had  been  ordered  to  leave  the  realm  within  twenty-four  days,  under 
pain  of  imprisonment  and  loss  of  goods.  About  800  migrated,  to- 
gether with  200  English  disciples.  They  settled  chiefly  in  Lutheran 
Frankfort  and  Strassburg,  in  Zwinglian  Zurich,  and  Calvinistic 
Geneva.  While  views  of  these  various  reformers  had  penetrated  into 

1  John  Knox's  "  Faithful  Admonition  to  the  Profession  of  God's  Truth  in  Eng- 
land" and  his  "Blasts  of  the  Trumpet  against  the  monstrous  regiment  of  Women," 
while  by  no  means  the  most  violent,  will  show  their  temper. 


/ 

7 
*-«-</ 


366  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

England  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  they  had  not  proved 
acceptable  to  the  mass  of  the  people.  Now,  one  of  the  forms  — 
Calvinism  —  took  a  firm  hold  on  the  Marian  exiles,  an  earnest  and 
thinking  class.  On  their  return  under  Elizabeth  they  brought  back 
and  spread  their  views  among  their  countrymen,  with  marked  effect 
upon  England's  future  religion  and  politics. 

Calvinism.  —  Calvinism  had  two  sides  :  one  represented  by  its 
doctrinal_sx&tem,  the  other  by  its  form  ofchu^dLga^rjnment.  The 
corner  stone  of  the  former  was  predestination,  and  that  came  to  be 
accepted  even  by  many  loyal  members  ot  the  Church  of  England. 
Its  system  of  church  government  substituted  for  the  Episcopal  hier- 
archy a  series  of  representative  assemblies.  Each  separate  church  had 
its  "  kirk  session,"  consisting  of  the  pastor  or  "  presbyter  "  and  a 
body  of  elders  chosen  by  the  congregation.  These  were  grouped  into 
"  presbyteries,  or  classes,"  which,  in  their  turn,  were  grouped  into 
"  synods."  Finally  there  was  the  "  general  assembly,"  composed  of 
representatives  from  the  smaller  bodies,  and  exercising  jurisdiction 
over  the  whole.  This  Calvinistic  system  ultimately  came  to  be  the 
form  established  in  Scotland.  In  England,  where  it  never  received 
any  official  sanction,  it  was  adopted  by  an  aggressive  and  influential 
class  and  played  an  important  part  in  public  affairs  for  over  a  century. 

Up  to  the  time  of  Calvin  the  principle  of  the  Reformation  had  been 
cujus  regio,  ejusreligio;  that  is,  "  the  religion  of  the  ruler  shall  be  the 
religion  of  the  land."  It  had  been,  and  was  to  remain,  the  basis  of 
settlement  in  Germany  and  in  England.  Henry  VIII,  Edward  VI, 
Mary,  and  Elizabeth,  each  in  turn,  settled  the  ecclesiastical  order 
to  suit  their  royal  will.  Calvinism,  on  the  other  hand,  like  Roman 
Catholicism,  was  opposed  to  ^national  independence  and  State  control^ 
Each  claimed  to  be  a  universal  church  superior  to  all  rulers7thel>Tate 
was  regarded  as  the  servant,  not  the  master  of  the  Church.  Yet  there 
was  one  fundamental  difference  between  the  two.  The  Roman  or- 
ganization was  monarchical,  while  the  Calvinistic  was,  in  theory  at 
least,frepublican.  The  pastors  and  elders  were  supposed  to  be  the 
representatives,  the  chosen  instruments  of  the  congregation.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  wherever  Calvinism  got  a  foothold  the  presbyters  sought 
to  gain  complete  control  in  political  as  well  as  religious  affairs.1  This 
is  the  chief  reason  why  the  mass  of  Englishmen  ultimately  rejected 
it  ;  not,  however,  before  it  had  accomplished  a  great  work.  It  was 
men  holding  Presbyterian  views  who  began,  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
to  protest  against  the  power  of  the  sovereign  to  determine  the  religion 
of  the  subject.  Under  the  Stuarts  they  united  in  Parliament  with  men 
who  had  other  grievances,  and  thus  launched  that  mixed  political 
and  religious  movement  known  as  the  Puritan  Revolution.  So  the 
main  force  in  "  calling  Kingship  to  account  "  was  largely  due  to  what 
the  Marian  exiles  learned  from  the  disciples  of  Calvin,  who  aimed  to 

1  A  government  controlled  by  the  clergy  is  known  as  a  "  theocracy." 


THE  ENGLISH  COUNTER-REFORMATION          367 

make  the  Reformation  something  more  than  a  mere  transfer  of  religious 
headship.  In  attacking  the  royal  supremacy  over  the  Church  they 
contributed  to  limit  its  power  in  other  fields  as  well. 

The  Scotch  Reformation.  —  The  overthrow  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in 
Scotland  is  unique  in  that  it  was  brought  about,  not  under 


of,  but  in  opposition  to,  the  sovereign  On  the  death  of  James  V,  the  Earl 
of  Arran  was  chosen  (Governor  of  the  Realm,  an  office  which  he  held 
for  twelve  years.  He  favored  Protestant  doctrines  and  an  English 
alliance",  but  he  was  weak,  indolent,  and  vacillating,  and  the  control  of 
the  government  was  gradually  secured  by  Cardinal  Beaton  and  Mary 
of  Guise,  who  finally  became  Regent  in  1554.  The  Queen  Dowager 
was  a  big,  powerful  woman  of  great  ability,  who  naturally  strove  to 
maintain  Roman  Catholic  ascendancy  under  a  French  alliance.  There 
were  three  elements  ranged  against  her  ;  the  Protestants,  the  anti^ 
French_party,  and  the  nobles,  poor  and  greedy,  who  coveted  the  riches 
of  the  Church.  As  early  as  1528,  Patrick  Hamilton  had  been  burned 
for  heresy.  It  was  said  that  his  "  reek  .  .  .  infected  all  it  blew  on  "  ; 
certainly,  several  who  witnessed  his  martyrdom  became  Protestants. 
However,  it  was  the  burning  of  George  Wishart,  i  March,  1546,  which 
occasioned  the  first  rising.  Immediately  after  his  death  a  body  of 
nobles  banded  together  and  murdered  in  his  bed,  29  May,  Cardinal 
Beaton,  the  great  and  worldly  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews's,  author  of 
Wishart's  death.  They  seized  the  castle  of  St.  Andrews's  where  they 
were  joined  by  many  of  the  anti-Catholic,  anti-  French  party. 

John  Knox  and  his  Work.  —  Among  those  who  came  was  John 
Knox  (1505-1575),  who,  more  than  any  other  man,  was  the  author 
and  organizer  of  the  Scotch  Reformation.  Hard,  narrow,  but  a  born 
leader,  eloquent,  unselfish,  and  uncompromising,  he  amply  deserved 
the  epitaph  graven  on  his  tomb  :  "  Here  lies  one  who  never  feared  the 
face  of  man."  In  July,  1547,  when  the  castle  surrendered  to  a  com- 
bined force  of  French  and  Scots,  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and  served  in 
the  French  galleys  till  February,  1549.  From  then  till  the  death  of 
Edward  VI  he  was  a  preacher  in  England,  part  of  the  time  a  royal 
chaplain.  Shortly  after  Mary's  accession,  he  fled  to  the  Continent, 
where  he  met  Calvin,  whose  views  he  adopted.  He  soon  settled  in 
Geneva  and  became  a  minister  of  the  English  congregation.  In  the 
autumn  of  1555  he  was  back  in  Scotland,  where  he  found  that  the 
Protestant  movement  had  made  rapid  progress.  He  remained  in  the 
country  less  than  a  year,  when  he  returned  to  Geneva  for  another 
sojourn,  which  lasted  till  early  in  1559.  During  his  brief  visit  to 
Scotland  he  started  an  organization  of  the  nobles  which  resulted,  3 
December,  1557,  in  a  bond  or  "  covenant  "  to  "  establish  the  most 
blessed  word  of  God  and  his  congregation."  It  was  signed  by  the 
Earls  of  Argyle  and  Morton,  by  Lord  James  Stuart,  half-brother  of 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  and  by  many  other  nobles  and  gentry.  These 
C"  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  'jj  as  they  were  called,  were  actuated  by 
the  same  threefold  motives  as  those  who  had  been  opposing  Mary 


v/ 


368  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  Guise  for  years  and  those  who  had  combined  to  murder  Beaton. 
A  petition  framed  in  1558  showed  that  they  demanded  reform  in  the 
Church,  "  the  right  of  public  and  private  prayer  in  common  speech, 
of  explaining  and  expounding  the  Scriptures,  and  of  communion  in 
both  kinds."  The  history  of  their  further  progress  belongs  to  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING 

Narrative.  Pollard,  Political  History,  chs.  VI-IX.  Innes,  England  under  the 
Tudors,  chs.  XIV,  Xy.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  II,  ch.  XV  (bibliography, 
pp.  802-805).  Froude,  History  of  England,  chs.  V,  VI.  Lingard,  V,  chs.  V,  VI. 
M.  J.  Stone,  Mary  I,  Queen  of  England  (1901) ;  an  apology  for  Mary. 

Constitutional.      Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  IV,  ch.  IV. 

Ecclesiastical.  Wakeman,  ch.  XIV.  J.  Gairdner,  English  Church,  chs.  XVI-XX. 
Dixon,  V.  John  Foxe,  Acts  and  Monuments;  popularly  known  as  the  Book  of 
Martyrs  (first  published  in  1563  ;  best  edition,  Townshend's,  8  vols.,  1843-1849) ;  al- 
though marred  by  inaccuracies  and  bias,  this  is  the  classic  contemporary  account 
of  the  Marian  martyrs. 

Selections  from  the  sources.    Adams  and  Stephens,  rios.  163-166. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE    ELIZABETHAN    RELIGIOUS    SETTLEMENT   AND    THE    EARLY 
YEARS  OF   ELIZABETH'S  REIGN    (1558-1572) 

Elizabeth's  Accession  and  Character.  —  When  Elizabeth  received 
the  news  that  she  was  Queen  of  England,  she  cried :  "  This  is  the 
Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvelous  in  our  eyes."  It  was  a  great  heritage, 
and  one  which  brought  with  it  tremendous  problems  for  a  young 
woman  of  twenty-five.  The  new  Queen,  however,  was  endowed 
with  rare  qualities  which  had  been  sharpened  by  hard  schooling  in 
the  world  of  men  and  books.  Hers  was  a  puzzling,  contradictory 
nature,  though  the  gold  glittered  brightly  through  the  dross.  She 
had  her  mother's  vanity  and  uncertainties  of  temper,  together  with 
the  unscrupulousness  of  both  her  parents ;  but  also  she  possessed 
the  caution  and  prudence  of  Henry  VII,  and  the  imperiousness,  tact, 
and  charm  of  manner  which  made  Henry  VIII  so  irresistible.  She 
could  couple  "  mildness  with  majesty,"  she  could  command  or  cajole, 
or  jest  as  the  occasion  demanded,  and  was  an  adept  in  the  art  of  dark- 
ening counsel  with  well-sounding  but  meaningless  words.  Courtiers 
and  other  flatterers  have  magnified  her  beauty ;  but  in  her  youth  she 
was  certainly  striking  and  attractive  in  appearance.  Her  figure  was 
tall  and  well  proportioned,  she  had  a  broad,  commanding  brow,  a 
fine,  olive-tinted  complexion,  hazel  eyes,  and  a  profusion  of  auburn 
hair.  Her  physical  vigor  and  endurance  were  remarkable ;  she  could 
hunt  all  day,  dance  or  watch  masques  and  pageants  all  night,  and 
when  necessary  apply  herself  unremittingly  to  business.  Withal,  in 
spite  of  her  changeableness  and  vanity,  she  was  very  much  of  a  man 
in  her  apparent  lack  of  nerves,  which  made  her  fearless  and  insensible 
to  pain,  and  in  her  coarseness  in  word  and  action.  Her  intellectual 
attainments  had,  as  was  the  case  with  most  of  the  Tudors,  been  im- 
proved under  the  most  competent  tutors  procurable.  She  spoke 
French  and  Italian  with  ease,  and  knew  a  little  Greek:  when  she 
visited  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  she  was  able  to  deliver  addresses  in 
Latin,  and,  as  late  as  1597,  she  treated  the  Polish  ambassador  to  an 
extempore  Latin  speech.  She  was  also  proficient  in  music.  On  the 
other  hand,  she  cared  little  for  poetic  or  dramatic  literature ;  and, 
partly  from  indifference,  partly  from  parsimony,  she  did  almost 
nothing  for  that  wonderful  group  of  writers  which  made  her  reign  so 
famous. 

Her  Joyless  Youth  and  Her  Diplomatic  Courtships.  —  Her  youth 
had  only  been  less  hard  than  that  of  her  sister  Mary.  Declared 

2B  369 


370  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

illegitimate  in  1536  she  only  recovered  her  place  in  the  line  of  suc- 
cession three  years  before  her  father's  death.  Parental,  brotherly 
and  sisterly  affection  were  all  excluded  from  her  life.  Her  first  love 
affair  was  with  Somerset's  self-seeking  brother,  who  aimed  to  use  her 
as  an  instrument  of  his  ambition.  She  was  charged  with  complicity 
in  his  plots,  from  which  she  did  not  escape  without  a  dark  smirch  on 
her  good  name.  From  that  experience  she  learned  a  valuable  but 
hard  lesson  —  to  control  her  impulses  and  to  trust  no  one  but  herself. 
He  was  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  suitors,  who,  with  the  exception  of 
her  favorite,  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  represented  the  great  reigning 
houses  of  Europe.  Her  familiarities  with  Leicester  caused  much 
comment,  while  her  romantic  flights  when  she  was  nearing  fifty,  with 
the  Duke  of  Alencon,  nearly  twenty  years  her  junior,  reached  the 
height  of  absurdity.  Her  courtships,  however,  were  merely  a  part 
of  the  great  diplomatic  game  which  she  played  so  successfully  through- 
out her  reign.  While  to  gain  political  advantage  she  led  men  on,  she 
was  determined  never  to  marry.  This  question,  as  well  as  that  of 
the  succession,  she  was  bound  that  Parliament  should  not  discuss. 
Those  members  who  presumed  to  disobey  were  overwhelmed  with 
her  wrath.  Elizabeth  was  as  lacking  in  religious  sense  as  she  was  in 
scruple  and  delicacy.  She  had  no  sympathy  with  the  advanced 
Protestantism  of  Edward's  reign  and  still  less  with  Mary's  Roman 
Catholic  restoration.  She  went  to  mass  and  seemed  to  be  reconciled 
with  her  sister;  but  it  was  only  for  the  sake  of  expediency,  and  it 
was  in  these  years  that  she  developed  that  practice  of  artfully  evasive 
answers  which  came  to  be  more  and  more  characteristic.1. 

Elizabeth's  Favorites  and  Councilors.  —  Sure  that  they  would 
not  influence  her  judgment  at  crises,  the  Queen  all  through  life  in- 
dulged her  passion  for  the  flattery  of  handsome,  accomplished  men, 
and  kept  a  large  following  of  favorites.  The  chief  of  them  all  was 
Robert  Dudley,  Earl  of  Leicester,  grandson  of  Henry  VII's  extortioner 
and  son  of  the  still  more  notorious  Northumberland.  Able  to  charm 
by  his  external  graces,  he  was  self-indulgent,  ambitious,  incompetent, 
and  false.  His  stepson,  Robert  Devereux,  Earl  of  Essex,  was  "a 
pleasing  and  fruitless  object  "  whom  Elizabeth  took  up  in  her  old 
age.  "  Transported  with  an  overdesire  and  thirstiness  after  fame," 
he  was  headstrong  and  insolent.  With  a  reach  far  exceeding  his 
grasp  he  made  a  botch  of  all  that  he  undertook.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
with  far  greater  abilities  and  merits  than  either,  came  to  a  tragic  end 
in  the  next  reign.  For  serious  business  Elizabeth  chose  good,  wise 
ministers.  William  Cecil,  Lord  Burghley  (1572-1598),  was  her  chief 

1  When  asked  if  she  believed  in  transubstantiation,  she  resorted  to  the  following 
Delphic  answer : 

"  Christ  was  the  word  that  spake  it. 
He  took  the  bread  and  brake  it, 
And  what  his  words  did  make  it, 
That  I  believe  and  take  it." 


adviser  for  forty  years,  acting  first  as  Secretary  of  State  and  then  as 
Lord  Treasurer.  Trained  to  the  law,  he  had  served  his  political  ap- 
prenticeship under  Somerset  and  Northumberland.  During  the 
Marian  reaction  he  had  saved  himself  by  a  judicious  if  unheroic  con- 
formity. Yet  he  proved  worthy  of  the  confidence  that  Elizabeth  re- 
posed in  him.  Lacking  the  visions  and  ideals  of  the  highest  type  of 
statesmanship  he  was  cautious,  sane,  methodical,  and  amazingly 
industrious.  His  only  incentives  and  rewards  for  his  public  service 
were  love  of  work,  his  attachment  to  the  Queen,  and  the  good  of  Eng- 
land. Owing  to  the  royal  parsimony,  he  received  no  adequate  com- 
pensation even  for  his  actual  outlays,  and  but  for  his  hereditary  for- 
tune he  would  have  died  poor.  Francis  Walsingham  (1530-1590) 
served  as  Secretary  of  State  from  1573  till  his  death.  He  was  a  zealous 
Protestant,  unrivaled  for  his  skill  in  organizing  the  secret  service, 
in  unraveling  plots  against  the  throne,  and  excellently  versed  in 
foreign  affairs.  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  brother-in-law  of  Cecil  and 
father  of  the  famous  Francis,  filled  the  office  of  Lord  Keeper  for  the 
first  thirty  years  of  the  reign.  Learned  in  the  law,  eloquent  of  speech, 
diligent,  able,  and  of  a  cheery  humor  withal,  he  was  a  man  "  whose 
goodness  preserved  his  greatness  from  suspicion,  envy,  and  hate." 
In  spite  of  their  capacity  and  devotion. Elizabeth  was  often  at  odds 
with  her  ministers,  largely  because  of  their  excessive  Protestant 
zeal.  Her  outlook  was  doubtless  broader  than  theirs ;  for  while 
they  were  convinced  that  the  only  hope  of  safety  lay  in  a  rigid  anti- 
Catholic  regime,  she  saw  the  wisdom  of  attaching  moderates  of  both 
parties  to  her  side,  realizing  that  if  she  committed  herself  to  the  ultra- 
Protestant  policy,  it  would  inevitably  provoke  civil  and  foreign  war. 
A  true  daughter  of  Henry  VIII  and  heir  to  his  system,  the  mass  of 
the  people  who  had  been  swung  too  far  forward  under  Edward  and 
too  far  back  under  Mary  looked  to  her  to  bring  peace  and  prosperity 
out  of  division  and  poverty. 

Her  Problems  and  Policy.  —  The  exhausted  country  was  deeply 
in  debt.  Twojarti^  nf  r^jjginm  extremists  were  striving  for  mastery. 
Mary  had  been  dragged  by  her  Spanish  consort  into  a  disastrous  war 
with  France,  and  the  French  King  with  one  foot  on  Calais  and  another 
,in  Scotland  loomed  up  doubly  threatening.  Foreign  powers  and  a 
part  of  ElizaFeth's  own  subjects  held  her  to  be  a  heretic,  and  no  true 
heir  of  her  father.  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  the  next  orthodox  heir, 
was  united  in  marriage  to  the  Dauphin.  .Spain,  too,  might  conceivably 
compose  her  political  differences  with  her  northern  neighbor  and  com- 
bine in  a  grand  Catholic  alliance  to  crush  this  one  of  the  few  remain- 
ing outposts  of  Protestantism.  It  was  the  aim  of  Elizabeth  to  pre- 
vent such  an  eventuality.  But  she  sought  to  achieve  her  purpose 
by  diplomacy,  steering  clear  of  wars  and  alliances,  and  contenting 
herself  with  occasional  —  so  far  as  possible  secret  —  aid  to  the  Protes- 
tants in  Scotland  and  the  Netherlands  and  the  Huguenots  in  France. 
There  were  three  reasons.  She  desired  to  give  her  overburdened 


372 

country  a  chance  to  rest  and  to  develpp  its  resources.  Moreover, 
she  hoped,  by  preserving  neutrality,  to  unite  all  classes  of  her  subjects 
irrespective  of  party.  Finally,  she  was  proud  of  her  diplomatic  gifts. 
Her  economy,  so  necessary  at  first,  soon  degenerated  into  stinginess. 
She  allowed  Burghley  to  pay  his  own  expenses  when  he  negotiated  a 
treaty  with  Scotland,  and  she  grudged  money  necessary  to  meet  more 
than  one  crisis  in  her  reign.  Her  diplomacy,  too,  was  frequently  noth- 
ing but  deceit.1  Yet  with  all  her  vanity,  caprice,  and  pettiness  Eliza- 
beth had  a  true  love  for  her  people,  and  in  times  of  stress  could  rise 
to  the  noblest  heights.  In  general,  her  hesitating  policy  was  best, 
since  it  enabled  her  to  play  off  conflicting  forces  one  against  another, 
thereby  gaining  time,  the  healing  properties  of  which  she  understood 
so  well.2  Her  policy  must  be  judged  by  its  fruits.  She  left  Protestant- 
ism established  on  a  secure  foundation,  she  insured  a  peaceful  suc- 
cession which  led  to  the  ultimate  union  with  Scotland,  she  found 
poverty  and  strife  and  left  prosperity  and  national  unity. 

Peace  with  France,  1559.  —  One  of  the  new  Queen's  first  steps  was 
to  refuse  an  offer  of  marriage  from  Philip  II,  and  to  declare  to  Parlia- 
ment her  intention  to  remain  single.  It  was  an  heroic  choice.  It 
meant  that  with  the  help  of  her  people  she  was  to  solve  her  problems 
independently,  not  as  a  province  of  Spain.  In  April,  1550,  by  the 
treaty  of  Cateau  Cambresis  she  made  peace  with  France  by  yielding 
Calais.  Though  it  looked  humiliating,  the  cession  relieved  the  country 
of  great  expense  and  helped  in  the  withdrawal  from  foreign  complica- 
tions. Philip,  who  also  made  peace,  married  Isabella  of  France. 
Nevertheless,  and  in  spite  of  his  recent  rebuff,  he  had  no  mind  to 
assume  a  hostile  attitude  to  England ;  for  the  preservation  of  her 
power  would  act  as  a  check  on  his  dangerous  rival. 

The  Religious  Settlement,  1558-1559.  —  While  extricating  the 
State  from  foreign  entanglements,  Elizabeth  also  had  turned  her  at- 
tention to  the  religious  settlement.  Political  expediency  rather  than 
any  deep  conviction  shaped  her  views.  Other  reasons  beside  the 
desire  of  uniting  the  moderates  determined  her  to  steer  a  middle 
course.  She  preferred  the  old  service  set  up  by  her  father.  "  New- 
fangledness  "  and  Roman  Catholicism  were  equally  objectionable 
to  her :  the  former  because  it  stood  for  popular  or  clerical  control ; 
the  latter  because  it  looked  to  the  Pope  as  supreme  ruler.  Pending 
the  meeting  of  Parliament,  she  issued  a  proclamation  ordering  the 
continuance  of  the  old  services,  and  appointed  a  commission  of  divines 

1  Yet  that  was  and  long  continued  to  be  all  too  common.      In  the  next  reign 
Sir  Henry  Wotton  denned  an  ambassador  as  "an  honest  man  appointed  to  lie 
(which  then  meant  "sojourn"  as  well)  abroad  for  the  good  of  his  country."     More 
than  one  ambassador  has  misled  another  by  telling  the  truth.     It  was  said  of  two 
famous  statesmen   that   "Mazarin  never  lied  and  always  deceived,"   and  that 
Metternich  "always  lied  and  never  deceived." 

2  Once  she  asked:   "Mr.  Speaker,  what  has  passed  in  the  Lower  House?"     He 
replied:    "May  it  please  your  Majesty,  seven  weeks."     Perhaps  the  chief  thing 
which  passed  in  her  reign  was  forty-five  years. 


EARLY  YEARS  OF  ELIZABETH'S  REIGN  373 

to  revise  the  second  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.  Parliament  met 
25  January,  1559.  The  strength  of  the  Romanist  party  was  greatly 
weakened  because  of  the  death  of  ten  Marian  bishops  within  the  pre- 
vious year ;  but  the  remnant  fought  hard,  and  it  was  not  till  the  end 
of  April  that  a  settlement  was  reached.  It  was  based  upon  two  acts. 
Barring  a  few  modifications,  notably  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity  of 
1662,  the  Elizabethan  Settlement  is  practically  that  of  the  Church 
of  England  to-day. 

The  Acts  of  Supremacy  and  Uniformity,  1559.  —  By  the  first,  the 
"  Act  for  Restoring  the  Ancient  Jurisdiction  over  the  State  Ecclesias- 
tical and  Spiritual  ' '  —  popularly  known  as  the  "  Act  of  Supremacy  " 
—  the  reactionary  legislation  of  Mary  was  repealed,  and  most  of  the 
antipapal  laws  of  Henry  VIII  were  restored.  A  few  of  Henry's 
claims  were  not  revived ;  for  example,  the  title  of  "  Supreme  Head 
of  the  Church."  By  refusing  this  title  Elizabeth  avoided  giving 
offense  both  to  the  Catholics  who  thought  it  belonged  only  to  the 
Pope,  and  to  the  Puritans  who  recognized  only  Christ.1  She  assumed 
instead  the  title  of  "  Supreme  Governor  as  well  in  spiritual  and  ec- 
clesiastical causes  as  in  temporal."  The  Act  of  Supremacy  gave  to 
the  sovereign  the  right  to  delegate  the  royal  authority  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs  to  commissioners.  Nothing,  however,  could  be  condemned  as 
heresy  which  had  not  been  declared  such  by  the  Scriptures,  by  one 
of  the  General  Councils  of  the  Church,  or  by  Parliament  with  the 
consent  of  Convocation.  Obedience  to  the  Act  was  secured  by  an 
oath  imposed  upon  all  clergymen  and  holders  of  civil  office.  Those 
who  maintained  the  authority  of  any  foreign  prince  or  prelate  were 
subject  to  penalties,  ranging  from  forfeiture  for  the  first  offense  to 
death  for  the  third.  The  second  measure,  the  "  Act  of  Uniformity  of 
Common  Prayer,"  enforced  the  form  of  service  of  the  revised  Prayer 
Book  and  prohibited  all  others.  Ministers  who  disobeyed  were  pun- 
ished. Every  one  refusing  to  go  to  church  had  to  pay  twelve  pence 
for  the  poor. 

The  Elizabethan  Settlement  apparently  satisfied  the  bulk  of  the 
people.  Many  shuddered  at  the  late  persecutions,  or  found  papal 
supremacy  and  all  its  accompaniments  distasteful.  Others  were  too 
indifferent  or  too  timid  to  resist.  Of  10,000  clergymen,  less  than  200 
refused  the  new  Oath  of  Supremacy.  Many  extremists  were  restrained 
from  resistance  for  fear  of  endangering  national  unity  and  independ- 
ence. Nevertheless,  it  was  found  necessary  within  a  few  years  to 
exclude  Roman  Catholics  from  the  House  of  Commons  and  to  impose 
restrictions  and  penalties,  known  as  the  "  penal  statutes,"  upon  the 
obstinate.  Extreme  Protestants  were  dealt  with  by  the  ecclesiastical 
courts,  because  acts  against  them  could  not  be  carried  through  the 
Commons.  Submission  to  the  Established  Church  was  regarded 
as  a  test  of  loyalty  to  the  State ;  and  in  those  troublous  times  dis- 

1  From  the  words  of  the  Scripture,  "One  is  your  head,  even  Christ." 


374  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

obedience  was  regarded  as  the  blackest  of  crimes  —  "  not  a  singular 
sin,"  but  "  the  whole  puddle  and  sink  of  sins  against  God  and  man." 
The  bishops,  all  but  one  of  whom  opposed  the  Settlement,  either  fled 
abroad  or  were  deprived  and  imprisoned.1  In  December  Matthew 
Parker  (1504-1571)  was  consecrated  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in 
place  of  Pole.  The  prospect  had  caused  him  many  "  displeasant 
cogitations,"  for  he  had  lived  in  obscurity  in  Mary's  reign,  devoting 
himself  to  the  sweet  leisure  of  study.  Wise  and  moderate  as  well  as 
learned,  he  desired  ever  to  conciliate,  though  during  bis  fifteen  years 
as  Primate  he  was  forced  into  sharp  opposition  against  the  Puritans. 
The  Triumph  of  the  Scotch  Protestants,  1559-1560.  —  No  sooner 
had  Elizabeth  brought  English  affairs  into  some  degree  of  order  than 
she  was  drawn  into  the  struggle  across  the  border.  John  Knox  re- 
turned to  Scotland  in  1559  and  at  once  took  the  lead  against  Mary  of 
Guise.  An  attempt  to  suppress  the  Protestant  preachers  furnished 
the  immediate  occasion,  but  back  of  it  was  a  growing  feeling  against 
French  influence.  When  one  truce  after  another  had  been  made 
and  broken,  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation  in  October  poured  into 
Edinburgh,  seized  the  castle,  and  declared  the  Regent  deposed.  Mean- 
time, they  had  applied  to  Elizabeth  for  aid.  The  chance  to  break 
the  power  of  the  Franco-Catholic  party  was  tempting ;  but  Elizabeth 
feared  that  intervention  might  furnish  a  precedent  for  foreign  powers 
and  her  own  Catholic  subjects  to  combine  against  her  authority. 
Nevertheless,  by  the  treaty  of  Berwick,  February,  1560,  she  agreed 
to  aid  the  Scots  in  expelling  the  French,  provided  that  they  continued 
to  acknowledge  the  Queen.  It  happened,  fortunately  for  the  rebels, 
that  the  French  Government  had  its  hands  full.  In  March  a  con- 
spiracy had  broken  out  with  an  attempt  to  seize  Francis  II 2  at  Am- 
boise.  After  the  suppression  of  the  plot,  the  French  cause  received 
another  blow  from  the  death  of  the  Regent,  June,  1560.  On  6  July, 
a  peace  was  arranged  at  Edinburgh  between  commissioners  represent- 
ing France  and  Scotland.  By  the  Treaty  of  Edinburgh :  Mary  and 
Francis  were  to  cease  using  the  English  arms  which  they  had  quar- 
tered on  their  shield  after  the  death  of  Mary  Tudor ;  no  Frenchman 
was  henceforth  to  hold  any  important  office  in  Scotland ;  French 
soldiers  were  to  be  sent  out  of  the  country ;  and  until  Mary's  return 
the  government  was  to  be  vested  in  a  council,  part  appointed  by  her, 
part  by  the  Scotch  estates.  Mary  refused  to  sign  the  treaty;  but 
the  Lords  of  the  Congregation  proceeded  to  carry  out  the  reformation 
for  which  they  had  fought.  In  August,  1560,  they  called  a  meeting 
of  the  Estates,  which  renounced  the  authority  of  the  Pope ;  con- 
demned all  practices  contrary  to  a  new  creed  drawn  up  on  the  Genevan 
model  by  John  Knox  and  his  brother  ministers ;  and  forbade  the 

1  The  Bishop  of  Winchester,  who  preached  Mary's  funeral  sermon,  mortally 
affronted  Elizabeth  by  his  unfortunate  reference  to  the  text :  "A  living  dog  is  better 
than  a  dead  lion." 

2  He  succeeded  his  father,  Henry  II,  July,  1559. 


EARLY  YEARS  OF  ELIZABETH'S  REIGN  375 

saying  or  hearing  mass  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  for  the  first  offense, 
exile  for  the  second,  and  death  for  the  third.  The  ministers  also 
drew  up  a  scheme  of  church  government,  known  as  the  First  Book  of 
Discipline,  which,  though  not  officially  adopted,  was  accepted  by 
many.1  In  1564  Knox's  Service  Book,  the  "  Book  of  Common  Order," 
was  issued.  With  a  confession  of  faith,  a  scheme  of  government,  and 
a  form  of  public  worship,  the  foundations  of  the  future  Church  of 
Scotland  were  laid. 

The  Return  of  Mary  to  Scotland,  1561.  —  Meantime,  in  December, 
1560,  Francis  II  had  died,  and,  in  August  of  the  following  year,  Mary 
returned  to  Scotland.  Her  guiding  aim  was  to  secure  the  succession 
to  the  English  throne.  The  rivalry  between  her  and  Elizabeth,  which 
now  became  acute,  was  only  ended  by  Mary's  execution  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century  later.  At  the  date  of  her  arrival  in  Scotland 
she  was  eighteen  years  old.  Educated  in  the  most  cultivated  and 
pleasure-loving  court  of  Europe,  her  accomplishments,  added  to  her 
personal  charm,  made  her  well-nigh  irresistible.  She  was  daring, 
persistent,  and  unscrupulous  as  well.  In  her  struggle  with  Elizabeth, 
however,  she  was  seriously  handicapped.  Her  loves  and  hates  fre- 
quently prevailed  over  her  State  policy,  whereas  Elizabeth,  equally 
fearless  and  unscrupulous,  always  kept  her  feelings  under  control ; 
Elizabeth's  interests,  too,  were  generally  identical  with  those  of  the 
English  people,  while  Mary  looked  on  the  Scotch  solely  as  a  means 
of  furthering  her  own  ambitions.  Indeed,  her  personal  interests  and 
passions  at  times  dominated  even  her  religion.2  Finally,  poor  as 
they  were,  the  resources  of  England  far  exceeded  those  of  Scotland. 
In  spite  of  herself  Mary  advanced  the  cause  of  the  Reformation. 
Her  claims  to  the  English  throne  forced  Elizabeth  to  seek  the  support 
of  her  Protestant  subjects  and  drew  patriotic  Catholics  to  her  side. 
It  also  insured  to  Protestant  England  the  friendship  of  Philip  II  as 
a  counterpoise  to  Franco-Scotch  ascendancy.  A  similar  fear  led 
Elizabeth  to  lend  effective,  if  grudging,  aid  to  the  Protestant  lords. 
And  to  outbid  her  rival,  Mary  after  she  came  back  to  Scotland  tacitly 
allowed  the  existing  system  to  continue. 

Mary's  Marriage  to  Darnley,  1565.  —  Mary's  uncles,  the  Guises, 
were  anxious  to  strengthen  her  position  by  another  marriage.  Don 
Carlos,  son  of  Philip  II,  was  proposed ;  but  signs  of  his  later  insanity 
soon  began  to  be  manifest.  Elizabeth  suggested  Leicester,  baited 
with  a  promise  of  the  English  succession ;  but  even  if  seriously  meant, 
nothing  came  of  the  proposal.  All  the  while,  Mary,  partly  owing 
to  her  winning  graces,  partly  to  the  repellent  austerity  of  Knox  and 
his  ministers,  wras  growing  steadily  stronger.  Suddenly,  29  July,  1565, 
she  married  her  cousin,  Lord  Darnley.  Thus  she  broke  away  from 

1  It  was  superseded  by  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline  in  1581. 

2  For  example,  she  married  her  cousin  Darnley  three  months  before  a  dispensa- 
tion arrived  from  Rome,  and  she  was  united  to  her  third  husband,  Bothwell,  im- 
mediately after  his  divorce  by  a  Protestant  bishop. 


376  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  leading  strings  of  France,  from  her  half  brother,  Lord  James 
Stewart,1  leader  of  the  dominant  Protestants,  and  put  herself  at  the 
head  of  the  Catholic  party  in  Scotland  and  England.  Mary's  motives 
were  this  time  political,  not  romantic.  Darnley  was,  she  said,  "  of 
the  blood  of  England  and  Scotland,  next  to  myself  in  succession,  a 
Stuart  by  name,  so  as  to  keep  still  the  surname  so  pleasing  to  the 
Scotch,  of  the  same  religion  as  myself,  and  would  respect  me  as  he 
would  be  obliged  by  the  honor  I  did  him."  The  Catholic  cause 
seemed  triumphant.  Moray  and  the  Protestant  lords,  after  an  un- 
successful appeal  to  arms,  fled  to  England,  and  Mary  set  to  work  to 
induce  the  French  and  Spanish  to  sink  their  political  jealousies  in  a 
common  war  for  the  destruction  of  Protestantism.  She  was  destined 
to  bitter  disappointment. 

Darnley 's  Breach  with  Mary.  His  Murder,  1567.  —  Darnley, 
"  a  long,  girl-faced  boy,"  proved  weak,  dissipated,  and  presuming. 
His  excesses  disgusted  the  Queen,  while  he,  infuriated  at  his  exclusion 
from  all  authority,  laid  the  blame  on  Mary's  secretary,  David  Rizzio. 
So  he  was  easily  persuaded  to  enter  into  a  bond  with  the  exiled  lords 
to  bring  them  back  and  dispose  of  his  rival.  On  9  March,  1566,  he 
sought  out  the  Queen  in  Holyrood  palace.  He  was  followed  by  a 
body  of  armed  men,  who  burst  into  Mary's  chamber,  tore  "  Davy  the 
Fiddler  "  from  her  skirts,  where  he  clung  for  protection,  dragged  him 
to  the  door,  stabbed  him,  and  flung  his  body  down  the  stairs.  Mary 
met  the  situation  with  promptness  and  decision.  Feigning  reconcilia- 
tion with  her  ineffectual  consort,  she  drew  him  from  his  fellow  con- 
spirators, and  restored  to  favor  such  of  the  Protestant  lords  as  had 
not  been  involved  in  the  crime.  Her  position  was  greatly  strength- 
ened, 19  June,  1566,  by  the  birth  of  a  son,  destined  to  become  King 
both  of  England  and  Scotland.  "  The  Queen  of  Soots,"  moaned 
Elizabeth  when  she  heard  the  news,  "  is  mother  of  a  fair  son,  and  I 
am  but  a  barren  stalk."  Darnley,  however,  •  grew  steadily  more 
contemptible  in  Mary's  eyes.  Her  natural  aversion  to  him  was 
rendered  complete  by  a  passionate  attachment  which  she  had  formed 
for  the  Earl  of  Bothwell,  a  reckless,  aspiring  noble,  recently  returned 
from  an  exile  in  France.  Although  a  Protestant,  Bothwell  was  the 
declared  enemy  of  Moray  and  the  more  cautious  of  his  party,  now 
back  at  court.  On  9  February,  1657,  Kirk  o'  Field,  the  house  in 
which  Darnley,  just  recovering  from  a  serious  illness,  was  lodged, 
was  blown  up  and  his  dead  body  was  found  in  the  adjoining  garden. 
Mary,  who  brought  him  to  the  house,  had  left  him  only  a  few  hours 
before  the  explosion. 

Mary's  Defeat  and  Flight  to  England,  1567-1568.  —  Though  Both- 
well  was  accused  with  one  voice,  no  one  dared  to  appear  against  him. 
After  his  acquittal  at  a  trial  which  was  nothing  more  than  a  farce,  he 
took  Mary  captive,  apparently  by  arrangement  planned  with  her 

1  Earl  of  Moray  in  1562. 


EARLY  YEARS  OF   ELIZABETH'S   REIGN  377 

beforehand.  Having  secured  a  divorce  from  his  own  wife,  he  and  the 
Queen  were  married,  15  May,  1567.  This  outrageous  proceeding  led 
to  a  revolt.  15  June,  Mary  was  overcome  and  surrendered  at  Car- 
bery  Hill,  on  condition  that  Bothwell  be  allowed  to  escape.  She 
herself  was  imprisoned  in  Lochleven  Castle,  forced  to  yield  the  throne 
to  her  infant  son,  and  to  nominate  Moray  Regent.  She  escaped  after 
a  few  months  only  to  receive  another  defeat  at  Langside,  in  May,  1568. 
In  despair  she  fled  across  the  border  and  threw  herself  on  the  support 
of  Elizabeth.  The  English  Queen  with  her  rival  at  her  feet  was  most 
embarrassed  as  to  how  to  dispose  of  her.  If  she  restored  her  to  her 
throne,  it  would  alienate  the  Protestant  Scots.  To  imprison  her  in 
England  might  precipitate  a  combination  between  the  English  Catho- 
lics and  the  Catholic  Powers.  It  seemed  equally  dangerous  to  leave 
her  at  large,  either  in  England  or  in  France,  to  form  an  inevitable 
center  of  plots  against  the  English  throne. 

The  Trial  of  Mary  and  her  Captivity,  1569-1587.  —  Mary  demanded 
a  hearing  against  her  subjects.  Elizabeth  welcomed  this  as  a  means 
of  gaining  time,  so  in  October  a  body  of  commissioners,  representing 
respectively  the  two  Queens  and  the  rebellious  Scots,  met  at  York. 
After  successive  adjournments,  first  to  Westminster  and  then  to 
Hampton  Court,  Elizabeth  was  able  to  announce  a  characteristically 
indefinite  conclusion.  Moray's  party  were  told  that  nothing  could 
be  found  against  them  which  might  "  impair  their  honor  or  allegiance," 
while  Mary  was  comforted  by  the  assurance  that  she  had  done  nothing 
"  whereby  the  Queen  of  England  should  conceive  an  evil  opinion  of 
her."  1  Nevertheless,  she  was  held  a  captive  for  nearly  twenty  years. 
Fortunately  for  England,  the  French  and  Spanish  kings  were  for  a 
time  too  fully  occupied  with  their  own  affairs  to  attempt  her  release,  and 
Mary  proved  a  valuable  hostage. 

The  Rising  of  the  Northern  Earls,  1569.  — Not  long  after  Mary's 
arrival  in  England  the  plotting  began.  Thomas,  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
son  of  the  poet  Surrey,  although  a  Protestant,  planned  to  marry  her. 
Lacking  courage  to  declare  himself,2  he,  nevertheless,  aroused  Eliza- 
beth's suspicions,  who,  in  October,  1569,  had  him  locked  up  in  the 
Tower,  where  he  was  held  till  the  following  year.  A  fortnight  after 
his  arrest  a  great  rebellion  broke  out  in  the  north,  led  by  the  Earls 

1  The  most  famous  piece  of  evidence  laid  before  the  commissioners  was  the  so- 
called  "Casket  Letters."     It  is  alleged  that  they  were  found  in  a  silver  casket  left 
behind  by  Bothwell  in  his  flight.     Some  scholars  believe  them  genuine,  others 
maintain  that  they  are  forgeries.     The  most  reasonable  view  is  that  most  of  these 
letters  were  actually  written  by  Mary  but  were  altered  by  the  Protestant  lords 
after  they  got  them  in  their  hands.     In  the  form  in  which  they  survive,  they  con- 
demn the  Queen  beyond  a  doubt.     Even  without  them,  her  guilt  of  everything 
short  of   participation  in  the  actual  murder  of   her  husband  is  reasonably  clear. 
She  hated  him  and  loved  Bothwell.     She  must  have  known  that  there  was  a  plot 
against  Darnley;   she  brought  him  to  a  house  accessible  to  his  enemies;   she  left 
him  alone  there ;   and  she  married  the  man  accused  of  his  murder. 

2  Apparently  his  timidity  was  solely  political ;   for  he  had  already  been  married 
three  times. 


378  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  Westmoreland  and  Northumberland.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Pil- 
grimage of  Grace,  the  movement  was  due  to  a  mixture  of  religious, 
political,  and  economic  causes.  The  Catholics  wanted  the  restoration 
of  the  old  religion,  the  nobles  were  embittered  at  the  upstarts  who 
controlled  the  royal  councils  and  at  the  encroachments  upon  their 
ancient  franchises  by  the  Tudor  monarchy.  Many,  too,  resented 
the  fact  that  the  Council  of  the  North  sat  only  at  York  instead  of 
going  about  a  circuit,  which  involved  heavy  traveling  expenses  for 
suitors.  Finally,  while  in  the  south  there  was  great  access  of  pros- 
perity, due  to  maritime  enterprise  and  extension  of  commerce,  the 
north  not  only  did  not  share  in  this,  but  was  still  suffering  from  the 
destruction  of  the  monasteries,  added  to  which  its  wool  trade  was 
suddenly  curtailed  by  recent  disturbances  in  the  Netherlands.  The 
specific  demands  of  the  insurgents  were :  the  restoration  of  the  old 
religion,  the  purging  of  new  men  from  the  Council,  the  release  of  Nor- 
folk, and  the  restoration  of  Mary  to  her  throne.  Once  more,  how- 
ever, lack  of  concert  among  them  proved  fatal,  with  the  result  that 
the  Queen's  army,  under  the  Earl  of  Sussex,  was  soon  able  to  restore 
order.  A  few  gentlemen  and  about  800  of  the  common  sort  were 
executed.  The  leaders  fled  to  Scotland.  Westmoreland  escaped  to 
the  Netherlands,  but  Northumberland  was  sold  by  a  traitor  and  put 
to  death.  Yet,  though  the  rebellion  was  crushed,  Elizabeth's  danger 
was  not  yet  over,  for  a  strong  party  still  survived  who  firmly  believed 
that  she  had  no  right  to  rule  and  that  it  was  their  religious  duty  to  put 
Mary  Stuart  in  her  place.  They  looked  to  Rome  for  support,  and 
when  occasion  offered  intrigued  with  Spain  and  France. 

Elizabeth  and  the  Catholics.  —  Elizabeth  sought  to  meet  the  Roman 
Catholic  danger  in  two  ways :  abroad,  by  stirring  up  the  Protestant 
subjects  of  the  rulers  whom  she  feared ;  at  home,  by  restrictive  legis- 
lation. She  demanded  only  outward  conformity ;  for,  as  she  proudly 
declared,  she  "  made  no  windows  into  men's  souls."  Moreover,  no 
one  was  put  to  death  for  religion  during  the  first  seventeen  years  of 
her  reign.  Persecution  was  forced  upon  her  by  political  necessity. 
Liberty  of  worship  was  forbidden  from  the  first ;  but  the  restrictions 
later  imposed  were  due  in  most  cases  to  aggressions  from  Rome  or 
to  marked  successes  of  the  Catholic  cause  abroad.  The  events  of 
1562  illustrate  this.  The  Pope  struck  a  hard  blow  at  the  loyalty  of 
the  moderate  Catholics  by  a  brief  in  which  he  denounced  the  Prayer 
Book  and  forbade  the  faithful  to  attend  the  services  of  the  Church  of 
England.  In  France,  i  March,  a  body  of  fanatical  followers  of  the 
Duke  of  Guise  fell  upon  and  massacred  a  congregation  of  French 
Huguenots  assembled  for  worship  under  an  edict  of  toleration  granted 
less  than  two  months  before.  Civil  war  broke  out  in  consequence, 
and  Conde,  the  Huguenot  leader,  applied  to  Elizabeth  for  aid.  With 
her  usual  caution  she  extended  it  grudgingly.  Conde,  however,  was 
defeated  and  taken  prisoner  at  Dreux,  19  December,  1562,  a  reverse 
that  was  only  partially  counterbalanced  by  the  assassination  of  the 


EARLY  YEARS  OF  ELIZABETH'S  REIGN  379 

Duke  of  Guise  in  February,  1563.  Catherine  de'  Medici,  Regent  for 
her  son,  Charles  IX,  patched  up  a  truce  with  Conde  and  drove  the 
English  troops  out  of  Havre,  which  Elizabeth  had  received  as  the  price 
of  her  aid  to  the  Huguenots.  Having  committed  herself  and  lost, 
she  saw  the  need  of  strengthening  herself  at  home.  So  the  Forty- 
two  articles  revised  and  reduced  to  thirty-nine  were  adopted  by  Con- 
vocation (1563).  Also,  an  act  of  Parliament  extended  the  Oath  of 
Supremacy  to  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  to  schoolmasters, 
and  lawyers.  Furthermore,  the  Court  of  High  Commission,  author- 
ized by  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  began  actively  to  inquire  into  the  faith 
of  the  clergy. 

The  Counter-Reformation.  —  There  was  still  great  danger  that 
England  might  be  engulfed  in  the  "  Counter-Reformation,"  as  the 
great  movement  was  called  by  which  the  Church  of  Rome  sought  to 
reform  itself  and  to  recover  the  countries  which  had  broken  away. 
Practically  every  spark  of  heresy  was  stamped  out  in  Spain  and  Italy, 
France  was  retained  by  hard  righting,  so  were  ten  of  the  seventeen 
provinces  in  the  Low  Countries.  Poland,  southern  Germany,  and, 
later,  Bohemia  were  all  won  back.  The  causes  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
renascence  were  many  and  various.  To  some  degree  it  was  a  resump- 
tion of  a  movement  interrupted  by  the  Protestant  Revolution,  to 
some  degree  it  was  stimulated  by  an  effort  to  deal  with  the  abuses  at 
which  the  revolution  had  struck.  Four  main  factors  played  a  part 
in  its  progress.  First,  zealous  and  religious  Popes  were  elected  in 
place  of  the  warriors,  the  men  of  sin,  and  the  semipagan  humanists 
of  the  pre-Reformation  period.  Secondly,  the  councils  of  progressive 
and  high-thinking  men  began  to  be  heard,  who,  following  in  the  wake 
of  Erasmus  and  his  fellows,  sought  to  regenerate  the  Church  from 
within,  and,  in  this  way,  to  tempt  back  those  who  had  wandered  from 
the  fold. 

The  Jesuits.  —  The  third  and  most  aggressive  factor  in  the  Counter- 
Reformation  was  the  famous  Society  of  Jesus.  It  was  the  creation 
of  Ignatius  Loyola,  a  Spanish  knight  born  in  1491,  who  at  the  age  of 
thirty  was  wounded  while  fighting  in  Navarre.  As  he  lay  during  his 
recovery  racked  with  pain  he  formed  the  plan  of  a  great  religious  order 
with  the  aim  of  overcoming  those  outside  the  pale  of  the  Church,  — 
heretics,  Jews,  infidels,  and  heathen.  The  basis  of  his  organization 
was  to  be  perfect  obedience  and  absolute  devotion  to  the  supreme 
ecclesiastical  authority.  The  members  were  to  be  soldiers  of  Christ 
in  a  grand  spiritual  campaign  to  convert  the  world  and  to  suppress 
free  thought  and  free  inquiry.  Loyola  prepared  himself  for  his  work 
by  a  long  course  of  study  and  discipline.  The  Society  of  Jesus  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  Paul  IV  in  1540,  and  Loyola  became  its  first 
general  in  1541,  though  Laynez,  whom  he  met  at  the  University  of 
Paris,  was  the  controlling  spirit  from  the  first.  Before  the  death  of 
the  founder  there  existed  more  than  a  hundred  colleges  or  homes  for 
training  Jesuits,  with  an  immense  number  of  schools  under  their 


380  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

influence  besides.  The  Order,  numbering  thousands  and  extending 
over  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  America,  was  divided  into  twelve  prov- 
inces. Each  was  under  a  provincial,  while  the  general  at  Rome 
wielded  power  over  popes  and  princes.1 

The  Council  of  Trent,  1545-1563. —  The  Council  of  Trent,  the 
fourth  factor  in  counteracting  the  Protestant  Reformation,  was  opened 
in  1545,  and  continued  its  session  intermittently  till  1563.  Here  the 
Jesuits  prevailed  over  the  party  of  mediation.  Owing  to  friction 
between  Pope  and  Emperor,  little  was  accomplished  during  the  first 
two  sessions.  Its  epoch-making  work  was  done  in  the  third  and  last, 
from  January,  1562,  to  December,  1563.  The  leading  -doctrines  of 
Protestantism,  such  as  individual  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  and 
justification  by  faith,  were  condemned.  The  chief  dogmas  of  the 
Church  regarding  indulgences,  purgatory,  invocation  of  the  saints  were 
defined  more  rigidly ;  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  was  reaffirmed ; 
glaring  abuses  were  reformed ;  and  stricter  discipline  was  introduced. 
Thus  reformed  and  reorganized,  strengthened  by  the  terrible  arm  of 
the  Inquisition,  the  Church  of  Rome,  under  pious  and  energetic 
popes,  sought  the  support  of  Spain  and  France,  the  two  greatest 
temporal  powers  of  Catholic  Europe,  and  started  anew  on  its  road  of 
recovery  and  conquest.  England,  however,  who  had  so  much  to 
fear  from  this  powerful  combination  was  to  enjoy  a  respite  for  some 
years.  Philip  II,  keen  as  he  was  to  reestablish  the  power  of  the  Church, 
aimed  to  bring  it  about  by  means  of  his  own  authority,  resting  on  a 
monarchy  strong  and  widely  extended.  For  some  years  he  held 
jealously  aloof  from  France,  because  he  feared  the  ambition  of  the 
Guises,  who  were  seeking  to  establish  their  power  in  that  country  and 
to  extend  it  across  the  Channel  by  making  Mary  Stuart  Queen  of 
England.  Later,  however,  he  gave  his  support  to  the  Holy  League, 
founded  in  1576,  to  annihilate  the  Huguenots  and  to  elevate  one  of 
the  Guise  family  to  the  throne  of  France.  During  the  interval  the 
Guises  were  occupied  in  a  series  of  religious  wars  with  the  Huguenots, 
while  Philip  himself  was  called  upon  to  face  a  revolt  of  his  Protestant 
subjects  in  the  Low  Countries. 

The  Revolt  of  the  Netherlands,  1567. — The  Low  Countries,  or 
the  Netherlands,  comprising  the  modern  kingdoms  of  Holland  and 
Belgium,  consisted,  at  that  time,  of  seventeen  separate  provinces, 
each  with  its  own  constitution,  assembly  of  estates,  and  stadholder  or 
local  governor.  Business  common  to  all  was  transacted  in  a  general 
assembly  composed  of  the  estates  of  the  various  provinces.  Charles  V 
had  ruled  with  great  moderation,  respecting  carefully  their  provincial 

1  They  were  greatly  assisted  in  their  work  of  suppressing  reform  tendencies  by 
the  erection  of  the  Supreme  Tribunal  of  the  Inquisition  at  Rome  in  1542.  It  was 
due  to  Cardinal  Caraffa,  a  fanatical  Neapolitan,  who  as  Paul  IV  was  Pope,  1555- 
JSS9-  The  Inquisition  was  as  old  as  the  twelfth  century;  and,  since  the  time  of 
Queen  Isabella,  it  had  become  in  Spain  an  elaborate  organization  of  courts  and 
officials  and  a  terrible  engine  of  destruction  against  Moors,  Jews,  and  heretics. 


EARLY  YEARS  OF   ELIZABETH'S   REIGN  381 

privileges  to  which  they  clung  tenaciously.  In  return  he  drew  from 
the  prosperous  Netherland  burghers  most  of  his  money  for  his  French 
wars.  Philip  II,  unlike  his  father,  had  not  been  brought  up  among 
them  and  was  Spanish  to  the  core.  Cold  and  unbending,  he  deter- 
mined to  mold  them  into  the  vast  religious  and  political  system 
comprehending  his  dominions  in  Europe,  America,  and  the  Eastern 
Ocean,  which  he  directed  from  the  Escorial,  his  lonely  palace  near 
Madrid.  In  1559  he  appointed,  as  his  representative  in  the  Nether- 
lands, his  half  sister,  Margaret  of  Parma.  Her  chief  minister,  Car- 
dinal Granvella,  studiously  neglected  the  Council  of  State  composed  of 
native  nobles,  and  roused  such  a  storm  of  opposition  by  unpopular 
measures  that  he  was  recalled  in  1564.  The  combination  against 
him  was  led  by  William  of  Orange.1  Count  Egmont,  and  Count  Horn. 

Granvella's  departure,  however,  failed  to  allay  the  discontent, 
owing  to  the  activity  of  the  Inquisition  in  punishing  heresy.  Estab- 
lished in  the  country  in  1522  it  had  since  been  greatly  strengthened, 
notably  by  an  edict  of  1555.  Philip  not  only  refused  to  repeal  his 
edict,  but  ordered  the  promulgation  of  the  canons  of  the  Council  of 
Trent  and  bade  the  magistrates  assist  the  ecclesiastical  officials  in 
their  work.  In  consequence,  the  nobles  and  people  united  in  a  bond 
known  as  the  "  Compromise,"  pledging  themselves  to  uproot  and  expel 
the  Inquisition,  which  they  declared  to  be  "  iniquitous,  contrary  to 
all  laws  human  and  divine."  A  great  popular  outburst,  accompanied 
by  image  breaking  in  Antwerp  and  other  chief  cities,  finally  brought 
the  Regent,  25  August,  1566,  to  publish  an  "  Accord,"  abolishing  the 
Inquisition,  and  allowing  Protestant  doctrine  to  be  preached  in  places 
where  it  was  already  established.  This  concession,  coupled  with  the 
violence  of  the  multitude,  brought  about  a  reaction.  Many  of  the 
nobles,  including  Egmont  and  Horn,  returned  to  their  allegiance, 
though  the  Prince  of  Orange  held  aloof  and  withdrew  to  Germany. 
Philip,  instead  of  meeting  his  subjects  halfway,  adopted  the  advice  of 
the  Duke  of  Alva,  the  most  uncompromising  of  his  generals,  and  sent 
him  with  Spanish  troops  to  repress  and  punish  those  who  had  pre- 
sumed to  rebel  against  his  authority.  Directly  on  his  arrival,  in 
May,  1567,  Alva  set  up  a  tribunal  known  as  the  "  Blood  Council  "  to 
try  those  concerned  in  the  recent  outbreak.  Among  those  put  to 
death  were  Egmont  and  Horn.  William  of  Orange,  who  during  his. 
exile  had  become  a  Calvinist,  led  an  army  against  the  savage  execu- 
tioner ;  but  had  to  withdraw  defeated.  In  1568  Alva  seemed  justified 
in  boasting  that  he  had  "  extinguished  sedition,  chastised  rebellion, 
restored  religion  .  .  .  and  established  peace." 

The  Ridolfi  Plot  and  the  Execution  of  Norfolk,  1572.  — Thus  the 
situation,  so  far  as  England  was  concerned,  was  full  of  serious  menace. 
Alva  was  triumphant  in  the  Netherlands.  In  France  the  Huguenots 
were  defeated  in  1569  at  the  battle  of  Jarnac,  where  their  brilliant 

1  William  of  Nassau,  called  William  of  Orange  from  the  principality  of  Orange- 
Chalons  in  France,  which  he  inherited  from  his  cousin. 


382  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

General  Conde  was  killed.  Owing  to  jealousy  of  Spain,  Admiral 
Coligny,  the  greatest  and  noblest  of  their  leaders,  managed,  August, 
1570,  to  secure  favorable  terms,  but  their  position  was  very  unstable. 
In  Scotland  the  Protestant  cause  received  a  serious  blow  from  the 
assassination  of  the  Regent  Moray,  23  January  of  the  same  year.  To 
cap  all,  Pius  V,  a  former  Dominican  inquisitor  and  a  fervid  zealot, 
issued  a  Jbull 1  of  excommunication  against  Queen  Elizabeth.  Her 
reply  was  a  new  senes  of  measures  against  the  Catholics.  In  1571 
Parliament  declared  it^  jiigh^  treaso.n_to  call  the  Queen  a  heretic,  to 
affirm  that  any  particular  person  was  Tier  successor,2  or  to  publish 
any  papal  bull  against  her.  Also  it  confirmed  the  Thirty-nine  Ar- 
ticles already  adopted.  In  this  year  "  Ridolfi's  Plot  "  came  to  light. 
The  chief  agent  was  a  Florentine  merchant  resident  in  England,  whose 
object  was,  with  the  aid  of  Alva,  Philip  II,  and  the  Pope,  to  liberate 
Mary  and  to  marry  her  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk.  Norfolk  paid  the 
penalty  with  his  head,  1572.  Following  closely  upon  the  collapse  of 
the  Northern  rebellion  of  1569,  his  execution  marks  the  end  of  the  old 
nobility  who,  ever  since  the  accession  of  the  Tudors,  had  fought  a 
losing  fight  against  the  centralization  of  the  monarchy.  A  prophecy 
had  circulated  that  Elizabeth  would  not  survive  the  thirteenth  year 
of  her  reign.  That  was  now  belied.  If  the  clouds  still  hung  heavy, 
she  had  already  achieved  much  and  was  steadily  gaining  ground. 
She  had  settled  the  religion  of  her  realm,  she  had  helped  to  set  up 
Protestantism  in  Scotland,  she  held  her  rival  captive,  she  had  put 
down  a  dangerous  rising,  and  while  Catholicism  was  gaining  ground 
abroad,  its  two  leading  exponents,  France  and  Spain,  were  at  odds 
with  each  other  and  busy  repressing  religious  revolts  among  their  own 
subjects.  Further  dangers  were  in  store  for  England's  Queen ;  but 
when  they  came,  she  proved  ready  to  meet  them,  backed  by  the  moder- 
ate men  of  both  camps,  who  saw  that  the  salvation  of  their  country 
depended  upon  united  effort. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Pollard,  Political  History,  chs.  XI-XVII.  Innes,  England  under  the 
Tudors,  chs.  XVI-XVIII.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  II,  ch.  XVI  (bibliography, 
pp.  806-813) »  a  brilliant  study.  Froude,  History  of  England,  VI-XII ;  Lingard,  VI. 
Creighton,  Queen  Elizabeth  (1909);  the  best  biography  of  the  Queen.  Creighton, 
The  Age  of  Elizabeth  (6th  ed.,  1885) ;  a  good  brief  survey.  M.  A.  S.  Hume,  The 
Courtships  of  Queen  Elizabeth  (1896)  and  The  Great  Lord  Burghley  (1898)  are  useful. 

For  relations  with  Scotland.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  III,  ch.  VIII  (bibliog- 
raphy, pp.  810-815)  is  an  a°le  and  impartial  survey  of  the  Mary  Stuart  problem. 
See  also  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  II,  bk.  V,  chs.  II,  III ;  Andrew  Lang,  History  of 
Scotland,  chs.  I,  II  (1900-1902) ;  and  W.  L.  Mathieson,  Politics  and  Religion  (1902). 

J.  R.  Seeley,  Growth  and  British  Policy  (2  vols.,  1895),  I,  pt.  I,  is  a  stimulating 
and  suggestive  account  of  the  broader  features  of  the  diplomacy  of  the  reign. 

1  Known  as  the  Bull  Regnans  in  excelcis. 

2  This  was,  of  course,  aimed  at  Mary  and  her  adherents. 


EARLY  YEARS  OF   ELIZABETH'S   REIGN  383 

Ecclesiastical.  Wakeman,  ch.  XV.  W.  H.  Frere,  History  of  the  English  Church, 
1588-1602  (1904).  Dixon,  chs.  V,  VI.  F.  Proctor ;  (ed.  W.  H.  Frere),  New  History 
of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  (1901).  H.  Gee,  The  Elizabethan  Prayer  Book  and 
Ornaments  (1902).  H.  N.  Birt,  The  Elizabethan  Religious  Settlement  (1907)  treats 
the  subject  from  the  Roman  Catholic  standpoint. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  167  ff. ;  for  a  more  com- 
plete selection,  G.  W.  Prothero,  Select  Statutes  and  Other  Constitutional  Documents 
(1894,  new  ed.,  1913),  pp.  1-249. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

ELIZABETH'S  ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE    (1572-1603) 

The  Projected  Anglo-French  Alliance,  1570-1573.  —  The  success 
of  Spanish  arms  in  the  Netherlands  was  followed  by  a  drawing  to- 
gether of  England  and  France.  As  a  means  of  bringing  it  about  the 
Duke  of  Anjou,  brother  of  Charles  IX,1  was  proposed  as  a  husband  for 
Elizabeth,  and  from  1570  to  1572  one  of  her  most  notable  courtships 
ran  its  course.  France  at  this  time  was  practically  governed  by  the 
masterful  Catherine  de'  Medici,  mother  of  the  nominal  King,  who  was  a 
weakling  both  in  mind  and  body.  Elizabeth  had  no  mind  to  marry 
Anjou ;  but  she  wanted  to  forestall  a  proposed  alliance  between  him 
and  Mary  Stuart,  and  to  go  just  far  enough  to  keep  Catherine  from 
combining  either  with  the  Guises  or  Spain.  At  the  same  time,  she 
was  prepared  to  prevent  the  French  from  supplanting  the  Spanish  in 
the  Low  Countries.  Her  tortuous  course  was  suddenly  interrupted  by 
a  wild  stroke  of  Catherine's.  Alva's  triumph  was  short  lived.  His 
bloodthirstiness  and  his  oppressive  taxation  had  roused  the  Nether- 
lands to  fury;  encouraged  by  French  and  English  aid,  town  after 
town  revolted,  and  in  July,  1572,  four  of  the  northern  provinces  united 
under  William  of  Orange  as  Stadholder.  About  the  same  time 
Charles  IX  fell  under  the  influence  of  Coligny.  Momentarily  freed 
from  the  fear  of  Spain,  Catherine,  who  recoiled  at  the  thought  of 
Huguenot  ascendancy,  combined  with  the  hated  Guises  to  get  rid 
of  her  son's  new  mentor  and  to  destroy  his  followers. 

The  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  24  August,  1572.  —  The  oppor- 
tunity came  when  the  marriage  of  Henry  of  Navarre  —  one  of  the 
Huguenot  leaders  —  to  Charles'  sister,  Margaret  of  Valois,  18  August, 
1572,  brought  large  numbers  of  the  party  to  Paris.  Representing  to 
her  feeble-minded  son  that  his  throne,  his  religion,  and,  indeed,  his  life 
were  in  danger,  Catherine  prevailed  upon  him  to  order  a  general  mas- 
sacre. It  began  in  the  early  morning  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  24 
August.  Under  the  sanction  of  the  royal  decree  personal  hatreds 
and  religious  fanaticism  were  given  full  rein.  Coligny  was  the  most 
notable  victim,  though  few  of  the  leaders,  except  Henry  of  Navarre, 
escaped.  The  slaughter,  spreading  from  Paris  to  the  other  towns  of 
France,  lasted  for  days.  The  number  of  those  who  perished  has  been 
estimated  all  the  way  from  10,000  to  100,000,  but  dependable  statistics 
are  lacking.  Strange  stories  are  told  of  the  joy  of  Catholic  potentates. 

1  Charles  succeeded  his  brother  Francis  II  in  1560.  He  reigned  till  1574,  when 
Anjou  became  king  as  Henry  III. 

384 


ELIZABETH'S   ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE        385 

Gregory  XIII  ordered  a  public  thanksgiving,  and  had  a  medal  struck 
to  commemorate  the  event.  Philip  II  is  reported  to  have  laughed  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life.1  However,  it  has  been  urged  in  extenuation 
that  they  saw  in  Catherine's  horrible  deed,  not  a  cold-blooded  massacre, 
but  the  just  punishment  for  a  plot  discovered  before  it  was  fully 
hatched.  England  was  plunged  in  deepest  gloom,  and  when  the 
French  ambassador  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  audience,  he  was 
received  by  the  whole  court  in  mourning. 

The  Union  of  Utrecht,  1579.  —  Alva,  now  that  the  Netherlands  were 
cut  off  from  French  help,  hoped  to  crush  them  utterly ;  but  his  ruth- 
less methods  only  stirred  them  to  more  desperate  resistance.  Philip, 
in  despair,  soon  recalled  him,  and  sent  a  successor  pledged  to  a  more 
pacific  policy.  The  French  Government,  too,  was  not  long  in  recog- 
nizing the  futility  of  the  policy  of  bloodshed  and  sought  to  conciliate 
the  Huguenots  by  a  new  edict  of  toleration.  In  1576  the  troops  in 
the  Netherlands  mutinied  for  lack  of  pay.  Seizing  Antwerp,  they  pro- 
ceded  to  sack  and  plunder  and  to  drive  out  or  kill  the  merchants.  As 
a  result  of  this  "  Spanish  Fury,"  which  reduced  to  ruin  the  richest 
commercial  city  in  Europe,  all  the  seventeen  provinces  bound  them- 
selves together  to  expel  the  Spaniards.  Don  John  of  Austria,  half 
brother  of  Philip,  arrived  as  Governor  late  in  the  year.  A  general 
famed  throughout  Christendom,  he  planned  to  reduce  the  Netherlands 
forthwith,  to  free  Mary,  marry  her,  and  make  himself  King  of  England. 
Less  than  two  years  after  his  arrival,  death  cut  short  his  towering 
ambitions  before  he  had  accomplished  even  the  first  of  his  tasks. 
His  successor,  Alexander  of  Parma,  was  not  only  an  able  general,  but 
artful  as  well.  He  managed  to  break  up  the  combination  of  the 
seventeen  provinces  by  fomenting  religious  dissension.  The  ten 
southern,  prevailingly  Catholic,  formed  a  separate  union  and  gradu- 
ally fell  back  to  Spain.  The  seven  northern,2  by  the  Union  of 
Utrecht,  1579,  combined  under  William  of  Orange,  and  ultimately, 
after  an  heroic  struggle,  achieved  their  independence. 

The  Alencon  Marriage  Project.  — In  1580  Philip  II  sent  Alva  to 
conquer  Portugal,  where  the  dying  out  of  the  legitimate  male  line  gave 
him  a  claim  through  his  mother,  of  which  he  was  not  slow  to  take 
advantage.  The  conquest  completed,3  he  redoubled  his  efforts 
against  the  Nether  landers.  In  March  he  declared  William  of  Orange 
under  the  ban  and  offered  25,000  crowns  to  any  one  who  would  deliver 
him  up  dead  or  alive.  William,  hoping  thereby  to  secure  the  aid  of 
France  and  England,  induced  five  of  the  provinces  to  choose  the  Duke 
of  Anjou  as  their  head.4  Elizabeth,  after  she  had  recovered  from  the 

1  Though  this  story  has  been  denied. 

2  The  Seven  United  Provinces  were :   Holland,  Zealand,  Utrecht,  Guelderland, 
Overyssel,  Groningen,  and  Friesland. 

3  Portugal  remained  under  the  Spanish  monarchy  till  1640. 

4  Formerly  Duke  of  Alencon,  he  became  Duke  of  Anjou  on  his  brother's  succes- 
sion to  the  throne  as  Henry  III,  1574. 

2C 


386  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

shock  of  St.  Bartholomew,  had  accepted  him  as  her  suitor  in  place  of 
his  elder  brother,  with  whom  she  had  carried  on  such  a  fitful,  puzzling 
courtship.  The  present  Anjou  was  ugly,  small,  misshapen,  pock- 
marked, with  a  huge  swollen  nose,  and  was  twenty  years  younger  than 
the  Queen.  Her  subjects  opposed  the  match  stoutly.1  But  Elizabeth 
professed  to  be  very  fond  of  him ;  she  called  him  her  petite  grenouille, 
and  flirted  with  him  most  ridiculously.  He  visited  her  in  1579  and 
again  in  1581,  when  marriage  articles  were  actually  drawn  up.  Once 
more,  however,  she  was  only  playing  a  part ;  for  while  she  expressed 
the  greatest  grief  in  parting,  he  had  to  leave  with  the  contract  uncon- 
cluded.  She  continued  her  professions  after  his  return  to  the  Nether- 
lands. In  his  high  office  he  proved  faithless  and  incompetent,  and, 
failing  to  accomplish  anything,  he  withdrew  to  Paris,  where  he  died 
in  1584. 

Roman  Catholic  Movements  against  Elizabeth  in  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land. —  The  rising  of  1569  had  failed,  the  bull  of  Pius  V  had  proved 
as  empty  in  effect  as  it  was  terrifying  in  form,  and  the  daring  plan  of 
Don  John  had  come  to  nothing.  But  the  number  of  the  disaffected 
in  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Wales  was  large.  So  a  plan  was  concocted 
by  certain  English  exiles,  with  the  sanction  of  Gregory  XIII,  to  strike 
at  Queen  Elizabeth  in  all  three  places  simultaneously.  Ireland  offered 
a  peculiarly  favorable  field.  Henry  VIII  had  alienated  many  by  his 
attempts  to  bribe  the  chiefs  with  tribal  lands,  and  attempts  in  Mary's 
reign  to  plant  English  settlers  in  western  Leinster  had  only  increased 
the  bitterness.  While  the  natives  were  in  constant  turmoil,  the  Eng- 
lish officials,  strong  enough  for  oppression  and  extortion,  had  not 
sufficient  forces  to  maintain  order.  In  consequence,  Irishmen  listened 
eagerly  to  papal  emissaries  who  promised  deliverance  from  tyranny. 
In  July,  1579,  James  Fitzmorris,  brother  of  the  powerful  Earl  of  Des- 
mond, landed  in  Kerry  with  a  few  Spanish  troops.  Designing  to  raise 
the  country  in  the  name  of  the  Pope,  he  built  a  fort  at  Smerwick  on 
the  shore  of  Dingle  Bay.  He  was  killed  in  the  first  encounter  with  the 
English  forces ;  but  his  brother,  the  Earl,  joined  the  rising,  while 
Gregory  sent  800  Italians  and  Spaniards  to  reenforce  the  Smerwick 
garrison.  Lord  Grey  de  Wilton,  sent  out  as  Lord  Deputy,  made  short 
work  of  reducing  the  fort  and  slaughtered  its  defenders,  —  an  achieve- 
ment which  Elizabeth  acknowledged  joyfully  as  an  act  of  God.  Des- 
mond, who  had  escaped,  was  tracked  down  and  slain.  Thus  ended  the 
attempt  in  Ireland.  Followed  by  devastations  and  seizures,  its  only 
result  was  to  widen  the  breach  between  England  and  her  subject  people. 

In  Scotland  an  attempt  at  a  Catholic  revival  was  made  through  Esme 
Stewart,  Seigneur  d'Aubigny,  sent  in  1519  by  the  Guises  with  the 

1  John  Stubbs,  a  Puritan,  wrote  a  book  entitled  "The  Discovery  of  a  Gaping 
Gulph,  wherein  England  is  like  to  be  swallowed  up  by  another  French  marriage ; 
if  the  Lord  forbid  not  the  Banns  by  letting  her  see  the  Sin  and  Punishment  thereof." 
But  when  his  right  hand  was  cut  off  as  a  punishment,  he  loyally  waved  the  stump 
over  his  head,  crying  :  "God  save  the  Queen." 


ELIZABETH'S  ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE        387 

design  of  converting  James  VI  and  restoring  the  French  alliance. 
Handsome,  accomplished,  and  adroit,  he  gained  a  complete  ascendancy 
over  the  young  King,  his  cousin,  who  created  him  Duke  of  Lennox. 
Having  removed  the  chief  obstacle  in  his  way  by  procuring  the  execu- 
tion of  the  Earl  of  Morton  —  Regent  of  the  kingdom,  and  a  stanch 
Protestant  and  favorer  of  the  English  —  on  the  pretext  of  his  com- 
plicity in  Darnley's  murder,  the  royal  favorite  was  for  some  months 
virtually  master  of  Scotland.  He  was  on  the  point  of  calling  in  a  force 
of  Spanish  troops  when,  in  August,  1582,  a  group  of  nobles  led  by  the 
Earl  of  Gowrie  *  seized  King  James  while  hunting  and  took  him  to 
Gowrie  House.  When  the  young  captive  cried  in  anger  and  fright, 
one  of  the  band  grimly  retorted :  "  Better  bairns  greet  than  bearded 
men."  He  was  forced  to  order  Lennox  to  leave  the  country.  After 
a  period  of  aimless  lingering  the  defeated  intriguer  withdrew  to  France, 
where  he  died  soon  after. 

The  SflafofilT  Priests  and  Jesuits  in  England,  1579-1581. — The 
third  center  of  attack  was  in  England  itself.  In  1568  a  seminary 
had  been  founded  at  Douay  for  the  training  of  English  Catholics. 
Ten  years  later,  owing  to  the  revolt  in  the  Netherlands,  it  was  trans- 
ferred to  Rheums.  In  1579  Gregory  XIII  founded  an  English  college 
at  Rome.  These  institutions  were  due  to  the  zeal  inspired  by  the 
Jesuits.  Burning  with  enthusiasm,  the  Englishmen  who  went  from 
them 2  strove  to  convert  their  Protestant  countrymen  and  to  arouse 
the  native  Catholics  from  their  lethargy.  Unfortunately  for  the 
success  of  their  plan,  it  could  not  be  realized  without  overturning  the 
established  system  of  Church  and  State  and  disposing  of  Elizabeth. 
In  June,  1581,  a  mission  led  by  two  Jesuits,  Edmund  Campion  and 
Robert  Parsons,  landed  in  England.  Moving  from  place  to  place  in 
disguise,  they  preached  to  large  crowds,  they  set  up  a  printing  press, 
circulated  controversial  pamphlets,  and  converted  considerable  num- 
bers. Alarmed  at  their  success,  the  Government  passed  an  act  of 
Parliament  "  to  restrain  Her  Majesty's  subjects  in  their  due  alle- 
giance "  which  declared  it  high  treason  to  convert  the  Queen's  subjects 
to  the  Church  of  Rome  or  to  aid  or  to  conceal  those  engaged  in  such 
work.  Heavy  fines  were  imposed  on  any  priest  who  said  mass  or  on 
any  one  who  refused  3  to  go  to  church.  A  rigid  persecution  was 
begun;  houses  were  searched  for  concealed  priests;  Campion,  and 
some  of  the  other  Jesuits  were  captured  and  put  to  death ;  but  Parsons 
escaped.  He  was  a  restless  intriguer  who  troubled  the  Government 
for  years  to  come.  Campion,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  high-minded 
enthusiast  of  captivating  eloquence. 

Further  Measures  against  the  Roman  Catholics,  1584-1593.  —  In 
1583  Francis  Throgmorton  devised  a  plot  to  kill  the  Queen  and,  with 

1  Called  the  Ruthven  Raid,  from  the  family  name  of  the  Earl  of  Gowrie. 

2  Known  as  "Seminary  priests"  when  they  took  holy  orders. 

3  Such  persons  were  called  "recusants."    The  fine  £20  a  month,  too  heavy  to 
be  enforced,  was  intended  mainly  as  a  threat. 


388  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

the  aid  of  French  and  Spanish  Catholics,  to  elevate  Mary  to  the 
throne.  It  was  discovered  in  season ;  but  the  Protestant  cause  re- 
ceived a  heavy  blow  by  the  assassination  of  William  the  Silent l  in 
July  of  the  following  year.  The  result  was  a  bond  of  association  drawn 
up  by  a  body  of  loyal  Englishmen.  All  to  whom  it  was  offered  for 
signature  pledged  themselves  to  defend  their  Queen  against  attack, 
to  accept  no  one  for  her  successor  "  by  whom  or  for  whom  any  such 
detestable  act  shall  be  attempted  or  committed  "  and  to  "  prosecute 
such  persons  to  the  death."  This  voluntary  association  was  legalized 
by  Parliament  early  in  1585.  Another  act  ordered  all  Jesuits  and 
Seminary  priests  to  quit  the  realm  within  forty  days,  and  declared 
any  found  thereafter,  or  any  who  had  harbored  them  guilty  of  high 
treason.  Children  of  Catholics  studying  abroad  were  to  return  under 
pain  of  disinheritance.  The  final  anti-Catholic  Act  of  the  reign, 
passed  in  1593,  provided  that  recusants  of  the  wealthier  sort  should 
be  forbidden  to  travel  more  than  five  miles  from  their  homes,2  and 
that  those  of  the  poorer  class  should  be  banished.  Any  one  sus- 
pected of  being  a  Jesuit  or  Seminary  priest,  who  refused  to  answer 
the  charge,  might  be  imprisoned  until  he  consented  to  be  examined. 

The  Protestant  Extremists.  —  Meantime,  since  the  beginning  of  the 
reign,  the  extreme  Protestants  had  been  giving  serious  trouble.  Three 
classes  may  be  distinguished :  the  Puritans  or  moderate  Nonconfor- 
mists, who  wanted  to  stay  in  the  Church,  but  desired  to  "  purify  "  its 
services  from  forms  and  ceremonies  savoring  of  Rome;  the  Pres- 
byterians, who  aimed  to  substitute  their  form  of  government  for  the 
Episcopal  form  established  by  law;  finally,  the  Separatists,  called 
Independents  or  Congregationalists  in  a  later  time,3  who  insisted  on 
the  right  of  each  congregation  to  manage  its  own  affairs.  The  ex- 
tremer  views  of  the  Protestants  came  largely  from  the  Marian  exiles, 
who  flocked  back  after  Elizabeth's  accession.  Differing  among  them- 
selves on  many  fundamental  points,  they  agreed  in  denouncing  what 
they  regarded  as  "  Romish "  forms  and  ceremonies.  While  the 
moderates  were  to  some  extent  compromised  by  the  zealots,  they  were 
vastly  better  off  in  this  respect  than  the  less  extreme  Roman  Catholics, 
who  had  to  suffer  for  the  intrigues  and  plots  of  papal  agents  and 
foreign  Powers. 

The  "  Vestiarian  Controversy."  -  The  Puritans  struck  their  first 
blow  at  the  established  order  by  a  proposal  introduced  into  Convoca- 
tion in  1563  to  prune  away  certain  "  Romish  "  observances.  It  was 
defeated  in  the  Lower  House  by  a  majority  of  one.  Thereupon,  in 
the  parishes  where  they  were  strong  enough,  they  began  to  meet  in 

The  popular  name  of  William  of  Orange. 

2  They  were  kept  in  England  as  a  source  of  revenue  from  the  fines  which  might 
be  imposed  on  them. 

3  Those  of  Elizabeth's  time  are  usually  known  as  Brownists,  from  Robert  Browne, 
who  founded  a  congregation  at  Norwich  in  1580,  but  the  sect  had  already  come 
into  existence  ten  years  earlier  while  Browne  was  still  an  undergraduate  at  Cam- 
bridge. 


ELIZABETH'S  ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE        389 

"  Conventicles,"  at  which  they  held  services  according  to  their  own 
rule  instead  of  those  prescribed  in  the  Prayer  Book.  Elizabeth  desired 
to  avoid  trouble ;  but  various  reasons  determined  her  to  enforce  the 
law.  Not  only  did  they  oppose  the  ritual  to  which  she  was  attached, 
not  only  was  their  contempt  of  form  and  denunciation  of  amusements 
unpalatable  to  the  majority  of  her  subjects,  but  their  action  defied 
the  royal  authority  on  which  the  established  forms  were  based.  So  in 
1565,  by  her  command,  Archbishop  Parker  issued  a  series  of  "  Adver- 
tisements  "  denning  the  necessary  forms  and  ceremonies.  The  result 
was  the  "  Vestiarian  "  controversy,  so-called  because  the  Puritan 
clergy  "  scrupled  "  to  wear  the  prescribed  vestments ;  but  their 
opposition  extended  to  many  forms  and  ceremonies,  such  as  observance 
of  saints'  days,  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  and  the  use  of  organs. 

The  Presbyterians.  —  About  1570  the  Presbyterians  entered  the 
field  writh  an  onslaught  upon  the  very  structure  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  Naturally,  the  bishops,  whom  they  sought  to  eliminate, 
fought  them  to  a  man.  The  Presbyterian  leader  was  Thomas  Cart-_ 
wright,  a  Cambridge  professor  of  divinity,  learned  and  devout,  but 
Tacking  in  judgment  and  restraint.  In  two  "Admonitions  to  Parlia-  t 
ment,"  in  1572,  he  and  his  party  denounced  the  government  of  bishops 
as  contrary  to  the  word  of  God  and  demanded  government  by  pre§: 
byters.  Not  only  were  their  views  startlingly  democra£ic,T>ut  their 
language  was  immeasurably  violent.  A  mild  sample  is  their  descrip- 
tion of  the  Archbishop's  court  as  "  the  filthy  quagmire  and  poisoned 
plash  of  all  abominations  that  do  infect  the  whole  realm."  The 
advent  of  the  Separatists  about  the  same  time  added  another  element 
of  confusion.  In  1583  the  Court  of  High  Commission  was  put  on  a 
permanent  footing  with  enlarged  powers,  though  for  ten  years  previ- 
ously it  had  been  active  in  enforcing  the  Act  of  Uniformity  against 
Protestants  as  well  as  Catholics.  Grindal,  who  succeeded  Parker  in 
1576,  was  suspended  the  following  year  for  refusing  to  suppress  "proph- 
esyings  "or  "  exercises,"  that  is,  meetings  which  those  of  advanced 
views  had  come  to  hold  for  religious  discussions.  Restored  the  year 
before  his  death,  he  was  followed  as  Archbishop  in  1583  by  Whitgift, 
an  orthodox  and  energetic  prelate,  who,  however,  was  greatly  ham- 
pered from  the  fact  that  Protestantism  had  come  to  secure  strong 
sympathizers  in  the  Council  and  Parliament.1 

The    Marprelate    Libels,     1588. — Attempts    at    repression    only     \/ 
embittered  the  extremists.     They  replied  with  violent  abuse  which 
reached  its  height  in  the  Martin  Marprelate  libels  in  1588.     In  them 
the  Archbishop  was  graced  with  such  names  as  "  Beelzebub  of  Canter- 
bury, the  Canterbury  Caiphus ;    Esau,  a   monstrous  anti-Christ ;    a 

1  Burghley,  for  example,  declared,  with  reference  to  articles  of  Inquiry  which 
Whitgift  framed  in  1583  for  enforcing  subscription  to  Royal  Supremacy,  the 
Liturgy,  and  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  that  they  were  "so  curiously  penned,  that 
I  think  the  Inquisition  in  Spain  use  not  so  many  questions  to  comprehend  and  trap 
their  prey  .  .  .  rather  a  device  to  seek  for  offenders  than  to  reform  any." 


390  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

most  bloody  oppressor  of  God's  saints."  The  bishops  were :  "  false 
governors  of  the  Church  ;  petty  popes  ;  proud,  popish,  profane,  pre- 
sumptuous, paltry,  pestilent,  pernicious  prelates  and  usurpers  ;  enemies 
of  God  and  the  State."  The  clergy  were  :  "  popish  priests,  ale  hunters, 
drunkards,  dolts,  hogs,  dogs,  wolves,  desperate  and  forlorn  atheists, 
a  crew  of  bloody  soul  murderers,  sacrilegious  church  robbers."  These 
pronouncements  of  certain  hot  zealots,  "  who  for  Zion's  sake  could  not 
hold  their  peace,"  were  bound  to  hurt  the  cause  of  the  earnest,  moder- 
ate men  opposed  to  the  Elizabethan  State  Church.  Indeed,  the  very 
year  in  which  the  libels  appeared  marked  a  reaction  toward  the  Estab- 
lishment. Many  other  circumstances  contributed  to  this.  For  one 
thing,  numbers  came  to  realize  that  it  was  both  graceless  and  futile  to 
engender  strife  against  a  sovereign  who,  however  sternly  she  repressed 
extremists,  had  done  so  much  for  the  Protestant  cause.  She  was 
growing  old  and  they  could  wait  to  push  their  claims  under  a  succes- 
sor to  whom  they  were  not  bound  by  such  ties  of  gratitude.  More- 
over, the  ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  many  of  the 
older  generation  associated  with  the  Romish  practices  which  pre- 
vailed during  the  cruel  persecutions  of  Mary,  were  hallowed  by  youth- 
ful memories  to  the  majority  of  the  younger  folk.1  But  there  were 
many  irreconcilables.  Accordingly,  Parliament,  in  response  to  a 
royal  demand  "  to  compel  by  some  sharp  means  to  a  more  due  obedi- 
ence," passed  in  1593  an  act  "  against  seditious  sectaries  and  dis- 
loyal persons."  It  provided,  among  other  things,  that  those  who 
frequented  conventicles  or  assailed  the  royal  supremacy  in  matters 
ecclesiastical  should  abjure  the  realm  and  never  return  under  pain  of 
death.  In  this  way,  as  in  the  case  of  the  poorer  Catholics,  numbers  of 
the  more  determined  left  the  country  or  were  driven  out.  In  the  same 
year  three,  including  Pj^nry,  the  chief  author  of  the  Marprelate  libels, 
suffered  for  their  faith,  though  the  cause  assigned  was  malicious 
defaming  of  the  Queen  with  intent  to  stir  up  rebellion. 

Elizabeth's  Intervention  in  the  Netherlands,  1585. — Doubtless 
the  chief  reason  for  harmonizing  religious  differences  was  the  necessity 
of  meeting  a  great  invasion  sent  by  Philip  II  and  the  burst  of  loyalty 
which  followed  its  triumphant  repulse.  The  attack  was  due  mainly 
to  two  causes :  English  intervention  in  the  Netherlands,  and  the 
aggressiveness  of  the  English  sea  power.  With  the  murder  of  William 
of  Orange  and  the  continued  successes  of  Alexander  of  Parma,  the 
cause  of  the  Netherlanders  seemed  to  be  doomed.  Their  only  hope 
was  in  foreign  aid.  At  first  they  turned  to  Henry  III  of  France  with 
an  offer  of  sovereignty.  Though  he  declined,  Philip  was  alarmed ; 
for  the  French  King  was  childless,  and  his  next  heir  was  Henry  of 
Navarre,  who  had  succeeded  Coligny  as  leader  of  the  Huguenots. 
So,  in  1585,  he  formed  a  new  treaty  with  Henry  of  Guise,  leader  of  the 

1  Also,  Richard  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity,  the  first  four  books  of  which  ap- 
peared in  1594,  by  its  calm,  persuasive,  and  dignified  defense  of  the  established 
order,  contributed  in  later  years  to  convince  numbers  of  the  Nonconformists. 


ELIZABETH'S  ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE        391 

Catholic  League,  for  the  purpose  of  excluding  Henry  of  Navarre  from 
the  succession  and  to  extirpate  Protestantism  in  France  and  the 
Low  Countries.  Henry  III,  allowing  his  religious  sentiments  to  pre- 
vail over  his  fear  of  Spain  and  the  Guises,  joined  with  them.  Eliza- 
beth, who  had  hitherto  lent  only  enough  assistance  to  the  revolt  to 
keep  it  alive,  saw  that  the  time  for  active  intervention  had  come. 
Nevertheless,  she,  too,  refused  the  offer  of  sovereignty.  Annexation 
would  have  greatly  strengthened  her  maritime  and  colonial  power; 
for  the  Dutch  were  unrivaled  at  sea  and  had  during  recent  years 
captured  many  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  foreign  possessions.  Yet 
it  would  inevitably  provoke  a  war  with  France  which  she  still  hoped 
to  avert.  However,  with  her  accustomed  thrift,  she  demanded  from 
the  Dutch  certain  "  cautionary  towns  "  —  Brill  and  Flushing  among 
the  number  —  as  pledges  for  expenses  incurred.  Then  she  issued  a 
"  Declaration  of  Causes,"  moving  her  to  intervene.  They  were  in 
substance :  to  help  them  protect  their  towns  from  "  sacking  and 
devastation,"  to  aid  them  to  recover  their  ancient  liberties,  and  "  so 
to  preserve  the  ancient  commerce  betwixt  our  people  and  those  coun- 
tries." Toward  the  end  of  1585  Leicester  was  sent  over  with  a  force 
of  5000  foot  and  1000  horse ;  but  he  proved  self-seeking  to  a  degree 
only  exceeded  by  his  untrustworthiness  and  incompetence.  On  his 
arrival  he  accepted  in  the  Queen's  name  the  office  of  Governor  of  the 
Netherlands.  When  the  enraged  Queen  berated  him  in  wrathful 
letters  he  could  only  excuse  himself  in  languishing  replies  fulsome  in 
flattery.  Cramped  from  lack  of  funds,  unable  to  gain  the  confidence 
of  the  Netherlands,  and  opposed  by  Parma,  the  greatest  general  of  the 
time,  he  accomplished  nothing.  Wags  put  in  his  mouth  the  words, 
veni,  vidi,  redii.1  The  only  engagement  which  he  fought  was  a  skir- 
mish at  Zutphen,  where  his  nephew,  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  the  ideal  gentle- 
man of  the  age  and  a  notable  figure  in  Elizabethan  literature,  was 
mortally  wounded,  September,  I586.2  Leicester's  futile  expedition 
is  only  important  as  a  leading  cause  of  Philip's  attack  on  England. 
The  Rise  of  the  Elizabethan  Sea  Power.  —  Even  more  alarming  to 
the  Spanish  King  than  the  English  intervention  in  the  Netherlands 
were  the  attacks  of  English  seamen,  notably  of  Francis  Drake,  upon 
his  commerce  and  his  American  possessions.  Since  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth  the  maritime  power  of  the  country  had  entered  upon  a 
growth  which  ultimately  brought  it  to  a  height  unequaled  in  the 
world's  history.  The  royal  navy,  after  a  decline  which  had  set  in  upon 
the  death  of  Henry  VIII,3  had  more  than  recovered  its  strength  at  the 

1"I  came,  I  saw,  I  returned,"  a  brilliant  distortion  of  Caesar's  famous,  veni, 
vidi,  vici. 

2  As  he  was  dying  a  bottle  of  water  was  brought  him,  but  as  he  raised  it  to  his 
lips  a  sorely  wounded  soldier  was  carried  past,  who  looked  longingly  on  it.    Sidney 
at  once  handed  it  to  him  with  the  words,  "Thy  necessity  is  yet  greater  than  mine." 

3  Henry  VIII  had  left  53  ships ;   by  Elizabeth's  accession  the  number  had  sunk 
to  26.     Elizabeth  had  34  in  1588 ;  but  their  average  size  was  twice  as  large  as  those 
of  Henry  VIII.  with  an  aggregate  tonnage  15  per  cent  greater. 


392  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

eve  of  Philip's  invasion.  But  it  was  not  to  the  royal  navy  that  the 
notable  achievements  of  the  reign  are  due.  It  was  the  peculiar  work 
of  the  explorers  and  of  sea  rovers  or  privateers,  recruited  from  the 
merchant  marine.  They  braved  the  perils  of  unknown  seas  and  un- 
known lands,  they  broke  through  the  colonial  and  commercial  mo- 
nopoly of  Spain,  and  strove  as  well  to  strike  deadly  blows  at  Philip's 
world-wide  religious  and  political  domination.  Thus  fame  and 
booty,  the  profit  and  glory  of  England,  and  the  defense  and  spread  of 
Protestantism  mingled  curiously  and  effectively  to  spur  them  on. 
And  in  the  Queen  they  found  a  persistent  if  shifty  supporter ;  for  she 
shared  in  their  profits  and  gained  by  their  victories.  Though  her 
policy  was  in  essence  defensive  —  to  preserve  national  independence 
and  Protestantism  —  she  sought  to  realize  it,  to  a  considerable  degree, 
by  offensive  means.  While  Philip  as  the  leader  of  the  Counter-Reforma- 
tion threatened  her  political  and  religious  security,  Elizabeth  was  the 
greater  aggressor.  She  had  no  mind  to  declare  war ;  but  she  sent  aid 
to  the  Dutch  in  revolt,  first  "  underhand  "and  at  length  openly,  and 
from  the  beginning  of  her  reign  she  steadily  kindled  the  enthusiasm  of 
her  subjects  for  buccaneering  enterprises  against  the  Spanish  com- 
merce and  the  Spanish  colonies.  Taking  advantage  of  the  rudimental 
state  of  international  law,  she  sought  to  shield  herself  from  the  conse- 
quences of  her  acts  under  the  pretext  that  she  was  not  responsible  for 
the  acts  of  her  subjects. 

The  English  Buccaneers  and  their  Aggressions  against  Spain.  — 
The  pioneer  of  the  Elizabethan  "  sea  dogs  "  was  John  Hawkins,  who 
initiated  the  traffic  in  slaves  from  the  Guinea  coast  of  Africa  to  Spanish 
America.  The  Queen,  it  is  shameful  to  relate,  shared  in  his  profits. 
His  young  cousin  Francis  Drake  (1540-1596)  accompanied  him  on  his 
second  voyage,  and  commanded  a  ship  on  a  third  and  more  famous 
one  in  1567.  They  were  attacked  in  the  Mexican  port  of  San  Juan 
d'Ulloa,1  whence  they  escaped  only  after  the  bulk  of  their  crew  had 
been  massacred.  While  they  had  given  great  provocation,  the  act 
was  a  piece  of  deliberate  treachery  and  determined  Drake  to  devote 
the  remainder  of  his  life  to  a  relentless  war  against  Spain  and  her 
possessions  in  the  New  World.  To  his  countrymen,  a  hero  for  whose 
fame  "  the  ocean  sea  was  not  sufficient  room,"  he  was,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Spanish,  a  devil  incarnate.  Elizabeth  replied  to  the  incident  at 
San  Juan  by  seizing,  in  December,  1568,  Genoese  ships  laden  with 
Spanish  treasure  for  the  Duke  of  Alva  in  the  Netherlands.  With 
amazing  effrontery  she  justified  the  step  on  the  ground  that,  having 
saved  it  from  the  privateers,  she  was  entitled  to  take  it  as  a  loan.  In 
1572-1573  Drake  led  a  daring  expedition  to  the  Isthmus  of  Darien; 
though  he  failed  to  secure  the  annual  shipment  of  treasure  from  Peru, 
he  gathered  abundant  booty  and  obtained  his  first  glimpse  of  the 
Pacific.  His  prayer  that  he  might  once  navigate  those  waters  was 

1  The  roadstead  of  Vera  Cruz. 


ELIZABETH'S   ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE        393 

answered  in  his  famous  voyage  round  the  world,  1577-1580.  Here, 
again,  he  marked  his  course  by  devastation  and  plunder.  Yet  the 
magnitude  of  his  achievement  and  the  fortitude  which  he  displayed 
amply  merited  the  acclaim  which  greeted  him  on  his  return.  Thrifty 
Elizabeth  rewarded  him  with  a  knighthood  for  the  share  of  treasure 
which  he  brought  her. 

It  was  these  men  and  such  as  they  who  caused  Philip  to  tremble  for 
the  safety  of  his  lands  and  trade,  upon  which  the  prosperity  of  his 
Empire  depended ;  and  they  all  played  a  part  in  his  repulse  soon  to 
come.  For  some  years  before  this  he  had  sought  to  check  Elizabeth's 
aggressions  by  seizing  ships  in  Spanish  waters.  Her  reply  was  to  issue 
letters  of  reprisal  and  to  send  privateers  to  the  scene  of  action.  Most 
disastrous  to  the  enemy  were  the  aggressions  of  Drake  in  1585.  Strik- 
ing first  at  the  coast  of  Spain,  he  seized  a  quantity  of  shipping  in  Vigo 
Bay ;  thence  he  passed  to  the  West  Indies  and  the  Spanish  Main,1 
overcoming  San  Domingo,  Carthagena,  and  other  Spanish  possessions, 
and  plundering  and  destroying  as  he  went.  The  simultaneous  opera- 
tions of  Drake  and  Leicester  led  Philip  to  plan  a  joint  attack  on  Eng- 
land from  Spain  and  the  Netherlands.  Under  cover  of  a  fleet  Parma 
was  to  land  an  army,  the  English  Catholics  were  to  rise  for  Mary, 
Elizabeth  was  to  be  disposed  of,  and  Parma  was  to  marry  the  new 
Queen  and  govern  the  country  for  his  master. 

Babington's  Plot,  1586.  Execution  of  Mary. — The  miscarriage 
of  another  plot  in  behalf  of  Mary,  in  the  late  spring  of  1586,  shattered 
this  project,  but  at  the  same  time  furnished  Philip  with  another  pretext 
for  invading  England.  Babington's  plot,  as  it  was  called,  took  its 
name  from  the  leader  of  a  group  of  young  men  about  court  who  aimed, 
with  foreign  help,  to  carry  it  through.  While  the  charge  has  never 
been  proved  that  Walsingham's  agents  devised  or  suggested  the  plan 
as  a  means  of  getting  rid  of  Mary,  it  is  certain  that  the  resourceful 
Secretary  got  wind  of  it  almost  at  its  inception  and  allowed  it  to 
develop  until  he  could  acquire  or  manufacture  enough  evidence  to 
suit  his  purpose.  In  October,  1586,  Mary  was  brought  to  trial  and 
sentenced  to  death  under  the  Act  passed  in  1585  for  Elizabeth's  pro- 
tection. Parliament,  which  met  on  the  agth,  petitioned  for  the  im- 
mediate execution  of  the  sentence  ;  but  the  Queen  hesitated.  Possi- 
bly she  shrank  from  bloodshed ;  more  likely  she  dreaded  to  lay  hands 
upon  an  anointed  sovereign  and  feared  the  effect  on  the  Catholic 
powers  of  the  Continent ;  then,  too,  in  spite  of  the  constant  plots  which 
Mary  inspired,  Elizabeth  still  regarded  her  as  a  valuable  hostage  and 
an  obstacle  to  other  claimants.  After  two  months  of  vacillation,  and 
after  she  had  made  a  vain  effort  to  induce  Mary's  keeper,  Sir  Amyas 
Paulet,  to  murder  his  royal  captive,  she  finally  signed  the  death 
warrant,  and  handed  it  over  to  Secretary  Davison,  without,  however, 
giving  him  any  authority  to  carry  it  out.  The  Council  determined 

1  Strictly  speaking,  the  Spanish  mainland  along  the  north  coast  of  South  America, 
but  popularly  and  vaguely,  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  the  neighboring  waters. 


394  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

to  assume  the  responsibility.  By  its  order  Mary  Stuart  was  beheaded, 
8  February,  1587,  at  Fotheringay  Castle,  going  to  her  death  with  mag- 
nificent fortitude.  In  contrast,  Elizabeth's  actions  seem  petty.  She 
protested  to  France  and  Scotland  that  she  was  innocent  of  the  deed, 
and  imprisoned  poor  Davison  in  the  Tower.  He  was  soon  released, 
but  only  on  payment  of  a  heavy  fine,  and  was  dismissed  forever  from 
her  service. 

The  Sailing  of  the  Armada,  1588.  —  Philip,  though  he  could  now 
pose  as  the  avenger  of  Mary's  death,  had  less  chance  of  attacking  the 
English  Catholics  than  if  he  had  arrived  in  time  to  attempt  her  release 
from  captivity.  Now  they  distrusted  him  as  a  claimant J  to  the 
English  throne  and  a  subjugator  of  their  liberties.  Before  he  had 
completed  his  ponderous  preparations,  the  terrible  Drake  again 
assumed  the  offensive.  Sailing  from  Plymouth  harbor,  in  April,  1587, 
he  made  for  Cadiz,  plundered  the  town,  and  destroyed  a  vast  amount 
of  stores  and  shipping,  and  darted  thence  to  Lisbon  Bay,  creating 
havoc  with  the  fleet  which  the  Spanish  commander  Santa  Cruz  was 
making  ready ;  next  he  intercepted  off  Cape  St.  Vincent  a  squadron 
of  transports  from  the  Mediterranean,  and  passed  on  to  the  Azores, 
where  he  captured  a  Spanish  East  Indiaman  laden  with  treasure. 
This  exploit,  which  he  called  "  singeing  the  King  of  Spain's  beard," 
not  only  brought  him  much  booty,  but  frustrated  Philip's  plans  for  that 
year.  At  length,  in  May,  1588,  the  great  Armada 2  was  ready  to  sail. 
In  the  meantime  Santa  Cruz  had  died  and  the  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia 
who  succeeded  him  was  far  his  inferior  in  ability.  The  stars  in  their 
courses  seemed  to  fight  for  England.  At  the  very  start  the  Armada 
encountered  a  furious  storm  off  Lisbon,  which  so  crippled  and  scattered 
the  ships  that  the  second  and  final  start  was  delayed  till  1 2  July. 

Comparative  Strength  of  the  English  and  Spanish  Fleets.  —  At 
least  three  serious  obstacles  confronted  the  invaders.  Parma's  army, 
on  which  they  counted,  was  blockaded  by  a  Dutch  fleet,  and  that 
blockade  would  have  to  be  broken.  Then  it  was  necessary  to  overcome 
the  English  in  the  Channel  in  order  to  convey  his  army  across.  Finally, 
Parma,  if  he  succeeded  in  landing,  would  have  to  conquer  the  country, 
and,  in  all  probability,  in  the  teeth  of  opposition  even  from  the  Catho- 
lics. The  critical  struggle  took  place  in  the  Channel,  and  in  spite  of 
the  terror  of  the  Spanish  name  and  the  imposing  appearance  of  the 
Spanish  fleet,  the  English  captains  anticipated  a  victory  from  the  out- 
set.3 Elizabeth,  to  be  sure,  was  not  well  prepared ;  for  she  had  hoped, 
by  withdrawing  her  forces  from  the  Netherlands  and  by  involving  Parma 
in  protracted  negotiations,  to  avert  war.  But  her  commander,  Lord 

1  Mary  before  her  death  had  disinherited  her  son  James  in  his  favor.  Philip 
based  his  claim  on  his  descent  from  a  marriage  of  John  of  Gaunt  with  a  Portuguese 
princess. 

3  A  Spanish  word  "armed,"  meaning  a  great  fleet. 

3  The  Spanish,  however,  seem  to  have  been  equally  confident ;  for  they  took 
with  them  300  monks,  priests,  and  officers  of  the  Inquisition  to  begin  the  work  of 
conversion  directly  upon  landing. 


ELIZABETH'S  ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE        395 

Howard  of  Effingham,  was  a  man  of  experience,  prudence,  and  valor, 
and  had  some  of  the  most  brilliant  sea  fighters  of  the  age  to  help  him. 
The  Spanish  fleet  numbered  130  ships,  with  a.  total  tonnage  and  an 
equipment  of  men  and  guns  double  the  English.  On  the  other  hand, 
while  the  English  royal  navy  counted  only  34  ships,  others,  contrib- 
uted by  the  nobles,  the  gentry,  and  the  seaports,  brought  their  aggre- 
gate up  to  197.  Moreover,  the  Spanish  galleons  were  high  fore  and 
aft,  offering  excellent  marks  for  the  English  gunners.  Also  they  were 
unable  to  move  rapidly  —  a  serious  impediment  to  their  classic  style 
of  fighting,  which  consisted  of  closing  with  the  enemy  and  making  use 
of  their  superior  numbers  in  hand-to-hand  encounters.  The  English, 
with  ships  lighter  and  better  handled,  kept  the  weather  gauge,  and, 
firing  three  times  to  the  enemy's  one,  poured  their  shot  with  deadly 
effect  into  their  lofty  exposed  hulks.  The  clumsy  Spanish,  on  their 
part,  wasted  their  fire  in  a  vain  effort  to  disable  the  vessels  beyond 
their  reach  by  aiming  at  their  rigging. 

The  English  Camp  at  Tilbury.  —  The  English  land  forces  were 
commanded  by  the  inefficient  Leicester,  but  he  was  assisted  by  more 
than  one  competent  leader.  The  main  camp  was  established  at  Til- 
bury with  a  view  of  protecting  London  or  of  marching  to  any  point 
of  the  neighboring  coast  where  a  beacon  light  should  flash  a  signal 
of  danger.  "  It  was  a  pleasant  sight,"  wrote  a  contemporary,  "to 
behold  the  soldiers  as  they  marched  toward  Tilbury,  their  cheerful 
countenances,  courageous  words,  and  gestures,  dancing  and  leaping 
wheresoever  they  came,  and,  in  the  camp,  their  utmost  felicity  was  in 
the  hope  of  fight  with  the  enemy  when  ofttimes  divers  rumors  ran  of 
their  foe's  approach,  and  that  present  battle  would  be  given  them. 
Then  were  they  as  joyful  at  such  news  as  if  lusty  giants  were  to  run  a 
race."  Here  Elizabeth  appeared  before  them,  mounted  on  a  war 
horse,  holding  a  general's  staff,  and  arrayed  in  a  breastplate  of  steel. 
Followed  by  a  page  who  bore  her  helmet,  she  rode  bareheaded  through 
the  ranks,  and  roused  them  to  the  highest  pitch  of  loyalty  by  her  stir- 
ring words.  "  I  am  come  among  you  at  this  time,"  she  said,  "  being 
resolved  in  the  midst  of  the  heat  and  the  battle  to  live  and  die  amongst 
you  all,  to  lay  down  for  my  God  and  for  my  kingdom,  and  for  my 
people,  my  honor  and  my  blood,  even  in  the  dust.  I  know  that  I 
have  but  the  body  of  a  feeble  woman,  but  I  have  the  heart  of  a  King 
and  a  King  of  England  too."  No  wonder  they  prayed  heartily  the 
Spaniards  might  land  quickly,  and  "  when  they  knew  they  were  fled, 
they  began  to  lament."  Ten  days  before,  a  final  overwhelming  vic- 
tory in  the  Channel  had  destroyed  all  prospects  of  a  Spanish  landing. 

The  Destruction  of  the  Armada.  —  On  19  July,  1588,  the  long- 
expected  Armada  was  sighted  off  the  Lizard,  on  the  Cornwall  coast, 
"  approaching  very  slowly,  though  with  full  sails,  the  wind  being, 
as  it  were,  weary  of  wafting  them,  and  the  ocean  groaning  under  their 
weight."  After  a  series  of  encounters,  in  which  the  invaders  were 
repulsed  off  Portsmouth  and  the  Isle  of  Wight,  they  started  across  the 


3g6  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Channel  to  join  Parma.  When  they  reached  the  harbor  of  Calais, 
the  English  turned  loose  a  number  of  fire  ships,  scattering  their  vessels 
in  all  directions.  This  was  Sunday,  28  July.  The  next  day,  before 
they  had  time  to  recover,  they  were  engaged  by  practically  the  whole 
English  fleet,  and,  although  they  fought  desperately,  they  were  obliged 
to  break  and  flee.  The  victors  were  in  no  condition  to  pursue  them ; 
their  ammunition  was  exhausted,  provisions  had  run  short,  and  disease 
had  broken  out ;  for  such  meat  as  they  had  was  putrid  and  their  beer 
was  sour.  While  all  this  was  due  largely  to  the  faulty  and  inadequate 
supply  system,  inevitable  in  those  days,  Elizabeth's  parsimony  was  at 
least  partly  to  blame.  Indeed,  Howard  had  to  draw  on  his  own 
fortune,  by  no  means  large,  to  succor  men  whose  sufferings  were 
contracted  in  the  service  of  their  country  and  their  Queen.  The 
"  invincible  Armada  "  sped  northward  pursued  by  a  stiff  gale,  rounded 
the  north  of  Scotland,  and  headed  back  by  a  course  laid  to  the  west  of 
Ireland.  Scarcely  more  than  half  of  those  who  started  ever  reached 
Spain  again.  Some  were  lost  in  fighting,  some  were  wrecked  on  the 
shores  of  Norway,  many  more  on  the  Scotch  and  Irish  coasts,  part  of 
the  latter  slain  by  the  natives  and  by  English  officials.  Wind  and 
weather  had  fought  against  the  proud  Spaniard;  yet,  after  all  has 
been  said,  the  result  was  chiefly  due  to  the  courage  and  skill  of  Eng- 
lish seamen. 

Significance  of  the  Repulse  of  the  Armada.  —  Philip  II  failed  to 
realize  this :  "  I  sent  it  (the  Armada)  against  man,"  he  said,  "  not 
against  the  billows.  I  thank  God,  by  whose  generous  hand  I  am 
gifted  with  such  power,  that  I  could  easily,  if  I  chose,  place  another 
fleet  upon  the  seas."  But,  though  he  continued  the  war  so  long  as  he 
lived,  his  energies  were  divided  between  England,  France,  and  the 
Netherlands,  and  he  never  made  another  attempt,  like  that  of  1588, 
to  conquer  the  kingdom  of  Elizabeth.  The  repulse  of  the  Armada 
marked  a  grandly  significant  moment  in  the  history  of  England.  It 
justified  at  home  and  abroad  Elizabeth's  wise  policy  of  moderation. 
She  had  bribed  her  people  with  peace,  light  taxes,  and  the  fostering 
of  trade,  and  had  prosecuted  religious  extremists  only  so  far  as  necessi- 
ties of  State  demanded.  She  maintained  no  standing  army  and  only 
a  small  navy,  nor  was  it  necessary ;  for  when  the  crisis  came,  her  sub- 
jects, forgetting  their  religious  differences,  flocked' to  the  defense  of 
their  sovereign  and  their  kingdom.  And  the  victory  was  not  only  an 
indication,  it  was  also  a  further  cause  of  national  unity.  Achievement 
in  a  common  national  undertaking  drew  more  closely  together  subjects 
of  all  shades  of  opinion.  For  the  first  time,  too,  it  revealed  to  Chris- 
tendom the  greatness  of  English  sea  power  and  marked  the  beginning 
of  the  end  of  the  Spanish  maritime  supremacy,  one  of  the  leading 
causes  of  her  ultimate  downfall. 

New  Aggressions  against  Spain.  —  The  younger  generation  were 
thirsting  for  great  exploits.  Not  content  with  preying  upon  Spain's 
commerce  and  worrying  her  with  occasional  dashes  against  her  coasts, 


ELIZABETH'S   ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE        397 

they  aspired  to  break  up  her  dominion  beyond  the  seas  and  to  set  up 
an  English  dominion  in  its  place.  At  the  head  of  this  party  stood 
Essex,  a  nephew  of  Leicester,  and  Raleigh,  who  wanted  to  override 
the  older,  wiser,  and  more  cautious  councilors  like  Burghley  and 
Walsingham.  An  expedition,  sent  in  1589  for  the  purpose  of  restor- 
ing Don  Antonio  to  the  throne  of  Portugal,  is  an  instance  of  their 
extreme  aggressive  policy.  Elizabeth  gave  her  sanction  and  even 
went  so  far  as  to  furnish  some  ships  and  money,  but  the  main  expense 
was  borne  by  Drake  and  Norris.  On  the  way  they  were  joined  by 
Essex  whom  the  Queen,  fearing  that  harm  might  come  to  him,  had 
sought  to  keep  at  home.  Except  for  some  slight  damage  to  Spain, 
the  invaders  accomplished  little.  Attacks  on  Lisbon  and  Coruna 
accomplished  nothing,  and  the  Portuguese  failed  to  rise. 

The  Triumph  of  Henry  of  Navarre.  —  Meantime,  events  in  France 
were  working  in  England's  favor.  Although  he  had  joined  the  League, 
Henry  III  resented  being  merely  a  tool  of  the  Duke  of  Guise.  So 
he  had  him  assassinated  by  the  royal  bodyguard,  23  December,  1588. 
When  Guise's  brother,  the  Duke  of  Mayenne,  led  the  forces  of  the 
League  against  him,  the  King  allied  himself  with  Henry  of  Navarre, 
who  succeeded  to  the  throne  when  Henry  III  was  himself  murdered  by 
a  fanatical  Dominican,  2  August,  1 589.  The  League  declared  for  the 
Cardinal  of  Bourbon  with  Philip  II  as  protector  of  the  realm.  But 
Henry  III  won  a  great  battle  at  Ivryin  1590,  the  Cardinal  died,  and 
by  declaring  himself  a  Catholic,  23  July,  1593,  Henry  drew  many  of 
the  more  moderate  to  his  side,  and  before  the  close  of  the  next  year  the 
Duke  of  Mayenne  had  consented  to  terms.  The  new  King,  however, 
who  said  that  "  Paris  was  worth  a  mass,"  only  changed  his  religion 
for  State  purposes,  and  in  1598  by  the  Edict  of  Nantes  he  granted  a 
generous  toleration  to  Huguenots. 

The  Final  Stages  of  the  Struggle  between  Elizabeth  and  Philip  II.  - 
In  1596  Philip's  forces  had  captured  Calais.  Thereupon,  England 
and  the  Dutch,  combining  forces  with  France,  sent  a  joint  expedition 
against  Cadiz.  Admiral  Howard  commanded  the  fleet  and  Essex 
the  land  forces.  Again  Cadiz  was  sacked  and  its  shipping  destroyed. 
The  English  soldiers,  however,  were  held  in  restraint  by  Howard, 
who,  having  accomplished  the  work  for  which  he  was  sent,  insisted 
upon  returning.  This  was  the  last  great  naval  expedition  of  the  reign 
against  Spain.  Burghley  succeeded  in  persuading  the  Queen  to  make 
his  son  Robert  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  peace  party  was  able  to  put 
a  check  upon  the  fiery  Cecil  faction.  But  they  did  not  yield  without 
a  struggle ;  for  a  hot  dispute  in  the  Council  is  recorded,  in  1598,  when 
the  venerable  Lord  Treasurer  drew  out  a  Prayer  Book  and  pointed  to 
the  passage :  "  Men  full  of  blood  shall  not  live  out  half  their  days." 
Philip,  in  1596,  sent  another  fleet  against  England,  and,  in  1597,  still 
another  against  Ireland,  but  neither  reached  its  destination.  In  this 
latter  year  Essex  showed  that  he  was  as  futile  as  he  was  ambitious.  A 
celebrated  expedition  to  the  Azores  under  his  leadership,  known  as 


398  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

the  "  Island  Voyage,"  failed  to  intercept  a  Spanish  treasure  fleet  from 
America,  chiefly  owing  to  his  blunders.  In  1598  Henry  IV  concluded 
a  peace  with  Spain,  leaving  Philip  free  to  pursue  his  designs  on  Eng- 
land and  the  Netherlands,  but  Philip  died  the  very  same  year,  after  a 
rule  of  over  forty  years.  He  had  failed  as  the  Catholic  champion  of 
Europe,  he  had  failed  to  maintain  his  power  in  the  Netherlands  and 
his  monopoly  in  the  New  World.  He  left  to  his  successors  a  bankrupt 
kingdom  and  an  expensive  system  of  government,  and  prepared  the 
way  for  the  dissolution  of  the  heritage  of  his  father. 

The  Execution  of  Essex  and  the  Conquest  of  Ireland.  —  In  March, 
1599,  much  against  his  will,  Essex  was  sent  to  put  down  a  rebellion  in 
Ireland  led  by  Hugh  O'Neill,  Earl  of  Tyrone.  Here  again  he  failed. 
He  delayed  for  some  time  to  go  against  the  rebel  Earl ;  and  then,  con- 
trary to  orders,  he  made  peace  and  returned  to  England.  Trusting 
too  much  to  his  popularity,  he  burst  into  the  Queen's  presence  unan- 
nounced and  mud-stained  with  travel.  He  was  tried,  deprived  of 
office,  and  sentenced  to  remain  a  prisoner  in  his  own  house.  Infuri- 
ated by  his  punishment,  he  gathered  his  supporters  and  tried  to  over- 
awe his  enemies  by  an  armed  demonstration.  He  was  overcome, 
tried,  and  condemned  to  death  as  a  traitor  on  a  charge  of  seeking  to 
change  the  royal  policy  by  force.  He  was  executed  21  February,  1601. 
Elizabeth  signed  the  death  warrant  with  a  heavy  heart,  and  never 
recovered  from  the  shock.1  By  the  end  of  1602  Lord  Mountjoy, 
Essex's  successor,  brought  Tyrone  to  submission. 

Elizabeth's  Last  Years.  —  The  repulse  of  the  Armada  marked  the 
climax  of  Elizabeth's  glory.  The  years  that  followed  were  years  of 
increasing  loneliness  and  isolation.  Her  favorites  and  her  trusted 
councilors  dropped  off  one  by  one :  Anjou  in  1584 ;  Leicester  in  1588 ; 
Walsingham  in  1598.  The  system  which  she  represented  had  out- 
lived its  time ;  the  old  absolutism  had  served  its  turn,  and  new  men 
and  new  policies  were  eagerly  awaiting  their  chance.  The  romance, 
too,  of  her  life  was  ended ;  for  even  at  court  her  popularity  declined 
with  her  fading  charms.  The  admiration  of  the  younger  courtiers 
came  to  be  more  and  more  a  pretense.  Yet,  old  as  she  was,  she  re- 
fused to  face  the  prospect  of  death  or  to  provide  for  the  succession,  and 
clung  to  vain  display  till  the  last.  A  German  traveler,  who  saw  her 
on  her  way  to  her  chapel  at  Greenwich  on  a  December  Sunday  in 
1598,  describes  her  pomp  and  ceremony,  her  imposing  train,  her  auburn 
wig  surmounted  by  a  crown,  her  pearl  earrings,  her  magnificent 
gown  adorned  with  jewels,  and  her  collar  of  gold.  The  people  who 
spoke  to  her  knelt,  so  he  relates,  and  as  she  passed  by,  she  replied 
graciously  to  them,  to  some  in  English,  to  some  in  French,  to  some  in 
Italian.  On  another  occasion  when  the  Bishop  of  St.  Davids  ventured 

1  Their  relations  had  been  curious.  Once  in  the  Council  when  a  dispute  arose 
over  Irish  affairs  Essex  had  turned  his  back  on  the  Queen.  She  gave  him  a  box  on 
the  ear.  He  put  his  hand  on  his  sword,  declaring  that  he  would  not  brook  such  an 
affront  from  Henry  VIII  himself. 


ELIZABETH'S   ASCENDANCY  AND   DECLINE        399 

to  preach  on  the  text,  "  Lord,  teach  us  to  number  our  days  that  we 
may  apply  our  hearts  unto  wisdom,"  she  burst  out  stormily :  "  He 
might  have  kept  his  arithmetic  to  himself,  but  I  see  that  the  greatest 
clerks  are  not  the  wisest  men."  Yet,  too,  there  were  times  when 
she  showed  flashes  of  that  tact  and  insight  which  had  been  so  charac- 
teristic of  her  in  her  prime.  In  1601  when  Parliament,  called  to  grant 
money  for  the  Irish  war,  forced  her  to  revoke  some  grants  of  monop- 
olies, regarded  as  burdensome,  she  yielded  very  gracefully  saying: 
"  There  is  no  jewel,  be  it  never  of  so  rich  a  price,  which  I  prefer  before 
this  jewel,  I  mean  your  love."  In  answer  to  their  thanks  she  declared' : 
"  I  have  more  cause  to  thank  you  all  than  you  me;  for,  had  I  not 
received  a  knowledge  from  you,  I  might  have  fallen  into  the  lap  of  an 
error  only  from  lack  of  true  information."  Yet,  when  the  subject 
had  been  raised  four  years  earlier,  she  had  expressed  the  hope  that 
"  her  loving  subjects  would  not  take  away  her  prerogative,"  and  had 
done  nothing. 

Elizabeth's  Death,  24  March,  1603.  —  Elizabeth  died  24  March, 
1603,  in  the  seventieth  year  of  her  age  and  the  forty-sixth  of  her  reign. 
The  story  goes  that  the  Council  sought  eagerly  for  a  sign  from  her  as 
to  whom  she  wanted  to  succeed  her,  that  22  March,  she  declared,  "  I 
will  have  no  rascal's  son  in  my  seat,"  none  but  a  King,  and  that  should 
be  "  our  cousin  "  the  King  of  Scotland,  and  that,  later,  when  she 
became  speechless  she  expressed  a  preference  for  him  by  signs.  All 
this  has  been  doubted.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Council  had  already 
settled  on  James  VI.  The  Queen  had  no  legal  right  to  fix  the  suc- 
cessor, though  the  Council  may  have  sought  to  strengthen  their 
decision  by  her  sanction.  Judged  by  its  achievements,  Elizabeth's 
reign  was  notable.  She  maintained  the  established  religion  without 
civil  war.  She  kept  England  from  being  absorbed  by  either  the  House 
of  Valois  or  the  House  of  Hapsburg.  By  preventing  the  question  of 
the  succession  from  being  decided  prematurely,  she  prepared  peace- 
fully the  way  for  the  Scotch  Protestant  line  and  the  union  of  two  coun- 
tries that  naturally  belonged  together.  While  she  kept  England  out 
of  war,  she  diverted  its  energies  into  trade,  exploration,  and  coloniza- 
tion, thus  helping  to  lay  the  foundations  of  its  future  greatness.  She 
was  blessed  with  a  long  reign  in  which  she  labored  to  educate  her 
people  into  a  sense  of  unity  and  national  self-consciousness.  She 
trusted  to  time,  which  blessed  her  policy,  though  it  was  ruthless  to  her 
as  a  woman.  Truly,  it  might  be  said  of  her,  more  than  of  most, 
"  the  individual  withers,  but  the  world  grows  more  and  more." 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Pollard,  Political  History,  chs.  XVIII-XXII,  XXIV.  limes,  England  under  the 
Tudors,  chs.  XIX-XXVI.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  III,  chs.  VIII,  IX,  X  (bibliog- 
raphies, pp.  816-824).  M.  A.  S.  Hume,  Treason  and  Plot  (1901)  deals  with  the  strug- 
gles of  the  Roman  Catholics  for  supremacy  in  the  last  years  of  Elizabeth.  E.  P. 


400  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Cheyney,  A  History  of  England  from  the  Defeat  of  the  Armada  to  the  Death  of  Elizabeth 
(vol.  I,  1914)  ;  the  most  thorough  account  of  the  history  of  the  period. 
See  also  the  references  for  ch.  XXIV  above. 

KINGS  OF  FRANCE,   1483-1610 

CHARLES  VIII,  1483-1498 
Louis  XII,  1498-1515,  great-grandson  of  Louis,  Duke  of  Orleans,  brother  of  Charles  VI 

I 
Claude  =  Francis  I,  1515-1547,  also  a  great-grandson  of  Louis  of  Orleans 

I 

HENRY  11  =  Catharine  de'  Medici 
1547-1549  I 


r. 

FRANCIS  II, 

CHARLES  IX, 

HENRY  III, 

Francis, 

Margaret=         HENRY  IV 

1559-1560, 

1560-1574 

1574-1589, 

Duke  of 

(Henry  of  Navarre), 

m.  Mary 

suitor  of 

Alencon, 

1589-1610,  a  de- 

Queen of 

Queen 

suitor  of 

scendant  of  Robert, 

Scots 

Elizabeth 

Queen 

son  of  St.  Louis, 

Elizabeth 

(1226-1270) 

THE  HOWARDS 

John  Howard,  created  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
killed  at  Bosworth,  1485 

Thomas,  Earl  of  Surrey, 
victor  at  Flodden,  1513,  Duke  of  Norfolk,  1514,  d.  1514 

I 


1 

1 

1 

Thomas, 

Edmund 

William, 

Elizabeth  = 

=  Thomas 

Duke  of 

1 

created  Lord 

Boleyn 

Norfolk, 

Katherine. 

Howard  of 

d.  1554 

m.  Henry  VIII, 

Effingham 

Anne  Boleyn, 

executed,  1542 

I 

m.  Hen 

ry  VIII, 

Charles, 

executed,  1536 

Henry,  Earl 

commander 

of  Surrey, 

against  the 

Queen  Elizabeth, 

beheaded,  1547 

Armada,  1588, 

1558-1603 

created  Earl 

Thomas,  Duke 

of  Nottingham, 

of  Norfolk, 

1590,  d.  1624 

beheaded,  1572 

CHAPTER  XXVI 
ELIZABETHAN   ENGLAND  (1558-1603) 

The  Strength  of  the  Later  Elizabethan  Monarchy. — After  Elizabeth 
had  weathered  the  storms  of  the  first  part  of  her  reign,  the  monarchy 
seemed  to  be  even  stronger  than  under  her  triumphant  father.  Neces- 
sity, sentiment,  and  gratitude  all  contributed  to  this  apparent  result. 
The  Protestants  of  every  shade  of  opinion  had  been  forced  to  support 
her  through  fear  of  civil  war  and  foreign  invasion.  They  clung  to  her 
against  Mary  Stuart,  backed  by  France  and  the  Papacy  and,  at  length, 
by  Spain.  After  Mary's  death  the  moderate  Catholics  ranged  them- 
selves on  Elizabeth's  side  against  the  Spanish  invasion  and  the  con- 
quest which  it  threatened  to  involve.  The  sentiment  of  chivalrous 
devotion  to  a  woman,  although  it  took  absurdly  extravagant  forms, 
particularly  at  Court,  was  another  real  source  of  strength  that 
the  Queen,  not  from  vanity  alone,  knew  how  to  foster.  Finally,  the 
gentry  and  the  commercial  and  trading  classes  were  bound  to  the 
throne  by  ties  of  material  interest  and  gratitude.  Henry  VII  had 
done  much  for  them;  Henry  VIII  had  shared  with  them  the  spoils 
of  the  monasteries  and  contributed  to  their  prosperity  in  other  ways ; 
under  Elizabeth  came  peace,  economical  rule,  depredations  against 
Spain,  and  the  expansion  of  trade,  together  with  the  glorious  deliver- 
ance of  1588. 

Opposition  and  Sources  of  Weakness.  —  Nevertheless,  while  the 
monarchy  at  Elizabeth's  death  appeared  even  stronger  than  under 
the  first  two  Henrys  of  the  Tudor  line,  forces  were  already  at  work 
which  indicated  that  absolutism  was  tottering.  A  new  order  of  things 
was  inevitable,  though  the  change  was  precipitated  by  the  advent  of 
a  new  dynasty.  The  very  services  rendered  by  the  Tudors,  and 
particularly  by  Elizabeth,  had  put  the  subjects  of  the  realm  in  a 
position  to  assert  themselves.  They  no  longer  feared  the  old  nobility 
who  had  oppressed  them  in  the  past  and  had  been  responsible  for  the 
terrible  disorders  of  the  fifteenth  century ;  they  were  no  longer  threat- 
ened with  a  Catholic  successor ;  the  combination  between  France  and 
Scotland  had  been  broken  by  the  union  of  the  English  and  Scotch 
crowns ;  Spain  had  been  repulsed  and  the  Roman  Catholic  party  had 
shrunk  to  a  mere  faction  of  plotters  who  were  looked  at  askance  by 
the  loyal  members  of  their  own  communion ;  and  Ireland,  long  a 
storm  center,  seemed  for  the  moment  quelled.  The  grievances,  actual 

2D  491 


402  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

and  potential,  against  which  the  disaffected  could  now  assert  them- 
selves were  both  religious  and  political.  While  religious  strife  prac- 
tically ceased  after  the  Armada,  the  extreme  Protestants  had  no.t 
been  crushed ;  they  were  only  awaiting  more  auspicious  times.  Under 
James  I  they  raised  their  heads,  and  finally  gained  ascendancy  under 
his  son.  Since  the  bishops  and  their  followers  among  the  clergy 
turned  to  the  Crown  for  support  and  sought  to  strengthen  their  posi- 
tion by  exalting  the  royal  prerogative,  their  opponents  turned  to  Par- 
liament, combining  with  those  whose  grievances  were  primarily  polit- 
ical, with  those  who  were  opposed  to  arbitrary  taxation  and  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  extraordinary  courts  which  had  grown  up  under 
the  Tudors.  This  accounts  for  the  complex  character  of  what  is 
known  in  history  as  the  "  Puritan  Revolution."  In  order  to  follow 
the  conflict  in  all  its  bearings,  it  is  necessary  to  understand  the  situa- 
tion in  Church  and  State  on  the  eve  of  the  struggle. 

The  Royal  Supremacy  over  the  Church.  —  The  sovereign  was 
supreme  governor  over  all  ecclesiastical  persons  and  causes,  and, 
directly  or  indirectly,  controlled  the  legislation,  administration,  and 
revenues  of  the  Church.  Convocation  was  summoned  and  dissolved 
by  the  Crown,  and  none  of  its  acts  was  valid  without  the  royal  assent.1 
Among  various  revenues  derived  from  the  clergy  were  first  fruits  and 
tenths,  clerical  subsidies  voted  in  Convocation,  and  occasional  benev- 
olences. Also,  the  administration  of  ecclesiastical  finances  and 
justice  was  under  royal  control  from  the  fact  that  the  bishops  were 
appointees  of  the  Crown.  The  regular  Church  courts  were  those  of 
the  archdeacon,  the  bishop,  and  the  archbishop.  Their  competence 
extended  over  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  causes ;  for,  in  addition 
to  sacrilege,  heresy,  perjury,  and  immorality,  probate  and  divorce  fell 
within  their  scope.2  Appeals  in  the  last  instance  went  to  the  High 
Court  of  Delegates  composed  of  judges  appointed  by  the  sovereign 
whenever  need  arose.3  Until  1641,  however,  the  ordinary  ecclesiasti- 
cal courts  were  practically  superseded  by  the  Court  of  High  Commis- 
sion, empowered  by  the  Act  of  Supremacy  'to  exercise  ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction,  to  inquire  into  and  punish  heresy  and  other  offenses  of  a 
like  nature.  Several  commissions  were  issued  during  the  reigns  of 
Elizabeth,  James  I,  and  Charles  I  to  leading  prelates  and  ministers  of 
the  Crown.  At  first  the  energies  of  this  court  were  devoted  to  enforc- 
ing the  Acts  of  Supremacy  and  Uniformity  against  the  Romanists ; 
but  when  it  began  to  be  used  against  the  Protestants  as  well,  it  came  to 
be  hated  more  and  more  until,  on  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War,  it  was 

1  After  Convocation,  in  1604,  passed  a  series  of  particularly  arbitrary  canons, 
Parliament  made  a  vain  effort  to  provide  that  no  canon  affecting  the  life,  liberty, 
or  property  of  laymen  should  be  valid  without  its  assent ;  this  was  defeated,  though 
the  judges  generally  interpreted  the  law  in  the  parliamentary  sense. 

2  Ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  over  matrimonial  and  testamentary  cases  was  taken 
away  in  1857. 

8  In  1833  its  duties  were  taken  over  by  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council. 


ELIZABETHAN   ENGLAND  403 

finally  suppressed.  The  lawyers  attacked  it  on  the  ground  that  it 
exceeded  its  powers  ;  but  the  hostility  whicH  it  excited  was  due  rather 
to  its  oppressive  practices.  It  might  act  without  a  jury  from  the  first, 
while  in  the  later  commissions  no  provision  for  trial  by  jury  was  pro- 
vided. By  the  so-called  ex  officio  oath  it  could  oblige  the  accused  to 
answer  any  question  that  might  be  put  to  him,  quite  contrary  to  the 
fundamental  provision  of  common  law  that  no  man  could  be  obliged 
to  testify  against  himself. 

The  Crown  and  Parliament.  —  After  the  break  with  Rome  the 
Tudors  had  used  Parliament  as  a  mere  instrument  of  government. 
Elizabeth's  most  notable  acts,  though  framed  by  herself  and  her 
councilors,  all  received  parliamentary  sanction.  But  the  right  of 
summoning,  proroguing,  and  dissolving  were  in  her  hands,  and  she 
preferred  to  summon  that  body  as  infrequently  as  possible.  During 
forty-five  years  she  called,  at  irregular  intervals,  ten  parliaments 
which  met  for  thirteen  short  sessions,  aggregating  not  more  than  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five  weeks,  or,  to  put  it  in  another  way,  during 
her  whole  reign  Parliament  was  only  in  session  one  seventeenth  of  the 
time.  Moreover,  when  it  was  called  together,  the  sovereign  had  vari- 
ous means  of  controlling  its  composition  and  workings.  In  the  Upper 
House  the  bishops,  composing  a  third  of  the  total  membership,  were 
royal  nominees.  The  temporal  peers,  of  whom  there  were  about 
sixty,  could  be  controlled  by  favor,  by  new  creations  and  promotions. 
Elizabeth  made  much  use  of  the  former,  but  comparatively  little  of 
the  latter.1  The  membership  in  the  Lower  House  could  be  regulated 
by  the  establishing  of  new  boroughs.  Sixty-two  date  from  Eliza- 
beth's reign,2  some  from  the  sparsely  inhabited  Cornish  districts  ;  but, 
in  general,  there  was  little  corruption  for  Crown  purposes.  The  in- 
crease of  representation  was  a  natural  outcome  of  growth  of  popula- 
tion and  a  reliance  on  the  support  of  the  middle  classes.  Moreover,  it 
was  easy  to  control  Parliament  in  other  ways.  With  no  railroads  or 
telegraphs,  without  even  good  roads  or  an  adequate  postal  service, 
and  when  public  meetings  and  caucuses  were  unknown,  no  effective 
opposition  could  be  organized  outside.  Nor,  with  such  short  and  in- 
frequent sessions,  was  much  to  be  feared  from  the  disaffected  after 
they  had  assembled.  Furthermore,  the  names  of  the  members  were 
known  to  the  Government  before  they  were  to  each  other ;  important 
measures  were  introduced  by  the  royal  councilors ;  and  the  election 
of  the  Speaker  was  controlled  by  the  Crown.  If,  in  spite  of  all,  an 
opposition  member  appeared  dangerous,  Elizabeth  would  forbid  his 
attendance  or  order  his  imprisonment.  Also,  she  might  forbid  the 
discussion  of  an  unwelcome  bill,  or  withdraw  it  in  the  midst  of  a  dis- 
cussion. In  the  last  instance  she  could  resort  to  the  veto.  The  priv- 
ileges of  freedom  from  arrest  in  civil  suits  and  freedom  of  speech, 

1  Henry  VII  created  or  promoted  20;  Henry  VIII,  66;  Edward,  22;  Mary,  9; 
Elizabeth,  29. 

2  Henry  VIII  had  created  5 ;  Edward,  22 ;  and  Mary,  14. 


404  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

though  claimed  by  the  Commons  throughout  the  reign,  were  not  se- 
cured until  the  following  century. 

The  Privy  Council.  —  Under  Elizabeth  the  actual  government  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  Privy  Council,  not  in  Parliament.  Now  the 
Houses  control  the  government  through  the  Cabinet  members,  at 
that  time  the  sovereign  managed  the  Houses  through  the  agency  of 
the  Council,  composed  of  devoted  royal  servants.  It  numbered 
seventeen  or  eighteen  members,  mostly  laymen,  nominated  by  the 
Queen.  Its  functions  were  threefold :  legislative,  executive  or  ad- 
ministrative, and  judicial.  Its  business  extended  over  a  most  varied 
field,  local  government,  industry  and  trade,  Irish,  colonial,  and  foreign 
affairs.  The  Council's  legislation,  usually  at  the  instance  of  the  sov- 
ereign, was  in  the  form  of  ordinances  or  proclamations.  These,  as  well 
as  the  regular  statutes,  were  executed  by  means  of  administrative 
orders  issued  by  the  Secretary  (or  Secretaries,  for  there  were  generally 
two)  who  had  come  to  supersede  the  Chancellor  as  the  chief  officer 
of  State.  Judicial  functions  were  exercised  in  the  Star  Chamber  ses- 
sions. Altogether,  the  system  of  government  by  council  was  very 
simple  and  workable  and  might  be  very  oppressive  under  a  despotic 
ruler.  It  framed  and  executed  its  own  measures  and  even  on  occasion 
tried  cases  arising  from  them. 

Revenues  and  Taxation.  Ordinary  Crown  Revenues.  —  Taxation 
formed  a  leading  issue  in  the  coming  struggle,  partly  because  the  sub- 
ject wished  to  protect  his  purse,  and  partly  because  the  control  of 
supply  was  an  effective  weapon  against  absolutism.  In  ordinary  times 
the  sovereign  was  expected  "  to  live  of  his  own  " ;  but  the  Crown 
revenues  were  far  from  adequate.  Elizabeth,  with  all  her  economy, 
left  a  debt.  The  ordinary  revenues,  largely  under  royal  control, 
were  derived  from  several  sources,  (i)  Crown  lands  yielded  somewhat, 
how  much  it  is  difficult  to  say,  since  these  lands  were  constantly  re- 
quired and  constantly  given  away.  (2)  Feudal  dues,  i.e.  aids,  ward- 
ships, marriages,  escheats,  etc.,  yielded  about  £45,000  a  year ;  but  the 
wasteful  system  of  collection  took  far  more  from  those  who  were  as- 
sessed than  actually  went  to  the  Queen.  Purveyance,  too,  was  a  partic- 
ularly grievous  burden.  (3)  Court  fees  and  fines,  especially  the  Court 
of  Star  Chamber,  furnished  a  third  source  of  royal  revenue.  (4)  With 
the  growth  of  trade,  duties  on  exports  and  imports  came  to  be  a  con- 
siderable element  of  income.  The  bulk  of  these  duties  were  derived 
from  tonnage  and  poundage,  which  since  the  Yorkist  period  had  been 
granted  to  each  successive  sovereign  for  life  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign.  The  hereditary  income  from  duties,  particularly  from  wool, 
dating  from  1275,  had  ceased  to  be  very  profitable  with  the  rise  of  the 
cloth  industry.  In  addition  to  tonnage  and  poundage  and  the  hered- 
itary customs,  the  Crown  claimed  the  right  to  levy  certain  additional 
duties  known  as  "  impositions."  The  Tudors  employed  these  largely 
to  regulate  trade.  When  James  sought  to  make  them  a  source  of  rev- 
enue Parliament  resisted;  but  they  continued  to  be  levied  till  1641. 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  405 

Monopolies,  Benevolences,  and  Forced  Loans.  —  Besides  the  feudal 
dues  and  impositions  there  were  other  royal  exactions,  resisted  even 
under  the  popular  Tudors,  which  were  among  the  main  factors  in  the 
Puritan  Revolution.  In  1601  Elizabeth  had  been  wise  enough  to  re- 
call some  of  the  most  objectionable  patents  of  monopoly.  Under 
James,  however,  new  ones  sprang  up  and  the  evil  grew  until  he  was 
forced  to  pass  an  act  abolishing  certain  classes  of  them.  But  the 
statute  contained  certain  exemptions  by  which  his  son  Charles  unwisely 
endeavored  to  profit.  More  objectionable  still  were  benevolences 
and  forced  loans.  The  Tudor  Henrys  had  revived  benevolences  — 
abolished  in  1484  by  Richard  III  —  on  the  ground  that  as  a  usurper 
his  legislation  was  invalid.  They  maintained  also  that  they  were 
not  taxes,  but  gifts.  Elizabeth,  however,  rarely,  if  ever,  exacted  benev- 
olences. James  and  Charles  tried  to  impose  them,  though  with  no 
great  success.  Forced  loans,  while  older,  did  not  become  at  all  fre- 
quent till  the  time  of  the  Yorkists.  Henry  VIII,  with  parliamentary 
sanction,  repudiated  most  of  his.  Elizabeth  usually  repaid  hers, 
though  not  often  in  money. 

Extraordinary  Grants  by  Parliament:  —  Extraordinary  grants  im- 
posed by  direct  taxation  were  wholly  in  the  hands  of  Parliament. 
They  were  of  two  sorts,  (i)  Tenths  and  fifteenths,  consisting  origi- 
nally of  a  tenth  of  the  income  of  burgesses  and  a  fifteenth  from  the 
shires,  came  to  be  fixed  in  the  fourteenth  century  at  £39,000  for  each  as- 
sessment. Owing  to  exemptions  and  other  causes,  this  form  of  taxa- 
tion came  to  be  a  very  unequal  burden  and  was  never  imposed  after 
1624.  (2)  Meantime,  as  early  as  the  time  of  the  Tudors,  a  new  form 
of  direct  tax  —  the  subsidy  —  had  appeared.  Even  earlier,  this 
term  had  been  used  loosely  as  a  name  for  additional  customs.  In  its 
later  and  stricter  sense  it  meant  a  parliamentary  tax  of  45.  in  the  pound 
on  land,  and  2s.  8d.  on  goods.  In  the  time  of  Elizabeth  a  subsidy  had 
become  fixed  at  about  £80,000 ;  but  with  the  rise  in  prices  and  the 
decrease  in  the  value  of  money  it  came  to  be  worth  far  less.  Unable 
to  secure  adequate  revenue  from  the  taxes  under  the  control  of  Par- 
liament, the  first  two  Stuarts  resorted  to  the  irregular  devices  already 
enumerated,  thus  fostering,  if  they  did  not  create,  one  of  the  chief 
grievances  which  led  to  the  final  catastrophe. 

The  Justices  of  the  Peace  and  the  Common  Law  Courts.  —  Only 
less  fruitful  in  precipitating  the  conflict  was  the  arbitrary  jurisdiction 
exercised  by  the  various  special  courts  set  up  during  the  Tudor  period. 
Just  as  the  High  Commission  came  to  supplant  the  regular  Church 
courts,  so  these  extraordinary  tribunals  superseded,  to  a  large  degree, 
the  normal  judicial  system.  Lowest  in  the  scale  of  the  latter  were  the 
justices  of  the  peace.  Descending  from  certain  peace  officers  of  the 
late  twelfth  and  the  thirteenth  centuries,  who  were  "  little  more  than 
constables  on  a  large  scale,"  they  were,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  in- 
trusted with  judicial  functions.  In  the  Tudor  period  they  were  chosen 
by  the  Chancellor  from  the  landed  gentry  in  the  counties  and  from  the 


406  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

magistracies  in  cities  and  boroughs.  A  single  justice  could  commit, 
but  it  required  two  for  a  judicial  decision.  In  such  petty  sessions,  as 
they  came  to  be  called,  they  dealt  with  minor  criminal  cases.  More 
important  ones  were  reserved  for  the  Quarter  Sessions,  so-called  be- 
cause they  were  held  four  times  a  year.  Next  above  -the  Quarter 
Sessions  were  the  Assizes  held  at  the  county  seat  and  presided  over 
by  one  of  the  King's  justices,  assisted  by  such  of  the  local  justices  as 
were  commissioned  to  sit  with  him.  Above  the  Assizes  were  the  three 
common  law  courts  sitting  at  Westminster.1  The  Court  of  King's 
Bench  and  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  had  each  a  chief  justice  and 
three  associate  or  puisne  judges.  The  judges  in  the  Exchequer  Court 
were  called  barons.  The  Court  of  Exchequer  Chamber  was  a  court 
of  still  higher  resort.  It  consisted  sometimes  of  all  twelve  judges, 
more  often  of  the  eight  who  had  not  previously  heard  the  case.  Oc- 
casionally a  specially  important  case  would  be  referred  to  all  twelve 
judges  at  the  start.  In  the  last  instance  a  case  went  either  to  the 
Privy  Council  or  the  House  of  Lords.  Even  over  these  common  law 
courts  the  sovereign  had  great  control ;  for  their  judges  were  appointed 
by  the  Crown,  usually  during  pleasure.  While  Elizabeth  was  careful 
not  to  abuse  her  powers,  James  and  Charles  were  constantly  meddling, 
consulting  the  judges  before  a  case  came  up  in  court,  and  often  remov- 
ing those  who  opposed  their  will. 

The  Special  Jurisdictions.  —  Of  the  special  courts  Chancery,  of 
course,  greatly  antedated  the  Tudors.  Primarily  designed  to  decide 
questions  of  equity,  its  jurisdiction  was  often  employed  to  invade  the 
proper  field  of  the  common  law  courts.  Among  the  Tudor  creations 
were  certain  local  courts  modeled  after  Star  Chamber,  notably  the 
President  and  Council  in  the  North  Parts  and  the  Council  of  Wales 
and  the  Marches,  set  up  in  1539  and  1542,  respectively,  for  dealing 
with  disturbances  on  the  borders.  Ireland  had  a  similar  tribunal 
in  the  Court  of  Castle  Chamber.  Other  bodies  were  established  for 
dealing  with  particular  branches  of  the  revenue,  such  as  the  Courts  of 
Augmentations,  of  First  Fruits,  and  of  Wards  and  Liveries.  In  most 
cases  their  original  purpose  was  justified ;  but  their  powers  were  greatly 
abused,  and  few  of  them  survived  the  Puritan  Revolution.  A  griev- 
ance closely  related  to  these  arbitrary  jurisdictions  was  the  many 
searching  laws  of  treason  to  which  the  subjects  were  exposed.  Henry 
VIII,  in  order  to  establish  his  ecclesiastical  supremacy  and  to  regu- 
late the  succession,  greatly  extended  the  law  which  had  been  defined 
for  generations  by  the  famous  25  Edward  III  of  1352.  All  together, 
Henry  passed  nine  laws  on  the  subject,  which  were  all  repealed 
in  the  next  reign.  Though  new  ones  were  enacted  they  were 
nothing  like  so  stringent.  Elizabeth's  were  designed  both  to  main- 
tain her  supremacy  and  to  protect  her  against  rival  claimants  to  the 
throne. 

1  It  was  their  judges  who  held  the  Assizes  when  the  central  courts  were  not  in 
sessions.  England  was  divided  into  several  circuits  for  the  purpose. 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  407 

Local  Government.  —  The  Elizabethan  period  is  especially  impor- 
tant in  the  history  of  local  government,  partly  because  of  the  changes 
introduced  and  the  activity  displayed,  and  partly  because  it  was  the 
system  in  which  our  colonial  fathers  were  trained,  and  which  they 
developed  in  their  new  homes.  Old  institutions  were  losing  much  of 
their  vitality.  The  sheriff,  for  instance,  declined  in  importance. 
His  military  duties  were  taken  over  by  the  lords  lieutenant  of  the 
county.  This  official 1  —  dating  from  Edward  VI  —  was  head  of 
the  county  militia  organized  under  commissions  of  array  and  called 
out  by  his  orders.  He  was  responsible  for  his  county  in  times  of  in- 
surrection and  invasion,  he  had  absolute  power  at  such  times,  receiv- 
ing indemnity  in  advance  for  the  consequences  of  its  exercise.  The 
sheriff's  judicial  and  administrative  duties  passed  to  the  hands  of  the 
justices  of  the  peace.  Their  activity  in  the  latter  field  began  in  con- 
nection with  the  Statutes  of  Laborers.  It  became  their  work  to  license 
beggars,  to  force  the  sturdy  to  work,  and  to  repress  vagrants.  With 
the  passage  of  the  poor  laws  and  the  recusancy  acts  more  burdens  were 
laid  upon  them ;  regulation  of  wages  and  prices,  management  of  roads 
and  prisons,  and  many  other  duties  were  added.  Indeed,  such  "  stacks 
of  statutes  "  fell  to  their  lot  that  "  the  alphabet  has  become  the  one 
possible  connecting  thread  in  describing  their  duties."  Although 
appointed  by  the  Crown  they  were  landed  gentry  of  local  interests, 
the  same  class  that  furnished  the  knights  of  the  shire.  Thus  they 
acted  as  a  powerful  check  against  royal  despotism.  The  famous 
Justice  Coke  rhapsodically  declared  in  describing  the  system :  "  It  is 
such  a  form  of  subordinate  government  for  the  tranquillity  and  quiet 
of  the  realm,  as  no  part  of  the  Christian  world  hath  the  like."  2 

The  smallest  administrative  division  was  the  parish.  It  looked  after 
the  maintenance  of  the  church  services ;  it  had  the  care  of  the  roads 
within  its  borders,  and  was  responsible  for  the  support  of  its  poor,  levy- 
ing rates  for  each  of  these  purposes.  Each  parish  furnished  its  quota  for 
the  lord  lieutenant's  levy  and  was  intrusted  with  police  powers  exer- 
cised by  elected  constables.  Some  parishes,  too,  supported  or  helped 
to  support  schools.  Business  was  transacted  in  parish  meetings  under 
the  charge  of  church  wardens,  assisted  by  a  committee  ranging  from 
eight  to  twenty-four  members.  The  whole  was  known  as  a  vestry, 
which  was  generally  a  close  corporation,  i.e.  vacancies  were  filled  by 
surviving  members.  The  city  and  borough  governments  were  grow- 
ing equally  oligarchical  throughout  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. So,  from  the  Council  to  the  parish,  there  was  a  complete  but 
well-knit  system  of  administration,  in  which,  however,  none  but  the 
select  few  had  any  share. 

1  His  military  powers  survived  till  1871.     Similar  functions  were  intrusted  to 
the  Lord  Warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  which  were  especially  responsible  for  the 
defense  of  the  coast. 

2  Since  1888  their  administrative  duties  have  been  largely  absorbed  by  elected 
county  councils. 


4o8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Material  Conditions.  —  Except  for  the  humbler  folk  the  Elizabethan 
period  was  one  of  increased  prosperity,  of  improved  methods  of  farm- 
ing, of  the  growth  of  manufactures,  of  the  extension  of  trade  and  com- 
merce. This  was  partly  due  to  the  Queen  herself,  to  her  restoration 
of  the  coinage,  to  her  peaceful  policy,  economy,  and  light  taxes,  and 
to  her  encouragement  of  exploration  and  maritime  enterprise.  Her 
efforts,  however,  would  not  have  been  so  successful  but  for  favoring 
circumstances.  England,  as  a  wool-producing  country,  was  bound, 
in  the  long  run,  to  prevail  as  a  manufacturer  of  cloth.  The  necessity 
of  feeding  those  engaged  in  the  new  industry  made  arable  farming 
again  profitable.  Moreover,  from  her  position  on  the  very  threshold 
of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  Island  Kingdom 
should  profit  by  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  and  the  new  trade 
routes.  Also  the  revolt  of  the  Netherlands  and  the  ruin  of  Antwerp 
gave  London  and  the  other  English  commercial  cities  opportunities 
which  they  were  not  slow  to  seize. 

The  Restoration  of  the  Coinage.  —  The  disorganization  of  the  cur- 
rency, begun  under  Henry  VIII,  continued  through  the  next  reign ; 
while  Mary,  in  spite  of  well-meant  efforts,  was  able  to  accomplish 
little,  owing  largely  to  the  expense  involved  in  her  Spanish  connec- 
tion, and  to  her  endeavor  to  restore  to  Rome  church  properties  ap- 
propriated under  her  two  predecessors.  It  remained  for  Elizabeth  to 
carry  out  the  task.  She  called  in  the  debased  coins  at  a  figure  far 
below  that  at  which  they  circulated  and  somewhat  less  than  their 
real  value.  In  their  place  she  issued  pure,  new  coins.  The  first  proc- 
lamation was  put  forth  at  Michaelmas  1560,  and  within  a  year  the 
Queen  could  congratulate  herself  on  having  overcome  the  "  hideous 
monster  of  base  money."  Although  the  step  involved  some  tem- 
porary hardship,  confidence  was  soon  restored,  trade  soon  felt  the  good 
effects,  and  the  Government  even  made  a  small  profit  from  the  transac- 
tion. The  extension  of  credit  combined  with  the  improved  currency 
to  help  the  growth  of  business.  Discarding  the  old  notion  that  all 
lending  at  interest  was  usurious  and  wrong,  both  Henry  VIII  and 
Elizabeth  recognized  the  legality  of  moderate  interest.1  Owing  to 
the  policy  of  mercantilism,  to  the  expansion  of  trade  and  commerce, 
and  to  the  privateering  against  Spain,  prices  kept  rising ;  but  the  rise 
was  of  a  healthier  sort  than  that  due  to  scarcity  and  debased  money. 
Since  rents  and  wages  went  up  more  slowly,  the  landlords  and  laborers 
did  not  feel  the  change  so  fully  or  so  quickly  as  the  merchant  and  manu- 
facturer. The  increasing  demand  for  the  products  of  the  soil  steadily 
improved  the  condition  of  the  landed  gentry,  however,  and  gave  the 
laborers  more  regular  employment.  Many  of  the  former,  too,  in- 
vested in  trading  and  buccaneering  enterprises  which  brought  them 

1  In  1571  it  was  fixed  at  10  per  cent.  One  curious  effect  of  the  recognition  of 
money  lending  was  to  weaken  the  royal  power ;  for  later  sovereigns  began  to  bor- 
row from  the  merchants  and  goldsmiths,  thus  making  themselves  more  or  less 
dependent  on  a  class  whose  principles  were  generally  democratic. 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  409 

large  returns.  Prosperity  had  developed  to  such  a  point  in  1569  that 
the  Government  which  had  hitherto  borrowed  abroad  placed  a  loan 
at  home. 

Development  of  Agriculture.  —  The  revival  of  farming  was  so 
marked  in  Elizabeth's  reign  that  it  has  been  termed  a  period  of  agri- 
cultural counter-revolution.  Country  gentlemen  began  again  to  turn" 
their  attention  to  the  cultivation  of  their  estates.  Agricultural 
writers  once  more  began  to  discuss  improved  methods,  and  new  sources 
of  profit  began  to  arise  from  market  gardening.  Sheep  raising  had 
to  contend  against  various  obstacles.  For  one  thing,  the  practice  of 
enclosing  was  still  discouraged  by  law;  in  1597,  for  instance,  an  act 
was  passed  providing  that  land  which  had  been  made  pasture  since 
the  Queen's  accession  should  be  reconverted  to  tillage  and  that  none 
then  under  the  plow  should  be  diverted  to  grazing.  Also  there  was 
decline  in  the  price  of  wool,  possibly  owing  to  a  temporary  overstock- 
ing of  the  market,  more  likely  because  rich  pasturage  coarsened  the 
quality.  This  latter  result  was  due  to  the  development  of  mixed 
farming,  or  convertible  husbandry,  when  lands  used  for  tillage  one  year 
were  turned  into  pasture  the  next,  and  vice  versa.  In  addition  to  the 
growth  of  population  and  the  increasing  demand  for  food  supplies 
the  revival  of  tillage  was  greatly  favored  by  the  policy  of  the  Queen. 
When  the  price  of  corn  was  moderate,  she  encouraged  its  export  in  the 
interest  of  the  farmer  and  the  shipper.  Only  in  times  of  scarcity  was 
export- checked  in  the  interest  of  the  consumer.  One  exception,  how- 
ever, was  made  on  political  grounds ;  after  hostilities  opened  with 
Spain  no  foodstuffs  could  be  sent  to  that  kingdom  at  all.  New  and 
better  roads  opened  new  markets  at  home,  more  attention  was  paid  to 
fertilizing,  and,  with  the  revival  of  market  gardening,  onions,  cab- 
bages, carrots,  and  parsnips  began  to  be  grown.  Thomas  Tusser, 
whose  Five  Hundred  Points  of  Good  Husbandry  appeared  in  1573, 
was  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  a  new  form  of  enclosure  which  began 
to  prevail  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  consisted  in  doing  away  with 
the  common  fields,  the  scattered  strips,  and  the  communal  cultivation, 
and  in  consolidating  holdings  in  the  hands  of  individual  owners  or 
tillers  of  the  soil.  Progressive  in  this,  Tusser  was  backward  in  other 
respects ;  for  he  scarcely  mentions  the  use  of  manure,  he  does  not 
consider  the  subject  of  draining,  and,  apparently,  was  ignorant  of  the 
uses  of  clover  and  artificial  grass.  In  these  respects  he  had  much  to 
learn  from  Barnaby  Googe  whose  Four  Books  of  Husbandry  appeared 
in  1577.  Some  effort  was  made  to  reclaim  swamp  lands  by  drainage, 
but  it  was  not  until  the  next  century  that  much  was  accomplished. 
In  general  it  may  be  said  that,  relatively  to  tillage  and  cattle  raising, 
sheep  farming  was  becoming  less  profitable,  and  that  most  of  the 
enclosures  were  for  the  purpose  of  convertible  husbandry. 

Discovery  and  Exploration.  —  The  notable  exploits  of  Elizabethan 
seamen  have  influenced  profoundly  the  history  of  England  and  the 
history  of  the  world  in  a  multitude  of  ways.  In  them  the  spirit  of 


410  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  Renascence  was  wonderfully  manifested,  and  geographical  knowl- 
edge, literature,  religion,  commerce,  industry,  colonization,  and  the 
spread  of  civilization  all  bear  the  marks  of  their  achievements.  They 
circumnavigated  the  globe,  they  opened  Russia  and  the  East  to  English 
trade,  they  extended  English  commerce  into  the  Mediterranean  and 
along  the  African  coast ;  they  took  the  first  step  toward  securing  a 
foothold  in  India ;  they  undertook  Arctic  voyages  in  search  of  north- 
east and  northwest  passages  to  Cathay,  and  they  made  possible  the 
beginnings  of  English  colonization  in  America. 

The  Opening  up  of  Russia  and  Central  Asia.  —  The  opening  up  of 
Russia  began  with  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  two  daring  explorers, 
Richard  Chancellor  and  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  in  search  of  the  north- 
east passage.  Their  instructions  were  drawn  up  by  Sebastian  Cabot, 
"  Geographer  Royal  "  of  England,  while  the  funds  for  this  "  new  and 
strange  navigation"  were  supplied  by  "  certain  grave  citizens  of 
London  "  with  an  eye  to  new  markets.  The  preparations  were  com- 
pleted in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  though  the  actual  start  was  not 
undertaken  until  after  the  accession  of  Mary  in  1553.  Of  the  three 
ships  which  began  the  voyage  two,  including  Willoughby's,  were  lost, 
and  Chancellor,  "  very  heavy,  pensive,  and  sorrowful,"  proceeded 
alone.  He  rounded  the  North  Cape,  passed  southward  to  the  White 
Sea,  and  landed  near  the  present  Archangel.  Thence  he  journeyed 
fifteen  hundred  miles  on  sledges  to  Moscow,  the  court  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible,  King  of  the  Muscovites.  After  remaining  three  months  he 
went  back  to  England  with  letters  from  Ivan  and  an  account  of  the 
condition  and  resources  of  his  kingdom.  Chancellor  was  drowned 
on  his  return  from  a  subsequent  voyage,  but  the  Muscovite  ambas- 
sador who  accompanied  him  was  received  at  Mary's  court  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1557.  Though  during  this  reign  other  voyages  were  made  to 
the  Levant  and  to  the  coast  of  Africa,  Chancellor's  stands  out  as  the 
notable  achievement.  Having  secured  a  foothold  in  Russia  and  the 
favor  of  the  Tsar,  English  enterprise  was  extended,  under  Elizabeth, 
by  journeys  along  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea  into  Turkestan  and 
northern  Persia.  Valuable  commercial  privileges  were  secured  in  all 
these  countries.  The  pioneer  in  marking  out  the  new  routes  to  cen- 
tral Asia  was  Anthony  Jenkinson,  a  seasoned  traveler  who  had  ranged 
from  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  northern  Africa.  The  death  of  Ivan  in 
1584  marked  the  decline  of  English  trade  in  this  direction.  The 
Dutch  broke  in  upon  the  monopoly,  and  new  fields  of  commerce  and 
other  routes  to  the  further  east  were  sought. 

The  Mediterranean.  The  Overland  and  Sea  Routes  to  India.  — 
One  was  an  overland  route  from  the  Mediterranean,  a  natural  develop- 
ment from  the  Turkey  trade  which  was  being  pushed  forward  vigor- 
ously. Traders  and  explorers  visited  Egypt,  Babylon,  Nineveh,  and 
other  famous  places  of  ancient  times.  Most  notable  of  all  was  an  over- 
land expedition  led  by  John  Newberrie  and  Ralph  Fitch.  Starting 
from  Syria  in  1583  they  went  in  company  as  far  as  the  western  coast 


ELIZABETHAN   ENGLAND  411 

of  India.  There  Fitch  parted  company  with  Newberrie,  and  pene- 
trated to  Bengal  and  other  parts  of  the  eastern  side  of  the  peninsula, 
probably  the  first  Englishman  who  ever  made  the  -journey.  The 
other  route  was  by  sea  around  southern  Africa.  Though,  ev£n  before 
the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  English  seamen  had  -broken  through  the 
monopoly  which  the  Portuguese  had  long  enjoyed  along  the  African 
coast,  it  was  not  till  1591  that  any  of  them  ventured  to  round  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  In  that  year  James  Lancaster  and  George  Ray- 
mond accomplished  the  feat.1  They  returned  in  1594,  having  gone 
as  far  as  Malacca  and  Ceylon.  Meantime,  since  their  revolt  from 
Spain,  the  Dutch  had  begun  to  supplant  the  Portuguese  in  the  East 
Indies,  and  the  success  of  their  trading  companies  and  the  monopoly 
which  they  in  turn  were  seeking  to  establish2  led,  in  conjunction  with 
the  stories  brought  back  by  Newberrie,  Fitch,  Lancaster,  and  Raymond, 
to  the  foundation  of  the  English  East  India  Company. 

The  English  Seamen  in  the  Western  World.  —  Biggest,  however, 
in  results,  as  we  view  them,  were  the  voyages  to  our  American  shores, 
and  the  first  steps  toward  colonization  within  the  limits  of  the  present 
United  States.  The  Cabots  had  prepared  the  way  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII.  Little  more  was  done  till  Elizabeth's  time.  Hawkins' 
three  voyages,  "  forcing  (the  Spanish  American  colonists)  to  friendly 
commerce  "  in  slaves,  and  Drake's  expedition,  when  he  first  saw  the 
Pacific  in  1572,  stirred  the  spirit  of  English  maritime  adventure.  The 
crowning  achievement  was  Drake's  circumnavigation  of  "  the  whole 
globe  of  the  earth  "  from  1577  to  1580.  He  braved  all  sorts  of  hard- 
ships :  mutiny,  storm,  and  danger  of  the  Spanish.  After  passing  the 
straits  of  Magellan  his  little  fleet  of  five  vessels  was  reduced  to  one  — 
the  Pelican,  which  he  had  rechristened  the  Golden  Hind.  He  ravaged 
the  coasts  of  Chili  and  Peru,  possessed  himself  of  immense  treasure, 
and,  after  exploring  the  coast  of  California,  returned  by  way  of  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  There  was  still  much  speculation  as  to  the  pos- 
sibility of  a  northwest  passage,  and  Englishmen  hoped  to  discover 
gold  as  well  as  a  trade  route  in  the  bleak  northern  regions.  Thither 
Martin  Frobisher  made  three  voyages  (1576-1578),  adding  much  to  the 
knowledge  of  Greenland  and  Labrador.  Ten  years  later  John  Davis, 
an  agent  like  himself  of  a  syndicate  of  merchants  and  courtiers,  con- 
tinued his  work.  His  name  survives  in  Davis  Straits. 

Early  English  Attempts  at  Colonization.  —  Attempts  at  conquest 
and  settlement  followed  in  the  wake  of  these  voyages  of  discovery 
and  plundering  raids.  The  pioneer  was  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  who 
in  1578  received  a  patent  for  "  the  planting  of  our  people  in  America." 
Failing  in  his  first  two  voyages,  he  sailed  again  in  1583  and  reached  the 

1  The  Portuguese,  Bartholomew  Diaz,  was  the  first  to  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  in  1486.     In  1497-1498  Vasco  da  Gama  made  his  celebrated  voyage  from 
Portugal  to  India. 

2  Their  various  trading  companies  were  united  into  the  Dutch  East  India  Com- 
pany in  1602. 


4i2  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

coast  of  Newfoundland,  where  he  planted  the  first  colony  in  British 
North  America.  On  his  return  voyage  he  went  down  with  his  ship  off 
the  southern  Azores,  crying  with  pious  courage  to  those  in  a  neigh- 
boring vessel :  "  We  are  as  near  heaven  by  sea  as  by  land."  His  half 
brother,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  took  over  his  patent.  To  prepare  the  way 
for  future  colonization  he  sent  out  in  1584  an  expedition  "  at  his  charge 
in  direction  "  which  explored  the  coast  of  North  Carolina.  The  region 
was  named  "  Virginia,"  after  England's  virgin  Queen.  Three  unsuc- 
cessful attempts  to  plant  a  settlement  followed,  culminating  in  the 
famous  "  lost  colony  "  led  by  John  White.  It  was  notable,  among 
other  things,  for  the  birth  of  Virginia  Dare,  18  August,  1587,  the  first 
English  child  born  in  the  New  World.  Although  it  was  not  until  the 
settlement  of  Jamestown,  nearly  twenty  years  later,  that  a  permanent 
English  colony  was  established,  Raleigh  deserves  credit  for  his  efforts 
in  a  work  so  big  in  future  results.  He  himself  never  set  foot  on  the 
shores  of  North  America.  In  1595,  however,  he  made  a  voyage  to 
Guiana,  in  search  for  El  Dorado,  the  fabulous  city  of  Manoa,  where 
the  chief  of  the  natives  was  supposed  to  cover  his  body  with  gold  dust 
and  to  bathe  in  a  sacred  lake  where  the  water  was  full  of  gold  and 
precious  stones.  Raleigh's  expedition  gave  the  English  their  claim 
to  the  present  British  Guiana.  Besides  these  voyages  thus  briefly 
described,  the  Elizabethan  seamen  undertook  numberless  others  to 
remote  lands  and  distant  seas.  The  whole  wonderful  story  may  be 
read  in  the  stirring  pages  of  the  contemporary  Richard  Hakluyt 
(1552-1616),  whose  Principal  Navigations,  Voyages,  and  Discoveries 
of  the  English  Nation  has  been  called  "  the  prose  epic  of  the  modern 
English  Nation,  our  unrivaled  treasury  of  material  for  the  history  of 
geography,  discovery,  and  colonization,  our  best  collection  of  the  ex- 
ploits of  the  heroes  in  whom  the  new  era  was  revealed." 

Foreign  Trade.  —  Governmental  regulation  of  trade  still  prevailed. 
In  the  first  and  fifth  years  of  the  reign  new  navigation  laws  were  passed, 
partly  for  protection  and  partly  to  foster  English  seamanship.  The 
latter  motive  also  played  a  part  in  the  encouragement  of  the  fisheries, 
which  explains  why  England,  a  Protestant  country  not  only  enforced 
fast  days  by  law,  but  added  Wednesday  as  a  new  "  fish  day."  In 
order  to  nurse  infant  industries,  the  importation  of  certain  manufac- 
tured goods  and  the  export  of  raw  materials  (except  wool,  which  was 
an  English  staple)  were  discouraged.  One  curious  enactment  pro- 
vided that  on  Sundays  and  holidays  every  English  subject  over  six 
years  of  age  must  wear  a  cap  of  native  manufacture  or  pay  a  fine.1 
Monopolies  were  another  means  of  fostering  English  industry  and 
commerce,  though,  later  in  the  reign,  they  were  also  employed  as  a 
means  of  adding  to  the  royal  revenues.  All  sorts  of  luxuries  and  some 
necessities  were  imported.  Foreign  trade  was  largely  monopolized  by 
great  merchant  companies.  The  old  Merchant  Adventurers  who  had 

1  The  "woolsack"  on  which  the  Chancellor  sits  in  the  House  of  Lords  had  its 
origin  in  the  same  effort  to  foster  the  national  industry. 


ELIZABETHAN   ENGLAND  413 

'received  a  patent  from  Henry  VII  were  incorporated  with  extended 
privileges  in  1564.  In  addition,  many  new  companies  were  founded. 
Chief  among  them  were  the  Russia  Company ;  the  Eastland,  for 
trading  with  the  Baltic ;  and  the  Levant  Company,  which  controlled 
the  commerce  with  Turkey,  Syria,  and  Asia  Minor.  The  Guinea,  or 
African  Company,  had  the  exclusive  right  of  supplying  Spanish 
America  with  slaves,  which  they  exchanged  for  hides,  sugar,  ginger  and 
pearls.  More  noteworthy  than  all  the  rest  was  the  "  Association 
for  trading  with  India,"  founded  in  1599.  In  the  following  year  it 
received  a  charter  from  Elizabeth,  authorizing  its  members  to  trade 
in  all  parts  of  India  unclaimed  by  other  countries.  This  was  the  origin 
of  the  famous  East  India  Company  which  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
present  Indian  Empire  of  Great  Britain.  In  1568  a  meeting  place 
for  merchants  in  London  was  completed.  It  was  the  gift  of  Thomas 
Gresham,  a  rich  financier,  and  was  named  by  Elizabeth  "The  Royal 
Exchange."  While  the  Dutch  still  led  in  almost  all  branches  of  com- 
merce, and  while  agriculture  still  remained  England's  chief  industry, 
this  period  is  marked  by  progress  in  manufactures  and  trade  which 
led  within  two  centuries  to  her  preeminence  over  all  rivals. 

Burghley's  Economic  Policy.  —  This  great  development  was  due, 
in  a  considerable  degree,  to  Burghley,  who  had  a  large  share  in  its 
direction.  He  showed  the  same  practical  sagacity  and  caution  in  the 
administration  of  economic  problems  as  he  manifested  in  political 
affairs.  With  him  the  strength  of  the  State  was  the  main  aim,  and 
much  of  his  industrial  and  commercial  legislation  was  designed  toward 
that  end.  He  developed  mining  and  manufacturing  with  the  purpose 
of  enabling  England  to  supply  her  own  ordnance  and  ammunition. 
In  order  to  increase  the  effectiveness  of  the  navy,  he  took  steps  to 
preserve  the  timberlands,  to  increase  the  native  supply  of  hemp  and 
sailcloth,  and  actively  encouraged  the  merchant  marine.  Among  the 
means  which  he  employed  were  the  formation  of  trading  companies, 
granting  patents  of  monopoly,  fostering  the  fisheries,  and  improving 
the  harbors.  In  some  respects  his  policy  was  sharply  opposed  to  that 
of  Elizabeth :  he  was  against  piracy,  which  she  secretly  encouraged, 
and  he  disapproved  of  the  navigation  laws  on  the  ground  that,  while 
they  helped  the  growth  of  English  shipping,  they  encouraged  the  im- 
portation of  luxuries,  such  as  wines,  silks,  and  spices. 

Internal  Trade  and  Industry.  —  Although  they  were  handicapped 
by  various  restrictions,  industry  was  greatly  stimulated  by  immigrants 
from  France  and  Flanders,  who  went  in  limited  numbers  to  towns 
authorized  by  license  to  receive  them,  introducing,  among  other  things, 
thread  and  lace  making  and  silk  weaving.  The  gilds  which  had  long 
regulated  industry,  at  first  independently  and  then  under  central 
control,  were  already  on  the  decline  before  the  Reformation.  The 
confiscation  of  their  religious  and  charitable  funds  under  Henry  VIII 
and  Edward  VI  practically  forced  them  to  the  wall.  In  many 
places  "  livery  companies  "  were  formed  to  take  their  place.  The  new 


4H  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

organizations,1  which  were  associations  of  employers  authorized  by* 
the  Crown  instead  of  the  municipalities,  often  included  several  trades. 
Their  aim  was  to  supervise  the  quality  of  wares,2  to  keep  records  of 
entered  apprentices,  and  to  protect  the  natives  of  corporate  towns  in 
competition  with  aliens.  In  order  to  control  better  the  conditions  of 
labor  and  production,  Elizabeth,  in  the  fifth  year  of  her  reign,  passed 
the  famous  Statute  of  Artificers.  It  aimed,  among  other  things,  to 
secure  a  sufficient  supply  of  agricultural  laborers,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  check  the  decline  of  the  corporate  towns  as  industrial  centers. 
All  able-bodied  men,  with  certain  exceptions  noted  in  the  act,  were 
liable  to  serve  as  agricultural  laborers.  Measures  were  framed  to 
prevent  irregular  and  brief  employment,  migration  of  laborers,  artifi- 
cers, and  vagrants,  and  a  term  of  apprenticeship  was  fixed  at  seven 
years  in  both  town  and  country.  In  the  choice  of  apprentices  the 
rural  districts  and  the  corporate  towns  were  given  special  advantages 
over  market  towns.  This  checked  the  drift  toward  the  newer  towns 
where  conditions  of  employment  had  been  unregulated  and  lax.  Also, 
the  Act  intrusted  the  assessment  of  wages  to  the  justices  of  the  peace 
acting  under  the  supervision  of  the  Council.  Wages  were  no  longer 
arbitrarily  fixed,  as  had  been  the  case  under  the  old  Statutes  of  La- 
borers, but  were  to  be  regulated  according  to  plenty  or  scarcity  and 
according  to  local  conditions.  While  as  time  went  on  the  justices  were 
given  greater  independent  powers,  and  while  they  occasionally  en- 
forced them  so  late  as  the  eighteenth  century,  assessments  had  ceased, 
as  a  regular  practice,  before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth.  When  the 
Statute  was  repealed  in  1813,  after  a  long  life  of  two  centuries  and  a 
half,  it  had  become  a  mere  legal  curiosity. 

Public  Health.  —  The  population,  in  spite  of  destructive  visitations 
of  the  plague,  was  steadily  increasing.3  The  authorities  came  to  rec- 
ognize that  the  crowded  quarters  of  the  large  cities  were  dangerous 
centers  for  the  spread  of  infection.  In  London  this  was  especially 
marked  in  the  ring  of  poor  parishes  about  the  walls  of  London,  which 
for  some  distance  were  "  pestered  with  filthy  cottages."  Accordingly, 
in  1590,  an  ordinance  was  issued  prohibiting  the  building  on  new  sites 
within  a  radius  of  three  miles  of  the  city  gates,  or  the  subdividing  of 
existing  dwellings  into  two  or  more  tenements.4  The  population  in 
this  year  was  estimated  to  be  about  125,000,  and  appears  to  have 

1  Not  to  be  confused  with  the  merchant  companies  who  traded  abroad. 

2  Though  they  were  less  effective  for  this  purpose  than  the  gilds  had  been.     Regu- 
lation as  to  quality  of   goods,  and  of  prices,  weights,  and  measures  as  well,  were 
also  attempted  through  the  clerks  of  the  market. 

*  It  has  been  estimated  that  in  normal  years  the  births  exceeded  the  christen- 
ings by  about  25  per  cent. 

4  Elizabeth's  successor,  James  I,  had  an  equal  aversion  to  the  increase  of  the 
population  in  London  :  "The .growth  of  the  capital,"  he  declared,  "resembleth  that 
of  the  head  of  a  rickety  child  in  which  an  excessive  influx  of  humours  draweth  and 
impoverisheth  the  members  and  at  the  same  time  generatith  distempers  in  the  over- 
loaded parts." 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  415 

nearly  doubled  in  fifty  years.  In  1551  the  sweating  sickness  dis- 
appeared as  suddenly  as  it  had  appeared  sixty-seven  years  before. 
All  through  Elizabeth's  reign,  however,  epidemics  of  ague  and  in- 
fluenza, such  as  had  contributed  to  carry  off  her  predecessor,  were 
frequent.  Even  yet  scavengers  were  appointed  only  in  times  of  crisis ; 
in  ordinary  times  responsibility  for  sanitary  precautions  still  rested 
with  the  householders. 

The  Poor  Laws.  — -  Important  as  were  the  poor  laws  of  Henry  VIII 
in  foreshadowing  new  principles,  he  failed  to  provide  effective  means 
for  enforcing  them.  While  something  was  done  to  improve  his  system 
under  both  Edward  and  Mary,  it  remained  for  the  government  of  Eliza- 
beth to  put  the  laws  in  a  shape  which  survived  in  most  of  their  fea- 
tures down  to  the  nineteenth  century.  The  famous  "  Old  Poor  Law  " 
of  1 60 1  was  really  only  the  embodiment  in  permanent  form  of  a  series 
of  statutes  extending  from  1563  to  1598.  In  substance  it  provided 
that :  contributions  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  should  be  compulsory ; 
habitations  were  to  be  provided  for  the  impotent  and  aged ;  children 
of  paupers  were  to  be  apprenticed ;  stocks  of  hemp  and  wool  were  to 
be  furnished  for  the  employment  of  sturdy  idlers ;  and  houses  of  cor- 
rection were  to  be  set  up  for  those  who  obstinately  refused  to  work. 

Royal  Progresses. — The  Queen,  in  her  love  of  gayety,  her  tireless 
pursuit  of  pleasure,  and  her  fondness  for  magnificent  display,1  natu- 
rally set  the  fashion  for  her  people,  particularly  the  Court  and  the  upper 
classes.  This  ostentation  was  peculiarly  manifest  in  the  royal  prog- 
resses when  she  was  entertained  so  lavishly  as  to  bring  many  noble- 
men and  gentlemen  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  These  journeys  and  visits 
served  various  purposes.  They  gratified  the  Queen's  inordinate 
vanity ;  they  were  a  part  of  her  economy,  for  during  long  intervals 
she  was  supported  in  fitting  state  at  the  expense  of  others ;  and  finally 
they  kept  her  before  her  subjects  and  stimulated  rivalry  in  loyalty. 
The  most  famous  of  the  entertainments  in  her  honor  was  that  pro- 
vided by  Leicester  at  Kenilworth  Castle,  where  she  stayed  three  weeks 
in  the  summer  of  1575.  The  visit  furnished  the  setting  for  a  famous 
novel  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's,  and  possibly  the  wonderful  doings  may  have 
served  to  quicken  the  imagination  of  a  ten-year-old  lad  from  the 
neighboring  town  of  Stratford  —  William  Shakespeare.  There  were 
all  sorts  of  pageantry  and  poetry,  giants,  nymphs,  fireworks,  a  floating 
island  in  a  pool  in  front  of  the  palace,  hunting,  tilting,  bear  baiting, 
tumbling,  rustic  sports,  songs,  and  masques.  Such  festivities,  though 
on  a  less  elaborate  scale,  multiplied  as  the  years  went  on.  Not  only 
nobles  and  gentry,  but  citizens  and  burgesses,  and  the  scholars  of  the 
two  Universities  vied  with  one  another  in  honoring  their  Queen. 

Dress  and  Manner  of  Living.  —  Extravagance  and  artificiality  were 
characteristic  of  the  dress,  the  manners,  and  the  speech  of  the  period. 
Women  dressed  their  hair  in  most  elaborate  fashions.  They  sur- 

1  In  spite  of  her  parsimony,  she  left  a  wardrobe  of  3000  gowns. 


416  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

rounded  their  necks  with  enormous  ruffs  held  by  wire  or  starch,  and 
wore  huge  farthingales  or  hoop  skirts.  It  was  said  that  "  women 
were  the  least  part  of  themselves  "  and  took  longer  to  rig  than  ships. 
And  the  men  were  fully  as  bad.  They  perfumed  themselves  with 
musk  and  civet.  They  wore  tight-fitting  nether  stocks,  above  these 
trunk  hose,  surmounted  by  padded  doublets  or  jackets.  With  highly 
ornamented  cloaks  slung  over  their  shoulders,  with  gaudy  befeathered 
hats,  girt  with  swords  and  adorned  with  bracelets  and  earrings,  they 
presented  an  imposing  show.  Harington,  godson  of  the  Queen,  de- 
clared with  penetrating  cynicism :  "  We  go  brave  in  apparel  that  we 
may  be  taken  for  better  men  than  we  are,  we  use  much  bombastings 
and  quiltings  to  seem  better  framed,  better  shouldered,  smaller  waisted, 
and  fuller  thighed  than  we  are,  we  use  perfume  both  inward  and  outer 
to  seem  sweeter,  wear  corked  shoes  to  seem  taller,  use  courteous  salu- 
tations to  seem  kinder,  lowly  obeisance  to  seem  humbler,  and  grave 
and  godly  communication  to  seem  wiser  and  devouter  than  we  be." 
The  dress  of  the  laborer  was  of  necessity  very  plain ;  but  sumptuary 
laws  were  passed  from  time  to  time  to  check  the  extravagance  of  the 
lower  classes  and  to  encourage  the  use  of  homemade  woolens.  There 
were  abundant  sports  and  diversions  in  town  and  country.  The  man 
of  fashion  lounged  in  the  nave  of  St.  Paul's  of  a  morning.  He  dined 
at  a  tavern,  drinking  heavily  and  smoking  tobacco,  a  practice  intro- 
duced from  the  New  World  before  the  close  of  the  reign.  Then  he 
might  choose  between  bull  and  bear  baitings  and  the  theater  for  further 
amusements.  Masques  and  interludes  were  frequent,  and,  for  the 
hardier  sort,  tennis,  football,  wrestling,  fencing,  tilting,  hunting,  and 
hawking.  There  were  still  numerous  holidays,  each  with  its  appro- 
priate festival,  with  mummings,  games,  and  abundant  eating  and 
drinking.  The  merits  of  soap  were  not  yet  fully 'recognized,  though 
refinements  and  luxuries  were  on  the  increase,  such  as  chimneys,  glass 
windows,  and  carpets  in  place  of  lattice  and  rushes.  Plate  and  glass- 
ware were  abundant  among  the  wealthy,  while  the  poor  used  pewter. 
In  eating  knives  supplanted  the  fingers  more  and  more,  and  forks  were 
soon  to  appear.  Many  artificers  and  farmers  even  began  to  have 
beds  hung  with  tapestry  and  to  discard  logs  of  wood  and  sacks  of  chaff 
for  pillows.  Timber  houses  gave  way  to  dwellings  of  brick  and  stone. 
There  was  great  lament  over  these  changes :  it  was  said  that  when 
houses  were  of  willow  there  were  men  of  oak  and  that  now  there  were 
houses  of  oak,  there  were  men  of  straw. 

Architecture.  —  By  Elizabeth's  time  men  had  ceased  to  use  the 
Gothic  style  in  building.  Wolsey,  who  has  been  called  ".the  last  pro- 
fessor of  the  Gothic,"  has  left  us  beautiful  examples  in  Hampton  Court 
and  the  Hall  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  The  classical  Italian,  which 
had  begun  to  work  its  way  in,  was  at  first  a  mixture  of  Italian  and 
Gothic.  It  was  chiefly  employed  in  secular  building;  for,  from  the 
Reformation  to  well  into  the  seventeenth  century,  church  building  of 
original  artistic  design  practically  ceased.  Henry  VIII,  described  as 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  417 

"  the  only  Phoenix  of  his  time  for  fine  and  curious  masonrie,"  was  as 
fond  of  fine  buildings  as  he  was  of  fine  clothes.  He  did  somewhat 
himself,  the  magnificent  Wolsey  did  more,  and  a  few  of  the  nobles 
and  courtiers  followed  their  example.  However,  they  were  too  poor 
to  build  very  extensively.  It  was  only  with  the  increase  of  wealth  and 
the  rising  of  standards  of  comfort  in  Elizabeth's  time  that  such  mag- 
nificent palaces  as  Kenilworth  began  to  raise  their  heads.  Then,  too, 
a  number  of  stately  and  artistic  country  mansions  were  erected.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  reign  the  Old  English,  rambling  and  picturesque 
in  effect,  still  predominated  over  the  Italian.  Haddon  Hall,  the 
famous  Derbyshire  countryseat  of  the  Dukes  of  Rutland  rebuilt  in 
this  period,  is  a  fine  example.  The  ruined  castle  of  Kenilworth,  and 
Longleat l  in  Wiltshire,  said  to  be  the  first  well-built  house  in  the 
kingdom,  illustrate  the  somewhat  later  style  when  the  Italian,  with 
greater  symmetry  of  plan,  had  come  to  prevail.  The  influence  of  the 
classical  Renascence  was  even  more  marked  in  Gresham's  Royal 
Exchange.  As  might  be  expected,  Elizabeth  had  her  likeness  per- 
petuated in  many  portraits.2  She  had  no  painter  to  correspond  with 
the  Holbein  of  Henry  VIII  or  the  Van  Dyke  of  Charles  I,  a  fact  more 
pleasing  to  her  thrift  than  her  vanity. 

Lack  of  Progress  in  Science.  —  Except  for  a  treatise  on  the  mag- 
net by  William  Gilbert,  in  1600,  there  were  few  real  steps  in  advance 
between  the  Reformation  and  the  time  of  the  Stuarts.  Belief  in 
witchcraft  and  sorcery  still  held  sway  over  men's  minds ;  indeed, 
the  first  English  statute  on  the  subject  was  passed  in  1541.  Al- 
chemists and  quacks  had  great  vogue.  The  Lady  Margaret  Pro- 
fessor of  Divinity  resigned  his  chair  to  devote  himself  to  the  study 
of  transmutation  of  metals.  Paracelsus,  that  prince  of  charlatans 
and  visionaries,  had  been  dead  less  than  twenty  years  when 
Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne;  she  herself  gave  ear  to  the  siren 
tones  of  a  beauty  doctor.  Dr.  Dee,  however,  who  was  reputed 
a  famous  alchemist,  used  his  pretended  calling  to  cover  the  fact  that 
he  was  a  political  agent  of  the  Queen.  The  revival  of  Greek  medical 
science  contributed  to  prolong  a  popular  belief  in  astrology,  while  the 
progress  of  the  Copernican  system  was  undermining  its  basic  prin- 
ciples. Jerome  Cardan,  a  famous  physician  and  professor  of  the  art, 
who  found  it  wise  to  flee  after  he  had  predicted  a  long  life  for  Edward 
VI,  had  been  the  guest  of  Sir  John  Cheke. 

The  Elizabethan  Age  an  Epoch  in  the  World's  Literature.  —  The 
three  main  achievements  of  the  Elizabethan  age  were :  the  establish- 
ment of  Protestantism ;  the  remarkable  impulse  in  maritime  enterprise ; 
and  the  wonderful  literary  outburst,  unparalleled  in  the  world's  his- 

1  It  was  built  by  Sir  John  Thynne,  and  still  remains  in  his  family,  now  represented 
by  the  Marquises  of  Bath. 

2  They  are  generally  characterized,  in  the  biting  language  of  a  later  critic,  Hor- 
ace Walpole,  by  "a  pale  Roman  nose,  a  head  loaded  with  a  crown  and  powdered 
with  diamonds,  a  vast  ruff,  a  vaster  farthingale  and  a  bushel  of  pearls." 


4i8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tory,  save  possibly  in  the  era  of  Pericles.  The  third  remains  to  be 
considered.  Up  to  this  time  England  had  produced  only  one  writer 
of  worldwide  and  enduring  fame  —  the  genial  and  incomparable 
Chaucer.  While  from  the  beginning  of  Elizabeth's  reign  promising 
writers  were  in  evidence,  it  was  not  until  after  1580  that  the  product 
became  distinctive.  It  was  even  later,  in  the  last  decade  of  the  reign, 
that  the  b'est  work  of  Shakespeare  and  Spenser,  the  Essays  of  Bacon, 
the  Ecclesiastical  Polity  of  Hooker,  the  early  plays  of  "  rare  Ben 
Jonson,"  as  well  as  many  other  splendid  pieces  of  writing,  gave  it  its 
preeminence.  These  ten  years  have  never  been  matched  in  any 
period  or  country.  In  seeking  to  account  for  the  phenomenon  it  is 
hardly  enough  to  say  that  it  was  due  simply  to  the  fact  that  a  number 
of  men  of  unusual  gifts  of  expression  chanced  to  be  born  about  the 
same  time.  There  was  a  spirit  awrake  producing  a  varied  and  intri- 
cate complex  of  causes  which  quickened  their  imagination  and  stirred 
them  to  speech.  First,  there  was  the  influence  of  the  Italian  Renas- 
cence. Those  who  first  drank  from  that  invigorating  source  were 
primarily  interested  in  religious  problems,  and  the  ecclesiastical  up- 
heaval which  followed  diverted  men  for  a  time  from  pure  literature. 
Before  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  Wyatt  and  Surrey  had 
shown  evidence  of  contact  with  the  Italian  and  classical  models.  First, 
under  Elizabeth,  however,  Englishmen  took  their  full  share  of  the 
heritage,  a  share  which  grew  and  throve  to  a  manifold  increase.  Then 
the  discoveries  and  explorations,  and  the  strange  new  outlook  on  the 
world  which  they  brought,  broadened  their  mental  horizon  and  gave 
them  stimulating  food  for  thought.  And  finally  the  triumph  over 
Catholicism  and  Spain  aroused  a  national  consciousness  and  a  pride 
which  clamored  for  utterance. 

Translations.  —  The  works  of  the  ancients  and  of  the  Italians  of  the 
Renascence  were  opened  to  Englishmen  largely  through  adaptations 
and  translations.  The  old  printer  Caxton  had  led  the  way.  From 
his  time  until  Elizabeth  the  most  notable  production  of  this  sort  was 
Surrey's  jEneid.  Then  they  followed  thick  and  fast.  In  1566  ap- 
peared William  Painter's  Palace  of  Pleasure,  a  collection  of  stories 
from  the  Greek,  Latin,  Italian,  and  French,  which  furnished  a  rich 
store  of  material  for  the  Elizabethan  dramatists.  Another  source 
from  which  they  drew  freely  was  Plutarch's  Lives,  done  into  English 
by  Thomas  North  in  1579.  Most  of  the  earlier  work  in  this  field  was 
by  lesser  men;  but  later  such  renderings  as  Chapman's  Iliad  (1598), 
Harington's  Orlando  Furioso  (1591),  and  Florio's  Montaigne  (1603) 
deservedly  rank  as  works  of  art. 

Prose  Literature.  Early  Affectation.  "Euphuism."  -Immatur- 
ity, the  use  of  these  foreign  models,  and  the  prevailing  affectation  led  to 
much  pedantry,  extravagance,  and  obscurity  among  the  earlier  writers 
of  the  reign.  The  oft-quoted  protest  of  Thomas  Wilson,  in  his  Art 
of  Rhetorique,  doubtless  had  an  influence  in  the  long  run  to  check  the 
use  of  "  inkhorn  English  "  and  French  or  "  Italianated  "  idioms. 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND 

"  Some  seek,"  he  said,  "  so  far  outlandish  English  that  they  forget 
altogether  their  mother's  language.  Some  far-journeyed  gentlemen 
at  their  return  home,  like  as  they  go  in  foreign  apparel,  so  they  will 
powder  their  talk  in  oversea  language.  These  mystical  wise  men  and 
poetical  clerks  will  speak  nothing  but  quaint  proverbs  and  blind  alle- 
gories :  delighting  much  in  their  own  darkness,  especially  when  none 
can  tell  what  they  say."  Roger  Ascham,  himself  such  a  master  of 
vigorous,  plain,  but  gracious  English,  declared  that  "  he  that  will 
write  well  in  any  tongue  must  speak  as  the  common  people  do,  and 
think  as  wise  men  do,"  and  lamented  that  "  many  English  writers 
have  not  done  so,  but,  using  strange  words,  as  Latin,  French,  and 
Italian,  do  make  all  things  dark."  But  the  young  writers  of  the  new 
age  were  too  impetuous  and  too  bubbling  over  with  ardor  to  take  him 
as  a  model,  nor  did  the  impressive  and  grave  simplicity  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  and  the  Bible  translations  of  the  previous  generation 
appeal  to  them.  It  was  only  after  a  period  of  luxuriant  extravagance 
that  the  ripe,  finished,  and  gorgeous,  but  dignified  style  of  the  late 
Elizabethan  and  early  Jacobean  era  was  attained.  The  summit  of 
affectation  was  manifested  in  John  Lyly's  Euphues,  1579,  a  romance 
in  which  a  slender  story  serves  as  a  framework  for  striking  antitheses, 
labored  and  far-fetched  figures  of  speech,  and  longsome  reflections  on 
education  and  words.  Taken  up  by  the  Queen,  the  work  was  enthu- 
siastically received  at  court,  where  a  new  style  of  speaking,  known  as 
"  Euphuism,"  came  into  vogue.  An  inevitable  reaction  followed, 
and  it  was  attacked  and  caricatured,  notably  by  Shakespeare.  While 
the  ridicule  was  deserved,  Euphues  accomplished  somewhat  for  the  im- 
provement of  morals  and  culture  and  the  refinement  of  current  speech. 
The  Middle  Period.  Sir  Philip  Sidney.  —  Sir  Philip  Sidney  (1564- 
1586),  the  ideal  gentleman  of  the  age,  whose  short  life  was  crowded 
with  activity  as  a  soldier,  statesman,  and  poet,  marks  the  transition 
from  the  earlier  to  the  later  period.  His  Arcadia,  written  about  1580 
and  published  in  1590,  is  not  very  unlike  a  medieval  romance,  inter- 
woven with  bits  of  pastoral  poetry.  Although  he  was  an  outspoken 
critic  of  the  work  of  Lyly,  Sidney's  first  book  is  marked  to  a  con- 
siderable degree  by  the  same  faults  of  artificiality  and  diffuseness. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  illuminated  by  passages  of  real  beauty  and  was 
immensely  popular  for  nearly  two  centuries,  until  the  advent  of  the 
modern  novel,  of  which  it  was  a  forerunner,  superseded  the  type. 
His  Apologie  for  Poetrie,1  1581,  one  of  the  earliest  pieces  of  English 
criticism,  is  greatly  superior  to  the  Arcadia.  One  passage  will  illus- 
trate the  wondrous  charm  of  his  phrasing  at  its  best.  "  Nature," 
he  says,  "  never  set  forth  the  earth  in  so  rich  tapestry  as  divers  poets 
have  done,  neither  with  so  pleasant  rivers,  fruitful  trees,  sweet-smelling 
flowers,  nor  whatsoever  else  may  make  the  too-much  loved  earth  more 
lovely."  Altogether,  Sidney  marks  a  genuine  advance  in  clearness, 

1  Or  Defense  of  Poesie. 


420  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

genuineness  of  feeling,  and  beauty  of  expression.  Another  evidence 
of  the  beginnings  of  scholarly  criticism  is  to  be  found  in  the  Art  of 
English  Poesie,  1589,  attributed  to  Puttenham. 

The  Crowning  Decade.  —  As  was  the  case  with  all  other  forms  of 
Elizabethan  literature,  the  truly  great  prose  did  not  appear  until  the 
last  decade  of  the  reign.  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity  has  already  been 
mentioned  in  enumerating  the  forces  which  contributed  to  allay  the 
strife  between  Puritan  and  Anglican.  With  "  sweet  reasonableness  " 
the  "  judicious  Hooker  "  sought  to  justify  the  Church  of  England  by 
a  threefold  appeal :  to  Scripture  and  primitive  practice ;  to  reason  ; 
and  to  the  needs  of  the  times ;  arguing  that  its  policy  best  accorded 
with  all  three.  Aside  from  its  polemical  importance  it  is  a  recognized 
monument  of  classic  English  prose.  Equally  significant  in  form, 
and  even  more  in '  substance,  because  of  their  more  general  appeal, 
are  the  Essays  of  Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626),  which  appeared  first  in 
1597.  Many  regard  him  as  England's  greatest  intellectual  product. 
Though  he  esteemed  Latin  to  be  the  only  tongue  fit  for  learned  com- 
munication, and  wrote  in  English  only  with  misgivings,  his  style,  in 
spite  of  its  occasional  formality  and  overgreat  use  of  Latinized  ex- 
pressions, is  remarkable  for  its  vigor,  wit,  incisiveness,  and  pith.  In 
addition,  he  projected  a  vast  Latin  treatise  which  should  comprehend 
all  learning  and  science ;  but  the  parts  which  he  actually  finished 
were  not  published  till  the  next  reign  —  The  Advancement  of  Learning 
in  1605,  and  the  Novum  Organum  in  1620.  Of  the  latter,  King  James 
once  said  that  it  was  like  the  "  peace  of  God,"  because  "  it  passeth 
all  understanding."  Of  the  men  who  supported  themselves  by  their 
pens  most  wrote  chiefly  for  the  theater;  yet,  altogether,  they  pro- 
duced a  large  body  of  miscellaneous  writing  —  prose  fiction  and 
controversial  pamphlets.  Perhaps  the  most  worthy  of  note  are 
Robert  Greene's  Repentance  and  A  Groat's  Worth  of  Wit  which  tell  of 
his  own  irregular  life,  all  too  characteristic  of  the  set  in  which  he  moved, 
and  Thomas  Lodge's  Rosalynde,  a  romance  regarded  as  the  most 
perfect  bit  of  prose  fiction  of  the  time,  from  which  Shakespeare  got 
the  plot  of  As  You  Like  It.  Thomas  Nash  (1565-1601),  too,  who 
died  in  poverty  at  an  early  age,  wrote  forceful  biting  prose,  decorated 
with  words  which  he  coined  from  Greek,  Latin,  and  Italian.  He 
entered  into  various  controversies,  attacking  with  especial  bitterness 
the  Puritan  authors  of  the  Marprelate  libels.  His  Unfortunate 
Traveller  or  the  Adventures  of  Jack  Wilton,  a  romance  of  reckless  ex- 
ploits, is  an  interesting  anticipation  of  one  type  of  modern  novel. 

Elizabethan  Historical  Writing.  —  Throughout  the  reign  men  were 
producing  important  historical  works.  The  learned  Archbishop 
Parker  rescued  documents  and  records  dispersed  by  the  dissolution 
of  the  monasteries ;  he  provided  for  editions  of  various  early  chronicles, 
and  compiled  a  volume  himself  on  the  Church  and  the  Archbishops 
of  Canterbury.  John  Foxe  (1516-1581),  one  of  the  Marian  exiles, 
published  in  1563  the  first  English  edition  of  his  famous  Acts  and 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  421 

Monuments  popularly  known  as  the  "  Book  of  Martyrs."  In  1578 
appeared  Raphael  Holinshed's  Chronicles,  which  furnished  Shake- 
speare with  the  materials  for  his  historical  plays,  and  for  two  of  his 
grandest  tragedies.  Chief  among  those  who  assisted  Holinshed, 
"  men  of  commendable  diligence,  though  not  of  the  deepest  judgment," 
was  William  Harrison,  whose  Description  of  England,  full  of  quaint 
humor,  wide  observation,  and  graphic  pictures,  is  the  main  authority 
for  contemporary  social  conditions.  John  Stow's  Survey  of  London, 
1598,  is  a  mine  of  information  on  the  buildings  and  streets  of  the 
Elizabethan  city.  Other  historical  works  reflect  the  larger  world 
that  writers  of  the  age  were  coming  to  know.  Richard  Hakluyt's 
Principatt  Navigations  outshines  them  all.  Richard  Knolles'  Generall 
Historic  of  the  Turks  (1604),  though  in  later  times  valued  chiefly 
for  its  style,  'was  for  a  century  regarded  as  the  most  considerable 
historical  work  which  any  Englishman  had  yet  undertaken.  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  during  seven  years  of  his  imprisonment  in  the  next 
reign,  1607-1614,  wrote  on  a  History  of  the  World,  which  he  only  carried 
to  130  B.C. 

Poetry.  —  Notwithstanding  the  masterpieces  in  prose  which  date 
from  this  time,  it  is  in  its  poetry  that  the  age  is  really  distinctive. 
There  was  a  constantly  swelling  stream  of  sonnets,  lyrics,  pastorals, 
epics,  and  above  all  of  dramas,  of  unsurpassed  richness,  variety,  and 
beauty.  Tottel's  Miscellany,  1557,  containing  the  songs  and 
sonnets  of  Wyatt,  Surrey,  and  others,  was  the  first  of  a  long  series 
of  anthologies  which  became  especially  numerous  from  the  middle  of 
Elizabeth's  reign ;  most  of  them,  however,  with  titles  more  enticing 
than  their  contents  warranted.  There  were  for  instance:  A  Para- 
dise of  Dainty  Devices,  1576;  A  Gorgeous  Gallery  of  Gallant  Inven- 
tions, 1578;  and  A  Handfull  of  Pleasant  Delites,  1584.  Indeed,  for 
over  twenty  years,  from  the  appearance  of  Wyatt's  and  Surrey's 
verses,  there  was  a  long  fallow  period  when  minor  poets  were  busy, 
but  before  the  real  harvest  had  begun  to  ripen.  The  Shepherd's 
Calendar,  1579,  of  Edmund  Spenser  (1552-1599)  marks  the  transi- 
tion between  the  period  of  beginnings  and  the  glorious  final  decade 
of  the  reign.  Meantime,  Philip  Sidney  had  begun  his  charming 
group  of  sonnets  entitled  Astrophel  and  Stella,1  though  they  were  not 
published  till  1591.  They  were  dedicated  to  Penelope  Devereux, 
the  sister  of  the  unfortunate  Earl  of  Essex,  and  are  markworthy  not 
only  for  their  own  sake,  but  for  their  influence  on  Shakespeare's 
matchless  collection.  Only  a  work  especially  devoted  to  literary 
history  could  give  an  adequate  description  of  the  mass  of  exquisite 
songs  and  lyrics  which  appeared  either  independently  or,  set  like 
jewels,  in  contemporary  stories  and  plays.  The  "  great  epic  of  Eliza- 
bethan England,"  ranking  as  a  narrative  poem2  only  second  to  Mil- 

1  They  were  written  during  the  years  from  1575-1583. 

2  That  is,  on  a  single  theme.     Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  dealt  with  a  group  of 
subjects. 


422  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

» 

ton's  Paradise  Lost,  was  Spenser's  Faerie  Queene,  1590-1596.  It 
was  cast  in  the  form  of  a  medieval  romance ;  but  in  substance  is  an 
allegorical  manifestation  of  the  spirit  of  the  age  —  a  defense  of 
Protestantism,  and  a  glorification  of  Elizabeth  as  the  champion  of 
truth  and  virtue  against  Papal  Rome.  Spenser  planned  to  write 
twelve  books,  and  though  he  only  finished  half  his  work,  it  remains, 
nevertheless,  the  longest  great  poem  in  the  English  language.  Those 
who  pass  on  through  its  lengthy  monotonous  stretches  and  grapple 
with  its  learned  allusions,  "  aged  accents  and  untimely  words,"  will 
be  amply  rewarded  by  its  noble  ideality,  the  wondrous  wealth  of  its 
imagery,  and  its  ravishing  melodies. 

The  Drama.  English  and  Roman  Sources.  —  Rich  and  beautiful 
as  was  the  Elizabethan  literature  in  all  its  manifold  forms,  the  su- 
preme achievement  was  in  the  drama.  Beginning  about  1580,  it 
reached  its  zenith  in  the  last  years  of  Elizabeth  and  the  early  years 
of  James.  While  the  Elizabethan  drama  was  distinctly  an  expression 
of  the  spirit  of  the  age,  inspired  and  strongly  influenced  by  the  study 
of  revived  classical  and  Italian  models,  it  was  not  wholly  unaffected 
by  the  popular  and  court  festivals  and  the  religious  representations 
which  had  been  developing  for  centuries  on  the  native  soil.  The 
pageants  and  masques,  the  mysteries,  miracle  and  morality  plays, 
the  interludes  1  and  mummings  which  delighted  the  medieval  English- 
men furnished  one  source  for  the  Elizabethan  drama.  From  them 
came  the  local  color,  the  life,  and  the  old-time  jollity.  The  other 
source  is  to  be  found  in  the  Roman  dramas,  revived  in  the  Italy  of  the 
Renascence.  They  served  as  models  of  style  and  structure,  and 
provided  many  of  the  plots.2  Masters  of  the  great  public  schools 
prepared  scenes  from  the  Roman  comedy  writers,  chiefly  Plautus  and 
Terence,  for  their  boys  to  act,  either  in  Latin  or  in  English  translation 
or  imitation. 

Early  English  Comedies  and  Tragedies.  —  Nicholas  Udall  marked 
an  epoch  when,  about  1541,  he  wrote  in  English  from  a  Latin  model 
Ralph  Roister  Doister,  the  first  regular  English  comedy.  Next  came 
Gammer  Gurton's  Needle,  supposed  to  have  been  played  at  Christ's 
College,  Cambridge,  in  1566.  The  authorship  has  never  been  clearly 
established.  Coarse  and  homely  but  quaint  and  merry,  it  is  a  thor- 
oughly English  product  and  gives  a  graphic  picture  of  sixteenth- 
century  village  life.  In  tragedy  the  chief  model  was  Seneca.  From 
1560  to  1581  ten  of  his  plays  were  translated.  The  first  English 
tragedy  in  the  approved  classical  style  was  Gorboduc  or  Ferrex  and 
Porrex,  based  on  an  old  British  legend  from  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth. 
Written  by  two  young  gentlemen  of  the  Inner  Temple,  Thomas  Nor- 

1 "  Interludes "  were  so-called  because  they  were  usually  played  between 
the  courses  at  dinners  in  the  houses  of  great  noblemen.  Mummings  get  their 
name  from  the  fact  that  the  players  went  about  masked  and  acted  in  pantomime. 

2  While  the  scenes  of  the  Elizabethan  writers  were  laid  in  far-off  countries  in 
bygone  days,  their  characters  were  English  to  the  core. 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  423 

ton  and  Thomas  Sackville,  Lord  Buckhurst,  it  was  presented  before 
Queen  Elizabeth  in  1561.  Though  the  later  writers  departed  wisely 
from  the  ancient  Roman  type  they  were  profoundly  influenced  by  it. 
The  first  half  of  Elizabeth's  reign  was  not  productive  of  significant 
dramatic  works.  While  plays  of  all  sorts  were  written,  it  was  largely 
a  time  of  experiment. 

The  "  University  Group."  •  -  The  "  great  dramatic  period  "  opened 
first  with  the  so-called  "  University  Group."  The  list  includes 
many  names.  George  Peele,  who  wrote  plays,  pageants,  and  mis- 
cellaneous verse,  was  brilliant  and  versatile,  but  was  weak  in  power  of 
construction.  This  is  seen  in  his  David  and  Bethsabe,  which  is  full  of 
fine,  detached  passages.  His  Old  Wives'  Tale  furnished  a  basis  for 
Milton's  Comus.  Peele  and  Thomas  Lodge  (1558-1625),  who  ex- 
celled chiefly  in  lyric  poetry,  were  Oxford  men.  Preeminent  among 
the  Cambridge  group  was  Christopher  Marlowe  (1564-1593).  He  was 
the  author  of  many  remarkable  plays —  Tamburlaine  (about  1587), 
The  Tragedy  of  Dr.  Faustus  (1588),  The  Jew  of  Malta,  and  Edward  II 
(1593).  Also  he  wrote  much  of  the  second  and  third  parts  of  Henry 
VI,  which  Shakespeare  revised  and  completed.  Much  other  work, 
too,  he  produced  before  he  was  killed  in  a  drunken  brawl  at  the  age 
of  twenty-nine.  His  Tamburlaine  marked  an  epoch  in  tragedy,  and 
his  sonorous  uneven  blank  verse  far  excelled  that  of  any  poet  who  had 
oreceded  him.  With  that  "  fine  madness  .  .  .  which  rightly  should 
possess  a  poet's  brain,"  and  with  an  amazing  mingling  of  bombast 
and  sublimity,  he  set  forth  the  soaring  flights  of  human  ambition,  for 
power  in  Tamburlaine,  for  knowledge  in  Faustus,  for  wealth  in  the 
Jew  of  Malta.  In  spite  of  his  lack  of  humor  and  restraint,  some 
leading  critics  have  ranked  him  among  the  world's  great  poets. '  Robert 
Greene  went  first  to  Cambridge  and  later  to  Oxford.  Before  he  died 
at  the  age  of  thirty-two  —  from  a  surfeit,  it  is  said,  of  pickled  herring 
and  Rhenish  wine  —  he  had  written  over  thirty  romances  and  pam- 
phlets and  five  plays.  Although  his  prose,  and  the  poetry  scattered 
through  it,  are  superior  to  any  of  his  dramas,  one  of  the  latter,  The 
Honorable  Historie  of  Frier  Bacon  and  Frier  Bungay,  contains  glowing 
pictures  of  healthy  country  life.  Altogether,  the  "  University  Group 
struck  out  one  of  the  faultiest  but  one  of  the  most  original  and  vigor- 
ous kinds  of  literature  that  the  world  has  seen."  While  it  is  full  of 
extravagance  and  horror,  it  is  charged  with  passion  and  power.  If 
many  of  the  plots  are  ill  constructed  and  embodied  in  language  often 
overwrought,  frequent  passages  of  lofty  eloquence  and  rare  sweetness 
more  than  make  atonement.  The  lives  of  most  of  this  set  were  as 
tempestuous  as  their  works,  and,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  they  came 
to  a  sad  and  untimely  end. 

William  Shakespeare,  1564-1616.  —  The  English  drama  reached 
its  culmination  in  Shakespeare,  indeed  without  a  peer  in  any  language. 
Something,  but  not  overmuch,  is  known  about  him.  He  was  born 
in  Stratford-on-Avon  in  1564.  He  married  and  had  children.  He 


424  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

went  to  London  in  1586,  where  he  became  an  actor  and  wrote  plays. 
He  prospered,  purchased  shares  in  two  theaters,  was  able  to  relieve 
his  father  from  serious  financial  embarrassments,  and  to  buy  the 
largest  house  in  his  native  town.  Thither  he  retired  in  1611,  and 
there  he  spent  the  last  five  years  of  his  life,  in  easy  circumstances,  and 
active  in  social,  business,  and  civic  affairs.  It  is  not  strange  that  so 
little  is  known  about  him,  for  he  came  of  a  family  of  no  distinction, 
he  did  not  go  to  a  university,  he  did  not  belong  to  an  honored  profes- 
sion, and  little  or  nothing  that  he  wrote,  save  a  few  poems,  was  pub- 
lished with  his  authority  in  his  lifetime.  But  we  have  in  his  works 
a  priceless  possession.  For  twenty  years,  from  about  1591  when  be 
wrote  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  until  about  1611  when  he  completed 
The  Tempest,  he  was  actively  writing.  During  this  time  he  produced 
nearly  forty  plays,  besides  the  sonnets  and  the  poems  Venus  and 
Adonis  and  Lucrece.  The  plays  include  many  sorts :  history,  comedy, 
light  and  grave,  tragedy,  and  dramatic  romance,  He  portrays  every 
mood  from  mirth  and  joy  to  black  despair,  and  every  class  of  society 
from  peasant  to  king.  He  deals  with  every  phase  of  human  passion : 
love,  jealousy,  ambition,  and  resignation.  He  told  Englishmen  their 
history,  and  reflected  to  posterity  the  life  of  his  own  age.  Careless 
of  his  fame,  he,  nevertheless,  drew  a  noble  tribute  from  his  contem- 
porary, Ben  Jonson.  Though  while  he  lived  his  works  appeared 
mostly  in  pirated  editions,  and  are  not  mentioned  in  his  will,  they 
were  collected  in  a  folio  edition  in  1623,  and  thus  have  come  down 
to  us. 

The  Shakespearean  Theater.  —  The  means  for  presenting  the  won- 
derful dramas  of  that  age  were  curiously  primitive.  The  early  mystery 
or  miracle  plays  had  been  given  in  churches  and  churchyards,  then 
on  moving  carts  or  pageants.  Others  were  rendered  in  noblemen's 
halls  or  in  the  courtyards  of  inns,  the  audience  looking  down  from 
surrounding  galleries.  Still  others  were  produced  privately  at  court. 
By  the  middle  of  Elizabeth's  reign  independent  theaters  had  begun 
to  spring  up.  They  were  placed  in  the  suburbs,  since  for  reasons 
of  public  policy  the  authorities  refused  to  have  them  in  London. 
The  first  was  "  The  Theater,"  built  in  the  northern  environs  in  1576. 
Here  Shakespeare  first  acted.  Destroyed  by  fire,  it  was  replaced  by 
The  Globe  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Thames.  Afterwards  the  actors 
pushed  into  the  city,  and  before  the  close  of  the  century  there  were 
eleven  playhouses  in  London  and  the  adjoining  districts.  They  were 
very  simple  structures,  circular  or  octagonal  in  shape.  The  center  or 
pit  where  the  poorer  classes  stood  was  open  to  the  sky,  affording  the 
only  light.1  The  surrounding  galleries  only  were  roofed.  The  fash- 
ionable classes  sat  here  or  on  the  stage,  lounging,  eating,  smoking, 
talking,  and  flirting,  and  interrupting  the  actors  when  it  pleased  them. 
Female  parts  were  played  by  young  men.  While  costumes  were  often 

1  Though  plays  were  given  in  the  afternoon  it  grows  dark  very  early  in  London 
in  the  autumn  and  winter. 


ELIZABETHAN  ENGLAND  425 

rich,  scenery  and  properties  were  most  primitive.  A  change  of  scene 
was  indicated  by  a  placard:  a  lantern  represented  the  moon;  a 
wooden  cannon  and  a  pasteboard  tower  a  siege.  Yet  the  absence  of 
elaborate  scenery  had  its  advantages ;  it  fixed  attention  on  the  play, 
and  it  called  forth  some  of  Shakespeare's  finest  descriptive  passages. 

The  Successors  of  Shakespeare.  —  While  no  one  reached  the 
height  of  Shakespeare,  the  great  age  of  Elizabethan  drama  continued 
under  the  Stuarts  until  an  ordinance  of  1642  closed  the  theaters  for 
many  years.  Foremost  among  the  younger  contemporaries  and  suc- 
cessors of  Shakespeare  was  Ben  Jonson  (1573-1637),  poet  laureate  of 
James  I,  literary  dictator  of  his  time  and  king  of  tavern  wits.  Learned, 
rugged,  and  fearless,  it  was  said  that  he  would  rather  lose  his  friend 
than  his  jest.  He  struggled  for  a  purer  classicism  against  the  prevail- 
ing romantic  tendencies,  but  drew  lifelike  pictures  of  his  time;  he 
strove  for  workmanlike  restraint,  though  he  could  fashion  sweet, 
beautiful  lyrics.  It  would  take  pages  merely  to  enumerate  the  names 
and  plays  of  hosts  of  others.  George  Chapman,  John  Marston, 
Thomas  Dekker,  Thomas  Heywood,  Thomas  Middleton,  John  Web- 
ster, John  Ford,  Philip  Massinger,  and  that "  double  star  of  the  heavens 
of  poetry,"  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  are  the  foremost.  In  spite  of 
their  achievements,  the  drama  steadily  declined  under  James  and 
Charles.  The  youthful  ardor  was  gone,  and  the  growing  Puritan 
spirit  was  hostile.  By  way  of  reaction,  playwrights  catered  more  to  the 
rabble  and  the  courtier  with  coarseness  and  sensational  horror.  Many 
fine  pieces  continued  to  be  written,  but  the  greatest  literary  work  now 
came  to  be  produced  in  other  fields.  "  Merrie  England,"  throbbing 
with  fullness  of  life,  was  yielding  to  riotousness  and  dissipation  at  one 
extreme,  at  the  other  to  soberer  ideals  and  practice. 

Final  Estimate  of  the  Elizabethan  Period.  —  Altogether,  Elizabeth's 
long  reign  of  forty-five  years,  though  blemished  by  traits  of  mean- 
ness, shuffling,  and  evasion,  was  a  period  of  glorious  achievement. 
Her  court  was  a  center  of  pomp  and  magnificence,  learning  and  states- 
manship, where  polished  gentlemen,  brilliant  adventurers,  wise  coun- 
cilors and  judges  strove  with  each  other  for  her  favor.  If  the  peace, 
prosperity,  and  industrial  development,  the  ecclesiastical  settlement, 
and  the  wonderful  literary  outburst  were  not  all  her  work,  they  all 
redounded  to  her  credit.  For  a  time  Elizabeth  seemed  the  most 
absolute,  the  strongest,  and  the  most  popular  of  all  the  rulers  of  her 
house.  But  the  splendor  and  strength  of  her  power  reached  maturity 
during  the  years  just  following  the  Armada.  As  she  approached  the 
close  of  her  reign  the  luster  of  her  glory  had  begun  to  dim  and  the 
vigor  of  her  power  to  decline.  Her  people  began  to  wait  impatiently 
for  her  decease  to  open  the  way  for  new  men  and  new  measures.  Those 
who  valued  religious  and  political  liberty  more  than  wealth  eagerly 
greeted  the  new  dynasty  from  Scotland. 


426  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING 

Constitutional.  Prothero,  Statutes,  introduction,  pp.  i-cxxv ;  an  admirable  survey. 
Sir  Thomas  Smith,  De  Republica  Anglorum,  A  Discourse  on  the  Commonwealth  of 
England  (written  about  1568,  four  years  before  the  author  became  a  Secretary  of 
State;  first  published  in  1583;  the  best  and  most  recent  edition,  1906,  ed.  L. 
Alston).  Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  XII.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  IV,  ch.  V. 
Hallam,  History  of  England,  I,  chs.  III-V. 

Social  and  industrial.  Innes,  England  under  the  Tudors,  ch.  XXVIII.  Traill, 
Social  England,  III,  chs.  XI,  XII.  Cunningham,  English  Industry  and  Commerce 
(ed.  1907),  II,  pp.  1-164.  Ashley,  English  Economic  History,  II,  especially  ch.  V,  on 
"The  Relief  of  the  Poor."  Rogers,  Agriculture  and  Prices,  chs.  Ill,  IV.  Prothero 
English  Farming,  ch.  IV.  E.  M.  Leonard,  Early  History  of  English  Poor  Relief, 
(1900).  Hubert  Hall,  Society  in  the  Elizabethan  Age  (1901).  Stephenson,  The 
Elizabethan  People  (1910).  G.  Unwin,  Industrial  Organization  in  the  Sixteenth  and 
Seventeenth  Centuries  (1904).  Harrison's  famous  Description  of  England,  from 
Holinshed's  Chronicle,  is  reprinted  in  the  "Camelot  Series,"  ed.  L.  Withington,  n.d. 

Maritime  enterprise,  the  Navy  and  the  Army.  Pollard,  ch.  XVI ;  Innes,  ch. 
XXIII.  Froude,  English  Seamen  in  the  Sixteenth  Century  (1895).  Oppenheim, 
Administration  of  the  Royal  Navy,  I.  J.  S.  Corbett,  Drake  and  the  Tudor  Navy  (2  vols. , 
1898)  and  The  Successors  of  Drake  (1900).  Selections  from  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  ed. 
by  E.  J.  Payne  (2  series,  1893-1900)  and  C.  R.  Beazley  (1907).  J.  W.  Fortescue, 
History  of  the  British  Army  (vol.  I,  1900) ;  the  standard  military  history. 

Literature.  Moody  and  Lovett,  chs.  III-VI.  Cambridge  History  of  Literature, 
III,  IV,  V,  VI,  with  full  bibliography  at  end  of  vols.  Jusserand,  Literary  History 
of  the  English  People,  II.  Taine,  English  Literature,  I,  II,  bk.  II,  chs.  I-V.  Saints- 
bury,  History  of  Elizabethan  Literature  (1890).  Cambridge  Modern  History,  III, 
ch.  XI  (with  bibliography  pp.  825-828).  Pollard,  ch.  XXIII;  Innes,  ch.  XXVII. 
Sidney  Lee,  Life  of  Shakespeare  (1898) ;  the  standard  biography.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
William  Shakespeare  (1907) ;  a  charming  appreciation. 

For  the  Church,  see  references  to  chs.  XXIV  and  XXV,  together  with  R.  G.  Usher, 
The  Reconstruction  of  the  English  Church  (2  vols.,  1910). 


CHAPTER  XXVII 


JAMES  I  AND  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  THE   PURITAN   REVOLUTION 

(1603-1625) 

The  Significance  of  the  Accession  of  James  I.  —  The  accession 
of  the  Stuarts  in  the  person  of  James  I,  24  March,  1603,  was  fraught 
with  consequences.  United  and  prosperous,  the  mass  of  the  English 
people  were  now  eager  to  throw  off  the  Tudor  absolutism,  and  to 
ask  for  more  liberty.  There  was  much  in  the'  old  system  which  they 
opposed,  and  that  not  only  stood  in  the  way  of  free  religious  and 
political  development,  but  might,  under  a  new  line  of  sovereigns, 
menace  the  little  which  they  still  enjoyed.  There  was  the  State 
Church  absolutely  under  royal  control  ;  there  were  the  extraordinary 
courts,  all  independent  of  common  law  guarantees,  and  there  were 
taxes  and  exactions,  oppressive  in  themselves,  but  peculiarly  danger- 
ous from  the  fact  that  they  made  the  sovereign  independent  of  Par- 
liament. These  were  the  special  grievances,  actual  or  potential. 
The  main  issue  which  was  tried  out  under  the  Stuarts  was  whether 
the  sovereignty  supposed  to  rest  in  the  King-in-Parliament  should, 
in  cases  of  conflict,  be  exercised  by  the  monarch  or  by  the  body  which 
stood  between  him  and  the  people.  In  other  words,  should  the 
Tudor  system  continue,  or  should  the  country  return  to  the  form 
which  had  prevailed  for  a  season  under  the  Lancastrians?  During 
the  struggle  which  followed,  all  sorts  of  questions  bearing  on  the  main 
point  arose,  questions  of  religion,  taxation,  parliamentary  privilege, 
and  the  scope  of  the  courts.  The  result  was  victory  for  Parliament. 
In  this,  England  led  the  countries  of  continental  Europe  by  nearly 
two  centuries  ;  for  in  them  the  tendency  during  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  was  toward  increasing  absolutism,  and  the  tide 
did  not  turn  till  the  French  Revolution.  Changes  in  England  seemed 
inevitable  ;  yet,  had  the  line  of  Tudors  continued,  they  might,  with 
their  traditions  and  their  sense  of  the  needs  and  temper  of  their  sub- 
jects, have  managed  it  in  a  peaceful  and  gradual  way  without  a  civil 
war. 

The  King's  Early  Scotch  Environment.  —  James,  called  upon  to 
face  a  situation  grave  enough  for  any  one,  "  turned  out  to  be  one  of 
those  curiosities  which  the  laws  of  inheritance  occasionally  bring  to 
the  notice  of  mankind."  Not  only  did  he  represent  an  alien  house  to 
whom  the  English  were  bound  by  no  ties  of  gratitude,  but  he  was 
totally  unfitted  by  training  and  temperament  to  rule  a  country  where 

427 


428  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  ideal  was  constitutional  government.  A  feeble,  rickety  infant, 
scarcely  more  than  a  year-  old,  he  had  succeeded  to  the  throne  of 
Scotland  as  James  VI,  24^iilyf  1^567.  \&notk«r»iinority-was  added  to 
those  which  had  plagued  the  coutitry  for  two  centuries.  Internal 
and  border  wars  had  torn  the  kingdom  for  ages.  The  barons  con- 
tended against  the  Crown,  Highland  chiefs  fought  against  Lowland 
lords,  and  .each  fought  among  themselves.  Throughout  the  land 
there  wasrrightfuUtontejiipt i&Vu.fla'n  life.  The  border  was  wasted 
by  the  constant  passage  of  Southron  and  Scot,  and  the  wild  Highlander 
lived  by  pillage.  Much  of  the  soil  was  barren,  and  owTing  to  the  pre- 
vailing strife,  still  more  remained  uncultivated.  The  chief  wealth 
was  in  small  black  cattle  which  could  be  driven  away  in  time  of  danger. 
The  whole  population  did  not  far  exceed  600,000.  Glasgow  was  as 
yet  an  obscure  village  which  did  not  attain  full  burgh  rights  till  1636. 
Edinburgh,  with  a  population  of  30,000,  was  the  center  of  wealth  and 
culture,  though  even  there  riot  and  feud  were  rampant.  Parliament 
was  not  a  representative  body  but  a  collection  of  factions.  It  con- 
sisted of  assemblies  of  the  various  estates,  with  the  initiative  in  the 
hands  of  the  "Lords  of  the  Articles," -— a  committee,  or  series  of 
committees,  of  the  nobles,  barons,  clergy,  boroughs,  and  officers  of 
State,  in  theory  elected  by  the  estates,  in  fact  controlled  by  the  King 
or  the  interests  which  happened  to  be  dominant.  The  King  rarely 
went  to  it  for  supplies,  and  the  nobles  redressed  their  own  grievances. 
The  religious  grievances  added  another  element  of  discord.  While 
the  Reformation  was  aimed  against  real  abuses  in  the  ancient  Church, 
it  was  directed  by  greedy  nobles  who  appropriated  the  greater  part 
of  its  temporal  goods.  The  General  Assembly  of  the  new  church  not 
only  demanded  a  more  adequate  share  of  the  ecclesiastical  property, 
but  the  right  to  interfere  in  state  affairs.  Finally,  the  intrigues  of 
the  French  and  the  Romanists,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  Elizabeth's 
agents,  on  the  other,  contributed  still  further  to  weaken  national 
sentiment  and  to  promote  lawlessness.  Truly,  the  little  James  grew 
up  in  troublous  times.  Before  he  was  fifteen  years  old  five  regents 
had  come  and  gone,  two  murdered,  one  executed,  and  only  one  died 
a  natural  death.  When  barely  sixteen,  he  had  been  seized  by  the 
Ruthvens  and  forced  to  expel  his  dearest  companion,  and  again, 
three  years  before  he  came  to  England,  these  same  Ruthvens  sought 
his  life.1  What  Scotland  needed  was  not  so  much  liberty  as  a  settled 
central  government.  James,  weak  in  position  and  temperament, 
sought  to  make  himself  strong  by  the  only  means  open  to  him,  by 
dissimulation  and  intrigue,  a  policy  upon  which  he  came  to  pride 
himself,  and  which  he  dignified  by  the  name  of  "  Kingcraft."  He 
also  used  this  method  in  another  of  his  dearest  aims,  the  attainment 
of  the  English  succession :  supporting,  sometimes  Elizabeth ;  at  others, 
intriguing  with  the  Pope  or  the  King  of  Spain.  So  he  had  grown  up 

1  The  mysterious  "Cowrie  Conspiracy,"  1600,  is  one  of  the  puzzles  of  history. 


BEGINNINGS   OF  THE   PURITAN  REVOLUTION     429 

to  thread  a  tortuous  way  between  a  rapacious,  turbulent  nobility  and 
a  gloomy,  fanatical,  domineering  clergy ;  between  an  English  and  a 
French  party ;  between,  indeed,  all  sorts  of  conflicting  forces. 

Character  of  the  King.  —  There  were  many  good  points  about 
James.  He  had  the  good  of  his  subjects  at  heart.  He  strove  for 
peace  and  aimed  to  be  the  reconciler  of  factions  and  the  arbiter  of 
warring  nations.  He  had  a  touch  of  Scotch  shrewdness,  he  was  kind- 
hearted,  and  on  the  whole  good  natured.  Gifted  with  considerable 
natural  ability,  he  had  been  carefully  educated  by  George  Buchanan, 
the  most  learned  Scotsman  of  his  time.  But  James  was  a  pedant 
rather  than  a  scholar ;  he  paraded  rather  than  applied  his  learning  — 
"  the  wisest  fool  in  Christendom,"  Sully,  the  minister  of  Henry  IV, 
called  him.  Naturally  indolent,  he  justified  his  idleness  on  the  ground 
that  "  he  could  not  work  long  consecutively,  but  when  he  did  work, 
he  Was  worth  any  six  men  put  together."  Conceited  as  he  was,  he 
was  naturally  timid  and  infirm  of  purpose.  It  has  been  said  that 
while  he  always  saw  both  sides  of  a  question,  he  never  saw  them  at 
the  same  time  and  so  was  not  a  statesman.  He  was  impatient  of 
detail  and  irritated  at  contradiction.  Once  on  receiving  some  dis- 
quieting news  from  abroad  as  he  sat  down  to  dinner,  he  flung  the  meat 
from  the  table  and  the  dish  after  it,  and  threatened  to  hang  the  cook. 
Yet  he  was  always  ready,  after  his  flurries  were  over,  to  ask  forgive- 
ness of  any  one  whom  he  had  offended.  In  general,  however,  his 
manners  were  rough  and  uncouth.  His  appearance,  too,  lacked 
dignity;  for  though  he  was  above  middle  height  and  well  made,  a 
sprawling  gait,  rolling  eyes,  and  a  tongue  too  large  for  his  mouth  gave 
him  a  very  unkingly  appearance.  He  was  only  fond  of  clothes  in 
the  sense  that  he  insisted  on  keeping  and  wearing  a  costume  once 
acquired  a  very  long  time.  From  his  youth  up  he  was  easily  led  by 
favorites :  Esme  Stewart,  Robert  Carr,  George  Vi  liers,  each  in  turn 
gained  an  ascendancy  over  him,  more  by  their  personal  graces  than  by 
their  attainments.  While  Elizabeth  only  amused  herself  with  men  of 
this  stamp  in  her  lighter  moments,  James  allowed  them  to  manage 
his  public  affairs.  The  death  of  Robert  Cecil l  deprived  him  of  his 
only  able  administrator.  James'  queen,  Anne  of  Denmark,  was  not 
a  help  to  him.  Although  faithful,  kindly,  and  personally  popular, 
she  was  frivolous  and  extravagant,  spending  vast  sums  on  plays, 
progresses,  clothes,  jewels,  and  buildings.  Moreover,  she  inclined 
toward  Rome  and  was  reported  to  be  a  convert,  although  she  finally 
died  a  Protestant. 

James'  Views  on  the  Prerogative  :   "  The  Divine  Right  of  Kings." 

—  A  most  fruitful  source  of  discord  between  James  and  his  subjects 

was  his  exalted  notions  concerning  the  origin  and  nature  of  monarchy. 

The  Tudors  had  refrained  from  vain  theorizing  and  had  acted ;  James 

talked  big  and  alienated  his  subjects,  though  he  managed  to  prevent 

1  Created  Earl  of  Salisbury  in  1605,  Secretary  of  State  1596-1608,  Lord  Treas- 
urer from  1608  to  1612. 


430  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

matters  from  coming  to  a  crisis  during  his  reign.  "  He  was  a  formalist 
rather  than  a  tyrant."  He  had  already  shaped  his  views  before  he 
came  to  England.  In  the  True  Law  of  Free  Monarchies  he  had  asserted 
that  a  "  free  monarch  "  —  that  is,  one  free  from  all  restraint  from  his 
subjects  —  was  created  by  God  and  accountable  to  God  alone.  While 
he  admitted  that  a  good  king  should  govern  in  the  popular  interest,  he 
contended  that  rebellion  could,  under  no  circumstances,  be  justified. 
Such  views  in  themselves  were  enough  to  arouse  the  bitterest  opposi- 
tion. James  only  added  fuel  to  the  fire  by  his  astounding  manner  of 
stating  them.  "  The  State  of  Monarchy,"  he  announced  in  a  speech 
before  Parliament  in  1610,  "  is  the  supremest  thing  upon  earth;  for 
kings  are  not  only  God's  lieutenants  upon  earth  and  sit  upon  God's 
throne,  but  even  by  God  himself  they  are  called  gods.  .  .  .  That 
as  to  dispute  what  God  may  do  is  blasphemy  ...  so  is  it  seditious 
in  subjects  to  dispute  what  a  king  may  do  in  the  height  of  his 
power." 

His  very  accession  to  the  English  throne  served  to  strengthen  his 
opinion  on  the  subject.  He  was  really  barred  on  three  grounds :  the 
will  of  Henry  VIII  had  excluded  the  Stuart  line ;  his  mother  Mary 
had  disinherited  him  in  favor  of  Philip  II  in  1585 ;  and,  as  an  alien, 
one  not  born  on  English  soil,  he  could  not  inherit  anything  appertain- 
ing to  that  country.  He  had  many  rivals,  fourteen  in  all,  but  each 
was  disqualified  or  unacceptable  for  one  reason  or  another.  Yet 
there  were  many  reasons,  aside  from  the  fact  that  he  was  the  next 
lineal  heir,  which  contributed  to  the  choice  of  James.  The  majority  of 
Englishmen  realized  the  advantage  of  absorbing  Scotland  in  a  personal 
union.  Moreover,  Catholics  and  extreme  Protestants  were  both  ready 
to  welcome  him ;  the  former  because  he  was  the  son  of  a  martyr  to 
their  faith,  the  latter  because  he  had  been  brought  up  a  Presbyterian. 
The  new  sovereign,  however,  felt  that  he  came  to  the  English  throne 
solely  by  virtue  of  his  birthright,  a  view  that  was  confirmed  by  the 
Act  of  Recognition  passed  in  his  first  Parliament  which  declared  him 
King  "  by  the  goodness  of  God  Almighty  and  lawful  right  of  descent." 

James  I  and  the  Puritans.  The  Millenary  Petition,  1603.  —  First 
the  Protestants  and  then  the  Catholics  were  destined  to  sore  disap- 
pointment. On  his  way  to  London  l  in  April,  1603,  James  was  pre- 
sented with  a  petition  embodying  the  demands  of  the  Puritan  2  clergy. 
The  Millenary  Petition,  as  it  was  called,3  asked :  I,  that  the  ritual 
of  the  Church  be  purged  of  Romish  forms  and  ceremonies,  such  as 
the  cross  in  baptism,  the  ring  in  marriage,  and  the  wearing  of  the  cap 
and  surplice,  and  that  holidays  be  decreased  and  the  Sabbath  be  better 

1  At  the  beginning  of  his  journey  he  showed  how  little  he  understood  English 
procedure  by  ordering  a  cutpurse  who  was  brought  before  him  to  be  strung  up 
forthwith  without  even  the  form  of  a  trial. 

2  Those  who  wanted  to  stay  in  the  Church  while  purifying  it  of  certain  abuses. 

3  Because  it  was  supposed  to  have  been  signed  by  1000  clergymen.     As  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  was  assented  to  by  about  800. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION    431 

observed ;  II,  that  less  strictness  be  required  in  subscription  to  the 
articles,  and  more  care  be  taken  to  secure  learned  preachers  ;  III,  that 
such  abuses  as  non-residence,  pluralities,1  cornmendams 2  be  abolished ; 
IV,  that  oppressive  customs  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts  be  remedied 
—  their  expensive  procedure,  their  excommunication  for  trivial  matters, 
and  their  use  of  the  ex-ojficio  oath. 

The  Hampton  Court  Conference,  1604.  —  In  January,  1604,  James 
arranged  a  conference  between  representatives  of  their  party  on  the 
one  hand,  and  certain  bishops  and  clergy  of  the  Established  Church 
on  the  other.  The  King  himself  presided.  He  had  been  bred  a 
Calvinist,  he  favored  Calvinistic  theology,  he  was  fond  of  argument, 
tolerant  of  other  men's  opinions,  and  too  kind-hearted  to  be  a  persecu- 
tor. At  the  same  time,  he  had  Jaeen  overawed  and  browbeaten  by 
Presbyterian  ministers  from  his  youth  up.  As  late  as  1596,  for  ex- 
ample, Andrew  Melville  had  ventured  to  pluck  the  sleeve  of  his  august 
sovereign  and  to  call  him  "  God's  silly  vassal."  His  personal  expe- 
riences only  accentuated  his  distrust  of  the  Presbyterian  theory  that 
all  men  were  equal  in  the  sight  of  God,  that  the  Church  was  independ- 
ent of  State  control,  and  of  the  Presbyterian  practice  of  interfering 
in  secular  affairs.  In  shining  contrast,  to  his  mind,  was  the  English 
custom  where  the  sovereign  appointed  the  bishops  and  through  them 
controlled  the  Church.  "  No  bishop,  no  king  "  was  his  motto.  He 
was  on  the  lookout  for  any  political  bearing  in  the  Puritan  demands, 
and  when,  in  the  midst  of  the  discussion,  their  leader,  Reynolds,  began 
to  outline  a  scheme  of  government,  he  burst  out:  "  If  you  aim  at 
Scotch  presbytery,  it  agreeth  as  well  with  monarchy  as  God  and  the 
devil.  Then  Jack  and  Tom,  and  Will  and  Dick  shall  meet  and  cen- 
sure me  and  my  Council.  .  .  .  Stay,  I  pray,  for  one  seven  years, 
before  you  demand ;  and  then  if  you  find  me  grown  pursey  and  fat,  I 
may  perchance  hearken  unto  you."  After  a  long  harangue  he  con- 
cluded with  the  ominous  threat  to  the  Puritans-.  "  I  will  make  them 
conform  themselves,  or  else  I  will  harry  them  out  of  the  land,  or  else 
do  worse."  It  was  a  new  and  delicious  sensation  for  him  when  the 
Bishop  of  London  threw  himself  on  his  knees,  protesting :  "  My  heart 
melteth  with  joy  that  Almighty  God,  of  his  singular  mercy,  hath  given 
us  such  a  King,  as,  since  Christ's  time  the  like  hath  not  been."  The 
only  results  of  the  Conference  were  a  few  alterations  in  the  liturgy 
and  the  decision  to  translate  the  Scriptures  which  bore  fruit  in  the 
famous  King  James'  version,  1611.  Before  the  close  of  1604  a  proc- 
lamation was  issued  depriving  of  their  livings  those  who  refused  to 
conform.  Some  of  the  irreconcilables  went  to  the  Low  Countries, 
whence  they  migrated  later  and  founded  Plymouth  Colony. 

James  and  the  Catholics.  —  The  turn  of  the  Catholics  soon  came. 
Much  had  contributed  to  nourish  their  hopes  in  Mary's  son.  Even 

1  The  holding  of  many  church  offices  in  one  hand. 

2  The  keeping  of  a  living  vacant  by  a  bishop  that  he  might  draw  the  revenue 
during  the  interval. 


432  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

after  his  accession  he  continued  to  correspond  with  the  Pope  and  with 
Spain,  while  his  wife  held  out  the  prospect  that  he  might  become  a 
convert.  He  was  averse  to  persecution,  he  desired  papal  support, 
and  aimed  at  a  Spanish  alliance.  So,  after  some  delay,  he  remitted 
the  recusancy  fines,  and,  in  August,  1604,  by  the  Treaty  of  London,  he 
made  peace  with  Spain,  leaving  the  Dutch  to  shift  for  themselves, 
though  he  still  allowed  his  subjects  to  volunteer  in  their  service. 
Nevertheless,  he  could  not  accept  the  papal  claim  to  be  above  earthly 
rulers,  and  shuddered  at  the  right  which  they  asserted  of  deposing 
princes  when  the  occasion  demanded.  Moreover,  the  Catholics  mul- 
tiplied so  soon  as  they  received  the  encouragement,  James  became 
agitated  by  accusations  that  he  was  leaning  toward  Rome,  and  resented 
the  Pope's  refusal  to  excommunicate  certain  turbulent  members  of 
his  flock  who  were  disturbing  the  repose  of  the  kingdom.  As  early 
as  February,  1604,  he  issued  a  proclamation  banishing  priests ;  in  June, 
Parliament  passed  an  act  confirming  and  extending  the  penal  laws 
of  Elizabeth,  and  before  the  end  of  the  summer  the  royal  justices  were 
busy  enforcing  them. 

The  Gunpowder  Plot,  1605.  —  The  result  was  to  precipitate  a 
dangerous  plot,  already  in  the  making.  Robert  Catesby,  a  Warwick- 
shire squire  whose  family  had  suffered  for  the  old  faith,  was  the  lead- 
ing spirit.  Among  the  conspirators  whom  he  enlisted  was  Guy 
Fawkes,  a  young  Englishman  who  had  been  serving  in  the  Spanish 
army  in  the  Netherlands.  After  some  delays  and  changes  in  their 
plan  they  at  length  hired  a  house  with  a  cellar  running  under  the 
Parliament  buildings.  There  they  deposited  twenty  barrels  of  gun- 
powder which  they  covered  with  iron  bars,  faggots,  and  billets  of  wood. 
Their  design  was  to  blow  up  the  Lords  and  Commons,  together  with 
James  and  his  eldest  son  Prince  Henry,  when  the  session  opened  in 
November,  1605.  Beyond  this  they  contemplated  a  general  rising 
of  the  Catholics  in  the  west  midlands,  the  seizure  of  Prince  Charles 
and  Princess  Elizabeth,  and  the  setting  up  of  a  new  government. 
Too  many,  however,  were  taken  into  the  secret,  the  plot  was  disclosed 
to  Salisbury,  and  Fawkes  was  surprised  and  seized  in  the  cellar. 
Catesby,  with  a  number  of  his  fellow-plotters  who  had  escaped  to  the 
scene  of  the  projected  rising,  were  shot  in  an  attempt  to  bring  it  about. 
Several  others  who  were  captured  were  tried  and  executed,  together 
with  Fawkes.  Under  the  name  of  Guy  Fawkes'  Day,  5  November 
came  to  be  celebrated  as  the  anniversary  of  the  discovery  of  the  Gun- 
powder Plot,  with  bonfires  and  fireworks,  and  remained  a  national 
holiday  for  over  two  centuries.  By  way  of  retaliation  Parliament  in 
1606  passed  two  acts  greatly  increasing  Roman  Catholic  disabilities 
and  imposing  a  new  oath  of  allegiance,  expressly  denying  the  papal 
power  of  deposition  on  all  recusants.  Another  act  followed  in  1610. 
These  penalties  were  not  enforced,  partly  because  the  pacific  King 
did  not  want  to  drive  the  Catholics  to  desperation,  partly  because  he 
was  frequently  in  negotiation  with  Spain.  Their  existence,  however, 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION    433 

was  a  constant  grievance  to  the  Catholic  subjects,  while  the  failure 
to  enforce  them  was  a  source  of  resentment  to  the  Protestants. 

Initial  Difficulties  with  Parliament.  —  Parliament,  which  met  for 
its  first  session  19  March,  1604,  came  into  conflict  with  James,  from 
the  very  start.  His  opening  speech,  though  reasonable  and  dignified 
in  many  respects,  was  marked  by  evidences  of  his  characteristic  vanity 
and  grotesqueness.  He  pointed  out,  for  instance,  the  great  blessings 
which  God  had,  in  his  person,  bestowed  upon  the  whole  people,  among 
them  the  "  union  of  two  ancient  and  famous  kingdoms  "  divinely 
united,  "  both  in  language  and  religion  and  similitude  of  manners." 
With  a  soaring  Jacobean  flight  he  declared  :  "  What  God  hath  joined, 
then  let  no  man  separate.  I  am  the  husband  and  the  whole  isle  is 
my  lawful  wife :  I  am  the  head  and  it  is  my  body :  I  am  the  shepherd 
and  it  is  my  flock."  Finding  at  the  conclusion  of  his  speech  that  the 
Commons  had  not  been  admitted,  he  had  them  called  in,  and  the  poor 
Lords  had  to  hear  it  all  over  again.  Before  proceeding  to  other  busi- 
ness two  important  cases  of  privilege  were  settled.  By  Goodwin's 
case  it  was  determined  that  the  Commons  should  henceforth  be  the 
sole  judge  of  election  returns  of  their  members.  While  bound  to  decide 
on  partisan  grounds  they  could  not  safely  leave  to  the  Crown  a  priv- 
ilege which  would  inevitably  be  employed  to  exclude  members  hostile 
to  the  royal  policy.  CJn  the  case  of  Sir  Thomas  Shirley  it  was  established 
that  members  during  the  session,  and  for  an  interval  of  forty  days 
before  and  after,  should  be  exempt  from  arrest  for  debt.  \  This  took 
from  the  King  another  possible  means  of  keeping  out  his  opponents. 

Encouraged  by  these  two  victories,  the  Commons  made  a  vain 
effort  to  do  away  with  the  ancient  grievance  of  purveyance  and  to 
buy  from  the  King  his  old  feudal  rights  of  wardship  and  marriage. 
Also,  they  were  unable  to  secure  relief  for  those  who  scrupled  to  con- 
form to  certain  Church  ceremonies.  James,  on  his  part,  was  defeated 
in  his  efforts  to  obtain  parliamentary  union  with  Scotland  and  a  vote 
of  supplies.  Of  all  the  issues,  however,  one  more  fundamental  and 
significant  than  all  the  rest  was  denned.  The  King  took  the  ground 
that  the  Commons  "  derived  all  matters  of  privilege  from  him."  In 
a  notable  Apology  which  was  drawn  up  and  read  in  the  House  before 
the  close  of  the  session *  they  declared  that  the  King  had  been  "  greatly 
wronged  by  misinformation,"  and  that  their  privileges,  of  free  elec- 
tion, freedom  from  arrest,  and  freedom  of  speech,  were  their  lawful 
inheritance  and  not  a  gift  from  the  sovereign.  In  other  words,  that 
they  were  an  inalienable  right  which  could  not  be  withdrawn.  In  this 
reply  to  the  royal  challenge  they  took  a  position  about  which  a  fierce 
struggle  was  waged  for  nearly  a  century,  a  struggle  from  which  Parlia- 
ment ultimately  emerged  victorious. 

James'  Financial  Embarrassments.  —  The  King's  chief  weakness 
was  his  need  of  money.  He  had  inherited  the  debt  contracted  by 

1  It  was  never  presented  to  the  King. 

2F 


434  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Elizabeth  in  her  war  with  Spain ;  but,  more  serious  still,  there  was  an 
alarming  annual  excess  of  expenditures  over  revenue.  This  was  due 
partly  to  royal  extravagance,  though  still  more  to  the  increasing 
needs  of  the  State,  and  to  the  fact  that  the  royal  income  had  been 
fixed  when  money  went  further  than  it  did  at  this  time.  The  stand- 
ard of  living  was  growing  steadily  higher,  conditions  were  becoming 
more  complex,  and  the  influx  of  precious  metals  was  still  sending  up 
prices.  It  speaks  volumes  that  the  thrifty  Elizabeth  had  left  a  deficit. 
It  was  the  duty  of  the  Stuarts  to  economize  or,  by  timely  concessions, 
to  obtain  larger  grants  from  Parliament.  That  they  did  neither 
accounts  for  their  final  overthrow.  James  lacked  the  patience  and 
ability  to  manage  financial  details  and  the  firmness  and  inclination 
to  cut  down  the  expenses  of  his  court  and  to  refuse  the  demands  of  his 
favorites.  So  he  had  constantly  to  watch  for  means  to  increase  his 
revenue.  One  of  these  was  the  levying  of  impositions. 

The  Bate  Case  and  Impositions,  1606-1610.  —  In  1606,  Bate,  a 
Turkey  merchant,  refused  to  pay  an  imposition  on  a  consignment  of 
currants.  On  the  case  being  referred  to  the  Court  of  Exchequer  the 
barons  decided  in  javor  of  the  King.  There  was  some  legal  ground 
for  this  decision ;  because,  while  it  was  recognized  that  direct  taxes 
could  not  be  imposed  without  parliamentary  consent,  there  was  no 
general  prohibition  comprehending  all  indirect  taxes.  Moreover,  it 
had  been  customary  for  certain  sovereigns,  particularly  the  Tudors, 
to  impose  such  duties  as  a  means  of  encouraging  native  industries  or  of 
striking  a  blow  at  the  trade  of  hostile  powers.  Nevertheless,  the 
power  was  fraught  with  dangerous  consequences.1  Kings  might  em- 
ploy it,  not  merely  for  the  regulation  of  commerce,  but  in  order  to 
raise  a  revenue  independent  of  Parliament.  James'  intentions  were 
soon  evident.  In  1608  Salisbury  issued  a  new  Book  of  Rates f  or  tariff 
_scheduje,  in  which  he  greatly  increased  the  revenue  from  tonnage  and 
poundage,  adding,  at  the  same  time,  impositions  to  the  amount  of 
£70,000  a  year.  He  greatly  reduced  the  deficit  and  the  debt,  though 
there  was  still  much  need  of  money  when  Parliament  assembled 
9  February,  1610. 

The  Great  Contract,  1610.  —  While  the  King  was  concerned  chiefly 
with  supply,  the  Commons  were  intent  upon  redress  of  grievances, 
financial,  religious,  and  legal.  Among  the  former  the  question  of  im- 
positions had  taken  a  place  side  by  side  with  purveyance  and  feudal 
dues.  Then  there  was  great  dissatisfaction  over  the  treatment  of  the 
Nonconformists.  And  finally,  the  common  law  judges  were  trying 

1  The  Barons  of  the  Exchequer  in  delivering  their  opinion  made  two  declarations 
that  were  particularly  disquieting.  One  was  that,  over  and  above  his  ordinary 
power  in  which  he  was  bound  by  law,  the  sovereign  was  vested  with  an  extraordi- 
nary power  which  he  might  exercise  for  the  good  of  the  kingdom  free  from  all 
restraint.  While  justifiable  on  some  occasions,  this  put  a  dangerous  weapon  in 
the  royal  hands.  The  other  was  that  the  concessions  made  by  one  sovereign  did 
not  bind  his  successors,  which  meant  that  the  battle  for  liberty  might  have  to  be 
fought  over  and  over  again  in  each  successive  reign. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION    435 

vainly  to  curb  the  extensive  and  arbitrary  jurisdiction  of  the  extraor- 
dinary courts.  The  Commons  offered  a  permanent  annual  grant  of 
£100,000  in  return  for  feudal  dues.  The  King  demanded  £200,000. 
They  not  only  refused,  but  in  spite  of  James'  attempts  to  stop  them, 
they  proceeded  to  discuss  his  right  to  levy  impositions.  After  some 
haggling  they  agreed  to  the  grant  of  £200,000  a  year,  provided  that 
purveyance  as  well  as  feudal  dues  were  given  up.  Then  the  matter 
was  laid  over  till  autumn.  But  when  they  met  again,  the  Commons 
insisted  on  including  the  redress  of  various  other  grievances.  The 
King,  on  his  part,  felt  that  £200,000  was  an  inadequate  compensation 
for  what  he  was  asked  to  yield.  Thus  the  Great  Contract,  as  it  was 
called,  came  to  nothing.  Worse  than  that,  the  bitterness  engendered 
by  the  struggle  marked  another  step  in  the  breach  between  the  Crown 
and  Parliament. 

Relations  with  Scotland  to  1612.  —  Meantime,  the  Scotch  question 
was  producing  friction  that  was  to  be  a  serious  factor  in  the  coming 
conflict.  There  were  serious  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  union  which 
James  strove  so  ardently  to  bring  about.  Centuries  of  disturbance 
along  the  border  and  the  harsh  laws  framed  to  meet  it  had  fostered 
the  bitterest  animosity  between  the  two  peoples  who  dwelt  on  either 
side.  Moreover,  union  would  involve  free  trade,  and  the  English 
were  set  against  meeting  the  competition  of  the  frugal  and  industrious 
Scot.  The  question  of  their  status  offered  another  difficulty. 
If  they  were  declared  subjects,  they  might  hold  English  lands 
and  offices,  and  the  extent  to  which  James  might  favor  his  indigent 
and  greedy  countrymen  was  viewed  with  alarm.  The  hostile  border 
laws  were  repealed,  but  free  trade  did  not  come  till  1707.  In  a  suit 
brought  in  1607  in  behalf  of  Robert  Calvin,  or  Colville,  the  Court  of 
Exchequer  Chamber  decided  that  posL  natii  or  Scotchmen  born  after 
the  union,  were  natural  English  subjects.  As  the  English  opposed 
James'  plan  for  a  union,  so  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  struggled  against 
his  restoration  of  the  episcopal  system,1  a  process  which  took  him  from 
1599  to  1612  to  effect.  Courts  of  High  Commission  were  set  up; 
bishops  were  made  moderators  of  the  provincial  synods  and  given  the 
power  of  ordination  and  supervision  over  the  ecclesiastical  decisions 
of  synods  and  presbyteries.  These  bishops  were  designed  by  the 
King  and  the  nobles  for  the  control  of  the  Church,  while  the  Presby- 
terian clergy  represented  the  bulk  of  the  people.  Thus  anti-Episcopa- 
lianism  came  to  be  identified  with  national  independence.  James 
was  wise  enough  not  to  push  his  victory  too  far ;  but  the  ecclesiastical 
policy  of  his  son  was  one  of  the  moving  causes  of  the  disaster  which 
overtook  him. 

Irish  Difficulties.  —  In  spite  of  Lord  Mountjoy's  conquest,  Ireland 
presented  even  greater  difficulties  than  Scotland.  Unable  to  main- 

1  Bishops,  whom  the  Scotch  nobles  employed  as  creatures  in  collecting  church 
revenues,  had  been  in  existence  from  1572  to  1592.  From  1592  to  1599  the  Presby- 
terians were  triumphant. 


436  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

tain  a  standing  army,  England's  only  hope  was  in  conciliation.  In 
view  of  the  turbulent  and  backward  condition  of  the  people,  absolutely 
different  in  temperament  from  the  English,  and  in  view  of  the  native 
hatred  of  the  Church  of  England,  the  prospect  seemed  hopeless  enough. 
But  the  land  question  proved  the  worst  stumbling  block  of  all.  The 
colonists  of  Mary  and  Elizabeth  were  in  general  a  thrifty  and  progres- 
sive class,  but  they  were  provided  with  estates  which  justly  belonged 
to  the  Irish.  These  confiscations  and  the  exploitation  of  the  unscru- 
pulous officials  stung  the  natives  to  fury.  James,  however,  sent  out  a 
wise  and  liberal-minded  lord  deputy,  Sir  Arthur  Chichester,  who  with 
a  free  hand  might  have  accomplished  wonders.  As  it  was,  he  put  an 
end  to  martial  law  and  pardoned  offenses  committed  before  the  acces- 
sion of  James.  Also,  he  turned  much  of  the  tribal  land  which  the  chiefs 
had  secured  from  Henry  VIII  into  individual  freeholds  and  trans- 
ferred the  tribal  dependents  into  tenants  with  fixed  obligations  and 
rents  protected  by  English  law.  In  religious  affairs,  bound  unfortu- 
nately at  the  start  by  royal  orders,  he  made  futile  attempts  to  enforce 
conformity.  When  he  afterward  sought  to  strengthen  the  Church 
by  regulating  such  abuses  as  patronage,  pluralities,  and  non-residence, 
and  by  putting  in  conscientious  ministers,  he  found  that  he  had  begun 
too  late.  The  situation  became  impossible.  Persecution  only  nerved 
the  priests  to  greater  efforts ;  toleration  multiplied  their  number  and 
influence. 

The  Plantation  of  Ulster,  1611.  —  Another  step  on  colonization  made 
matters  worse.  In  1607  the  Earls  of  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnel,  accused 
of  plotting,  left  the  country.  Their  flight,  and  an  unsuccessful  rebel- 
lion led  by  one  of  Tyrconnel's  chief  vassals,  enabled  the  Crown  to 
appropriate  vast  estates.  The  lands  thus  acquired  were  utilized  for 
the  celebrated  Plantation  of  Ulster  in  1611.  Against  Chichester's 
advice  the  most  fertile  tracts  were  allotted  to  English  and  Scotch 
settlers  and  undertakers.1  The  bulk  of  the  natives  were  deported  to 
other  parts  of  the  island,  though  a  few  received  land  grants  in  the 
province,  and  many  others  were  allowed  to  remain  as  tenants  and 
laborers.  As  in  the  case  of  the  previous  plantations,  the  economic 
results  were  excellent,  but,  politically,  new  bitterness  was  engendered 
which  bore  fruit  thirty  years  later  in  a  bloody  rebellion. 

The  English  Colonies  in  North  America.  —  While  troubles  were 
accumulating  for  James  in  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland,  the  colony 
at  Jamestown  had  been  founded,  May,  1607.  Disappointed  in  its 
hopes  of  finding  gold,  poor,  suffering,  and  starving  it  hung  on,  mainly 
owing  to  the  courage  and  energy  of  Captain  John  Smith,  until  reen- 
forcements  and  supplies  secured  its  permanence.  This  settlement 
and  those  at  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  Bay  a  few  years  later  mark 
the  beginning  of  our  great  English  America.  The  story  of  how  they 
grew  and  flourished  belongs  properly  to  the  history  of  the  United 

1  Speculators  or  promoters. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION    437 

States ;  but  it  is  well  worth  noting  that  the  seeds  were  planted  in  the 
reign  of  queer  King  James. 

The  Deaths  of  Salisbury  and  Prince  Henry  and  the  Marriage  of 
Elizabeth.  —  After  the  failure  of  the  Great  Contract  the  King  got  on 
for  nearly  four  years  without  a  Parliament,  ever  more  and  more  hard 
put  to  it  for  money.  After  the  death  of  Salisbury,  24  May,  1612,  he 
acted  as  his  own  Chief  Minister  under  the  influence  of  frivolous,  incom- 
petent, and  self-seeking  favorites.  On  6  November  he  lost  his  eldest 
son  Henry,  a  promising  lad  of  eighteen,  spirited  and  popular,  who,  had 
he  lived,  might  have  averted  the  catastrophe  which  came  in  the  reign 
of  his  brother  Charles.  In  February,  1613,  the  Princess  Elizabeth 
married  Frederick,  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine,  the  leading  Calvinist 
prince  in  Germany.  This  marriage  is  notable  in  two  respects.  It 
drew  England  into  the  whirlpool  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  which  raged 
on  the  Continent  from  1618  to  1648.  Also,  it  furnished  the  founder 
of  the  present  reigning  house  ;  for  the  Elector  of  Hanover,  who  became 
George  I  of  England  in  1714,  was  the  grandson  of  Frederick  and  Eliza- 
beth. 

The  "  Addled  Parliament,"  1614.  —  In  February,  1614,  James 
called  his  second  Parliament * ;  but,  contrary  to  good  advice,  he  de- 
cided to  exclude  impositions  and  all  questions  of  an  ecclesiastical 
nature  from  the  grievances  he  was  willing  to  redress.  Certain  men 
undertook  to  secure  him  a  majority ;  but  in  his  opening  speech  he  dis- 
avowed all  connection  with  them.2  Their  efforts,  whether  authorized 
or  not,  seem  to  have  hurt  his  cause,  for  the  elections  went  decidedly 
against  him.  While  most  of  the  old  opposition  leaders  were  returned, 
nearly  two-thirds  of  the  House  were  new  men.  Among  them  were  Sir 
John  Eliot  and  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  the  former  destined  to  be  a  mar- 
tyr to  the  parliamentary,  the  latter  to  the  royal  cause.  The  session 
opened  5  April.  After  two  months  spent  in  discussing  grievances, 
Parliament  was  dissolved  without  having  made  a  grant  or  passed  a 
single  measure.  Hence  it  was  called  the  "  Addled  Parliament."  Four 
members  were  sent  to  the  Tower,  others  were  ordered  not  to  leave 
London,  and  still  others  were  deprived  of  their  office  of  justice  of  the 
peace.  Those  imprisoned  and  detained  were  soon  set  free,  but  it  was 
ominous  for  the  cause  of  liberty  of  speech  that  men  who  had  ventured 
to  oppose  the  royal  will  should  have  been  thus  treated. 

Grievances  during  the  Interparliamentary  Period,  1614-1620. 
(i)  Financial.  —  Then  followed  another  and  longer  period  of  nearly 
seven  years  when  James  tried  to  get  on  -without  a  Parliament.  During 
the  interval,  popular  opposition  was  excited  by  the  continuance  of  old 
grievances  and  by  the  addition  of  new  ones.  A  leading  cause  of  dis- 
content lay  in  James'  futile  schemes  for  raising  money,  though  none 
of  them  proved  specially  burdensome.  Already  in  1611  he  had  created 

1  The  first  had  held  five  sessions  from  1604  to  1611. 

2  Seven  years  later  he  referred  to  them  as  a  "strange  kind  of  beast  called  under- 
takers —  a  name  which  in  my  nature  I  abhor." 


438  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

a  new  title,  that  of  baronet.  Persons  with  incomes  of  £1000  a  year 
were  eligible  on  payment  of  £1080  in  three  annual  installments.1  In 
1616  a  plan  was  devised  of  selling  peerages  at  £10,000  apiece,  a  prac- 
tice designed  not  only  to  increase  the  King's  income,  but  to  add  to  his 
supporters  in  the  Upper  House.  Happily  only  a  few  purchasers  came 
forward.  Also,  the  nefarious  practice  of  buying  and  selling  offices, 
prohibited  by  a  statute  of  Edward  VI,  was  vigorously  pursued.  Only 
the  rich  and  the  unscrupulous  and  mean-spirited,  the  one  by  purchase 
and  the  others  by  scheming  and  fawning,  could  hope  to  obtain  places, 
and  hence  royal  government  became  a  chaos  of  intrigue.  In  1614 
letters  from  the  Council  were  sent  out  asking  for  benevolences,  but  in 
three  years  they  yielded  only  £66,000,  less  than  a  single  subsidy,  and 
called  forth  protests  from  some  counties,  refusals  to  pay  from  others. 
The  sale  of  the  Dutch  cautionary  towns  in  1616  was  much  criticized, 
yet  while  less  than  the  amount  of  the  debt  was  accepted,  it  was  not  a 
bad  bargain. 

(2)  Legal.  The  Crown  and  the  Judges.  —  More  significant  was  a 
conflict  which  came  to  a  head  between  the  Crown  and  the  judges. 
The  King  and  his  supporters  maintained  that  there  were  occasions 
when  reasons  of  State  should  prevail  over  strict  legal  rules ;  but  in 
carrying  out  his  policy  he  sought  to  set  himself  above  the  law  and  to 
make  the  judges  mere  creatures  of  the  royal  will.  Charles  went  even 
further,  thus  contributing  another  cause  of  revolution ;  for  the  people, 
deprived  of  the  protection  of  the  courts,  saw  no  other  recourse  except 
an  appeal  to  arms.  At  the  beginning  of  James'  reign,  before  it  was 
evident  that  their  jurisdiction  was  to  be  infringed  upon,  the  judges 
were,  as  the  Bate  and  Post-nati  cases  indicated,  inclined  to. support  the 
Crown.  This  was  due  largely  —  and  on  the  whole  their  attitude  is 
quite  explicable  —  to  their  love  of  precedent  and  their  failure  to  take 
into  account  the  political  bearings  of  an  issue.  It  is  true,  too,  that 
most  judicial  appointments  were  during  royal  pleasure ;  but  through- 
out the  reign  of  Elizabeth  no  judge  had  been  removed  for  differing 
with  the  sovereign.  Their  attitude  changed  when  attempts  were 
made  to  encroach  upon  their  common  law  jurisdiction. 

Sir  Edward  Coke  and  Prohibitions.  —  In  the  struggle  which  followed 
Sir  Edward  Coke  (1552-1634)  took  the  lead.  He  was  harsh,  avari- 
cious, and  narrow.  As  Attorney-General,  1594-1606,  he  had  shown 
himself  one  of  the  most  brutal  prosecutors  who  ever  served  the  Stuarts. 
His  treatment  of  Raleigh  furnishes  a  good  example  of  his  methods. 
"  Thou  hast  a  Spanish  heart  and  thyself  art  a  viper  of  hell,"  he  cried 
at  one  stage  of  the  trial.  He  first  began  to  oppose  the  King  after  he 
became  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas  in  1606.  Though  his 
motives  were  solely  personal  and  professional,  his  prodigious  learning 
and  his  savage  aggressiveness  made  him  an  invaluable  champion  of 
the  popular  cause.  The  struggle  opened  over  prohibitions,  or  the 

1  They  were  not  entitled  to  sit  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The  money  was  used  for 
colonization  in  Ireland,  and  the  payment  was  afterwards  remitted. 


439 

right  of  the  common  law  courts  to  restrain  the  ecclesiastical  tribunals 
from  proceeding  with  a  case  until  the  judges  decided  whether  it  lay 
within  their  field.  According  to  Coke's  own  account  he  gave  the 
King  some  very  wholesome  advice,  at  a  conference  on  the  question  in 
1607,  to  the  effect  that,  although  his  Majesty  was  highly  endowed  by 
nature,  he  lacked  the  requisite  legal  learning  to  deal  with  matters 
affecting  the  life  and  property  of  his  subjects,  and  when  James  replied  : 
"Then  I  shall  be  under  the  law,  which  is  treason  to  affirm,"  he  retorted 
by  adroitly  citing  the  famous  wrords  of  Bracton  :  "  The  King  is  under 
no  man  but  God  and  the  law."  While  there  is  reason  for  doubting 
whether  he  showed  such  presence  of  mind  on  this  occasion,  he  abun- 
dantly proved  his  courage  more  than  once ;  though  at  another  confer- 
ence in  1609  when  the  King  threatened  to  strike  him,  he  groveled  to 
the  ground.  The  judges  finally  had  to  yield  on  prohibitions ;  but  in 
1610  they  managed  to  carry  another  point,  that  the  King  could  create 
no  new  offenses  by  proclamation. 

Peacham's  Case,  Commendams,  and  the  Fall  of  Coke.  —  Another 
clash  came  in  1614  over  Peacham's  case.  Peacham  was  a  clergyman 
who  wrote  a  sermon  reflecting  on  the  King  and  government,  which  was 
found  in  manuscript  in  his  study.  His  defense  was  that  he  did  not  in- 
tend the  sermon  for  publication.  But  the  authorities  saw  in  it  evi- 
dence of  a  far-reaching  plot.  So  poor  Peacham  was  tried,  tortured 
on  the  rack,  and  convicted.  He  finally  died  in  prison.  Before  the 
trial  James  called  in  the  judges  for  consultation.  Nowadays  the 
sovereign  goes  to  the  Attorney-General  for  legal  advice.  The  objec- 
tion to  taking  the  opinions  of  the  judges  beforehand  was  that  it  pre- 
judiced them  in  hearing  the  case  and  gave  the  King  a  chance  to  dictate 
what  their  decision  should  be.  Coke  stanchly  opposed  the  action  of 
James ;  but  on  the  narrow  technical  ground,  which  would  be  hard  to 
sustain,  that  it  was  against  the  custom  of  the  realm.  In  1616  the 
conflict  between  the  King  and  Coke  reached  a  crisis.  A  suit  was 
brought  against  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield  on  account  of  a  commendam 
which  he  held  as  the  gift  of  the  Crown.  James  ordered  the  judges  to 
stay  proceedings  until  he  could  inquire  whether  royal  rights  were  in- 
volved. They  paid  no  attention  until  they  were  summoned  before 
him.  There  they  fell  on  their  knees  and  agreed  to  obey  his  will.  Coke 
alone  held  out,  refusing  to  say  anything  further  than  that  when  a  case 
came  before  him,  he  would  act  as_became  a  judge.  He  was  sus- 
pended forthwith  and  ordered  to  correct  his  reports.  James  expected 
that  he  would  cull  from  them  remarks  reflecting  on  the  prerogative. 
When  the  dauntless  Justice  returned  with  five  clerical  errors  corrected, 
he  was  dismissed  from  office.  The  next  year  James  relented  so  far  as 
to  restore  him  to  the  Council,  but  he  never  recovered  his  seat  on  the 
bench.  In  the  next  Parliament  he  appeared  in  the  opposition  ranks, 
where  he  rendered  valiant  service.  (Coke  and  the  judges,  so  far  as 
they  followed  him,  performed  a  great  work  in  striving  to  hold  the  King 
to  the  limitations  of  the  law ;  but  it  was  well  that  they  did  not  realize 


440  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

their  ambition  to  act  as  arbiters  in  the  great  political  questions  at  issue 
between  the  sovereign  and  his  people,  for  that  would  have  resulted  in 
legal  domination,  fully  as  dangerous  to  liberty  and  progress  as  royal 
tyranny. 

(3)  Immorality  at  Court.  The  Essex  Divorce,  1613. — A  third 
cause  of  friction  was  in  the  frivolity,  extravagance,  and  riotous  life  at 
court  which  shocked  the  growing  Puritan  sentiment.  James  himself 
loved  study  and  learned  discourses,  his  life  was  pure,  and  he  was  never 
overcome  by  .liquor.  Nevertheless,  he  enjoyed  the  society  of  boon 
companions,  he  mingled  with  those  of  evil  lives,  and  did  nothing 
to  reform  his  court.  In  1606  a  play  was  performed  before  him  in  which 
the  women  of  high  station  who  participated  were  too  drunk  to  act 
their  parts.  What  most  aroused  the  public,  however,  was  an  unsavory 
scandal  involving  the  royal  favorite,  Robert  Carr.  A  Scotch  lad, 
gifted  with  nothing  but  a  handsome  person,  he  began  as  a  page  at  court 
and  rose  steadily.  In  1613,  when  he  had  become  Viscount  Rochester 
and  the  King's  confidential  secretary,  he  brought  about  the  divorce 
of  Frances  Howard  from  the  Earl  of  Essex.1  Soon  after  he  was  made 
Earl  of  Somerset  and  married  Lady  Essex.  His  elevation  made  him 
arrogant,  and  his  marriage  brought  him  into  close  relations  with  the 
powerful  Howard  family  who  favored  an  alliance  with  Spain.  So  the 
opponents  of  the  divorce,  among  them  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
the  anti-Spanish  party,  and  those  who  were  personally  embittered 
combined  to  overthrow  him.  The  Queen,  too,  jealous  of  the  royal 
favors  to  Somerset,  joined  their  side. 

The  Rise  of  Villiers  and  the  Fall  of  Somerset.  —  In  1614  they 
brought  to  court  as  a  rival,  George  Villiers,  son  of  an  obscure  Leices- 
tershire knight,  and  a  youth  of  rare  personal  charm,  clever,  audacious, 
and  ambitious.  While  he  was  supplanting  the  old  favorite,  certain 
startling  facts  came  to  light.  Sir  Thomas  Overbury,  Somerset's 
closest  confidant,  who  had  opposed  his  marriage,  was  found  murdered 
in  the  Tower.  The  crime  was  traced  to  the  agents  of  Lady  Somerset. 
She  and  her  husband  were  brought  to  trial  and  sentenced  to  death. 
This  was  commuted  to  imprisonment  in  the  Tower,  where  they  re- 
mained until  1622.  James,  after  the  case  was  clear  to  him,  labored 
honestly  to  see  justice  done ;  but  the  affair  cast  a  dark  shadow  on  the 
court.  Villiers'  influence  proved  more  dangerous  than  that  of  Somer- 
set because  he  came  to  play  a  greater  role  in  public  affairs.  Not  with- 
out administrative  capacity,  his  efforts  to  put  himself  forward  led  to 
an  investigation  of  the  existing  regime,  largely  in  the  hands  of  the 
Howards,  which  unearthed  much  incompetence  and  corruption. 
Villiers  himself  succeeded  the  Earl  of  Nottingham,  better  known  under 
the  name  of  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  as  Lord  High  Admiral.  Poor 
Nottingham,  now  grown  old,  was  largely  the  victim  of  less  scrupulous 
members  of  his  family.  The  policy  of  Villiers,  or  Buckingham  as  he 

1  She  was  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Suffolk.  Essex  was  a  son  of  Elizabeth's  old 
favorite.  He  later  became  a  leader  on  the  parliamentary  side. 


should  henceforth  be  called,1  was  chiefly  personal.  Originally,  for 
instance,  he  opposed  Spain  because  the  Howards  were  pro-Spanish. 
When  they  were  overthrown,  he  shifted  his  ground  to  attach  himself 
more  closely  to  James. 

(4)  The  Spanish  Marriage  Negotiations,  1604-1618.  —  The  rela- 
tions with  Spain  marked  another  breach  between  James  and  his  sub- 
jects and  led  to  a  series  of  parliamentary  crises.  The  peace  with 
Spain  in  1604  had  been  followed  by  negotiations  for  a  marriage  between 
Prince  Henry  and  Anna  Maria,  eldest  daughter  of  Philip  III.  James 
was  particularly  anxious  to  bring  it  about,  as  a  means  of  cementing  an 
alliance  which  he  ardently  desired  for  many  reasons :  he  wanted  to 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  hostilities  which  had  occupied  so  much  of  the 
previous  reign;  he  admired  the  Spanish  absolutism;  and  he  aspired, 
with  Spanish  support,  to  become  the  peacemaker  of  Europe.  Philip, 
however,  demanded  concessions  that  James  dared  not  grant,  chief 
among  them  toleration  for  Roman  Catholics  and  the  education  by  the 
Spanish  mother  of  any  heir  from  the  marriage.  In  their  first  stage  the 
negotiations  never  got  very  far.  In  1611  they  were  reopened  at  the 
instance  of  the  Spanish  ambassador.  Meantime,  Anna  Maria  had 
been  promised  to  Louis  XIII  of  France.  So  her  younger  sister  Maria 
Anna  was  substituted.  The  dowry  was  now  another  reason  which 
appealed  to  James,  since  the  failure  of  the  Great  Contract  had  left 
him  badly  off  for  funds.  Though  Henry  was  disinclined  to  marry 
any  one  not  of  his  own  faith,  it  was  his  untimely  death  in  1612  that 
again  put  an  end  to  the  negotiations.  Shortly  afterwards  Spain  sent 
to  England,  Don  Diego  Sarmiento,  better  known  under  his  later  title 
of  Count  Gondomar,  an  adroit  diplomat  who  gained  a  remarkable 
ascendancy  over  James,  for  which  he  was  correspondingly  feared  and 
hated  by  the  English  people.  Spain  had,  in  1609,  concluded  a  twelve- 
year  truce  with  the  Netherlands  which  had  only  a  few  years  more  to 
run.  In  case  war  again  broke  out  it  would  be  essential  to  stand  well 
with  England  who  commanded  the  sea  route  to  the  Low  Countries, 
and,  through  the  territories  of  James'  son-in-law,  the  best  available 
road  by  land.  So  negotiations  were  resumed,  this  time  for  a  marriage 
between  Charles  and  Maria  Anna.2  Again,  however,  marriage  nego- 
tiations were  blocked,  chiefly  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  relaxing  the 

1  In  1617  he  was  created  Earl  of  Buckingham  and,  in  1623,  Duke. 

2  The  Spanish  influences  which  controlled  James  led  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  old 
Elizabethan  hero,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  who  had  been  sentenced  to  death  in  1604  for 
an  alleged  plot  to  put  a  rival  candidate  on  the  throne.     On  his  representation  that 
there  was  a  valuable  gold  mine  in  Guiana  which  he  had  visited  in  1595,  James,  sorely 
in  need  of  money  and  hard  pressed  by  the  anti-Spanish  faction,  granted  Raleigh  a 
commission  to  make  "a  voyage  in  South  America,  or  elsewhere,  inhabited  by  hea- 
then or  savage  people  to  discover  profitable  commodities,"  one  fifth  of  which  were 
to  go  to  the  Crown.     At  the  same  time,  James  assured  Sarmiento  that  if  any  Spanish 
possessions  were  attacked,  the  leader  would  pay  the  penalty.     The  expedition  did 
destroy  a  Spanish  town  on  the  Orinoco.     When  Raleigh  returned  in  June,  1618 
James  had  him  beheaded,  though  on  the  old  charge  of  treason. 


442  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

penal  laws,  and  were  only  resumed  after  the  English  King  had  been 
drawn  into  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 

The  Beginning  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  1618-1620.  —  The  war  was 
brought  on  by  difficulties  growing  out  of  the  Reformation  settlement. 
By  the  Religious  Peace  of  Augsburg  of  1555  the  Lutheran  princes  of 
the  German  Empire  had  been  granted  equal  rights  with  the  Catholics. 
No  agreement,  however,  had  been  reached  on  the  subject  of  "  Eccle- 
siastical Reservations  "  or  the  forfeiture  of  offices  and  incomes  by 
bishops  and  abbots  who  became  Protestants ;  nor  were  any  privileges 
accorded  to  the  Calvinists,  a  steadily  increasing  party.  These  eccle- 
siastical questions  were  complicated  by  others  of  a  political  nature. 
The  German  princes  were  striving  for  independence  against  the 
Emperor,  and  in  Bohemia,  where  he  was  King,  the  national  feeling  was 
acute.  In  1608,  a  Protestant  Union  was  formed  under  the  leadership 
of  the  Count  Palatine  Frederick  IV,  father  of  James'  future  son-in-law, 
which  called  forth,  in  1609,  a  Catholic  League  under  Duke  Maximilian 
of  Bavaria.  A  series  of  events  in  Bohemia  led  to  the  first  outbreak  of 
the  war.  The  childless  Emperor  Matthias  (1612-1619)  secured  the 
succession  for  his  cousin  Ferdinand,  a  pupil  of  the  Jesuits.1  Owing  to 
the  bitter  resistance  of  the  Protestant  estates,  the  Imperial  authorities 
proceeded  to  close  their  churches  and  to  put  the  administration  of  the 
country  into^the  hands  of  ten  governors,  seven  of  whom  were  Catholics. 
The  signal  for  revolt  was  the  so-called  "  Defenestration  "  of  Prague,  23 
May,  1 6 1 8,  when  two  of  the  governors  and  their  secretary  were  thrown 
from  a  window  of  the  castle.  On  the  death  of  Matthias,  the  Bohe- 
mians, refusing  to  acknowledge  Ferdinand  as  their  King,  chose  the 
Count  Palatine  Frederick  V.  Ferdinand,  who  was  elected  Emperor 
at  Frankfort,  leagued  with  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  and  Philip  III  of 
Spain.  A  Spanish  general  Spinola  invaded  the  Palatinate,  while,  8 
November,  1620,  Frederick  himself  was  decisively  defeated  at  White 
Hill  near  Prague.  He  was  driven  out  of  Bohemia,  his  own  palatine 
lands  were  confiscated,  and  he  fled  to  Holland.2  What  began  as  a 
revolt  in  Bohemia  became  a  general  European  conflict,  drawing  into 
its  vortex  England,  Denmark,  Sweden,  and  France,  and  directed 
against  the  ascendancy  of  the  Spanish  and  imperial  branches  of  the 
House  of  Hapsburg  and  the  Counter- Reformation. 

Divergent  Views  of  James  and  the  Popular  Party  regarding  the  War. 
—  James  was  finally  moved  to  intervene,  but  solely  in  order  to  recover 
the  Palatinate  for  his  son-in-law,  a  purpose  which  he  sought  to  effect  by 
securing  the  good  offices  of  Spain  through  the  long-contemplated  mar- 
riage alliance.  Owing,  however,  to  the  need  of  money  to  carry  on  his 

1  In  theory  the  Emperor  was  elected.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  from  1438  till  the 
dissolution  of  the  Holy  Roman  or  German  Empire  in  1806,  a  member  of  the  Aus- 
trian House  of  Hapsburg  was  always  chosen.     In  1526  the  kingdoms  of  Bohemia 
and  Hungary  had  been  annexed  to  the  House  of  Austria  in  a  personal  union. 

2  From  his  brief  rule  he  was  known  as  the  "Winter  King."     The  phrase  refers 
to  the  snow  kings  or  snow  men  which  children  build. 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION    443 

diplomacy,  he  was  obliged  to  call  another  Parliament.  The  result  was 
to  precipitate  a  fresh  conflict  with  his  subjects ;  for  the  majority  re- 
garded Spain  as  the  prime  mover  in  a  great  Catholic  aggression  which 
could  best  be  met  by  a  "  war  of  diversion  "  ;  that  is,  a  naval  war  directed 
against  the  Spanish  for  the  purpose  of  diverting  them  from  the  imperial' 
alliance.  Indeed,  they  were  in  no  hurry  even  for  that,  since  England 
was  much  stronger  and  Spain  was  much  weaker  than  in  the  days  be- 
fore the  Armada.  So  the  Commons  seized  the  occasion  to  demand  the 
redress  of  pressing  grievances  and  the  recognition  of  fundamental 
constitutional  rights. 

The  First  Session  of  the  Parliament  of  1621.  Monopolies  and  the 
Revival  of  Impeachments. — The  session  opened  30  January,  1621. 
Although  James  was  treating  with  Gondomar,  he  asked  for  a  grant  of 
£500,000  to  raise  an  army  for  the  recovery  of  the  Palatinate.  The 
Commons  voted  a  preliminary  grant  of  two  subsidies  (about  £150,000), 
after  which  they  turned  to  the  discussion  of  grievances.  Among 
them  were  the  non-enforcement  of  the  recusancy  laws  and  infringe- 
ments on  the  liberty  of  speech ;  but  they  devoted  their  chief  attention 
to  abuses  connected  with  monopolies.  Even  to-day  monopolies  are 
recognized  by  law  in  the  case  of  patents  and  copyrights  ;  at  that  time 
they  went  much  farther  and  included  the  exclusive  right  of  dealing 
in  certain  commodities,  of  trading  in  a  particular  district,  or  of  carrying 
on  a  specified  industry.  There  were  many  reasons  why  this  should 
have  been  so.  The  dangers  from  pirates  and  savages,  the  uncertain- 
ties of  unknown  lands  and  seas,  the  risk  of  shipwreck  in  small  and 
weakly  constructed  ships  made  it  necessary  to  offer  unusual  privileges 
in  order  to  induce  men  to  venture  their  lives  and  their  capital.  As 
a  means  of  building  up  industries,  monopolies  were  granted,  not  only 
to  inventors,  but  to  all  who  introduced  new  processes  from  abroad. 
In  many  cases  there  was  a  special  justification :  in  the  making  of  gun- 
powder, saltpeter,  and  ordnance,  to  insure  a  home  supply  of  materials 
of  war  and  to  keep  the  manufacture  in  trusted  hands  ;  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  gold  and  silver  thread,  because  those  who  received  the  privilege 
agreed  to  import  the  bullion,  thus  increasing  the  supply  of  precious 
metals ;  in  the  case  of  the  glassmakers,  because  they  promised  to  use 
coal  in  place  of  wood  in  their  blast  furnaces.  Licenses,  too,  were 
required  from  inns  and  alehouses  for  the  restriction  and  regulation  of 
the  traffic  in  drink.  James  probably  derived  less  revenue  from  monop- 
olies than  had  Elizabeth  in  her  last  years.  The  chief  complaint  was 
that  he  granted  them  to  favorites  who  made  a  large  profit  jrom  acting 
as  figureheads  in  companies  or  from  reselling  their  rights.  Moreover, 
those  who  had  the  supervision  of  inns  and  alehouses  frequently  used 
their  powers  for  extortion  and  blackmail.  In  the  investigation  which 
Parliament  now  undertook,  two  of  the  worst  offenders,  Mompesson  and 
Michell,  were  called  to  account.  Mompesson  escaped  by  jumping 
out  of  the  window  of  the  House,  and  fled  to  the  Continent.  Michell 
was  severely  punished.  James  abolished  the  worst  offenses  by  proc- 


444  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

lamation ;  and  by  an  act  of  1624  monopolies,  with  certain  exceptions,1 
were  done  away  with. 

Francis  Bacon  (1561-1626).  —  This  session  is  also  notable  for  the 
impeachment  of  Francis  Bacon  on  charges  of  judicial  corruption.  A 
younger  son  of  Elizabeth's  Lord  Keeper  and  a  nephew  of  Burghley's 
wife,  he  had  risen  very  slowly  in  spite  of  his  family  connections  and  his 
unusual  abilities.  Since  1618  he  had  been  Lord  Chancellor.  Created 
Baron  Verulam  in  that  same  year,  he  had  been  promoted  in  1621  to 
the  title  of  Viscount  St.  Albans.  At  once  a  man  of  affairs  and  a  man 
of  letters,  he  wrote  on  many  subjects  —  philosophy,  scientific  theory, 
literature,  history,  and  law.  His  views  on  politics  were  broad  and 
liberal.  He  favored  a  strong  monarchy  resting  on  the  support  of  the 
people  and  acting  for  the  popular  good,  informed  and  advised  by  a 
loyal  Parliament.  He  advocated  the  union  of  England  and  Scotland, 
the  civilizing  of  Ireland,  the  extension  of  colonization,  the  broadening 
of  the  Established  Church,  and  liberal  reforms  in  the  law.  In  the 
struggle  with  Coke  he  had  stood  for  interpreting  legal  questions  on 
large  grounds  of  policy  rather  than  upon  technical  precedents.  Al- 
ways prone,  however,  to  overlook  practical  difficulties,  he  failed  to 
recognize  that  Parliament  would  no  longer  tolerate  even  a  benevolent 
despot,  and  that,  in  any  event,  James  was  not  .the  man  to  exercise 
such  powers.  Yet  as  he  saw  plan  after  plan  fail  he  continued  in  office 
as  a  supporter  of  the  Crown.  He  may,  however,  have  failed  to  sense 
the  situation ;  he  may  have  felt  that  he  could  do  some  good,  at  any 
rate ;  or  he  may  have  been  a  time  server.  The  latter  seems  the  most 
likely.  Aside  from  his  vast  intellect,  his  sobriety,  and  industry  he  had 
few  commendable  qualities.  He  was  cold,  lacking  in  affection,  and 
fond  of  comfort  and  display.  He  basely  deserted  Essex,  who  had  been 
his  devoted  friend ;  he  stooped  to  the  most  servile  flattery  in  his  rela- 
tion with  James  and  Buckingham;  he  was  ever  ready  with  worldly 
wise  council ;  indeed,  the  poet  Pope  did  not  greatly  exaggerate  m  calling 
him  the  "  wisest,  wittiest,  meanest  of  mankind." 

His  Impeachment  and  Fall,  1621.  —  He  had  taken  the  government 
side  on  the  legality  of  monopolies.  The  Commons  were,  in  conse- 
quence, very  ready  to  listen  to  complaints  brought  against  him  for 
accepting  money  from  suitors  while  their  cases  were  pending  in  Chanr 
eery,  and  proceeded  to  impeach  him.  Bacon  was  at  length  forced  to 
admit  that  while  he  had  never  allowed  gifts  to  influence  him,  he  had 
been  guilty  of  accepting  both  presents  and  loans  from  those  who  had 
suits  in  his,  court.  Public  officials  were  in  those  days  regularly  in  re- 
ceipt of  pay  from  companies  and  even  from  foreign  countries,  and  it 
was  also  customary  for  judges  to  accept  gifts  from  successful  suitors. 
Bacon  with  a  salary  inadequate  for  his  office,  particularly  in  view  of 
the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  his  household,  also  notoriously  loose 

1  These  exceptions  were  :  (i)  new  inventions ;  (2)  charters  to  trading  companies ; 
(3)  certain  municipal  privileges;  (4)  some  specified  manufactures,  e.g.  glass  and 
gunpowder. 


BEGINNINGS   OF   THE   PURITAN   REVOLUTION     445 

in  money  matters  and  contemptuous  of  forms,  had  simply  neglected 
to  wait  until  he  rendered  his  decisions.  Yet  a  man  of  his  abilities 
and  ideals  should  have  been  above,  not  below,  the  standard  of  his  time. 
His  confession  is  one  of  the  most  ignominious  in  history :  "  I  do  .  .  . 
confess  that  in  the  points  charged  upon  me,  although  they  should  be 
taken  as  I  have  declared  them,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  corruption  and 
neglect,  for  which  I  am  heartily  and  penitently  sorry.  ...  I  beseech 
your  lordships  to  be  merciful  unto  a  broken  reed."  The  sentence  im- 
posed upon  him  was  a  heavy  one ;  but  more  to  mark  Parliament's 
opinion  of  the  enormity  of  the  offense  than  with  any  thought  that  it 
would  be  fully  executed.  He  was  to  pay  a  fine  of  £40,000,  to  be  im- 
prisoned in  the  Tower,  to  give  up  the  Great  Seal ;  he  was  declared  in- 
capable of  holding  any  office  of  State  or  of  sitting  in  Parliament,  and 
forbidden  to  come  to  court.  He  acknowledged  "  the  sentence  just 
and  for  reformation's  sake  fit,"  though  he  declared  that  he  was  the 
"  justest  Chancellor  "  since  his  father's  death.  The  fine  and  im- 
prisonment were  remitted,  and  the  old  man  retired  to  achieve  by  his 
studies  a  reputation  which  he  had  failed  to  attain  as  an  officer  of  State. 
Neither  in  his  case,  nor  in  those  of  Mompesson  and  Michell  were  all 
the  technical  rules  of  impeachments  strictly  adhered  to ;  but,  in  a 
general  way,  they  mark  the  revival  of  a  practice  which  had  been  in 
disuse  for  over  a  century  and  a  half. 

James  grew  weary  of  the  continual  discussion  of  grievances,  partic- 
ularly when  Parliament  refused  to  grant  him  further  supplies,  so  he 
ordered  an  adjournment.  Before  separating,  the  Commons  declared 
that  "  if  the  treaty  (with  Spain)  failed,  they  would  be  ready  on  re- 
assembling to  adventure  their  lives  and  estates  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  cause  of  God  and  of  his  Majesty's  royal  issue." 

Second  Session  of  the  Parliament  of  1621.  —  In  the  autumn  session, 
the  difference  over  foreign  policy  developed  into  a  momentous  quarrel 
which  reopened  the  whole  question  of  privilege.  James  hoped  that 
if  the  marriage  between  Charles  and  the  Infanta  were  brought  about 
that  the  Spanish  would  intervene  to  restore  Frederick  by  force  if  nec- 
essary. In  order  to  prevent  the  English  from  sending  an  army  to  aid 
the  continental  Protestants,  Gondomar  was  instructed  to  nurse  the 
King  in  his  delusion.  The  Commons,  fearing  that  the  Catholics  were 
unduly  encouraged,  framed  a  petition,  asking  that  the  Prince  marry 
one  of  his  own  religion ;  calling  for  the  execution  of  the  penal  laws ; 
and  for  a  war  against  Spain.  A  long  and  bitter  correspondence  re- 
sulted in  which  the  King  forbade  the  Commons  "  to  meddle  with  mys- 
teries of  State,"  asserting  again  that  their  privileges  were  derived  from 
the  grace  of  his  ancestors.  He  declared,  however,  that,  so  long  as  they 
confined  themselves  within  proper  limits,  "he  would  be  careful  to  pre- 
serve their  lawful  liberties."  More  than  one  picturesque  incident 
enlivened  the  controversy.  Gondomar,  when  he  saw  the  petition, 
wrote  James,  then  at  Newmarket,  an  amazing  letter.  "  If  it  were  not," 
he  said,  "  that  he  depended  upon  the  King's  goodness  to  punish  the 


446  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

seditious  insolence  of  the  House  of  Commons,  he  would  have  left  the 
kingdom  already."  "  This,"  he  added,  "  it  would  have  been  my  duty 
to  do,  as  you  would  have  ceased  to  be  a  King  here,  and  as  I  have  no 
army  here  at  present  to  punish  these  people  myself."  1  Later  when 
the  Commons  sent  a  deputation  with  a  second  petition,  James  cried, 
"  Bring  stools  for  the  ambassadors,"  implying  that  they  were  assuming 
the  position  of  an  independent  power.  Finally  they  framed  a  protes- 
tation in  which  they  declared  that  "  their  liberties  and  privileges  were 
the  inherited  birthright  of  the  subjects  of  England ;  the  State,  the  de- 
fense of  the  realm,  the  laws  and  grievances  were  proper  matters  for 
them  to  debate ;  the  members  have  liberty  of  speech,  and  freedom  from 
all  imprisonment  for  speaking  on  matters  touching  Parliamentary 
business."  The  King  adjourned  the  session  19  December,  and, 
shortly  after  Christmas,  sent  for  the  Journal  and  tore  out  the  protesta- 
tion with  his  own  hands.  .Again  opposition  members  were  imprisoned 
or  confined  to  their  houses  in  London.  On  6  January,  1622,  Parlia- 
ment was  dissolved.2  To  the  old  disputes  over  religion  and  taxation 
a  new  one  had  been  added,  that  over  foreign  policy. 

The  Journey  of  Charles  and  Buckingham  to  Spain,  1623.  —  The 
Spaniards  determined  to  keep  James  at  odds  with  his  subjects  in  order 
to  avoid  the  least  chance  of  English  intervention  in  the  continental 
war.  To  that  end,  Gondomar  encouraged  Charles  and  Buckingham 
in  a  hare-brained  project.  They  were  to  cross  to  France,  journey 
incognito  to  Madrid,  where  the  Prince  was  to  woo  the  Infanta  in  per- 
son. The  distracted  King,  with  many  tears  for  the  safety  of  his  "Baby 
Charles  "  and  his  "  Steenie,"  3  was  at  length  forced  to  consent  early  in 
1623.  The  visit  in  the  end  failed  of  its  object,  although  Charles 
agreed  to  the  hardest  terms  short  of  changing  his  religion.  The  In- 
fanta, good,  simple,  but  narrow,  abhorred  the  thought  of  allying  her- 
self with  a  heretic.  Once  when  her  importunate  lover  sought  an  inter- 
view in  the  palace  garden,  she  fled  in  dismay.  Marriage  articles  were 
indeed  drawn  up  and  accepted  by  both  James  and  Charles  before  the 
latter  left  Madrid  in  September ;  but  the  Spanish  prevented  him  from 
taking  the  Infanta  with  him  by  requiring  first  that  full  toleration 
should  be  granted  to  English  Catholics.  Two  months  later,  when  it 

1  His  arrogance  may  be  explained  in  the  light  of  a  conversation  that  James  had 
with   him   after   the   dissolution   of   the   Addled  Parliament,  in  which  the  King 
said:    "The   House  of  Commons  is  a  body  without  a  head.     The  members  give 
their  opinions  in  a  disorderly  manner.     At  their  meetings  nothing  is  heard  but 
shouts,  cries,  and  confusion.     I  am  surprised  that  my  ancestors  should  have  per- 
mitted such  an  institution  to  come  into  existence.     I  am  a  stranger  and  found  it 
here  when  I  arrived,  so  I  am  obliged  to  put  up  with  what  I  cannot  get  rid  of." 
He  was  only  consoled  by  the  thought  that  without  his  assent  the  words  and  acts 
of  Parliament  were  "altogether  worthless." 

2  Gondomar  wrote  to  his  master:   "It  is  the  best  thing  which  has  happened  in 
the  interests  of  Spain  and  the  Catholic  religion  since  Luther  began  to  preach  heresy 
a  hundred  years  ago." 

3  A  pet  name  which  he  gave  to  Buckingham  from  a  fancied  resemblance  to  a 
portrait  of  St.  Stephen, 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION    447 

became  clear  that  Spain  would  grant  no  aid  in  recovering  the  Palati- 
nate, negotiations  were  broken  off.  The  initiative  was  taken  by  Buck- 
ingham whose  self-importance  had  been  wounded  by  the  lack  of  con- 
sideration shown  him  at  the  Spanish  court.  Moreover,  the  popularity 
which  would  result  from  an  anti-Spanish  policy  was  a  temptation  which 
he  could  not  resist.  Indeed,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  go  to  the  length 
of  war  and  dragged  Charles  along  with  him. 

The  Parliament  of  1624.  Breach  with  Spain.  —  A  new  Parliament 
met,  19  February,  1624.  James,  who  had  hitherto  refused  to  consider 
the  right  of  the  Commons  to  discuss  foreign  politics,  now  consented  to 
ask  their  advice.  Buckingham  told  all  the  assembled  members  the 
story  of  the  journey  to  Spain,  insisted  that  the  Spanish  had  never  in- 
tended to  help  recover  the  Palatinate,  and  urged  that  the  marriage 
treaty  be  canceled.  James  had  come  to  see  that  war  was  necessary ; 
but  he  would  only  consent  to  a  land  war  for  the  recovery  of  the  Palati- 
nate ;  Parliament  was  still  bent  on  fighting  Spain  at  sea,  while  Buck- 
ingham was  keen  for  both.  It  was  a  part  of  his  plan  to  ally  with  the 
Dutch,  the  Danes,  and  the  German  princes,  assisting  them  with  Eng- 
lish subsidies.  Parliament  voted  three  subsidies  and  three  fifteenths, 
less  than  half  the  sum  asked  for.  Moreover,  the  purposes  of  the  grant 
were  distinctly  specified,  and,  in  order  to  insure  their  observance,  it 
was  provided  that  the  money  should  be  paid  to  treasurers  appointed 
by  Parliament.  This  marks  the  revival  of  the  practice  of  appropriation 
of  supply.  Lionel  Cranfield,  Earl  of  Middlesex  and  Lord  Treasurer, 
the  only  man  who  ever  succeeded  in  bringing  James'  finances  into 
any  kind  of  shape,  was  impeached.1  He  was  charged  with  corruption, 
though  the  real  reason  for  the  proceeding  was  his  opposition  to  Buck- 
ingham and  the  war  with  Spain.  James  shrewdly  prophesied  to  his 
son  and  his  favorite  who  led  the  charge,  that  they  were  preparing 
rods  for  their  own  backs.  Parliament  was  prorogued  till  autumn; 
but  it  never  met  again  during  the  reign. 

The  French  Marriage  Treaty,  1624.  —  The  King  simply  did  not  dare 
to  face  the  Houses.  On  the  failure  of  the  Spanish  marriage,  negotia- 
tions had  been  opened  with  France  for  a  marriage  between  Charles 
and  Henrietta  Maria,  sister  of  Louis  XIII ;  but  James  promised  dis- 
tinctly that  no  concessions  would  be  made  to  the  recusants  in  conse- 
quence of  any  such  alliance.  However,  Cardinal  Richelieu,  Louis's 
adroit  and  able  chief  minister,  forced  the  weak  King  and  his  weak  son 
to  agree  to  a  secret  article  guaranteeing  a  relaxation  of  the  penal  laws. 
On  these  terms  the  marriage  treaty  was  ratified  in  December,  1624. 
France,  though  anxious  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  Spanish  and  Austrian 
Hapsburgs,  had  no  mind  as  yet  to  assist  the  German  heretics.  Mean- 
time, James  had  agreed  with  Count  Mansfeld,  a  German  soldier  of 
fortune,  to  furnish  him  an  army  of  10,000  foot  and  3000  horse  together 
with  £20,000  a  month  for  their  support,  on  condition  that  France  do 

1  In  his  trial  the  rules  governing  impeachments  were  followed. 


448  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  like.  Owing  to  the  restricted  terms  of  the  recent  grant,  the  King 
had  no  money  for  the  Mansfeld  expedition,  nor  had  he  any  troops  or 
ships.  Nevertheless,  advances  were  squeezed  from  the  parliamentary 
treasurers,  and  a  rabble  of  raw,  pressed  men  was  assembled.  France, 
who  would  hear  of  nothing  but  an  attack  on  the  Spanish  Netherlands, 
refused  to  allow  Mansfeld  to  pass  through  her  territory  on  the  way  to 
the  Palatinate.  So,  in  the  dead  of  winter,  he  had  to  lead  his  half-clad 
troops  into  Holland,  where  more  than  three  quarters  of  them  perished 
of  cold  and  starvation.  In  the  spring  the  miserable  remnant  returned 
to  England.  Unable  properly  to  equip  the  Mansfeld  expedition,  James, 
spurred  on  by  his  son  and  the  reckless  Buckingham,  had  also  bound 
himself  by  agreements  to  furnish  subsidies  to  the  Dutch  and  to  Chris- 
tian IV  of  Denmark. 

Death  of  James,  1625.  Estimate  of  his  Reign.  — In  March,  1625, 
the  poor  old  King,  much  reduced  by  gout  and  worry,  was  attacked 
by  an  ague,  from  which  he  died  on  the  2yth.  As  a  ruler  he  had  been  a 
failure.  His  problem  in  a  critical  time  had  been  to  economize  and  to 
gain  the  good  will  of  his  subjects.  Yet  he  was  lavish  to  the  last,  and, 
what  with  the  expenses  in  connection  with  foreign  affairs,  he  left  the 
treasury  too  poor  to  give  him  a  royal  burial.  He  disappointed  the 
Catholics  and  he  disappointed  the  Puritans.  He  quarreled  with  the 
judges  and  he  quarreled  with  Parliament.  While  he  never  acted 
without  some  color  of  legality,  many  of  his  measures  ran  counter  to 
the  temper  of  the  times.  By  his  pompousness  and  love  of  theorizing 
he  alienated  his  subjects,  and  by  his  failure  to  meet  crises  with  decision 
he  forfeited  their  confidence.  A  1  through  his  reign  he  strove,  in  the 
teeth  of  Protestant  prejudice  and  Elizabethan  tradition,  for  an  alliance 
with  Spain  and  lived  to  see  his  pet  project  destroyed  by  his  son  and 
his  favorite.  His  only  essay  in  war  —  the  Mansfeld  expedition  — 
was  a  pitiful  failure.  The  fresh  memory  of  this,  the  empty  treasury, 
and  a  crop  of  differences  with  his  subjects  were  his  legacy  to  Charles. 

The  bright  spots  in  the  reign  were  not  due  in  any  great  degree  to 
James.  The  peace  which  he  maintained  was  favorable  to  industry, 
commerce,  and  prosperity;  but  the  light  taxes,  which  contributed 
greatly  to  the  result,  were  due  to  necessity  rather  than  to  policy.  Also, 
the  settlements  leading  to  a  vast  colonial  empire  in  the  New  World 
have  him  to  thank  only  so  far  as  he  drove  the  Nonconformists  from 
England.  Again,  while  he  shares  with  Elizabeth  the  glory  of  the 
greatest  age  of  the  world's  literature,  he  was,  in  spite  of  his  scholarly 
tastes,  as  innocent  as  his  predecessor  of  assisting  the  movement.  Very 
notable  gains  were  made  by  the  Commons.  They  secured  the  right 
of  deciding  contested  elections  and  the  right  of  freedom  from  arrest. 
They  remonstrated  successfully  against  creating  new  offenses  by  proc- 
lamation. They  asserted  their  right  to  debate  all  matters  of  public 
concern  and  to  appropriate  supplies  for  purposes  which  they  desig- 
nated. On  the  other  hand,  they  protested  vainly  against  imposi- 
tions and  failed  deservedly  in  an  attempt  to  judge  and  punish  of- 


BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  PURITAN  REVOLUTION    449 

fenses  not  committed  against  their  own  House.  What  James  himself 
strove  for  he  generally  failed  to  attain;  the  achievements  of  the 
period  were  only  to  a  very  slight  degree  his  work.1 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  F.  C.  Montague,  Political  History,  1603-1660  (1907) ,  chs.  I-V ;  an  ac- 
curate account  of  the  main  course  of  events  (annotated  list  of  authorities,  pp.  482-493) . 
G.  M.  Trevelyan,  England  under  the  Stuarts,  1603-1714  (1904) ;  a  work  of  unusual 
brilliancy  and  suggestiveness,  an  excellent  supplement  to  Montague  (annotated 
bibliography,  pp.  527-534).  Cambridge  Modern  History,  III,  chs.  XVII,  XVIII  (bibli- 
ography, without  notes,  pp.  847-859) .  S.  R.  Gardiner,  History  of  England,  1603-1642 
(10  vols.,  1883-1884),  chs.  I-V ;  a  monumental  work,  the  authority  on  the  period,  but 
confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  aspects  of  the  subject. 
L.  von  Ranke,  History  of  England  (Eng.tr.  1875),  I,  bk.  V,chs.  I-V ;  next  to  Gardiner 
the  best  detailed  work,  particularly  valuable  for  foreign  relations.  Lingard,  VII, 
chs.  I-III.  T.  Carlyle,  Historical  Sketches  (1891) ;  a  picturesque  and  stimulating 
work. 

Special.  Seeley,  British  Policy,  I,  pt.  II,  chs.  I-III.  J.  Corbett,  England  in  the 
Mediterranean  (1904),  I.  J.  N.  Figgis,  The  Divine  Right  of  Kings  (1896). 

Constitutional.  Hallam,  I,  ch.  VI.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  V,  ch.  I ; 
Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  XIII.  Maitland,  Constitutional  History  of  England, 
period  III ;  sketch  of  the  public  law  at  the  death  of  James  I. 

Church.  Wakeman,  ch.  XVI ;  Frere,  English  Church,  chs.  XVII-XXI.  Usher, 
Reconstruction  of  the  English  Church. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  181-188.  Prothero, 
Select  Statutes,  250-446. 


THE   STUARTS 

JAMES  I  =  Anne  of  Denmark, 
1603-1625  |  d.  1619 


1                 1 

Henry,          CHARLES  1 
d.  1612          1625-1649 

1 

1 
,                                                                         Elizabeth  = 
d.  1662 

=  Frederick 
of  the 
Palatinate 

CHARLES  II, 
1660-1685 

1                                  I 
JAMES  II,                     Mary  =•  William 
1685-1688,                   d.  1660           of 
d.  1701                                           Orange, 
1                                             d.  1650 

1                                1 
JAMES                     ANNE,                     MARY=  WILLIAM  III, 
(the  old                  1702-1714                1688-1694     1688-1702 
Pretender), 
b.  1688, 
d.  1765 

1 
Prince  Rupert, 
d.  1682 

Prince  Maurice,                       Sophia  =  Elector  of  Hanover 
d.  1652                              d.  1714 

George  I, 
1714-1727 

George  II 

1  James  was  the  author  of  a  work  entitled  a  Counterblast  against  Tobacco.     When 
his  tomb  was  opened  some  years  ago  a  pipe  was  found,  evidently  left  by  a  work- 
man.    Thus,  says  Gardiner,  the  greatest  authority  on  the  period:    "James  was 
defied  even  in  death." 
2G 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

CHARLES  I  AND  THE    PRECIPITATION  OF  THE  CONFLICT 
BETWEEN  KING  AND   PEOPLE   (1625-1640) 

Personal  Traits  of  Charles  I.  —  Charles  I,  who  came  to  the  throne 
27  March,  1625,  had  many  of  the  qualities  of  a  popular  sovereign. 
Handsome  and  of  a  noble  presence,  he  was  a  skillful  athlete,  and  bore 
himself  with  the  courage  of  a  thoroughbred.  He  was  reserved  in 
speech,1  and,  indeed,  was  quite  free  of  these  peculiarities  which  had 
made  his  father  so  often  ridiculous.  He  was  an  accomplished  critic 
of  art  and  music,  keenly  appreciative  of  all  that  was  beautiful  in  the 
world  about  him.  At  the  same  time,  he  was  deeply  religious,  sacrificing 
everything  for  his  convictions,  and  living  unspotted  amidst  the  dis- 
sipations of  his  Court.  On  the  other  hand,  he  lacked  that  power  of 
reading  the  temper  of  the  times,  and  that  gift  of  voicing  the  feelings  of 
his  subjects  which  had  made  the  Tudors  so  irresistible.  Without  the 
imagination  and  sympathy  necessary  to  the  understanding  of  other 
men's  views,  he  regarded  every  one  who  differed  from  him  as  an  enemy ; 
while  he  prided  himself  on  the  legality  of  his  measures,  he  failed  to  see 
that  what  had  the  sanction  of  the  law  might  at  times  be  absolutely 
inexpedient.  Much  influenced  by  the  few  to  whom  he  gave  his  con- 
fidence, he  clung  obstinately  to  an  opinion  he  had  once  formed.  Worse 
than  all,  he  was  secretive  and  evasive.  Many  of  his  views  were  so  at 
variance  with  public  opinion  that  he  sought  to  conceal  them ;  he  made 
promises  which  he  found  himself  unable  to  keep,  and,  sometimes,  even 
entered  into  engagements  with  mental  reservations  which  would  enable 
him  to  elude  what  he  did  not  consider  to  be  for  the  public  good.  He 
ascended  the  throne  fresh  from  having  broken  his  agreement  with  re- 
gard to  the  French  marriage  treaty,  and,  as  time  went  on,  it  became 
more  and  more  evident  that  his  word  was  not  to  be  trusted. 

Political  Problems.  —  In  his  unwisdom  and  in  the  difficulties  which 
he  had  to  face,  he  went  far  beyond  his  father  in  overriding  the  common 
law,  and  in  attempting  to  raise  money  in  extraparliamentary  ways. 
Spurred  on  by  Buckingham,  he  had  aroused  popular  enthusiasm  by 
forcing  the  timid  old  King  to  abandon  his  peace  policy ;  but  he  and 
his  favorite  planned  to  conduct  the  war  in  a  manner  quite  out  of  ac- 
cord with  that  advocated  by  Parliament ;  they  entered  into  engage- 
ments which  that  body  was  not  asked  to  approve,  and  they  conducted 
their  military  operations  with  a  rashness,  an  incompetence,  and  a 

1  Due  partly  to  a  slight  impediment. 
450 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND   PEOPLE         45 1 

lack  of  success  which  forfeited  the  confidence  of  the  nation.  Conse- 
quently, the  Commons  when  they  were  called  together  would  not  grant 
the  supplies  necessary  to  meet  the  situation.  This  forced  the  King 
to  resort  to  the  irregular  measures  which,  in  conjunction  with  his  reli- 
gious policy,  led  to  the  revolt  which  finally  cost  him  his  head. 

Religious  Problems.  —  While  the  Puritans  had  failed  to  receive 
under  James  the  concessions  which  they  desired,  they  had  not  been 
actively  persecuted.  Silently,  but  effectively,  their  views  were  being 
preserved  and  spread  by  means  of  Bible  reading,  prayer,  and  services 
in  private  houses,  sometimes  by  the  parson,  more  often  by  the  father 
of  the  family.  Already  chafing  under  restraint  they  were  now  brought 
face  to  face  with  a  critical  situation.  The  victories  of  the  Catholics 
in  the  Continental  War,  the  relaxation  in  the  penal  laws,  —  first  as  a 
concession  to  Spain  and  then  to  France,  —  and  the  King's  marriage 
aroused  the  gravest  apprehensions.  Furthermore,  while  James  had 
been  content  with  the  existing  Establishment,  Charles  was  a  High 
Churchman.  He  wanted,  so  far  as  possible,  to  restore  the  liturgy  and 
the  ecclesiastical  organization  of  the  pre- Reformation  days.  This 
was  partly  because  he  loved  the  splendid  ancient  ceremonial,  but 
chiefly  because  of  the  chance  to  strengthen  his  royal  powers.  The 
High  Anglican  divines,  as  a  means  of  securing  the  great  offices  in  Church 
and  State  and  counteracting  the  Puritan  tendencies  for  the  people, 
sought  his  ear  and  magnified  the  prerogative  to  ridiculous  heights.1 
So  the  issue  was  not  merely  religious,  it  was  political  as  well.  Two 
parties  were  ranged  against  each  other,  one  in  close  alliance  with  the 
Crown,  the  other  with  Parliament. 

The  Puritan  Parliamentary  Party.  —  Though  the  Puritan  party  in- 
cluded many  high-souled,  cultivated  gentlemen,  and  was  to  produce  in 
John  Milton  a  poet  unsurpassed  for  scholarship,  nobleness  of  thought, 
and  sweetness  and  dignity  of  expression,  its  general  attitude  was  hard 
and  ungracious.  The  spirit  of  the  Renascence  —  love  of  beauty  in  its 
manifold  aspects,  interest  in  man  and  his  pursuits  —  appealed  but  little 
to  them.  The  old  English  Sunday  with  its  picturesque  and  boisterous 
merriment  was  an  abomination  in  their  eyes.  Standing  for  the  literal 
interpretation  of  the  Scriptures,  they  had  scant  sympathy  for  philo- 
sophical and  historical  studies.  They  wanted  to  enter  the  lists  against 
the  great  Catholic  combination  on  the  Continent,  but  only  after  the 
King  had  redressed  domestic  grievances  and  had  agreed  upon  a  plan 
of  hostilities  of  which  they  approved.  At  home  they  insisted  upon 
the  enforcement  of  the  penal  laws,  and  they  desired  to  put  down  the 

1  A  good  example  may  be  found  in  a  sermon  preached  by  the  royal  chaplain, 
Roger  Manwaring,  4  July,  1627,  in  which  he  declared  that  where  a  King  "com- 
mands flatly  against  the  law  of  God,"  subjects  who  disobey  are  "to  endure  with 
patience  whatsoever  penalty  his  pleasure  shall  inflict  upon  them,"  and  that  if  he  com- 
manded things  not  against  the  law  of  God,  even  if  not  in  accord  with  the  law  of  the 
land,  "no  subject  might  disobey  without  hazard  of  his  own  damnation."  This 
doctrine  Manwaring  applied  to  taxes  which  Charles  sought  to  impose  independently 
of  Parliament. 


452  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Anglicans  as  well  as  various  sects  of  religious  extremists  which  had 
recently  sprung  up.  They  did  not  oppose  an  established  church  as 
such,  but  they  opposed  one  upheld  by  the  Crown  and  bishops  with 
forms  and  ceremonies  which  they  denounced  as  "  popish,"  and  which 
they  held  responsible  for  the  moral  laxness  which  they  saw  about 
them,  particularly  at  Court.  Narrow  as  it  seemed,  their  protest  against 
ceremonies  was  deeply  significant.  Harmless  or  even  beneficial  to 
those  for  whom  they  had  a  meaning,  no  man  who  regarded  such  ob- 
servances as  vain,  idle,  or  idolatrous  could,  without  sacrificing  his 
moral  and  spiritual  integrity,  accept  them  simply  because  they  were 
imposed  by  authority.  The  Puritans  fought,  not  for  any  principle 
of  toleration,  but  for  their  own  supremacy.  Yet,  in  so  doing,  they 
deepened  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  people,  they  struck  at 
despotism,  and,  if  they  did  not  gain  the  ascendancy  at  which  they 
aimed,  they  secured  a  large  measure  of  political  freedom  for  their 
country  and  prepared  the  way  for  a  religious  liberty  that  came  slowly, 
but  none  the  less  surely. 

The  High  Church  Royalist  Party.  —  The  High  Church  party  stood 
for  a  revival  of  medieval  ceremonialism  and  held  exalted  views  regarding 
the  origin  and  functions  of  the  Church.  As  against  the  Puritans  who 
regarded  the  Bible  as  the  sole  source  of  Christian  truth  and  laid  chief 
emphasis  on  the  relation  of  the  individual  soul  toward  God,  they  held 
with  Cranmer  that  the  Bible  must  be  interpreted  by  the  individual 
only  in  the  light  of  the  writings  of  the  early  fathers  and  of  the  customs 
of  the  primitive  Church.  Also,  adopting  the  arguments  of  Hooker, 
they  sought  to  justify  the  existing  system  on  the  ground  of  its  histori- 
cal continuity  and  the  needs  of  the  times.  They  laid  stress  on  the 
divine  origin  of  Episcopacy,  and  looked  to  the  Church,  particularly 
through  the  efficacy  of  her  sacraments,  as  the  necessary  vehicle  of 
salvation.  Since  they  rejected  predestination,  they  came  to  be  called 
Arminians,  from  the  followers  of  Arminius  (1560-1609),  a  Protestant 
divine  whose  doctrines  had  been  condemned  by  the  orthodox  Calvin- 
ists  at  the  Synod  of  Dort  in  1618.  The  High  Church  leaders  denied 
that  they  were  Arminians,  and  with  justice,  for  they  had  nothing  in 
common  with  the  sect  of  that  name  except  in  the  rejection  of  predes- 
tination. Their  purpose  in  repudiating  this  particular  doctrine  was 
not  primarily  theological  but  to  weaken  their  opponents  who  accepted 
it,  and  to  exalt  the  Church  as  an  instrument  of  grace.  While  the 
standpoint  of  the  royalist  party  was  broader  than  that  of  the  Puritans, 
it  was  unfortunate  that  they  sought  to  impose  their  views  by  insist- 
ing upon  absolute  conformity  and  by  magnifying  the  King's  preroga- 
tive in  Church  and  State  as  a  means  of  crushing  their  opponents.  Yet 
both  parties  were  equally  intolerant  and  both  were  equally  aggressive. 

The  Royal  Advisers.  —  Incompetent  himself  to  deal  with  the  polit- 
ical and  religious  problems  which  confronted  him,  Charles  was  pecul- 
iarly unfortunate  in  his  advisers.  Indeed,  it  is  an  evidence  of  his  in- 
capacity that  he  should  have  chosen  such  men.  Buckingham  was 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND   PEOPLE         453 

rash,  self-confident,  and  incapable.  The  four  years  of  his  ascendancy, 
from  1624  to  1628,  were  marked  by  failure  abroad  and  by  constant 
conflicts  between  the  Crown  and  Parliament  at  home.  Six  ill-pre- 
pared expeditions  went  to  the  Continent  and  each  returned  ingloriously. 
While  the  result  was  due  partly  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  English  mili- 
tary machinery  consequent  upon  a  long  peace,  and  partly  to  the  tight 
hold  of  the  Commons  upon  the  purse  strings,  the  chief  fault  was 
Buckingham's.  Thomas  Wentworth,  later  Earl  of  Strafford,  who  began 
as  an  opponent  of  the  Court  party  and  afterwards  changed  sides,  was 
an  honest  and  competent  administrator ;  but  he  had  no  conception  of 
the  meaning  and  force  of  public  opinion.  Kind  and  loyal  to  his  sup- 
porters, he  was  arrogant  and  overbearing  to  his  opponents.  His  ideal 
he  summed  up  in  the  word  "  thorough,"  which  meant  carrying  through,1 
by  force,  if  necessary,  any  policy  which  he  chose  to  adopt.  Henrietta 
Maria  (1609-1669),  when  she  married  Charles,  was  a  maiden  of  fifteen, 
and  for  some  time  was  too  absorbed  in  pleasure  to  take  any  interest  in 
politics.  Not  long  after  her  arrival,  however,  she  began  to  quarrel 
with  her  husband  over  the  status  of  the  Catholics.  After  the  assassina- 
tion of  Buckingham  in  1628,  they  became  reconciled  and  were  hence- 
forth devoted  to  one  another.  In  spite  of  this  and  of  the  courage  which 
she  showed  in  the  troublous  years  to  come,  Henrietta  proved  an  evil 
genius  to  the  King  and  the  country.  Bred  in  an  atmosphere  of  absolu- 
tism and  Catholicism,  ignorant  of  the  ways  and  temper  of  Englishmen, 
and  dominated  by  papal  agents,  she  put  worthless  men  into  office, 
she  egged  Charles  on  to  some  of  his  rashest  and  most  unpopular  acts, 
culminating  in  a  disastrous  policy  of  foreign  intrigue.2  In  addition 
to  these  mischievous  councilors  there  was  the  group  of  religious  en- 
thusiasts who  surrounded  the  throne.  Chief  among  them  was  William 
Laud,  who  became  Bishop  of  London  in  1828  and  Archbishop  of 'Canter- 
bury in  1633,  "  the  most  conscientious,  the  most  energetic,  and  the 
most  indiscreet  man  "  in  the  realm.  As  head  of  the  Church  he  bent 
all  his  efforts  to  enforce  conformity,  and  came  to  share  with  Strafford 
the  chief  power  in  the  state  as  well. 

Charles'  First  Parliament,  18  June-i2  August,  1625.  —  When 
Charles  met  his  first  Parliament,  he  was  pledged  to  pay  subsidies  to 
his  allies  amounting  to  £700,000  annually;  he  was  married  to  his 
French  bride,  and  he  had  promised  to  relax  the  penal  laws.  The  op- 
position, counting  many  strong  and  effective  leaders,  had  no  sym- 
pathy with  a  continental  war ;  they  were  determined  to  keep  control 

1  The  two  words  then  had  the  same  meaning. 

2  The  very  marriage  in  itself  was  attended  with  innumerable  dire  consequences. 
It  involved  a  promise  of  toleration  to  Catholics  which  embittered  the  English 
when  it  was  discovered,  and  led  to  a  temporary  breach  with  France  when  it  was  not 
kept.     For  fear  of  disclosing  the  provisions  of  the  treaty,  Mansfeld's  expedition 
went  to  destruction  unprovided  with  parliamentary  grants,  which  might  have 
altered  the  result.     The  marriage,  too,  was  the  first  step  in  a  fatal  French  alliance 
which  lasted  through  the  reigns  of  two  of  Henrietta's  sons  and  contributed  to  the 
loss  of  the  throne  by  the  second. 


454  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  the  taxes,  and  were  bitterly  suspicious  of  the  Catholics.  The 
royal  supporters  were  few  and  weak,  while  the  King  made  the  fatal 
mistake  of  not  explaining  at  once  what  he  meant  to  do,  how  much  he 
needed,  and  for  what  objects.  So  Parliament,  after  voting  only  two 
subsidies,  fell  to  discussing  grievances  again.  On  account  of  the 
plague  raging  in  London,  the  Houses  were  adjourned,  1 1  July,  to  meet 
at  Oxford,  i  August.  When  the  King  pressed  for  supply,  the  Commons, 
turning  their  attention  to  foreign  affairs,  expressed  their  distrust  of 
the  royal  advisers,  especially  Buckingham,  who  had  aroused  such  en- 
thusiasm in  the  last  Parliament.  In  order  to  stop  the  discussion 
Charles  ordered  a  dissolution,  12  August.  Even  the  act,  customary 
at  the  beginning  of  each  reign,  granting  tonnage  and  poundage  failed 
to  pass.1 

The  Cadiz  Expedition,  1625. — That  autumn,  Charles  and  Buck- 
ingham, hoping  to  increase  their  scanty  funds  by  rich  booty  and  to 
recover  their  lost  prestige  by  a  glorious  success,  sent  an  expedition 
against  Cadiz.  The  invaders  were  unable  to  take  the  town,  or  to 
capture  the  ships  in  the  harbor,  and  allowed  a  plate  fleet  to  slip  by 
them.  The  troops  got  drunk  on  Spanish  wine  and  became  unruly. 
Storm-tossed;  starving,  and  sick,  the  expedition  straggled  back  to 
Plymouth  late  in  November,  another  miserable  failure. 

Charles'  Second  Parliament,  6  February-is  June,  1626.  —  Pressed 
by  his  financial  needs,  Charles  called  a  second  Parliament,  which 
met  6  February,  1626.  While  he  was  reluctant  to  meet  the  Houses, 
Buckingham,  vain  and  fond  of  applause,  was  more  sanguine.  In 
162.4  he  had  carried  all  before  him,  and  he  still  hoped  by  some  great 
stroke  of  war  or  diplomacy  to  regain  the  popular  confidence  which  had 
been  forfeited  by  deception  and  mishap.  To  guard  against  resistance 
the  leaders  of  the  opposition  in  the  last  Parliament  had  been  disqual- 
ified for  reelection  by  appointments  to  sheriff doms.  However,  an  unex- 
pected opponent  came  to  the  front  in  Eliot,  vice-admiral  of  Devon. 
He  had  formerly  been  a  friend  of  Buckingham, .  but  the  shameless 
miscarriage  of  the  Cadiz  expedition  and  the  deplorable  condition  of  the 
returning  soldiers  and  sailors  had  stirred  his  pity  and  inflamed  his 
wrath.  Again  the  King  sullenly  refused  to  confide  his  policy  to  Par- 
liament, while  Carleton,  one  of  his  supporters,  referred  in  debate  to  the 
French  peasants  who  were  "thin  as  ghosts  and  wore  wooden  shoes," 
as  an  intimation  of  what  the  English  subjects  might  come  to  if  they 
resisted  too  far. 

The  Impeachment  of  Buckingham,  1626.  —  Eliot  forced  the  fighting 
by  demanding  an  inquiry  into  the  "  recent  disaster,"  denouncing 
Buckingham  as  the  cause  of  all  the  mischief.  Eliot,  though  violent 
and  partisan,  was  a  lofty-minded  patriot.  He  was  not  in  any  sense  a 
republican,  but  an  advocate  of  a  form  of  monarchy  in  which  Parliament 

1  The  Commons,  hoping  to  settle  the  question  of  impositions  before  they  bound 
themselves  for  the  whole  reign,  had  passed  a  tonnage  and  poundage  bill  for  one 
year ;  but  in  the  hurry  of  events  it  did  not  get  through  the  Lords. 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND   PEOPLE         455 

should  be  supreme.  Following  his  attack,  articles  of  impeachment 
against  Buckingham  were  framed.  He  was  accused  of  procuring  an 
undue  number  of  offices  for  himself,  of  showering  titles  and  pensions 
upon  his  kindred,  of  appropriating  public  moneys  to  his  own  use,  of 
gross  neglect  and  mismanagement  of  public  affairs,  and,  curiously 
enough,  of  administering  medicine  to  James  in  his  last  illness,  which, 
it  was  implied,  had  hastened  his  death.  Owing  to  their  ignorance  of 
the  details  of  the  governmental  policy  and  administration,  to  the  con- 
fusion of  the  royal  accounts,  and  the  corrupt,  loose  practices  of  the 
times,  it  was  difficult  for  the  accusers  to  prove  their  case  in  the  specific 
counts  which  they  had  drawn  up.  Moreover,  the  King  had  supported 
the  favorite  in  all  his  acts,  and,  by  assuming  the  responsibility,  placed 
an  insurmountable  obstacle  in  the  way  of  conviction.  Nevertheless, 
Buckingham's  mismanagement  and  incompetence  was  publicly  ex- 
posed, while,  for  the  first  time  since  the  pre-Tudor  period,  the  Commons 
had  ventured,  on  grounds  of  public  policy,  to  assail  a  minister  enjoy- 
ing the  unlimited  confidence  of  the  sovereign.  On  June  15  Charles 
stopped  the  impeachment  by  a  dissolution.  In  order  to  save  his 
favorite  Charles  lost  the  grant  which  the  Commons  had  resolved 
to  vote  him.  In  the  sorest  straits  for  money  he  tried  all  sorts  of  de- 
vices. He  levied  tonnage  and  poundage  by  his  own  authority,  he 
sought  a  loan  from  the  city  of  London,  he  called  upon  the  maritime 
countries  for  ships,  and  he  made  a  vain  effort,  through  the  justices  of 
the  peace,  to  secure  as  a  free  gift  the  amount  which  would  have  been 
assessed  had  the  subsidy  bill  passed.  At  length  he  resorted  to  a  forced 
loan,  dismissing  Chief  Justice  Crewe  because  he  would  not  declare  it 
legal.  Some  eighty  gentlemen,  including  Eliot  and  Wentworth,  were 
imprisoned  for  refusing  to  lend,  while  many  of  the  commoner  sort 
were  pressed  as  soldiers.  Out  of  £350,000  asked  for,  £236,000  was 
secured,  but  at  the  price  of  sullen  and  widespread  discontent. 

The  War  with  France  and  the  Expedition  to  Rhe,  1627.  —  In  the 
spring  of  1627  a  war  with  France,  which  had  long  been  brewing,  was 
declared.  Toward  the  close  of  the  last  reign  Richelieu  had  exacted  an 
impossible  promise  that  the  English  would  loan  him  a  fleet  to  be  used 
"  against  whomsoever  except  the  King  of  Great  Britain."  When  it 
became  clear  that  he  was  to  employ  it  to  reduce  the  Huguenots  at  La 
Rochelle,  who  were  in  revolt,  Charles  and  Buckingham,  unable  to  face 
the  popular  outcry,  had  tried  to  elude  the  obligation  by  instigating 
Admiral  Pennington  to  stir  his  crews  to  mutiny.  Eventually  the 
French  got  the  ships  without  the  men.  Such  double  dealing  accen- 
tuated the  distrust  of  the  English  and  alienated  the  French.  There 
were  numerous  other  causes  of  friction.  French  ships  trading  with 
Spain  and  the  Netherlands  were  searched  and  condemned,  even  before 
formal  trial  in  the  English  prize  courts.  Also,  King  Charles  was  not 
only  unable  to  relax  the  penal  laws  against  the  English  Catholics,  but 
he  was  even  obliged  to  dismiss  the  Queen's  French  attendants,  and, 
after  much  shuffling,  to  declare  himself  the  protector  of  the  French 


4$6  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Huguenots.  Unable  to  supply  the  promised  subsidies  to  the  conti- 
nental allies  and  unable  to  deal  an  effective  blow  against  Spain,  Buck- 
ingham prepared  a  great  stroke  against  the  new  foe.  In  June,  1627, 
he  sent  an  expedition  which  landed  on  the  island  of  Rhe,  opposite  La 
Rochelle,  with  the  object  of  securing  abase  for  assisting  the  beleaguered 
citizens  and  for  attacking  the  French  coast  and  shipping.  Bucking- 
ham himself  showed  both  courage  and  energy  in  the  undertaking, 
but  the  English,  resenting  the  forced  loan  and  without  confidence  in 
the  leader,  gave  him  no  support.  The  troops,  ill-supplied  and  ill- 
organized,  were  utterly  devoid  of  spirit  and  enthusiasm.  Necessary 
reinforcements  and  supplies  were  delayed  from  want  of  money,  and 
when  they  arrived,  could  not  be  landed,  owing  to  storms.  In 
October  the  French  drove  the  invaders  from  the  island. 

The  Five  Knights'  Case,  1627.  —  Following  this  fresh  humiliation, 
five  knights,1  who  were  among  those  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  con- 
tribute to  the  recent  loan,  brought  their  case  to  trial  by  suing  for  a 
writ  of  habeas  corpus.2  Fearing  to  state  the  reason  for  their  deten- 
tion, Charles  had  assigned  no  cause  except  the  command  of  the  King. 
After  reviewing  the  evidence,  the  judges  decided  to  send  the  knights 
back  to  prison,  although  they  refused  to  give  an  opinion  that,  under 
all  circumstances,  the  sovereign  might  hold  the  subject  in  confinement 
solely  by  virtue  of  his  royal  authority.  Nevertheless,  the  decision 
was  ominous  for  the  subject  who  looked  to  the  protection  of  the  law 
against  royal  oppression.  Charles,  still  hoping  to  obtain  the  needed 
supplies,  soon  released  all  the  prisoners  and  called  a  third  Parliament 
to  meet  17  March,  1628. 

Charles'  Third  Parliament,  1628.  —  While  it  was  now  imperative 
for  him  to  give  up  his  foreign  policy  or  to  recover  the  good  will  of  his 
people,  he  met  the  Houses  defiantly.  "  If  they  would  not  do  their 
duty  by  granting  supplies,"  he  declared  in  his  opening  speech,  "  he 
would  use  other  means  which  God  had  put  into  his  hand."  "  Take 
this  not  as  a  threat,"  he  added,  "  for  I  scorn  to  threaten  any  but  my 
equals."  His  failures  he  attributed,  not  to  his  own  mistakes,  but  to 
lack  of  parliamentary  support.  The  Commons  had  come  together  to 
secure  a  more  definite  recognition  of  the  liberties  of  Englishmen,  and 
in  this  they  were  probably  rendering  a  greater  service  to  progress, 
religious  and  political,  than  if  they  had  yielded  to  despotism  and  voted 

1  One  of  them  was  Sir  Thomas  Darnel,  hence  the  case  is  sometimes  called  Darnel's 
Case. 

2  As  it  was  against  the  spirit  of  English  law  for  a  subject  to  be  detained  in  prison 
without  cause  shown,  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  had  been  devised  in   order  that 
the  judges  might  inquire  into  the  case  and,  in  view  of  the  sufficiency  or  insufficiency 
of  the  evidence,  release  the  prisoner,  admit  him  to  bail,  or  remand  him  to  prison. 
It  had  always  been  the  custom  for  the  sovereign,  for  reasons  of  State,  to  order  the 
arrest  of  persons  dangerous  to  the  public  safety  without  any  further  reason  than 
the  royal  command.     In  the  present  instance,  however,  no  one  was   conspiring 
against  the  State ;  the  only  offense  of  those  imprisoned  was  resistance  to  unparlia- 
mentary taxation. 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND   PEOPLE         457 

to  send  armies  abroad.  Some  noble  and  influential  peers  supported 
them ;  but  the  mass  of  the  Upper  House,  consisting  of  scions  of  worn- 
out  families  and  court  parasites,  counted  for  little.  Before  the  open- 
ing of  the  session  the  chief  men  of  the  opposition  had  met  and  agreed 
to  drop  the  proceedings  against  Buckingham  until  they  had  secured 
redress  of  recent  and  pressing  grievances.  In  addition  to  the  arbi- 
trary exactions  and  the  imprisonment  or  impressment  of  those  who 
had  refused  to  pay,  soldiers  had  been  billeted  on  private  houses,  con- 
suming the  goods  and  menacing  the  quiet  and  security  of  those  who 
occupied  them.  Although  there  was  peace  in  the  country  they 
were  under  the  government  of  martial  law,  which  was  feared  as  a 
dangerous  encroachment.  The  Commons  agreed  to  grant  five  sub- 
sidies in  return  for  the  removal  of  these  evils.  Wentworth,  who 
thought  it  sufficient  to  define  the  law  for  the  future  without  wrangling 
over  the  past,  planned  a  bill  providing  that  arbitrary  taxation  and 
imprisonment  and  billeting  should  henceforth  be  illegal.  Charles 
refused  to  accept  the  bill  or  to  give  any  security  but  his  royal  word 
that  he  would  maintain  his  subjects  in  the  freedom  of  their  persons 
and  the  safety  of  their  estates. 

The  Petition  of  Right,  1628.  —  Thereupon,  Coke  proposed  that  they 
proceed  by  way  of  petition.1  The  Lords,  after  a  vain  effort  to  insert 
a  clause  assuring  the  King  that  they  did  not  mean  to  encroach  on  his 
prerogative,  joined  the  Commons  in  a  measure  which  went  beyond 
Wentworth's  bill  in  enumerating  past  violations  of  the  right  of  the 
subject  and  in  condemning  martial  law.  Charles,  after  trying  to 
wriggle  out  with  another  vague  promise,  was  at  length  obliged  to  give 
his  formal  assent,  7  June.2  The  Petition  of  Right,  as  it  was  called, 
provided  that :  (i)  No  man  hereafter  should  be  compelled  to  make  or 
yield  any  gift,  loan,  benevolence,  tax,  or  such  like  charge  without 
common  consent  by  act  of  Parliament ;  (2)  no  freeman  should  be 
imprisoned  or  detained  without  cause  shown ;  (3)  that  soldiers  should 
not  be  billeted  in  private  homes ;  (4)  that  commissions  to  punish 
soldiers  by  martial  law  should  be  revoked  and  no  more  issued.  This 
Petition  of  Right,  "  the  first  statutory  restriction  on  the  power  of  the 
Crown  since  the  accession  of  the  Tudors,"  has  always  been  regarded 
as  one  of  the  great  landmarks  in  the  progress  of  English  popular 
liberty,  ranking  with  Magna  Carta,  and  with  the  later  Bill  of  Rights. 
Nevertheless,  it  left  more  than  one  question  unsettled.  Indeed, 
no  sooner  had  the  King  given  his  assent  than  the  Commons  proceeded 
with  a  remonstrance  which  they  had  already  drawn  up.  In  it  they 
demanded  the  enforcement  of  the  penal  laws,  denounced  the  High 
Church  party,  and  again  asked  for  the  removal  of  Buckingham. 

1  With  all  the  force  of  a  statute,  it  had  this  advantage,  that  if  accepted  by  the 
King  and  the  Lords,  it  went  into  operation  at  once,  while  a  statute  had  to  wait  until 
the  end  of  the  session  before  taking  effect. 

2  The  customary  form  of  assent  in  the  case  of  a  statute  was  le  roy  le  veult;  in 
the  case  of  a  petition  it  was  soil  droitfait  com  me  il  est  desire. 


458  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

When  Charles  found  that  they  were  drawing  up  a  remonstrance  on 
tonnage  and  poundage  as  well,  he  dissolved  Parliament  with  "  a  sharp 
speech,"  26  June,  1628. 

The  Murder  of  Buckingham  and  the  "  Apostasy  "  of  Wentworth, 
1628.  —  Less  than  two  months  had  passed  when,  23  August,  Buck- 
ingham, while  superintending  the  embarkation  of  a  fleet  at  Ports- 
mouth, was  stabbed  by  John  Felton,  who  had  served  as  a  lieutenant 
on  the  recent  expedition  to  Rhe.  Brooding  over  personal  wrongs  — 
for  he  had  been  denied  promotion  and  even  arrears  of  pay  —  he  had 
come  to  believe  that  it  was  his  public  duty  to  rid  the  country  of  one 
whom  so  many  regarded  as  a  tyrant  and  a  villain.  The  crime,  though 
received  with  general  rejoicing,  only  embittered  the  King  without 
doing  any  good.  While  he  never  again  loved  or  trusted  any  one  as 
he  had  the  departed  favorite,  he  turned  to  new  councilors  equally 
regardless  of  the  popular  will.  The  vacant  place  was  gradually 
assumed  by  Wentworth,  who  had  already  in  July  passed  over  to  the 
royalist  party.  In  December  he  was  made  President  of  the  Council 
of  the  North,  in  the  following  year  he  was  admitted  to  the  Privy 
Council,  and  he  went  on  increasing  in  favor  and  influence  until,  at 
the  time  of  his  execution  in  1641,  he  was  the  King's  chief  adviser. 
Wentworth  has  been  accused  of  apostasy,  though  with  scant  justice. 
While  he  had,  with  rare  courage  and  at  great  personal  sacrifice,  fought 
the  King  for  years,  it  was  because  he  was  opposed  to  the  Buckingham 
r6gime  which  ran  counter  to  his  ideals  of  peace  abroad  and  efficient 
administration  at  home.  An  aristocrat  by  birth  and  temper  he  had 
no  sympathy  with  Puritanism  and  parliamentary  supremacy.  Pos- 
sibly he  may  have  felt  some  pique  when  the  Commons  preferred  the 
counsels  of  Eliot  and  Coke  to  his  own,  but  the  Petition  of  Right  and 
the  Remonstrance  went  to  lengths  that  he  could  not  follow.  There- 
fore he  turned  back.  When  Buckingham,  the  chief  obstacle  which 
had  stood  in  his  way,  was  removed,  he  welcomed  the  chance  to  put 
into  practice  the  policies  which  he  had  long  cherished. 

Tonnage  and  Poundage  and  Religious  Innovations.  —  The  Peti- 
tion of  Right  left  two  pressing  questions  unsettled.  One  concerned 
the  royal  right  to  levy  tonnage  and  poundage  without  parliamentary 
grant,  the  other  concerned  religion.  The  King  maintained  that  since 
Parliament  had,  in  failing  to  grant  him  tonnage  and  poundage,  departed 
from  a  long-recognized  custom,  he  was  entitled  to  collect  it  on  his  own 
authority.  The  Commons  argued  that  by  the  Petition  of  Right  he 
had  yielded  any  right  which  he  might  have  possessed.  This  he  denied 
on  the  ground  that  tonnage  and  poundage  was  not  included  under 
"  gift,  loan,  benevolence,  or  tax."  Since  a  "  tax  "  was  then  gener- 
ally understood  to  mean  a  direct  tax,  there  seems  to  be  little  doubt 
that,  technically,  he  was  in  the  right.  His  case  is  further  strengthened 
from  the  fact  that  the  leaders  who  carried  the  Petition  had  decided 
to  deal  with  it  separately,  and  that  they  actually  had  a  special  ton- 
nage and  poundage  bill  before  them.  Whatever  legal  rights  Charles 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND   PEOPLE         459 

may  have  had,  his  attempts  to  enforce  them  were  bitterly  resisted. 
In  reply  he  imprisoned  some,  and  seized  the  goods  of  others  who  re- 
fused to  pay,  so  that  Richard  Chambers  was  led  to  declare  that  in 
no  part  of  the  world,  even  in  Turkey,  were  merchants  so  oppressed  and 
wrung  as  they  were  in  England.  The  religious  issue  had  reached  an 
equally  acute  stage.  When  his  High  Church  supporters  were  sharply 
attacked,  the  King  sought  to  shield  them  by  pardons  and  promotions. 
Then,  in  November,  1628,  he  issued  a  Declaration *  prohibiting  further 
disputes  on  Church  questions,  and  providing  that  all  necessary 
changes,  unless  contrary  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  land,  should 
be  settled  in  Convocation  with  the  royal  approval.  While  the  High 
Church  writers  as  well  as  their  opponents  were  thus  silenced,  the  King's 
Declaration  was  received  with  great  distru'st  and  discontent,  for  it 
vested  the  control  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  for  the  future  in  a  body 
dominated  by  the  bishops,  who  were  the  creatures  of  the  sovereign, 
rather  than  in  Parliament,  which  voiced  the  popular  will. 

The  Eliot  Resolutions,  1629.  —  When  Charles'  third  Parliament 
met  for  its  second  session,  20  January,  1629,  the  Commons  began  a 
busy  discussion  of  the  religious  differences  and  of  the  treatment  of 
the  merchants  who  refused  to  pay  tonnage  and  poundage.  Seeing 
that  he  was  to  get  nothing  but  complaints,  the  King  ordered  them  to 
adjourn.  The  news  caused  a  tumult,  and,  when  the  Speaker  sought 
to  leave  the  chair,  two  members,  Holies  and  Valentine,  held  him 
down  by  main  force  while  Holies  repeated  from  memory  three  reso- 
lutions which  Eliot  had  drawn  up.2  They  declared  that : 

"Whosoever  shall  bring  in  innovations  in  religion,  or  by  favor  seek  to 
extend  or  introduce  Popery  or  Arminianism,  or  other  opinions  disagreeing 
from  the  true  and  orthodox  Church,  shall  be  reputed  a  capital  enemy  to 
this  Kingdom  and  Commonwealth. 

"  Whosoever  shall  counsel  or  advise  the  .  .  .  levying  of  ...  tonnage 
and  poundage,  not  being  granted  by  Parliament,  or  shall  be  an  actor  or 
instrument  therein,  shall  be  likewise  reputed  an  innovator  in  the  Govern- 
ment and  a  capital  enemy  of  this  Kingdom  and  Commonwealth. 

"If  any  merchant,  or  other  person  whatsoever,  shall  voluntarily  .  .  . 
pay  .  .  .  tonnage  and  poundage  not  being  granted  by  Barliament,  he  shall 
likewise  be  reputed  a  betrayer  of  the  liberty  of  England  and  an  enemy  to 
the  same." 

While  the  King's  officers  were  pounding  at  the  door,  the  resolutions 
were  carried.  Then  the  excited  throng  who  had  pressed  and  shouted 
about  the  Speaker's  chair  left  the  House.  Thus  ended  the  last  Parlia- 
ment which  Charles  was  to  hold  for  eleven  years. 

The  Significance  of  the  Dissolution  of  1629.  —  A  crisis  marking  an 
inevitable  breach  had  arisen.  If  the  King  could  at  pleasure  interrupt 

1  It  was  prefixed  to  a  new  edition  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  is  still  con- 
tained in  the  English  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

2  Eliot,  despairing  of  their  passage,  had  thrown  them  into  the  fire,  probably  to 
avoid  having  incriminating  evidence  in  his  possession. 


460  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

debate  on  public  grievances,  popular  representation  was  an  empty 
form.  On  the  other  hand,  if  his  royal  orders  could  be  openly  resisted, 
Charles  Stuart  had  ceased  to  be  King.  The  religious  issue,  too,  had 
been  sharply  defined.  The  King,  by  his  late  Declaration,  had  reserved 
the  settlement  of  Church  affairs  to  a  body  under  his  own  control ;  now 
Parliament  sought  to  assume  a  right  which  they  denied  to  him. 
Eliot  and  eight  other  members  concerned  in  the  recent  disturbances 
were  arrested  on  an  indefinite  charge  of  sedition  and  contempt.  An 
attempt  on  the  part  of  some  to  obtain  their  release  by  habeas  corpus 
was  first  evaded  and  then  offered  on  terms  which  they  could  not 
accept.  When  finally  brought  to  trial,  the  majority  made  submission. 
Eliot  died  in  the  Tower,  27  November,  1632.  In  his  last  illness  the 
King  refused  him  leave  to  go  into  the  country  for  his  health,  and  when 
he  died,  replied  to  his  son's  request  with  the  brutal  order :  "  Let  Sir 
John  Eliot  be  buried  in  the  Church  of  that  parish  where  he  died." 
Holies  escaped  abroad ;  but  Valentine,  and  Strode,  another  of  the 
eight,  remained  in  prison  till  1640. 

The  Period  of  Personal  Government,  1629-1640.  — The  Commons 
had  failed  in  their  effort  to  dictate  to  their  sovereign,  but  Charles  was 
determined  never  to  call  another  representative  assembly  until  his 
people  had  come  to  a  better  mind.  During  the  eleven  years  that 
he  governed  without  a  Parliament  he  had  an  opportunity  to  do  one 
of  two  things  —  to  establish  a  despotism  on  the  basis  of  a  standing 
army  or  to  conciliate  his  subjects.  He  did  neither.  He  took  no 
measures  to  strengthen  effectually  the  organs  of  central  government, 
while  by  his  inefficiency,  his  ill-advised  measures,  and  his  disregard 
of  public  opinion  he  forfeited  the  scant  regard  and  respect  which 
his  subjects  cherished  for  him  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  The 
royal  impolicy  was  manifested  in  diverse  ways :  in  vacillation  and 
duplicity  in  foreign  relations ;  in  taking  money  from  the  people  by 
methods  inexpedient  and  of  doubtful  legality ;  in  allowing  Laud  and 
his  party  full  scope  to  carry  out  a  program  which  ran  counter  to 
the  wishes  of  the  majority ;  in  offending  the  moral  sense  of  the  graver 
sort  by  the  license  allowed  at  Court  and  by  the  harsh  treatment  meted 
out  to  those  who  protested;  in  breaking  down  respect  for  the  judi- 
ciary, the  guardian  of  the  laws ;  and,  finally,  by  a  rash  attempt  to 
introduce  episcopacy  in  Scotland. 

(i)  Foreign  Policy.  —  Buckingham's  foreign  policy  had  at  least 
the  merits  of  energy ;  but  even  that  disappeared  with  his  death.  In 
April,  1629,  the  war  with  France  was  ended  by  the  peace  of  Susa. 
Hostilities  with  Spain  were  concluded  by  a  treaty  signed  at  Madrid 
in  1630.  Then  followed  a  series  of  futile  negotiations  with  these  two 
countries  and  with  various  Protestant  powers.  Charles  aimed  to 
recover  the  Palatinate  and  to  assert  the  supremacy  of  England  over 
the  narrow  seas ;  but  his  untrustworthiness  drew  on  him  the  contempt 
of  the  great  continental  leaders,  while  by  his  inaction  he  lost  the 
chance  of  increasing  his  popularity  at  home  and  abroad. 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN   KING  AND   PEOPLE         461 

(2)  Arbitrary  Taxation.  —  The  King's  irregular  methods  of  raising 
money,  though  bolstered  up  with  a  show  of  legality,  proved  one  of 
the  chief  means  of  alienating  his  subjects.     He  continued  to  levy 
tonnage  and  poundage  and  impositions  regardless  of  public  feeling. 
The~merchants  grumbled  a  great  deal,  though,  recognizing  that  a 
trade  burdened  with  customs  was  better  than  no  trade  at  all,  they 
ceased  to  resist  after  the  peace  with  Spain.     But  the  war  debts,  the 
demands  of  a  magnificent  court,  and  the  uneconomical  administration 
made  it  necessary  to  resort  to  all  sorts  of  devices  to  increase  the 
revenue.     One  was  the  revival,  in  1630,  of  Distraint  of  knighthood^, 
which  required  all  freeholders  of  £40  a  year  tcT  assume  the  dubious 
honor  burdened  -with  heavy  obligations  or  else  pay  a  fine.     In  1634 
an  attempt  was  made  to  resuryey  the^boundaries^QLthe  royal  forests 
which  had  remained  fixed  since  a  great  perambulation,  or  survey,  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  I.     The  object  was  mainly  to  exact  fines  from 
those  accused  of  encroachment.     In  three  years  only  £23,000  was 
realized  and  at  the  cost  of  estranging  a  number  of  great  landowners, 
the  class  most  inclined  toward  the  Crown.    Equally  perverse  ingenuity 
was  shown  in  the  creation  of  new  monopolies.     Since  the  act  of  1624 
had  excepted  corporations  and  trading  companies  from  its  prohibi- 
tions, licenses  were  granted  to  a  number  of  such  organizations  for  the 
manufacture  of  soap^  j$tar£h,  Jbeer,  and  qthejc. commodities.     The 
extreme  hatred  oF  patentees  was  well  voiced  by  a  parliament  man  a 
few  years  later.     He  described  them  as  a  "  nest  of  wasps,  or  swarm  of 
vermin,  which  have  overcrept  the  land,"  and,  "  like  the  frogs  of  Egypt, 
have  got  possession  of  our  dwellings,  and  we  have  scarce  a  room  free 
from  them ;  they  sip  in  our  cup,  they  dip  in  our  dish,  they  sit  by  our 
fire ;  we  find  them  in  the  dye-vat,  wash-bowl  and  powdering  tub  .  .  . 
they  have  marked  and  sealed  us  from  head  to  foot."     It  should  be 
borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the  decline  in  the  value  of  money  and  a 
steady  rise  in  prices  was  constantly  decreasing  the  fixed  revenues  of 
the  Crown.     Moreover,  the  country  was  prosperous  and  the  financial 
exactions  fell  on  special  classes  best  able  to  bear  them.     Nevertheless, 
discontent  at  the  royal  attempt  to  raise  money  independently  of  Par- 
liament became  more  widespread  as  the  years  went  on  until  a  crisis 
came  in  the  year  1637. 

(3)  Religion  and  Morals.     The  Laudian  Policy.  —  Meantime,  the 
differences  about  questions  of  religion  and  morals  were  reaching  an 
acute  stage.     The  King's  chief  agent  in  Church  affairs,  Archbishop 

1  A  curious  trial  resulted  from  a  challenge  issued  by  the  independent  soap 
makers  to  the  Soap  Company.  Two  piles  of  soiled  clothes  were  produced  and  two 
washerwomen  were  set  to  work  before  the  lord  mayor  and  aldermen  of  London, 
together  with  "other  worshipful  persons,"  who  pronounced  in  favor  of  the  Com- 
pany's soap.  Also,  testimonials  were  circulated  signed  by  eighty  persons,  including 
peeresses  and  laundresses ;  but  in  the  end  the  company  had  to  yield  to  its  rival. 
Aside  from  being  a  monopoly,  it  was  additionally  unpopular  from  the  fact  that 
many  of  its  number  were  Roman  Catholics;  its  product  was  therefore  called 
"popish  soap." 


462  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Laud,  was  doubly  dangerous  to  the  Puritans ;  because  by  acquiring 
the  leading  voice  in  the  Privy  Council,  the  headship  of  important 
committees  and  commissions,  and  the  control  of  the  courts  of  High 
Commission  and  Star  Chamber,  he  gathered  into  his  hands  all  the 
machinery,  both  ecclesiastical  and  temporal,  for  enforcing  his  drastic 
policy.  His  tireless  industry  and  his  mastery  of  detail  made  him  a 
remarkable  administrator.  On  the  other  hand,  with  his  narrow,  rigid 
views,  his  lack  of  imagination,  his  hot  temper,  and  overbearing 
manners  he  was  the  very  opposite  of  a  statesman.  He  was  fearless, 
honest,  and  absolutely  unselfish  in  his  devotion  to  duty.  He  was 
not  bloodthirsty,  for  he  put  no  one  to  death ;  but  he  sanctioned 
cruel  punishments.  However,  few  advocates  of  mercy  and  toleration 
had  yet  dared  to  raise  their  voices.  Those  in  higher  places  who  spared 
opponents  and  offenders,  did  so  mainly  from  good  nature  or  indiffer- 
ence :  qualities  quite  alien  to  the  spirit  of  Laud.  He  was  no  respecter 
of  persons :  noble,  husbandman,  or  artisan  who  resisted  his  system 
were  dealt  with  alike.  While  this  was  commendable,  he  showed  a 
fatal  lack  of  discrimination  in  other  respects.  He  restored  church 
buildings  whose  original  beauty  had  been  marred  by  neglect,  he  cleared 
St.  Paul's  of  tradesmen  and  lawyers  who  used  the  holy  place  for  base 
traffic,  he  made  war  on  corruption  and  religious  sloth,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  he  persecuted  men  who,  from  sincere  conviction,  refused  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  ceremonies  which  he  was  laboring  to  extend  throughout 
the  land.  Caring  nothing  for  speculative  opinions,  he  was  not  in- 
clined to  inquire  too  strictly  what  people  believed  so  long  as  they 
conformed.  He  strove  for  unity ;  but  his  test  was  uniformity.1  He 
had  no  aesthetic  ideals ;  love  of  beauty,  pomp,  and  ceremony  did  not 
prompt  him  to  revive  ancient  usages,  but  an  overpowering  feeling  for 
order  and  prescribed  rule.  Where  he  found  these  lacking  he  con- 
cluded that  there  was  no  religion.  Hence  the  Puritan,  the  indifferent, 
and  the  profane  were  alike  in  his  eyes.  He  was  determined  to  suppress 
every  breath  of  hostile  expression  in  the  press,  in  the  pulpit,  the  parish 
church,  and  the  conventicle. 

A  few  examples  will  illustrate  his  methods  and  his  tireless  activity. 
Finding  that  many  churches  had  special  lecturers,  usually  employed 
by  the  municipal  corporations,  who  preached  to  the  congregation  after 
the  regular  service,  he  did  away  with  them  by  prohibiting  any  man 
from  preaching  who  did  not  hold  a  regular  living.  Likewise,  he 
provided  that  no  one  except  noblemen  should  have  private  chaplains 
without  special  permission.  He  would  brook  no  lay  control  and  allow 
no  one  to  have  a  share  in  religious  teaching  who  was  not  subject  to 
the  established  religious  tests.  One  Henry  Sherfield  was  fined  £500 

1  "I  labored  nothing,"  he  once  wrote,  "more  than  that  the  external  worship  of 
God  —  too  much  slighted  in  most  parts  of  the  Kingdom  —  might  be  preserved, 
and  that  with  as  much  decency  and  uniformity  as  might  be,  being  still  of  opinion 
that  unity  cannot  long  continue  in  the  Church  where  uniformity  is  shut  out  at  the 
church  door." 


CONFLICT   BETWEEN  KING  AND   PEOPLE         463 

for  smashing  a  church  window  that  he  thought  idolatrous,,  not  be- 
cause Laud  did  not  agree  with  him,  but  because  he  had  resisted  his 
Bishop  in  the  matter. 

The  Metropolitical  Visitations,  1634-1637.  —  In  1634,  the  year  after 
he  became  Archbishop,  he  revived  the  old  practice  of  metropolitical 
visitations,1  and  during  the  next  three  years  he  visited  in  person  or 
by  deputy  every  parish  in  every  diocese  in  his  province  of  Canterbury. 
Careful  inquiries  were  made  concerning  the  condition  of  church 
buildings  and  furniture,  and  concerning  the  character  and  orthodoxy 
of  the  clergy,  whether  they  wore  the  prescribed  vestments  and  fol- 
lowed the  order  of  service  in  the  Prayer  Book,  whether  they  allowed 
any  of  their  congregation  to  attend  conventicles.  Much  corruption, 
irreverence,  and  neglect  were  found.  Many  clergymen  were  pro- 
fane, abusive,  and  loose  in  their  conduct.  Men  slouched  into  church 
with  their  hats  on,  or  disturbed  the  service  outside.  Pigs  were  allowed 
in  many  places  to  root  up  the  church  yard.2  A  previous  regulation 
had  provided  that  the  communion  table  should,  when  not  in  use,  be 
placed  where  the  altar  stood,  but  during  the  ministration  should  be 
moved  to  the  nave  or  the  chancel.  Nevertheless,  it  was  usually  left 
in  the  body  of  the  church,  with  the  result  that  men  used  it  for  a  writ- 
ing table  and  left  their  hats  or  even  sat  upon  it.  Laud  stopped  all 
this  by  providing  that  it  should  be  placed  always  altarwise  in  the 
east  end  of  the  church.  While  he  did  much  good  work,  his  failure  to 
distinguish  between  the  worthy  and  the  unworthy  stirred  up  a  cu- 
riously general  opposition.  The  loose-liver,  proceeded  against  in  the 
ecclesiastical  courts,  the  country  squire  who  resented  the  enhanced 
power  of  the  parson,  the  lawyer  who  chafed  against  the  increased 
jurisdiction  of  the  Church  tribunals,  and  the  Courtiers  who  disliked  the 
bishops  usurping  great  offices  of  State  were  all  aroused. 

The  Puritan  Sentiment  and  Current  Morality.  —  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Puritan  conscience  was  shocked  at  what  they  considered 
to  be  the  high-handed  encouragement  of  immorality.  In  1618,  in 
order  to  counteract  the  zeal  of  certain  magistrates  in  Lancashire, 
James  had  issued  a  Declaration  of  Sports  which  authorized  the  con- 
tinuance of  games  on  Sunday.  There  were  three  good  reasons  for 
this :  to  hinder  the  conversion  to  Catholicism  of  those  who  believed 
that  innocent  and  lawful  recreations  were  f rowned  upon  by  the  Estab- 
lishment ;  to  prevent  idleness  and  tippling ;  and  to  encourage  the  sub- 
jects to  strengthen  their  bodies  for  the  more  effective  defense  of  the 
realm.  In  1633,  the  Declaration,  which  had  been  promulgated  in 
only  one  diocese,  was  published  throughout  the  land,  and  ministers 
were  ordered  to  read  it  from  the  pulpit  under  pain  of  suspension  or 

1  So-called  because  he  conducted  them  as  Metropolitan  of  the  Province. 

2  Lord  Castleton's  bailiff  had  torn  the  lead  from  the  roof  of  the  parish  church 
and  had  melted  it  on  the  floor  of  the  sacred  edifice.     When  some  ran  through  to 
the  crypt  below,  he  even  burned  a  coffin  with  a  body  in  it  to  recover  what  lead  he 
had  lost. 


464  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

deprivation.  Then,  in  Somerset,  it  was  the  custom  to  celebrate  the 
anniversary  of  the  patron  saints  of  churches  on  the  Sunday  following. 
These  "  wakes,"  as  they  were  called,  were  frequently  scenes  of  drunk- 
enness and  disorder.  When  Chief  Justice  Richardson  made  an  effort 
to  stop  this  abuse  he  was  forbidden  to  ride  on  the  western  circuit  again. 
All  this  seemed  to  the  Puritans  nothing  more  than  governmental  sanc- 
tion of  Sabbath  breaking. 

The  Censorship  of  the  Press.  —  By  a  rigid  censorship  of  the  press 
and  by  the  brutal  punishment  of  those  who  evaded  its  restrictions,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  check  attacks  on  the  existing  system.  Many 
of  those  suppressed  or  punished  were  violent  and  abusive  in  their 
language  and  unreasonable  in  their  standards,  but  there  was  much  to 
justify  their  protests,  so  that  in  silencing  them,  voices  were  stifled 
that  cried  for  better  things.  The  first  sufferers,  in  spite  of  the  cruel 
pains  inflicted  on  them,  attracted  little  attention.  Among  them 
was  Alexander  Leighton,  a  fiery  and  uneasy  Scot.  In  his  writings  he 
had  alluded  to  the  Queen  as  a  "  Canaanite  and  an  idolatress  "  and  had 
attacked  the  bishops  as  "  Knobs,  wens  and  bunchy  popish  flesh," 
as  "  trumpery  of  anti-Christ  "  whom  he  counseled  Parliament  to 
smite  under  the  fifth  rib.  In  1630  he  was  arrested,  sentenced  to  pay 
a  fine  of  £10,000,  to  have  his  ears  cropped,  be  pilloried  and  whipped, 
and  to  remain  in  prison  for  life.  Though  part  of  the  sentence  was 
remitted  he  was  only  released  from  prison  ten  years  later.  In  1632 
William  Prynne,  a  barrister  of  vast  learning,  but  narrow-minded 
and  contentious,  denounced  the  theater  in  a  work  entitled,  Histrio- 
mastix;  a  Scourge  of  Stage  Players,  and  received  as  hard  measure  as 
Leighton.  Continuing  his  jeremiads  from  prison,  he  was  called  to 
account  again  in  1637,  together  with  two  others,  Henry  Burton  and 
John  Bastwicke,  chiefly  for  onslaughts  on  the  episcopacy.  Each 
was  sentenced  in  the  Star  Chamber  to  pay  a  fine  of  £5000,  to  stand 
in  the  pillory,  to  lose  his  ears,  and  to  be  imprisoned.  Since  Prynne's 
ears  were  already  cropped,  the  stumps  were  gleaned,  and  he  was 
branded  with  the  letters  "  S.  L."  l  But  whereas  the  former  sentences 
had  passed  unnoticed,  this  time  the  sufferers  were  surrounded  by  a 
sympathetic,  grieving  multitude.  Nevertheless,  in  company  with 
John  Lilburne,  another  tempestuous  spirit,  who  was  caught  circulating 
Puritanical  books,  they  had  to  languish  in  prison  till  1640. 

Fear  of  the  Revival  of  Roman  Catholicism.  —  Another  thing  which 
contributed  to  alienate  the  subject  was  the  widespread  suspicion  that 
the  King  and  his  advisers  were  on  the  road  to  Rome.  Laud,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  regarded  the  Roman  Church  as  a  branch  of  the  Catholic 
communion ;  but  thought  it  was  severed  by  errors  and  innovations 
from  the  truer  traditions  preserved  in  the  Church  of  England.  He 
may  have  looked  forward  to  a  time  when  the  two  might  be  again  united, 
but,  in  his  opinion,  the  time  was  not  yet.  Indeed,  shortly  after  his 

1  That  is,  "Seditious  Libeller,"  but  he  interpreted  them  to  mean  "Scars  of 
Laud." 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND  PEOPLE         465 

accession  as  Archbishop,  he  had  refused  a  Cardinal's  hat,  declaring : 
"  Something  dwells  within  me  which  will  not  suffer  me  to  accept  .  .  . 
till  Rome  be  other  than  it  is."  Charles,  too,  was  stanchly  orthodox ; 
but  the  Queen  was  a  Catholic,  and  many  of  the  court  ladies  were 
attracted  by  the  gorgeous  Roman  ritual.  Moreover,  the  King,  in  his 
desire  to  please  Henrietta  Maria,  admitted  papal  legates  and  allowed 
concessions  to  worshipers  of  the  old  faith.  A  number  of  conversions 
resulted.  Laud  did  all  in  his  power  to  check  the  movement,  but  he 
was  far  from  successful.  Furthermore,  since  he  personally  preferred 
Romanists  to  Puritans  and  ruthlessly  suppressed  the  latter,  he  was 
blamed  for  such  Romeward  tendency  as  there  was. 

The  Significance  of  the  Religious  Discontent.  —  The  significance 
of  the  discontent  aroused  by  the  Laudian  policy  is  difficult  to  realize 
in  the  present  day  when  men  have  such  varied  interests,  when  they 
may  think  what  they  like,  and  worship  where  they  please.  In  the 
early  seventeenth  century  the  mass  of  Englishmen,  beyond  the  routine 
of  their  daily  life,  had  almost  no  intellectual  resource  save  religion. 
Their  reading  was  confined  to  the  Bible  and  a  few  devotional  and  theo- 
logical works.  Their  instruction  in  morals  and  philosophy  came 
largely  from  the  sermons  in-  the  parish  church.  There  they  were 
obliged  to  go  and  worship.  When  they  were  forced  to  participate  in 
ceremonies  which  many  of  them  regarded  as  idolatrous  and  to  hear 
doctrines  which  their  reason  could  not  accept,  it  was  inevitable  that 
when  the  chance  offered,  their  pent-up  fury  would  burst  forth  with 
terrific  consequences. 

For  years,  however,  after  the  crisis  of  1629,  there  was  no  open  resist- 
ance.1 The  reason  why  it  was  so  slow  in  coming  lies  on  the  surface. 
Since  Parliament  no  longer  met,  there  were  no  means  of  focusing  and 
expressing  public  discontent.  The  press  was  muzzled.  There  were 
no  public  meetings,  and,  if  any  had  been  attempted,  they  would  have 
been  suppressed  as  seditious  riots.  There  was  no  party  organization 
and  no  adequate  means  of  communication.  Even  gatherings  at  the 
tavern  or  alehouses  or  at  the  homes  of  the  great  merchants  and  gentry 
were  dangerous,  for  they  might  be  reported  by  spies.  The  fighting 
nobles  who  had  once  led  the  people  against  the  Crown  had  been 
crushed  under  the  Tudors,  and  the  modern  political  agitators  had  not 
yet  come  to  their  own.  So  the  bulk,  even  of  the  Puritans,  conformed 
to  the  ecclesiastical  regulations,  either  half-heartedly  or  sullenly; 
most  of  them  meeting  to  worship  and  pray  in  secret.  Others  fled  to 
America  —  no  less  than  20,000  it  is  estimated  —  to  develop  in  the 
New  World  religious  and  political  ideas  and  practices  which  were  stifled 
in  the  Old.  The  turn  of  the  tide  in  England  came  in  1637.  The 
first  manifestation  was  the  popular  demonstration  about  the  pillory 

1  Clarendon,  the  most  famous  of  the  contemporary  historians,  states  that  "after 
some  short  unquietness  of  the  people  .  .  .  there  quickly  followed  so  excellent  a 
composure  throughout  the  whole  Kingdom,  that  the  like  peace  and  tranquillity 
for  ten  years  was  never  enjoyed  by  any  nation." 

2H 


466  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

for  Prynne  and  his  fellow  sufferers.  In  the  same  year  came  a  burst 
of  public  excitement  over  the  case  of  John  Hampden  and  a  rising  in 
Scotland.  All  these  formed  "in  an  ascending  scale  of  importance 
the  first  three  steps  of  the  popular  movement  which  brought  Charles 
to  the  scaffold." 

(4)  Ship  Money.  Origin  and  Aim.  —  With  the  Puritans  in  a 
state  of  sullen  rage  against  the  Laudian  system,  with  many  other 
grievances  crying  to  be  redressed,  Charles  undertook  to  impose  one 
more  financial  e.xa.r.tion.  All  his  ingenious  but  ill-judged  expedients 
had  been  unpopular.  Ship  money  proved  to  be  the  most  "  famous 
and  disastrous  "  in  its  consequences.  It  called  forth  the  first  notable 
resistance,  and  it  convinced  the  mass  of  the  subjects  that  they  could 
not  depend  upon  the  judges  to  protect  popular  rights.  In  spite  of 
Coke's  brave  stand  they  had  remained  generally  subservient.  In 
1627,  on  the  question  of  habeas  corpus,  and  again  in  1629,  in  the  case 
of  Eliot  and  the  other  members,  they  had  bowed  to  the  royal  will. 
They  were  still  consulted  beforehand,  and  those  who  showed  the  slight- 
est independence  were  dismissed.1  There  was  no  doubt  that  Charles 
was  confronted  by  an  urgent  problem.  The  Dutch  had  grown  to  be 
the  leading  commercial  power  of  Europe ;  they  carried  more  than 
half  the  goods  to  and  from  English  ports,  while  their  navy  was  the 
finest  afloat.  France,  too,  under  the  energetic  Richelieu,  was  develop- 
ing a  considerable  sea  power  and  was  negotiating  a  treaty  with  the 
United  Provinces  for  the  partition  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands  which 
lay  between.  In  addition  to  the  competition  from  the  French  and  the 
Dutch,  English  shipping  was  gravely  menaced  by  pirates  from  Algiers 
and  Dunkirk,  who  scoured  the  Channel.  Her  merchant  marine  was 
in  a  deplorable  state  compared  with  the  glorious  days  of  Elizabeth, 
and  the  sovereignty  of  the  seas,  asserted  by  English  monarchs  since 
the  first  Edward,  was  in  danger  of  becoming  an  empty  boast.  It  was 
at  this  critical  juncture  that  Charles  proposed  to  the  King  of  Spain 
that,  in  return  for  assistance  in  recovering  the  Palatinate,  he  would 
send  out  a  fleet  to  maintain  his  supremacy  in  the  Channel  and  protect 
Flanders.  Though  Philip  received  the  project  coldly  the  English 
King  went  ahead,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  his  Attorney-General  Noy, 
called  on  his  subjects  for  ship  money.  With  his  characteristic  want  of 
frankness  he  concealed  his  designs  against  the  French  and  Dutch, 
alleging  merely  that  he  aimed  to  clear  the  Channel  of  pirates. 

It  was  an  old  custom  to  call  on  the  port  towns  and  maritime  counties 
for  ships,  while  the  levying  of  money  instead,  though  very  infrequent, 
was  not  unknown.  Under  the  Tudors  the  practice  had  almost  died 
out.  In  1619  James  had  collected  money  from  the  ports  to  equip 
an  expedition  against  Algiers,  and  in  1626  Charles  raised  a  fleet  in  the 
same  way.  The  first  of  the  writs  which  he  now  issued,  in  October, 
1634,  was  confined  to  the  port  towns.  Since  the  country  was  at 

1  This  happened  to  Crewe  in  1626 ;  to  Walter  in  1629 ;  to  Heath  in  1634. 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND  PEOPLE         467 

peace  and  since  money  and  not  ships  were  asked  for,  the  suspicion 
arose  that  a  new  scheme  of  direct  taxation  independent  of  Parliament 
was  intendgd.^  In  spite  of  some  grumbling,  however,  the  levy  was  paid 
without  resistance.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  during  the  summer  of  1635, 
Charles  actually  sent  out  a  fleet  which  did  good  service.  On  4  August, 
a  second  writ  was  issued,  calling  for  twice  the  amount  of  the  first  and 
including  the  inland  towns  and  counties.  Public  opinion  was  so 
roused  that  Charles  consulted  the  judges  in  December  and  obtained 
an  opinion  from  ten  out  of  twelve  that :  "  When  the  Kingdom  was 
in  danger,  whereof  his  Majesty  was  the  only  judge,  the  charge  ought 
to  be  borne  by  the  Kingdom  in  general."  When  a  third  and  even  a 
fourth  levy  followed  in  1636  and  1637,  it  became  evident  that  here 
was  an  opportunity  for  a  permanent  and  general  tax — "a  spring 
and  magazine  that  should  have  no  bottom,  and  an  everlasting  supply 
for  all  occasions."  Feeling  surged  higher  and  higher,  and  calls  were 
even  heard  for  a  Parliament.  Hoping  to  stem  the  tide,  Charles  had, 
in  February,  1637,  referred  to  the  judges  again.  This  time  he  man- 
aged to  get  a  favorable  opinion  signed  by  all  twelve.1 

Hampden's  Case,  1637. — Among  those  who  refused  to  pay  his  assess- 
ment in  1635  was  John  Hampden,  a  wealthy  Buckingham  squire. 
Though  it  amounted  to  only  20  shillings,  his  case  was  made  the  test. 
The  trial  was  opened  in  November,  1637,  before  the  full  bench  of  twelve 
judges,  and  judgment  was  rendered  in  the  following  June.  Hamp- 
den's counsel  argued  that  a  long  series  of  statutes  ending  with  the  Pe- 
tition of  Right  forbade  the  King  to  levy  taxes  without  the  consent  of 
Parliament.  One  of  the  counsel,  Holborne,  even  denied  that  the 
sovereign  was  the  sole  judge  of  danger.  The  other,  St.  John,  while 
admitting  that  point,  maintained  that  before  embarking  on  an  offen- 
sive war  there  was  always  time  to  summon  Parliament,  and  that  in 
case  of  invasion  the  subjects  could  be  called  upon  to  defend  the  realm. 
In  the  present  instance  there  was  no  danger  of  invasion.  Charles' 
side  was  presented  in  the  arguments  of  the  Attorney-General  and  the 
Solicitor-General  and  in  the  opinions  of  the  judges  who  decided  for 
him.  They  sought  to  show  that  ship  money  was  not  a  tax,  that  there 
were  precedents  for  money  levies  upon  the  whole  land,  and  that  the 
King  was  sole  judge  of  danger  by  virtue  of  absolute  and  inherent 
right.2  Chief  Justice  Finch  of  the  Common  Pleas  went  to  extreme 
lengths  in  asserting  that  the  law  gave  the  King  the  duty  of  defending 
the  country,  and,  in  consequence,  the  right  of  levying  money  for 
that  purpose.  "Acts  of  Parliament  to  take  away  his  royal  power  in 
the  defense  of  his  Kingdom  are  void,"  he  declared;  "  they  are  void 

1  The  two  who  had  held  out  before  acquiesced  only  because  they  were  persuaded 
that  it  was  customary  for  the  minority  to  yield. 

2  Justice  Berkeley  boldly  asserted  that :   "The  law  is  of  itself  an  old  and  trusty 
servant  of  the  King's ;   it  is  his  instrument  or  means  which  he  useth  to  govern  his 
people  by.    I  never  heard  or  read  that  lex  was  Rex;  but  it  is  common  and  most 
true  that  Rex  is  lex," 


468  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Acts  of  Parliament  to  bind  the  King  not  to  command  the  subjects, 
their  persons  and  goods,  and  I  say  their  money  too,  for  no  Acts  of 
Parliament  make  any  difference."  According  to  Finch,  the  battle 
which  Parliament  had  been  waging  for  centuries  to  secure  the  power 
of  the  purse  had  been  fought  in  vain.  The  sovereign,  by  the  simple 
assertion  that  the  kingdom  was  in  danger,  could  impose  whatever 
taxes  he  chose.  Three  of  the  judges  were  bold  enough  to  declare  that 
it  was  contrary  to  the  law  to  levy  any  charges  without  consent  of 
Parliament,  though  in  time  of  danger  the  King  could  press  every  man 
and  ship  in  the  realm.  Two  others  decided  for  Hampden  on  tech- 
nical grounds.  Seven  decided  against  him.  For  nearly  four  years 
ship  money  continued  a  legal  source  of  revenue  and  was  occasionally 
collected.  The  constitutional  and  political  results  of  the  Hampden 
case  were  momentous.  It  was  evident  that  the  judges  would  not 
protect  the  liberties  of  the  subject,  and  that  some  of  them  at  least  had 
scant  regard  for  what  Parliament  had  gained  in  the  past.  With  depend- 
ence on  established  law  thus  shaken  the  way  was  opened  for  revo- 
lution. Hampden  became  the  hero  of  the  hour.  "  The  eyes  of  all 
men  were  fixed  on  him  as  their  Patrice  Pater,  and  the  pilot  who  must 
steer  the  vessel  through  the  tempests  and  storms  that  threatened  it." 

(5)  The  Outbreak  in  Scotland.  —  The  outbreak  in  Scotland  which 
also  began  in  the  memorable  year  1637,  was  fraught  with  two  notable 
consequences.  It  forced  the  King  to  call  another  Parliament,  thus 
giving  his  English  subjects  a  chance  for  concerted  action,  which 
culminated  in  civil  war.  Furthermore,  it  threw  the  Scotch  on  the 
parliamentary  side,  a  fact  which  contributed  appreciably  to  Charles' 
ultimate  defeat.  James,  who  boasted  that  "  he  knew  the  stomach  " 
of  his  Scotch  subjects,  had  been  very  cautious  in  his  policy.  To  be 
sure,  he  had  restored  episcopacy,  but  in  a  modified  form.  He  had 
established  a  Court  of  High  Commission,  and  had  sought  to  reduce  the 
powers  of  the  General  Assembly ;  but  he  had  left  the  Kirk  Sessions 
practically  undisturbed.  Only  once,  in  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth, 
1618,  —  the  most  important  of  which  provided  that  the  communion 
should  be  received  kneeling,  —  did  he  interfere  in  worship  and  cere- 
mony. It  was  Charles  and  Laud  who  brought  on  the  crisis.  The 
Catholic  marriage  aroused  the  suspicion  of  the  Scots  at  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  reign,  and  every  act  which  followed  deepened  their 
distrust.  The  King  refused  to  annul  the  Five  Articles;  he  made 
arrangements  with  regard  to  Crown  and  Church  lands  and  titles, 
which,  although  not  without  justification,  alienated  the  nobility, 
and  he  proceeded  to  fill  important  offices  of  State  with  bishops. 

The  King's  Journey  to  Scotland.  The  New  Liturgy  and  Canons.  — 
In  1633  the  King,  accompanied  by  Laud,  visited  Scotland,  where  he 
was  crowned  with  great  display,  though  the  coldness  of  his  demeanor 
made  an  extremely  unfavorable  impression.  Shocked  at  the  lack  of 
propriety  in  outward  religious  observance,  which  was  due  partly  to 
conviction  and  partly  to  poverty,  he  determined  to  introduce  far- 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND  PEOPLE         469 

reaching  changes.  Accordingly,  on  his  return  to  England  he  launched 
a  series  of  high-handed  measures.  In  October,  1634,  he  set  up  a  new 
Court  of  High  Commission  with  greatly  extended  powers.  In-  May, 
1635,  he  gave  his  assent  to  a  new  Book  of  Canons,1  which  were  pub- 
lished the  following  year.  Drawn  up  without  ever  being  referred  to 
the  General  Assembly  or  Parliament,  they  declared  the  King  absolute 
head  of  the  Church.  He  also  authorized  a  new  Service  Book  which  was 
sent  down  to  Scotland  in  May,  1637.  "  Laud's  Liturgy  "  or  the 
"  Popish-English-Scottish-Mass-Service-Book,"  as  it  was  called,  was 
unsparingly  denounced;  because  its  ceremonies  smelled  of  the  mass; 
because  it  followed  the  English  model ;  and  because  it  was  imposed  by 
royal  authority.2 

The  Resistance  against  the  New  Service.  The  Scottish_National  _ 
Covenant.  —  The  first  attempt  to  read  the  new  service  was  made 
23  August,  1637,  at  St.  Giles',  Edinburgh.  The  two  Scotch  arch- 
bishops, the  bishops,  the  lords  of  the  Council,  and  other  magnates 
were  assembled  "  to  give  solemnity  to  the  occasion."  But  directly 
the  Dean  started  to  read,  there  arose  "  such  an  uncouth  noise  and 
hubbub  in  the  church  that  not  any  one  could  hear  or  be  heard." 
Women  were  particularly  active  in  the  tumult  which  followed.  One 
"  she  zealot,"  hearing  a  gentleman  reading  the  responses  behind  her, 
turned  round  with  the  cry :  "  Traitor,  dost  thou  say  mass  at  my  ear  ?  " 
and  slapped  him  across  the  face  with  her  Bible.  Archbishop  Spottis- 
woode,  who  tried  to  quell  the  uproar,  was  driven  home  with  stones  and 
abuse.  The  riot  at  St.  Giles'  represented  the  sentiment  thoughout 
the  country.  Charles  was  flooded  with  supplications  from  all  classes 
—  nobles,  gentry,  ministers,  and  burghers  —  begging  that  the  hated 
liturgy  be  suppressed ;  but  he  was  deaf  to  all  appeals.  In  November 
the  four  classes  chose  a  group  of  four  committees,  or  "  Tables,"  to 
represent  their  cause.  They  demanded  the  recall  of  the  liturgy  and 
the  removal  of  the  bishops  from  the  Scotch  Privy  Council.  There- 
upon, Charles  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  all  meetings  and  suppli- 
cations treasonable.  The  Scotch  leaders,  by  way  of  reply,  caused  a 
bond  or  agreement  to  be  drawn  up,  February,  1638.  ("This  "  National 
Covenant  "  pledged  the  signers  to  renounce  all  errors  and  innovations 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  and  to  take  an  oath  for  the  defense  of  the  Crown 
and  true  religion.)  These  two  contradictory  principles  of  devotion  to 
Presbyterianism  and__of_loyalty  to  the  King  plaved  a  curious  part  in 
the  struggles  to  follow.  Often  the  Scots  were  in  arms  against  him; 
but  only,  they  insisted,  in  defense  of  their  religion.  In  March,  the 
Covenant  was  presented  for  signature  in  the  church  of  Greyfriars, 
Edinburgh ;  but  such  a  vast  crowd  thronged  to  subscribe  that  it  was 
taken  and  laid  on  a  tombstone  outside.  Almost  everywhere  through- 
out Scotland  it  was  signed  with  equal  enthusiasm.  Where  enthusiasm 

1  I.e.  a  body  of  rules  for  governing  the  Church. 

2  It  was  drawn  up  by  the  Scotch  bishops  in  consultation  with  Laud  and  the 
King. 


470  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

was  lacking,  persuasion  and  threats  even  were  employed  to  secure  sig- 
natures. 

Futile  Negotiations  and  Preparations  for  War.  —  In  order  to  stem 
the  rising  tide,  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton  was  appointed  royal  commis- 
sioner in  Scotland.  It  was  agreed  that  a  free  Assembly  and  a  free 
Parliament  should  meet  and  Charles  even  professed  his  willingness  to 
revoke  the  Court  of  High  Commission  and  to  recall  the  canons  and 
liturgy.  But  he  refused  to  accept  the  Covenant.  He  insisted,  also, 
that  the  Assembly  should  consist  solely  of  clergymen,  including  bishops, 
while  the  Scots  were  determined  to  exclude  the  latter  and  to  admit 
laymen.  In  defiance  of  the  royal  wishes,  an  Assembly,  constituted 
after  the  Scotch  plan,  met  at  Glasgow,  21  November,  1638.  Paying 
no  attention  to  Hamilton's  order  to  dissolve,  they  deposed  the  bishops, 
nullified  the  canons,  the  liturgy,  and  the  Five  Articles,  and  abolished 
the  High  Commission  Court.  Charles,  who  had  only  promised  such  con- 
cessions as  he  offered  in  order  to  gain  time,  had,  by  the  spring  of  1639, 
completed  an  elaborate  plan  for  invading  Scotland  by  land  and  sea, 
and  for  combining  with  it  a  rising  of  his  supporters  in  the  Highlands. 
However,  he  had  no  funds,  and  his  subjects,  fearing  that  a  victory  on 
his  part  would  further  endanger  their  liberties  and  strengthen  the 
Laudian  tyranny  more  firmly,  contributed  grudgingly.  For  troops 
he  had  only  the  trained  bands  and  a  few  pressed  men,  raw,  undisci- 
plined, and  with  no  enthusiasm  except  to  get  home  safely.  Of  the 
30,000  on  which  he  had  counted  he  managed  to  raise  only  a  third. 
His  generals  were  men  of  no  military  experience  or  capacity.  The 
Scots,  on  the  other  hand,  were  fired  by  a  tremendous  zeal,  and  were 
drilled  by  veterans  schooled  in  the  continental  wars.  Their  com- 
mander, Alexander  Leslie,  later  Earl  of  Leven,  had  been  trained  under 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  greatest  captain  of  the  age. 

The  First  Bishops'  War,  1639.  —  Each  side  issued  manifestoes  jus- 
tifying its  own  cause.  Events  proved  that  the  issue  was  to  be  de- 
cided on  the  Border,  whither  Charles  and  Leslie  hurried  their  respec- 
tive forces.  The  diversions  which  the  English  King  had  planned  in 
various  parts  of  the  country  came  to  nothing.  Early  in  June,  1639, 
Leslie  took  up  a  position  just  north  of  the  Border.  Charles  in  the 
meantime  had  posted  his  forces  south  of  the  Tweed  near  Berwick. 
When  the  armies  were  thus  brought  face  to  face,  neither  wished  to 
fight.  For  Charles  it  meant  certain  defeat,  while  the  Scots  feared 
the  consequences  of  a  victory  which  might  arouse  the  national  pride  of 
Englishmen  to  rally  to  the  support  of  the  King.  It  is  said  that  only 
one  man  was  killed,  and  he  by  accident,  in  the  whole  war.  With 
both  sides  ready  to  come  to  terms,  the  Pacification  of  Berwick  was 
easily  arranged.  The  Scots  agreed  to  disband,  while  Charles  agreed 
to  leave  the  ecclesiastical  questions  in  dispute  to  a  General  Assembly 
and  the  civil  questions  to  a  free  Parliament.  The  Assembly  met  at 
Edinburgh,  1 2  August,  and,  without  mentioning  the  Glasgow  Assembly, 
sanctioned  all  its  acts,  replacing  the  Episcopal  by  the  Presbyterian  sys- 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND  PEOPLE         47: 

tern.  Furthermore,  it  imposed  the  Covenant  upon  the  whole  nation. 
Charles,  again  merely  to  gain  time,  ratified  all  their  measures.  How- 
ever, when  the  Scotch  Estates,  which  mel;  31  August,  proceeded  also 
to  confirm  the  acts,  the  Royal  Commissioner  refused  to  give  his  assent 
and  ordered  a  dissolution.  Charles  supported  him  in  his  action, 
so  the  Estates  met  again,  2  June,  1640,  on  their  own  authority  and 
prepared  to  resume  the  war. 

Wentworth  in  Ireland.  His  recall  to  England  as  the  King's  Chief 
Minister.  —  Charles,  too,  had  been  making  ready  to  renew  hostilities. 
His  chief  adviser  was  Thomas  Wentworth,  whom  he  recalled  from 
Ireland  in  September,  1639.  Wentworth  had  served  there  as.  Lord 
Deputy  since  1633.  He  had  ruled  with  a  strong  hand  and  greatly  im- 
proved the  material  conditions  of  the  country.  He  had  suppressed 
piracy,  protected  trade,  and  encouraged  the  flax  culture  in  the  north. 
He  had  developed  a  well-disciplined  army.  He  had  been  successful 
in  managing  Parliament  and  using  it  as  a  source  of  supplies.  Also, 
he  had  endeavored  to  reform  the  Church  in  order  to  employ  it  as  an 
intellectual  and  moral  instrument  against  the  ascendancy  of  Rome. 
Yet  he  had  only  accentuated  the  bitterness  of  the  subject  people. 
He  had  to  contend  against  the  religious  prejudice  and  anti-English 
feeling  of  the  natives  and  the  greed  of  the  English  officials  and  colo- 
nists. Then  he  was  harsh,  impatient  of  opposition,  and  high-handed 
in  his  methods.  In  order  to  keep  Ireland  to  some  degree  dependent 
on  England,  he  discouraged  the  wool  manufacture  and  kept  salt  as 
government  monopoly.  One  of  his  policies  is  indefensible.  In  the 
Province  of  Connaught  certain  landowners  had  never  registered  their 
titles,  but  Charles,  some  years  before  Wentworth's  arrival,  had  agreed 
that  sixty  years'  possession  would  bar  all  claims.  Regardless  of  his 
master's  promise,  the  Lord  Deputy,  who  designed  to  plant  English 
colonists  in  the  Province,  sought  by  means  of  packed  juries  to  evict 
even  the  proprietor  whose  holdings  antedated  the  term  stipulated. 
When  the  jurors  of  Galway  refused  to  obey  his  will,  they  were  punished 
and  their  verdict  set  aside.  Other  events  prevented  him  from  es- 
tablishing the  plantation,  but  the  attempt  was  a  blot  on  his  career. 
On  the  whole,  he  carried  out  in  Ireland  the  rule  of  "  thorough  "  which 
he  and  Laud  in  their  correspondence  advocated  for  England. 

The  Short  Parliament,  13  April  to  5  May,  1640.  —  In  January, 
1640,  Wentworth  was  promoted  to  the  higher  dignity  of  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant of  Ireland  and  created  Earl  of  Strafford.  Influenced  by  his 
success  with  the  Irish  Parliament,  he  advised  Charles  to  call  an  English 
Parliament.  £lt  might  grant  the  supplies  needed  to  put  down  the 
Scots ;  its  refusal  would  give  the  King  an  excuse  to  act  on  his  own  au- 
thority^ When  the  session  opened,  13  April,  all  of  the  leading  oppo- 
nents of  the  royal  policy  were  present.  Although  far  from  extreme  in 
their  attitude,  they  were  determined  upon  redress  of  grievances,  while 
the  King  insisted  that  a  grant  of  supplies  should  come  first.  John 
Pym,  a  veteran  who  had  sat  in  every  Parliament  since  1614  and  who 


472  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

from  the  leadership  which  he  now  assumed  came  to  be  known  as 
"  King  Pym,"  opened  with  a  stirring  speech.  In  a  masterly  survey 
of  the  events  of  the  session  of  1629  and  of  the  period  of  personal  rule 
which  followed,  he  summed  up  the  popular  complaints  under  three 
heads :  breaches  of  parliamentary  privilege ;  innovations  in  religion ; 
and  invasions  of  private  property.  Committees  were  appointed  to 
consider  each  of  these  subjects.  Instigated  by  the  King,  the  Lords 
suggested  passing  at  once  to  the  question  of  supply;  but  when  the 
Lower  House  resented  this,  they  at  once  disclaimed  any  intention 
of  interfering  with  the  undoubted  right  of  the  Commons  to  initiate 
money  bills.  After  an  attempted  negotiation  for  the  abandonment 
of  ship  money  in  return  for  a  large  grant  had  failed,  Charles,  finding 
that  there  was  little  chance  of  getting  any  money  without  conces- 
sions which  he  was  unwilling  to  make,  and  that  the  opposition  leaders 
were  treating  with  the  Scots,  ordered  a  dissolution,  5  May.  Although 
the  Short  Parliament  sat  only  three  weeks  and  did  not  pass  a  single 
measure,  its  work  was  "  as  memorable  as  that  of  any  Parliament  " 
in  English  history,  (it  brought  the  chiefs  of  the  people  together  and 
gave  them  an  opportunity ,to  discuss  and  formulate  the  popular  dis- 
content against  the  CrownJ 

Devices  for  raising  Money  after  the  Short  Parliament.  —  Convoca- 
tion continued  to  sit  and  further  embittered  the  anti-High  Church 
sentiment  by  granting  six  subsidies  and  by  passing  canons  which 
proclaimed  the  divine  right  of  kings  and  bishops,  and  proposed  a 
new  oath  to  defend  the  existing  Establishment.  Strafford,  in  the 
Council,  held  that,  since  Parliament  had  refused  to  vote  the  required 
supplies,  the  King  was  "  loosed  and  absolved  from  all  rules  of  govern- 
ment." His  violence  and  arbitrariness  knew  no  bounds.  He  pro- 
posed that  an  army  should  be  raised  in  Ireland  to  assist  in  reducing 
the  stubborn  Scots.  Hampden,  he  declared,  should  be  "  well  whipped 
into  his  right  senses,"  for  going  to  law  about  ship  money.  When  the 
city  refused  a  loan,  he  proposed  that  some  of  the  aldermen  be  hanged 
as  examples.  All  sorts  of  expedients  were  tried  to  raise  funds.  Ship 
money  and  its  military  equivalent,  "  coat  and  conduct  "  money  for 
the  equipment  and  transport  of  troops,  were  levied.  Futile  attempts 
were  made  to  raise  loans  from  Spain  and  the  Pope.  A  proposal  to 
debase  the  currency,  known  as  "  the  abominable  project  of  brass 
money  "  l  came  to  nothing.  It  was  even  suggested  that  a  mass  of 
bullion  which  had  been  sent  over  from  other  countries  to  be  coined 
should  be  appropriated  as  a  loan.  This  desperate  scheme  was  only 
abandoned  when  the  Merchants  Adventurers  advanced  £40,000  to  save 
English  credit  abroad.  Also,  the  Government  very  improvidently 
bought  from  the  East  India  Company  a  large  consignment  of  pepper  on 
credit  and  sold  it  for  cash  at  a  lower  figure  than  the  payment  agreed 
upon.  All  these  expedients  were  as  unproductive  as  they  were  un- 

1  The  proposed  coins  were  to  bear  a  Latin  inscription  from  the  68th  Psalm : 
"Let  God  arise  and  let  his  enemies  be  scattered." 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  KING  AND  PEOPLE         473 

popular.     Insulting  placards  were  posted  in  London  and  a  mob  at- 
tacked the  palace  of  the  Archbishop. 

The  Second  Bishops'  War,  1640.  —  On  23  August,  Charles  joined 
his  army  at  York.  It  consisted  mainly  of  pressed  men,  ill-equipped, 
discontented,  Puritan  in  sentiment,  and  violently  suspicious  of  its 
officers,  many  of  whom  were  reputed  Romanists.  The  Scots,  having 
issued  a  manifesto  declaring  that  they  were  merely  seeking  their 
rights,  that  they  were  in  full  sympathy  with  the  English,  and  that 
they  would  not  take  so  much  as  a  chicken  or  a  pot  of  ale  without  paying 
for  it,  crossed  the  Border,  brushed  the  King's  forces  aside,  and  occupied 
the  two  counties  of  Durham  a.nd  Northumberland.  In  the  face  of 
the  crisis  Charles  was  forced  to  consent  to  summon  another  Parlia- 
ment. Before  it  assembled  he  called  a  Greal  Conn  HI  of  t.hp  PPPTX — 
the  jfirstjof  the  sort  since  the  reign  of  Edward  III  —  to  meet  him, 
24  September,  at  York.  His  aim  was  to  obtain  advice  and  financial 
aid.  They  guaranteed  a  large  loan  and  opened  negotiations  with 
the  Scots  at  RiponA  It  was  finally  agreed  that  the  invaders  should 
remain  in  possession  of  Durham  and  Northumberland  and  receive 
£850  a  day  until  a  definite  peace  was  signed.  Thence  the  negotiations 
were  transferred  to  London,  where  they  were  concluded  the  following 
August.  On  28  October,  1640,  the  Great  Council  was  dissolved  and  a 
few  days  later  Parliament  met. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Montague,  Political  History,  chs.  VT-X.  Trevelyan,  England  under 
the  Stuarts,  chs.  V,  VI.  Cambridge  Modern  History  (1906),  IV,  ch.  VIII  (bibliog- 
raphy, pp.  884  ff.)-  Gardiner,  History  of  England,  chs.  V-IX.  Ranke,  History  of 
England,  I,  bk.  V,  chs.  VI-IX,  II,  bk.  VI,  VII.  Lingard,  VII,  chs.  IV,  V. 

Constitutional.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  V,  ch.  II,  sees.  1-6.  Taswell- 
Langmead,  ch.  XIII.  Hallam,  I,  ch.  VII ;  II,  ch.  VIII.  Gardiner,  Constitutional  Docu- 
ments of  the  Puritan  Revolution  (1899),  introduction  pp.  i-xxxii;  a  good  summary. 

Special.  Seeley,  British  Policy,  I,  pt.  II,  chs.  IV,  VI.  G.  P.  Gooch,  English 
Democratic  Ideas  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  (1898).  See  also  ch.  XXVII  above. 

Biography.  P.  Gibbs,  George  Villiers,  First  Duke  of  Buckingham  (1908) ;  rather 
gossipy.  I.  A.  Taylor,  The  Life  of  Queen  Henrietta  Maria  (1905).  Macaulay, 
essay  on  Hampden.  Goldwin  Smith,  Three  English  Statesmen  (1868),  Pym  and 
Cromwell.  H.  D.  Traill,  Strajford  (1889).  W.  H.  Hutton,  Laud  (1895).  D.  Masson, 
The  Life  of  John  Milton  (6  vols.,  1859-1880)  chs.  I,  II;  every  other  chapter  is  de- 
voted to  the  general  history  of  the  times. 

Contemporary.  Clarendon,  History  of  the  Great  Rebellion  (best  ed.  W.  D.  Macray, 
6  vols.,  1886) ;  a  literary  and  historical  classic,  but  must  be  read  with  caution,  owing 
to  the  inaccuracies  and  prejudices  of  the  author.  Lucy  Hutchinson,  Memoirs  of  the 
Life  of  Colonel  Hutchinson  (best  ed.  C.  H.  Firth,  2  vols.,  1885) ;  a  rather  idealized  pic- 
ture of  the  highest  type  of  Puritan  gentleman.  Peter  Heylyn,  Cyprianus  Anglicanus 
(1668) ;  a  life  of  Laud  by  an  avowed  admirer. 

Church.  W.  H.  Hutton,  History  of  the  English  Church  from  the  A  ccession  of  Charles 
I  to  the  Death  of  Anne  (1903),  chs.  I-VII. 

Scotland  and  Ireland.  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  II,  bk.  VI,  ch.  III.  Cambridge 
Modern  History,  IV,  chs.  XVII,  XVIII  (bibliography,  pp.  909-918). 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  189-194.  Gardiner, 
Documents,  nos.  1-25. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

FROM  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT  TO  THE  OUT- 
BREAK OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR   (1640-1642) 

The  Opening  of  the  Long  Parliament.     Temper  and  Aims.  —  The 

body  which  assembled,  3  November,  1640,  came  to  be  known  as  the 
Long  Parliament.  The  years  through  which  it  was  destined  to  sit 
were  perhaps  the  most  eventful  in  English  history ;  they  were  marked 
by  a  civil  war ;  by  the  execution  of  a  king ;  and  by  the  setting  up  of  a 
short-liyed_repjiblic,  the  only  republic  that  England  has  had.  For  an 
interval  of  six  years  the  Long  Parliament  was  in  abeyance ;  but  toward 
the  close  of  1659  it  was  revived,  and  helped  to  prepare  the  way  for 
the  restoration  of  the  monarchy  and  the  Church,  which  came  the  fol- 
lowing year. 

While  most  of  the  men  who  had  found  seats  in  the  Short  Parlia- 
ment were  reflected  in  the  autumn  of  1640,  the  temper  both  of  the 
members  and  of  those  who  returned  them  had  changed.  Convinced 
by  the  events  of  the  intervening  months  that  Charles  and  his  council- 
ors were  conspiring  to  crush  their  religious  and  civil  liberties  and  to 
introduce  Roman  Catholicism,  they  now  determined  not  only  to 
remove  existing  grievances,  but  to  "  pull  up  the  causes  of  them  by 
the  roots."  Even  yet,  however,  their  intentions  were  not  revolution- 
ary. They  designed  merely  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  King  to 
govern  without  a  Parliament ;  to  do  away  with  his  arbitrary  power 
of  taxing  and  administering  justice;  to  safeguard  Protestantism; 
and  to  punish  the  evil  advisers  whom  they  blamed  for  leading  the 
King  astray.  In  other  words,  they  sought  to  restore  the  form  of 
constitution  which  had  existed  under  the  Lancastrians  —  substan- 
tially that  of  the  present  day.  If  they  could  have  agreed  upon  their 
ecclesiastical  as  generally  as  they  agreed  upon  their  political  pro- 
gram, and  if  they  had  been  able  to  trust  the  King  to  observe  the 
concessions  which  they  wrung  from  him  in  the  first  months  of  the 
session,  the  war  and  its  extreme  consequences  might  have  been  averted. 
But  a  split  came  on  the  religious  question ;  one  party  wanted  to  abolish 
Episcopacy  outright,  the  other  party  wanted  only  to  modify  it.  The 
inevitable  conflict  encouraged  the  shifty  King  to  start  intriguing 
again  in  order  to  recover  what  he  had  yielded,  and  convinced  the 
extremists  that  there  was  no  hope  of  peace  and  safety  until  Charles 
Stuart  had  ceased  to  live. 

474 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT      475 

The  Opposition  Leaders  in  the  Commons.  John  Pym  (1584-1643). 
—  The  party  chiefs  who  had  succeeded  Eliot  and  his  fellows  differed 
from  their  predecessors  in  organizing  a  great  popular  movement  out- 
side the  walls  of  Parliament.  For  years  they  had  been  meeting  and 
maturing  their  plans  in  the  country  houses  of  wealthy  peers  and  com- 
moners. When  the  Short  Parliament  revealed  the  temper  of  the 
nation  they  began  to  act.  They  entered  into  negotiations  with  the 
Scots,  they  organized  the  petition  for  a  new  Parliament,  and,  during 
the  autumn  elections,  they  rode  about  the  country,  influencing  voters 
to  choose  Puritan  representatives.  Until  his  death  in  December,  1643, 
the  leading  spirit  in  the  popular  opposition  was  John  Pym.  Accord- 
ing to  the  contemporary  historian  Clarendon,  "  No  man  had  more  to 
answer  for  the  miseries  of  the  kingdom,  or  had  his  hand  or  head  deeper 
in  their  contrivances."  Added  to  unusual  abilities  as  a  debater  and 
parliamentary  tactician,  developed  by  training  in  six  successive  Houses, 
he  had  rare  gifts  of  popular  management.  According  to  his  theory, 
Parliament  was  the  chief  element  in  the  constitutional  life  of  the  nation. 
"  The  powers  of  Parliament,"  he  declared  in  a  speech  in  1640,  "  are 
to  the  body  politic  as  the  rational  faculties  of  the  soul  to  man."  Of 
the  two  Houses  the  lower  was,  in  his  opinion,  the  one  that  should 
carry  the  essential  weight,  while  the  rights  of  the  people  transcended 
both.1  He  held  that  whenever  the  sovereign  set  himself  against  the 
popular  will  his  act  amounted  to  a  temporary  abdication,  during 
which  time  the  executive  passed  to  Parliament  as  the  representative 
of  the  people.  He  never  was  a  republican,  though,  had  he  lived, 
events  might  have  made  him  such.  With  regard  to  the  Church, 
he  was  as  opposed  to  Presbyterian  as  to  Episcopal  control,  and  gave 
his  support  to  a  measure  for  transferring  the  powers  of  the  bishops 
whom  he  regarded  as  agents  of  royal  despotism,  to  parliamentary  lay 
commissioners. 

John  Hampden  (1594-1643).  Pym's  closest  associate  and  sup- 
porter was  John  Hampden.  A  country  gentleman  of  wealth,  who 
had  been  educated  at  Oxford  and  the  Inns  of  Court,  he  had  ranged 
himself  in  the  opposition  ranks  from  his  entry  into  Parliament  in  1620. 
He  was  among  the  eighty  who  were  imprisoned  for  refusing  to  pay  the 
forced  loan ;  but  it  was  the  Ship  Money  Case  which  first  made  him  a 
central  figure  in  the  struggles  against  the  Crown.  When  he  was 
killed  in  battle  in  1643,  his  loss  is  said  to  have  caused  as  much  con- 
sternation to  the  Puritan  party  "  as  if  their  whole  army  had  been  de- 
feated," while  the  Royalists  regarded  it  as  "  a  great  deliverance  to  the 
nation."  Hampden's  influence  was  due  as  much  to  his  high  rank  and 
to  his  character  as  to  his  abilities.  He  was  absolutely  fearless,  free 
from  private  ambition,  and  possessed  of  a  wonderful  ascendancy  over 
men.  From  the  few  rough  notes  of  his  speeches  that  survive,  it  is  clear 
that  he  was  no  orator ;  but  his  words  were  always  to  the  point  and 

1  As  early  as  1629  he  stated  in  a  speech  to  the  Commons,  "The  Liberties  of  this 
House  are  inferior  to  the  Liberties  of  this  Kingdom." 


476  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

carried  great  weight.  Like  Pym,  he  sought  to  bring  about  a  recon- 
ciliation with  Charles  and  his  people  rather  than  to  do  away  with 
monarchy.  Yet  he  was  eager  to  punish  the  evil  councilors  at  Court 
and  gradually  became  an  advocate  of  a  "  root  and  branch  "  extirpa- 
tion of  Episcopacy.  Pym  and  Hampden  were  the  centers  of  a  small 
group,  forming  the  "  engine  which  moved  all  the  rest." 

Cromwell  and  Vane.  —  Oliver  Cromwell  (1599-1658),  who  had 
entered  the  House  of  Commons  in  1628,  represented  Cambridge  in 
the  Short  and  Long  Parliaments.  As  yet  he  was  notable  chiefly 
for  his  religious  zeal  and  his  advocacy  of  Puritan  liberty  of  preaching. 
The  fact,  however,  that  he  was  a  cousin  both  of  Hampden  and  St.  John 
brought  him  into  intimate  relation  with  the  opposition  chiefs:  he 
soon  became  active  on  committees,  and  "  very  much  hearkened  unto." 
"  Very  ordinarily  apparelled  .  .  .  his  countenance  swollen  and  reddish, 
his  voice  sharp  and  untuneable,"  and  fervid  in  utterance,  he  was  a 
man  of  power  rather  than  charm.  Sir  Harry  Vane  (1613-1662), 
whom  Milton  described  as  "  young  in  years,  but  in  sage  council  old," 
had  already,  as  a  youth  of  twenty-four,  been  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 
He  had  ability,  industry,  and  great  powers  of  leadership.  Almost 
a  fanatic  in  his  enthusiasm,  he  was  an  extreme  liberal  in  politics  and 
an  Independent  in  religion,  having,  according  to  Clarendon,  "  swal- 
lowed some  of  the  fancies  and  extravagancies  of  every  sect." 

The  Constitutional  Royalists.  — Lucius  Gary  (1610-1643),  Viscount 
Falkland  in  the  Scotch  peerage,  was  a  gentle  nature  who  represented 
the  philosophical  and  literary  liberalism  of  the  time.  His  house  at 
Great  Tew,  near  Oxford,  was  for  a  brief  period  the  intellectual  center 
of  England.  In  his  search  for  freedom  from  spiritual  tyranny  he 
came  to  fear  the  Presbyterian  ascendancy  more  than  the  Laudian 
and  went  over  to  the  royal  side.  When  his  hopes  were  again  dis- 
appointed, he  sought  and  found  death  in  the  battle  of  Newbury,  20 
September,  1643.  Edward  Hyde  (1609-1674),  later  Earl  of  Claren- 
don, was  one  of  the  most  active  in  securing  the  political  reforms  of  the 
first  session  of  the  Long  Parliament ;  but  he  was  too  much  attached 
to  the  Church  and  the  prerogative  to  go  further,  so,  as  the  tendencies 
of  the  extremists  in  Church  and  State  became  more  and  more  evident, 
he  also  joined  the  King's  party  and  became  the  leader  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Royalists.  His  History  of  the  Great  Rebellion,  written  mostly 
during  his  subsequent  exile,  is,  in  spite  of  its  prejudices  and  errors  of 
fact,  the  great  historical  classic  of  the  period. 

The  Puritan  Peers.  —  There  was  a  small  but  staunch  body  of  Puri- 
tan leaders  among  the  peers,  a  few  of  whom  belonged  to  the  little  circle 
dominated  by  Pym  and  Hampden.  Chief  among  them  were  the  Earls 
of  Essex,  Manchester,  Warwick,  and  Bedford,  Viscount  Saye  and 
Sele,  and  Lord  Brooke.  Robert  Devereux,  third  Earl  of  Essex, 
(1591-1646),  a  son  of  Elizabeth's  favorite,  was  the  first  husband  of 
Frances  Howard.  He  had  been  vice-admiral  of  the  Cadiz  expedi- 
tion, and,  though  already  opposed  to  Charles'  policy  in  Church  and 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT      477 

State,  had  served  as  second  in  command  in  the  first  Bishops'  War. 
In  the  Short  Parliament  he  ranged  himself  definitely  in  the  ranks  of 
the  opposition.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  he  was  chosen  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  Parliamentary  army,  but,  while  actuated  by  a 
high  sense  of  duty,  he  lacked  assertiveness,  his  abilities  were  too  slen- 
der for  the  difficult  situation,  and  he  had  soon  to  make  way  for  a 
leader  of  more  robust  fiber.  Edward  Montague,  second  Earl  of  Man- 
chester (1602-1671),  was  "  a  sweet  meek  man  "  who  had  much  the 
same  fate.  An  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Puritan  popular  party  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  he  was  made  commander  of  the  army  of  the  Asso- 
ciation of  the  Eastern  Counties  after  the  war  broke  out.  He  was 
charged  by  Cromwell  with  neglect  and  mismanagement  in  prosecut- 
ing hostilities,  and  also  forced  into  retirement.  Warwick  did  good 
service  as  Lord  High  Admiral  during  the  coming  struggle. 

The  Strength  of  the  Long  Parliament.  —  Charles  could  not  dismiss 
this  Parliament  nor  could  he  resist  its  measures ;  for  it  was  absolutely 
necessary  for  him  to  obtain  a  grant-,  either  to  pay  off  the  Scottish 
invaders  or  to  raise  another  army  to  resist  them.  London,  freed 
from  the  restraint  which  had  so  long  checked  all  demonstrations  of 
anti-royalist  and  anti-episcopal  expression,  became  the  center  of 
stirring  activity  —  "the  workshop  of  the  revolution."  Pamphlets 
on  religion  and  politics,  and  fervid  sermons  contributed  to  spread 
radical  ideas  and  to  rouse  men  to  carry  them  into  effect ;  sects  multi- 
plied; while  mobs  of  howling  apprentices  and  even  of  once  sober 
tradesmen  menaced  the  Court  at  Whitehall  and  fanned  the  zeal  of 
Parliament  at  Westminister.  As  an  act  of  tardy  justice  the  victims  of 
the  Star  Chamber  prosecutions,  Prynne,  Burton,  Bastwicke,  Leighton, 
and  Lilburne,  were  released  and  welcomed  in  the  City  with  every  mani- 
festation of  joy.  Parliament,  with  the  Scotch  and  London  citizens 
to  back  it,  went  valiantly  to  work.  Its  labors  during  the  few  months  of 
its  first  session  group  themselves  under  three  main  heads:  (i)  pro- 
ceedings against  the  King's  councilors ;  (2)  curtailing  the  royal  powers 
of  arbitrary  taxation  and  administration  of  justice ;  (3)  attempts  at 
religious  reform. 

(i)  Impeachment  of  Stratford  and  Other  Councilors.  —  Parliament 
had  sat  just  a  week  when  Strafford,  "  the  dark-browed  apostate," 
whom  the  Commons  regarded  as  the  King's  evil  genius  and  their  own 
most  dangerous  enemy,  was  impeached  and  placed  in  custody.  His 
idea  had  been  to  remain  at  York  and  to  train  the  motley  royal  forces 
into  an  army  which  might  be  used  against  the  popular  party  in  case  of 
need ;  but  Charles,  promising  that  he  should  "  not  suffer  in  person, 
honor,  or  fortune,"  summoned  him  to  London.  He  obeyed,  with 
gloomy  forebodings.  In  order  to  anticipate  his  enemies  in  the  Com- 
mons, he  planned  to  arrest  the  leaders  on  a  charge  of  plotting  with 
Scotch  rebels.  However,  led  by  the  adroit  and  energetic  Pym,  they 
were  able  to  strike  first.  Other  impeachments  followed  in  swift  suc- 
cession. Some  escaped,  but  Laud,  "  too  old  and  brave  to  fly,"  was 


478  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

lodged  in  the  Tower,  whence  he  was  taken  four  years  later  to  the  block. 
The  charges  against  Strafford  which  the  Commons  sent  to  the  House 
of  Lords  declared,  in  substance :  that  he  had  traitorously  endeavored 
to  subvert  the  laws  of  England  and  Ireland  and  to  introduce  arbitrary 
and  tyrannical  government ;  that  he  had  advised  the  King  to  reduce 
his  subjects  in  Scotland  and  England  by  force  of  arms ;  and  that  he 
had  tried  to  enlist  "  papists  "  in  support  of  his  political  schemes. 
"  Three  whole  kingdoms  were  his  accusers  and  eagerly  sought  in  one 
death  a  recompense  of  all  their  sufferings." 

The  Trial  of  Strafford.  —  The  trial  began  22  March,  1641,  in  West- 
minster Hall,  which  was  crowded  with  spectators.  The  throne  had 
been  prepared  for  the  King,  but  he  sat  apart  in  a  box  with  Queen  Hen- 
rietta Maria.  While  it  was  easy  to  prove  the  accused  Minister  guilty 
of  tyranny  and  contempt  of  the  law,  it  was  not  possible  to  substantiate 
the  charge  of  treason.  According  to  the  existing  law,  that  was  an 
offense  that  could  be  committed  only  against  the  King,  and  the  King 
had  approved  of  all  that  Strafford  had  done.  Pym,  to  be  sure,  had 
an  ingenious  argument.  He  asserted  that  Strafford's  many  arbitrary 
acts,  by  tending  to  put  the  King  above  the  law,  really  amounted  to 
treason,  because  they  alienated  his  subjects  and  thus  were  in  effect 
directed  against  the  royal  authority.  Nevertheless,  the  underlying 
charge  was  treason  against  the  nation  —  a  new  offense  which  had 
never  been  recognized  by  statute.  As  the  trial  drew  to  a,  close,  the 
managers  tried  to  introduce  as  evidence  some  rough  notes  of  a  speech 
which  Strafford  had  made  in  the  secret  Council  in  the  previous  summer, 
advising  the  King  to  employ  an  Irish  army  to  reduce  "  this  kingdom." 
They  had  been  taken  by  the  elder  Vane,  one  of  the  royal  Secretaries, 
and  found  by  the  young  Sir  Harry  in  his  father's  study.  v  The  Lords, 
however,  refused  to  accept  new  evidence  unless  the  Earl  were  allowed 
a  similar  privilege.  Even  had  the  notes  been  admitted,  there  were 
at  least  three  difficulties  in  employing  them  as  a  proof  of  treason.  In 
the  first  place,  the  law  required  two  witnesses,  and  Vane  was  the  only 
one  who  would  testify  as  to  what  Strafford  had  said  in  the  Council 
meeting.  Secondly,  there  was  no  certainty  from  the  notes  as  to  what 
was  meant  by  "  this  kingdom."  If  it  was  Scotland,  there  was  no 
treason  in  advocating  the  employment  of  an  Irish  army ;  for  the  Scots 
were  in  armed  rebellion  against  their  sovereign.  Finally,  even  if 
England  was  meant,  the  advice,  however  gravely  it  menaced  the 
liberty  of  subject,  did  not  legally  amount  to  treason. 

A  Bill  of  Attainder  substituted  for  the  Impeachment.  —  At  length, 
fearing  that  the  accused  might  escape  after  all,  some  of  those  most  bent 
on  his  destruction  proposed  that  a  bill  of  attainder  be  substituted  for 
the  impeachment.  St.  John  voiced  the  hatred  of  the  extremists  when 
he  said :  "  We  give  law  to  hares  and  deer  because  they  be  beasts  of 
chase,  it  was  never  accounted  either  cruelty  or  foul  play  to  knock  foxes 
and  wolves  on  the  head  as  they  can  be  found,  because  they  be  beasts 
of  prey."  Even  the  moderate  Essex  was  moved  to  declare  grimly  that 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT      479 

"  stone  dead  hath  no  fellow."  Though  opposed  at  first  by  Pym  and 
Hampden,  the  bill  of  attainder  passed  the  Commons,  21  April,  1641. 
Charles  did  everything  in  his  power  to  block  the  further  progress  of 
the  measure :  he  offered  to  dismiss  the  Earl,  and  even  to  give  his  con- 
sent to  any  punishment  short  of  the  death  penalty.  But  the  mob 
which  surged  about  Westminster  demanded  the  head  of  "  Black  Tom 
the  Tyrant,"  while  subjects  of  all  classes,  lords,  commons,  clergy, 
and  the  citizens  of  London,  combined  in  the  signature  of  a  protestation 
for  the  defense  of  Protestantism,  the  privileges  of  Parliament,  and  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  Strafford's  fate  was  sealed  by  the  discovery  of  a 
plot,  in  which  the  Queen  rashly  engaged,  to  bring  the  army  down  from 
York  to  overawe  Parliament.  In  consequence  of  a  dispute  which 
arose  between  two  factions  of  the  royalist  supporters,  this  "  first 
army  plot "  was  betrayed  to  the  popular  leaders.  Pym  seized  a 
fitting  moment  to  disclose  the  information,  and  the  Lords,  who  had 
hitherto  hesitated,  voted  the  attainder,  8  May.  Charles  withheld  his 
signature  as  long  as  he  could,  but,  pressed  by  deputations  from  both 
houses  and  menaced  by  the  armed  and  excited  throng,  he  was  obliged 
to  sacrifice  his  Minister  whom  he  had  promised  to  protect.  "  If 
my  own  person  only  were  in  danger,"  he  declared,  "  I  would  venture  it 
all  to  save  Lord  Strafford's  life ;  but  seeing  my  wife  and  children, 
and  all  my  kingdom  are  concerned  in  it,  I  am  forced  to  give  way  .  .  . 
my  Lord  Strafford's  condition,"  he  added,  "  is  more  happy  than  mine." 
When  the  condemned  Minister  heard  the  decision,  he  exclaimed : 
"  Put  not  your  trust  in  princes  nor  in  the  sons  of  men,  for  in  them  is 
no  salvation."  On  12  May,  receiving  Laud's  benediction  as  he 
passed,  he  proceeded  dauntlessly  and  haughtily  to  his  execution  on 
Tower  Hill.  He  had  served  the  King  faithfully  and  he  was  put  to 
death  without  warrant  of  law ;  but  he  was  a  dangerous  man  who, 
had  he  been  allowed  to  live,  would  have  worked  to  destroy  the  lib- 
erties of  the  people  and  the  lives  of  their  leaders.  If  they  had  dis- 
regarded the  law,  he  had  set  them  the  example. 

(2)  Remedial  Legislation.  —  Meantime  Parliament  had  taken 
steps  to  curtail  the  King's  arbitrary  powers.  In  December,  1640, 
monopolies  had  been  denounced  and  an  order  passed  debarring  mem- 
J3ers_concerned  in  them  from  sitting  "in  theLower  House.  On  16  Feb- 
ruary, a  Triennial  Bill  became  law,  providing  that  henceforth  ParhV 
ment  shottld  meet  at  least  once  in_three  years.  In  case  the  King  re^ 
fused  to  call  a  meeting  within  that  interval,  the  Lord  Chancellor  and 
the  sheriffs  were  authorized  to  exercise  the  right  of  summons,  while, 
as  a  last  resort,  the  peers  might  assemble  and  the  freeholders  might 
proceed  to  a  general  election  without  any  summons  at  all.  This 
measure,  designed  to  prevent  such  long  interparliamentary  intervals 
as  had  occurred  under  James  and  Charles,  was  not  without  precedent ; 
for  statutes  of  Edward  III,  though  obsolete  at  this  time,  had  provided 
for  annual  parliaments.  Another  measure  —  designed  to  prevent 
for  the  future  the  summary  methods  which  Charles  had  employed  to 


480  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

block  Buckingham's  impeachment  and  Eliot's  resolutions  —  pro- 
vided that  Parliament  should  not  be  dissolved  without  its  own  consent. 
This  was  the  only  really  revolutionary  measure  of  the  whole  session. 
The  King  gave  his  assent,  n  May,  the  same  day  that  he  agreed  to 
StrafTord's  attainder.  Secured  against  interference  with  its  work, 
Parliament  proceeded  to  deal  with  taxation  and  the  extraordinary 
courts. 

Acts  curtailing  the  Royal  Power  of  Taxation  and  the  Extraordinary 
Courts.  —  On  22  June,  1641,  a  statute  was  passed  granting  tonnage 
and  poundage  for  two  months;  but  providing  that  thenceforth  "  no 
subsidy,  custom,  impost,  or  other  charge  whatsoever  "  should  be  im- 
posed except  by  consent  of  Parliament  on  merchandise  imported  or 
exported.  This  was  followed,  5  July,  by  an  act  abolishing  the  Star 
Chamber,  the  Council  of  Wales  and  the  Marches,  the  Council  of 
the  North,  and  other  special  courts.  The  High  Commission  was 
done  away  with  by  an  act  which  became  law  the  same  day.  In 
August,  ship  money,  the  enlargement  of  the  forests,  and  the  exaction 
of  knighthood  fines  were  all  declared  illegal.  This  series  of  measures, 
preventing  the  King  from  governing  without  Parliament  and  depriving 
him  of  his  arbitrary  powers  of  raising  money  and  administering  justice, 
furnished  a  constitutional  arrangement  satisfactory  to  the  popular 
party,  but  failed  because  Charles,  in  spite  of  his  promises,  refused  to 
accept  without  a  struggle  the  limitations  thus  imposed  upon  his  sov- 
ereignty. He  tried  all  manner  of  devices  to  recover  the  ground  he  had 
lost :  he  agreed  to  a  new  army  plot ;  he  corresponded  with  agents  of 
the  Pope ;  and  he  sought  to  raise  a  party  in  Scotland.  His  wife  was 
fertile  in  suggesting  expedients  as  rash  as  they  were  futile,  while  in- 
creasing dissension  over  the  Church  question  offered  him  the  hope  of 
strengthening  his  party  at  the  expense  of  his  opponents. 

(3)  Differences  arising  over  the  Attempt  to  Settle  the  Church 
Question.  —  Of  the  parties  opposed  to  the  existing  Church  of  England 
it  seemed  for  a  time  as  if  the  Presbyterians  would  prevail.  The  Scotch 
commissioners  for  completing  the  treaty  of  peace  brought  with  them 
to  London  a  number  of  preachers  who  at  first  received  a  favorable 
hearing,  partly  because  they  denounced  "  his  little  Grace  of  Canter- 
bury," and  partly  because  the  Long  Parliament  needed  the  support  of 
their  army.  But  the  hotness  of  their  proselyting  zeal  and  the  expense 
of  maintaining  the  Scotch  forces  gradually  made  them  unpopular 
with  one  section  of  the  English  popular  party.  Throughout  that  party 
there  was  a  general  desire  for  a  parliamentary  regulation  of  the  Church 
as  well  as  the  State,  and  for  doing  away  with  the  Laudian  innovations. 
Sharp  differences  of  opinion,  however,  arose  over  the  nature  and  extent 
of  the  changes  to  be  undertaken.  There  were  many  who  demanded 
the  abolition  of  Episcopacy  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Others, 
while  hating  Laud  and  his  party,  would  have  been  content  to  see 
bishops  of  a  more  protestant  temper  and  somewhat  modified  powers  in 
their  place,  and  to  see  certain  alterations  in  the  Prayer  Book.  Among 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT      481 

the  extremists,  or  "  root  and  branch  "  men,  there  were  at  least  three 
groups :  the  parliamentary  majority  led  by  Pym  wanted  a  Puritan 
State  church,  not  tolerating  dissent  either  of  Anglicans  or  Anabaptists, 
but  controlled  by  parliamentary  lay  commissioners  in  place  of  bishops ; 
a  second  group,  made  up  of  a  few  divines  backed  by  the  Scots,  clamored 
for  a  Presbyterian  establishment ;  a  third  party,  led  by  the  London 
Independents,  strove  for  congregational  control  of  doctrine  and 
worship. 

The  "Root  and  Branch  Petition."  —On  n  December,  1640,  "a 
world  of  honest  citizens  in  their  best  apparel  "  came  to  the  House  of 
Commons  "  in  a  very  modest  way  "  with  a  petition  containing  15,000 
names,  for  the  abolition  of  Episcopacy  "  with  all  its  roots  and  branches." 
The  matter  was  debated  long  and  earnestly  in  the  Commons,  but  did 
not  get  beyond  the  committee  stage,  while  the  Lords  threw  out  a  bill 
to  remove  bishops  from  their  House.  They  also  rejected  on  a  second 
reading  a  more  moderate  bill  on  Church  reform  which  was  sent  up  to 
them  from  the  Lower  House.  Moreover,  in  reply  to  a  resolution  of 
the  Commons,  of  i  September,  providing  for  the  abolition  of  certain 
specified  ecclesiastical  innovations,  they  passed  one  of  their  own, 
declaring  that  the  services  of  the  Church  should  be  performed  as 
appointed  by  act  of  Parliament  and  that  those  who  disturbed  the 
existing  order  should  be  punished. 

The  Second  Army  Plot  and  the  "Incident."  —  These  differences 
gave  Charles  "  a  majority  in  the  Lords  and  a  large  minority  in  the 
Commons  "  ;  but  instead  of  fostering  the  moderate  party  he  ^allowed 
himself  to  be  drawn  into  two  wild  and  wholly  irreconcilable  schemes. 
One  was  to  go  to  Scotland  to  attach  to  himself  a  party  that  was  form- 
ing against  the  extreme  Covenanters.  The  invitation  came  from  the 
Earl  of  Montrose,  who  had  recently  come  over  to  the  King's  side. 
At  the  same  time,  under  the  baneful  influence  of  the  Queen,  Charles 
hopefully  welcomed  another  attempt  to  bring  the  Yorkshire  army  to 
London.  The  second  army  plot,  which  proved  more  futile  than  the 
first,  served  only  to  strengthen  the  suspicion  against  the  King.  He 
started  for  Scotland  10  August,  1641,  concealing  his  real  purpose  under 
the  pretext  that  he  was  going  to  complete  arrangements  for  the  treaty 
of  peace.  While  there,  a  plot  was  hatched  by  the  Earl  of  Crawford  to 
seize  Argyle,  Hamilton,1  and  other  convenanting  leaders.  It  was 
once  thought  that  the  "  Incident,"  as  this  mad  fiasco  was  called,  was 
the  work  of  Montrose,  and  that  Charles  was  privy  to  it.  While  that 
is  not  true,  it  amounted  to  the  same  thing,  for  men  believed  it. 

The  Ulster  Rebellion,  1641.  — In  the  autumn  of  1641  the  news  of 
a  terrible  rebellion  in  Ulster  reached  England.  All  the  ancient  Irish 
hatred,  fostered  by  the  Elizabethan  conquest,  by  James'  planta- 
tion of  Ulster,  and  Strafford's  attempted  spoliation  of  Connaught, 
burst  into  flame  now  that  the  Earl  was  no  longer  there  to  check  it. 

1  "Very  active  in  his  own  preservation,"  he  had  recently  left  the  royal  for  the 
popular  party. 

21 


482  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Moreover,  encouraged  by  a  prospect  of  Catholic  concessions  from  the 
King,  they  were  determined  not  to  submit  to  the.  ascendancy  of  an 
ultra-Protestant  Parliament.  Throughout  the  year  1641  the  Irish 
were  busy  shaping  their  plans.  They  failed  in  an  attempt  to  take 
Dublin,  but  the  wild  and  ignorant  peasantry,  whom  the  leaders 
could  not  or  would  not  control,  threw  themselves  on  their  enemies 
with  barbarous  cruelty.  It  is  estimated  that  5000  were  massacred  out- 
right, and  that  twice  as  many  more  perished  from  starvation,  exposure, 
fright,  and  other  causes.  Rumor  exaggerated  the  victims  to  fabulous 
numbers,  ranging  from  40,000  to  300,000.  The  English  were  horrified 
and  alarmed.  They  attributed  the  outburst,  not  to  oppression  and 
extortion,  but  the  savagery  of  the  Irish  worked  on  by  the  teachings 
of  the  Church  of  Rome.  Parliament  and  the  people  saw  the  need  of 
recruiting  a  large  army  to  deal  with  the  situation,  but  the  leaders 
feared  to  trust  unreservedly  any  considerable  force  to  the  King,  be- 
cause it  would  give  him  just  the  weapon  he  needed  to  recover  his 
power.  So  Pym  carried  a  motion  that  Charles  should  either  "  choose 
those  councilors  ministers  as  should  receive  parliamentary  approval" 
or  Parliament  would  raise  an  army  subject  to  its  own  control.  This 
demand  alienated  many  who  had  hitherto  inclined  to  the  popular 
side.  The  result  was  to  precipitate  the  passage  of  the  Grand  Remon- 
strance, pushed  through  by  Pym  and  his  followers  as  a  means  of  ap- 
pealing to  the  people  in  a  more  detailed  and  formal  manner  than  they 
had  yet  done. 

The  Grand  Remonstrance,  1641.  —  During  the  first  week  after  the 
opening  of  the  Long  Parliament  a  motion  had  been  introduced  to 
draw  up  such  a  remonstrance  to  the  King  "as  should  be  a  faithful  and 
lively  representation  of  the  state  of  the  kingdom."  It  was  August, 
however,  before  the  proposal  was  adopted,  and  the  discussion  might 
have  dragged  on  interminably  if  the  Irish  Rebellion  had  not  brought 
the  matter  to  a  head.  The  Remonstrance  was  read  in  the  Commons, 
8  November;  on  the  22d  it  was  finally  discussed  and  passed  by  a 
vote  of  159  to  148 ;  i  December  it  was  presented  to  the  King,  and  two 
weeks  later  it  was  ordered  to  be  printed.  Although  addressed  to 
the  Crown,  the  Grand  Remonstrance  was,  in  reality  as  well  as  in 
intention,  an  "  appeal  to  the  nation,"  a  statement  of  the  case  of  the 
Commons  against  the  King.  It  consists  of  a  preamble  and  204  num- 
bered clauses.  They  trace  in  considerable  detail  the  King's  mis- 
government,  from  his  accession  to  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment ;  they  describe  the  condition  in  which  the  Commons  had  found 
the  nation  at  the  opening  of  the  session,  the  abuses  which  they  had 
abolished,  the  reforms  which  they  had  prepared  and  effected,  the 
obstacles  they  had  met  with  from  "  evil  councilors  and  slanderers," 
from  army  plots,  Irish  rebellion,  and  so  on ;  they  explain  and  defend 
the  scheme  of  the  church  reform  of  the  parliamentary  leaders ;  and 
they  outline  the  other  remedial  measures  demanded:  the  establish- 
ment of  safeguards  against  Roman  Catholicism,  of  securities  for  the 


IRELAND 

SINCE  THE. 
ACCESSION   OF  THE  STUARTS 


Longitude     8          West  7  from         6       Greenwich    5 


BOHUAY  t  C3.,ENSH'«,N.T, 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT'    483 

better  administration  of  justice,  and  the  choice  of  such  ministers  as 
Parliament  might  have  cause  to  confide  in.  An  accompanying  peti- 
tion presented  the  existing  situation,  and  indicated  in  a  general  way 
what  the  framers  desired  in  return  for  loyally  aiding  the  King  against 
the  Irish. 

Its  Significance.  —  The  document  is  of  the  deepest  significance 
in  connection  with  the  events  leading  up  to  the  Civil  War.  It  pre- 
sents a  condensed  but  adequate  history  of  the  reign  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  parliamentary  opposition ;  it  is  a  clear,  concise  statement 
of  the  case  of  the  popular  party,  and,  finally,  it  caused  a  breach  in 
the  opposition  ranks  resulting  in  the  formation  of  the  party  of  Con- 
stitutional Royalists  who  encouraged  the  King  to  continue  the  struggle. 
Hyde,  their  leader  and  organizer,  refused  for  a  time  to  accept  office 
under  the  King,  and  remained  in  the  Commons  until  May,  1642 ; 
but  only  because  he  thought  he  could  better  serve  the  royal  interests 
in  that  way.  The  earlier  clauses  denouncing  past  misgovernment 
were  not  opposed.  The  fight  began  over  the  recommendations  for 
Church  reform  and  waxed  bitter  over  the  question  of  printing,  which 
meant  submitting  the  whole  matter  to  the  people.  Members  shouted, 
waved  their  hats,  and  even  drew  their  swords.1  During  the  factional 
fights  which  followed,  the  names  "  Cavalie_r  "  and  "Roundhead." 
first  came  to  be  employed. 

The  Attempted  Arrest  of  the  Five  Members.  —  Charles  returned 
from  Scotland  late  in  November,  1641.  Deceived  by  the  splendor 
of  his  reception  in  the  City  and  encouraged  by  the  split  in  the  parlia- 
mentary ranks,  he  not  only  returned  an  unsatisfactory  answer  to  the 
petition,  but  sharpened  the  issue  by  various  ill-advised  acts.  On 
3  January,  in  order  to  avert  a  rumored  impeachment  of  the  Queen, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  rid  himself  of  his  most  dangerous  opponents, 
he  ordered  the  Attorney-General  to  impeach  five  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  including  Pym  and  Hampden.2  They  were  charged  with 
subverting  the  fundamental  laws  of  England,  inviting  a  foreign 
power  to  invade  the  kingdom,  stirring  up  tumults,  and  levying  war 
against  the  King.  Egged  on  by  his  wife,  Charles  went  the  next  day 
with  an  armed  force  to  seize  them  in  person.  He  entered  the  Chapel 
of  St.  Stephen,3  accompanied  only  by  his  nephew  the  young  Elector 
Palatine;  but  through  the  open  door  could  be  seen  eighty  of  his 
attendants  who  had  crowded  into  the  lobby.  The  accused  members, 
warned  of  his  intention,  had  fled  by  boat  to  the  City.  When  Charles 
asked  if  they  were  in  the  House,  Speaker  Lenthall  humbly  evaded  the 

1  Cromwell  is  reported  to  have  said :  "If  the  Remonstrance  had  been  rejected,  I 
would  have  sold  all  I  had  the  next  morning  and  never  seen  England  any  more; 
and  I  know  there  were  many  other  honest  men  of  the  same  resolution." 

2  This  was  a  most  irregular  proceeding,  for  impeachments  had  hitherto  never 
originated  except  in  the  Lower  House.     The  name  of  one  peer  was  afterward 
added :  Viscount  Mandeville,  sometimes  known  as  Lord  Kimbolton. 

8  The  meeting  place  of  the  Commons  in  Westminster  Hall. 


484  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

question  with  the  memorable  words  :  "  May  it  please  your  Majesty, 
I  have  neither  eyes  to  see  nor  tongue  to  speak  but  as  the  House  is 
pleased  to  direct  me,  whose  servant  I  am  here."  Charles  answered  : 
"  Well,  I  see  all  the  birds  are  flown,"  and  adding  that  he  was  seeking 
traitors,  but  never  intended  any  force,  he  went  away  pursued  by 
cries  of  "  Privilege  !  privilege  !  "  The  incident  was  regarded  as  one 
of  tremendous  import.  If  the  leaders  who  had  secured  the  recent 
political  concessions  and  who  were  striving  for  a  more  satisfactory 
religious  settlement  were  to  be  treated  as  traitors,  and  if  the  sacred 
precincts  of  the  Commons  could  be  invaded  by  the  sovereign  with 
an  armed  force  at  his  heels,  there  was  little  hope  of  any  safeguarding 
the  liberties  of  the  subject  in  a  peaceful  parliamentary  way. 

The  Struggle  for  the  Control  of  the  Kingdom.  —  Five  days  after 
his  failure  to  arrest  the  members  Charles  withdrew  from  London  with 
his  family.  He  was  never  again  to  enter  his  capital  except  as  a 
prisoner.  On  13  February,  1642,  a  month  after  his  departure,  he 
gave  his  assent  to  two  important  measures  :  one,  the  .Clerical  Dis- 
abilities Act,  depriving  the  clergy  of  their  temporal  jurisdiction  and 
the  bishops  oTtheir_  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords  ;  the  other,  the 


_ 

pressmen  t  Act^ltuThorizing  the  pressing  of  soldiers  for__s£iyice  in 
Ireland.  The  next  six  months  were  occupied  in  a  struggle  between 
Parliament  and  the  King  for  the  control  of  arsenals,  fortresses, 
militia,  and  other  military  resources  of  the  kingdom.  Parliament 
saw  no  other  way  to  guarantee  the  political  and  religious  liberties 
of  the  people,  while  the  King  realized  that  he  could  only  maintain 
his  sovereignty  by  frustrating  their  efforts.  When  he  was  advised  to 
yield  the  command  of  the  militia,  at  least  for  a  time,  he  burst  out  : 
"  By  God,  not  for  an  hour.  You  have  asked  that  of  me  in  this  that 
was  never  asked  of  a  King,  and  with  which  I  will  not  trust  my  wife 
and  children."  Sir  John  Hotham,  acting  under  parliamentary 
orders,  managed  to  seize  Hull,  the  greatest  magazine  in  the  country, 
and,  23  April,  when  the  King  sought  to  enter,  he  was  refused  admission. 
The  Opening  of  the  War,  22  August,  1642.  —  Parliament,  2  June, 
sent  him  Nineteen  Propositions  embodying  their  final  demands. 
These  included  :  parliamentary  control  of  the  army,  _of  appointments 
to  important  political  and  judicial  offices,  of  the  guardianship  and 
marriage  of  the  King's  children  :  _the  suppression  oTRoman  Catholicism; 
and  thlT  reform  of  the  governmenFand  liturgy  oTlhe  Church  as  Parlia- 
ment^ should  advise  .  Charles  refused  to  accept  these  terms.  HacTtie 
done  so  he  would  have  ceased  to  be  King.  So,  aided  by  supplies  from 
the  Queen  who  had  escaped  abroad  and  pawned  the  crown  jewels  in 
Holland,  he  hastened  preparations  for  war.  Parliament  did  the  like  : 
they  chose  a  committee  of  both  Houses  to  provide  for  the  safety  of 
the  kingdom  ;  they  voted  an  army  and  appointed  the  Earl  of  Essex 
Captain-  General.  All  this,  they  declared,  was  for  "  the  safety  of 
the  King's  person  ;  the  defense  of  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  those 
who  have  obeyed  their  orders  and  commands  ;  and  the  preservation 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT      485 

of  the  true  religion,  laws,  liberties,  and  peace  of  the  kingdom." 
Further  futile  negotiations  followed.  Then  Charles  marched  south 
toward  London  from  York,  where  his  headquarters  were.  On  22 
August,  1642,  he  raised  his  standard  at  Nottingham  and  the  Civil 
War^was  begun. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Montague,  Political  History,  chs.  XI,  XII.  Trevelyan,  England 
under  the  Stuarts,  ch.  VII.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  IV,  ch.  IX.  Gardiner, 
History  of  England,  IX,  X;  Lingard,  VII,  ch.  VI;  Ranke,  II,  bk.  VIII. 

Constitutional.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  V,  ch.  II,  sec.  8.  Hallam,  II, 
ch.  IX.  Taswell-Langmead,  ch,  XIV.  Gardiner,  Documents,  introduction,  pp. 
xxxii-xliii. 

Special.  H.  L.  Schoolcraft,  The  Genesis  of  the  Grand  Remonstrance  (1902) ;  an 
excellent  study.  John  Forster,  The  Grand  Remonstrance  (1860),  and  The  Arrest 
of  the  Five  Members  (1860).  See  also  chs.  XXVII,  XXVIII  above. 

For  Biography,  Church,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  see  also  chs.  XXVII,  XXVIII 
above.  J.  A.  R.  Marriott,  Life  and  Times  of  Lucius  Gary,  Viscount  of  Falkland 
(1907).  John  Stoughton,  History  of  Religion  in  England  (6  vols.,  1881),  I ;  from  the 
Nonconformist  standpoint. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  195-206;  Gardiner, 
Documents,  nos.  26-56. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

FROM  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  TO  THE  EXECUTION 
OF  CHARLES  I    (1642-1649) 

The  Aim  of  the  Popular  Leaders  in  the  Civil  War.  —  Even  now  that 
the  issue  was  joined,  the  guiding  aim  of  the  parliamentary  leaders  was 
still  merely  so  to  restrict  the  powers  of  the  Crown  that  the  people 
they  represented  might  be  secure  in  their  civil  and  religious  liberties. 
The  war  which  followed,  and  the  resulting  execution  of  the  King, 
came  from  a  final  realization  of  the  fact  that  Charles  would  not  submit 
to  any  considerable  loss  of  his  powers,  and  that  he  was  conspiring 
in  every  possible  way  to  recover  the  ground  which  he  had  been  forced 
to  yield.  The  events  of  the  past  year  had  marked  a  decided  advance 
in  the  parliamentary  demands.  Barring  the  settlement  of  the  re- 
ligious situation,  the  great  mass  of  the  members  in  the  autumn  of 
1641  had  been  satisfied  with  depriving  the  King  of  the  extraordinary 
judicial  powers  acquired  since  the  accession  of  the  Tudors ;  with 
securing  control  of  the  supplies ;  with  guaranteeing  frequent  sessions 
and  the  duration  of  the  existing  body  until  its  work  was  done.  By 
June,  1462,  they  found  it  necessary  to  demand  safeguards  against 
Episcopacy  and  Roman  Catholicism,  and  control  of  the  military, 
judicial,  and  administrative  machinery  of  the  government.  Curiously 
enough,  Parliament,  when  it  raised  an  army  to  fight  the  King,  pro- 
fessed to  be  levying  war  in  his  name  to  secure  him  against  his  evil 
advisers.1  While  during  the  struggle  Episcopacy  and  monarchy  were 
temporarily  overthrown,  it  was  only  as  a  means  to  an  end  —  to 
preserve  Protestantism  and  the  law.  The  Puritan  Revolution  dif- 
fered from  many  of  the  great  upheavals  of  history  in  that  it  was  not 
aimed  against  wealth  and  class  privileges.  It  was  directed  by  pros- 
perous, high-souled  gentlemen  whose  subjects  were  ideal  and  not 
material.  Unworthy  men  and  unworthy  motives  played  a  part  in 
the  struggle;  there  was  some  self-interest  and  much  bigotry  and  in- 
tolerance, but  the  heart  of  the  movement  was  sound  and  wholesome. 

The  Numbers  and  Grouping  of  the  Combatants.  —  The  zealous 
fighters  on  either  side,  however,  were  in  a  small  minority.  The 
total  number  in  arms  was  about  two  and  one  half  per  cent  of  the  pop- 
ulation. The  bulk  of  those  engaged  on  one  side  or  the  other  were 

1  Essex  was  directed  in  his  commission  "  to  rescue  his  Majesty's  person  .  .  . 
out  of  the  hands  of  those  desperate  persons  that  were  about  him." 

486 


THE  PERIOD  OF   THE   CIVIL  WAR  487 

forced  into  activity  because  they  were  preached  against,  plundered,  or 
heavily  taxed.1  Many  who  had  resisted  the  King  in  his  encroach- 
ments against  their  liberties  and  property  hesitated  to  draw  their 
swords  against  him  when  the  fatal  moment  for  decision  came.  Fear 
of  anarchy  and  dread  of  Puritan  supremacy  weighed  heavily  with 
numbers  of  them.  Another  powerful  check  was  a  deep-rooted  in- 
stinct of  loyalty.  It  is  said  that  the  motto,  "  Fear  God,  honour  the 
King,"  adorned  the  walls  of  many  a  manor  house  and  was  an  ingrained, 
inherited  tradition,  stronger  in  the  minds  of  a  goodly  proportion  of 
sterling  country  gentlemen  than  their  .love  of  Protestantism  and 
liberty.  Such  men  leavened  the  mass  of  "  alehouse  rabble,"  the 
roisterers  and  the  frivolous  whose  course  was  determined  by  their 
hatred  of  Puritan  austerity.  The  nobles  generally  took  the  King's 
side,  though  enough,  like  Essex,  Mandeville,  Warwick,  and  Brooke, 
fought  against  him  "  to  make  rebellion  respectable." 2  Others 
oscillated  or  "  warily  distributed  their  family  to  both  sides."  While 
the  majority  of  the  gentry  also  stood  by  the  King,  a  considerable 
minority  were  to  be  found  in  the  parliamentary  ranks.  Of  the  small 
freeholders  or  yeomen  the  greater  part  of  the  east  and  midlands  were 
Parliament  men ;  the  royalist  following  among  this  class  was  strongest 
in  the  west.  As  a  general  rule,  the  trading  classes  in  the  towns  were 
strong  for  Parliament.  The  laboring  classes  were  mostly  indifferent, 
only  fighting  when  they  were  pressed,  or  when  it  was  necessary  to 
defend  their  poor  homes  and  their  goods  and  chattels.  The  Anglican 
clergy  were  stanch  in  their  royalism,  as  were  the  universities,  more 
especially  Oxford,  which  was,  during  the  greater  portion  of  the  war, 
the  King's  headquarters.  Most  of  the  great  Catholic  families  also 
threw  in  their  lot  with  the  Crown.3 

Territorial  Distribution  of  Parliamentarians  and  Royalists.  —  The 
north,  the  west,  and  the  extreme  southwest,  the  strongholds  of  royalism, 
were  largely  agricultural  and  pastoral,  economically  backward  and 
under  the  control  of  landed  magnates.  The  most  productive  agri- 
cultural regions  and  the  bulk  of  the  commerce  and  manufactures  were 
in  the  south  and  east,  the  centers  of  advanced  religious  and  political 
sentiment.  Roughly,  a  line  from  Hull  to  Southampton  separated 
the  royal  from  the  parliamentary  districts,  though  ports  and  marts 
of  trade  like  Bristol,  Gloucester,  and  Plymouth  in  the  royalist  country 
were  for  Parliament.  The  resources  of  men  and  money  were  very 

1  One  of  the  moderates  well  expressed  the  sentiments  of  the  vast  majority:   "I 
would  not  have  the  King  trample  on  the  Parliament,  nor  the  people  lessen  him  so 
much  as  to  make  a  way  for  the  people  to  rule  us  all."     Hobbes,  the  famous  phi- 
losopher, stated  that :   "If  the  King  had  money,  he  might  have  had  soldiers  enough, 
for  there  were  very  few  of  the  common  people  that  cared  much  for  either  of  the 
causes,  but  would  have  taken  either  side  for  pay  or  plunder." 

2  It  is  estimated  that  in  the  House  of  Lords  80  were  royalist,  20  were  neutral, 
and  30  for  Parliament. 

3  The  Marquis  of  Worcester,  who  had  an  income  of  £24,000  a  year,  lent  Charles, 
it  is  said,  £120,000. 


488  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

unequally  distributed.  The  parliamentary  territory  contained  about 
six  sevenths  of  the  whole  population,  and,  to  judge  from  the  ship 
money  assessments,  possessed  at  least  three  quarters  of  the  wealth 
of  the  entire  country.  Here  the  rich  and  populous  London,  an  in- 
calculable source  of  strength,  was  situated. 

Royal  Attempts  to  secure  Alliances  Abroad.  —  But  although  there 
were  general  lines  of  cleavage  socially  and  territorially  "  the  war  was 
not  one  of  classes  or  districts  but  of  ideas."  Outside  England, 
Charles  sought  aid  in  various  directions ;  but  with  ill  success.  In 
attempting  to  ally  himself  with  the  Irish  Catholics  he  lost  more  than 
he  gained,  because  of  the  opposition  which  he  excited  among  his 
English  subjects.  In  Scotland,  Montrose  led  the  wild  Highland  clans 
valiantly  but  vainly  in  his  cause.  The  Queen  was  tireless  in  her 
intrigues  with  continental  powers.  The  House  of  Orange,  which 
was  allied  to  the  English  royal  family  by  marriage,  sent  some  help, 
but  could  not  do  much,  in  view  of  the  opposition  of  the  States  General. 
In  France,  Louis  XIII,  Henrietta's  brother,  died  in  May,  1643,  and 
Mazarin,  who  became  Chief  Minister,1  preferred  to  see  England  weaken 
herself  by  continued  strife,  while,  furthermore,  he  had  his  hands  full 
with  the  Parliament  of  Paris  and  a  body  of  disaffected  nobles.  To  the 
Pope  and  Spain  one  heretic  was  as  good  as  another,  so  they  refused 
to  listen  to  the  entreaties  of  Henrietta  so  long  as  Charles  continued 
a  Protestant. 

Revenues  of  the  Two  Parties.  —  The  navy  declared  for  Parliament. 
The  hated  ship  money  had  contributed  somewhat  to  restore  it  to  the 
state  from  which  it  had  declined  since  the  glorious  days  of  Elizabeth, 
but  the  sailors,  pressed  into  service  against  their  will  and  inade- 
quately clothed  and  fed,  had  no  sense  of  loyalty  to  the  King.  In 
the  hands  of  his  opponents  the  navy  was  a  powerful  weapon ;  for 
it  enabled  them  to  collect  customs  from  the  ports,  and  to  prevent 
such  aid  from  abroad  as  the  lukewarm  powers  might  be  inclined  to 
send.  Also  the  King  could  not  blockade  and  so  subdue  London  and 
the  great  ports  by  stifling  their  commerce.  Aside  from  the  customs, 
Parliament  collected  the  King's  taxes  and  the  rents  from  the  royal 
estates  in  the  districts  which  they  controlled.  But  they  derived 
the  bulk  of  their  revenue  from  two  new  forms  of  taxation  — 
an  excise,  or  inland  revenue  duty;  and  a  direct  levy  on  lands  and 
goods,  known  as  the  "  monthly  assessment,"  because  it  was  ap- 
portioned in  the  various  counties  each  month.  Charles,  for  his  part, 
had  to  subsist  largely  on  plunder  and  gifts  from  his  devoted  followers. 
Having  little  ready  money  and  able  to  collect  only  a  portion  of  their 
normal  rents,  most  of  them  were  sooner  or  later  reduced  to  melting 
their  plate  and  sacrificing  their  jewels. 

The  Two  Armies.  —  Parliament  directed  their  side  of  the  war 
through  a  Committee  of  Safety  until  1643,  when  they  united  with 

1  Richelieu  had  died  in  December,  1642. 


THE   PERIOD   OF  THE   CIVIL  WAR  489 

the  Scotch.  Thenceforth,  Scotch  representatives  were  admitted, 
and  the  name  was  changed  to  the  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms.  The 
government  was  carried  on  by  means  of  ordinances  which  —  without 
the  assent  of  the  King  and,  later  on,  even  without  that  of  the  Upper 
House  —  had  all  the  force  of  statutes.  There  was  no  standing  army 
or  professional  soldiery:  the  forces  consisted  of  volunteers,  pressed 
men,  and  country  militia  or  "  trained  bands."  Most  of  the  country 
magazines  where  the  arms  and  armor  had  been  kept  since  the  time  of 
James  I  were  seized  by  Parliament,  which  also  held  possession  of 
those  at  Hull  and  the  Tower  of  London,  the  two  greatest  in  the  king- 
dom. Of  the  various  forces,  the  least  serviceable  —  with  the  notable 
exception  of  those  from  London  —  were  the  trained  bands.  Men  who 
could  afford  it  had  always  evaded  the  obligations,  while  furthermore, 
since  they  were  changed  at  every  muster,  they  were  always  raw  and 
inexperienced.  Then,  too,  they  were  unwilling  to  march  outside 
their  own  counties.  The  best  service  was  rendered  by  volunteer 
•forces  raised  by  private  persons  for  the  King  or  Parliament.  In  some 
cases,  groups  of  counties  banded  together  to  put  an  army  into  the  field. 
The  most  famous  of  these  was  the  Eastern  Association  l  whose  levies 
rendered  notable  service.  It  was  as  commander  of  horse  in  the  army 
of  tl^e  Eastern  Association  that  Cromwell  developed  his  famous 
regiment  of  "  Ironsides,"  which  became  the  nucleus  of  the  victorious 
New  Model  Army. 

At  first  the  parliamentary  party  suffered  from  the  lack  of  a  com- 
petent commander :  indeed,  most  of  their  earlier  generals  were  chosen 
because  of  their  social  position  rather  than  their  military  capacity. 
The  King  was  head  of  the  royal  forces ;  but  he  was  slow  and  irresolute, 
while  Henrietta  Maria,  who  was  constantly  spurring  him  on,  was 
headstrong  and  lacking  in  balance.  The  earlier  commanders-in- 
chief  who  acted^  under  him  were  mere  figureheads.  His  nephew 
Rupert,  who  began  as  commander  of  horse  and  became  general  in 
chief  toward  the  close  of  the  war,  was  a  dashing  cavalry  leader,  but 
utterly  without  caution  and  restraint.  At  the  opening  of  the  struggle 
both  sides  made  the  mistake  of  underrating  their  opponents.  The 
Parliamentarians  saw  in  the  King's  men  a  body  of  mincing  courtiers 
and  profane  swaggerers,  while  the  royalists  contemned  their  enemies 
as  shopkeepers  and  clodhoppers.  Cromwell,  however,  after  the  first 
real  encounter  at  Edgehill,  recognized  the  mistake  his  side  was  making, 
and  said  to  Hampden  with  shrewd  penetration :  "  Your  troops  are, 
most  of  them,  old  decayed  serving  men  and  tapsters,  and  such  kind 
of  fellows,  and  their  troops  are  gentlemen's  sons,  younger  men  and 
persons  of  quality ;  do  you  think  that  the  spirits  of  such  base  and  mean 
fellows  will  ever  be  able  to  encounter  gentlemen  that  have  honor  and 
courage  and  resolution  in  them?  You  must  get  men  of  a  spirit,  and, 
take  it  not  ill  what  I  say  .  .  .  of  a  spirit  that  will  go  on  as  far  as  the 
gentlemen  will  go  or  you  will  be  beaten  still." 

1  Consisting  of  the  counties  of  Norfolk,  Essex,  Cambridge,  Suffolk,  and  Hertford. 


490      .  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

In  those  days,  when  enclosures  and  fences  were  less  common  than 
they  came  to  be  later,  cavalry  had  freer  play,  and  they  formed  the 
most  important  arm  of  the  service.  Here  the  royalists  had  the  initial 
advantage,  for  the  gentry  were  used  to  riding,  hunting,  and  martial 
exercises,  and  exacted  implicit  obedience  from  the  tenantry  who 
served  under  them.  The  infantry  were  about  double  the  number 
of  cavalry.  Though,  in  general,  they  played  a  subordinate  r61e,  it 
was  the  destruction  of  Charles'  foot  soldiers  at  Marston  Moor  and 
Naseby  which  lost  him  the  north  and  the  south  successively.  Their 
weapons  were  supposed  to  be  the  pike  and  the  musket,  but  many  had 
nothing  but  pitchforks  and  cudgels,  while  a  few  appeared  with  the 
primitive  bow  and  arrow.  The  parliamentary  artillery,  greatly 
developed  by  Cromwell,  proved  very  effective  in  reducing  royalist 
strongholds  after  the  King  had  been  overcome.  In  the  beginning 
there  was  no  approach  to  a  regular  uniform.  Regiments  appeared 
in  red,  blue,  green,  or  white,  according  to  the  taste  of  the  colonel  who 
raised  them :  sometimes  the  livery  of  his  servants  was  adopted. 
In  the  New  Model,  red,  which  was  the  favorite  color  among  the  troops 
of  the  Eastern  Association,  finally  prevailed.  Distinguishing  badges 
were  often  worn ;  for  instance,  some  of  the  Roundheads  wore  orange 
scarfs  throughout  the  war.  Sometimes  a  device  was  assumed  for 
a  particular  battle.  At  Newbury  the  Roundheads  wore  green  twigs, 
at  Marston  Moor  white  handkerchiefs,  or  pieces  of  paper  in  their 
hats.  More  frequently  battle  cries  were  employed,  such  as  "  God 
with  you,"  on  one  side ;  "  Have  at  you  for  the  King,"  on  the  other. 

The  Plan  of  War.  —  In  the  early  stages  of  the. _war  neither  side  had 
any  consistently  executed  plan  of  campaign.  Charles'  main  aim 
was  to  recover  LorTdon,  while  Parliament  at  first  aimed  merely  to 
gain  as  much  territory  as  possible,  and,  to  that  end,  its  armies  wan- 
dered aimlessly  about  the  country.  It  was  only  after  the  rise  of 
Fairfax  and  Cromwell  and  the  reorganization  of  the  parliamentary 
forces  into  the  New  Model  that  a  definite  plan  was  adopted  —  the 
defeat  of  the  King  in  battle  and  the  capture  of  his  person.  Want 
"of  money,  lack  of  discipline,  and  absence  ol  enthusiasm  on  the  part 
of  the  rank  and  file  hampered  both  sides,  and  numberless  petty 
engagements  resulted  which  exhausted  their  energies  and  obscured 
the  larger  features  of  the  struggle. 

The  Campaign  of  1642.  —  From  Nottingham  Charles  marched 
west  to  recruit  his  slender  forces  and  supplies.  Essex  followed  him 
slowly.  Suddenly  the  King  turned  back,  with  his  pursuer  hard  on 
his  heels,  and  made  for  London.  At  Edgehill,  in  Warwickshire,  the 
first  serious  encounter  of  the  war  took  place,  23  October,  1642.  The 
result  was  a  drawn  battle.  Rupert  easily  rode  down  the  opposing 
cavalry;  but,  since  he  was  unable  to  keep  his  horsemen  in  hand, 
the  infantry  of  Essex  were  able  to  defeat  those  of  the  King  before  he 
could  get  back.  The  chief  consequence  of  the  engagement  was  to 
convince  Cromwell  that  his  party  could  accomplish  nothing  with 


ENGLAND 
AND    WALES 


6         West  4 


Longitude         2  from  1        Greenwich        0  East  1 


BOMUY  i  CO..  [Sill's.  K.Y. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  491 

such  a  miscellaneous  lot.  Thereupon,  he  went  off  to  the  eastern 
counties  to  organize  his  famous  troop.  Essex  pressed  on  to  London, 
while  Charles  established  himself  at  Oxford,  which  he  made  his  head- 
quarters during  the  remainder  of  the  war.  Before  the  close  of  the 
year  he  made  one  more  vain  attempt  to  reach  the  capital ;  but  his 
failure  was  counterbalanced  by  the  success  of  royalist  forces  in  the 
southwest  and  the  north.  The  peace  party  which  had  been  active 
since  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  finally  succeeded  in  opening  negotia- 
tions with  the  King,  i  February,  1643.  These  negotiations,  known  as 
the  "  Treaty  l  of  Oxford,"  dragged  on  till  14  April,  1643.  The  terms 
—  totaj_abolition  of  Episcopacy;  settlement  of  Church  government 
^n~TbasisJdetermmecf  by  -Parliament  in  consultation  with  an  assembly 
of  divinesT; parliamentary  control  of  the  army  and  navy_,  and  the 
liandlhg  over  ot  the  royal  supporters 2  to  Parliament  —  were  such 
as  Charles  couTd  not  accept  while  he  could  maintain  an  army  in 
the  field.  This  was  the  last  attempt  to  arrange  a  peace  for  two 
years. 

Trie  Campaign  of  1643.  —  The  royalists  in  the  campaign  of  1643 
again  made  London  the  objective  point.  They  planned  to  approach 
and  surround  the  City  from  three  directions.  The  Earl  of  New- 
castle was  to  force  his  way  from  Yorkshire  through  the  hostile  eastern 
counties  and  take  up  a  position  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Thames. 
Sir  Ralph  Hopton  with  the  men  of  Devon  and  Cornwall  was  to  march 
through  the  southern  counties,  occupy  Kent,  and  thus  threaten 
the  City  from  that  direction.  Charles,  with  the  Oxford  army,  re- 
cruited from  Wales  and  the  west  midlands,  was  to  approach  between 
them  and  complete  the  line  of  investment.  But  this  well-devised 
plan,  in  spite  of  some  preliminary  successes,  was  frustrated  mainly 
by  the  narrow  fears  and  selfishness  of  the  local  levies  and  the  parlia- 
mentary control  of  the  ports.  The  Yorkshiremen  would  not  move 
from  home  while  Hull  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy ;  the  men 
of  the  south  were  of  the  same  mind  about  Plymouth,  and  Charles 
found  it  impossible  to  lead  his  forces  from  the  west  until  he  had  made 
an  attempt  to  reduce  Gloucester,  which  commanded  the  navigation 
of  the  Severn. 

Newcastle's  Failure  in  the  Eastern  Counties.  Cromwell's  "  Iron- 
sides." -  During  the  spring  and  early  summer  Newcastle  with  his 
"  northern  papist  army  "  won  for  Charles  practically  the  whole  land 
from  the  Scotch  border  to  the  Humber,  except  Hull.  Then  he  led 
his  unwilling  forces  into  the  counties  of  the  Eastern  Association,3 
a  district  which,  because  of  its  wealth  and  tough  Puritan  stock,  formed 
the  backbone  of  the  parliamentary  cause.  Here  Cromwell  was  labor- 
ing to  organize  a  force  of  men  of  real  ideals,  strengthened  by  effective 

1  In  those  days  the  terms  "treaty"  and  "negotiations"  were  synonymous. 

2  Called  "delinquents"  by  the  Parliamentarians. 

3  The  original  five  were  increased  by  the  addition  of  Huntington,  in  May,  and 
Lincolnshire  in  September. 


492  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

drill,  and  held  together  by  adequate  and  regular  pay.  His  famous 
regiment  of  horse  —  later  known  as  the  "  Ironsides  "  —  which  was  his 
particular  creation,  is  almost  unique  in  the  history  of  warfare.  It 
consisted  of  men  of  substance,  largely  freeholders.  Their  leader 
accepted  none  but  "  those  who  had  the  fear  of  God  before  them  and 
made  some  conscience  of  what  they  did,"  yet  so  long  as  they  were 
Protestants  who  were  not  "  prelatists,1  he  did  not  care  what  their 
sect  might  be.  Terrible  against  the  enemy,  they  studiously  refrained 
from  plunder  and  all  manner  of  cruelty  toward  non-combatants. 
With  all  the  fire  and  dash  of  Rupert's  men  they  had  a  stability  and 
a  restraint  which  their  opponents  lacked.  Cromwell  not  only  com- 
manded their  respect  by  his  military  ability  and  his  political  and  re- 
ligious principles,  but  won  their  warm  affection  by  his  "  familiar 
rustic  carriage,"  his  love  of  merriment,  and  fondness  for  rough  games. 
The  new  regiment  first  showed  its  strength  by  repulsing  Newcastle 
in  a  cavalry  skirmish  at  Gainsborough,  25  July,  1643.  Though  it 
was  obliged  to  retreat  when  the  latter's  whole  army  came  up,  the 
reluctant  temper  of  his  forces  obliged  him  to  turn  back.  After 
a  brief  and  unsuccessful  siege  of  Hull  he  retired  to  York.  Meantime, 
Parliament  had  sent  Manchester  into  the  Associated  Counties  with 
a  commission  to  raise  10,000  foot  and  5000  horse  to  be  paid  for  out 
of  the  national  taxes. 

The  Failure  of  the  Royalists  from  the  South  and  West  to  reach 
London.  —  In  the  west  Hopton  succeeded  in  overrunning  Devon, 
Wiltshire,  and  Dorset ;  he  captured  Taunton,  Bristol,  and  Exeter,  and 
13  July,  1643,  he  cut  to  pieces,  at  Roundway  Down,  a  parliamentary 
army  under  Sir  William  Waller.  However,  since  Plymouth,  supported 
by  a  parliamentary  fleet,  held  out  persistently,  the  Cornishmen  re- 
fused to  march  to  Kent.  In  the  west  Essex,  whose  army  was  steadily 
wasted  by  sickness  and  desertion,  conducted  a  desultory  and  in- 
effective campaign  centering  about  Oxford.  In  one  of  Rupert's 
numerous  cavalry  raids  occurred  the  skirmish  of  Chalgrove  Field, 
1 8  June,  where  Hampden  was  mortally  wounded.  In  spite  of  the  in- 
eptitude of  the  parliamentarians  the  royalist  forces  would  not  march 
on  London  until  Gloucester  was  captured;  so,  10  August,  Charles 
encamped  before  the  City.  Owing  to  frequent  defeats,  to  pressure 
of  taxes,  and  the  disturbance  of  trade,  London  seethed  with  dis- 
content, and  angry  mobs  besieged  Parliament,  crying,  "  Peace !  peace ! " 
Nevertheless,  since  compromise  and  surrender  were  alike  out  of  the 
question,  the  only  hope  was  to  fight  until  a  signal  success  was  achieved. 
Therefore,  Essex  was  sent  with  an  army  of  15,000,  including  "  citizens 
of  good  account "  and  apprentices  from  the  London  trained  bands,  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Gloucester.  Charles,  withdrawing  at  their  approach, 
sought  to  block  their  return  to  London.  A  fierce  but  indecisive  battle 
was  fought  near  Newbury,  20  September,  1643.  The  King's  powder 

1  That  is,  supporters  of  the  Episcopal  system. 


THE  PERIOD   OF   THE   CIVIL  WAR  493 

having  given  out,  he  slipped  away  during  the  night,  leaving  the  Lon- 
don road  open  to  his  enemy. 

The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  1643.  —  Meantime,  Parliament 
had  completed  an  alliance  with  "  their  brethren  of  Scotland  "  that 
marked  the  turning  point  of  the  war.  The  failure  of  the  Treaty  of 
Oxford  and  the  royalist  successes  of  the  early  part  of  1643  turned 
the  leaders  again  toward  their  former  allies.  The  chief  stumbling 
block  was  the  attempt  of  the  Scots  to  impose  upon  the  English  their 
system  of  doctrine  and  Church  government.  When  they  proposed 
that  the  Church^  pfEngland_bereforrnedtt  according  to  the  example 
"oFlne  besTreforn^d  C-ti^rrhjes,"  meaning,  ot  course, 


Vane,  one  of  the  English  commissioners,  slipped  in  the  qualifying 
worcls  "  according  to  the  word  of  God,"  which  gave  a  loophole  to 
the  many  who  regarded  Independency,  or  Congregationalism,  as  the 
divinely  ordained  form.  The  negotiations  which  began  in  May  cul- 
minated in  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  "  for  reformation  and 
defense  of  religion  .  .  .  and  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  three  kingdoms 
of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,"  which  was  finally  accepted  by 
both  Houses,  25  September,  1643.  All  the  subscribers  undertook  to 
preserve  the  reformed  religion  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  to  reform 
religion  in  the  kingdoms  of  Scotland  and  Ireland,  and  to  bring  all 
three  to  the  "  nearest  conjunction  and  uniformity  "  in  religion, 
government,  and  worship  ;  to  extirpate  "  Popery,  prelacy  .  .  .  and 
whatsoever  shall  be  found  to  be  contrary  to  sound  doctrine  and  the 
power  of  Godliness  "  ;  to  "  preserve  the  rights  and  privileges  of  Par- 
liament and  the  liberties  of  the  kingdoms  "  ;  to  "  defend  the  King's 
Majesty's  person  and  authority"  ;  and  to  endeavor  that  the  kingdom 
"  may  remain  conjoined  in  a  firm  peace  and  union  to  all  posterity." 
The  Scots  contracted  to  provide  an  army,  for  the  support  of  which 
the  English  Parliament  agreed  to  furnish  £30,000  a  month.  "  No  more 
important  step  was  taken  during  the  war.  '  '  It  assured  the  victory  of  Par- 
liament ;  but  the  introduction  of  the  Scots  and  Presbyterianism  into 
the  struggle  led  to  a  breach  in  the  ranks  of  the  anti-royalists  which 
encouraged  the  King  to  persevere  until  he  finally  lost  his  head. 

The  Death  of  Pym,  8  December,  1643.  —  The  alliance  was 
mainly  the  work  of  Pym  and  was  his  last  great  undertaking;  for, 
worn  out  with  his  arduous  labors,  he  died,  8  December,  1643.  In  him 
the  cause  lost  a  matchless  leader  as  it  had  lost  a  wise  counselor  in 
Hampden.  They  were  sadly  missed  in  the  troubles  soon  to  break  out 
between  the  military  chiefs  and  the  Houses. 

The  Westminster  Assembly.  —  As  soon  as  it  was  decided  to  ask 
military  aid  of  the  Scots,  reform  of  the  Church  on  a  Presbyterian  basis 
became  a  "  political  necessity,"  and  an  assembly  for  that  purpose 
met  at  Westminster  Abbey,  i  July,  1643,  nearly  two  months  before 
the  formal  ratification  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  This 
body,  notable  as  "  the  only  great  Protestant  council  ever  assembled 
on  English  soil,"  consisted  of  ten  peers,  twenty  commoners,  one 


494  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

hundred  and  twenty-one  divines,  three  scribes,  and  eight  Scotch 
commissioners.  Its  formal  sessions  continued  till  22  February,  1649. 
Unlike  the  Scotch  General  Assembly,  it  was  under  parliamentary 
control ;  it  considered  only  such  matters  as  Parliament  referred  to 
it,  and  its  recommendations  had  no  binding  force  unless  they  were 
legalized  by  parliamentary  ordinance.  Nevertheless,  the  Confession 
of  Faith  1  and  the  Shorter  and  Longer  Catechisms  which  it  formu- 
lated, though  Parliament  never  accepted  them,  remain  the  form  of 
belief  and  instruction  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  to-day.  The 
Assembly  also  drew  up  a  Directory  of  Worship  and  a  Form  of  Church 
Government.  The  latter  was  accepted  by  Parliament,  with  the 
qualification,  however,  that  it  should  be  under  the  control  of  a  stand- 
ing committee  of  the  Houses.  Although  a  system  of  Presbyterian 
classes  was  established  in  many  counties 2  the  final  triumph  of  the 
army,  which  stood  for  independency  and  toleration  against  Scotch, 
clerical,  parliamentary  domination,  prevented  the  system  from  ever 
becoming  national.  Indeed,  in  the  Assembly  itself,  where  the  Pres- 
byterians were  in  the  majority,  the  Independents  managed  to  make 
themselves  felt  by  their  courage  and  zeal.  Outside,  not  only  Inde- 
pendents, but  all  sorts  of  sects,  Baptists,  Antinomians,  and  others, 
grew  in  numbers  and  violence.  Cromwell,  who,  though  he  cared 
little  about  speculative  opinions,  wanted  to  unite  all  Protestants 
who  would  fight  against  the  King,  came  to  be  the  recognized  leader 
of  the  anti-Presbyterian  party.  It  only  fomented  the  discord  when 
Parliament,  5  February,  1644,  ordered  every  Englishman  over  eighteen 
to  take  the  Covenant. 

The  Royal  Parliament  at  Oxford,  22  January,  1644-16  April,  1645. 
—  The  King  summoned  all  members  who  had  left  Westminster  to 
meet  in  a  Parliament  at  Oxford,  22  January,  1644.  It  accomplished 
nothing,  and  when  it  began  to  make  suggestions  about  economy 
and  toleration  unpalatable  to  the  King,  it  was  dissolved  April  16, 
1645.  In  a  letter^to  the  Queen  he  congratulated  himself  on  toeing  rid 
of  his  "  mongrel  Parliament  "  and  "  the  base  and  mutinous  motions  " 
it  had  proposed.  The  court  at  Oxford  was  not  a  place  where  sober 
parliamentary  government  could  flourish.  There  the  most  diverse 
elements  flocked :  the  Catholic  who  saw  in  a  royal  victory  prospects 
of  toleration ;  roisterers  who  were  repelled  by  Puritan  fanaticism ; 
and  those  whom  loyalty  called  with  a  stern  voice.  There  was  the 
center  of  fashion  and  frivolity ;  of  actors,  playwrights,  and  poets ;  of 
gaming,  drinking,  dissipation,  and  faction.  Counsels  were  divided, 
political  and  military.  And  the  King  was  unequal  to  a  situation 
which  might  well  have  appalled  a  far  more  stable  and  competent  man. 

Marston  Moor,  2  July,  1644.  — While  at  the  beginning  of  1644  he 
was  still  master  of  two  thirds  of  the  kingdom,  he  weakened  his  forces 
by  trying  to  garrison  all  the  territories  which  he  held,  while  his  sup- 

JThe  celebrated  "Westminster  Confession." 

*  The  system  was  most  effectively  worked  out  in  London  and  Lancashire. 


THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  495 

plies  and  equipment  were  rapidly  melting  away.  On  the  other  hand, 
though  the  taxpayers  grumbled,  the -parliamentary  troops  were  well 
provided  and  were  learning  their  trade  in  the  exacting  school  of  ex- 
perience. In  January,  1644,  the  Scots,  under  the  veteran  Earl  of 
Leven,  crossed  the  Tweed  with  18,000  foot  and  3000  horse.  New- 
castle, who  had  only  5000  foot  and  3000  horse,  shut  himself  up  in  York. 
In  April  Leven,  joined  -by  a  parliamentary  army  under  the  Fair- 
faxes, father  and  son,  sat  down  before  the  city.  In  June  they  were 
reenforced  by  the  army  of  the  Eastern  Association  under  Manchester, 
with  Cromwell  as  lieutenant-general  commanding  the  horse.  On 
the  approach  of  Rupert,  whom  Newcastle  had  summoned  to  his 
relief,  the  parliamentarians  raised  the  siege  and  took  up  a  position 
near  Long  Marston,  somewhat  west  of  York,  to  bar  his  road.  But 
Rupert  "  by  a  dashing  manceuver  "  circled  round  them  and  entered 
the  city  from  the  north.  On  2  July  Rupert  came  out  and  offered 
battle  at  Marston  Moor.  The  battle  which  followed  was  the  bloodiest 
of  the  whole  war.1  For  five  hours  in  the  long  twilight  of  a  summer 
evening  the  combat  raged.  Cromwell  on  the  left  wing,  stanchly 
supported  by  David  Leslie,  succeeded  in  driving  Rupert  from  the  field. 
Then  he  wheeled  about,  and,  by  a  series  of  daring  and  skillful  charges, 
saved  the  infantry  in  the  center  and  the  cavalry  on  the  right  wing 
from  impending  defeat.  While  the  soldiers  fought  magnificently,  it 
was  mainly  Cromwell  who  plucked  the  victory*  from  the  enemies' 
hands,  and  he  earned  here  from  Rupert  the  name  of  "  Ironsides," 
later  transferred  to  his  famous  regiment.  Cromwell  attributed  the 
success  to  "  the  Lord's  blessing  on  the  Godly  party  principally." 
"  The  left  wing,"  he  wrote,  "  which  I  commanded  .  .  .  beat  all  the 
Prince's  horse,  and  God  made  them  stubble  to  our  sword."  Though 
Rupert  escaped  with  6000  horse,  the  rest  of  the  royalist  army  was 
broken  up.  York  surrendered,  and  the  land  north  of  the  Trent  was 
lost  to  the  King.  This  decisive  victory  for  Cromwell  and  the  "  Godly 
party  "  marked  a  decided  breach  in  the  anti-royalist  ranks.  Fearing 
that  the  extremists  might  become  dominant,  Leven,  Manchester, 
and  Lord  Fairfax  before  they  parted  sent  a  joint  letter  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  Both  Kingdoms,  recommending  the  establishment  of  Pres- 
byterianism,  and  peace  with  the  King. 

Surrender  of  Essex's  Army  at  Lostwithiel,  2  September,  1644.  — 
The  Presbyterians  were  all  the  more  uneasy  because  of  the  reverse 
which  overtook  Essex  in  the  late  summer  of  this  same  year.  Charles 
was  able  to  bottle  up  his  opponents'  army  in  the  peninsula  of 
Fowey  on  the  Devon  coast.  The  cavalry  broke  through  to  Plymouth ; 
Essex  himself  escaped  by  boat ;  but  his  infantry  were  forced  to  sur- 
render at  Lostwithiel,  2  September.  In  London  the  disappointment 
was  bitter ;  for  it  looked  as  if  the  great  gain  in  the  north  was  to  be 

1  The  united  parliamentary  armies  numbered  20,000  foot  and  7000  horse,  the 
royalists,  about  the  same  number  of  horse,  and  11,000  foot  —  the  largest  number 
of  men  engaged  in  England  in  a  single  battle  since  the  Wars  of  the  Roses. 


496  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

altogether  neutralized.  It  was  evident  that  Essex  would  have  to  be 
displaced.  Charles,  however,  was  not  able  to  profit  by  his  success 
for  his  supplies  were  short  and  his  troops  were  mutinous.  On  his 
way  north  he  was  intercepted  by  a  parliamentary  army,  twice  the 
size  of  his  own,  under  the  command  of  a  council  of  war.  It  was  made 
up  of  many  elements,  among  them  the  remnant  of  Essex's  troops 
and  the  army  of  the  Eastern  Association  which  had  come  down  from 
the  north.  In  the  second  battle  of  Newbury  which  ensued,  27  October, 
1644,  Cromwell  was  completely  victorious,  but  owing  to  the  inertness 
of  Manchester,  the  King  was  able  to  slip  off  to  Oxford  in  the  night. 

Cromwell's  Plan  for  remodeling  the  Army.  The  Self-denying 
Ordinance.  —  Cromwell  saw  that  it  was  necessary  to  get  rid  of  generals 
like  Essex  and  Manchester  before  the  cause  which  he  had  at  heart 
could  prevail.  Accordingly,  he  made  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons in  which  he  laid  the  whole  blame  on  Manchester  for  the  failure 
to  capture  Charles  and  his  army  at  Newbury.  Manchester  was  not 
only  ineffective,  but  he  was  professedly  half-hearted.  "If  we  beat 
the  King  ninety  and  nine  times,"  he  declared,  "  yet  he  is  King  still, 
and  so  will  his  posterity  after  him  be ;  but  if  the  King  beat  us  once, 
we  shall  be  hanged,  and  our  posterity  made  slaves."  In  his  reply  to 
Cromwell,  he  denounced  him  as  an  enemy  to  the  nobility  and  Pres- 
byterianism,  and  quoted  with  horror  his  remark  that :  "  If  he  met  the 
King  in  battle,  he  -wjould  as  lief  fire  his  pistol  at  him  as  at  any  other." 
The  triumph  of  the  men  of  action  was  assured  when  another  attempt 
of  the  peace  party  to  arrange  terms  by  the  Treaty  of  Uxbridge  ended 
in  a  total  failure,  22  February,  1645. 

Cromwell  and  his  supporters  saw  that,  in  addition  to  getting 
rid  of  incompetent  and  unenthusiastic  leaders,  they  must  reorganize 
the  whole  army  into  an  effective  fighting  machine,  well-paid, 
equipped,  and  disciplined,  consisting  of  spirited,  zealous  troops  and 
unhampered  by  Presbyterian  tests.  He  insisted  .that  good  soldiers 
should  not  be  excluded,  "  because  they  square  not  with  you  in 
every  opinion."  Although  his  ideas  of  toleration  were  at  first 
purely  practical  he  and  the  -army  which  supported  him  put 
the  Protestant  sects  on  the  first  recognized  footing  they  had  ever 
enjoyed  in  England.  He  saw  that  the  first  essential  was  to  beat 
the  King  in  the  field  and  to  postpone  the  settlement  of  other  questions 
until  that  was  accomplished.  At  his  suggestion  the  Self-denying 
Ordinance,  providing  that  the  members  of  either  House  should  throw 
down  their  commands,  military  and  civil,  was  introduced  into  the 
Commons,  9  December,  1644.  The  Lords,  who  recognized  its  real 
purport,  rejected  it  on  the  pretext  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  change 
existing  arrangements  until  the  reorganization  of  the  army  had  been 
completed.  By  the  New  Model  Ordinance,  introduced  23  November, 
the  Commons  had  directed  the  Committee  of  Both  Kingdoms  "  to 
consider  of  a  frame  and  model  of  the  whole  militia."  It  recommended 
an  army  of  14,400  foot  and  7600  horse  to  be  "  regularly  paid  from 


THE  PERIOD   OF  THE   CIVIL  WAR  497 

taxes  assessed  on  those  parts  of  the  country  which  were  suffering 
least  from  the  war."  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  a  young,  vigorous,  and 
capable  officer  unattached  to  any  sect  or  party,  was  named  com- 
mander-in-chief  in  place  of  Essex,  and  Philip  Skippon,  commander 
of  the  London  trained  bands,  was  appointed  sergeant  major-general 
to  succeed  Manchester.  The  position  of  lieutenant-general  was  left 
vacant,  but  it  was  an  open  secret  that  it  was  reserved  for  Cromwell. 
The  New  Model  Ordinance  passed  the  Lords  15  February.  One  of 
the  concessions  to  the  Presbyterian  majority  in  Parliament  was  a 
provision  that  every  officer  and  man  should  take  the  Covenant; 
but,  largely  owing  to  Cromwell's  influence,  it  was  rarely  enforced. 
There  was  now  no  further  pretext  for  opposing  the  Self-denying  Ordi- 
nance, which  finally  became  law,  3  April,  1645.  No  provision  had  been 
made  against  the  reappointment  to  office  of  members  of  Parliament 
who  had  resigned,  and,  10  June,  Cromwell  became  lieutenant-general. 

The  New  Model  Army.  —  It  was  so  difficult  to  secure  volunteers 
for  the  infantry  that  8500  men  had  to  be  pressed.  The  cavalry  were 
of  a  much  finer  type.1  The  officers  in  both  branches  of  the  service 
were  generally  of  good  family  and  godly  men.  Some  rose  from  the 
ranks,  and,  indeed,  from  humble  station,  though  the  assertion  is  far 
from  true  that  they  were  made  up  of  "  tradesmen,  brewers,  tailors, 
goldsmiths,  shoemakers,  and  the  like."  Gradually  the  zeal  of  the 
officers,  guided  by  Fairfax  and  Cromwell,  welded  together  an  irresist- 
ible force,  although  the  New  Model  never  contained  more  than  a 
third  of  the  troops  fighting  for  Parliament.  As  they  grew  steadily 
in  strength  and  discipline  the  King's  forces  fell  more  and  more  into 
weakness  and  disorder.  "  Insomuch,"  says  Clarendon,  "  as  one 
side  seemed  to  fight  for  monarchy,  with  the  weapons  of  confusion, 
and  the  other  to  destroy  the  King  and  government  with  all  the  prin- 
ciples and  regularity  of  monarchy." 

The  Battle  of  Naseby,  14  June,  1645.  The  King  a  Fugitive.  — 
Directly  they  had  organized  the  New  Model,  Fairfax  and  Cromwell 
started  to  overcome  the  King.  They  found  him  wandering  about 
the  midlands,  desirous  of  joining  Montrose  in  Scotland,  and  yet 
hesitating  to  leave  his  base  at  Oxford.  The  decisive  battle  was  fought 
at  Naseby,  14  June,  1645.  Rupert,  as  he  had  done  more  than  once 
before,  rode  down  the  wing  opposed  to  him,  and  carried  the  pursuit 
so  far  that  the  royal  infantry  were  annihilated  before  his  return. 
Charles  managed  to  escape  with  half  his  cavalry  to  the  Welsh  border. 
He  still  had  an  army  in  the  southwest,  he  held  many  strong  places ; 
he  hoped  to  bring  together  his  scattered  forces,  and,  with  the  aid  of 
the  Irish,  to  be  "  in  a  far  better  condition  before  winter  than  he  had 
been  at  any  time  since  this  rebellion  began."  But,  though  he  eluded 
capture  for  nearly  a  year  and  though  some  of  his  supporters  held 
out  even  longer,  his  cause  was  doomed.  A  misfortune  second  only 

1  An  indication,  and  a  cause  as  well,  of  this  superiority  was  the  fact  that  cavalry- 
men and  infantrymen  received  &d.  and  2d.  a  day,  respectively. 
2  K 


4g8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

to  his  defeat  at  Naseby  was  the  capture  of  his  private  chest  containing 
drafts  and  copies  of  letters  to  the  Queen.  They  were  published 
forthwith  under  the  title  of  The  King's  Cabinet  Opened,  and  many 
of  his  loyal  supporters  were  alienated  to  learn  that  he  was  planning 
to  repeal  the  laws  against  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  intriguing  to 
bring  Irish  and  foreign  troops  into  England. 

Montrose  in  Scotland,  1644-1645.  —  For  a  time  Charles  rested 
great  hopes  on  Montrose,  who,  beginning  with  a  victory  at  Tippermuir 
i  September,  1644,  had  a  year  of  triumphs,  gaining  battle  after  battle. 
But  the  Highlanders  who  composed  the  bulk  of  his  army  were  keener 
on  booty  and  vengeance  against  hostile  clans  than  they  were  on 
restoring  the  power  of  the  King.  After  each  victory  numbers  of  them 
would  disperse  to  their  mountain  glens  to  deposit  their  spoil.  With 
such  an  unstable  following  it  was  impossible  to  achieve  permanent 
results;  moreover,  the  Covenanters,  who  opposed  him  on  religious 
grounds,  were  steadily  reenforced  by  those  who  were  infuriated  by 
the  pillaging  of  his  uncontrollable  hordes.  At  length,  13  September, 
1645,  ne  was  defeated  at  Philiphaugh  and  forced  to  flee. 

Charles'  Intrigues  with  the  Irish,  1642-1645.  —  Charles  had  also 
counted  much  on  support  from  Ireland.  During  the  year  following 
the  Rebellion  of  1641  the  Roman  Catholics,  both  of  native  and  Anglo- 
Irish  stock,  had  organized  a  Parliament  under  the  name  of  "  The 
General  Assembly  of  Confederate  Catholics."  In  order  to  secure 
freedom  for  their  religion  they  desired  to  make  terms  with  the  King, 
while  Charles  was  anxious  to  treat  with  them  in  order  to  release,  for 
service  in  England  the  army  which  the  Marquis  of  Ormonde  was 
commanding  against  them,  and  with  the  view  also  of  enlisting  the 
Irish  rebels  in  his  cause.  So  far  as  the  King  was  concerned,  the 
whole  intrigue  was  unwrise  and  dishonest :  unwise  since  he  was  bound 
to  lose  more  than  he  could  possibly  gain  by  employing  Irish  troops 
in  England;  dishonest,  since  he  could  not  observe  the  promises 
which  he  made.  After  months  of  negotiating,  a  "  cessation  "  was 
concluded,  15  September,  1643,  by  which  both  parties  were  to  cease 
righting,  pending  a  definitive  peace.  In  July,  1644,  the  King  em- 
powered Ormonde,  now  Lord  Lieutenant,  to  resume  negotiations. 
When  the  Irish  insisted  upon  freedom  of  worship  and  the  repeal  of 
the  laws  rejecting  papal  jurisdiction,  knowing  that  Ormonde,  who 
was  a  Protestant,  would  listen  to  no  such  terms,  he  sent  the  Catholic 
Earl  of  Glamorgan  with  vague  instructions  to  treat  behind  the  back 
of  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  Glamorgan  arrived,  25  August,  1645  ;  and, 
although  the  Irish  even  increased  their  original  demands,  he  signed 
a  secret  treaty  granting  all  they  asked.  A  copy  of  this  treaty  was 
discovered  and  published,  and  Glamorgan  was  arrested.  Although 
Charles  disavowed  this  arrangement,  he  was  unable  to  clear  himself 
from  suspicion,  nor  had  he  got  the  least  of  help  for  all  the  risk  he  had 
run.  The  Queen,  who  had  again  gone  abroad  in  November,  1644, 
was  equally  unsuccessful  with  the  continental  Powers. 


THE   PERIOD   OF  THE    CIVIL  WAR  499 

The  End  of  the  First  Civil  Wax,  1646.  —  Without  any  prospect  of 
foreign  help,  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  how  long  Charles  and  his 
few  remaining  adherents  could  hold  out.  The  defeat  of  Goring,  his 
general  in  the  southwest,  at  Langport,  10  July,  1645,  broke  up  his  last 
field  army.  It  only  remained  to  reduce  the  garrisons  and  to  secure 
the  territories  held  by  remnants  of  the  royal  forces.  On  1 1  September, 
Rupert  was  obliged  to  surrender  Bristol,  whereat  Charles,  although 
he  was  quite  unable  to  relieve  the  City,  was  so  enraged  that  he  de- 
prived him  of  his  command  and  sent  him  a  pass  to  go  beyond  the  seas. 
"  I  confess,"  he  admitted,  when  Rupert  advised  him  to  surrender, 
"  that  speaking  as  a  mere  soldier  or  statesman  .  .  .  there  is  no  possi- 
bility but  of  my  ruin,  but  as  a  Christian,  I  must  tell  you  that  God  will 
not  suffer  rebels  to  prosper,  or  this  cause  to  be  overthrown."  After 
the  news  of  one  reverse  after  another  had  reached  him,  he  finally 
left  Oxford,  25  April,  1646.  The  Scotch,  who  were  besieging  Newark, 
had  offered  their  mediation,  and,  after  considering  whether  he  should 
not  try  to  escape  to  the  Continent,  he  finally  decided  to  trust  such 
vague  assurance  as  they  were  willing  to  offer.  Riding  into  their 
camp,  5  May,  he  only  left  it  as  a  prisoner.  Oxford  yielded,  24  June, 
and  with  the  surrender  of  Raglan  Castle,  19  August,  the  first  Civil 
War  was  over,  though  the  King's  flag  was  flying  at  Harleck,  far  off 
on  the  Welsh  coast,  till  March,  1647.  Effective  leadership,  good  pay, 
discipline,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  guiding  element  had  enabled 
the  New  Model  to  triumph. 

State  of  Parties  at  the  Close  of  the  War,  in  1646.  —  During  the 
three  years  from  the  beginning  of  Charles'  captivity  to  his  death 
in  1649,  he  was  occupied  in  tortuous  and  futile  intrigues  to  recover 
his  liberty  and  his  authority.  The  divided  state  of  parties  offered 
him  at  least  a  prospect  of  success.  He  could  still  count  on  a  small 
body  of  English  royalists  who  were  ever  ready  to  fight  again  if  they 
got  the  chance,  and  he  still  nourished  hopes  in  the  Irish  Catholics 
with  whom  he  was  constantly  in  communication.  Parliament, 
which  had  begun  the  struggle  in  behalf  of  popular  liberties,  was 
pledged  to  Presbyterianism,1  and  had  of  late  come  to  be  chiefly  con- 
cerned with  stemming  the  rising  power  of  Cromwell  and  the  army, 
mainly  Independents  and  advocates  of  toleration  for  all  Protestant 
sects.  It  only  widened  the  breach  when  the  army  became  con- 
vinced of  the  necessity  of  doing  away  with  the  monarchy.  The  Scots, 
whose  chief  aim  was  to  preserve  their  religion  at  home  and  to  extend 
it  in  England,  naturally  ranged  themselves  with  Parliament  against 
the  army.  The  bulk  of  the  English  people  were  anxious  for  peace. 
Pushed  into  the  struggle  by  the  fervor  of  the  minority,  they  had  under- 
gone much  loss  and  suffering  from  the  inevitable  disorganization  of 
trade,  from,  increased  taxes,  and,  in  spite  of  the  relatively  humane 
character  of  the  war,  from  plundering  and  pillage. 

1  In  spite  of  150  new  members  known  as  the  "Recruiters,"  who  had  been  elected 
to  fill  the  vacancies  caused  by  the  desertion  of  the  royalists,  the  Presbyterians 
were  still  in  the  majority. 


5oo  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Parliamentary  Intolerance.  —  Notwithstanding  the  tireless  intrigues 
of  the  King  it  might  have  been  possible  to  have  effected  a  settlement 
if  the  Commons  had  been  more  tolerant  and  conciliatory.  They 
failed  to  realize  the  need  of  reconciling  either  the  royalists  or  the  army. 
To  win  over  the  former  it  was  essential  to  grant  them  a  measure  of 
toleration  and  to  show  some  tenderness  in  the  matter  of  their  estates. 
Instead  of  that,  the  dominant  party  agreed  that  the  "  Prayer  Book 
was  an  abominable  idol  in  the  land  "  and  that  "  it  was  high  time  to 
remove  this  brazen  serpent  and  grind  it  to  powder."  So  it  was  for- 
bidden by  law,  while  2000  of  the  Anglican  clergy  were  expelled  from 
their  benefices  with  a  reservation  of  one  fifth  of  their  incomes  for 
their  families.  Besides  certain  royalists  altogether  exempted  from 
pardon,  others  were  forced  to  compound  for  their  "  delinquency," 
either  by  complete  forfeiture  of  their  estates,  or,  more  .generally, 
by  "  sequestration."  In  the  latter  case  the  estates  were  seized  by  the 
State,  whence  they  could  be  recovered  by  their  original  owners  only 
by  yielding  from  a  sixth  to  a  half  of  their  value.  Sad  are  the  tales 
of  the  men  who  chose  the  side  of  the  King,  and  of  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren as  well. 

Regrettable  and  impolitic  as  was  its  treatment  of  the  vanquished 
royalists,  it  was  the  height  of  folly  and  ingratitude  for  Parliament 
to  oppose  the  army  which  had  fought  and  won  its  battles.  The 
scheme  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  which  it  had  legalized  remained 
chiefly  a  paper  plan.  The  success  of  Cromwell  and  his  Ironsides  at 
Marston  Moor  and  of  the  New  Model  at  Naseby  were  realities  which 
immeasurably  strengthened  the  cause  of  the  Independents  and  the 
sects.  "  I  beseech  you  not  to  discourage  them,"  wrote  Cromwell 
to  the  Speaker  after  Naseby,  and  this  plea  for  toleration  was  the  con- 
stant burden  of  his  song.  Parliament's  reply  was  repeated  attempts 
to  come  to  terms  with  the  King,  to  get  rid  of  the  army,  and  to  suppress 
the  sects.  In  September,  1646,  bills  were  read  without  a  division 
"  by  which  Unitarians  and  free-thinking  heretics  could  be  put  to  death, 
and  Baptists  and  other  sectaries  imprisoned  for  life,  solely  on  ac- 
count of  their  .  .  .  opinions ;  "  and,  in  December,  the  Commons 
resolved  "  that  no  layman  would  be  permitted  to  preach  or  expound 
the  Scriptures."  Many  of  the  parliamentary  leaders  were  embittered 
from  the  fact  that  they  had  been  excluded  from  the  army  by  the  Self- 
denying  Ordinance,  yet  they  were  no  doubt  partly  sincere  in  pro- 
testing that  they  were  striving  to  check  disorder  and  confusion. 
Also,  by  persecuting  the  extremists,  they  hoped  to  strengthen  their 
hold  on  the  sober  Roundhead  element  and  to  placate  the  moderate 
Cavaliers  to  whom  they  denied  the  Prayer  Book. 

The  Scots  deliver  the  King  to  Parliament,  January,  1647.  —  While 
the  King,  since  the  autumn  before  his  captivity,  had  been  treating 
secretly  both  with  Parliament  and  the  Scots,  he  refused,  in  the  matter 
of  religion,  to  concede  anything  more  than  a  toleration ;  for,  like  his 
father,  he  believed  that  "  the  nature  of  Presbyterian  government 


THE  PERIOD   OF  THE   CIVIL   WAR  501 

is  to  steal  the  crown  from  the  King's  head."  Indeed,  he  frankly  told 
the  Scots  that  he  would  rather  lose  his  crown  than  his  soul.  The 
parliamentary  commissioners  presented  to  him  the  terms  of  the  Houses 
in  the  Propositions  of  Newcastle,  13  July,  1646.  They  provided, 
among  other  things,  that  Charles  should  take  the  Covenant  and  allow 
it  to  be  enforced  on  all  his  subjects ;  that  he  should  agree  to  a  ref- 
ormation of  the  Church  on  a  Presbyterian  basis  with  no  toleration 
for  the  sects ;  that  Parliament  should  control  the  army  and  navy 
for  twenty  years,  and  settle  its  future  administration  at  the  end  of 
that  time.  Charles  at  first  returned  an  evasive  answer,  and  then 
framed  counter-propositions  which  were  rejected.  The  Queen  urged 
him  to  take  the  Covenant  as  a  means  of  cementing  a  Scotch  alliance, 
but  that  also  he  refused  to  do.  As  a  result,  the  Scots  drew  closer  to 
Parliament,  and  January,  1647,  they  delivered  up  the  King,  in  return 
for  payment  of  arrears  of  pay  and  of  the  expenses  which  they  had 
incurred  in  the  war  just  closed.  It  is  unfair  to  accuse  them  of  selling 
their  sovereign ;  they  only  gave  him  up  after  they  had  failed  to  arrange 
terms  on  which  their  countrymen  would  support  him  and  in  return 
for  what  was  fairly  due  them.  Charles  was  escorted  to  Holmby 
House  in  Northamptonshire  amid  such  popular  demonstrations  of 
loyalty,  ringing  of  bells,  and  booming  of  cannon  that  he  deceived 
himself  into  believing  that  the  old  love  for  the  monarchy  had  re- 
turned, and  was  encouraged  to  persist  in  his  crooked  and  complicated 
diplomacy. 

Parliament  and  the  Army.  —  Parliament,  with  the  King  in  their 
hands,  thought  that  if  they  could  manage  to  disband  the  New  Model, 
they  might  force  their  terms  upon  him  and  secure  a  Presbyterian 
settlement.  They  were  horrified  at  the  increase  of  extremists, 
religious  and  political  —  Fifth  Monarchy  men,1  Baptists,  Seekers, 
Republicans,  and  Levelers 2  —  in  the  army  and  among  its  supporters. 
Furthermore,  they  wanted  to  cut  down  military  expenses,  since  the 
taxes  which  they  had  to  impose  to  meet  them  contributed  to  their 
unpopularity.  Their  plan  was  to  enlist  some  of  the  troops  for  the 
Irish  service,  to  keep  a  few  for  garrison  duty,  and  to  disband  the  rest 
—  about  one  half  the  New  Model.  The  army  refused  to  agree, 
except  upon  their  own  terms  —  toleration,  indemnity  for  past  acts, 
and  arrears  of  pay  —  terms  to  which  Parliament  would  hot  listen. 
"  If  they  be  thus  scornfully  dealt  withal  whilst  the  sword  is  in  their 
hands,"  they  argued,  "  what  shall  their  usage  be  when  they  are  dis- 
solved !  "  Their  attitude  was  so  defiant  that  Parliament  grudgingly 
offered  an  adequate  concession  of  arrears.  At  the  very  same  time 

1  A  party  who  looked  for  the  fifth  kingdom,  foretold  in  the  Old  Testament,  when 
the  saints  should  reign  on  earth.     It  got  its  name  from  the  fact  that  it  was  to  fol- 
low in  succession  to  the  Assyrian,  Persian,  Greek,  and  Roman  Empires. 

2  A  party  that  wanted  to  level  all  political  distinctions,  and  who  came  to  advo- 
cate manhood  suffrage  and  fundamental  laws  for  the  preservation  of  the  natural 
rights  of  man. 


S02  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

they  were  scheming  to  call  in  the  Scots  again,  to  bring  down  the 
artillery  from  Oxford,  and  to  convey  the  King  to  London.  In  order 
to  work  more  effectively,  each  of  the  regiments  of  the  New  Model 
chose  two  agents,  called  "^agitators,"  1  who,  in  combination  with 
the  council  of  the  generals,  actectlis  a  rival  representative  body  to 
Parliament.  Since  Fairfax  had  no  strong  religious  convictions  or 
ability  in  statesmanship,  the  burden  of  leadership  fell  on  Cromwell. 
From  his  seat  in  Parliament  and  from  his  place  in  the  Army  Council 
he  strove  to  be  a  peacemaker,  urging  concession  on  one  hand  and 
obedience  on  the  other.  "  What  we  gain  in  a  free  way,"  he  declared, 
"  is  better  than  twice  as  much  in  a  forced  way,  and  will  be  more 
truly  yours  and  our  posterity's."  It  was  only  after  long  hesitation 
that  he  made  up  his  mind  to  extreme  measures,  and  then  he  acted 
with  his  customary  decision  and  energy. 

The  Army  secure  the  King  and  march  to  London.  —  On  31  May, 
1647,  he  sent  Cornet  Joyce  with  a  troop  of  soldiers  to  prevent  Par- 
liament's removing  the  King  from  Holmby  House.  Joyce,  on  his 
arrival,  decided  to  seize  the  royal  captive  and  take  him  to  Newmarket, 
where  the  army  was  then  quartered.  When  Charles  asked  him  for  his 
commission,  he  pointed  to  his  troopers,  saying :  "  Here  is  my  commis- 
sion." Charles  replied :  "  It  is  as  fair  a  commission  and  as  well 
written  as  I  have  seen  ...  in  my  life."  He  went  willingly;  for, 
having  failed  to  arrange  terms  with  Parliament,  he  was  glad  to  try 
his  chances  with  the  army.  The  army,  who  had  taken  a  solemn 
engagement  not  to  disband  until  they  had  obtained  satisfactory  con- 
cessions, began  to  draw  toward  London.  They  demanded  that  Parlia- 
ment should  fix  a  date  for  its  dissolution,  and  insisted  upon  the  im- 
mediate suspension  of  eleven  members  whom  they  charged  with  sowing 
dissension  and  conspiring  against  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  sub- 
ject. The  eleven  were  obliged  to  withdraw;  but  when  the  army 
halted  on  its  onward  march,  a  mob  rose  in  the  City  and  forced  Parlia- 
ment to  revoke  even  the  inadequate  concession  to  which  it  had  agreed, 
and  to  readmit  the  eleven  members.  The  army,  however,  would 
brook  no  opposition;  6  August,  they  entered  London,  and  the  eleven 
members  again  took  flight. 

The  Heads  of  Proposals.  —  Meantime,  the  army  chiefs  had  sought 
to  come  to  terms  with  the  King,  offering  to  restore  him  to  the  throne 
and  to  accept  Episcopacy  if  he  would  grant  toleration.  The  scheme 
of  the  saner  element  was  formulated  in  the  "  Heads  of  Proposals," 
sketched  by  Cromwell's  son-in-law,  General  Ireton,  17  July,  1647, 
and  later  amended  by  the  Army  Council.  While  allowing  Parliament 
adequate  powers  for  the  control  of  the  sovereign  and  the  administra- 
tion of  the  government,  it  provided  checks  against  parliamentary 
omnipotence,  and  outlined  a  series  of  reforms  by  which  the  people 
should  have  more  voice  in  public  affairs  and  a  more  adequate  repre- 

1  From  an  old  word  meaning  "to  act."    The  form  "adjutator"  is  erroneous. 


THE  PERIOD   OF  THE   CIVIL  WAR  503 

sentation.  Special  precautions  were  taken  to  safeguard  religious 
liberty  against  Presbyterian  intolerance.  It  was  a  far-sighted,  states- 
man-like plan,  but  it  was  in  advance  of  the  times  and  failed  to  satisfy 
either  party :  it  was  too  democratic  and  too  tolerant  for  the  royalist, 
and  too  conservative  and  too  balanced  for  the  extremists.  Its  pro- 
visions anticipated  many  principles  —  religious  toleration,  reform  of 
the  parliamentary  system,  and  Cabinet  government  —  which  now 
obtain  in  modern  England  as  the  result  of  a  long  and  painful  progress. 

The  Transformation  in  the  Army.  —  In  the  debates -in  the  Army 
Council  Ireton  took  the  lead.  Cromwell,  keen  as  he  was  in  seeing  the 
needs  of  the  moment  and  swift  in  action,  was  not  inclined  to  look  far 
into  the  future.  He  still  sought  to  mediate  and  still  hoped  to  preserve 
the  monarchy,  which  he  continued  to  regard  for  some  time  as  the  only 
stable  form  of  government.  It  was  only  when  he  came  to  realize  that 
the  religious  freedom  which  he  and  his  companions  had  won  at  the 
risk  of  their  lives  could  never  be  secure  so  long  as  Charles  Stuart 
remained  king,  that  he  made  up  his  mind  to  dispose  of  him  and  of  his 
royal  office.  While  he  arrived  at  this  conclusion  only  slowly,  he  took 
the  lead  in  carrying  it  into  effect.  Ireton  and  many  others  saw,  long 
before  he  did,  that  Charles  was  but  only  playing  parties  off  one  against 
another  until  he  could  raise  a  sufficient  force  for  a  second  civil  war. 
At  first  the  zealots  in  the  New  Model  were  chiefly  in  the  cavalry ;  the 
infantry,  largely  pressed  men  and  hirelings,  contained  many  men  who, 
although  not  deep-grounded  in  their  convictions,  were  rather  inclined 
to  support  Presbyterianism  and  Parliament.  A  number  of  causes, 
however,  tended  to  alter  their  temper.  For  one  thing,  the  denial  of 
their  reasonable  requests  alienated  them  from  Parliament.  Then  the 
Presbyterian  chaplains,  as  a  rule,  left  their  regiments  to  enter  the  livings 
from  which  the  Episcopal  clergy  had  been  expelled.  The  preachers 
who  remained,  and  the  officers,1  exerted  a  steadily  growing  influence ; 
furthermore,  as  the  star  of  the  army  rose  more  and  more  in  the  ascend- 
ant, volunteers  flocked  to  replace  the  pressed  men;  the  enthusiasm, 
always  contagious,  spread  rapidly,  and  those  who  remained  were 
touched  with  the  prevailing  temper.  "  It  would  do  you  good,"  wrote 
Cromwell,  3  September,  1650,  "  to  see  and  hear  our  poor  foot  go  up 
and  down  making  their  boast  of  God." 

Rise  of  Democratic  Opinion  in  the  Army.  —  The  political  trans- 
formation was  equally  striking.  It  was  in  this  period  that  English 
democratic  opinion  took  rise.  Evolved  by  certain  advanced  thinkers, 
it  was  first  voiced  in  the  debates  in  the  Army  Council,  and  quickly 
permeated  the  whole  body.  Embodied  in  plans  for  a  written  constitu- 
tion which  failed  to  survive,  these  fundamental  ideas  of  democracy, 
—  equality  of  opportunity  for  every  man,  and  government  by  the 
people  as  well  as  for  the  people,  or  universal  manhood  suffrage,  —  after 
lying  dormant  for  a  century  and  more,  came  to  the  front  in  the  Ameri- 

1  It  was  estimated  that  in  June,  1647,  two  thirds  were  Independents. 


504  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

can  and  French  Revolutions.  In  the  United  States  they  have  had  a 
continuous  life,  while,  after  being  crushed  out  for  a  time  by  the  forces 
of  reaction,  they  have  come  to  prevail  again  in  many  countries  of  the 
Old  World.  The  Levelers  voiced  the  doctrines  of  democracy  in  their 
extremest  form.  Bitterly  they  declaimed  against  monarchy  and  all  class 
distinctions.  "What  were  the  Lords  of  England,"  they  demanded, 
"  but  William  the  Conqueror's  colonels?  or  the  Barons  but  his  majors  ? 
or  the  Knights  but  his  captains?  "  and  they  declared  that  they  would 
set  the  people  free  from  this  usurped  authority  and  have  no  more 
kings  or  lords.  "  The  meanest  man  in  England,"  they  insisted, 
"  had  the  right  to  a  share  in  the  election  of  his  rulers."  It  had  been 
the  custom,  hitherto,  for  the  leaders  in  the  battle  for  liberty  to  base 
their  claims  on  constitutional  precedents  —  on  the  birthright  of 
Englishmen.  It  marked  a  new  and  significant  departure  when  Colonel 
Rainsborough,  as  the  spokesman  of  the  advanced  party  in  the  Army 
Council,  appealed  to  the  natural  rights  of  man.  "  The  poorest  he 
that  is  in  England,"  he  said  with  quaint  directness,  "  hath  a  life  to 
live  as  the  greatest  he.  And,  therefore  ...  it's  clear  that  every  man 
that  is  to  live  under  a  government  ought  first  by  his  own  consent  to 
put  himself  under  that  government."  x  Republicanism  and  universal 
suffrage,  however,  were  not  the  ideals  of  the  majority  of  Englishmen 
of^tha^jday.  Fearing  that  only  confusion  and  anarchy  would  result, 
many  even  of  the  army  leaders,  with  Cromwell  in  the  vanguard,  fought 
strenuously  to  preserve  the  law  of  the  land.  Yet  the  men  whom  they 
condemned  as  visionaries  and  fanatics,  and  who  were  unable  to  make 
their  views  prevail  at  that  time,  were  contending  for  principles  which 
are  the  bone  and  sinew  of  modern  political  life. 

The  Social  Levelers  or  "  Diggers.  "  —  On  the  other  hand,  the  more 
conservative  members  of  the  party  of  political  and  religious  progress 
were  wise  in  their  efforts  to  hold  the  radicals  in  check ;  for  revolutions, 
unless  they  are  carefully  guided,  are  bound  to  be  wrecked  by  their  very 
excesses.  As  it  was,  all  sorts  of  queer  sects  and  parties  grew  and 
multiplied.  For  example,  a  body  of  social  levelers  came  into  being 
who  went  far  beyond  the  political  group.  Their  leader  was  Gerard 
Winstanley,  who  wrote  many  tracts  to  prove  that  the  earth  was  not 
made  for  a  few  but  for  all  men.  In  1649  they  made  a  vain  effort  to 
plow  and  dig  up  the  common  on  St.  George's  Hill,  Surrey,  from  which 
they  got  the  name  "  Diggers."  In  general,  their  principles  seem  to 
have  been  those  lying  at  the  basis  of  communism  in  all  ages. 

The  "  Engagement,"  1647.  —  Charles,  urged  on  by  the  Scottish 
commissioners,  with  whom  he  was  still  treating,  fled  from  Hampton 
Court  to  the  Isle  of  Wight,  n  November,  1647.  After  an  attempt 

1  The  views  of  the  political  levelers  were  formally  presented  in  the  "Case  of  the 
Army  fully  Stated,"  9  October,  1647.  Three  weeks  later  appeared  the  "Agree- 
ment of  the  People"  in  which  the  principles  stated  in  the  previous  document  were 
fully  developed.  After  the  execution  of  the  King  it  was  submitted  to  Parliament 
in  a  somewhat  modified  form. 


THE  PERIOD   OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  505 

to  procure  a  vessel  in  which  to  escape  abroad  had  miscarried  he  was 
forced  unwillingly  to  take  a  refuge  in  Carisbrooke  Castle.  While  he 
went  on  negotiating  with  all  parties,  he  was  inclining  more  and  more 
to  the  Scots  with  whom  he  signed  a  treaty,  26  December,  1647,  known 
as  the  "  Engagement."  Charles,  on  his  part,  undertook  to  confirm  the 
Covenant  by  statute,  to  protect  those  who  had  taken  it,  and  to  allow 
a  Presbyterian  settlement  for  three  years,  on  condition  that  the  Church 
should,  at  the  end  of  that  period,  be  regulated  by  himself  and  the 
Houses.  In  return,  the  Scots  agreed  to  support  the  King's  demand 
for  the  disbandment  of  the  army,  and,  if  this  were  refused,  to  publish 
a  manifesto  as  a  preliminary  to  invading  England,  asserting  certain 
royal  prerogatives,  including  the  "  negative  voice  "  or  royal  veto 
power,  and  control  over  the  militia  and  the  great  offices  of  State.  It 
is  practically  certain  that  Charles  had  no  intention  of  binding  himself 
permanently  by  the  Engagement.  Had  he  succeeded  in  his  plans  he 
would  doubtless  have  reestablished  Episcopacy  at  the  end  of  the  three 
years,  and  used  his  "  negative  voice  "  to  prevent  any  settlement  to 
which  he  was  opposed.  For  the  moment,  however,  he  was  all  for 
the  Scots,  and  adopted  such  an  uncompromising  attitude  toward 
Parliament  that  they  broke  off  all  negotiations  with  him. 

The  Second  Civil  War,  1648.  —  The  King  counted  on  a  royalist 
reaction^  to  support  thejjcottish  invasion,  and  there  was  much  in  the 
situaHorTTo  encourage  his  hopes.  Among  moderate  men,  respect  for 
Parliament  was  steadily  diminishing,  with  some  because  of  its  ineffec- 
tiveness, with  others  because  of  its  intolerance;  many  more  were 
frightened  at  the  prospect  of  army  rule ;  while  the  austerity  of  Puri- 
tanism, whether  of  the  Parliament  or  of  the  army  sort,  offered  a  most 
unlovely  prospect  to  the  pleasure-loving  Englishman.  Yet  it  was  one 
thing  to  manifest  discontent  and  quite  another  to  join  in  rebellion. 
The  mass  of  the  people  during  the  Second  Civil  War  "  looked  on  in 
bewildered  neutrality."  Presbyterian  soldiers  in  a  few  garrisons 
declared  for  the  King,  and  so  did  the  more  pronounced  Cavaliers ;  but 
there  were  no  considerable  risings  except  in  Wales,  Kent,  and  Essex. 
The  result  was  fatal  to  the  King ;  for  the  crisis  brought  Parliament  and 
the  Army  together  once  more  and  healed  the  breach  between  Cromwell 
and  the  extremists. 

The  first  outbreak  of  the  war  occurred  in  South  Wales  when  the 
commander  of  Pembroke  Castle  declared  for  the  King.  On  his  way 
to  quell  it,  Cromwell  met  the  Agitators  at  Windsor.  At  a  solemn 
prayer  meeting,  lasting  three  days,  it  was  resolved  that :  "  It  was  our 
duty  if  ever  the  Lord  brought  us  back  in  peace,  to  call  Charles  Stuart, 
that  man  of  blood,  to  an  account  for  the  blood  he  had  shed,  and  the 
mischief  he  had  done  to  his  utmost,  against  the  Lord's  cause  and  the 
people  in  these  poor  nations."  Pembroke  yielded,  n  July;  the  dan- 
ger in  Wales  was  over,  and  Cromwell  was  free  to  march  against  the 
Scots  who  had  crossed  the  border  on  the  8th.  They  were  led  by  the 
Marquis  of  Hamilton,  who  represented  the  royalist  party  in  Scotland, 


So6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

which  aimed  to  release  the  King  and  to  secure  the  supremacy  of  Pres- 
byterianism  in  England.  Arrayed  against  them  was  another  Scotch 
party  led  by  Argyle  which  would  not  fight  for  a  monarch  who  refused 
the  Covenant.  Hamilton  entered  England  with  an  army  of  10,000, 
speedily  increased  to  24,000  by  English  and  Irish  volunteers.  It  was 
an  ill-assorted  alliance ;  the  soldiers  were  mostly  raw  and  undisciplined, 
and  their  leader  had  "neither  military  ability  nor  decision  of  charac- 
ter." Cromwell  intercepted  them  in  Lancashire  and  made  short  work 
of  them  in  the  three  days'  running  fight  of  Preston,  Wigan,  and  Warring- 
ton,  17-19  August.  Fairfax  crushed  out  the  revolts  in  Kent  and 
Essex.  All  Charles'  plans  had  miscarried,  and  he  was  soon  to  meet 
the  fate  which  the  army  leaders  had  voiced  in  their  prayer. 

Pride's  Purge,  6  December,  1648.  —  For  the  moment,  however, 
the  old  discord  and  intrigues  were  resumed.  Though  Parliament  had 
joined  with  the  army  in  the  face  of  pressing  danger  they  were  still 
fearful  of  religious  and  political  radicalism,1  and  were  even  yet  ready 
to  restore  the  King  if  he  would  agree  to  Presbyterianism  and  aid  them 
to  suppress  the  sects.  When,  with  this  end  in  view,  they  resumed 
negotiations  with  him  at  Newport  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  in  September, 
the  army  proceeded  to  act  with  decision.  They  issued  a  remonstrance 
drawn  up  by  Ireton,  declaring  that  it  was  impossible  to  devise  terms 
that  would  bind  the  King,  and  that  it  was  just  to  execute  him  as  a 
traitor  for  his  attempts  to  turn  a  limited  monarchy  into  an  absolute 
monarchy ;  i  December,  they  removed  him  to  Hurst  Castle,  a  lonely 
fortress  on  the  Hampshire  coast,  and  next  they  framed  a  public  decla- 
ration, appealing  from  the  existing  Parliament  "  unto  the  extraordinary 
judgment  of  God  and  his  people."  The  House  of  Commons  was  so 
defiant  that  nothing  remained  but  to  dissolve  it  or  to  purge  it  of  its 
most  uncompromising  members.  To  dissolve  meant  to  run  the  risk 
of  a  House  still  more  hostile.  So,  6  December,  1648,  a  force  of  soldiers 
under  Colonel  Pride  was  stationed  at  the  door  where  the  Commons 
entered.  Those  known  to  oppose  the  views  of  the  army  were  turned 
back,  and  those  who  resisted  were  arrested.  There  were  ninety-six 
of  the  former  and  forty-seven  of  the  latter.  The  "  Rump  "  that 
remained  was  in  no  sense  a  representative  body,  Taut  merely'  a  group 
of  members  depending  for  their  places  on  the  support  of  the  soldiers. 
That  evening  Cromwell  returned  from  the  north;  whileTie  had  not" 
instigated  the  recent  steps  he  approved  of  them,  and,  from  this  time 
on,  he  took  the  lead. 

The  High  Court  of  Justice  and  the  Trial  of  the  King.  —  The  Rump 
soon  showed  its  temper  by  passing  a  resolution  that,  according  to  the 
fundamental  laws  of  the  kingdom,(it  was  treason  in  the  King  to  levy 
war  against  Parliament  and  the  kingdom?)  This  was  followed  by 
three  more  resolutions  to  the  effect :  "  that  the  people  are,  under  God, 
the  original  of  all  just  power ;  that  the  Commons  of  England,  in  Par- 

1  In  the  previous  May  they  had  passed  an  ordinance  making  heresy  and  blas- 
phemy capital  crimes. 


THE  PERIOD   OF  THE   CIVIL   WAR  507 

liament  assembled,  being  chosen  by  and  representing  the  people, 
have  the  supreme  power  in  this  nation ;  and  that  whatsoever  is 
enacted  ...  by  the  Commons  in  Parliament  assembled,  hath  the 
force  of  law  .  .  .  although  the  consent  and  concurrence  of  the  King 
and  the  House  of  Lords  be  not  held  thereunto."  The  term  "  ordi- 
nance "  was  now  discarded,  and,  6  January,  1649,  an  act  was  passed 
erecting  a  High  Court  of  Justice  of  135  persons  to  try  the  King,  though 
only  68  appeared,  20  January,  the  day  the  trial  opened  at  Westminster 
Hall.  Sergeant  Bradshaw,  a  lawyer  of  repute,  was  chosen  president. 
When  the  name  of  Fairfax  was  called,  a  voice  from  the  crowd  answered : 
"  He  has  more  wit  than  to  be  here."  The  King,  who  had  in  the  mean- 
time been  brought  from  Hurst  by  way  of  Windsor,  was  seated  in  a 
crimson  chair  in  front  of  the  bar.  He  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  court  in  any  way.  The  charge  set  forth  that: 
"  Charles  Stuart,  being  admitted  King  of  England  with  a  limited 
power,  out  of  a  wicked  design  to  erect  an  unlimited  power,  had  traitor- 
ously levied  war  against  the  Parliament  and  people  of  England,  thereby 
causing  the  death  of  many  thousands,  and  had  repeated  and  per- 
severed in  his  offense."  Accordingly,  he  was  impeached  as  a  "  tyrant, 
traitor,  murderer,  and  a  public  and  implacable  enemy  of  the  Com- 
monwealth of  England."  Again  the  same  voice  interrupted:  "It 
is  a  lie."  The  speaker  turned  out  to  be  Lady  Fairfax.  The  sentence 
was  finally  pronounced  on  the  ayth;  and  Charles,  amid  cries  of 
"  Justice  !  "  and  "  Execution  !  "  was  led  out  of  the  court.  The  death 
warrant  was  signed  by  58  of  the  justices,  including  Cromwell  and 
Ireton. 

The  Execution  of  the  King,  30  January,  1649.  —  Charles,  after 
taking  leave  of  Henry  and  Elizabeth,  the  only  two  of  his  children  then 
in  England,  was  beheaded,  30  January,  1649,  on  a  scaffold  in  front  of 
the  banqueting  house  of  Whitehall.  His  quiet  dignity  and  courage 
made  a  wonderful  impression  on  the  multitude  who,  when  the  head, 
severed  from  his  body,  was  exposed  to  them,  answered  with  a  deep 
groan  and  pressed  forward  to  dip  their  handkerchiefs  in  his  blood.1 
In  his  dying  speech  Charles  disclaimed  all  guilt  for  the  Civil  War, 
declared  again  the  unlawfulness  of  his  sentence,  and  said :  "  For  the 
people  truly  I  desire  their  liberty  and  freedom  as  much  as  anybody 
whosoever ;  but  I  must  tell  you  that  their  liberty  and  their  freedom 
consists  in  having  of  government  those  laws  by  which  their  life  and 
their  goods  may  be  most  their  own.  It  is  not  for  having  a  share  in  the 
government,  sirs,  that  is  nothing  pertaining  to  them ;  a  subject  and  a 
sovereign  are  clean  different  things."  Sincere  in  his  religious  and 

1  Many,  however,  may  have  been  prompted  in  this  action  by  the  fancied  me- 
dicinal properties  of  the  King's  blood,  for  the  royal  touch  was  supposed  to  heal 
scrofula  and  kindred  diseases.  The  popular  sympathy  was  greatly  accentuated 
by  the  appearance,  a  few  days  after  the  execution,  of  Eikon  Basilike,  the  Portraiture 
of  his  Sacred  Majesty  in  his  Solitude  and  his  Sufferings,  a  book  reported  to  be  by 
the  King,  but  probably  written  by  Dr.  John  Gauden,  subsequently  Bishop  of 
Worcester. 


508  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

political  convictions,  no  doubt,  he  failed  to  understand  his  people. 
In  his  eyes  those  who  resisted  him  were  bad  subjects  and  bad  Chris- 
tians against  whom  deceit  and  force  were  legitimate  weapons.  There 
is  a  story  that  one  night,  as  his  body  lay  in  state,  a  muffled  figure 
appeared,  lifted  the  shroud,  and,  gazing  on  the  royal  features,  mur- 
mured: "  Cruel  necessity."  This  is  said  to  have  been  Cromwell, 
who  had,  some  days  before  the  trial,  declared :  "  We  will  cut  off  his 
head  with  the  crown  upon  it."  "  The  dark  lantern  of  the  spirit,'' 
that  inner  voice  which  guided  all  his  actions,  had  told  him  that  the 
recent  victories  were  a  certain  sign  that  God  approved  the  course  of 
his  people.  "  Cruel  necessity  "  was  the  only  justification.  The  exe- 
cution of  the  King  went  far  beyond  the  wishes  of  the  majority,  and 
those  who  brought  it  about  made  the  mistake  of  trying  to  cloak  their 
action  under  forms  of  law.  It  was  not  a  time  for  law  or  pity;  for 
there  was  no  hope  of  peace  until  Charles  Stuart  —  the  incarnation  of 
obstinacy  and  duplicity  —  was  dead.  Many  troublous  years  were  to 
follow,  and  monarchy  and  the  Church  of  England  were  to  be  restored; 
but,  owing  to  the  daring  act  of  those  grim  men  of  1649,  it  was  not  the 
same  despotic  monarchy  or  the  same  all-powerful  Church. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Montague,  Political  History,  chs.  XIII-XV.  Trevelyan ,  England  under 
the  Stuarts,  chs.  VII,  IX.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  chs.  X,  XI  (bibliography, 
pp.  884-896).  Gardiner,  History  of  the  Great  Civil  War  (4  vols.,  1893) ;  Lingard,  VIII, 
chs.  I-III ;  Ranke,  II,  bk.  IX.  J.  L.  Sandford,  Studies  and  Illustrations  of  the  Great 
Rebellion  (1858). 

Constitutional.  Gardiner,  Documents,  introduction,  pp.  xliii-lvi;  Hallam,  II, 
ch.  X,  pt.  I ;  Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  XIV.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  V, 
ch.  III.  C.  H.  Firth,  The  House  of  Lords  during  the  Civil  War  (1910). 

Biography.  T.  Carlyle,  Cromwell's  Letters  and  Speeches  (best  ed.  S.  C.  Lomas  3 
vols.,  1904) ;  an  effectual  vindication  of  Cromwell's  sincerity.  The  best  modern 
lives  of  Cromwell  are  :  S.  R.  Gardiner  (1899) ;  C.  H.  Firth  (1900) ;  and  J.  Morley 
(1900).  W.  W.  Ireland,  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Vane  the  Younger  (1905).  E.  C.  Wade, 
John  Pym  (1912). 

Military  and  Naval.  C.  H.  Firth,  Cromwell's  Army  (1902) ;  the  authority  on  the 
subject.  T.  S.  Baldock,  Cromwell  as  a  Soldier  (1899).  C.  R.  Markham,  Life  of 
Lord  Fairfax  (1870);  anti-Cromwellian.  Fortescue,  British  Army,  I.  W.  L. 
Clowes,  The  Royal  Navy  (7  vols.,  1897-1903),  I.  Oppenheim,  The  Royal  Navy. 
Hannay,  Royal  Navy.  Corbett,  England  in  the  Mediterranean. 

Church.  W.  H.  Hutton,  History  of  the  English  Church,  ch.  VIII.  Cambridge 
Modern  History,  IV,  ch.  XII,  "The  Westminster  Assembly"  (bibliography,  p.  897). 
W.  A.  Shaw,  History  of  the  English  Church,  1640-1660  (2  vols.,  1900) ;  an  exhaustive 
treatment.  Stoughton,  Religion  in  England,  I.  G.  B.  Tatham,  The  Puritans  in 
Power,  a  Study  of  the  English  Church  from  1640  to  1660  (1913). 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  207-212.  Gardiner, 
Documents,  nos.  57-85. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE  KINGLESS  DECADE:    THE  COMMONWEALTH  AND  THE  PRO- 
TECTORATE   (1649-1660)  "Pcxtx^n^o 

The  Commonwealth :  the  First  National  Republic.  —  Early  in 
February,  1649,  within  a  week  after  the  execution  of  Charles,  the  Rump 
carried  resolutions  confirmed  by  acts  passed  in  March,  that  the  House 
of  Lords  and  the  office  of  King  were  unnecessary,  burdensome,  and 
dangerous,  and  ought  to  be  abolished.  Later  in  the  same  month  it 
named  a  Council  of  State,  consisting  of  41  members,  31  of  whom  were 
selected  from  the  House  of  Commons,  to  carry  on  the  executive  work 
of  the  government.  On  19  May,  England  was  declared  to  be  a  Com- 
monwealth. Thus  the  first  national  republic  in  the  world's  history 
had  come  into  being.1  Not  only  was_the  English  Commonwealth  a 
unicjue  experiment  in  government,  butTt  was  the  creation  of  a  minority. 
"  In  form  a  democracy,"  it  was  in  reality  "  an  oligarchy,  half  religious, 
half  military,  ruling  over  an  incomparably  greater  number  of  dis- 
affected subjects."  The  Anglicans,  the  Presbyterians,  and  the  Roman 
Catholics  wanted  a  monarchy,  with  the  sects  absolutely  excluded 
from  power  and  toleration.  The  bulk  of  the  people  were  hostile  to 
military  domination,  heavy  taxation,  interruption  of  business,  and 
meddling  with  their  pastimes.  Even  those  who  upheld  the  Common- 
wealth were  divided  among  themselves.  Fifth  Monarchy  men, 
Levelers,  Communists,  each  wanted  a  freer  system,  or  one  more 
suited  to  their  peculiar  ideas.  Now  that  the  King  was  disposed  of, 
the  army  too,  whose  pay  was  still  in  arrears,  were  insistent  that 
Parliament  should  take  steps  either  to  limit  its  own  power  or  fix  a 
date  for  dissolution.2 

The  Refusal  of  the  Rump  to  fix  a  Date  for  its  Dissolution.  —  Already, 
15  January,  1649,  while  the  King  was  still  alive,  the  Army  Council  had 
issued  an  amended  form  of  the  Agreement  of  the  People,  in  substance 
"  a  scheme  of  republican  government  based  on  the  Heads  of  Proposals." 
It  was  designed  mainly  to  guard  against  the  despotism  of  Parliament, 

1  Ancient  Athens  and  Rome  and  the  medieval  Italian  republics  were  merely 
city  states,  in  the  government  of  which  all  the  citizens  were  supposed  to  participate. 
Representation  and  federation  were  only  imperfectly  understood  and  employed. 
The  United  Netherlands  were  under  the  domination  of  Holland  with  the  chief 
executive  office  or  stadholderate  hereditary  in  the  House  of  Orange.    The  Federa- 
tion of  Swiss  cantons  was  a  mere  league. 

2  Even  the  remnant  to  which  they  had  reduced  it  was  too  independent  and 
assertive. 

5°9 


5io  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  provided,  among  other  things,  that  the  existing  body  should  be 
dissolved,  30  April,  1649.  While  the  Rump  passed  many  acts  in 
accordance  with  its  recommendations,  it  never  adopted  the  scheme  as 
a  whole,  and  disregarded  the  suggestions  fixing  the  date  of  its  own 
termination.  There  is  much  to  be  said  for  Parliament,  unrepresenta- 
tive and  masterful  as  it  was ;  its  members  might  well  hesitate  to  accept 
the  new  Constitution;  for  it  contained  many  startling  innovations 
which  might  have  been  difficult  to  alter  after  they  had  been  tested  by 
practice,  since  there  was  no  provision  for  amendments.  Moreover, 
in  the  event  of  its  dissolution,  there  was  grave  peril  that  the  royalists 
might  raise  their  heads  or  that  the  extremists  might  gain  the  upper 
hand.  In  the  one  case  another  civil  war  was  inevitable  ;  in  the  other, 
confusion  and  anarchy.  The  new  Government  was  in  a  very  illogical 
position.  fit  had  seized  control  in  the  name  of  the  people,  but  the 
bulk  of  the  people  opposed  its  authority?) 

The  Forces  of  Discontent  and  Disorder.  —  John  Lilburne,  "  Free- 
born  John,"  was  the  chief  spokesman  of  the  political  Levelers.  Twice 
he  was  tried  and  acquitted,  and  once  in  the  interval  was  exiled  by  a 
special  act  of  Parliament.  The  announcement  of  his  first  acquittal 
was  greeted  with  "  a  loud  and  unanimous  shout,"  lasting  for  "  about 
half  an  hour  without  intermission,  which  made  the  judges  for  fear 
turn  pale  and  hang  down  their  heads."  Cromwell,  whom  Lilburne 
had  once  heard  declare  angrily  before  the  Council  that  "  there  was  no 
other  way  to  deal  with  these  men  but  to  break  them  or  they  will 
break  you,"  aroused  his  bitterest  ire.  "  You  will  scarce  speak  to 
Cromwell,"  he  cried,  "  but  he  will  lay  his  hand  on  his  breast,  elevate 
his  eyes,  and  call  God  to  record.  He  will  weep,  howl,  and  repent,  even 
while  he  doth  smite  you  under  the  fifth  rib."  While  Cromwell  had  no 
sympathy  with  unrestricted  parliamentary  control,  he  was  determined 
that  order  should  be  preserved.  Thus,  when  an  effort  to  disband  sev- 
eral of  the  regiments  led  to  a  series  of  mutinies,  he  combined  promptly 
with  Fairfax  in  putting  them  down.  Anarchy  in  England  was  only 
one  of  the  many  problems  to  be  faced.  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  more 
than  one  of  the  American  Colonies  had  declared  for  Charles  II.  A 
portion  of  the  fleet  was  royalist,  and,  partly  in  the  royal  interest, 
partly  for  gain,  preyed  upon  the  commerce  of  their  opponents.  Since 
the  attitude  of  foreign  Powers  was  also  menacing,  English  ships  at 
sea,  English  merchants,  and  English  ambassadors  were  in  serious 
peril.  (Altogether,  the  new  Government  had  undertaken  a  tremendous 
and  complicated  task:  to  set  up  an  adequate  central  authority  in 
place  of  monarchy ;  to  prevent  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  ;  to  settle 
the  religious  question ;  to  unify  three  kingdoms ;  to  maintain  the  sea 
power ;  to  secure  the  colonial  possessions,  and  to  safeguard  the  national 
commerce^  Cromwell,  erelong,  assumed  the  leadership  in  all  this 
work  and  maintained  it  while  he  lived. 

The  Conquest  of  Ireland,  1649.  —  The  danger  from  Ireland  was 
most  pressing.  Ormonde,  who  had  retired  for  a  time  in  consequence 


THE  KINGLESS  DECADE  511 

of  the  King's  crooked  and  underhanded  negotiations  with  the  Catho- 
lics, returned  in  1648,  and  succeeded  in  uniting  the  Catholic  and 
Protestant  royalists.  After  the  execution  of  the  elder  Charles  they 
proclaimed  his  son  Charles  II.  They  secured  practically  all  Ireland, 
except  Dublin,  which  the  parliamentary  commander  managed  to  hold 
only  by  the  most  strenuous  efforts.  In  order  to  meet  this  crisis,  Crom- 
well was  appointed  commander-in-chief  and  governor  for  three  years; 
he  arrived  in  August,  1649,  determined  to  break  the  power  of  the 
royalists,  to  reduce  the  country,  and  to  avenge  the  massacre  of  1641. 
In  September  he  appeared  before  Drogheda,  where  the  enemy  were 
strongly  fortified.  Setting  up  his  siege  guns,  he  battered  down  the 
walls,  took  the  city  by  storm,  and  ordered  the  garrison  put  to  the 
sword.  He  has  been  bitterly  condemned  for  this  ruthless  bloodshed, 
though  somewhat  has  been  urged  in  defense  of  his  conduct.  It  was 
the  law  of  the  day  to  put  to  the  sword  garrisons  holding  untenable 
positions  and  refusing  to  surrender,  and  in  the  Irish  war  no  quarter 
had  been  given  on  either  side.  Moreover,  eminent  generals  have 
justified  such  single  acts  of  slaughter  as  a  means  of  preventing  a  pro- 
tracted war.  Cromwell  himself  deplored  the  act  as  a  melancholy 
necessity,  regarding  himself  at  the  same  time  as  a  chosen  agent  to 
visit  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  upon  the  authors  of  the  massacre 
of  1641.  Yet,  after  all  has  been  said,  the  proceeding  remains  the 
darkest  blot  in  his  career.  For  the  massacre  of  Wexford,  which  fol- 
lowed shortly,  he  was  apparently  less  to  blame.  Within  ten  months 
he  had  conquered  eastern  Ireland,  Ormonde's  unstable  alliance  fell 
to  pieces,  and  the  backbone  of  the  war  was  broken.  In  August,  1650, 
Cromwell,  leaving  Ireton  and  Ludlow  to  conquer  the  natives  in  the 
west,  hurried  home,  for  the  situation  in  Scotland  demanded  attention. 
The  "  Cromwellian  Settlement,"  1652.  —  Two  years  were  required 
to  complete  the  subjugation  of  Ireland,  at  a  cost,  from  fighting,  famine, 
and  pestilence,  of  the  lives  of  a  third  of  the  inhabitants.  The  scheme 
formulated  in  1652  by  the  Rump  for  dealing  with  the  conquered  is 
known  as  the  "  Cromwellian  Settlement."  Although  the  details 
were  not  devised  by  him,  it  was  made  possible  by  his  victories,  it  met 
with  his  approval,  and  was  carried  out  under  his  supervision.  It 
extended  the  measures  of  colonization  and  repression  which  had 
replaced  Henry  VHI's  ill-fated  attempt  at  conciliation.  The  Catholic 
religion  was  suppressed,  and  the  Celtic  owners  were  dispossessed  of 
their  remaining  lands  in  Leinster,  Munster,  and  Ulster,  receiving 
nominal  compensation  in  the  wild,  remote,  and  unfruitful  Connaught. 
Their  holdings  were  given  to  those  who  had  furnished  money  for  the 
Irish  wars  and  to  the  generals  and  soldiers.  The  common  people,  the 
laborers  and  artisans,  were  not  included  in  the  deportation.  Then 
the  possessions  of  the  lesser  men  among  the  new  grantees  were 
speedily  swallowed  up  by  the  greater.  The  few  yeomen  who  were 
left  threw  in  their  lot  with  the  natives  and  swelled  the  ranks  of  the 
discontented. 


5i2  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Situation  in  Scotland.  —  After  the  crushing  defeat  of  the 
Scottish  royalists  in  1648  the  extreme  Covenanters  under  Argyle  be- 
came dominant.  Bitterly  opposed  to  the  English  Independents  and 
the  policy  of  toleration  espoused  by  the  victorious  army,  they  offered 
to  support  Charles  II,  on  condition  that  he  take  the  Covenant.  Al- 
though inclined  to  Roman  Catholicism,  the  Prince,  a  typical  "  gilt 
mountebank,"  was  as  indifferent  to  religious  as  he  was  to  moral  prin- 
ciples. So,  in  the  extreme  necessity  to  which  he  was  reduced,  he 
followed  the  suggestion  of  some  of  his  advisers  "  to  promise  anything 
and  break  the  promise  when  you  can."  Nevertheless,  it  was  not 
without  "  great  passion  and  bitter  execration  "  that  he  accepted  the 
hard  terms  imposed  upon  him  at  Breda.  Perhaps  the  basest  act  in 
his  utterly  selfish  career  was  his  cool  repudiation  of  Montrose  who, 
"  with  one  small -ship,  a  few  men,  and  a  little  money,"  had  gone  to 
Scotland  in  March,  to  fight  his  cause.  Defeated,  27  April,  1650,  at 
Corbiesdale,  Montrose  was  captured  a  few  days  later  and  executed  at 
Edinburgh,  meeting  his  fate  with  a  heroism  that  won  its  own  reward. 
It  was  easy  for  Charles  to  turn  his  back  on  those  who  had  served  him 
unsuccessfully  and  to  declare  that  he  had  not  taken  the  Covenant 
"  upon  any  sinister  intention  and  crooked  design  for  attaining  his 
own  ends  " ;  but  he  had  to  pay  a  heavy  price  for  his  apostasy.  He 
was  not  allowed  to  speak  in  council,  he  had  to  listen  to  long  sermons, 
he  was  prohibited  from  dancing,  card  playing  and  even  from  walking 
on  Sunday  afternoons.1  He  was  obliged  to  bewail  his  own  sins  and 
those  of  his  house,  his  father's  hearkening  to  evil  counsel  and  his 
mother's  idolatry,  until  he  protested :  "  I  think  I  ought  to  repent,  too, 
that  I  was  ever  born."  Later  he  declared  that  he  would  rather  be 
hanged  than  ever  set  foot  again  in  that  hated  land. 

The  Invasion  of  Scotland  and  the  Battle  of  Dunbar,  1650.  —  Fairfax, 
who  had  no  sympathy  with  the  policy  of  the  Commonwealth,  resigned 
his  command  in  June,  1650.  Cromwell,  appointed  to  succeed  him, 
was  commissioned  to  invade  Scotland,  and  crossed  the  border  22  July. 
He  sent  before  him  a  declaration  from  Parliament  and  the  army  to 
the  "  saints  and  partakers  in  the  faith  of  God's  Elect  in  Scotland," 
beseeching  them  not  to  desert  the  cause  of  the  brethren  in  England. 
When  they  rejected  his  advances,  he  was  forced  to  resort  to  arms. 
Frustrated  in  an  attempt  to  take  Edinburgh  by  sickness  among  his 
troops,  lack  of  supplies  obliged  him  to  retreat  to  the  coast,  where, 
at  Dunbar,  the  Scots  under  David  Leslie,  succeeded  in  hemming  him 
in  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea.  When  they  had  every  chance 
of  reducing  the  English  in  a  short  time,  they  gave  way  to  overconfidence 
and  to  the  impatience  of  the  ministers  and  the  committee  of  the  Scotch 
Estates.  Before  daybreak,  3  September,  1650,  they  came  down  from 
their  commanding  position  and  offered  battle.  The  issue  was  decided 
by  one  of  Cromwell's  irresistible  cavalry  charges.  "  Let  God  arise 

1  Golf,  because  it  was  a  game  "without  vanity,"  was  the  only  recreation  al- 
lowed him. 


THE  KINGLESS  DECADE  513 

and  let  his  enemies  be  scattered,"  he  cried,  as  he  dashed  through  their 
ranks  just  as  the  morning  sun  rose. 

The  Scots  invade  England.  The  Battle  of  Worcester,  1651.  —  The 
remnant  of  the  defeated  army  retired  to  Stirling,  while  Cromwell 
advanced  and  took  Edinburgh.  Dunbar  had  broken  the  ascendancy 
of  the  rigid  Covenanters.  The  "  Engagers  "  *  were  admitted  to  an 
alliance,  the  shifty  Argyle  went  into  retirement,  and,  i  January,  1651, 
Charles  was  crowned  at  Scone.  Thereupon,  Cromwell,  with  daring 
strategy,  crossed  the  Firth  of  Forth,  thus  cutting  his  enemies  off  from 
the  Highlands  upon  which  they  depended  for  recruits  and  supplies. 
At  the  same  time,  he  left  the  road  to  England  open.  The  Scots  had  no 
choice  but  to  march  south  across  the  Border,  though  the  invasion 
would  inevitably  arouse  the  national  sentiment  of  the  bulk  of  the 
English.  They  started  31  July,  1650,  by  the  fatal  Lancashire  road. 
Cromwell  hastened  after  them  along  a  parallel  route  through  York- 
shire, and  Charles'  army,  much  worn  down  by  English  forces  which 
had  been  harassing  his  flanks  and  rear,  was  overtaken  at  Worcester. 
There,  3  September,  1651,  on  the  anniversary  of  Dunbar,  a  fierce 
battle  was  fought.  Charles,  who  manfully  plunged  into  the  fray, 
after  he  had  for  some  time  breathlessly  followed  events  from  the 
cathedral  tower,  only  fled  when  the  last  hope  was  gone.  A  reward  of 
£1000  for  a  "  tall  man  above  two  yards  high,  with  dark  brown  hair, 
scarcely  to  be  distinguished  from  black  "  failed  to  secure  his  capture. 
After  six  weeks  of  thrilling  adventures,  in  which  the  courage  and  re- 
source of  the  fugitive  were  only  matched  by  the  devotion  of  his  fol- 
lowers, he  made  his  way  to  France  to  wait  for  better  times.  Worces- 
ter's fight  was  Cromwell's  "crowning  mercy."  Never  again  during 
his  lifetime  was  England  in  danger  of  invasion.  Scotland  soon  yielded. 
Compared  with  the  Irish,  the  Scots  were  dealt  with  tenderly.  The 
army  of  occupation  was  kindly  disposed,  and  the  Kirk,  although 
deprived  of  its  control  in  the  State  and  its  power  to  persecute,  was  left 
unmolested.  It  now  remained  to  establish  the  Commonwealth 
securely  in  England  and  to  assert  its  power  in  the  colonies,  on  the  seas, 
and  abroad. 

The  Sea  Power  of  the  Commonwealth.  —  Before  the  close  of  1651 
the  fleet  of  the  Commonwealth,  chiefly  through  the  abilities  of  Blake, 
who  had  won  his  spurs  as  a  land  commander  during  the  Civil  Wars, 
had  successfully  asserted  its  dominion  of  the  seas.  Prince  Rupert, 
who  had  taken  over  the  command  of  the  royal  navy,2  was  able  to  ac- 
complish little.  The  island  possessions  of  the  royalists  in  the  Channel 
were  forced  to  yield,  and,  after  the  news  of  Worcester,  Virginia,  the 
Bermudas,  and  the  Barbadoes,  which  had  declared  for  the  King,  and 
where  many  royalist  exiles  had  taken  refuge,  acknowledged  the  author- 
ity of  Parliament.  Yet  the- notable  success  of  the  navy  under  the 
Commonwealth,  while  it  enhanced  the  prestige  of  the  Commonwealth, 

xThe  party  who  had  signed  the  "  Engagement"  with  Charles  I. 

2  Many  of  the  land  commanders  of  the  period  showed  this  amphibious  capacity. 

2L 


5H  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

was  attended  with  results  which  contributed  to  the  ultimate  downfall 
of  the  Government.  In  the  two  years  from  1649  to  1651  the  navy  was 
more  than  doubled:  instead  of  contenting  themselves  with  keeping 
the  peace  and  protecting  commerce,  the  leaders  were  tempted  to  use 
the  weapons  which  they  had  forged  in  maritime  conflicts,  first  against 
the  Dutch,  and  subsequently  against  Spain.  Although  they  inflicted 
great  injury  on  their  adversaries  and  took  rich  prizes,  English  com- 
merce suffered  and  the  heavy  taxes  necessary  to  maintain  the  fleet, 
abnormally  large  for  those  times,  roused  violent  opposition. 

The  First  Dutch  War,  1652-1654.  —  A  war  against  the  Dutch  broke 
out  in  July,  1652.  The  causes  of  friction  were  commercial  and  polit- 
ical. In  the  East  Indies  there  was  long-standing  rivalry  which  had 
led  to  bloody  encounters ;  at  Amboyna,  for  instance,  the  Dutch  had,  in 
1623,  massacred  a  body  of  English  traders,  a  deed  for  which  they 
steadily  refused  to  make  compensation.  The  English,  for  their  part, 
refused  to  recognize  the  right  of  the  Dutch  to  fish  for  herring  in  the 
North  Sea ;  against  the  latter's  claim  that  free  ships  made  free  goods, 
they  insisted  on  searching  their  ships  for  royalist  arms;  and  they 
demanded  that  the  Dutch  recognize  the  English  supremacy  in  the 
narrow  seas  by  lowering  their  colors  when  ships  of  the  two  countries 
met.  These  differences  were  all  commercial,  the  political  were  equally 
serious.  In  1649  the  royalists  at  the  Hague  had  murdered  the  Eng- 
lish representative,  Dorislaus ;  and  the  Estates  General  not  only 
rejected  an  alliance  with  the  Commonwealth,  but  refused  its  demands 
to  expel  the  royalist  exiles,  or  to  proscribe  the  House  of  Orange,  whose 
adherents  were  openly  hostile  to  the  new  Government,  and  to  whom 
the  new  English  regime  was  further  opposed  as  an  hereditary  dynasty 
allied  by  marriage  to  the  Stuarts.  Finally,  in  October,  1651,  the  Eng- 
lish aimed  a  blow  at  the  Dutch  carrying  trade  by  a  Navigation  Act/ 
providing  that  no  goods  should  'be  imported  from  Asia,  Atnca,  or" 
America  save  in  English  or  Colonial  ships,  or  from  any  European 
country,  except  in  English  ships  or  those  of  the  country  that  produced 
the  goods.1  In  the  conflict  which  followed,  though  the  honors  were 
about  even  in  actual  engagements,  the  English,  on  the  whole,  had  the 
advantage.  The  Dutch  ships  were  smaller,  they  were  less  adequately 
manned,  and  their  guns  were  lighter ;  they  had  a  larger  commerce  and 
more  colonies  to  defend,  and  their  internal  administration  had  been 
weakened  by  discord  among  the  various  provinces  since  the  death  of 
the  Stadholder  William  in  i65o.2 

The  Growing  Opposition  to  the  Commonwealth.  —  While  the  Com- 
monwealth had  asserted  its  power  by  force  of  arms  in  all  directions, 
the  existing  arrangement  failed  to  win  the  approval  of  the  bulk  of  the 
nation.  The  Council  of  State  was  efficient  and  honest ;  but  the  Rump 

.  • 

1  This  act,  however,  which  was  apparently  not  very  rigidly  enforced,  was  not 
made  a  pretext  for  war. 

2  He  left  a  posthumous  child,  later  famous  as  William  of  Orange  and  William  III 
of  England. 


THE  KINGLESS  DECADE  515 

Parliament  contained  many  members  who  were  charged  with  self- 
seeking  and  corruption,  in  the  fines  imposed  upon  the  malignants,  in 
the  sequestration  of  royalist  estates,  and  in  the  sale  of  Crown  and 
Church  lands.  After  the  Irish  and  Scots  had  been  subdued,  the  army, 
which  objected  to  seeing  a  fragment  of  Parliament  continuing  to 
govern  the  country  for  an  unlimited  period,  was  in  a  position  to  assert 
itself.1  Parliament,  on  their  part,  felt  that  an  appeal  to  the  country 
in  a  general  election  would  jeopardize  the  whole  existing  system.  In 
order  to  deal  with  the  recent  crises,  they  had  not  only  been  obliged  to 
impose  heavy  taxes,  but  to  suppress  the  writings  of  those  who  opposed 
their  policy,  and,  in  general,  to  resort  to  such  arbitrary  measures  that 
they  were  bound  to  be  beaten  at  the  polls.  Their  austerity  added 
to  their  general  unpopularity :  they  put  a  stop  to  church  festivals ; 
they  closed  the  theaters  ;  they  tried  to  enforce  morality  by  law ;  and 
to  stifle  innocent  merriment  in  a  regime  of  gloom.  While  allowing  a 
fair  degree  of  freedom  to  Protestants,  they  failed  to  set  up  a  satisfac- 
tory religious  settlement,  or  to  undertake  much-desired  reforms  in  law 
and  finance. 

Cromwell  dissolves  the  Rump,  20  April,  1653.  —  Finally,  2  August, 
1652,  the  officers  of  the  army  formulated  a  petition,  embodying  the 
demands  of  the  more  progressive  sort,  and  again  insisting  on  arrears 
of  pay.  When  nothing  came  of  it,  Cromwell  began  reluctantly  to 
realize  that  Parliament  was  as  serious  an  obstruction  to  the  cause  which 
he  had  at  heart  as  Charles  had  been.  Gradually  he  became  convinced 
that  the  only  hope  lay  in  his  assuming  the  executive  2 ;  but,  as  usual, 
he  proceeded  cautiously.  While  he  was  coming  to  this  conclusion,  the 
Rump  planned  a  step  which  determined  him  to  get  rid  of  it.  The 
members,  instead  of  providing  for  a  general  election,  decided  to  pro- 
long their  own  powers  by  filling  the  vacant  seats  in  their  body  with 
men  of  whose  qualifications  they  should  themselves  be  the  judge. 
Directly  he  heard  the  news,  Cromwell,  clad  in  plain  woolen  clothes 
and  worsted  stockings,  hurried  to  the  House,  followed  by  a  guard  of 
soldiers.  With  his  hat  on  his  head  he  strode  up  and  down  the  floor. 
At  the  close  of  an  angry  speech  in  which  he  overwhelmed  them  with 
grave  charges,  he  cried :  "Come,  come,  I  will  put  an  end  to  your 
prating.  You  are  no  Parliament,  I  say  you  are  no  Parliament ;  I 
will  put  an  end  to  your  sitting.  Call  them  in,  call  them  in."  As  the 
soldiers  came,  in  response  to  his  order,  Vane  began  to  protest  in  vigor- 
ous language.  Cromwell  turned  upon  him,  shouting :  "Oh,  Sir  Henry 
Vane,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  the  Lord  deliver  me  from  Sir  Henry  Vane  !  " 
Then  he  seized  the  mace,  saying,  "  What  shall  we  do  with  this  bauble? 

1  It  was  further  alienated  by  the  excessive  development  of  the  navy  and  the 
Dutch  war. 

2  As  early  as  December,  1651,  he  declared  that  a  "settlement  with  somewhat  of 
a  monarchical  power  in  it  would  be  very  effectual."     A  little  later  in  a  private 
conversation  he  threw  out  the  suggestion :  "What  if  a  man  should  take  upon  him 
to  be  King?" 


Si6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

There,  take  it  away."  The  Speaker  was  forcibly  pulled  from  his 
chair  by  one  of  the  officers.  Seeking  to  justify  himself,  Cromwell 
declared  to  the  assembled  members :  "  It  is  you  who  have  forced  me 
to  this,  for  I  have  sought  the  Lord  night  and  day  that  he  would  rather 
slay  me  than  put  me  to  the  doing  of  this  work."  Then,  snatching  up 
the  offending  bill  and  putting  it  under  his  cloak,  he  commanded  the 
doors  to  be  locked,  and  hurried  away.  Some  wag  put  a  sign  on  the 
Parliament  building  which  read:  "This  House  to  let  unfurnished." 
Cromwell's  action,  though  meant  for  the  best,  was  really  more  violent 
than  anything  that  Charles  had  attempted.  It  remained  to  be  seen 
whether  he  could  build  up  a  better  edifice  than  he  had  pulled  down. 

The  Nominated  Parliament,  July-December,  1653.  —  Immediately 
after  the  dissolution  of  the  Rump,  the  army  replaced  the  Council  of 
State  by  a  provisional  council  with  Cromwell  at  the  head.  Fearing 
to  appeal  to  the  country  at  large,  the  new  body  determined  to  secure 
an  assembly  of  godly  men  of  their  own  way  of  thinking.  To  that  end, 
they  wrote  to  the  Congregational  ministers  of  each  county  asking 
them  to  name  suitable  persons,  from  which  lists  they  made  their 
selections,  adding  names  of  their  own.  Thus,  they  assembled  a  body 
of  140  members,  129  from  England,  5  from  Scotland,  and  6  from  Ire- 
land, to  whom  they  handed  over  the  powers  of  the  State  on  condition 
that,  after  devising  a  new  scheme  of  representation,  it  should  bring 
its  own  sessions  to  a  close  within  fifteen  months.  Thus  the  Nomi- 
nated or  Little  or  Barebones  Parliament,1  as  it  has  been  variously  called, 
was  intended  to  be  a  constituent  assembly  only ;  but,  composed  of 
zealous  reformers,  it  chose  a  Council  of  State,  appointed  committees 
to  consider  the  needs  of  the  Church  and  the  nation ;  and  proceeded 
with  the  work  properly  belonging  to  the  body  it  was  supposed  to  choose.2 
Most  of  their  proposed  reforms  were  good  in  themselves ;  indeed,  many 
of  them  have  since  been  adopted,  but  they  were  in  advance  of  the  time. 
So,  12  December,  1653,  the  more  moderate  members,  who  although  in 
a  minority  voiced  the  sense  of  the  majority  outside,  held  an  early  sit- 
ting and  resigned  their  powers  into  the  hands  of  Cromwell.  Those 
who  resisted  were  expelled  by  the  troops.3  If  the  Rump  had  not  been 
ready  to  go  far  enough,  its  successor  had  gone  too  far.  The  creature  of 
the  army,  it  had  sought  to  free  itself  and  the  English  people  from  the 
power  of  the  sword ;  it  failed  because  it  aroused  the  fear  that  it  was 
going  to  introduce  the  domination  of  the  sects  and  radicalism. 

The  Instrument  of  Government.  Cromwell  made  Lord  Protector, 
December,  1653.  —  Upon  the  overthrow  of  the  Nominated  Parliament 

1  It  got  its  name  from  one  of  its  members,  Praise-God  Barebone,  a  leather  mer- 
chant of  London. 

2  Among  their  drastic  reforms  they  proposed  to  reduce  the  laws  of  England  to  a 
cqde  that  should  be  of  "no  greater  bigness  than  a  pocket  book." 

3  According  to  a  royalist  story  a  colonel  asked  those  who  lingered  what  they 
were  doing:  "We  are  seeking  the  Lord,"  was  the  reply.     "Then  you  should  go 
elsewhere,"  he  retorted,  "for  to  my  knowledge  the  Lord  has  not  been  here  these 
twelve  years  past." 


THE   KINGLESS   DECADE  517 

the  officers  of  the  army  presented  a  scheme  known  as  the  Instrument 
,  vesting  the  supreme  power  in  a  single  person,  assisted, 


and  to  some  extent  controlled,  by  a  council  and  a  parliament.  '  The 
Instrument  is  notable  as  the  first  written  constitution  for  governing  a 
nation  in  modern  times,1  and  the  only  one  which  England  has  ever  had 
in  actual  operation.  On  16  December,  Cromwell  accepted  office  as 
Lord  Protector.  He  was  to  hold  office  for  life  and  his  successors  were 
to  be  chosen  by  the  Council  of  State.  This  body  was  to  consist  of 
13  to  21  members  named  in  the  Instrument.  For  each  future  vacancy 
Parliament  was  to  name  six  persons,  from  whom  the  Council  would 
select  two,  the  final  choice  resting  with  the  Protector.  Powers  of 
legislation  and  extraordinary  taxation2  were  vested  in  Parliament, 
though  between  sessions  the  Protector  and  Council  could  issue  ordi- 
nances which  might  be  afterwards  confirmed  or  disallowed  by  Parlia- 
ment. The  Protector  had  no  power  of  veto,  though  he  could  withhold 
his  assent  to  a  bill  for  twenty  days.  It  was  provided  that  Parliament 
should  meet  at  least  once  in  three  years  and  that  each  session  should 
last  at  least  five  months.  The  right  to  vote  was  somewhat  extended, 
though  supporters  of  the  King  were  to  be  temporarily  excluded  and 
Roman  Catholics  disqualified.  The  Christian  religion  as  contained 
in  the  Scriptures  3  was  to  be  professed  by  the  Nation.  There  was  to 
be  an  established  church,  but  a  provision  less  objectionable  than  tithes 
was  to  be  made  for  its  support.  Full  liberty  was  allowed  to  believers 
in  Jesus  Christ,  though  this  was  not  to  extend  to  "  Popery  or  Prelacy," 
or  to  those  who  disturbed  the  peace,  or  practiced  licentiousness. 

The  Instrument  was,  on  the  whole,  a  good  attempt  to  steer  between 
the  despotism  of  a  single  person  and  a  single  house.  The  Protector 
was  checked  by  the  Council,  and  his  acts  could  be  reviewed  by  the 
courts.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was,  to  some  extent,  protected  against 
Parliament  by  the  fixed  revenue  for  the  ordinary  needs  of  the  State 
and  by.  the  suspensive  veto.  Yet  the  arrangement  was  not  without 
its  flaws.  There  was  no  provision  for  amendment,  and  the  relations 
between  the  executive  and  the  legislature  were  not  as  they  are  at 
present.  A  modern  Parliament  can  exercise  constant  supervision  over 
the  Cabinet,  which  falls  as  soon  as  the  majority  withdraws  its  support  ; 
moreover,  it  controls  supplies  even  in  ordinary  times.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Cabinet  can  always  dissolve  Parliament  and  appeal  to  the 
nation,  a  device  that  the  Protector  was  not  in  a  position  to  make  use  of. 
His  government  had  the  support  neither  of  traditional  loyalty  nor  of 
the  sanction  of  the  majority.  It  was  not  through  any  faults  in  its  plan, 
however,  that  the  Instrument  failed,  but  because  Parliament  refused  to 
accept  it,  insisting,  when  they  came  together,  that  it  was  their  function 
and  not  that  of  Cromwell  or  the  army  to  construct  the  constitution. 

1  The  Mayflower  Compact  of  1620  and  the  Fundamental  Orders  of  Connecticut 
of  1639,  were  constitutions  not  for  sovereign  bodies,  but  for  colonies  of  England. 

2  A  fixed  revenue  was  provided  for  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  army  and  navy 
and  the  civil  administration.  3  This  meant  Puritanism. 


5i8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Cromwell's  Aims  as  Protector.  —  From  16  December,  1653,  to  3 
September,  1654,  when  Parliament  met,  Cromwell  was  in  fact  if  not 
in  name  sovereign  of  the  three  kingdoms.  In  his  early  life  he  had  been 
busily  and  usefully  employed  in  tilling  his  fields  and  rearing  cattle. 
In  Parliament  he  was  known  as  a  rather  uncouth  figure,  active  and 
determined,  but  chiefly  notable  for  his  religious  fervor.  When  the 
Civil  War  broke  out,  he  was  forty-three  years  old,  and  the  struggle 
was  well  under  way  before  he  came  to  be  recognized  as  an  irresistible 
military  force.  He  had  overcome  all  who  withstood  the  cause  of 
which  he  had  made  himself  the  champion.  Now  that  he  stood  trium- 
phant over  his  vanquished  opponents  —  the  King,  the  Irish,  the  Scots, 
and  Parliament  —  he  had  before  him  the  one  supreme  task  :  "  The 
task,  as  he  said  himself,  of  healing  and  settling  :  of  healing  the  rancour 
engendered  by  so  many  years  of  strife  ;  of  settling  a  new  order,  polit- 
ical and  ecclesiastical,  which  should  rest,  not  upon  military  force,  but 
upon  the  willing  acceptance  of  all  good  citizens."  Directly  he  as- 
sumed office  he  applied  himself  at  once  to  legislation,  and,  during  the 
next  three  months,  issued  some  eighty  ordinances  covering  a  wide 
field. 

The  Protector's  Religious  Policy.  —  The  religious  policy  which  he 
sought  to  enforce  was  one  which  he  adopted  but  did  not  originate. 
It  contemplated  an  established,  non-episcopal  church,  endowed  and 
supported  by  the  State,  and  comprehending  all  Protestant  sects  who 
believed  in  Christ,  save  those  who  accepted  bishops  and  the  Prayer 
Book.  For  those  who  opposed  any  form  of  establishment  the  greatest 
possible  toleration  was  to  be  allowed.  Each  congregation  was  to  own 
its  church  buildings  and  to  regulate  its  own  form  of  worship,  and  no 
provision  was  made  for  church  courts,  ecclesiastical  assemblies,  pre- 
scribed ceremonies,  or  doctrinal  tests.  Great  pains,  however,  were 
taken  to  secure  proper  ministers.  By  an  ordinance  of  20  March,  1654, 
a  mixed  commission  of  laymen  known  as  the  "  Triers  "  was  set  up  to 
test  the  fitness  of  preachers  presented  to  livings.  It  was  supplemented, 
22  August,  by  a  body  of  "  Ejectors,"  established  in  each  county  to 
expel  ministers  found  to  be  scandalous,  heretical,  disaffected,  or  "  insuf- 
ficient." Cromwell's  system  satisfied  most  of  the  conservatives  who 
had  vested  interests  at  stake  and  the  sectaries  who  desired  freedom 
from  persecution.  Anglicans  were  forbidden  openly  to  use  the  Prayer 
Book,  but  their  private  worship  was  winked  at,  except  during  moments 
when  the  Government  felt  itself  in  danger.  Catholics,  though  still 
subject  to  the  old  penalties  for  saying  and  hearing  mass,  were  no  longer 
forced  to  attend  the  parish  church,  and  the  penal  laws  were  not  rigidly 
enforced.1  The  Quakers  and  Baptists  throve  lustily,  were  able  to 
survive  the  Restoration  and  live  to  the  present  day.  Moreover,  the 
Jews  began  to  return  to  England.  In  spite,  however,  of  its  generally 
jglerant  attirnrip,  TrnrnweH's  was  a  JPuritan  regime.  Its  austerity, 


Only  one  priest  was  put  to  death  during  Cromwell's  regime. 


THE  KINGLESS  DECADE  519 

its  exclusion  of  the  Cavaliers  from  political  activity,  and  the  unfair 
discrimination  in  financial  burdens  that  soon  came  to  be  imposed 
upon  them,  kept  alive  a  discontent  that  was  soon  to  assert  itself. 
Cromwell's  Foreign  Policy.  —  Cromwell's  foreign  policy  which  now 
began  to  shape  itself  had  three  main  objects  :  the  weakening  of  the 
Stuart  cause  on  the  Continent  ;  the  development  of  England's 


and  commercial  power  :  and  the  -formation  ot  agreat  alliance  of  ^ 
Protestant  countries  of  Europe  under  the  leadership  of  England.  He 
succeeded,  soloing  as  he  lived,  in  staving  oft  a  Stuart  restoration  Also, 
he  did  much  to  carry  on  the  old  Elizabethan  tradition  of  English  mari- 
time supremacy  which  had  been  so  effectively  revived  under  the 
Commonwealth.  In  his  third,  and  what  he  liked  to  believe  was  his 
paramount  aim,  he  was  least  fortunate.  After  the  Peace  of  West- 
phalia, which  concluded  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  1648,  religious  inter- 
ests in  Europe  gave  way  more  and  more  to  those  of  political  and  com- 
mercial aggrandizement.  The  northern  Protestant  states  which 
Cromwell  aimed  to  unite  fell  to  quarreling  among  themselves,  and  the 
two  great  Catholic  Powers,  France  and  Spain,  whom  he  strove  to  keep 
apart,  made  peace  in  little  more  than  a  year  after  his  death.  More- 
over, the  Protector  himself  mingled  with  his  Protestant  zeal  a  con- 
suming ambition  to  enhance  England's  material  advantages.  While 
this  latter  motive  was  most  worthy,  it  led  him  into  devious  courses, 
in  which  his  actions  conflicted  with  his  professions,  thus  enabling  his 
enemies  at  home  and  abroad  to  charge  him  with  hypocrisy  when  he 
was  frequently  only  self-deluded. 

Peace  with  the  Dutch,  April,  1654.  —The  mixed  motives  in  his 
policy  were  manifested  shortly  after  he  became  Protector.  Deplor- 
ing the  continuance  of  the  war  with  the  Dutch,  he  concluded  a  treaty 
of  peace  in  April,  1654,  but  his  terms  were  hard  and  distinctly  to  Eng- 
land's commercial  and  political  advantage.  The  Dutch  agreed  to 
strike  their  flags  to  English  ships  in  the  narrow  seas  ;  to  punish  the 
perpetrators  of  the  Amboyna  massacre  ;  and  to  accept  the  Navigation 
Act.  On  the  other  hand,  they  were  to  continue  to  fish  for  herrings 
in  the  North  Sea  without  payment  of  rent,  and  they  maintained  their 
own  views  on  the  right  of  search.  While  England  desired  to  exclude 
the  House  of  Orange  from  the  government  of  the  United  Provinces,  no 
stipulation  was  made  in  the  treaty,  though  Cromwell  induced  Holland, 
the  leading  province,  not  to  elect  William's  heir  as  Stadholder.  Each 
country  agreed  to  make  compensation  for  damages  done  to  the  other 
in  the  East  Indies  ;  concluded  a  defensive  alliance  ;  and  agreed 
not  to  harbor  each  other's  rebels,  this  involving  the  exclusion  of  the 
Stuart  exiles  from  the  United  Provinces.  Altogether,  the  war  was  a 
heavy  blow  at  England's  greatest  trade  rival,  and  marked  the  beginning 
of  the  end  of  the  Dutch  supremacy  at  sea.  Treaties  followed  with 
Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Portugal.  The  latter,  although  a  Catholic 
country,  was  at  war  with  Spain  against  whom  it  was  struggling  to 
maintain  its  independence. 


520  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Capture  of  Jamaica,  May,   1655.     The  War  with  Spain.  — 

France  and  Spain  contended  with  one  another  for  an  alliance  with  the 
Protector.  France,  to  be  sure,  was  the  hereditary  enemy  of  England, 
while  her  king  was  a  nephew  of  Henrietta  Maria.  On  the  other 
hand,  Spain  had  been  the  foe  who  inspired  the  glorious  achievements 
of  the  Elizabethan  seamen,  and  the  Spanish  religious  and  commercial 
policy  was  still  unbearably  exclusive.  When  England  asked  for 
freedom  of  religion  and  trade  for  her  merchants,  the  Spanish  ambas- 
sador declared  that  it  was  like  asking  for  his  master's  two  eyes.  Far 
from  making  any  concessions,  the  Inquisition  was  rigorously  enforced 
against  Englishmen  in  the  Spanish  dominions,  English  settlements 
in  the  West  Indies  were  persistently  harassed,  and  English  ships  were 
intercepted  in  the  surrounding  waters.  This  accounts  for  Oliver's 
declaration  to  the  Council,  20  July,  1654,  that :  "  Providence  seemed 
to  lead  us  "  to  an  attack  on  the  Spanish  Indies.  However,  he  made 
the  mistake  of  thinking  that  he  could  war  on  Spain  in  the  Indies  and 
remain  at  peace  in  Europe  l ;  furthermore,  he  prepared  an  attack 
while  remaining  on  terms  of  ostensible  friendship  with  the  destined 
enemy.  During  Christmas,  1654,  his  expedition  started  with  Ad- 
miral Penn  in  command  of  the  fleet,  and  General  Venables  in 
command  of  the  army  which  accompanied  it.  They  were 
ordered  to  strike  at  the  Spanish  dominions  in  the  New  World, 
and  to  seize  the  treasure  ships,  with  the  twofold  object  of  breaking 
her  colonial  monopoly  and  dealing  a  blow  at  "  anti-Christ."  An 
attack  on  Hispaniola  failed  dismally;  but,  in  May,  Jamaica, 
practically  defenseless,  was  captured.  In  June,  Blake,  who,  the 
previous  October,  had  been  sent  to  the  Mediterranean  to  protect 
English  trade  and  to  chastise  the  pirates  who  infested  that  sea,  re- 
ceived orders  to  intercept  treasure  ships  on  their  -way  to  Spain  as 
well  as  vessels  containing  troops  and  supplies  for  the  West  Indies. 
Not  till  the  26  October,  1655,  did  Oliver  declare  war.  While  his 
grounds  were  sufficient,  his  underhanded  policy  is  most  blame- 
worthy. 

The  Alliance  with  France,  1655  and  1657.  —  Two  days  before  the 
declaration  of  war  with  Spain,  he  concluded  a  treaty  with  France, 
providing  for  the  promotion  of  commerce  and  the  exclusion  from  each 
country  of  the  rebels  of  the  other.  The  result  was  to  throw  the  exile 
Charles  into  the  arms  of  Philip  IV  of  Spain.  He  took  up  his  residence 
in  Brussels ;  he  received  a  Spanish  pension  and  a  promise  of  assistance 
whenever  he  should  invade  England.  The  treaty  between  France 
and  England  was  followed  by  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance, 
23  March,  1657.  In  June  of  the  next  year,  the  French  general  Tu- 
renne,  assisted  by  English  troops  who  fought  with  rare  bravery,  cap- 
tured Dunkirk,  the  best  port  in  Flanders.  It  was  handed  over  to 
the  Protector.  He  had  stipulated  for  this  cession,  partly  because 

1  His  only  excuse  was  the  old  tradition  that  there  was  no  peace  beyond  the  line, 
the  line  marked  by  the  bull  of  demarcation  of  Alexander  VI. 


THE  KINGLESS  DECADE  521 

Dunkirk  was  one  of  the  keys  of  the  Channel,  and  partly  because  it 
was  a  lair  for  pirates  who  preyed  upon  English  commerce. 

Results  of  the  Protector's  Foreign  Policy.  —  In  foreign  policy 
Oliver  achieved  much.  He  gained  for  England  a  high  place  among 
European  powers,  and  "  was  more  feared  and  courted  than  any  otner 
sovereign  of  his  time  "  ;  he  retarded  the  restoration  of  Charles  II;  he_ 
advanced  English  commercial  and  colonial  interests_hy  striking  hqjH__ 
JaT^e~mmigrK)ly  ol  %)aln  ;  and  he  took  his  country  another  long  step 
"towanl  that  naval^supreniacy  wKicTTsKe :  Has r  enjoy  ecT  for  the  lastTwo 
^centuries.  However,  his  cherished  scheme  for  a  great  Protestant 
alliance  failed.  He  has  been  charged,  too,  with  short-sightedness  in 
furthering  the  greatness  of  France,  a  growing  power,  as  against  Spain, 
which  was  on  the  decline ;  yet  it  must  be  said  that  the  decay  of  Spain 
was  not  then  fully  apparent,  while  it  was  the  slavish  policy  of  Charles  II 
far  more  than  Oliver's  alliance  which  contributed  to  the  subsequent 
ascendancy  of  Louis  XIV.  A  more  serious  indictment  of  Oliver's 
policy  is  that  it  took  money  which  the  country  could  ill  spare ;  it 
diverted  the  Protector's  attention  from  pressing  domestic  problems ; 
and,  by  mingling  material  motives  with  religious  professions,  he  low- 
ered his  ideals  and  stained  his  prestige  as  a  godly  ruler  of  the  elect. 

The  First  Parliament  of  the  Protectorate,  September,  1654- January, 
1655.  —  Meantime,  the  first  Parliament  of  the  Protectorate  had  met, 
3  September,  1654.  Besides  a  small  body  of  Republicans  opposed  to  a 
strong  executive,  a  stout  contingent  of  conservatives  had  been  elected 
who  were  set  against  war.  While  they  desired  a  settled  government 
they  were  bent  on  having  one  settled  by  themselves.  Cromwell  was 
willing  that  they  should  alter  "  circumstantials  "  in  the  Instrument ; 
but  he  insisted  that  they  should  not  meddle  with  "  fundamentals." 
"  I  say,"  he  declared  vehemently,  "  that  the  wilful  throwing  away 
of  this  Government,  such  as  it  is,  so  owned  by  God,  so  approved  by 
men,  were  a  thing  I  can  sooner  be  rolled  into  my  grave  and  buried  with 
infamy  than  I  can  give  my  consent  to."  By  means  of  a  test,  to  which 
he  required  the  members  to  subscribe,  he  managed  to  exclude  about 
a  hundred  of  the  most  uncompromising ;  but  even  those  who  remained 
set  about  to  revise  the  Instrument  in  such  a  manner  as  to  obtain  Par- 
liamentary sovereignty,  control  over  the  militia,  and  religious  uni- 
formity rigidly  restricting  freedom  of  conscience.  Consequently, 
22  January,  1655,  at  the  end  of  five  lunar  months  Oliver  appeared 
before  them,  and  in  a  bitter  speech  in  which  he  denounced  them  for 
multiplying  "  dissettlement  and  divisions  "  and  "  reproached  them 
with  their  readiness  to  pinch  other  men's  consciences,  and  their  en- 
deavor to  grasp  the  whole  power  of  the  militia,"  he  concluded :  "  it 
is  not  for  the  profit  of  these  nations,  nor  fit  for  the  common  and  public 
good,  for  you  to  continue  here  any  longer.  And,  therefore,  I  do  de- 
clare unto  you  that  I  do  dissolve  this  Parliament."  While  they  had 
some  ground  for  opposing  a  military  despotism,  the  Protector  was 
worthy  of  their  trust,  and  he  realized  that,  if  the  unnatural  union  of 


522  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Presbyterians  and  Republicans  who  opposed  him  was  allowed  to  pre- 
vail, it  would  open  the  way  for  factional  fights  and  inevitable  reaction. 
It  was  one  of  the  ironies  of  fate  that  he  who  desired  above  all  things 
peace  and  healing,  and  who  had  contended  against  despotism  both  in 
King  and  in  Parliament,  could  only  preserve  at  the  point  of  the  sword 
what  he  had  struggled  to  gain  for  the  nation. 

Penruddock's  Rising  and  the  Rule  of  the  Major-Generals,  1655.  — 
The  dissension  between  the  Protector  and  Parliament  and  evidences 
of  discontent  outside  the  House  encouraged  the  royalists  to  plan  a 
general  rising  in  March,  1655.  The  only  force  to  appear  in  arms  was 
a  body  of  Wiltshire  men  under  John  Penruddock.  They  were  speedily 
suppressed,  and  Penruddock,  with  a  few  of  the  leaders,  were  put  to 
death,  while  a  number  of  others  were  transported  to  the  West  Indies. 
Nevertheless,  the  unrest  continued  to  be  so  great  that,  in  August,  the 
Protector^  divided  the  country  into  military  districts,  setting  a  major  - 
glmeraJ_aver_eacIiL  In  addition  to  keeping  order  they  were  com- 
missioned to  enforce  the  Puritan  moral  code.  They  were  most  effec- 
tive in  both  capacities.  They  put  down  robberies  and  disorder,  they 
suppressed  horse  racing,  cockfighting  and  bear  baiting.1  They  re- 
duced the  number  of  alehouses  ;  punished  tippling  and  prof  aneness  ; 
and  they  made  determined  war  on  vagrants,  strolling  minstrels,  and 
stage  players.2  This  increased  rigor  served  only  to  alienate  further 
the  mass  of  the  people  in  whom  the  love  of  amusement  was  strong. 
Moreover,  the  Cavaliers  were  oppressed  with  singular  and  special 
burdens.  In  addition  to  those  who  were  punished  for  participation 
in  the  recent  rising,  an  income  tax  of  10  per  cent,  known  as  the  "  deci- 
mation," was  imposed  on  all  who  were  known  to  have  taken  part 
against  Parliament  in  the  Civil  War.  By  this  "  military  and  magis- 
terial inquisition  "  and  by  such  unwise  discrimination,  the  Protector 
lost  the  chance  of  winning  over  the  classes  whom  the  Rump  had  failed 
to  conciliate.  When,  owing  to  the  need  for  money  for  carrying  on 
the  Spanish  war,  a  new  Parliament  met,  17  September,  1656,  th_e_  whole 

sp.p.f  hin 


_  . 

Cromwell  made  Hereditary  Protector,  June,  1657.  —  The  Council, 
under  its  authority  of  deciding  whether  new  members  were  men  of 

1  Partly  because  they  furnished  occasion  for  drunkenness,  gaming,  and  other 
immoralities,  partly  because  such  gatherings  offered  opportunity  for  conspiracy. 

2  The  following  indictment  which  was  gravely  considered  by  the  Court  of  Upper 
Bench  is  an  indication  of  the  minute  supervision  exercised  by  the  authorities  in 
this  period  :    "  Kent  —  Before  the  justices  of  the  peace  it  was  presented  that,  at 
Maidstone,  in  the  county  aforesaid,  John  Bishop,  of  Maidstone,  in  the  county  afore- 
said, apothecary,  with  force  and  arms  did  wilfully  and  in  a  violent  and  boisterous 
manner  run  to  and  fro,  and  kick  up  and  down  in  the  common  highway  and  street 
within  the  said  town  and  county,  called  the  High  Street,  a  certain  ball  of  leather 
commonly  called  a  foot  ball,  unto  the  great  annoyance  and  incumbrance  of  the 
said  common  highway,  to  the  great  disquiet  and  disturbance,  of  the  good  people  of 
this  Commonwealth  passing  and  travelling  in  and  through  the  same,  and  in  con- 
tempt of  the  laws,  etc.  and  to  the  evil  example  of  others  and  against  the  public 
peace." 


THE   KINGLESS  DECADE  523 

"  known  integrity,  fearing  God,  and  of  good  conversation,"  excluded 
more  than  a  hundred  possible  opponents  of  the  Protector,  and  about 
fifty  more  did  not  take  their  seats.  Those  who  remained  hoped  by 
supporting  Cromwell  and  enlarging  his  civil  powers  to  secure  a  stable 
government  and  to  break  the  power  of  the  army.  Very  wisely  the 
rule  of  the  Major-Generals  and  the  "  decimation  "  of  the  Cavaliers 
was  discontinued.  There  were  two  leading  parties  in  Parliament, 
one  desirmg~to  make  Cromwell  hereditary  Protector,  the  other  to 
make  him  King.  There  was  much  to  be  said  for  the  restoration  of 
the  kingship.  For  one  thing,  it  was  rooted  in  traditional  loyalty,  and 
would,  for  that  reason,  command  the  support  01  many  of  the  con- 
servatives ;  again,  it  was  bound  by  recognized  rules  of  constitutional 
limitation,  while  the  office  of  Protector  was  more  in  the  nature  of  a 
dictatorship.  Cromwell  professed  to  regard  the  kingly  title  "  as  a 
mere  feather  in  the  hat  "  ;  but  when  it  was  offered  him,  in  February, 
1657,  in  a  revised  form  of  the  Instrument,  known  as  the 


^ 

petition  and  Ad  vice,  "  he  hesitated.  When  he  refused,  early  in  May, 
it  was  apparently  only  because  of  the  strenuous  opposition  of  the 
army.  Instead,  he  accepted  the  office  jrfjiereditary  Lord  Protector. 
and,  26  June,  was  solemnly  inaugurated  with  regal  pomp  and  cere- 
mony. Most  of  the  other  recommendations  of  the  Humble  Petition 
were  adopted  as  well.  Chief  among  them  was  a  provision  for  a  second 
or  "  other  House,"  members  of  which  should,  in  the  first  instance,  be 
nominated  by  Cromwell.  The  Constitution  thus  revised,  and  with 
the  powers  of  Parliament  considerably  enlarged,  now  for  the  first  time 
received  formal  sanction.  After  legalizing  the  ordinances  of  1654, 
Parliament  adjourned  till  January,  1658.  When  it  met  again,  the 
power  of  the  Protector  was  found  to  have  been  greatly  weakened  by 
the  admission  of  the  members  excluded  in  the  autumn  of  1656,  and 
by  the  promotion  of  his  stanchest  supporters  to  the  '  '.other  House." 
In  the  face  of  intrigues  against  his  authority  and  disputes  over  the 
relations  between  the  two  Houses,  he  ordered  their  dissolution,  4  Feb- 
ruary, 1658.  "  I  think  it  high  time  to  put  an  end  to  your  sitting," 
he  declared,  "  and  let  God  be  judge  between  you  and  me."  It  was 
destined  to  be  his  last  parliament. 

Cromwell's  Death,  3  September,  1658.  —  The  remaining  few  months 
of  his  life  were  marked  by  growing  unpopularity  and  disappointment. 
The  .merchants  were  more  and  more  embittered  by  the  damage  to 
their  commerce  inflicted  by  hostile  powers,  as  the^Cavaliers  had  been 
bvjhe  deprivation  of  their  lands  and  social  prestige!  The  strain  of 
keeping  up  a  large  army  and  a  large  navy  at  the  same  time  was  too 
much  for  the  nation  to  bear,  while  the  need  for  money  grew  more 
pressing  every  day.  Only  Oliver's  strong  hand  could  hold  in  check 
the  steadily  mounting  discontent.  Although  but  fifty-eight  years 
old  and  of  a  naturally  robust  constitution,  the  burden  proved  too  great 
for  his  health  to  bear,  undermined  as  it  was  by  fifteen  years  of  titanic 
labors.  The  death  of  his  favorite  daughter  Elizabeth,  6  August,  1658, 


524  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

proved  to  be  the  final  shock  from  which  he  never  recovered.  Shortly 
after,  he  was  taken  with  an  ague  and  intermittent  fever.  On  20  August, 
George  Fox,  who  had  met  him  entering  Hampton  Court  at  the  head 
of  his  guards,  "  felt  a  waft  of  death  go  forth  before  him."  It  was  not 
long  before  he  realized  himself  that  his  days  were  numbered :  "I 
would  be  willing,"  he  said,  "  to  live  to  be  further  serviceable  to  God 
and  His  people ;  but  my  work  is  done."  He  died  3  September,  1658, 
on  the  anniversary  of  Dunbar  and  Worcester. 

Cromwell's  Work.  —  Cromwell's  enemies  have  judged  him  harshly, 
and  long  after  his  death  the  view  prevailed  that,  starting  as  a  sincere 
zealot,  the  taste  for  power  gradually  transformed  him  into  a  hypo- 
critical fanatic  .  He  had  been  in  his  grave  nearly  two  centuries  when 
a  tempestuous  but  penetrating  champion  arose  in  the  person  ofThomas 
Carlyle  to  demonstrate  beyond  a  doubt  that  Cromwell  was  "  not  a 
man  of  lies,  but  a  man  of  truth."  Since  then,  the  patient  investiga- 
tions of  impartial  historians  have  been  able  to  picture  him  as  he 
really  was  in  the  light  of  the  problems  he  had  to  face.  It  was  his  un- 
swerving trust  in  God  and  his  absolute  acceptance  of  every  victory 
which  he  gained  in  war  and  in  politics  at  home  and  abroad,  as  a  mani- 
festation of  Divine  Providence  that  lent  color  to  the  hostile  view 
that  so  long  prevailed.  In  spite  of  seeming  contradictions,  he  pursued 
consistent  aims  —  to_  strike  at  despotism  under  whatever  form  it 
was  cloaked,  to  stem  the  inrusH  of  anarcKy.  and  to  preserve  the  herb, 
tage  for  whidO^Tfought.  He  fashioned  the  army  to  beat  the  King, 
who  had  been  encroaching  on  the  religious  and  civil  liberties  of  his 
subjects.  He  overthrew  the  Long  Parliament,  because  it  refused  to 
grant  spiritual  freedom  to  the  sects  and  showed  a  determination  to 
perpetuate  its  own  power.  He  welcomed  the  abrupt  termination  of 
the  Little  Parliament,  since  it  went  too  far  in  tearing  up  the  roots  of 
the  past.  Then  he  accepted  the  supreme  power  under  a  system  which 
seemed  to  combine  the  best  features  of  joint  rule  by  a  single  person  and 
a  parliament.  When  Parliament  proceeded  to  contest  the  basis  of  his 
power,  he  found  himself  forced  to  adopt  methods  more  arbitrary  than 
those  of  the  King  whom  he  had  overthrown.  The  problem  before 
him  was  such  that  neither  he  nor  probably  any  other  man  could  con- 
struct a  workable  system  of  government.  While  more  effective  as  a 
destroyer  than  as  a  builder,  he  achieved  many  things.  He  struck  a^ 
blow  at  tyranny,  royal  and  ecclpg^gtjr?1,  frOm  which  it  never  re- 
covered ;  he  gave  the  country  an  actual  experience  in  religious  tolera- 
tion which  helped  prepare  the  way  for  the  spiritual  freedom  which  it 
was  left  to  later  hands  enduringly  to  establish.  He  first  tried  the 
experiment  of  combining  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  in  a  parlia- 
mentary union,  a  plan  that  was  not  completely  realized  for  a  century 
and  a  half.  He  made  the  name  of  England  respected  abroad,  and, 
adopting  the  maritime  and  colonial  policy  of  his  great  predecessor, 
Elizabeth,  he  carried  it  a  stage  further  along  toward  the  goal  which 
Great  Britain  has  now  reached.  Under  his  government,  particularly 


THE  KINGLESS   DECADE  525 

during  the  regime  of  the  Major-Generals,  there  was  rigid  repression 
and  minute  interference  with  private  affairs.  Some  innocent  recrea- 
tion was  blighted  by  the  enforced  observance  of  the  gloomy  Puritan 
Sabbath.  Some  of  these  measures,  however,  were  due  to  stern  political 
necessity.  Others  were  in  the  interests  of  a  high,  if  somewhat  dreary, 
morality,  and  the  policy,  mistaken  as  it  was  in  many  respects,  intro- 
duced serious  and  sober  ideals  which  have  done  much  to  uplift  the 
English  national  character.1 

Cromwell,  the  Man.  —  Cromwell  the  man,  so  simple  and  human 
in  his  bearing,  was  ajcomplex  personality  embodying  the  most  diverse 
traits.  He  was  at  once  daring  and  cautious ;  he  was  .hesitant  in 
council  and  decisive  in  action.  Although  a  religious  enthusiast,  he 
was  intensely  practical  inHis  military  and  state  policy.  In  his  habits 
of  life  he  was  the  opposite  of  a  "  morose  and  gloomy  "  ascetic ;  he 
smoked  tobacco,  he  drank  wine  and  small  beer.  He  hunted,  hawked, 
and  was  a  lover  of  horses.  He  loved  his  jest 2  and  was  enthusiastic 
for  games,  playing  bowls  even  after  he  became  Lord  Protector.  He 
had  an  ear  for  music,  and  scandalized  the  stricter  sort  when  his  daughter 
Frances  was  married  in  November,  1657,  by  allowing  the  wedding 
party  to  indulge  in  "  mixed  dancing."  But  this  lighter  side  only 
appeared  at  moments  in  his  absorbed  and  purposeful  life.  In  his  last 
prayer  he  gave  thanks  that  he  had  been  "  a  mean  instrument  to  do 
God's  people  some  good  and  God  some  service."  If,  as  a  ruler,  he 
came  more  and  more  to  subordinate  "  the  civil  liberty  and  interest  of 
the  nation  ...  to  the  more  peculiar  interest  of  God,"  if  to  that  end 
he  was  often  abrupt  and  arbitrary,  his  aims  were  lofty  and  disinter- 
ested. "  A  larger  soul,  I  think,  hath  seldom  dwelt  in  a  house  of 
clay."  Such  was  the  tribute  of  Maidston,  his  cofferer,  perhaps  as  well 
qualified  to  speak  as  any  man  who  knew  him. 

Richard  Cromwell  Lord  Protector.  His  Abdication,  1659.  — 
Richard  Cromwell,  whom  his  father  had  named  as  his  successor,  was 
a  gentle,  worthy  man,  of  pure  life,  personally  popular  even  with  the 
Cavaliers ;  but  he  was  a  typical  country  gentleman  and  sportsman, 
without  force  and  without  training  or  ability  in  affairs  of  state.  More- 
over, he  had  no  hold  on  the  army.  "  Queen  Dick  "  and  the  "  Meek 
Knight  "  were  some  of  the  names  which  his  enemies  came  to  apply  to 
him.  At  the  outset,  however,  all  was  well :  he  bore  himself  with 
dignity ;  foreign  governments  recognized  him ;  and  his  father's  coun- 
cilors supplied  the  wisdom  and  experience  which  he  lacked.  Never- 
theless, his  tenure  of  power  really  depended  on  the  army.  A  new 

1  On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  Puritans  were  at  least 
partially  responsible  for  the  dissipation  that  came  in  with  the  Restoration,  partly 
from  the  reaction  which  it  engendered,  and  partly  because  their  confiscations  broke 
up  many  of   the  Cavalier  country  homes  and   drove  the  younger  folk  into  exile 
in  foreign  cities,  whence  they  returned  with  strange  vices. 

2  Once  when  he  was  bitterly  attacked  by  a  zealous  preacher,  he  replied  by  invit- 
ing him  to  dinner  where  a  brother  preacher  said  grace  for  three  hours,  Cromwell 
himself  having  previously  dined. 


526  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

parliament  met  27  January,  1659.  While  it  contained  a  strong  and 
varied  body  of  anti-Cromwellians,  the  Republicans  were  unable  to 
gain  the  upper  hand.  In  consequence,  they  turned  to  the  army 
chiefs,  Fleetwood,  Lambert,  and  Desborough,  who  forced  Richard 
to  dissolve  Parliament,  22  April,  1659.  After  some  wrangling  the  old 
Rump  was  recalled,  7  May.  Though  originally  there  had  been  no 
intention  of  overthrowing  the  Protectorate,  but  merely  to  "  piece  and 
mend  up  that  cracked  government,"  the  Rump  proceeded  to  pass  a 
resolution  for  maintaining  a  Commonwealth.  Richard,  after  a  few 
days  of  hesitation,  resigned.  "  Tumbledown  Dick,"  as  he  came  to 
be  called,  lived  in  retirement  till  1712. 

The  End  of  the  Long  Parliament,  26  March,  1660.  —  The  Rump 
was  as  unwilling  as  Richard's  government  had  been,  to  allow  the 
army  to  control  military  affairs.  As  a  result,  it  was  dissolved,  13  Octo- 
ber, 1659,  the  delay  being  due  to  threatened  royalist  risings  during 
the  summer.  While  the  generals  were  trying  to  devise  some  plan  of 
orderly  government  in  which  they  might  have  the  voice  they  desired, 
an  unexpected  figure  arose  to  dominate  the  situation.  This  was 
George  Monck.  who  commanded  the  armvjnJScotland.  He  had  begun 
EnTmilitary  career  lighting  lor  King  GiarlesT:  taken  prisoner  in  1644 
by  the  enemy,  he  had  successively  served  Parliament,  the  Common- 
wealth, the  two  Protectors,  and  the  restored  Rump,  and' had  shown 
unusual  ability  as  a  fighter  on  the  sea  as  well  as  on  the  land.1  A  man 
of  sphinx-like  reserve,  he  seemed  absorbed  in  his  military  duties  and 
indifferent  to  politics.  Now  he  suddenly  stood  forth  as  the  "  cham- 
pion of  the  authority  of  Parliament  "  against  the  designs  of  the  generals. 
Apparently  he  cared  little  whether  England  was  a  monarchy  or  a 
republic ;  but,  if  we  can  believe  his  own  professions,  he  was  convinced 
that  she  should  be  governed  by  law  rather  than  by  the  sword.  On 
2  January,  1660,  he  crossed  the  Tweed  at  the  head  of  his  army.  Lam- 
bert made  a  vain  effort  to  oppose  him,  but  there  was  no  enthusiasm 
for  the  cause  of  the  army,  and,  deserted  even  by  his  own  troops,  he 
was  obliged  to  give  way.  Monck  marched  south,  carefully  evading 
any  public  declaration  of  his  intentions.  However,  he  at  length  yielded 
so  far  to  the  demands  of  the  Presbyterians  as  to  force  the  Rump,  which 
had  been  recalled  again,  26  December,  to  readmit  the  members  ex- 
cluded by  Pride's  Purge ;  but  he  informed  the  body  thus  reconstituted 
that  it  must  dissolve  by  the  6  May  at  the  latest,  and  make  way  for  a 
free  parliament.  The  power  of  the  Independents  who  had  ruled 
England  for  eleven  years  was  broken,  though  their  representatives 
were  allowed  to  retain  their  seats.  Monck  was  made  commander  of 
the  army  of  the  three  kingdoms.  On  16  March,  "  with  many  sad 
pangs  and  groans,"  the  Long  Parliament  dissolved  itself  after  an  inter- 
mittent existence  of  nearly  twenty  years.  It  had  done  much  for 
England;  but  had  long  outlived  its  usefulness. 

1  "I  am  engaged  in  conscience  and  honor,"  he  declared,  "  to  see  my  country  freed 
from  that  intolerable  slavery  of  a  sword  government,  and  I  know  England  cannot, 
nay,  will  not,  endure  it." 


THE  KINGLESS  DECADE  527 

The  Recall  of  Charles  II  and  the  Declaration  of  Breda.  —  Before 
dissolving  it  had  provided  for  a  Convention  Parliament l  to  meet 
25  April.  Royalists  were  allowed  to  vote  in  the  elections,  though 
they  were  not  eligible  to  sit  unless  they  had  given  some  proof  of 
affection  to  the  parliamentary  cause.  Nevertheless,  the  influence  of 
the  Cavaliers  was  second  only  to  that  of  the  Presbyterians  in  the  new 
body ;  for  many  of  the  younger  members  of  the  party  had  been  under 
age  during  the  war,  others  had  lived  in  the  parliamentary  counties 
where  they  had  been  forced  to  keep  the  peace,  and  others  were  chosen 
in  flat  defiance  of  the  law.  About  this  time  Monck  opened  negotia- 
tions with  rhfl.rW  Seeing  that  the  people  were  weary  of  frequent 
revolutions,  army  rule,  and  heavy  taxes,  he  may  have  thought  that 
he  would  gain  personally  by  recalling  the  King  as  a  means  of  anticipat- 
ing an  inevitable  reaction.  Still,  it  is  possible  that  he  had  an  unselfish 
desire  to  restore  peace  and  a  settled  government.  At  any  rate,  "  while 
the  Restoration  was  the  result  of  a  general  movement  of  opinion  too 
strong  to  be  withstood,"  2  Monck  did  more  than  any  other  man  to 
bring  it  about.  As  a  result  of  the  negotiations  which  opened.  Charles, 
acting  under  the  advice  of  Hyde,  who  was  with  him  in  exile,  issued  from 
Breda  a  declaration  in  which  he  promised :  (i)  a  general  amnesty  for 
all  offenders,  save  those  exceptea  by  Parliament ;  (2)  liberty  of  con~ 
^science,  according  to  such  a  lawas  Parliament  might  propose ;  (3)  such 
"securityifor  property  acquirecTdurmg  the  late  troubles  as  Parliament 
might  determine ;  (4)  full_arrears  to  the  soldiers  according  to  act  oT 
Parliament.  After  a  futile  rising,  led  by  Lambert,  the  army  tooJc~ 
an  engagement  to  accept  whatever  settlement  Parliament  might  make. 
"  Their  whole  design,"  wrote  Pepys,  the  famous  diarist,  "  is  broken 
.  .  .  and  every  man  begins  to  be  merry  and  full  of  hope."  The  Con- 
vention met,  25  April,  "  as  appointed.  rAfter  both  Houses  had  agreed 
in  a  declaration  that,  according  to  the  ancient  and  fundamental  laws 
of  the  Kingdom,  the  government  is,  and  ought  to  be,  by  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons,"  Charles  was  proclaimed  in  London. ~\ 

Nature  of  the  Restoration  and  the  Results  of  the'Turitan  Revolu- 
tion. —  Charles  landed  at  Dover,  25  May,  i66o.3  JThe_ Restoration, 
jiad  at  length  come  as  a  reaction  from  excessive  Puritanism  and  army 
rule  Yet  the  Revolution  had  accomplished  results  which  were  never 

1  So-called  because  it  was  an  extraordinary  form  of  assembly,  not  summoned  by 
royal  writ. 

2  "This  government,"  it  was  aptly  said,  "  was  as  natural  to  them  as  their  food  or 
raiment,  and  naked  Indians  dressing  themselves  in  French  fashion  were  no  more 
absurd  than  Englishmen  without  a  parliament  and  a  king." 

3  When  the  mayor  who  stepped  forward  to  receive  him,  put  a  Bible  in  his 
hands,  he  declared  with  that  hypocrisy  with  which  he  had   once   deceived  the 
Scots,   that    "  it   was    the    thing   he    loved   above    all   things    in    the   world." 
There  is  another  story  that,  when  a  deputation  of  London  ministers  were  sent 
over,  shortly  before  his  return,  to  secure  testimonials  as  to  his  religious  attitude, 
their  leader  was  told  that  he  must  wait  because  Charles  was  at  his  devotions. 
However,  he  was  designedly  left  in  the  room  next  the  royal  closet,  where  he  was 
"  ravished  to  hear  the  pious  ejaculations  that  fell  from  the  King's  lips,"  among  them 


528  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

to  be  effaced.  It  had  arrested  the  growth  of  absolutism ;  for  the 
monarchy  that  was  restored  was  destined  never  again  to  be,  for  any 
considerable  period,  a  monarchy  completely  independent  of  Parlia- 
ment. The  Established  Church  was  restored ;  but  it  never  again 
became  the  National  Church,  embracing  every  subject  as  such.  A 
sturdy  body  of  Dissenters  had  sprung  up  and  multiplied  during  the 
recent  upheaval,  and  the  century  had  not  run  its  course  before  many 
of  them  had  obtained  a  recognized  legal  status  outside  the  bounds  of 
the  Establishment. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Montague,  Political  History,  chs.  XVI-XX.  Trevelyan,  England 
under  the  Stuarts,  ch.  X.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  IV,  chs.  XV,  XIX  (bibliog- 
raphy, pp.  898-904).  Gardiner,  The  History  of  the  Commonwealth  and  Protectorate 
(4  vols.,  1903).  C.  H.  Firth,  The  Last  Years  of  the  Protectorate,  1656-1658  (1909). 
Lingard,  VIII,  chs.  IV-VIII.  Ranke,  II,  bk.  X ;  III,  bks.  XI-XIII.  F.  A.  Inder- 
wick,  The  Interregnum  (1891).  Pollard,  Factors  in  Modern  History,  chs.  IX,  X. 

Constitutional.  Gardiner,  Documents,  introduction,  pp.  Ivi-lxviii.  Hallam,  II,  ch. 
X,  pt.  II.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  V,  ch.  IV.  E.  Jenks,  The  Constitutional 
Experiments  of  the  Protectorate  (1890) .  The  Diary  of  the  contemporary,  John  Evelyn 
(best  ed.  H.  B.  Wheatley,  4  vols.,  1906),  throws  vivid  lights  on  the  period. 

For  biographies  see  ch.  XXX.  Also  Gardiner,  Cromwell's  Place  in  History 
(1897).  G.  L.  Beer,  Cromwell's  Policy  in  its  Economic  Aspects  (1902)  is  valuable 
for  this  phase  of  the  subject.  Seeley,  British  Policy,  II,  pt..III. 

For  the  Navy,  in  addition  to  the  works  cited  in  ch.  XXIX  above,  see  Cambridge 
Modern  History,  IV,  ch.  XVI  (bibliography,  pp.  905-908). 

Scotland  and  Ireland.  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  II,  bk.  VI,  chs.  IV,  V.  R.  Dun- 
lap,  Ireland  under  the  Commonwealth  (1913);  a  collection  of  documents  with  intro- 
duction. Cambridge  Modern  History,  IV,  chs.  XVII,  XVIII  (bibliography,  pp. 
909-918). 

Church.     W.  H.  Hutton,  English  Church,  ch.  IX ;  Shaw,  II,  and  Stoughton  II. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  213-220.  Gardiner, 
Documents,  nos.  86-105. 

the  following  petition :  "Lord,  since  Thou  art  pleased  to  restore  me  to  the  throne 
of  my  ancestors,  grant  me  a  heart  constant  in  the  exercise  and  protection  of  thy 
true  Protestant  religion." 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

FROM  THE  RESTORATION  TO  THE  FALL  OF  CLARENDON 
(1660-1667) 

The  New  King  and  the  Restoration.  —  The  King  in  his  declaration 
issued  at  Breda  promised  to  settle  four  important  particulars  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  will  of  Parliament,  but  the  Convention  imposed 
no  conditions  upon  him.  Nevertheless,  although  the  monarchy,  the 
hereditary  upper  class,  and  the  established  Episcopacy  were  restored, 
there  was  no  thoroughgoing  reaction.  The  Puritan  Revolution  had 
produced  an  upheaval  and  an  awakening  which  was  bound  to  leave 
enduring  results,  and  Charles  II  was  shrewd  enough  to  sense  the  situa- 
tion. To  be  sure,  he  struggled  to  make  himself  supreme,  and  he 
ended  his  reign  in  a  very  strong  position ;  but  he  achieved  his  end 
only  by  timely  concessions.  He  recognized  Parliament  and  the 
opinion  which  it  represented  as  a  force  which  might  be  manipulated 
but  never  dominated.  Whatever  happened,  he  once  remarked,  he 
was  determined  "  never  to  set  on  his  travels  again." 

During  the  years  that  Charles  was  King,  .neither  arbitrary  taxa- 
tion  norjthe  system  of  extraordinary  courts  were  revived.  Moreover, 
notable  gains  were  made,  both  judicial  and  parliamentary.  The 
fining  of  juries  was  done  away  with  in  1670,  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act 
of  1679  made  the  writ  for  protecting  the  subject  against  prolonged 
imprisonment  before  trial  more  of  a  reality,  and  the  barbarous  de 
htzretico  comburendo  ceased  in  1677  to  disgrace  the  statute  book. 
Parliament  asserted  successfully  its  right  not  only  to  grant  taxes,  but 
to  appropriate  them  for  specific  purposes;  to  audit  accounts;  and, 
by  frequent  and  effective  impeachments,  to  hold  the  royal  ministers, 
in  some  measure,  responsible  to  itself.  In  this  period,  too,  modern 
party  organization  took  rise  and  the  system  of  Cabinet  government, 
based  upon  it,  showed  the  first  signs  of  taking  shape.  So  much  indeed 
was  done  that  the  famous  Blackstone,  writing  a  century  later,  declared 
that  "  the  constitution  of  England  had  arrived  to  its  full  vigor,  and 
the  true  balance  between  liberty  and  prerogative  was  happily  estab- 
lished by  law  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II."  Yet,  while  many  good  laws 
were  passed,  bad  government  continued,1  numerous  traces  of  abso- 
lutism survived,  and  much  that  cried  for  remedy  was  left  untouched 
for  over  a  century.  The  judges,  whose  tenure  was  still  during  royal 
pleasure,  continued  servile  to  the  Crown  and  tyrannical  to  the  subject ; 

1  Charles  James  Fox  described  it  as  an  "era  of  good  laws  and  bad  government." 
2M  529 


530  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

while  ministers  charged  with  maladministration  could  be  removed  by 
impeachment,  there  was  no  means  of  getting  rid  of  those  who  refused 
to  govern  according  to  the  will  of  the  majority  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons ;  indeed,  the  King,  by  long  prorogations,  avoided  meeting  Parlia- 
ment for  extended  intervals,  and,  during  the  last  four  years  of  his  reign, 
never  summoned  that  body  at  all. 

The  Early  Life  of  Charles  II.  —  Charles  II  was  thirty  years  old  on 
the  day  that  he  entered  London,  29  May,  1660.  He  had  received 
little  systematic  instruction  from  books ;  but  his  life  had  been  a  stir- 
ring one,  full  of  harsh  and  varied  lessons  in  the  great  school  of  expe- 
rience. As  a  boy  of  twelve  he  had  narrowly  escaped  capture  at  Edge- 
hill  ;  when  only  fifteen,  he  had  been  put  in  nominal  command  of  the 
royal  army  of  the  West,  and  early  in  1646,  by  the  order  of  his  father, 
he  fled  from  England.  Then  followed  long  years  of  exile.  Often  out 
at  the  elbows  1 ;  the  recipient  of  grudging  advances  from  those  who 
found  him  a  burden ;  disappointed,  time  and  again,  in  his  efforts  to 
come  to  his  own,  he  displayed  through  all  his  adversity  the  single 
virtue  of  cheerfulness.  Once,  and  once  only,  he  manifested  an  un- 
selfishness that  was  truly  praiseworthy.  In  order  to  "  save  his  father's 
head,"  he  forwarded  to  Parliament  a  sheet  of  paper  with  his  signature 
attached,  offering  to  observe  whatever  conditions  they  might  choose 
to  insert.  At  all  other  times  he  appears  simply  as  a  "  needy  and 
frivolous  but  agreeable  prince,"  who  continually  vexed  his  grave  and 
learned  councilor,  Hyde,  by  his  unwillingness  to  work  and  his  loose 
habits.  His  brief  experience  in  Scotland  under  the  "  sour  tyrannies 
of  the  Kirk  "  led  him  to  declare  that  Presbyterianism  "  was  not  a 
religion  for  gentlemen,"  and  emphasized  by  contrast  the  "  gorgeous 
ceremonies  and  easy  morals  "  of  Roman  Catholicism  as  he  found  it  in 
France.  That  became  his  faith,  so  far  as  he  can  be  said  to  have  had 
any,  though  he  was  not  received  into  the  fold  of  the  Church  until  he 
lay  on  his  deathbed. 

His  Character  and  Attainments.  —  Charles'  early  misfortunes  and 
privations  did  nothing  to  build  up  his  character;  they  only  made  him 
more  greedy  of  comfort  and  amusement  when  the  opportunity  came. 
He  remained  to  the  end  indolent,  fickle,  untrustworthy,  and  absolutely 
devoid  of  reverence.  Although  utterly  selfish  he  had  an  easy  good 
nature  and  a  charm  of  manner  that  captivated  every  one  who  came  in 
contact  with  him ;  indeed,  it  was  a  common  saying  that  "  he  could 
send  away  a  person  better  pleased  at  receiving  nothing  than  those 
in  the  good  King  his  father's  time  that  had  requests  granted  them." 
However,  he  was  generally  as  ready  in  making  promises  as  he  was 
careless  in  performing  them.  According  to  Rochester,  one  of  his 
boon  companions,  "  he  never  said  a  foolish  thing  and  never  did  a  wise 
one  "  ;  nevertheless  he  was  keen  and  persistent  in  any  matter  that  he 
thought  worth  the  trouble,  He  had  an  acute,  observant  mind,  an 

1  Once,  in  1659,  he  was  so  reduced  that  his  clothes  were  threadbare,  and  he  had 
to  dismiss  his  servants  and  pawn  his  plate. 


THE  RESTORATION  531 

excellent  memory,  and  a  nimble  wit.1  A  constant  talker,  he  delighted 
in  telling  the  adventures  of  his  early  days,  never  forgetting  a  single 
detail  of  any  particular  story  except  the  fact  that  he  had  told  it  before. 
He  was  well  read,  a  patron  of  the  drama,  of  painting,  and  architecture, 
and  took  considerable  interest  in  shipbuilding.  His  chief  bent, 
however,  was  toward  the  sciences,  and  he  actually  performed  chemical 
experiments  himself.  In  person  he  was  over  six  feet  tall,  and  well 
formed,  of  dark,  swarthy  complexion,  with  a  cynical  eye,  a  great 
fleshy  nose,  and  thick  lips.  "  Odd's  fish  I  am  an  ugly  fellow,"  he  said 
of  himself  forty  years  after  his  birth.  It  was  only  his  magnificent 
physique  and  his  devotion  to  athletic  exercises  that  enabled  him  to 
keep  his  health,  in  view  of  the  excesses  in  which  he  indulged.  He  rose 
early ;  he  was  such  a  rapid  and  tireless  walker  that  the  courtiers  who 
had  to  accompany  him  found  it  a  sore  burden ;  he  was  a  splendid 
tennis  player  and  dancer,  and  a  lover  of  dogs  and  horses. 

His  Policy.  —  He  was  quite  without  scruple  in  pursuing  his  ends 
and  sharp  at  profiting  by  the  mistakes  of  his  opponents.  Without 
ideals,  lazy,  and  usually  indifferent,  he  was  as  incapable  of  harboring 
resentment  against  an  enemy  as  he  was  of  cherishing  gratitude  toward 
a  friend,  and  he  would  callously  sacrifice  a  minister  who  had  served 
him  well  so  soon  as  he  had  ceased  to  be  useful.  Although  he  hated 
the  details  of  business  and  was  too  sensible  to  believe  in  the  Divine 
Right  of  Kings,  he  aimed  to  keep  as  free  from  parliamentary  control 
as  possible ;  to  that  end,  he  set  up  a  standing  army,  he  sought  to  re- 
introduce  Roman  Catholicism,  to  secure  toleration  for  dissenters,  and, 
furthermore,  allied  himself  with  France.  He  bribed,  flattered,  and 
managed,  but,  fully  alive  to  his  royal  limitations,  he  yielded  when 
popular  opposition  proved  too  strong.  Thus,  before  the  close  of  his 
reign,  he  gave  up  all  his  projects  except  the  French  alliance  to  which  he 
cl-ung  tenaciously ;  with  a  political  cunning  rare  in  history,  he  shifted 
to  the  Anglican  side,  and  by  playing  the  Anglicans  and  the  French 
against  one  another,  he  managed  to  spend  his  last  years  free  from 
parliamentary  restraint.  The  Earl  of  Newcastle,  who  had  been  put 
in  charge  of  his  education  in  his  early  boyhood,  instructed  him  to 
"  take  heede  of  too  much  booke  "  ;  to  "  beware  of  too  much  devotion  "  ; 
"  to  be  courteous  to  women  "  ;  not  to  be  "  an  anchorette,  or  a  capuchin  " 
or  "  a  Diogenes  in  your  tubb  "  ;  and  "  to  be  a  brave,  noble,  and  just 
king."  Charles  faithfully  followed  all  these  injunctions  except  the 
last. 

Such  was  the  man  whom  the  Londoners  welcomed  with  wild  shouts 
of  joy,  with  pealing  of  bells,  with  booming  of  cannon,  whose  way  they 
strewed  with  flowers,  who  had  come  back  to  his  own  without  one  drop 
of  blood  being  shed  to  resist  him. 

1  When  at  Breda  a  number  of  persons  who  had  done  nothing  but  shout  for  him, 
sought  an  audience  in  order  to  obtain  favors,  he  called  for  wine,  drank  their  healths 
with  great  formality,  and  dismissed  them  with  the  remark  that  "  he  was  now  even 
with,  them,  having,  as  he  thought,  done  as  much  for  them  as  they  had  done  for  him." 


532  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Supremacy  of  the  Lord  Chancellor  Clarendon.  —  The  first 
period  of  Charles'  reign  was  marked  by  the  ascendancy  of  Edward 
Hyde,  created  Earl  of  Clarendon  in  1661,  who  had  accompanied  his 
young  master  into  exile  and  had  served  as  his  chief  councilor,  first  as 
Secretary  of  State  and  then  as  Lord  Chancellor.  He  had  many  admir- 
able qualities:  he  was  seriouSj  Industrious,  and Jionest ;  he  was  true 
to  his  convictions  and  fixed  in  his  principles  from  the  time  he  joined  the 
King  in  1642  until  his  death  during  his  second  exile,  more  than  thirty 
years  later.  He  was  a  devoted  champion  of  the  Church  of  England 
and  an  opponent  of  royal  absolutism,  unrestrained  by  constitutional 
checks.  He  had  a  great  knowledge  of  men  and  parties,  he  was  versed 
in  letters__a,nH  a  j"Hgp  of  ajt.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  quite  m~ 
capableof  adapting  himself  to  changed  conditions  and  met  the  usual 
fate  of  men  who  try  to  steer  a  middle  course.  He  alienated  the  King 
by  opposing  his  policy  of  toleration  and  by  frowning  on  his  pleasures, 
while  he  alienated  Parliament  by  opposing  what  he  regarded  as  their 
meddling  in  the  details  of  administration. 

The  New  Privy  Council.  —  The  Privy  Council  formed  under  his 
leadership,  June,  1660,  was  constituted  both  of  Cavaliers  and  Puritans 
who  had  worked  to  bring  about  the  Restoration.  Out  of  thirty 
members,  twelve  had  formerly  taken  sides  against  the  Crown.  The 
arrangement  was  a  compromise  between  Hyde  and  Monck,  who  was 
richly  rewarded  for  his  recent  services ;  he  was  created  Duke  of  Al- 
bemarle,  made  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army,  as  well  as  receiving 
large  grants  of  money  and  lands.  The  most  notable  man  of  the  Puri- 
tan party  was  Sir  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  later  Earl  of  Shaftesbury, 
a  former  royalist,  who  had  changed  sides  in  1644,  had  been  prominent 
under  the  Commonwealth,  and  who  had  taken  a  leading  part  in  the 
Restoration.  James,  Duke  of  York,  the  King's  brother,  was  Lord 
Admiral,  although  much  of  the  naval  administration  was  in  the  hands 
of  Edward  Montague,  Earl  of  Sandwich,  an  old  Cromwellian.  Within 
the  Council  the  executive  power  was  vested  in  a  small  committee, 
nominally  for  foreign  affairs,  called  the  "  Cabinet  "  or  the  "  Cabal."  l 
There  were  not  only  party  differences,  but  differences  between  mem- 
bers of  the  same  party.  Thus  courtiers,  particularly  women,  were 
able  to  prevail  by  intrigue,  and  graver  gave  way  steadily  to  lighter 
counsels. 

The  Convention  Parliament,  25  April-2Q  December,  1660.  —  After 
the  recall  of  the  King,  the  Convention  set  about  to  settle  the  govern- 
ment. Strong  in  the  Commons,  the  Cavaliers  dominated  the  Lords, 
for,  although  those  peers  who  had  fought  for  Charles  I,  or  who  had 
been  created  by  him  since  1642  were  at  first  excluded,  they  all  took 
their  seats  before  June,  (pn  the  nth,  by  an  act  "  for  removing  all 
questions  and  disputes,"  the  authority  of  the  Convention  was  formally 

1  "  Cabinet"  is  an  early  use  of  the  modern  word.  The  "  Cabal"  is  not  to  be  con- 
fused with  the  later  a'-icl  more  famous  one. 


THE  RESTORATION  533 

recognized.1  )  Acting  henceforth  as  a  legal  body,  it  proceeded  to  take 
up  the  terms  of  the  Declaration  of  Breda.  The  first  to  be  settled  con- 
cerned the  fate  of  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the  late  troubles.  The 
King  had  promised  a  pardon  for  all  save  those  excepted  by  Parliament. 
The  Commons  wanted  to  make  very  few  exceptions ;  but  the  Lords 
were  inclined  to  be  less  lenient.  Through  the  efforts  of  Charles  and 
Hyde  a  moderate  compromise  was  adopted.  Ten  of  the  regicides  were 
executed  forthwith,  and,  in  April,  1662,  three  others  captured  in  Hol- 
land followed  them  to  the  grave.  Also,  in  1662,  General  Lambert  and 
Sir  Harry  Vane,  though  they  had  no  part  in  the  late  King's  execution, 
were  brought  to  trial.  Lambert  got  off  with  life  imprisonment,  but 
Vane  was  put  to  death,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Charles  had  promised 
to  spare  his  life.  Some  twenty-five  more  of  the  regicides  were  given 
life  sentences.  On  the  \vhole,  the  arrangement  was  comparatively 
merciful,  yet  the  order  of  the  Convention,  by  which  the  bodies  of  Crom- 
well, Ireton,  and  Bradshaw  were  dug  up,  dragged  to  Tyburn  on  sledges, 
hanged  in  the  sight  of  the  people  till  sunset,  and  then  buried  at  the 
gallows'  foot,  smacks  of  barbarism.  Bills  dealing  with  the  Crown, 
Church,  and  royalist  lands  seized  during  the  war  failed  to  pass.  Those 
confiscated  and  sold  by  the  State  were  recovered  on  the  ground  that 
an  illegal  government  could  give  no  valid  title ;  but  private  contracts 
were  declared  legal,  so  that  many  royalists  who  had  sold  their  estates 
to  pay  fines  or  to  help  the  King's  cause  got  no  redress.  The  Cavaliers 
grumbled  that  there  was  indemnity  for  the  King's  enemies  and  oblivion 
for  his  friends.2 

The  Disbandment  of  the  New  Model  and  the  Settlement  of  Revenue. 
—  The  arrears  due  the  army  and  fleet  were  paid  in  full,  and  the  troops, 
about  35,000,  were  dismissed,  except  three  regiments,  including 
Monck's  —  the  present  Coldstream  Guards.  On  various  pretexts 
Charles  increased  this  force  until,  in  1662,  it  numbered  5000  men,  the 
nucleus  of  England's  standing  army.  Another  important  work  of  the 
Convention  was  to  settle  the  revenue.  On  the  basis  of  a  report  of  a 
committee  appointed  "  to  consider  settling  such  a  revenue  on  His 
Majesty  as  may  maintain  the  splendor  and  grandeur  of  his  kingly 
office  and  preserve  the  Crown  from  want  and  from  being  undervalued 
by  his  neighbors,"  an  annual  revenue  of  £1,200,000  was  granted.  It 
was  estimated  that  this  would  be  sufficient  for  ordinary  expenses,  but 
since  no  more  than  three  quarters  of  the  amount  reached  the  royal 
coffers  in  any  one  year,  it  was  found  necessary,  in  1662,  to  increase  the 
excise  and  to  impose  a  hearth  tax.  The  Court  of  Wards,  and  all 
feudal  dues  and  services,  except  the  honorary  one  of  grand  serjeanty,3 

1  Yet,  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  all  its  chief  measures  were  confirmed  by 
the  next  parliament  which  was  regularly  summoned  by  royal  writ  in  an  act  which 
became  law  8  July,  1661. 

2  This  had  reference  to  the  late  act  dealing  with  the  regicides  which  was  called 
"An  Act  of  Indemnity  and  Oblivion." 

3  Which  involved  attending  the  King's  person  at  court  or  in  war. 


534  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

were  abolished ;  all  military  tenures  were  swept  away  or  turned  into 
free  and  common  socage  l ;  and  purveyance  and  preemption  ceased  to 
be  legal.  For  some  time  past,  these  feudal  survivals  had  been  more 
vexatious  to  the  subject  than  profitable  to  the  Crown.  In  return,  the 
King  was  granted  an  hereditary  excise  of  £100,000  a  year  on  beer  and 
other  alcoholic  beverages.  All  this  was  merely  confirming  measures 
of  the  Long  Parliament  and  its  successors.  Also  the  Navigation  Act 
of  1651  was  reenacted.  Those  acts  and  ordinances  of  the  various 
parliaments  passed  since  1642,  which  the  Convention  did  not  choose  to 
confirm,  were  declared  invalid. 

The  Convention  makes  no  Provision  for  Religious  Toleration.  — 
The  settlement  of  religion  caused  the  greatest  difficulty.  Church 
affairs  were  in  a  most  disordered  and  confused  state.  Episcopacy  and 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  had  never  been  legally  abolished,  al- 
though the  Long  Parliament  had  sought,  by  a  series  of  ordinances, 
to  set  up  a  Presbyterian  scheme ;  but  Cromwell  and  the  Independents 
had  superseded  both  by  his  congregational  system.  Within  the  Epis- 
copalian and  Presbyterian  folds  there  were  a  number  of  moderates 
who  desired  a  compromise  involving  a  curtailment  of  the  powers  of 
the  bishops  and  modifications  in  the  service.  The  Puritans,  however, 
had  been  so  oppressive  in  their  treatment  of  the  Cavaliers,  so  ruthless 
in  their  dismantlement  of  beautiful  old  churches  hallowed  by  centuries 
of  pious  association,  and  so  unbending  in  their  general  attitude  that 
the  extremists  among  the  Opposite  party,  naturally  narrow  and  intoler- 
ant enough,  were  determined  to  allow  them  no  concessions.  Charles 
was  entirely  without  religious  convictions,  though  he  hated  the  Pres- 
byterians and  was  inclined  toward  Roman  Catholicism.  In  the 
Declaration  he  had  promised  a  "  liberty  to  tender  consciences,"  and 
that  "  no  man  shall  be  disquieted  or  called  in  question  for  differences 
of  opinion  in  matters  of  religion  which  do  not  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
Kingdom;  and  that  we  shall  be  ready  to  consent  to  such  an  act  of 
Parliament,  as  upon  mature  deliberation  shall  be  offered  us,  for  the  full 
granting  of  such  indulgence."  With  the  cooperation  of  Parliament 
he  was  ready,  even  anxious,  to  carry  out  this  promise ;  because  under 
the  guise  of  a  general  toleration  to  the  sects,  it  would  be  possible  to 
reintroduce  Roman  Catholicism.  Nevertheless,  events  showed  that 
he  was  not  ready  to  push  this  policy  to  the  extent  of  risking  his  throne. 
Except  for  a  bill  passed  before  the  King's  return,  to  restore  the  ejected 
Episcopal  clergy,  the  Convention  passed  no  laws  relating  to  religion. 

The  Royal  Declaration,  25  October,  1660.  The  Savoy  Conference. 
—  During  a  recess  in  the  session  Charles  published  a  Declaration  in 
which  he  promised  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  moderates  in  the 
matter  of  government  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  renewed  his 
assurances  made  in  the  Declaration  of  Breda,  and  agreed  to  appoint 
a  conference  consisting  of  clergymen  of  both  parties  to  revise  the 

1  Free,  non-military  tenures. 


THE  RESTORATION  535 

liturgy.  Brought  before  Parliament  in  the  form  of  a  bill,  these  pro- 
posals were  rejected  because  of  the  Presbyterian  aversion  to  the  King's 
design  of  granting  toleration  to  Roman  Catholics.  They  lost  their 
chance  of  setting  up  at  this  time  a  broad  comprehensive  Establishment, 
since  they  never  again  had  a  majority  in  Parliament.  The  Anglicans 
were  equally  opposed  to  the  royal  policy  in  this  regard  ;  but  the  Pres- 
byterians, by  outbidding  them,  might  have  combined  with  the  King, 
secured  an  ecclesiastical  settlement  in  which  they  might  have  had  a 
considerable  voice,  and  have  marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  re- 
ligious liberty.  The  promised  conference  held  at  the  Savoy,  a  royal 
chapel,  in  the  spring  and  early  summer  of  1661,  after  much  learned  and 
subtle  argumentation,  accomplished  nothing;  for  the  bishops  were 
prepared  to  make  only  minor  concessions.  In  the  end,  the  commis- 
sioners reported  that  "  the  Church's  welfare,  unity,  and  peace,  and  his 
Majesty's  satisfaction  were  ends  on  which  they  were  all  agreed,  but 
as  to  the  means,  they  could  not  come  to  an  harmony."  Meantime, 
6  January,  1661,  a  rising  of  the  Fifth  Monarchy  men  under  Thomas 
Venner,  a  cooper,  who  was  a  chronic  plotter,  and  "  a  fellow  of  desperate 
and  bloody  spirit,"  gave  Charles  a  pretext  for  increasing  the  standing 
army  and  damaged  the  cause  of  the  sectaries.  Many,  including 
Quakers  and  Anabaptists,  were  thrown  into  prison.  In  the  forth- 
coming parliamentary  elections  the  reactionaries  were  in  the  majority, 
and  Anglicanism  not  only  became  once  more  dominant  but  increased 
the  rigor  of  its  persecution.  The  new  regime  differed  from  the  Laudian, 
however,  in  the  fact  that  it  was  directed  by  Parliament  instead  of  by 
the  Crown. 

The  Restoration  in  Scotland.  —  The  Restoration  in  Scotland  was 
brought  about  by  a  parliament  which  repealed  all  acts  passed  since 
1639,  reestablished  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  renounced  the  Covenant, 
which  was  burned  by  the  common  hangman.  The  King's  commis- 
sioner, Middleton,  and  his  companions,  who  were  almost  perpetually 
drunk,  carried  things  with  a  high  hand.  Argyle,  the  covenanting 
leader,  was  brought  to  trial  for  "  compliance  "  with  the  late  usurping 
Government  and  for  various  treasonable  acts.  The  Scots  had  chafed 
at  the  army  of  occupation  and  the  dominance  of  the  Independents, 
but  they  were  soon  to  learn  that  the  little  finger  of  the  new  Govern- 
ment was  thicker  than  the  loins  of  the  old.  By  the  new  Navigation 
Act,  passed  in  1660,  they  lost  the  equality  of  the  trading  privileges  which 
they  had  recently  enjoyed,  and  by  a  subsequent  measure,  many  of  their 
commodities  were  excluded  from  England  or  burdened  with  heavy 
duties.  All  this,  together  with  active  persecution  of  the  Covenanters, 
soon  stirred  up  the  old  hostility  between  the  two  countries. 

The  Restoration  in  Ireland.  —  The  Restoration  in  Ireland  was 
equally  fruitful  in  oppression  and  discontent.  The  King  was  under 
obligation  to  the  Irish  Catholics,  he  sympathized  with  their  aims,  and 
he  "  pitied  the  miserable  condition  of  the  Irish  nation."  But  the 
Cromwellian  settlers  were  in  possession  of  the  broad  lands,  and, 


536  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

backed  by  English  anti-Catholic  sentiment,  were  too  strong  to  be 
displaced.  All  that  Charles  could  do  was  to  restore  a  few  estates  to 
the  greater  nobles  x  and  to  procure  a  small  amount  of  land  for  the 
lesser  men.  To  make  matters  worse,  heavy  restrictions  were  imposed 
on  Irish  commerce.  In  1663  their  ships  were  excluded  from  the 
colonial  trade,  and  three  years  later  the  importation  of  Irish  cattle 
into  England  was  strictly  forbidden. 

The  Opening  of  the  Cavalier  Parliament,  8  May,  1661.  —  Charles  II 
was  crowned  23  April,  1661,  with  great  splendor,  and,  8  May,  a  new 
parliament  met.  It  is  called  the  Cavalier  Parliament,  because  of  the 
preponderance  of  that  element ;  sometimes  the  Pensionary  Parliament, 
because  of  the  extensive  bribery  of  its  members  during  the  political 
struggles  in  which  it  became  involved.  It  was  "  chosen  by  a  furious 
people  in  spite  of  the  Puritans,  whose  severity  had  distasted  them," 
and  was  "  more  zealous  for  royalty  than  the  King,  more  zealous  for 
the  Episcopacy  than  the  Bishops."  The  majority  were  young  men, 
which  the  King  declared  "  was  no  great  fault ;  for  he  could  keep  them 
till  they  got  beards."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Cavalier  Parliament 
lasted  till  1679,  having  a  longer  continuous  existence  than  any  par- 
liament in  English  history.  After  the  first  outburst  of  loyalty  was 
over,  friction  with  the  Crown  began  to  develop.  Parliament,  having 
restored  the  King  without  the  aid  of  foreign  intervention,  was  deter- 
mined to  rule  z ;  many  of  the  members  of  the  King's  Council  resented 
the  King's  leaning  toward  Roman  Catholicism  and  toleration  for  the 
sects  and  the  exercise  of  the  dispensing  power  which  it  involved ;  they 
were  disquieted  by  his  attempts  to  increase  the  standing  army  and 
by  his  alliance  with  France,  and  looked  askance  at  the  royal  prof- 
ligacy and  the  splendor  of  the  Court,  not  so  much  on  moral  grounds, 
as  on  account  of  the  expenditures  which  they  necessitated.3  More- 
over, the  country  squires  were  discontented  by  falling  rents,  while  the 
recent  land  settlement  had  satisfied  neither  the  Puritan  speculators 
nor  the  Cavaliers  who  had  been  forced  to  sell  out.  This  Parliament 
imposed  cruel  restrictions  on  the  Dissenters  and  sought  to  confine  the 
political  power  to  the  Anglican  aristocracy ;  but  it  accomplished  much 
besides.  It  successfully  asserted  parliamentary  control,  especially 
in  finance,  and  though  the  extremists  overreached  themselves  toward 
the  end  of  the  reign  and  left  Charles  triumphant,  they  established  or 

1  It  was  an  added  grievance  to  the  Irish  that  many  of  these  broad  acres  went 
to  the  Duke  of  York  and  other  favored  courtiers. 

2  "This  Government   hath  a  monarchical  appearance,"  wrote    De  Cominges, 
the  French  ambassador,  in  1664,  "because  there  is  a  king ;  but  at  bottom  it  is  very 
far  from  being  a  monarchy.     The  members  of  Parliament  are  not  only  allowed 
to  speak  their  minds  freely,  but  also  to  do  a  number  of  surprising  extraordinary 
things,  and  even  to  call  the  highest  people  to  the  bar." 

8  Since  the  Commons  kept  a  tight  hold  on  the  purse  strings,  Charles,  in  seeking 
money  to  supply  his  wants,  shrewdly  avoided  the  irregular  expedients  to  which 
his  father  had  resorted,  and  obtained  it  generally  in  the  form  of  subsidies  from  Louis 
XIV,  though  at  times  he  threatened  war  with  that  monarch  as  a  means  of  squeezing 
grants  from  his  otherwise  unwilling  Parliament. 


THE  RESTORATION  537 

strengthened  precedents  that  were  to  be  permanent  parts  of  the  Con- 
stitution in  time  to  come.  Finally,  it  was  within  its  bosom  that  the 
two  great  modern  English  parties  were  developed. 

The  Corporation  Act,  1661.  —  Parliament  at  first  showed  its  hot 
and  masterful  temper  by  passing  a  series  of  measures  strengthening 
the  power  of  the  restored  monarchy.  Then  with  the  aid  of  the  bishops, 
now  restored  to  their  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords,  it  proceeded  to  frame 
an  ecclesiastical  policy  which,  in  most  respects,  ran  directly  counter 
to  the  intentions  of  Charles  and  which  resulted  in  transferring  the 
control  of  Church  affairs  from  the  King  to  Parliament  and  the  bishops. 
This  was  accomplished  mainly  by  a  group  of  four  acts  popularly  known 
as  the  "  Clarendon  Code  "  l  —  though  the  Chancellor  was  by  no  means 
responsible  for  all  of  them  —  which  excluded  Dissenters  from  public 
office,  from  any  share  in  the  Establishment,  and  imposed  other  grave 
disabilities  upon  them.  The  Corporation  Act,  December,  1661,  pro- 
vided that  no  man  could  hold  office  in  a  corporate  town  unless  he  took 
the  sacrament  according  to  the  Church  of  England,  renounced  the 
Covenant,  and  declared  that  it  was  unlawful,  under  any  circumstances, 
to  bear  arms  against  the  King. 

The  New  Act  of  Uniformity,  1662.  —  After  the  failure  of  the  Savoy 
Conference,  Convocation  took  up  the  revision  of  the  Prayer  Book 
and  produced  a  new  edition  even  more  distasteful  to  the  Puritans  than 
its  predecessors.2  Parliament  accepted  it,  and,  19  May,  1662,  passed 
an  Act  of  Uniformity  providing :  that  on  and  after  St.  Bartholomew's 
Day  3  the  revised  Book  should  be  read  in  all  the  churches ;  and  that 
all  ministers  who  refused,  or  who  had  not  received  their  holy  orders  by 
Episcopal  ordination,  were  to  be  deprived  of  their  benefices.  School- 
masters also  were  required  to  conform  to  the  Book,  and  both  classes 
were  further  required  to  declare  the  illegality  of  taking  up  arms  against 
the  King.  On  the  day  appointed,  nearly  2000  clergymen  resigned  their 
livings  rather  than  sacrifice  their  convictions.  Many  of  the  most  able 
men  of  the  kingdom,  in  order  to  maintain  themselves  and  their  wives 
and  children,  were  forced  to  toil  as  laborers  or  to  depend  upon  charity. 
The  Act  marks  an  epoch  in  English  religious  history.  For  nearly  a 
century  the  Nonconformists  had  sought  to  secure  alterations  in  the 
government,  doctrine,  and  ceremony  of  the  Church  and  to  remain 
within  the  fold ;  henceforth  the  majority  sought  to  secure  freedom  of 
conscience  outside.  Separation  rather  than  comprehension  became 
their  aim.  Years  of  persecution,  however,  were  to  follow  before  they 
even  partially  effected  their  purpose.  On  22  August,  1663,  a  proclama- 

1  They  were :    the  Corporation  Act,  1661 ;  the  Act  of  Uniformity,  1662 ;    the 
Conventicle  Act,  1664;  and  the  Five  Mile  Act,  1665. 

2  The  temper  of  those  who  produced  it  is  shown  in  the  declaration  that  they 
could  not  expect  "in  such  variety  of  apprehensions,  humours  and  interests  as  are 
in  the  world  to  please  all,  nor  can  expect  that  men  of  factions,  peevish  and  perverse 
spirits  should  be  satisfied  with  anything  that  can  be  done  in  this  kind  by  any  other 
than  themselves." 

3  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  was  24  August. 


538  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tion  was  issued  directing  every  one  to  attend  church  under  penalty  of 
fine,  and  preachers  whose  words  were  unwelcome  to  the  authorities  were 
silenced.  Every  possible  effort  was  made  not  only  to  exclude  from 
power,  but  absolutely  to  suppress  all  who  were  not  of  the  charmed  circle.1 

For  Protestant  as  well  as  "  Popish  "  Dissenters  the  only  hope  lay 
in  the  King.2  Accordingly  men  of  both  extremes  made  an  effort  to 
secure  from  him  exemption  from  the  operations  of  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity. As  a  result,  Charles,  26  December,  1662,  issued  a  Declara- 
tion expressing  his  intention  of  inducing  Parliament  to  aid  him  in 
softening  the  rigor  of  the  Act,  and  to  concur  with  him  in  passing  a 
measure  to  enable  him  to  exercise,  "  with  a  more  universal  satisfac- 
tion," the  power  of  dispensing,  which  he  regarded  as  his  inherent 
right.  He  laid  the  matter  before  the  Houses,  18  February,  1663,  in 
a  speech  in  which  he  declared  that  he  was  "  in  nature  an  enemy  to  all 
severity  for  religion  and  conscience."  But  Clarendon,  backed  by  his 
supporters  in  the  Council,  stoutly  opposed  him,  and  the  Commons 
protested  so  vigorously  against  "  establishing  schism  by  law  "  that 
he  was  obliged  to  give  in. 

The  Conventicle  Act,  1664,  and  the  Five  Mile  Act,  1665.  —  Having 
defeated  the  royal  attempt  to  introduce  toleration  by  means  of  the 
dispensing  power,  Parliament  proceeded  with  its  ecclesiastical  leg- 
islation. By  the  "  Act  against  Seditious  Conventicles,"  1664,  it  was 
forbidden  for  five  or  more  persons,  exclusive  of  members  of  a  family, 
to  hold  meetings  for  religious  worship  where  the  established  forms 
were  not  used.  The  penalty  (for  those  who  took  part  in  these  "  seed 
plots  and  nurseries  of  seditious  opinions  ")  was  imprisonment  for  the 
first  and  second  offenses  and  transportation  for  the  third.  Persons 
who  returned  to  the  country  were  liable  to  be  put  to  death.  The 
Quakers  seem  to  have  been  the  chief  sufferers.  Pepys,  who  saw 
several  dragged  through  the  streets,  noted  in  his  diary:  "they  go 
like  lambs  without  any  resistance.  I  would  to  God  they  would  con- 
form, or  be  more  wise  and  not  be  catched."  In  1665  followed  the 
equally  cruel  Five  Mile  Act,  which  provided  that  no  Nonconformist 
minister  was,  for  the  future,  to  teach  in  any  schools,  or  to  come  within 
any  city  or  corporate  town  unless  he  had  taken  an  oath  that  it  was 
unlawful  to  bear  arms  against  the  King,  and  had  pledged  himself  that 

1  The  dominant  royalists  strove  in  numerous  ways  to  glorify  their  cause  and  to 
cast  a  stigma  upon  those  who  had  opposed  it.     Already,  25  January,  1661,  a  proc- 
lamation had  ordered  30  January,  the  day  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I,  to  be  kept 
as  a  day  of  fasting  and  humiliation  to  show  "the  abhorrence  of  the  nation  at  the 
act  of  those  wretched  miscreants"  who  had  brought  it  about.     A  form  of  prayer 
was  devised  in  which  Charles  was  characterized  as  a  saint  and  martyr.     This  "  can- 
onization" was  further  manifested  and  perpetuated  by  dedicating  churches  to  his 
name.     Convocation  revised  and  established  the  form  of  prayer  and  added  a  solemn 
thanksgiving  for  the  anniversary  of  the  Restoration,  2Q  May. 

2  Their  prospects  were  hampered  from  the  fact  that  the  Presbyterians  were 
still  unwilling  to  share  the  privileges  which  they  desired  with  Roman  Catholics 
or  even  the  Protestant  extremists.     "As  to  the  sectaries,"  declared  Baxter,  their 
most  famous  preacher,  "we  distinguish  the  tolerable  parties  from  the  intolerable." 


THE  RESTORATION  539 

he  would  not  "  at  any  time  endeavor  the  alteration  of  government 
in  Church  and  State."  This  measure  was  peculiarly  malevolent, 
because,  during  the  Great  Plague  which  visited  London  in  this  year, 
many  of  the  regular  clergy  fled,  leaving  the  dissenting  ministers  to 
care  for  the  sick  and  dying.  However,  since  the  chief  strength  of 
Puritanism  was  in  the  towns,  it  was  felt  that  it  would  be  unusually 
dangerous  to  leave  them  a  free  hand  at  this  time.  Charles  assented, 
as  usual ;  for  to  resist  would  have  disturbed  his  ease  and  endangered 
his  position.  Moreover,  by  his  complaisance  he  was  able  to  secure  a 
much-needed  grant  of  money. 

The  Significance  of  the  Clarendon  Code.  —  These  penal  laws, 
mercilessly  though  somewhat  intermittently  enforced  by  vigilant  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  and  paid  informers,  sowed  bitter  seeds  of  hatred 
between  the  Dissenters  and  the  governing  authorities.  Presbyterian- 
ism  lost  the  preeminence  it  enjoyed  during  the  early  months  of  the 
Restoration,  and,  even  outside  the  Established  Church,  ceased  to  play 
the  leading  role  among  the  Protestant  sects.1  Naturally  democratic, 
the  excluded  bodies  now  became  more  so,  partly  out  of  increased 
resentment  toward  the  aristocratic  privileged  classes,  partly  because 
those  of  their  number  who  were  desirous  of  political  influence  hastened 
to  conform,  leaving  only  the  extremists  in  the  ranks.  Dissent  became 
more  and  more  confined  to  the  lower  and  middle  classes.  Exclusion, 
however,  and  certainly  active  persecution,  could  not  last  indefinitely ; 
for  one  reason  because  it  depended  upon  a  majority  in  the  Commons 
which  might  be  overthrown ;  for  another,  because  the  class  on  which 
trade,  commerce,  and  productive  enterprise  depended  could  not  be 
permanently  held  down  and  oppressed.  Later  it  was  to  combine  with 
the  "  half-hearted  Anglicans  "  to  form  a  powerful  political  party. 
Furthermore,  the  acute  differences  which  developed  between  Anglicans 
and  Dissenters  made  for  the  growth  of  free  thought,  since  each  side 
needed  allies  and  hence  were  not  too  insistent  on  orthodoxy. 

Charles'  Foreign  Policy.  The  Portuguese  Marriage,  1662.  —  In 
his  foreign  relations,  as  in  his  ecclesiastical  aims,  Charles  developed  a 
policy  quite  at  variance  with  Parliament  and  with  Clarendon,  who 
"  labored  nothing  more  than  that  his  Majesty  might  enter  into  firm 
peace  with  all  his  neighbors,  as  the  most  necessary  for  reducing  his 
own  dominion  into  that  temper  of  subjection  and  obedience  as  they 
ought  to  be  in."  At  the  beginning  of  his  reign  the  King,  whose  hands 
were  still  free,  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  restored  independently 
of  any  foreign  power,  was  ready  to  attach  himself  to  the  highest  bidder. 
At  first  he  turned  to  the  thrifty  Dutch,  who  seemed  to  offer  the  best 
prospects  for  a  loan ;  but  the  passage  of  the  Navigation  Act  destroyed 
any  chance  of  help  from  that  quarter.  Next,  he  looked  about  for  a 
bride.  After  a  French  and  Spanish  princess  had  both  been  considered, 

1  "Indeed,  except  to  a  few  divines,  that  word  (Presbyterianism)  had  never  in 
England  meant  more  than  an  artificial  organization  of  Puritanism,  with  a  view  to 
capturing  the  Established  Church." 


540  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

he  at  length  negotiated  a  treaty  with  Alfonso  VI  of  Portugal  for  a 
marriage  with  his  sister  Catharine  of  Braganza.  By  this  alliance 
and  the  accompanying  dowry  England  obtained  Tangier,1  Bombay, 
2,000,000  crusados  2  in  money,  together  with  commercial  privileges 
and  freedom  of  conscience  for  English  merchants.  The  bride,  ac- 
cording to  Pepys,  "  was  nothing  charming  to  look  at,  yet  she  hath  a 
good,  modest,  innocent  look."  She  was  a  kindly,  simple  soul,  but 
bigoted  in  religion,  dowdy  in  dress,  and  without  feminine  graces. 
Altogether,  she  was  totally  unfitted  to  win  Charles  from  his  evil  courses. 
He  was  deeply  disappointed  when  he  saw  her ;  but  with  his  customary 
cheerfulness,  he  declared  that :  "it  was  too  late  to  find  fault  and  that 
he  must  make  the  best  of  a  bad  matter."  Her  failure  to  bear  him  a 
male  heir  brought  about  a  bitter  struggle  toward  the  close  of  his 
reign,  yet,  in  spite  of  his  neglect,  he  loyally  resisted  the  strong  pressure 
which  was  brought  upon  him  to  divorce  her. 

Charles  draws  close  to  France.  —  The  Portuguese  marriage  was 
welcomed  by  France  as  a  counterpoise  against  Spain.  Louis  XIV, 
by  the  Peace  of  the  Pyrenees,  1659,  had  promised  to  give  no  aid  to 
Portugal,  wrho  was  struggling  to  maintain  her  independence  against 
his  Catholic  rival ;  but  England,  by  the  treaty  just  concluded,  agreed 
to  furnish  ships  and  money  in  case  of  need,  and  thus  effected  his  pur- 
pose of  holding  Spain  in  check,  without  any  effort  on  his  part.  In 
one  way  and  another  the  bonds  between  the  French  and  English 
kings  were  tightened.  On  31  March,  1661,  Henrietta,  Charles'  favor- 
ite sister,  married  Philip  of  Orleans,  the  brother  of  Louis  XIV,  and,  27 
October,  1662,  Dunkirk  was  sold  to  France.  There  were  many  reasons 
in  favor  of  the  sale.  England  could  not  well  spare  the  men  and  money 
to  maintain  the  town,  it  was  not  a  strategic  point,  and  the  harbor  was 
far  from  good.  Nevertheless,  the  English  regarded  the  proceeding  as 
a  national  disgrace,  and  later  visited  their  wrath  on  Clarendon,  who, 
although  the  original  suggestion  did  not  come  from  him,  conducted 
the  subsequent  negotiations.  While  Charles'  chief  motive  in  form- 
ing a  close  alliance  with  France  was  to  secure  subsidies,  other  reasons 
were  not  without  weight :  most  important  of  all,  he  was  desirous  of 
extending  English  trade,  and  counted  on  French  aid  in  breaking  the 
colonial  monopoly  which  Spain  still  retained,  and  in  humbling  the 
Dutch,  the  greatest  sea  power  of  the  time.  This  policy  of  uniting 
with  England's  ancient  enemy,  to  be  sure,  had  originated  with  Crom- 
well ;  but  he  would  never  have  tolerated  Louis'  Catholic  aggressions,  to 
which  for  some  years  Charles  lent  his  favor ;  moreover,  he  would  have 
dominated  the  alliance  instead  of  playing  the  part  of  a  subordinate 
pensionary. 

The  Second  Dutch  War,  1665-1667.  —  The  commercial  greatness 
of  England  which  Charles  sought  to  foster  was  bound  to  arouse  the 

1  It  was  abandoned  to  the  Moors  in  1684. 

2  About  £200,000,  though  in  purchasing  power  it  would  now  be  worth  about 
three  times  that  amount. 


THE  RESTORATION  541 

hostility  of  the  Dutch.  In  spite  of  the  Peace  of  1654,  reenforced  by  a 
treaty  of  1662,  there  were  many  outstanding  points  of  friction.  The 
English  court  hated  the  Republican  faction  which  had  obtained  con- 
trol in  the  United "  Provinces ;  furthermore,  the  trading  companies 
of  the  two  countries  were  constantly  fighting;  the  Dutch  refused 
compensation  for  certain  English  ships  which  they  had  seized,  nor 
would  they  restore  Pularoon,  one  of  the  East  India  spice  islands 
awarded  to  England  in  1654.  Two  acts  precipitated  the  crisis.  The 
first  was  the  capture  of  several  Dutch  ships  by  Robert  Holmes,  who 
had  been  sent  in  October,  1663,  by  the  Duke  of  York,  a  patron  of  the 
recently  chartered  Royal  African  Company,  to  protect  the  Company's 
interests  on  the  African  coast.  The  second  was  Colonel  Nicolls' 
seizure,  in  May,  1664,  of  New  Netherland  which  Charles  had  granted 
to  his  brother,  the  Duke  (more  than  a  year  previously).  The  Dutch 
replied  with  one  reprisal  after  another  until  war  was  finally  declared, 
14  March,  1665.  If  the  professions  of  the  King  x  maybe  believed,  he 
was  pushed  into  hostilities  by  public  opinion  and  the  eagerness  of 
his  brother.  However,  these  professions  may  have  been  for  the  bene- 
fit of  Louis  XIV  who  was  bound,  by  a  treaty  of  1662,  to  protect  the 
Dutch  against  actual  aggression.  Certainly,  beyond  his  commercial 
ambitions,  there  were  abundant  reasons  why  Charles  should  desire 
war :  he  hated  the  Republican  faction  who  were  in  control,  he  wanted 
to  establish  his  nephew  as  Stadholder,  he  saw  a  chance  of  uniting  his 
people  in  a  popular  undertaking  and  of  obtaining  liberal  grants. 

The  Sad  State  of  the  English  Navy.  —  It  is  possible  that  the  King, 
while  desiring  to  fight  at  a  fitting  opportunity,  may  have  desired 
delay  owing  to  the  ill-prepared  state  of  the  navy.  While  the  system 
of  administration  was  not  as  bad  as  has  sometimes  been  represented, 
many  of  the  officials  were  idle  and  corrupt,  there  was  an  appalling 
lack  of  money,  and  the  credit  of  the  Government  was  at  a  low  ebb. 
Owing  to  poor  food  and  uncertain  pay,  sailors  were  reluctant  to  enlist ; 
those  who  volunteered  were  of  a  very  inferior  sort,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  resort  freely  to  impressment.  As  a  result,  the  crews  were  most 
unruly  and  so  discontented  that  many  who  were  taken  prisoners  by  the 
Dutch,  entered  the  service  of  their  captors.  Much  was  subsequently 
done  by  Charles  and  James  to  improve  the  state  of  the  navy ;  for  they 
were  both  keenly  interested,  and  had  an  efficient  and  devoted  servant 
in  Samuel  Pepys ;  but  it  did  not  come  in  time  for  the  second  Dutch  war. 

The  Opening  Events  of  the  War,  1665.  —  The  primary  object  of 
each  combatant  was  to  protect  its  own  shipping  and  to  inflict  all 
possible  damage  on  the  shipping  of  the  enemy,  for  neither  side  had  a 
sufficient  army  to  effect  anything  by  land.  The  first  serious  encounter 
occurred,  3  June,  1665,  when  the  Dutch  and  the  English  fleets  engaged 
off  Lowestoft.2  The  Duke  of  York  gained  a  decisive  victory  for  the 

1  As  late  as  September,  1664,  he  declared,  "I  find  myself  almost  the  only  man 
in  the  Kingdom  who  doth  not  desire  war." 

2  This  is  sometimes  called  the.  Battle  of  Solebay. 


542  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

English ;  Obdam,  the  Dutch  admiral,  was  blown  up  in  his  ship  and  his 
fleet  was  forced  to  take  to  flight;  but,  owing  to  an  unauthorized 
order,  the  English  discontinued  the  pursuit  during  the  night,  enabling 
their  enemy  to  regain  their  own  shores  in  safety.  Though  the  English 
had  proved  their  superiority  in  fighting,  the  events  of  the  remainder 
of  the  year  counterbalanced  their  signal  success.  Shortage  of  men 
and  supplies  and  the  Plague,  which  raged  in  London  during  the  sum- 
mer, all  helped  to  account  for  this.  In  August,  the  English  failed  to 
capture  the  Dutch  East  India  fleet  which  had  taken  refuge  in  the 
neutral  Norwegian  port  of  Bergen ;  and  de  Ruyter,  who  had  come  from 
the  Mediterranean,  convoyed  it  safely  home.  Charles,  in  the  mean- 
time, had  allied  himself  with  the  warlike  Bishop  of  Munster  who 
invaded  the  Dutch  frontier  in  September.  This  step,  however, 
caused  Louis  XIV  to  intervene,  January,  1667.  Not  only  was  he 
bound  by  his  treaty  obligations,  but  since  the  death  of  Philip  IV  of 
Spain  the  previous  autumn  offered  him  an  opportunity  to  seize  coveted 
lands  on  the  Netherland  border,  he  was  anxious  to  keep  both  sides 
occupied  and  evenly  balanced. 

The  Fighting  in  1666.  —  Louis'  intervention  led  to  an  English  re- 
verse in  the  campaign  of  1666,  for  the  possibility  of  a  French  attack 
frightened  the  authorities  into  dividing  their  fleet.  Monck,  though  he 
fought  bravely  and  skillfully,  was  roughly  handled  by  a  superior  force 
under  de  Ruyter  in  the  Four  Days'  Battle,  1-4  June,  fought  between 
North  Foreland  and  Dunkirk.  Rupert,  who  joined  him  before  the 
close  of  the  fighting,  arrived  too  late  to  be  of  material  assistance. 
However,  the  Dutch  victory  was  by  no  means  decisive.  Moreover, 
Monck  and  Rupert,  in  their  turn,  defeated  de  Ruyter  off  North  Fore- 
land 25-27  July,  after  which  they  chased  the  Dutch  home,  ravaged 
their  coast,  destroyed  towns,  and  captured  much  shipping.  Lack  of  • 
provisions,  which  kept  the  English  from  remaining  continuously  at 
sea,  and  storms  prevented  further  naval  engagements.  Moreover, 
the  Bishop  of  Munster,  having  made  peace  in  April,  the  land  opera- 
tions ceased  as  well.  By  autumn  both  sides  were  ready  for  peace: 
the  Dutch  because  they  wanted  a  free  hand  to  resist  the  encroach- 
ments of  Louis  XIV,  the  English  because  they  could  no  longer  stand 
the  expense,  particularly  since  the  Plague  in  London  had  been  followed 
by  a  disastrous  fire. 

The  Peace  of  Breda,  21  July,  1667. — With  peace  in  sight,  Charles 
was  unwilling  to  spend  money  on  strengthening  and  refitting  the  fleet, 
and  so  threw  away  such  advantages  as  had  been  gained.  Only  small 
forces  were  sent  out  "  to  distract  the  enemy  and  to  disturb  their  trade," 
and  nothing  was  done  for  local  defense ;  "  the  enemy  can  come  and 
cut  our  throats  when  he  likes,"  wrote  one  country  gentleman  whose 
words  proved  prophetic.  Profiting  by  this  inaction,  de  Ruyter  en- 
tered the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  passed  up  the  Medway,  and  took, 
burned,  and  scuttled  sixteen  vessels,  inflicting  a  loss  that  was  great 
and  a  shame  that  was  immeasurable.  The  night  of  his  country's 


THE  RESTORATION  543 

deepest  humiliation  it  is  said  that  Charles  II  was  busy  chasing  a  moth 
in  Lady  Castlemaine's  chamber.  Fortunately  the  Dutch  did  not  feel 
strong  enough  to  remain,  so  they  withdrew  to  the  mouth  of  the  Thames, 
where  they  occupied  themselves  for  a  time  in  intercepting  commerce. 
Before  they  could  do  any  more  damage  the  local  forces  were  called  out 
and  the  coast  and  ports  put  in  a  state  of  defense.  Peace  was  con- 
cluded at  Breda,  21  July,  1667.  Fearing  the  designs  of  Louis  XIV,  the 
Dutch  agreed  to  comparatively  favorable  terms :  they  again  recog- 
nized the  "  right  of  the  flag,"  and  left  New  Netherland  in  the  hands  of 
the  English ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  retained  Pularoon  and  Surinam 
and  secured  a  slight  modification  of  the  Navigation  Act  in  their  favor. 
They  had  yielded  more  than  they  realized ;  for  New  Netherland,  re- 
garded at  the  time  as  inferior  in  value  to  Pularoon,  included  what 
came  to  be  the  provinces  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  Delaware. 
The  English  seamen  had  outfought  the  Dutch ;  but  faults  of  admin- 
istration and  disasters  for  which  they  were  not  to  blame  had  counter- 
balanced their  superiority. 

The  Plague  and  the  Fire,  1665-1666.  —  England  emerged  from  the 
struggle  in  an  extremely  crippled  condition.  The  Plague  in  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1665  carried  off  70,000  from  London  alone, 
and,  during  the  following  spring,  spread  through  the  southern  and 
eastern  counties.  It  was  the  first  visitation  for  over  thirty  years  and 
proved  to  be  the  last  in  English  history.  The  great  London  fire  which 
followed  raged  for  five  days,  2-7  September,  1666,  during  which  in- 
terval it  is  estimated  that  13,200  houses  were  burned  and  at  least 
two  thirds  of  the  population  were  unroofed.  The  Fire  was  probably 
not  the  cause  of  the  final  disappearance  of  the  Plague,  as  has  been  so 
frequently  said,  since  it  swept  mainly  through  the  business  quarter 
and  the  residential  districts  of  the  well-to-do  classes,  sparing  the  slums 
on  the  outer  edge  of  the  city.  However,  in  rebuilding  the  City  the 
streets  were  made  broader  and  straighter,  and  the  houses  with  their 
overhanging  upper  stories,  which  cut  off  the  air  and  sunshine,  dis- 
appeared. A  newer  London  arose,  less  picturesque,  but  more  health- 
ful and  spacious  than  the  old. 

Growing  Discontent.  —  The  three  disasters  —  the  Plague,  the  Fire, 
and  Dutch  in  the  Medway  —  were  regarded  as  signs  of  Divine  wrath 
at  the  corruption  and  inefficiency  of  the  Government.  Among  the 
credulous  lower  and  middle  classes  the  Fire  was  attributed  to  the 
machinations  of  the  "  Papists  "  and  the  French,  who  were  thought  to 
have  caused  it  by  throwing  "  fireballs  "  into  the  City.  It  was  expected 
that  a  general  massacre  would  follow ;  Catholics  and  Frenchmen  were 
mobbed  in  the  streets,  and  the  way  was  laid  for  that  great  outburst 
of  popular  frenzy  known  as  the  "  Popish  Plot  "  which  came  ten  years 
later.  All  together,  the  situation,  as  it  is  pictured  by  contemporaries, 
was  gloomy  enough.  "  There  is  a  lazy  Prince,  no  council,  no  money, 
no  reputation  at  home  and  abroad,"  and  "  it  is  strange  how  everybody 
do  now  reflect  upon  Oliver  and  commend  him,  what  brave  things  he 


544  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

did,  and  made  all  the  neighbor  princes  fear  him,  while  here  is  a  Prince, 
come  with  all  the  love  and  prayers  and  good  liking  of  his  people  .  .  . 
hath  lost  all  so  soon  that  it  is  a  miracle  what  way  a  man  can  devise  to 
lose  so  much  in  so  little  time."  Meantime,  Charles  was  consoling 
himself  with  waistcoats  which  had  arrived  from  Paris,  and  in  the  dis- 
covery of  a  new  actress,  "  pretty,  witty  Nell." 

The  Attack  on  Clarendon,  1667.  —  The  first  victim  of  the  vague 
but  intense  and  increasing  discontent  was  Clarendon.  Charles,  anx- 
ious to  be  rid  of  him,  was  glad  to  make  him  the  scapegoat.  He  had 
only  retained  him  thus  long  because  he  continued  to  be  indispensable, 
notably  in  standing  out  against  the  claims  of  the  Commons  to  control 
the  purse  by  appropriation  of  supply  and  audit  of  accounts,  and  in 
raising  troops  and  exacting  money  from  the  counties  to  pay  for  them 
without  parliamentary  sanction.  Men  of  all  classes  looked  with  envy 
to  the  lofty  height  to  which  the  Chancellor  had  risen  and  longed  to 
see  him  overthrown,  while  many,  indeed,  nourished  actual  grievances 
against  him.  He  was  charged  with  presumption  in  marrying  his 
daughter  to  James,  the  King's  brother,  September,  1660,  and  it  was 
firmly  believed  that  in  order  to  secure  the  succession  to  his  own  de- 
scendants he  had  joined  Charles  to  a  princess  incapable  of  bearing 
children.  He  was  blamed  for  the  sale  of  Dunkirk  and  for  the  disasters 
of  the  late  war,  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  had  opposed.  The  coun- 
try gentry  hated  him  for  opposing  the  Irish  Cattle  Act,  and  the  Dis- 
senters were  enfuriated  against  him  as  the  reputed  author  of  the  cruel 
"  Code  "  directed  against  them.  His  austere  ideals  were  a  constant 
reproach  to  Charles  and  his  band  of  dissolute  and  frivolous  courtiers. 
His  old-fashioned  and  pompous  bearing  offered  them  endless  oppor- 
tunity for  raillery,  and  Buckingham,  one  of  the  King's  boon  companions, 
used  to  imitate  his  solemn  strut  with  a  fire  shovel  and  a  pair  of  bellows 
to  represent  the  mace  and  the  Great  Seal.  While  honest  and  indus- 
trious, the  Lord  Chancellor  was  fond  of  luxury  and  display,  and  was 
arrogant  and  impatient  of  opposition.  The  chief  difficulty,  however, 
was  his  attempt  to  hold  an  untenable  ground  between  the  Crown  and 
Parliament.  By  taking  the  side  of  the  King  in  the  raising  and  control 
of  supply,  and  the  side  of  the  Houses  in  the  regulation  of  religion,  he 
"  incurred  the  hostility  of  both."  While  Charles  was  anxious  to  be 
rid  of  him  on  less  worthy  grounds,  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  he  had 
come  to  realize  it  was  futile  to  attempt  to  retain  a  minister  to  whom 
Parliament  was  so  unalterably  opposed.  Clarendon  warned  him  in  his 
last  interview  that  in  yielding  to  their  will  he  was  but  teaching  them 
to  know  their  strength :  "  that  it  was  yet  in  his  power  to  govern  them, 
but  if  they  found  it  was  in  them  to  govern  him,  nobody  knew  what  the 
end  would  be."  Charles,  however,  thinking  that  he  was  making  an  ap- 
parent, not  a  real,  concession,1  preferred  to  manage  rather  than  to  fight. 

1  In  this  he  went  against  the  last  injunction  of  his  father:  "Never  to  give  way 
to  the  punishment  of  any  for  their  faithful  service  to  the  Crown  upon  whatsoever 
pretense  or  for  whatsoever  cause." 


THE  RESTORATION  545 

His  Impeachment  and  Flight.  —  In  August,  1667,  Clarendon  was 
dismissed  from  his  office  of  Chancellor.  Charles,  feeling  that  he  was 
freed  of  an  obstacle  to  his  freedom,  celebrated  the  event  by  going  to 
see  Jacob  Hall,  a  famous  rope  dancer.  In  November,  the  Commons 
presented  articles  of  impeachment  against  the  fallen  Minister,  charg- 
ing him,  among  other  things,  with  corruption,  with  intent  to  introduce 
arbitrary  government,  and  with  treachery  during  the  late  war.  While 
these  extreme  charges  were  unjust,  there  were  many  serious  counts 
against  the  Chancellor,  besides  the  fact  that  he  was  out  of  harmony 
with  the  attempt  of  Parliament  to  supervise  the  administration.  In 
the  summer  of  1667  he  had  advised  the  King  to  delay  calling  Parlia- 
ment, and,  in  the  meantime,  to  raise  supplies  on  his  own  authority ; 
he  had  arbitrarily  imprisoned  the  opponents  of  the  Government ; 
and  he  has  been  charged  with  first  teaching  Charles  to  seek  money 
from  France.  On  the  King's  advice  he  fled  to  the  Continent.  Par- 
liament ordered  him  to  come  back,  and  when  he  was  unable  to  return 
within  the  time  which  they  had  intentionally  made  too  short,  they 
sentenced  him  to  banishment  for  life.  He  died  at  Rome  in  1674. 

Parliamentary  Gains  in  the  Control  of  Finances.  —  The  financial 
situation  continued  to  be  very  disturbing.  The  moneys  granted 
proved  insufficient  to  meet  expenses.  Cries  were  raised  of  corruption 
in  high  places,  and  the  King  was  accused  of  diverting  huge  sums  for 
his  private  pleasures.  While  he  was  extravagant  enough,  the  root 
of  the  trouble  lay  deeper :  supplies  were  voted  so  tardily  and  collected 
so  grudgingly  that  the  Government  was  obliged  to  anticipate  by  bor- 
rowing, and  the  prevailing  high  rate  of  interest  cut  into  revenues  that 
at  best  were  hardly  adequate  even .  for  legitimate  expenses.  Nig- 
gardly as  the  Commons  were,  they  were  wise  in  keeping  a  tight  hold 
on  the  purse  strings  and  made  notable  gains  during  the  Clarendon 
regime.  By  an  agreement  made  in  1664  between  Archbishop  Sheldon 
and  the  Lord  Chancellor  the  clergy  discontinued  their  custom  of  vot- 
ing supplies  in  Convocation.  Henceforth,  they  were  taxed  like  lay- 
men, and  Convocation  ceased  to  have  the  political  importance  it  had 
formerly  enjoyed.  In  a  grant  made  in  1665  a  clause  was  inserted  that 
the  moneys  voted  should  be  used  only  for  the  purposes  of  the  war. 
While  suggested  by  a  wily  royal  adviser,  Sir  George  Downing,1  to 
prevent  the  goldsmiths  from  claiming  any  portion  of  it  for  debts  due 
to  them,  it  marks  another  important  step  toward  the  practice  of  ap- 
propriation of  supplies.  Two  years  later,  in  the  spring  of  1667,  after 
a  sharp  and  prolonged  struggle,  the  King  made  the  important  conces- 
sion of  appointing  a  committee  of  Parliament  to  audit  accounts.  In 
1 66 1,  when  the  Lords  attempted  to  pass  a  bill  to  pave  the  streets  of 
Westminster,  the  Commons  successfully  asserted  the  principle  that 
all  bills  involving  the  expenditure  of'  money  must  originate  and  take 

1  Downing  Street,  where  the  official  residence  of  the  Prime  Minister  is  now  situ- 
ated, gets  the  name  from  the  fact  that  it  was  constructed  on  lands  which  Charles 
granted  to  Downing. 

2N 


546  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

their  final  form  in  the  Lower  House.  The  struggle  was  renewed  in 
1671  and  again  in  1677.  Finally,  by  a  resolution  of  3  July,  1678, 
the  Commons  declared  that  all  bills  of  supply  were  their  sole  gift, 
that  they  should  originate  in  their  House  and  that  such  bills 
"  ought  not  to  be  changed  or  altered  by  the  House  of  Lords."  From 
that  date  the  Lords  have  never  made  a  serious  attempt  to  originate 
or  amend  a  money  bill.  In  spite,  however,  of  these  evidences  of  the 
growing  strength  of  the  Commons,  Charles,  directly  his  old  mentor 
was  disposed  of,  proceeded  to  collect  about  him  a  body  of  ministers 
of  his  own  choice  and  to  develop  a  policy  quite  at  variance  with  Par- 
liament's, a  policy  which  he  struggled  for  some  years  to  maintain. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Richard  Lodge,  The  Political  History  of  England,  1660-1702  (1910), 
chs.  I-IV.  Trevelyan,  England  under  the  Stuarts,  ch.  XI ;  Lingard,  IX,  chs.  I-IV, 
Ranke,  III,  bk.  XW,  bk.  XV,  chs.  I-III.  Cambridge  Modern  History  (1908),  V. 
chs.  V,  VIII,  pt.  2  (bibliography,  pp.  786-798,  815-818).  Macaulay,  History  of  Eng- 
land (ed.  1865),  I,  ch.  II;  a  brief  survey  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II. 

Constitutional.  A.  Amos,  The  English  Constitution  in  the  Reign  of  Charles  II 
(1857).  Hallam,  II,  ch.  XI.  Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  XV.  Taylor,  Origin  and 
Growth,  II,  bk.  VI,  ch.  I.  W.  C.  Abbott,  "Long  Parliament  of  Charles  II,"  English 
Historical  Review  (January-April,  1906). 

Contemporary.  Samuel  Pepys,  Diary  (most  complete  ed.  H.  B.  Wheatley,  9  vols., 
1893-1899).  Evelyn,  Diary.  G.  Burnet,  The  History  of  My  Own  Time  (ed.  O. 
Airy,  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  2  vols.,  1897-1900) ;  in  spite  of  some  partisanship  and 
inaccuracies,  an  indispensable  authority. 

Biography.  O.  Airy,  Charles  II  (1901) ;  an  admirable  biography  and  a  good  survey 
of  the  reign.  A.  Browning,  Thomas  Osborne,  Earl  of  Danby  and  Duke  of  Leeds 
(1913).  Lady  Burghclere,  GeorgeVilliers,  Second  Duke  of "Buckingham  (1903).  W.  D. 
Christie,  Life  of  the  First  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  (2  vols.,  1871) ;  a  scholarly  vindication. 
H.  D.  Traill,  Shaftesbury  (1888) ;  a  brief  sketch.  T.  H.  Lister,  Life  of  Edward,  First 
Earl  of  Clarendon  (3  vols.,  1838) ;  has  not  been  superseded  by  the  recent  Life  by  Sir 
Henry  Craik(  2  vols.,  1911).  A.  C.  Ewald,  Life  and  Times  of  Algernon  Sidney  (2  vols., 
1873) .  Helen  C.  Foxcroft,  Life  and  Letters  of  George  Savile,  First  Marquis  of  Halifax 
(2  vols.,  1898).  Foxcroft  and  Clarke,  Life  of  Gilbert  Burnet  (1907).  A.  Fea,  King 
Monmouth  (1902).  H.  B.  Irving,  Life  of  Lord  Je/reys  (1898) ;  an  apology.  Roger 
North,  The  Lives  of  the  Norths  (ed.  A.  Jessopp,  3  vols.,  1890). 

Special.  G.  B.  Hertz,  English  Public  Opinion  after  the  Restoration  (1902).  C.  B. 
R.  Kent,  The  Early  History  of  the  Tories  (1908).  Seeley,  British  Policy,  II,  pt.  IV. 
A.T.  Mahan,  The  Influence  of  Sea  Power  on  History,  1660-1783  (isth  ed.,  1898),  chs. 
I,  II ;  an  epoch-making  work. 

Church.  Hutton,  English  Church,  chs.  X,  XL  Wakeman,  chs.  XVI,  XVII. 
Stoughton,  Religion  in  England,  chs.  Ill,  IV. 

Scotland  and  Ireland.  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  II,  bk.  VI,  ch.  VI.  For  further 
reading  on  Scotland  and  Ireland  see  Lodge,  pp.  487-491,  Cambridge  Modern  His- 
tory,  V,  pp.  825-837. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  221-226.  C.  G.  Robert- 
son, Select  Statutes  Cases,  and  Documents  (1904),  pt.  I,  nos.  I-IX ;  pt.  II,  no.  I. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

FROM  THE  FALL  OF  CLARENDON  TO  THE  DEATH  OF 
CHARLES  II    (1667-1685) 

Charles  seeks  to  make  himself  Absolute,  1667.  —  Charles  took 
advantage  of  the  fall  of  Clarendon  to  carry  out  a  design  which  he  had 
been  cherishing  for  years  —  to  establish  himself  as  an  absolute  mon- 
arch. To  that  end,  he  applied  himself  with  renewed  energy  to  the 
four  means  by  which  he  sought  to  accomplish  his  purpose:  to  build- 
ing up  the  standing  army;  attaching  the  Dissenters  by  offering  the 
toleration  which  Parliament  refused  to  grant ;  restoring  Roman  Cathol- 
icism ;  and  securing  a  closer  alliance  with  the  French  King,  to  whom  he 
looked  for  supplies  and,  in  case  of  need,  for  troops.  The  obstacles, 
however,  proved  so  formidable  that  he  had  to  follow  a  very  crooked 
course,  and,  before  many  years  had  passed,  to  alter  his  plans  pro- 
foundly. While  his  subjects  willingly  voted  the  necessary  forces  for 
another  war  with  their  commercial  rivals,  the  Dutch,  their  ardor 
soon  cooled  when  they  found  that  they  were  chiefly  pawns  in  the  game 
of  the  French  King,  who  was  seeking  to  dominate  Europe.  Moreover, 
the  Dissenters  refused  to  accept  any  religious  concessions  that  in- 
volved the  Romanists,  nor  were  the  Pope  and  the  bulk  of  the  English 
Catholics  inclined  to  take  any  steps  that  might  contribute  to  the  ag- 
grandizement of  Louis  XIV,  whom  they  feared  and  hated  on  political 
grounds.  In  sensing  the  situation  at  the  proper  moment,  and  in  the 
means  which  he  adopted  to  meet  it,  the  King,  who  appeared  to  most 
of  his  subjects  as  a  good-natured  and  witty  trifler,  proved  himself  to 
be  one  of  the  most  cunning  politicians  of  the  century. 

The  "  Cabal,"  1667-1673.  —  In  the  meantime,  until  the  turning 
point  of  his  policy  in  1673,  he  governed  with  a  body  of  intimate  coun- 
cilors known  as  the  "  Cabal."  It  formed  an  inner  circle  of  the  Privy 
Council,  and  its  members,  who  were  consulted  by  the  King  singly  or 
collectively  or  in  groups  of  two  or  three,  were  responsible  to  him  and 
not  to  Parliament.  While  such  groups,  even  under  that  name,  had 
been  known  in  English  history  long  before  the  body  in  question  came 
into  existence,  some  have  derived  the  word  from  the  initial  letters 
of  the  names  of  its  leading  members  —  Clifford,  Ashley,  Buckingham, 
Arlington,  and  Lauderdale.1  Thomas  Clifford,  created  Baron  Clifford 

1  In  reality  it  is  derived  from  a  Hebrew  word,  cabala,  which  meant  a  "secret," 
hence  it  came  to  be  applied  to  a  party  or  faction  engaged  in  a  secret  design,  and, 
later,  to  a  group  of  secret  councilors.  Charles'  body,  however,  is  the  most  famous 
of  them  all. 

547 


548  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  Lord  High  Treasurer  in  1672,  had  begun  life  as  a  gentleman  of 
small  fortune  and  had  made  his  way  by  ambition,  ability,  and  zeal  for 
Catholicism  and  the  royal  cause.  Free  from  corruption  himself,  he 
was  largely  responsible  for  the  bribery  of  the  members  of  Parliament 
which  first  became  common  in  this  period.  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper, 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  from  1661  to  1672,  when  he  was  created 
Lord  Chancellor  and  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  was  a  born  agitator  and 
demagogue,  a  forerunner  of  the  modern  party  leader.  The  contem- 
porary, Dryden,  attacked  him  in  lines  of  biting  satire  which  have  be- 
come classic. 

"  For  close  designs  and  crooked  counsels  fit, 
Sagacious,  bold,  and  turbulent  of  wit, 
Restless,  unfixed  in  principles  and  place, 
In  power  unpleased,  impatient  of  disgrace, 
A  fiery  soul,  which,  working  out  its  way, 
Fretted  the  pigmy  body  to  decay." 

Yet,  with  all  his  ambition  and  his  turnings  against  men  and  parties, 
he  was  ever  consistent  in  the  pursuit  of  his  two  ideals  —  civil 
liberty  and  toleration  for  all  Protestants.1  He  was  himself  a  free 
thinker.2  George  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham  (1628-1687),  though 
he  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Dissenters  for  a  time,  was  not  only  a  man 
of  no  religious  opinions,  but  a  libertine  to  boot ;  indeed,  he  was,  per- 
haps, the  most  disreputable  of  all  the  dissolute  set  who  surrounded 
the  King.  He  was  a  man  of  engaging  manners,  not  without  accom- 
plishments, and  excelled  in  a  not  very  high  order  of  wit,  especially 
in  mimicry ;  he  dabbled  in  chemistry,  wrote  verses  and  stage  plays, 
and  spent  much  money  in  buildings  and  gardens;  but  he  was  vain, 
unsteady,  and  ever  striving  for  powers  in  the  state  which  he  was  in- 
capable of  using.  He  appears  as  Zimri  in  Dryden's  immortal  satire : 

"  Stiff  in  opinions,  always  in  the  wrong, 
Was  everything  by  starts  and  nothing  long." 

Henry  Bennett  (1618-1685),  Earl  of  Arlington,  who  was  a  Secretary 
of  State,  1662-1674,  was  thought  to  be  a  Roman  Catholic.  While  he 
was  certainly  a  promoter  of  that  faith  and  a  center  of  the  opposition 
against  Clarendon,  he  was  probably  a  man  of  no  intense  convictions, 
aiming  solely  to  advance  himself.  John  Maitland  (1616-1682),  Earl 
and,  later,  Duke  of  Lauderdale,  was  an  old  Covenanter,  who  was  made 
Secretary  of  State  for  Scottish  affairs  in  1660.  In  that  office  he 
labored  for  twenty  years  to  make  the  Crown  absolute  in  his  native 
country.  Coarse  and  grotesque  in  manners,  he  was  a  man  of  tre- 

1  He  was  accustomed  to  say  that :  "  Popery  and  slavery  go  ever,  like  two  sisters, 
hand  in  hand." 

2  Once,  when  asked  by  a  lady  what  his  religion  was,  he  replied :   "The  religion 
of  all  wise  men."     When  she  persisted  further,  and  asked  what  that  was,  he  an- 
swered:    "Wise  men  never  tell," 


LATER  YEARS  OF  CHARLES  II        549 

mendous  learning,  of  great  abilities  and  courage,  and  quite  devoid  of 
scruple.  While  Charles  used  all  these  men  in  the  development  of  far- 
reaching  plans  which,  if  they  had  been  carried  to  completion,  would 
have  destroyed  Protestantism  and  popular  liberty  in  England,  the 
"  Cabal,"  as  such,  never  enjoyed  his  full  confidence,  to  say  nothing 
of  dominating  him  as  Clarendon  had  done.1 

The  Triple  Alliance,  1668.  —  In  foreign  affairs  the  King's  first  step 
after  the  Treaty  of  Breda  was  one  of  seeming  hostility  to  Louis  XIV, 
who  had  already  begun  against  Spain  the  "  War  of  Devolution," 
so-called  because  he  maintained  that  the  Spanish  Netherlands  de- 
scended by  right  of  devolution  to  his  queen,  daughter  of  Philip  IV  by 
his  first  wife,  instead  of  to  Charles  II,2  who  was  born  of  a  second  mar- 
riage. The  English  were  angered  at  the  French  King  for  taking  the 
Dutch  side  in  the  late  war,  and  apprehensive  of  his  growing  power  as 
well.  So  Sir  William  Temple,  Envoy  to  the  Low  Countries,  put  a 
partial  check  on  his  designs  by  joining  England,  Holland,  and  Sweden 
in  a  Triple  Alliance,  signed  23  January,  1667,  by  which  they  agreed  to 
defend  one  another  in  case  of  attack  and  to  bring  about  a  peace  be- 
tween France  and  Spain.  In  consequence,  Louis  XIV  signed  the 
Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  29  May,  1668,  which  bound  him  to  with- 
draw his  armies  from  the  Spanish  Netherlands  and  from  that  part  of 
Burgundy  known  as  Franche  Comte,  which  he  had  also  overrun.  In 
return,  however,  Spain  was  forced  to  cede  to  him  certain  towns  and 
fortresses  along  the  northeast  frontier.  Charles,  however,  who  had 
all  the  while  been  negotiating  with  both  France  and  Spain,  soon  came 
to  terms  with  the  former.  Nevertheless,  the  short-lived  Triple  Alli- 
ance was  not  without  significance.  It  strengthened  Charles  by  show- 
ing to  Louis  that  his  friendship  was  indispensable,  and  effectually 
alienated  the  French  from  the  Dutch. 

Charles'  Roman  Catholic  Intrigues.  The  Secret  Treaty  of  Dover, 
1670.  —  In  Charles'  mind  the  French  alliance  was  closely  bound  up 
with  the  introduction  of  Roman  Catholicism.  In  January,  1669,  a 
meeting  was  held  at  St.  James'  Palace,  the  residence  of  the  Duke  of 
York,  where,  in  the  presence  of  his  brother  3  and  a  few  of  his  most 
trusted  confidants,  he  stated  his  desire  of  embracing  the  old  faith  and 
of  setting  it  up  again  in  England.  "  Besides  the  spiritual  advantage 
he  should  gain  from  doing  so,"  as  he  told  the  French  ambassador  a  few 
months  later,  "  he  considered  that  it  was  the  only  way  of  reestablishing 
the  monarchy."  In  pursuance  of  this  design,  the  famous  Treaty  of 
Dover  was  concluded  with  France,  22  May,  1670,  in  the  presence  of 

1  Less  than  eighteen  months  after  the  dismissal  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  Charles 
wrote  to  his  sister  Henrietta:    "Whatsoever  opinion  my  ministers  had  been  of, 
I  would  and  do  always  follow  my  own  judgment,  and,  if  they  take  any  other  meas- 
ures than  that,  they  will  see  themselves  mistaken  in  the  end." 

2  King  of  Spain,  1665-1700. 

3  He  had  recently  learned  of  his  brother's  conversion  to  Rome,  though  it  was 
not  publicly  announced  for  some  years  yet. 


550  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Clifford,  Arlington,  and  Arundel.1  Its  terms  long  remained  a  secret ; 
indeed,  in  framing  them,  three  of  the  Cabal  —  Buckingham,  Ashley, 
and  Lauderdale  —  were  not  consulted.  The  terms  were,  in  substance : 
that  Charles,  in  return  for  an  annual  grant  during  the  period  of  hos- 
tilities, agreed  to  join  Louis  in  making  war  on  the  Dutch,  and  to  assist 
him  in  securing  the  inheritance  which  he  claimed  in  the  Spanish  Neth- 
erlands. Furthermore,  and  this  was  the  secret  part,  the  English  King, 
in  return  for  a  sum  of  money,  was,  at  a  fitting  time,  to  declare  himself 
a  Roman  Catholic,  and,  in  case  Charles'  subjects  resisted,  Louis  was 
to  send  troops  to  aid  him.  Though  Charles  was  inclined  to  declare 
his  conversion  forthwith,  the  French  ambassador  persuaded  him  that 
such  a  step  would  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  as  champions 
of  Protestantism,  whereas,  if  the  English  were  kept  in  ignorance  of 
their  sovereign's  change  of  faith,  they  would  continue  to  regard  them 
merely  as  trade  rivals.  So,  of  the  two  objects  contemplated  in  the 
treaty,  that  of  the  destruction  of  the  Dutch  was  thrust  into  the  fore- 
ground. Since  the  negotiations  leading  up  to  the  secret  treaty  were 
known  to  all  the  Ministers,  Charles  commissioned  Buckingham  to 
negotiate  a  sham  treaty,  concluded  in  February,  1671,  which  was  prac- 
tically the  same  as  that  of  the  previous  spring  except  for  the  provision 
concerning  religion.  Meantime,  Charles,  by  nursing  Parliament  in  the 
delusion  that  the  Triple  Alliance  still  held,  secured  large  sums  for  the 
purpose  of  rendering  it  effective.  Had  he  stood  loyally  by  the  Dutch, 
the  designs  of  Louis  XIV  might  have  been  checked  and  later  costly 
and  devastating  wars  might  have  been  avoided. 

The  Stop  of  the  Exchequer,  1672.  —  In  order  to  prevent  any  pos- 
sible discussion  of  his  recently  concluded  alliance  with  France  against 
the  Dutch,  the  King  held  no  meeting  of  Parliament  from  April,  1671, 
to  February,  1673.  Since,  however,  the  grants  which  he  had  received 
from  that  body  and  the  subsidies  from  Louis  proved  insufficient  to 
meet  his  expenses,  he  resorted  to  a  new  device  suggested  by  Clifford.2 
It  was  known  as  the  "  Stop  of  the  Exchequer."  For  years  it  had  been 
the  custom  of  the  Government  to  borrow  from  London  goldsmiths  on 
the  security  of  taxes  voted  but  not  collected.  The  goldsmiths,  who 
were  the  forerunners  of  the  modern  bankers,  paid  their  depositors 
6  per  cent  and  charged  8  per  cent  for  their  loans.  Suddenly,  in  Jan- 
uary, 1672,  they  were  informed  that  none  of  the  capital  which  they 
had  advanced  to  the  State  would  be  repaid  for  a  whole  year.  Natu- 
rally this  caused  a  panic  among  the  merchants  and  tradesmen  whose 
funds  were  thus  tied  up.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  not  a  penny  even  of 
interest,  was  paid  until  1674,  and  then  only  6  per  cent  without  ar- 
rears. Although  the  liability  was  at  length  incorporated  in  the  Na- 
tional Debt,  many  years  after,  it  is  estimated  that  the  bankers  and 
their  depositors  lost  fully  £3,000,000. 

1  From  the  fact  that  it  was  managed   by  Charles'   favorite  sister,  Henrietta, 
Duchess  of  Orleans,  who  came  to  Dover  with  an  imposing  train,  it  is  sometimes 
known  as  le  tralii  de  Madame. 

2  He  was  made  Lord  Treasurer  a  few  weeks  later. 


LATER   YEARS  OF  CHARLES  II  551 

The  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  1672-1673. — The  religious  situa- 
tion was  such  as  to  cause  "  all  Protestant  hearts  to  tremble."  On 
15  March,  1672,  the  King  issued  a  Declaration  of  Indulgence,1  sus- 
pending "  all  manner  of  penal  laws  in  matters  ecclesiastical  against 
whatsoever  sort  of  Nonconformists  or  recusants  ...  as  well  for  the 
quieting  of  our  good  subjects  as  for  inviting  strangers  ...  to  come 
and  live  under  us,  and  for  a  better  encouragement  for  all  to  a  cheerful 
following  of  their  trades  and  callings."  Although  the  Declaration 
only  granted  to  Catholics  liberty  of  private  worship,  while  all  Prot- 
estant sects  were  to  be  allowed  to  worship  in  public,  men  suspected 
it  was  issued  mainly  in  the  Catholic  interest.  Nor  did  it  allay  the 
suspicions,  particularly  of  the  Presbyterians,  when  the  jails  were 
opened  and  hundreds  of  Quakers  and  other  Dissenters  were  released, 
although  a  large  body  of  the  Nonconformists  sent  the  King  a  depu- 
tation to  express  their  gratitude.  When  Parliament  met,  in  Febru- 
ary, 1673,  the  opposition  was  intense,  and  Charles,  for  once  in  his 
life,  tried  to  bear  it  down  by  a  show  of  bluster.  The  Commons,  how- 
ever, refusing  to  give  way,2  carried  a  resolution :  "  That  penal  stat- 
utes in  matters  ecclesiastical  cannot  be  suspended  but  by  act  of 
Parliament,"  and  respectfully  petitioned  that  the  laws  be  once  more 
put  in  force.  In  the  face  of  such  opposition  and  in  return  for  a  grant 
of  money  which  he  sorely  needed,  the  King  announced,  8  March,  that 
he  would  cancel  the  Declaration. 

The  Test  Act  and  the  Break-up  of  the  Cabal,  1673.  —  To  clinch 
their  victory,  Parliament  passed  the  famous  Test  Act  providing  that 
all  holders  of  civil  and  military  office  must  receive  the  sacrament  ac- 
cording to  the  Church  of  England  and  take  an  oath  declaring  their 
disbelief  in  transubstantiation.  That  test  excluded  Roman  Catholics 
and  conscientious  Dissenters  for  over  a  century  and  a  half.3  The 
immediate  result  of  the  Test  Act  was  the  break-up  of  the  Cabal  Min- 
istry. The  Duke  of  York  gave  up  his  office  of  Lord  High  Admiral,  and 
Clifford  was  forced  to  resign  the  Lord  Treasurership.  Shaftesbury, 
the  lifelong  friend  of  religious  liberty,  who  had  been  one  of  the  in- 
stigators of  the  Declaration,  but  who,  on  gaining  an  inkling  of  the  real 
purport  of  the  Treaty  of  Dover  and  the  King's  Catholic  designs,  had 
reversed  his  policy  and  had  lent  his  support  to  the  Test  Act,  was  dis- 
missed from  the  office  of  Lord  Chancellor  recently  conferred  upon  him. 
"  It  is  only  laying  down  my  gun  and  buckling  on  my  sword,"  he  de- 
clared, and  became  the  most  active  leader  and  organizer  of  the  op- 
position party  forming  against  the  Court.  Lauderdale,  who  had  stuck 
closely  to  Scotch  affairs,  together  with  Buckingham  and  Arlington 

'  In  February,  1668,  he  had  made  an  effort,  which  proved  futile,  to  carry  through 
another  scheme  for  the  comprehension  of  Presbyterians  and  the  toleration  of  the 
sectaries. 

J  It  was  asserted  in  debate  that  the  Declaration  repealed  more  than  forty  acts 
of  Parliament. 

3  Many  Nonconformists  did  not  scruple  to  qualify  by  taking  the  sacrament, 
and  from  1727  they  were  protected  from  violating  the  law  by  an  annual  indemnity. 


552  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

were  all  bitterly  attacked  in  Parliament,  and  the  two  latter,  at  least, 
soon  ceased  to  play  any  considerable  part  in  the  royal  councils.1 
The  anti-Catholic  party  had  renewed  cause  for  apprehension  when 
James,  whose  first  wife,  Anne  Hyde,  had  died  the  previous  year, 
married  in  the  autumn  of  1673,  Mary  of  Modena,  a  graceful  child  of 
fifteen,  who  had  been  destined  for  a  nun  and  who  "  screamed  two  days 
and  nights  "  at  the  prospect  of  changing  her  estate.  The  nuptials 
were  brought  about  in  the  teeth  of  parliamentary  address,  praying 
that  the  Duke  should  not  wed  any  person  but  of  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion. The  Commons  replied  by  refusing  supplies,  on  account  of 
"  the  danger  of  Popery  and  popish  counsels  and  counselors." 

The  Third  Dutch  War,  1672-1674. — Another  reason  for  the 
parliamentary  reluctance  to  grant  money  was  the  growing  opposition 
to  the  Dutch  War  which  had  resulted  from  the  Treaty  of  Dover,  and 
which  was  now  drawing  to  a  close.  At  the  outset,  the  war  had  been 
popular ;  for  the  English,  as  yet  unaware  of  Charles'  Catholic  designs, 
welcomed  the  chance  of  French  aid  to  crush  their  commercial  rivals 
and  avenge  the  invasion  of  the  Medway.  While  the  two  countries 
were  still  at  peace  and  while  De  Witt,  the  Grand  Pensionary,  was 
making  every  effort  to  avert  a  conflict,  Charles  ordered  an  attack  on  a 
Dutch  fleet  from  Smyrna  as  it  passed  up  the  Channel.  This  inexcus- 
able act  of  bad  faith,  which  deservedly  failed,  led  to  a  declaration  of 
war  four  days  later,  17  March,  1672.  The  situation  seemed  very 
serious  for  the  Dutch.  In  the  previous  war  the  English  victories  at 
sea  had  been  barren  of  results,  because  of  their  inability  to  follow  them 
up  by  land  attacks.  Now  with  the  armies  of  Louis  operating  on  the 
frontier,  they  had  every  prospect  of  crushing  their  opponents.  Neither 
side,  however,  was  well  prepared,  and  the  first  battle  off  Southwold 
Bay,2  28  May,  1672,  was  indecisive.  To  be  sure,  the  Duke  and  the 
Earl  of  Sandwich  forced  de  Ruyter  to  retreat;  but  he  managed  to 
escape  in  a  fog,  leaving  the  English  so  crippled  that  they  had  to  sail 
home  to  refit.  Sandwich  was  blown  up  in  his  ship.  An  attempt, 
made  by  the  allies  later  in  the  season,  to  land  on  the  Dutch  coast  was 
frustrated  by  the  Dutch  Admiral,  with  the  help  of  his  superior  knowl- 
edge of  the  foggy,  sandy  shores. 

The  Close  of  the  War.  —  The  next  year  Prince  Rupert  succeeded 
the  Duke  of  York  who  had  to  give  up  his  command  in  consequence  of 
the  Test  Act.  Several  engagements  proved  as  indecisive  as  that  off 
Solebay.  In  the  hottest  of  them,  fought  off  the  Texel,  n  August, 
Rupert  might  have  prevailed  but  for  the  failure  of  the  French  and  some 
of  his  own  captains  to  understand  his  signals.  He  complained  bit- 
terly that  "  it  was  the  greatest  and  plainest  opportunity  ever  lost  at 
sea."  The  feeling  between  the  French  and  English  in  the  allied 
fleets  became  intense :  it  was  said  openly  that  the  French  "  must 
either  excuse  their  cowardice  by  their  treachery  or  their  treachery  by 

1  Buckingham  was  dismissed  in  1674.  2  Or  Solebay. 


LATER   YEARS   OF   CHARLES   II  553 

their  cowardice."  Increasing  numbers  of  Englishmen,  who  had  al- 
ready begun  to  fear  the  designs  of  Louis  XIV  more  than  the  commercial 
rivalry  of  the  Dutch,  became  convinced  that  their  sailors  were  being 
used  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  French,  and  it  was  the  common  opinion 
in  London  that  "  unless  this  alliance  with  France  be  broken  the  nation 
will  be  ruined."  About  the  same  time  a  revolution  in  Holland  re- 
stored Charles'  nephew  to  the  stadholderate  of  his  ancestors,  and 
De  Witt  and  his  brother  were  murdered  in  the  streets.  Although  the 
young  Stadholder,  contrary  to  expectation,  threatened  to  die  on  the 
last  dike  rather  than  yield  to  the  enemies  of  his  country,  both  sides 
were  really  ready  to  come  to  terms.  So  a  treaty  was  signed  at  Lon- 
don, 9  February,  i674/  by  which  the  Dutch  again  acknowledged  the 
honor  of  the  flag  and  restored  New  York,  which  they  had  captured 
in  the  previous  July.  While  they  had  fought  bravely  in  an  apparently 
irresistible  combination,  the  showing  of  the  English  had  been  in- 
glorious ;  they  had  been  unable  to  gain  a  decisive  victory,  or  to  land 
a  single  army  on  the  Dutch  coast.  Something  was  due  to  the  lack  of 
cooperation  on  the  part  of  the  allies ;  the  rest  may  be  explained  by 
corrupt  and  ineffective  administration,  by  the  shortage  of  men,  money 
and  supplies  and  the  reversal  of  English  public  opinion. 

The  Turning  Point  in  the  Policy  of  Charles.  Danby  made  Lord 
Treasurer.  —  With  the  passage  of  the  Test  Act  and  the  close  of  the 
Second  Dutch  War,  Charles  quietly  dropped  his  design  of  making 
England  Catholic.  Sir  Thomas  Osborne  (1631-1712),  a  Yorkshire 
baronet  of  small  estate,  succeeded  Clifford  as  Lord  Treasurer  in  1763 
and  was  created  Earl  of  Danby  the  following  year.  A  devoted  sup- 
porter of  the  royal  prerogative,  he  was  opposed  to  Catholicism  and 
French  ascendancy.  He  showed  great  financial  ability,  though  he  was 
unscrupulous  in  filling  his  own  pockets  and  in  attaching  supporters 
by  bribery  and  patronage.  Indeed,  his  control  of  Parliament  by 
financial  corruption  was  carried  to  such  an  extent  that  he  has  been 
accused  frequently  of  introducing  the  practice;  but  Clarendon 
lamented  its  use  in  his  own  day,  while  Clifford  also,  on  occasion,  sought 
to  gain  the  support  of  influential  men  in  this  way.  Danby  only  or- 
ganized the  system  and  extended  it  to  the  rank  and  file.  His  policy 
was  to  strengthen  the  Crown  by  allying  with  the  High  Church  party 
and  crushing  out  Dissent.  Charles  readily  went  to  the  lengths  of 
deserting  the  Catholics  for  the  High  Anglicans,  and  of  consenting  to 
the  persecution  of  the  Nonconformists ;  but  he  clung  to  his  project 
of  a  standing  army  till  1678,  and,  except  for  brief  intervals,  he  con- 
tinued in  the  pay  of  France  till  his  death,  though  after  the  peace  with 
the  Dutch  he  never  gave  Louis  any  active  support,  receiving  his  sub- 
sidies in  return  for  neutrality. 

The  First  Years  of  the  Danby  Regime.  —  The  domestic  situation 
during  the  next  few  years  was  a  dreary  one.  The  new  Lord  Treasurer 

1  Known  as  the  Peace  of  Westminster. 


554  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

managed  to  reduce  expenditures  below  revenue ;  but  he  had  to  bribe 
right  and  left  to  carry  out  his  policies,  and  even  stooped  to  gain  the 
favor  of  the  new  royal  favorite  Louise  de  Keroualle,1  Duchess  of 
Portsmouth,  who  drove  a  thriving  trade  in  the  sale  of  offices.  In 
the  midst  of  intrigue  and  license  which  ran  riot  at  court,  the  King  went 
comfortably  on  pursuing  his  pleasures,  conversing,  when  the  mood 
seized  him,  with  learned  men,  toying  with  learned  subjects,  and  re- 
fusing to  "  vex  and  disquiet  "  himself  any  more  than  possible  "  with 
that  foolish,  idle,  impertinent  thing  called  business."  Having  ceased 
to  press  his  Roman  Catholic  designs,  the  hopes  of  that  party  came  to 
center  more  and  more  round  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  York.  It  was 
the  aim  of  Danby,  supported  by  his  royal  master,  to  unite  the  Court, 
the  Cavaliers,  and  the  Church  in  a  solid  phalanx,  not  only  against  the 
Catholics,  but  against  the  Nonconformists.  To  that  end,  he  aimed 
to  exclude  from  office  and  public  life  all  who  would  not  make  a  dec- 
laration that  it  was  unlawful  to  take  up  arms  against  the  King  "  on 
any  pretext  whatsoever  "  and  swear  never  to  attempt  "  any  altera- 
tion in  the  government  or  religion  established  by  law."  This  famous 
non-resisting  test,  in  the  form  of  a  "  Bill  to  prevent  Dangers  which  may 
arise  from  Persons  disaffected  to  the  Government,"  was  introduced 
in  April,  1675,  and,  in  spite  of  heated  and  stubborn  opposition,  might 
have  become  law  but  for  a  dispute  which  arose  between  the  Lords  and 
Commons.2  This  was  fostered  so  deftly  by  Shaftesbury  that  the 
King  was  obliged  to  prorogue  Parliament. 

The  Beginning  of  the  Modern  Party  System.  —  It  was  during  the 
fight  against  Danby  and  the  Court  policy  in  the  session  of  1675  that 
the  Country  Party,  which  had  been  taking  shape  for  some  years,  was 
definitely  organized  under  Shaftesbury  in  the  Lords  and  by  William 
Sacheverell  in  the  Commons.  Built  on  the  principles  of  parliamentary 
supremacy  and  toleration,  it  soon  came  to  be  known  as  the  Whig 
party,  a  name  which  it  bore  until  well  into  the  nineteenth  century. 
It  survives  to-day  in  the  present  Liberal  party.  While  Danby  was 
the  first  to  organize  a  Government  machine,  his  opponents  put  on  a 
permanent  footing  one  of  the  two  great  modern  political  parties. 
The  center  of  activity  of  the  Country  party  was  the  Green  Ribbon  Club, 
founded  in  1675,  with  its  headquarters  in  the  King's  Head  Tavern  at  the 
foot  of  Chancery  Lane.  A  very  busy  organization  it  was,  too,  for  the 
next  few  years, -spurred  by  the  feverish  energy  of  its  president  Shaftes- 
bury. Antigovernment  men  of  all  sorts  gathered  at  its  meetings,  and 
there  petitions  were  drawn  up,  and  thence  speakers,  agents,  and  pam- 
phlets were  sent  to  spread  their  views,  throughout  the  city  and  country. 

The  Marriage  of  William  of  Orange  and  Princess  Mary,  1677.  — • 
The  question  of  the  succession  was  gradually  getting  to  be  acute. 

1  Popularly  known  as  "Madam  Carwell."     She  had  first  attracted  the  King's 
attention  when  she  came  from  France  in  the  train  of  his  sister  Henrietta  of  Orleans. 

2  This  case,  Shirley  vs.  Fagg,  is  important  from  the  fact  that  it  established  the 
right  of  the  House  of  Lords  to  hear  appeals  from  Chancery. 


LATER  YEARS  OF  CHARLES  II  555 

In  1676  James  became  a  professed  Roman  Catholic.  Early  in  the 
following  year,  Danby  introduced  a  bill  into  the  House  of  Lords  to 
secure  the  Protestant  religion  in  the  event  of  a  Catholic  successor. 
Though  it  passed  the  Upper  House,  the  bill  was  stoutly  resisted  in 
the  Commons,  and  ultimately  defeated  because  of  its  implication 
that  one  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  might  become  ruler  of  England. 
This  marks  the  beginning  of  the  famous  struggle  to  exclude  the  Duke 
of  York  from  the  throne,  which  came  to  a  head  two  or  three  years  later. 
When  Parliament,  elated  by  its  victory,  sought  to  induce  the  King  to 
break  loose  from  his  French  connection  and  to  submit  to  them  all 
projected  foreign  alliances,  he  replied  by  an  adjournment,1  and,  in 
a  conversation  with  the  Dutch  ambassador,  threw  his  kerchief  in  the 
air,  declaring  "  I  care  just  that  for  Parliament."  Nevertheless, 
and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was  in  the  pay  of  France,  he  agreed, 
upon  zealous  pressure  from  Danby,  that  Mary,2  the  eldest  daughter 
of  James  and  his  first  wife  Anne  Hyde,  should  marry  William  of 
Orange.  The  marriage,  which  had  already  been  discussed  in  1674, 
was  celebrated,  4  November,  1677.  Charles'  motives  were :  to  force 
more  money  from  Louis  by  coquetting  with  his  enemy ;  to  strengthen 
himself  with  his  Anglican  supporters;  and  to  obtain  supplies  of 
money  and  men  from  them  by  a  threatened  demonstration  against 
the  power  which  they  hated.  At  a  public  banquet,  Danby  gave  the 
toast :  "  Confusion  to  all  that  are  not  for  a  war  with  France,"  and,  10 
January,  1678,  a  treaty  was  signed  at  the  Hague  between  England  and 
Holland  to  force  Louis  XIV  to  make  peace.3 

A  Tortuous  Foreign  Policy.  The  Peace  of  Nymwegen,  1678.  — 
The  course  of  English  foreign  policy  was  most  tortuous,  and  the  re- 
lations between  Charles  and  his  Parliament  were  most  complicated. 
At  times  the  King,  in  order  to  strengthen  his  army  and  to  secure  sup- 
plies from  the  Commons,  was  threatening  war  with  France;  yet,  all 
the  while,  he  was  treating  with  his  old  paymaster,  now  breathing  de- 
fiance, then  promising  to  dissolve  his  Parliament,  always  with  the  view 
to  making  the  best  financial  terms  possible.  While  Parliament  voted 
him  considerable  sums  for  the  war,  there  was  generally  a  strong  op- 
position against  him.  Many  were  fearful  as  to  the  use  to  which  he 
might  put  the  men  and  money  which  he  sought,  others  wanted  to  get 
rid  of  Danby,  and  not  a  few  had  been  corrupted  by  French  gold. 
The  aim  of  Louis  XIV  in  subsidizing  the  Opposition4  was  to  strengthen 
the  party  opposed  to  Danby,  and,  while  the  session  lasted,  to  keep 
Charles  so  embroiled  that  he  could  not  carry  out  his  threat  of  inter- 

1  In  recent  years  he  had  employed  adjournments  and  prorogations  as  his  chief 
weapon. 

2  She  had  been  brought  up  a  Protestant,  though  her  mother  died  in  the  Church 
of  Rome. 

3  He  had  continued  the  war  of  conquest  after  England  and  Holland  had  come 
to  terms  by  the  Peace  of  Westminster  in  1674. 

4  It  was  estimated  at  one  time  that  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  members  were 
in  the  pay  either  of  Charles  or  of  Louis. 


556  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

vening  in  behalf  of  the  Dutch.  When,  in  spite  of  his  bribes  and  in- 
trigues, the  English  King  finally  prepared  to  send  a  force  to  assist 
William  of  Orange,  he  was  obliged  to  put  an  end  to  the  war.  Terms 
of  peace  with  Holland  were  signed  at  Nymwegen,  10  August,  1678. l 
They  were  much  more  favorable,  however,  to  Louis  than  those  made 
at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  ten  years  before,  for  he  now  secured  Franche  Comte 
and  several  additional  strongholds  on  the  northeast  frontier.  While 
Charles  gained  nothing  by  the  actual  terms  of  the  peace,  the  events 
which  led  up  to  it  had  greatly  strengthened  his  position.  He  had  in- 
creased his  standing  army,  and  he  had  drawn  large  sums  of  money  both 
from  Parliament  and  Louis,  by  playing  one  against  the  other.  Such 
was  the  situation  when  startling  disclosures  of  Titus  Gates,  an  unscru- 
pulous informer  and  liar,  threw  England  into  a  violent  panic.  The 
anti-Catholic  frenzy  aroused  by  the  so-called  "  Popish  Plot  "  2  gave 
the  Country  party  a  momentary  ascendancy  which  they  failed  to 
maintain  because  of  their  unbridled  violence. 

Titus  Gates  and  His  Story.  —  Titus  Gates  was  the  son  of  a  Baptist 
and  former  chaplain  of  one  of  Cromwell's  regiments.  Deserting  his 
father's  faith,  he  had  first  taken  orders  in  the  Church  of  England,  and 
then  in  1677  joined  the  Church  of  Rome.  His  motives  were  base: 
either  to  obtain  profitable  employment  as  an  agent  in  Catholic  in- 
trigues, or  to  sell  their  secrets  to  the  English  Protestant  party.  Al- 
ready in  the  course  of  a  checkered  career  he  had  been  found  guilty  of 
false  witness  and  of  offenses  even  more  loathsome.  This  malicious 
and  mendacious  creature,  while  not  the  first  or  the  last  of  the  flesh 
flies  who  fattened  on  the  political  and  religious  disorders  of  the  period, 
was  the  most  infamous.  His  appearance  was  as  grotesque  and  dis- 
gusting as  his  designs ;  heavy  and  squat  in  build,  bull-necked  and 
bow-legged,  he  had  small  sunken  eyes,  a  long  chin,  a  purple  face,  and 
a  rasping  voice.  During  brief  residences  at  the  Jesuit  colleges  of 
Valladolid  and  St.  Omers,  from  each  of  which  he  was  successively 
expelled  in  1677  and  1678,  he  learned  from  scraps  of  conversation  that 
Charles  II  was  thought  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  Romanist  conver- 
sion of  England  for  which  he  had  once  striven  so  zealously;  that 
Roman  Catholic  hopes  were  now  centered  on  his  royal  brother ;  that 
Coleman,  secretary  first  to  the  Duke  and  later  to  the  Duchess  of 
York,  was  busy  corresponding  with  the  French  Jesuit,  Pere  la  Chaise, 
and  that  a  Jesuit  congregation  had  been  held  in  London,  April,  1678. 
Disappointed  of  a  career  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  he  went  to  London, 
and,  with  one  Dr.  Tonge,  a  fanatical  anti-Catholic  pamphleteer, 
worked  up  his  story  from  such  materials  as  he  had  gathered.  It 
was,  in  substance,  that  there  was  a  hellish  plot  to  fire  the  City, 
to  rouse  rebellion  in  Ireland,  to  invade  England  with  a  French 

1  Peace  with  Spain  followed  17  September,  1678,  and  with  the  Emperor,  6  Febru- 
ary, 1679. 

2  It  has  been  more  fitly  called  the  "Popish  terror  .  .  .  the  last  and  impudentest 
attempt  upon  the  credulity  of  mankind." 


LATER  YEARS  OF  CHARLES  II  557 

and  Irish  army,  to  massacre  the  Protestants,  and  to  murder  the 
King.1 

The  Murder  of  Sir  Edmund  Bury  Godfrey,  1678.  —  These  dis- 
closures were  read  before  Charles  and  the  Council,  and  a  copy  of  the 
charges  was  put  into  the  hands  of  Sir  Edmund  Bury  Godfrey,  a  justice 
of  the  peace,  who,  though  a  Protestant,  was  intimately  acquainted 
with  Coleman  and  other  prominent  Roman  Catholics.  In  spite  of 
the  fact  that  Oates  was  twice  caught  in  falsehood  and  contradiction 
during  his  examination  before  the  Council,  an  investigation  was  set 
on  foot  which  resulted  in  the  discovering  of  Coleman's  correspondence 
with  Pere  la  Chaise.  This  was  the  only  evidence  that  could  be  found 
to  support  the  story  of  Oates.  In  view,  however,  of  the  intrigues 
with  France,  partly  known  and  partly  suspected,  the  people  were 
ready  to  believe  anything;  therefore,  when,  17  October,  1678,  the 
dead  body  of  Godfrey  was  found  in  a  ditch,  their  fears  mounted  to  a 
panic.  The  mystery  of  Godfrey's  death  has  never'been  solved.  Some 
maintain  that  he  committed  suicide ;  others,  that  Oates  and  his  gang 
murdered  him  to  lend  color  to  their  assertions ;  others,  again,  insist 
that  he  was  made  away  with  by  the  Jesuits  because  he  knew  dangerous 
secrets.  If  that  be  the  case,  they  were  guilty  of  a  stupendous  blunder ; 
for  it  served  to  precipitate  the  gathering  superstition  and  terror 
which  culminated  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  lives  of  so  many  innocent 
Catholics.  ;? 

Causes  Promoting  Belief  in  the  Plot.  —  Oates,  though  he  told  a 
lying  story,  had  some  ground  to  work  upon  ;  in  other  words,  there  was, 
to  some  extent,  a  real  as  well  as  a  sham  plot.  Charles,  by  the  Treaty 
of  Dover,  had  entered  into  a  definite  engagement  for  the  Catholicizing 
of  England.  When  the  turn  of  events  caused  him  to  abandon  these 
designs,  and  particularly  after  he  had  given  his  sanction  to  the  mar- 
riage of  William  of  Orange  and  had  allied  himself  with  the  Dutch, 
Catholics,  at  home  and  abroad,  far  from  giving  up  hope,  began  to 
look  to  his  brother  to  accomplish  the  work  which  he  had  deserted. 
While  they  worked  earnestly  at  their  plan  of  converting  the  country 
and  securing  the  succession  of  James,  there  is  no  proof  that  they  ever 
plotted  to  murder  the  reigning  King.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  English 
Jesuits  did  hold  their  provincial  synod  of  April,  1678,  in  the  apart- 
ments of  the  Duke  in  St.  James'  Palace.  This,  had  it  been  known,  was 
a  more  damning  circumstance  than  Oates'  deposition  that  they  had 
met  in  the  White  Horse  Tavern.  But  it  was  his  further  assertion  that 
they  "  had  taken  counsel  to  murder  the  King,"  which  furnished  the 
party  leaders  with  what  they  wanted.  Those  on  both  sides  sought 
to  make  use  of  the  "  Plot  "  for  their  own  ends.  Danby  thought  by 
fostering  the  excitement  he  could  divert  the  steadily  increasing  attacks 

1  This  last  was  to  be  amply  provided  for :  Charles  was  to  be  poisoned  by  the 
Queen's  physician,  he  was  to  be  shot  by  silver  bullets  as  he  walked  in  St.  James 
Park,  and  he  was  to  be  set  upon  by  four  hired  ruffians  and  stabbed  with  a  conse- 
crated knife  a  foot  long. 


558  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

against  himself  and  his  administration.1  But  he  soon  found  that 
instead  of  "  sharing  the  popularity  of  nursing  it  "  he  was  like  a  man 
trying  to  hold  a  "  wolf  by  the  ears ;  he  could  neither  hold  it  nor  let 
it  go,  and  for  certain  it  bit  him  at  last." 

But  his  opponent  Shaftesbury  was  the  most  active  of  all  in  foment- 
ing the  excitement.  "  Let  the  Treasurer  cry  never  so  loud,"  he  de- 
clared, "  against  Popery,  and  think  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
Plot  ...  I  will  cry  a  note  louder."  Gates  gave  him  the  weapons 
he  sought,  to  fight  the  succession  of  James  and  the  Catholic  line.  His 
zeal  was  amazing  in  procuring  informers  and  in  hounding  them  by 
threats  or  bribery  or  whatever  means  proved  most  effective.  Danby 
and  Shaftesbury  were  unscrupulous  partisans ;  but  Lord  Russell, 
perhaps  the  noblest  man  of  the  time,  firm  in  the  belief  "  that  Popery 
is,  and  was,  breaking  upon  us  like  a  flood,"  joined  in  the  cry ;  and  such 
a  broad-minded,  philosophic  statesman  as  Halifax  declared  that  "  the 
Plot  must  be  handled  as  if  it  were  true." 

Charles'  Share  in  the  Responsibility.  —  Charles  must  bear  a  heavy 
share  of  the  responsibility  for  the  whole  matter.  By  his  manifest 
favor  to  Roman  Catholics  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign,  and  by  his 
intrigues  with  France,  he  had  aroused  the  popular  apprehension  to 
the  point  of  believing  any  tale  however  ridiculous ;  moreover,  he  had 
placed  himself  in  a  position  such  that  he  could  not  make  light  of  the 
whole  affair  without  laying  himself  open  to  suspicion.  So,  though  he 
did  not  believe  a  word  of  the  Plot,  and  even  declared  to  his  intimates 
that  he  regarded  the  chief  informers  as  liars  and  rogues,  he  remained 
passive,  letting  events  take  their  course.  He  allowed  innocent  men  to 
go  to  their  death  on  the  testimony  of  rascals,  and  even  allowed  Gates, 
the  archvillain  of  them  all,  to  lodge  in  splendor  at  Whitehall  and  to 
receive  a  large  weekly  pension  from  the  privy  purse.  Yet  this  was 
the  man  who  could  tell  one  of  his  courtiers  that  "  he  would  never  do 
a  base  or  wicked  thing,  and  that  he  looked  on  a  falsehood  and  cruelty 
as  the  greatest  crimes  in  the  sight  of  God."  He  showed  himself  to 
be  an  adroit  politician,  but  a  very  base  or  a  very  weak  man.  It  was 
the  natural  outcome  of  his  extravagant,  selfish  life  and  his  tortuous 
courses  that,  when  a  crisis  came,  he  was  too  lazy  and  too  cowardly 
and  too  far  compromised  to  stand  up  at  once  for  what  he  knew  to  be 
right.  It  was  not  till  he  realized  clearly  that  Shaftesbury  and  his 
party  were  aiming,  with  the  aid  of  Gates  and  his  kind,  to  force  him  to 
divorce  his  queen,2  to  exclude  his  brother  from  the  throne,3  and  to 
recognize  as  his  successor  his  illegitimate  son,  James,  Duke  of  Mon- 

1  Some  authorities,  however,  deny  this  and  insist  that  he  refused  openly  to  credit 
the  Plot  from  the  first. 

1  "She  was  a  weak  woman  and  had  some  disagreeable  humors,"  he  declared  to 
a  confidant,  "but  was  not  capable  of  a  wicked  thing,  and,  considering  his  own 
faultiness  to  her  in  some  things,  he  thought  it  a  horrid  thing  to  abandon  her." 

*  He  told  Danby  privately  that  he  would  be  "  content  to  pare  the  nails  of  a 
Popish  successor,  but  he  would  not  suffer  his  own  brother  to  be  taken  away  from 
him,  nor  the  right  line  of  succession  interrupted." 


LATER  YEARS  OF  CHARLES  II  559 

mouth,  that  he  roused  himself,  dashed  their  plans,  and  fought  them  with 
amazing  ability  and  determination  during  the  rest  of  his  reign.  Yet, 
before  that  happened,  he  had  allowed  his  subjects  to  pass  through  a 
stage  of  madness  which  was  an  abiding  disgrace  to  him  and  them. 

Parliament  imposes  New  Tests  upon  Roman  Catholics,  1678.  — 
Parliament  met  21  October,  1678,  and  continued  in  session  until 
30  December.  Its  first  step  was  to  hurry  through  a  resolution  that 
"  there  has  been,  and  still  is,  a  damnable  and  hellish  plot  contrived 
and  carried  on  by  Popish  recusants,  for  the  assassinating  and  murder- 
ing of  the  King,  and  for  subverting  the  Government,  and  rooting  out 
and  destroying  the  Protestant  religion."  None  dared  dissent  for 
fear  of  being  thought  implicated.  Fear  rose  to  panic.  Elaborate 
precautions  were  taken  against  fire,  men  went  about  armed,  and  the 
"  Protestant  flail  "  was  invented,  —  a  handy  little  club  for  striking 
suddenly  a  threatened  assailant.  The  City  and  the  royal  palace  were 
guarded  with  troops  and  cannon.  The  prisons  were  filled  with  sus- 
pects, and,  while  their  trials  were  proceeding,  measures  were  framed 
to  exclude  Roman  Catholics  from  the  Government,  to  drive  James 
from  the  royal  presence,  and  to  bar  him  from  the  succession.  A  new 
test,  passed  28  October,  1678,  obliged  members  of  both  Houses  to 
take  the  oaths  of  Supremacy  and  Allegiance  and  subscribe  to  a  decla- 
ration that  worship  according  to  the  Church  of  Rome  was  idolatrous.1 
Although  the  Duke  of  York  was  excepted  from  the  parliamentary 
test,  it  was  moved  that  he  be  no  longer  allowed  to  sit  in  the  King's 
Council.  A  proposal  excluding  him  from  the  succession  was  not  em- 
bodied in  a  bill  until  the  next  Parliament.  The  most  commendable 
achievement  of  the  Country  party  in  this  session  was  in  forcing  Charles 
to  disband  the  standing  army  which  they  protested  was  raised  "  for 
an  imaginary  war."  2 

The  Victims  of  the  Plot.  —  For  months  the  trials  of  those  accused 
of  participation  in  the  Plot  went  on.  Coleman  was  the  first  to  die. 
He  was  guilty  of  the  charge  of  treason  in  trying  to  "  subvert  the  Protes- 
tant religion  as  it  is  by  law  established  ...  by  the  aid  and  assistance 
of  foreign  powers,"  though  he  was  probably  innocent  of  the  accusa- 
tion that  he  had  conspired  to  assassinate  the  King.  Urged  to  make 
disclosures,  he  replied  that  "  he  knew  there  was  enough  already  to 
take  away  his  life,  and  he  did  not  know  enough  to  save  it."  Upwards 
of  twenty  more  met  the  same  fate ;  most  of  them  innocent  of  any 
crime  except  that  of  being  Roman  Catholics  and  attempting  to 
propagate  their  faith.  The  judges  were  brutal  and  biased,  the 
witnesses  told  what  they  knew  to  be  lies ;  but,  it  must  be  said,  the 
procedure  was  no  more  unfair  than  it  had  been  for  a  century  and  more. 

1  In  the  course  of  the  debate  in  the  House  of  Peers  a  noble  lord  was  roundly 
cheered  for  declaring  that  he  "  would  not  have  so  much  as  a  Popish  man  or  woman 
to  remain  amongst  us ;  not  so  much  as  a  Popish  dog  .  .  .  not  so  much  as  a  Popish 
cat  mew  or  purr  about  the  King." 

2  "These  redcoats,"  they  declared,  "may  fight  against  Magna  Carta." 


560  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

In  constant  fear  of  danger  from  without,  of  treason  and  rebellion  from 
within,  with  no  adequate  police  or  military  force,  the  Government 
saw  no  safety  except  in  swift,  ruthless  convictions.  Thus  the  law 
courts  were  concerned,  not  so  much  in  saving  the  innocent,  as  in  acting 
as  "  citadels  against  treason,"  in  making  examples  of  those  who  seemed 
guilty.  One  particular  injustice  under  which  the  Catholics  labored, 
as  has  been  pointed  out  by  the  most  brilliant  writer  on  this  period, 
was  that  neither  people,  judges,  or  juries  attached  any  belief  to  the 
testimony  of  their  witnesses,  since  many  of  them  were  Jesuits,  and 
since  it  was  commonly  supposed  that  Jesuits  were  taught  to  lie  in 
the  interest  of  the  Church.  While  the  Popish  Terror  was  at  its 
height,  the  courts  as  well  as  the  places  of  execution  were  threatened 
by  howling  mobs,  so  that  the  judges  could  acquit  no  one  without 
the  greatest  risk  to  their  own  safety.  The  turn  of  the  tide  came  in 
July,  1679,  with  the  acquittal  of  George  Wakeman,  the  Queen's 
physician,  whose  case  was  bound  up  with  that  of  his  royal  mistress. 
Chief  Justice  Scroggs  —  a  coarse,  dissipated  person  like  too  many  of 
his  contemporaries  on  the  bench  —  acted  a  courageous  part  in  setting 
him  free.  He  was  bitterly  attacked  and  reviled,  and,  even  though  he 
acted  on  a  hint  from  the  Court,  he  staked  not  only  his  career  but  his 
life  on  the  decision.  ^More  trials  there  were ;  but  they  grew  fewer  and 
fewer,1  though  two  victims  of  high  rank  remained  yet  to  be  sacrificed 
to  the  popular  fury.  In  December,  1680,  Lord  Stafford,  an  aged  peer 
of  the  notable  family  of  Howard,  was  sent  to  the  block,  and  in  the 
ensuing  summer  he  was  followed  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop 
of  Armagh,  the  last  of  the  accused  to  suffer. 

The  Fall  of  Danby,  1678-1679.  —  Meantime,  Danby  had  fallen,  and 
the  Cavalier  Parliament  was  no  more.  The  Lord  Treasurer  was 
overthrown  by  the  combined  hostility  of  the  Shaftesbury  party  and 
the  French  King.  The  agent  was  a  disappointed  office  seeker,  Ralph 
Montague,  ambassador  at  Paris,  to  whom  Danby  had  refused  the 
position  of  Secretary  of  State.  Moved  by  revenge  and  by  a  bribe  from 
Louis  XIV,  he  published  instructions  which  he  had  received  from 
Danby,  in  March,  1678,  to  offer  the  dissolution  of  Parliament  in  return 
for  a  French  loan.  Parliament  demanded  the  dismissal  of  the  Lord 
Treasurer  forthwith.  It  was  urged  in  vain  that,  disapproving  of  the 
proposal,  he  acted  solely  in  accordance  with  the  royal  orders.  Charles 
tried  to  save  him  by  proroguing  and  thus  dissolving  Parliament. 
The  new  Parliament,  which  met,  6  March,  1679,  resumed  the  attack. 
Meantime,  Danby,  who  had  been  rewarded  with  the  title  of  Marquis, 
had  been  dismissed  and  was  in  hiding.  When  a  bill  of  attainder  was 
passed  against  him,  he  appeared  to  defend  himself.  He  was  ultimately 
committed  to  the  Tower,  where  he  remained  for  nearly  five  years. 
Danby's  case  is  of  great  political  and  constitutional  significance.  It 
marks  another  step  in  the  process  of  calling  ministers  to  account,  and 

1  For  a  long  time,  however,  priests  were  tried  and  convicted  under  a  law  of 
Elizabeth  which  made  it  treason  for  them  to  remain  in  the  land. 


it  put  an  end  to  the  Parliament  which  had  grown  steadily  more  corrupt 
during  the  eighteen  years  of  its  life,  a  Parliament  in  which  he  had 
organized  his  political  machine.  Moreover,  during  the  proceedings 
against  him  several  important  points  were  raised.  It  was  maintained, 
for  instance,  that  a  dissolution  did  not  put  an  end  to  an  impeachment,1 
and  that  a  royal  pardon  was  no  bar  to  an  impeachment.2 

The  "  Habeas  Corpus  Act,"  1679.  —  This  Parliament  which 
disposed  of  Danby,  secured  notable  gains  to  the  subject  in  connection 
with  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  Charles  I  had  evaded  the  spirit, 
if  not  the  letter,  of  the  great  concession  which  he  had  made  in  the  Peti- 
tion of  Right,  and,  though  the  act  abolishing  Star  Chamber  contained 
a  provision  that  persons  might  not  be  imprisoned  by  the  King's  com- 
mand or  that  of  the  Privy  Council,  repeated  instances  of  arbitrary 
imprisonment  occurred  after  the  Restoration,  especially  under  Clar- 
endon's regime.  One  bill  after  another  was  introduced;  but  it  was 
not  till  1679  that  an  act 3  was  passed,  mainly  through  the  efforts  of 
Shaftesbury,  to  make  the  execution  of  the  writ  more  effectual. 
Hitherto,  the  jailer  had  not  been  bound  to  make  an  immediate  return, 
and  he  might  avoid  giving  up  a  prisoner  by  shifting  him  from  prison 
to  prison.  Moreover,  it  was  not  clear  whether  any  but  the  court  of 
the  King's  Bench  could  issue  the  writ,  or  whether  a  single  judge  could 
do  so  during  the  long  vacation.  The  act  of  1679  provided  that  any 
prisoner  held  on  a  criminal  charge  must,  on  the  issuance  of  the  writ, 
be  brought  before  the  judge  within  an  interval  of  twenty  days  to  de- 
cide whether  he  should  be  released  on  bail  or  held  for  trial ;  and  that 
a  man  accused  of  treason  or  felony  must  be  tried  at  the  next  gaol 
delivery  or  released  on  bail,  unless  witnesses  for  the  Crown  could  not 
be  procured ;  and  if  untried  at  the  gaol  delivery  following,  he  should 
be  discharged.  Henceforth,  the  writ  might  be  obtained  from  any 
court,  while  during  the  long  vacation  a  single  judge  might  issue  it. 
Furthermore,  except  in  special  cases  persons  could  not  be  imprisoned 
beyond  the  seas,  and  the  writ  was  to  run  in  the  counties  palatine  and 
other  privileged  jurisdictions.  Evasions  were  punished  by  heavy 
fines.  Even  yet  the  remedies  were  still  inadequate.  A  judge  might 
require  bail  too  excessive  for  the  prisoner  to  obtain,  jailers  might 
make  a  false  return,  and  the  provisions  applied  to  criminal  cases 
only.  The  first  was  remedied  by  the  Bill  of  Rights,  the  two  latter 
by  an  act  of  i8i6.4 

1  This,  however,  was  not  finally  established  till  the  celebrated  Warren  Hastings' 
Case  in  1791. 

2  This  assertion  was  soon  confirmed  by  the  Act  of  Settlement,  13  Wm.,  Ill  c.  2. 

3  Popularly  known  as  the  "Habeas  Corpus  Act,"  it  was  really  entitled:    "An 
act  for  the  better  securing  the  Liberty  of  the  Subject,  and  for  prevention  of  Im- 
prisonment beyond  the  Seas." 

4  It  is  said  that  the  act  of  1679  only  passed  the  House  of  Lords  by  an  accident, 
since  a  very  fat  lord  was  counted,  in  jest,  as  ten ;  two,  according  to  another  account. 
At  any  rate,  more  votes  were  cast  than  the  records  show  to  have  been  present  on 
that  day. 


562  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  First  Exclusion  Bill,  1679.  The  Whigs  and  Tories.  —  Charles 
ratified  the  act  in  order  to  placate  the  Opposition  which  was  bent  on 
excluding  the  Duke  of  York  from  the  succession.  A  bill  for  that 
purpose  passed  the  Commons,  and  the  King  only  prevented  it  from 
going  to  the  Lords  by  proroguing  Parliament,  27  May,  1679.  That 
body  did  not  meet  again  till  the  autumn  of  1680.  During  the  interval 
the  struggle  waged  furiously.  In  order  to  prevent  Charles  from 
forming  another  inner  circle  of  the  ministers,  as  he  had  done  in  the  case 
of  the  Cabal,  Sir  William  Temple  got  him  to  remodel  the  Council  on 
a  plan  which  he  had  devised.  Instead  of  fifty  there  were  to  be  thirty 
members,  half  ex-officio,  half  selected  from  the  popular  party.  Charles 
accepted  the  scheme  merely  to  gain  time  and  took  care  that  it  should 
fail.  He  rarely  consulted  the  new  body.  With  cool  irony  he  made 
Shaftesbury  president,  dismissed  him  in  October,  1679,  and  gradually 
froze  out  his  supporters.  When  in  January,  1680,  Russell  and  others 
asked  permission  to  withdraw,  he  answered :  "  With  all  my  heart." 
Halifax,  Essex,  and  Sunderland  —  the  latter  came  into  disagreeable 
prominence  later  —  stayed  on,  and  managed  affairs  under"  the  title 
of  the  "  Triumvirate."  Charles  played  a  waiting  game,  hoping  by 
repeated  prorogations  to  keep  Parliament  in  check  or  to  drive  the 
Opposition  to  violence.  Petitions  poured  in  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  begging  him  to  call  Parliament.  These  were  answered  by 
counter-petitions  from  his  supporters,  declaring  their  abhorrence  of 
such  petitions.  The  names  "  petitioners  "  and  "  abhorrers  "  came  to 
be  applied  to  the  two  great  parties,  who,  however,  soon  received  their 
more  enduring  names  of  "  Whigs  and  Tories."  x 

Second  Exclusion  Bill,  1680.  The  Oxford  Parliament,  1681. — 
Truly  these  months  were  a  "  crazy  time  everywhere."  The  Duke  of 
Monmouth,  one  of  the  King's  illegitimate  sons,  a  "  weak,  bad,  and 
beautiful  young  man  .  .  .  popular,  good-natured,  and  charming  as 
his  reputed  father,"  had  gained  some  popularity  by  suppressing  a 
Presbyterian  rising  in  Scotland,  and  Shaftesbury,  disappointed  of 
forcing  Charles  into  a  divorce  and  a  Protestant  marriage,  aimed  to 
set  him  in  the  place  of  the  Duke  of  York  as  heir  to  the  throne.  In 
the  early  winter  of  1680  he  aroused  hot  discussion  by  circulating  stories 
about  a  certain  "  Black  Box,"  said  to  contain  papers  proving  the 
marriage  of  Charles  to  Monmouth's  mother,  Lucy  Walters.  When 
Parliament  met  in  October,  a  second  exclusion  bill  was  introduced. 
Passing  the  Commons,  it  was  defeated  in  the  Lords  chiefly  by  the 
eloquence  of  Halifax,  who  favored  Charles'  plan  of  a  Catholic  suc- 
cession with  limitations  and  expedients  which  the  Opposition  regarded 
as  a  "  little  gilding  to  cover  a  poisonous  pill."  They  insisted  that 

1  Whig  is  thought  to  be  a  shortened  form  of  "Whiggamore,"  a  name  applied  to 
the  Scotch  covenanting  party,  from  "Whiggam,"  the  cry  by  which  they  encour- 
aged their  horses,  though  some  derive  it  from  a  word  meaning  "sour  whey." 
"Tory"  originally  meant  an  Irish  outlaw.  It  was  first  applied  by  Gates  to  those 
who  disbelieved  in  the  plot  and  passed  from  them  to  the  opponents  of  the  Exclusion. 


LATER  YEARS  OF  CHARLES  II        563 

the  King  supported  his  brother  because  "  it  is  good  to  have  a  suc- 
cessor they  like  worse  than  himself."  The  Houses  were  prorogued, 
and  finally  dissolved  in  January,  1681.  The  King's  last  Parliament 
met  21  March,  1681,  at  Oxford ;  for  he  dared  not  allow  it  to  assemble 
in  London.  The  Whigs,  greatly  in  the  majority,  and  backed  by  bands 
of  armed  followers,  were  determined  to  force  through  their  exclusion 
measure,  to  restrict  the  royal  right  of  proroguing  and  dissolving 
Parliament,  and  to  set  up  a  Protestant  Association  to  govern  the 
country  under  Monmouth.  Charles,  in  order  to  secure  his  supporters 
against  attack,  had  the  road  to  Oxford  lined  with  armed  men  and 
made  other  preparations  for  defense.  Moreover,  he  secured  another 
large  grant  from  Louis  XIV,  and  when  the  Opposition  again  refused 
to  accept  a  bill  of  limitations,  he  put  an  end  to  the  session  after  eight 
days,  the  members  dispersing  with  "  dreadful  faces  and  loud  sighs." 
It  was  "  as  if  a  gust  of  wind  had  suddenly  scattered  the  leaves  from 
the  trees."  His  waiting  policy  had  been  crowned  with  success,  the 
Whigs  had  overreached  themselves  by  their  own  violence,  and  never 
again  while  Charles  lived  were  they  to  recover  their  lost  ascendancy. 
Their  leaders  kept  up  the  struggle,  but  their  following  was  a  body  of 
desperate  agitators,  —  an  "  exploded,  scanty,  and  forsaken  "  remnant, 
not  a  popular  political  party. 

Flight  and  Death  of  Shaftesbury.  The  Royal  Attack  on  the  Munic- 
ipal Corporations.  —  Loyal  addresses  came  pouring  in  from  all  sides, 
couched  in  the  most  abject  and  fulsome  language.  The  Tory  doc- 
trines of  non-resistance  and  absolute  devotion  to  absolutism  became 
all  the  more  fashionable  by  way  of  reaction  against  the  Whig  notions 
which  had  dominated  the  last  three  parliaments.  Charles  was  now 
ready  to  assume  the  aggressive.  The  first  blow  was  aimed  against 
Shaftesbury,  who  was  charged  with  plotting  against  the  King  and  with 
attempting  to  set  up  a  republic.  Although  the  grand  jury  refused 
to  bring  in  a  true  bill  against  him,1  the  fiery  popular  leader,  after  a 
year  of  furious  agitation  and  busy  intrigues,  fled  to  Holland  in  Decem- 
ber, 1682,  where  he  died  the  following  January.  The  Middlesex 
jury  who  had  thus  defied  the  royal  will  was  appointed  by  the  London 
sheriffs,  who,  in  their  turn,  were  chosen  by  the  City,  where  the  Whig 
element  remained  strong.  Accordingly,  Charles,  in  order  to  revenge 
himself,  and  at  the  same  time  to  gain  control  of  the  government  of 
London,  had  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  brought  in  the  King's  Bench  call- 
ing on  the  City  to  show  why,  by  what  warrant,  it  should  not  forfeit 
its  charter,  on  the  ground  that  it  had  abused  its  privileges  by  imposing 
certain  tolls  on  goods  brought  into  the  City  markets  and  by  demand- 
ing a  parliament,  December,  1679,  in  an  inflammatory  petition  which 
had  been  circulated  through  the  country.  In  June,  1683,  the  judges 
rendered  a  decision  that  the  charter  should  be  forfeited.  However, 
it  was  proposed  that  the  charter  might  be  retained  on  certain  condi- 

1They  brought  in  a  verdict  of  "ignoramus." 


564  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tions,  the  most  important  being  that  the  election  of  the  chief  officials 
should  be  submitted  for  royal  approval.  When  the  City  refused  to 
submit  to  this  arrangement,  Charles  proceeded  to  appoint  men  of  his 
own  choice.  He  next  extended  the  attack  against  other  munici- 
palities. His  object  was  not  only  to  increase  his  supporters  in  influen- 
tial centers,  but,  since  many  corporations  chose  borough  members 
in  Parliament,  to  strengthen  his  party  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  the 
event  of  another  session.  Some  resisted,  some  surrendered  their 
charters  when  suit  was  brought  against  them.1  It  was  said  that  when 
Judge  Jeffreys,  who  became  so  notorious  in  the  next  reign,  went  on 
the  northern  circuit, "  he  made  all  the  charters,  like  the  walls  of  Jericho, 
fall  down  before  him."  Altogether,  nearly  seventy  charters  were  for- 
feited or  remodeled  i 

The  Ryehouse  Plot  and  the  Executions  of  Russell  and  Sidney.  — 
Meantime,  the  Duke  of  York  had  resumed  office  in  violation  of  the 
Test  Act,  and  the  persecution  of  Dissenters  had  been  resumed.  With 
the  City  in  the  hands  of  the  Tories  the  Whigs  determined  to  try  a 
final  stroke.  A  council  of  six  from  the  Green  Ribbon  Club,  with 
Shaftesbury  as  president,  and  including  Monmouth,  Russell,  Algernon 
Sidney,  and  Essex,  met  and  discussed  plans  for  forcing  the  King  to 
call  a  Parliament  and  even  for  stirring  up  an  armed  rising.  It  was  the 
failure  of  these  schemes  which  led  to  the  flight  of  Shaftesbury.  An- 
other plot,  however,  was  devised  by  certain  old  Cromwellians  to 
murder  the  King  and  his  brother  as  they  returned  to  London  from 
Newmarket,  in  April,  1683.  This  attempt,  known  as  the  Ryehouse 
plot,  from  the  abode  of  one  of  the  conspirators,  whence  the  attack 
was  to  be  made,  miscarried,  because  the  royal  brothers  came  down  a 
week  before  they  were  expected.  The  discovery  of  this  plot  brought 
the  other  less  criminal  one  to  light.  Russell  and  Sidney  were  tried 
with  the  customary  scant  regard  for  justice  and  were  executed.  Essex 
died  in  prison  by  his  own  hand.  Monmouth  was  forgiven  but  sent 
into  exile. 

The  Triumph  and  Death  of  Charles,  1685.  —  Charles  was  now 
triumphant.  The  country  was  prosperous,  trade  was  flourishing,  and 
the  price  of  land  was  high ;  the  furious  partisanship  of  the  Whigs, 
the  dread  of  another  revolution,  and  the  King's  adroitness  in  giving  up 
his  Catholic  designs  and  in  playing  his  adversaries  2  until  they  had 
risen  to  the  bait  had  left  him  supreme.  Yet  he  had  won  at  a  tremen- 
dous sacrifice.  For  the  sake  of  French  gold  he  had  acquiesced  tamely 
in  Louis  XIV's  plans  of  ascendancy  which  caused  untold  misery  to 
generations  to  come.  But  his  motto  was,  "  If  I  can  be  well  so  long 

1  The  charges  were  usually  flimsy :  at  Oxford  the  election  of  a  town  clerk  with- 
out the  royal  approval ;  at  York,  the  refusal  to  allow  a  mountebank,  recommended 
by  the  King,  to  erect  a  stage. 

2  He  had  put  the  extremists  in  the  wrong  by  offering  a  series  of  concessions  which 
he  knew  they  would  refuse,  but  which  satisfied  the  bulk  of  the  moderates  —  ex- 
clusion of  the  Catholics  from  Parliament  and  public  office ;  limitations  on  the  power 
of  a  Catholic  successor.     He  had  also  ratified  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act. 


LATER   YEARS   OF   CHARLES   II  565 

as  I  live,  I  care  little  what  happens  afterwards."  However,  he  did 
not  live  to  enjoy  long  the  repose  which  he  had  so  basely  gained.  He 
was  stricken  with  apoplexy,  2  February,  1685,  and  only  survived  four 
days.  Witty  to  the  end,  he  apologized  to  those  about  him  for  being 
"  such  an  unconscionable  time  in  dying."  In  his  last  hours  he  was 
received  into  the  Church  of  Rome  by  Father  Huddleston,  a  priest 
who  had  saved  his  life  during  the  flight  after  the  battle  of  Worcester. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Lodge,  Political  History,  chs.  V-X.  Trevelyan,  England  under  the 
Stuarts,  chs.  XI,  XII.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  V,  chs.  V,  IX.  Ranke,  III, 
bk.  XV,  chs.  V-XII,  IV,  bk.  XVI.  Lingard,  IX,  chs.  IV-VI,  X,  ch.  I.  Mac- 
aulay,  History  of  England,  I,  ch.  II. 

Constitutional.  Sir  J.  F.  Stephen,  History  of  the  Criminal  Law  (3  vols.,  1883), 
I,  pp.  325  ff.,  for  judicial  procedure  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Hallam,  II,  chs. 
XII,  XIII. 

Biography.  Lord  John  Russell,  Life  of  William  Lord  Russell  (4th  ed.,  1853). 
Anonymous,  Adventures  of  James  II  (1904) ;  very  sympathetic  as  regards  James. 

Special.  John  Pollock,  The  Popish  Plot  (1903);  the  authority  on  the  subject ;  pt. 
IV  deals  with  the  procedure  in  the  treason  trials.  Mahan,  Sea  Power,  ch.  III. 

Contemporary.  J.  S.  Clarke,  The  Life  of  King  James  the  Second,  "collected  out  of 
memoirs  writ  of  his  own  hand"  (1816).  For  further  works  relating  to  this  chapter 
see  ch.  XXXII  above. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  228-232.  Robertson, 
Select  Statutes  and  Cases,  pt.  I,  nos.  X,  XI;  pt.  II,  nos.  II- VII. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

JAMES  II  AND  THE  "GLORIOUS  REVOLUTION"   (1685-1688) 

Strength  of  the  Monarchy  at  the  Accession  of  James,  in  1685.  — 

Charles,  though  lazy,  dissipated,  and  unprincipled,  was  tactful  and 
wary,  and  left  his  brother  in  a  position  of  unusual  strength.  The 
Whig  opposition  was  crushed  and  discouraged ;  the  municipal  corpo- 
rations were  under  royal  control ;  France  stood  in  need  of  the  friend- 
ship of  the  English  King,  while  the  Dutch,  the  Protestant  princes  of 
Germany,  Spain,  the  Empire,  and  the  Papacy,  all  of  whom  dreaded 
French  ascendancy,  courted  his  alliance.  Moreover,  James,  during 
the  first  few  months  of  his  reign,  steadily  strengthened  his  position ; 
he  obtained  an  ample  grant  from  Parliament,  and  in  order  to  face  a 
rebellion  which  was  easily  suppressed,  he  secured  a  large  standing 
army.  Had  he  been  content  with  the  religious  situation  as  Charles 
had  left  it,  he  might  have  ruled  long  and  successfully,  but  his  rash 
ambition  to  reestablish  the  Church  of  Rome  alienated  even  the  most 
devoted  of  his  supporters,  the  Tory  High  Churchmen,  drove  them 
into  the  ranks  of  the  opposition,  and  led  to  his  overthrow. 

Personal  Traits  of  the  New  King.  —  James  was  nearly  fifty-two 
years  old.1  Like  his  brother's,  his  youth  had  been  one  of  adventure. 
As  a  boy  of  fifteen  he  had  escaped  to  the  Continent.  He  had  served 
in  four  campaigns  under  Turenne,  the  greatest  general  of  the  age,  and 
later  had  fought  in  the  Spanish  army  under  Turenne's  famous  rival 
Conde.  Then,  and  afterwards,  as  a  commander  in  the  Dutch  wars, 
he  had  shown  himself  to  be  brave  and  not  without  ability.  As  Lord 
High  Admiral  he  had  proved  to  be  an  efficient  administrator.  The 
instructions  which  he  drew  up  for  the  government  of  the  navy  were 
not  superseded  until  the  last  century,  while  the  scandals  which  flour- 
ished in  his  time  cannot  be  laid  at  his  door.  He  was  industrious, 
fond  of  details,  and,  for  a  man  who  lived  at  court  in  those  days,  com- 
paratively free  from  vices  of  drunkenness  and  gambling.  But  here 
his  virtues  ended.  His  personal  life  was  little  purer  than  that  of 
Charles.  He  was  dull  and  obstinate.  "  Charles  could  see  things  if 
he  would,  James  would  see  things  if  he  could."  2  He  was  ready  to 
sacrifice  everything  for  the  advancement  of  his  Church,  and  was  a 
stout  opponent  of  concessions,  believing  that  those  which  his  father 
had  made  had  cost  him  his  head.  He  was  devoid  of  foresight  and 
imagination,  and,  toward  the  end  of  the  reign,  became  exceedingly 

1  He  was  born  14  October,  1633. 

2  Buckingham  is  the  reputed  author  of  this  shrewd  distinction. 

566 


JAMES  II  AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     567 

timorous.  His  reputation  for  truthfulness  was  doubtless  overrated, 
owing  to  his  harsh  obstinacy ;  certainly,  he  began  his  reign  with  a  lie. 
Much  of  the  cruelty  charged  to  him  may  have  been  due  to  the  agents 
whom  he  trusted ;  but  a  chief  duty  of  rulers  should  be  to  choose  worthy 
servants  and  upright  counselors.  James'  failure  to  do  this  was  a 
main  cause  of  his  downfall.  It  was  equally  unfortunate  that  he  sus- 
pected and  repulsed  good  men  who  differed  with  him. 

The  First  Measures  of  the  Reign.  —  Though  James,  at  his  acces- 
sion, 6  February,  1685,  was  received  without  great  joy,1  there  were 
no  signs  of  disorder,  and,  until  the  autumn  following,  he  was  generally 
supported  by  the  moderates,  while  the  Tories  manifested  the  most 
ardent  devotion.  To  be  sure,  he  celebrated  mass  at  St.  James  with 
open  doors,  "  that  all  the  world  might  see  " ;  yet  it  was  commonly 
believed  that  he  would  confine  his  Catholicism  to  his  own  household. 
Indeed,  he  had  declared  to  the  Council :  "I  will  make  it  my  endeavor 
to  preserve  the  Government  in  Church  and  State  as  it  is  by  law  es- 
tablished," and  a  loyal  preacher  assured  the  people  that :  "  We 
now  have  the  word  of  a  King  and  of  a  King  who  was  never  worse 
than  his  word."  To  judge  by  his  latter  acts,  if  he  did  not  deliberately 
break  his  promise,  he  must  have  regarded  the  old  pre-Reformation 
Church,  not  the  Elizabethan,  as  the  legal  Establishment.  He  made 
Rochester,  his  brother-in-law,  Lord  Treasurer  and  head  of  the  Admin- 
istration. Halifax,  who,  although  he  had  defeated  the  Exclusion  Bill, 
was  an  enemy  to  despotism  and  Roman  Catholicism,  was  "  kicked 
upstairs  "  from  the  office  of  Lord  Privy  Seal  to  the  more  dignified 
but  less  important  post  of  Lord  President  of  the  Council.  The  vacant 
place  was  given  to  Rochester's  brother,  the  Earl  of  Clarendon.  The 
unscrupulous  and  insinuating  Sunderland  retained  his  position  as 
Secretary  of  State  and  became  a  favorite  adviser.  Many  Catholics 
and  Quakers  2  were  released  from  prison ;  but  the  penal  laws  were 
rigidly  enforced  against  the  bulk  of  the  Dissenters.  Gates,  already 
under  sentence  of  perjury,  received  a  flogging  from  which  it  is  a 
marvel  that  he  survived.  In  addition,  he  was  sentenced  to  prison 
for  life  and  to  be  pilloried  five  times  a  year.3 

Parliament  meets  and  grants  James  a  Fixed  Revenue.  —  Parlia- 
ment met,  19  May,  1685,  the  Commons,  owing  to  the  royal  control  of 
the  corporations,  being  composed  largely  of  the  supporters  of  the 
King.  James,  who  had  been  collecting  the  customs  granted  to  his 
brother  for  life,4  was  anxious  to  secure  a  fixed  income.  The  revenues 

1  It  was  regarded  by  many  as  an  evil  omen  that  the  crown  tottered  and  nearly 
fell  from  his  head  at  his  coronation  on  St.  George's  Day. 

2  They  were  persona  grata  with  the  sovereign  because  non-resistance  was  one  of 
the  chief  tenets  of  their  religion. 

3  After  the  revolution  of  1688  he  was  released  and  given  a  small  pension. 

*  It  has  been  urged  that  had  he  not  done  so,  merchants,  during  the  interval, 
would  have  brought  in  quantities  of  goods,  to  the  detriment  of  those  who  had  paid 
duty.  But  that  fact  does  not  excuse  him  from  using  the  money  after  he  had  col- 
lected it. 


568  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  the  late  King  were  readily  granted  to  James  for  life,  together  with 
'certain  additional  duties,  which,  added  together,  gave  him  about 
£1,900,000  a  year,  a  sum  which,  considering  that  he  was  a  thifty 
monarch,  abundantly  sufficed  for  his  ordinary  needs.  His  other  main 
project  —  to  remove  the  tests  excluding  Catholics  from  office  — 
met  with  quite  a  different  reception.  Indeed,  Parliament,  far  from 
acceding,  insisted  that  the  anti-Catholic  laws  be  enforced.  Suddenly 
news  came  that  Monmouth  had  landed  on  the  south  coast.  Pausing 
only  to  pass  an  act  of  attainder  against  him  and  to  set  a  price  on  his 
head,  the  Houses  adjourned,  2  July,  1685. 

The  Exiles.  The  Landing  of  Argyle  in  Scotland.  Failure  and 
Execution.  —  Following  the  final  triumph  of  Charles,  crowds  of 
bitter-tempered  exiles  had  fled  to  the  Low  Countries.  Their  hopes 
centered  in  Monmouth,  who,  until  his  father's  death,  had  been  con- 
tent to  shine  as  a  social  leader  at  the  Hague.  Next  to  him  in  impor- 
tance was  Archibald,  ninth  Earl  of  Argyle,  son  of  the  famous  cove- 
nanting Marquis  who  had  been  executed  after  the  Restoration.  Under 
sentence  of  death  himself,  the  young  Argyle  had  escaped  to  Holland. 
He  was  regarded  as  a  valuable  ally,  because  he  was  the  chief  of  the 
great  clan  Campbell.  Egged  on  by  the  busy  plotters,  who  had  little 
in  common  except  hatred  of  James  and  a  desire  to  return  to  their 
native  land,  Monmouth  and  Argyle  were  induced  to  attempt  simul- 
taneous invasions  of  England  and  Scotland.  Argyle,  who  started 
in  May,  1685,  finally  reached  the  land  of  his  own  people  on  the  west 
coast ;  but,  owing  to  dissensions,  desertions,  inadequate  supplies,  and 
lack  of  enthusiasm  for  the  cause,  he  failed  miserably.  His  forces 
were  scattered,  he  himself  was  captured  and  taken  to  Edinburgh, 
where,  30  June,  1685,  he  was  beheaded,  meeting  his  fate  with  lofty 
resignation. 

Monmouth's  Rising  and  its  Failure,  1685. — Meantime,  u  June, 
Monmouth  landed  at  Lyme  Regis  on  the  Dorset  coast.  There  at 
the  market  cross  a  Declaration  was  read  which  charged  James  with 
all  manner  of  horrid  and  unlikely  crimes  —  such  as  burning  London, 
strangling  Godfrey,  and  poisoning  his  late  brother  —  and  stated  that 
the  young  Duke  had  come  to  deliver  the  land  from  "  Popery  "  and 
tyranny,  and  to  submit  his  claims  to  a  free  and  lawful  Parliament.1 
The  peasants  from  the  country  round  about  pressed  eagerly  to  join 
him ;  but  the  gentry  held  aloof.  At  Taunton,  Monmouth,  contrary 
to  his  promise,  proclaimed  himself  king.  He  soon  had  to  reckon 
with  a  royal  army,  composed  partly  of  regular  troops  and  partly  of 
local  militia.  They  camped,  5  July,  at  Sedgemoor,  in  the  midst  of 
Somerset  marshes,  three  miles  from  the  point  where,  after  much 
marching  and  countermarching,  Monmouth  had  established  his  head- 
quarters. In  an  attempt  to  surprise  the  King's  army  by  a  night  at- 
tack his  forces  were  repulsed  and  scattered.  They  fought  valiantly ; 

1  This  document  was  the  work  of  one  Ferguson,  an  unprincipled  rascal,  who 
was  at  once  a  plotter  and  a  Government  spy. 


JAMES   II  AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     569 

but  raw  levies  mounted  on  cart  horses,  and  many  of  them  armed  only 
with  farm  tools  and  scythes  tied  on  poles,  were  no  match  for  the 
trained  soldiery,  who,  in  addition,  were  protected  by  a  ditch  which 
drained  the  marsh.  The  battle  of  Sedgemoor  was  the  last  important 
battle  fought  on  English  soil.  Monmouth,  who  fled  when  he  found 
the  battle  was  going  against  him,  was  discovered  two  days  later, 
hiding  in  a  ditch,  disguised  as  a  shepherd.  Although  he  pled  abjectly 
for  his  life,  it  proved  of  no  avail.  He  was  beheaded  x  15  July,  1685. 
Monmouth's  popularity  among  the  peasants  of  Somerset  and  Dorset 
amounted  to  veneration.  Refusing  to  believe  that  he  was  dead,  they 
cherished  for  years  the  hope  that  he  would  reappear  to  lead  them. 

"  Kirke's  Lambs  "  and  Jeffrey's  "  Bloody  Assize,"  1685.  —  The 
vengeance  of  James  was  swift  and  terrible.  First,  Colonel  Percy 
Kirke  with  his  regiment  of  "  Lambs  "  2  butchered  scores  without 
trial,  enriching  himself,  however,  by  sparing  those  from  whom  he 
could  extort  money.3  The  neighborhood  of  the  insurrection  was,  if 
a  contemporary  account  can  be  believed,  "  crowded  with  gibbets  and 
ghastly  carcasses.  The  trees  were  laden  almost  as  thick  with  quar- 
ters as  leaves,  the  houses  and  steeples  were  covered  as  close  with  heads 
as  at  other  times  with  crows  and  ravens."  Those  held  in  jail  met 
the  same  fate  under  form  of  law.  In  the  infamous  "  Bloody  Assize, " 
held  by  Jeffreys  in  the  autumn,  more  than  300  were  hanged,  drawn,  and 
quartered,  and  800  more  were  transported.4  For  generations  there 
were  spots  in  the  countryside  that  the  natives  would  not  pass  after 
nightfall,  from  the  gruesome  memories  preserved  of  bodies  swinging 
in  chains  and  of  heads  and  quarters  fixed  on  poles.  During  the  trials 
Jeffreys,  who  afterwards  boasted  that  he  had  hanged  more  traitors 
than  any  of  his  predecessors  since  the  Conquest,  roared,  swore,  and 
joked  at  the  trembling  victims  in  a  way  that  made  his  name  a  terror 
for  years  to  come.  All  that  can  be  said  for  him  is  that  he  was  only 
a  degree  worse  than  the  typical  judge  of  the  century,  and  that,  owing 
to  a  painful  malady,  he  drank  so  heavily  that  he  was  scarcely  ever 
sober.  Although  not  a  man  of  great  learning,  he  was  exceptionally 
keen  as  a  trial  judge,  and,  by  his  usefulness  to  the  Court  party,  had 
risen  to  be  Chief  Justice  before  the  close  of  the  late  reign.  The 
prisoners  transported  to  the  plantations  were  sold  as  bondsmen,  but 
many  were  so  reduced  by  the  hardships  of  the  voyage  that  they  had 
to  be  fattened  before  any  master  would  take  them.  These  sales,  the 
confiscations,  and  the  money  wrung  from  those  who  were  spared,  fur- 
nished large  profits  for  the  judges,  informers,  and  the  courtiers  who  had 

1  His  executioner  was  John  Ketch;  hence  the  name  "Jack  Ketch,"  still  applied 
to  the  hangman. 

2  So-called  from  a  device  on  their  banner  representing  the  Lamb  of  God. 

3  Of  late  the  view  has  been  gaining  ground  that  the  charges  against  Kirke  may 
have  been  exaggerated. 

4  The  execution  of  Elizabeth  Gaunt,  which  took  place  in  London,  is  notable  as 
the  last  case  of  a  woman  being  executed  for  a  political  offense. 


570  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

influence  enough  to  get  a  share.  The  maids  of  honor  of  the  Queen, 
and  even  the  Queen  herself,  have  been  accused  of  receiving  a  portion 
of  the  plunder.  Some  have  tried  to  excuse  James  from  responsibility 
for  the  acts  of  his  brutal  judges ;  but  to  those  who  appealed  for  mercy 
he  showed  himself  harder  than  the  marble  chimney  piece  in  his  audi- 
ence chamber ;  and  he  not  only  rewarded  Jeffreys  with  the  Lord 
Chancellorship  on  his  return  from  the  west,  but  honored  him  with 
his  fullest  confidence  throughout  the  reign. 

The  Turning  Point  in  the  Reign.  Foreign  Relations,  —  In  spite  of 
the  hatred  smoldering  in  the  west,  the  power  of  James  seemed  un- 
assailable. He  had  crushed  and  overawed  those  who  dared  to  rise 
against  him.  The  Church  and  the  bulk  of  his  subjects  were  still 
loyal,  he  had  an  adequate  regular  revenue,  and  a  strong  standing 
army.  Nevertheless,'  the  autumn  of  1685  marked  a  decisive  turn  in 
the  tide  of  his  affairs.  The  situation  abroad  and  the  execution  of 
Monmouth,  followed  by  a  long  succession  of  follies,  led  to  his  downfall 
within  the  space  of  three  years.  The  intrigues  of  Charles  and  the 
disclosures  of  the  Popish  Plot  had,  in  the  popular  mind,  bound  the 
cause  of  the  Stuarts  with  that  of  Louis  XIV.  Louis,  as  it  happened, 
although  a  Roman  Catholic,  was  not,  at  this  time,  a  devoted  subject 
of  the  Pope,  nor  were  the  Jesuits  who  advised  him.  They  were 
pursuing  a  policy  known  as  "  Gallicanism,"  of  which  the  essential 
feature  was  the  freedom  of  the  Church  of  France  from  papal  control 
in  all  matters  of  government.  Consequently,  the  Pope  was  at  one 
with  Spain  and  the  Empire  in  opposing  French  ascendancy,  which, 
of  course,  was  also  the  aim  of  the  Protestant  princes  of  Europe.  Had 
James  thrown  his  lot  on  their  side  he  might  have  preserved  his  throne. 
While  he  gave  Louis  no  active  assistance,  he  received  subsidies  from 
him,  and  was  popularly  supposed,  at  home  and  abroad,  to  be  a  partner 
in  his  designs.  By  putting  Monmouth  out  of  the  way  he  removed  a 
great  cause  of  dissension  between  his  opponents,  some  of  whom 
supported  the  late  Duke  as  the  successor  to  the  English  throne. 
Now  all  parties  united  for  William  of  Orange.  So  when  James  began 
to  make  it  clear  that  he  was  bent  on  reintroducing  Catholicism  into 
England,  the  ground  was  prepared  for  an  irresistible  combination 
—  European  and  English  —  against  him.  Such  being  the  situation, 
it  was  most  unfortunate  for  the  prospects  of  James  that  Louis,  in 
October,  1685,  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes  which,  in  theory  at  least, 
had  protected  his  Huguenot  subjects  for  over  a  century.  Many  of 
them  took  refuge  in  England,  and  the  tales  they  told  revived  the  terror 
which  had  somewhat  subsided  after  the  discrediting  of  Gates  and  his 
gang.  What  Louis  had  done  in  France  James  might  do  in  England. 

James  breaks  with  his  Parliament,  November,  1865.  —  It  was  at 
this  unfortunate  juncture  that  James  began  to  show  his  hand.1  He 

1  Probably  with  a  view  of  allaying  suspicion  he  at  first  received  the  refugees 
kindly,  but,  by  his  subsequent  acts,  he  soon  neutralized  whatever  effect  this  may 
have  produced. 


JAMES   II  AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     571 

had  three  measures  which  he  was  determined  to  put  through :  to  main- 
tain intact  the  standing  army,  which  had  been  increased  from  6000 
to  20,000  in  consequence  of  Monmouth's  rising ;  to  obtain  the  repeal 
of  the  Test  Act,  for  the  purpose  of  retaining  a  number  of  Catholics 
who  already  held  office  in  the  army  and  to  make  it  possible  to  put 
others  in  military  and  civil  positions ;  and,  finally,  to  repeal  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act  which  prevented  him  from  dealing  summarily 
with  those  who  were  disposed  to  resist  his  authority.  Parliament, 
which  met  9  November,  1685,  stoutly  opposed  these  projects.  This 
so  angered  the  King  that  he  prorogued  the  Houses  before  they  had 
passed  a  money  bill  to  pay  for  the  expenses  incurred  in  suppressing  the 
recent  insurrection.  He  also  dismissed  from  office  many  who  had  voted 
against  his  measures.  Parliament  never  met  again  during  the  reign. 

James'  New  Counselors.  —  The  chief  power  soon  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Sunderland,  according  to  Princess  Anne,  "  the  subtillest, 
workingest  villain  ...  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  While,  perhaps, 
not  so  black  as  he  is  usually  painted,  he  was  inordinately  ambitious, 
never  hesitating  to  change  his  politics  or  his  religion  whenever  he 
thought  he  saw  a  chance  to  advance  his  interests.  Though  he  did  not 
profess  himself  a  Roman  Catholic  till  the  summer  of  1688,  he  attached 
himself,  not  long  after  James  broke  with  Parliament,  to  a  small 
group  of  extremists  whose  policy  was  decidedly  French  and  Jesuit. 
Among  them  were  Father  Petre  and  Richard  Talbot ;  the  latter,  com- 
monly known  as  "  lying  Dick  Talbot,"  was  a  crafty  intriguer  who 
masqueraded  as  a  jovial  roisterer.  To  these  men  and  a  few  others 
who  used  to  meet  every  Friday  night  at  Sunderland's  house,  some  of 
the  King's  most  ill-advised  measures  were  due.  Their  designs  were  a 
source  of  grave  apprehension  to  the  moderate  Roman  Catholics,  es- 
pecially to  the  nuncio  and  the  vicar  apostolic  whom  the  Pope  had 
sent  over  to  restrain  the  zeal  of  James,  and  to  counteract  the  intrigues 
of  France. 

The  Case  of  Sir  Edward  Hales,  June,  1686.  —  James  awakened 
concern  by  one  rash  act  after  another.  Since  Parliament  had  refused 
to  sanction  the  repeal  of  the  Test  Act,  he  determined  to  render  it  void 
by  filling  offices  in  spite  of  its  restrictions.  However,  in  order  to  give 
his  procedure  a  show  of  legality  in  the  eyes  of  his  subjects,  he  decided 
to  extort  from  the  judges  a  decision  in  his  favor.  Four,  together 
with  the  Solicitor-General,  who  refused  to  do  his  bidding  were  replaced 
by  others  more  pliant.  To  bring  the  case  before  the  courts,  the  coach- 
man of  Sir  Edward  Hales  was  employed  to  begin  suit  against  his 
master  for  holding  a  commission  in  the  army  contrary  to  the  Test 
Act.  Eleven  of  the  twelve  judges  decided  that,  notwithstanding  the 
provisions  of  the  act,  he  was  entitled  by  a  royal  authorization  to  hold 
office.  Thus  fortified,  James,  in  July,  admitted  four  Roman  Catho- 
lics to  the  Privy  Council.  More  startling  still,  he  proceeded  to  invade 
the  two  strongholds  of  Anglicanism,  the  Church  and  the  Universities. 
He  issued  dispensations  enabling  Roman  Catholics  to  hold  eccle- 


572  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

siastical  benefices.  Obadiah  Walker,  a  concealed  Romanist,  was 
allowed  to  retain  the  mastership  of  University  College,  whereupon  he 
appointed  Jesuit  chaplains  and  set  up  a  press  for  printing  controversial 
pamphlets.  A  professed  Romanist  was  made  Dean  of  Christ  Church, 
while  Samuel  Parker,  a  Roman  Catholic  at  heart,  was  appointed 
Bishop  of  Oxford.  The  archbishopric  of  York  was  kept  vacant.  It 
was  thought  that  James  intended  it  for  Father  Petre ;  but  was  pre- 
vented by  the  Pope  from  granting  him  the  office. 

The  Court  of  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  July,  1686. — It  was 
necessary,  if  the  King  was  to  control  the  Church,  to  have  a  means  of 
punishing  those  who  refused  to  obey  him.  To  that  end,  he  revived 
what  was,  in  substance,  the  Court  of  High  Commission,1  which  had 
been  abolished  by  the  Long  Parliament  and  which  had  not  been 
restored  at  the  Restoration.  James  called  his  body  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commission,  and  insisted  that  it  differed  from  the  tribunal  suppressed 
by  Parliament,  in  that  its  jurisdiction  was  confined  to  the  clergy. 
It  consisted  of  seven  commissioners  chosen  from  the  leading  officials 
in  Church  and  State.  Sancroft,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  managed  to 
excuse  himself  from  serving,  on  the  plea  of  ill  health  and  pressure  of 
other  business ;  but  he  ceased  to  be  summoned  to  the  Privy  Council 
in  consequence.  The  first  work  of  the  Commission  was  to  deprive 
Henry  Compton,  Bishop  of  London,  of  the  administration  of  his 
see,  because  he  had  refused  to  suspend  the  Dean  of  Norwich,  who  had 
preached  against  a  royal  proclamation  aimed  to  silence  controversial 
sermons  denouncing  "  Popery."  : 

Popular  Excitement  and  Opposition.  —  By  virtue  of  a  wholesale 
issue  of  dispensations,  Roman  Catholic  chapels  were  set  up  all  over 
the  country,  and  a  church  and  school  for  Jesuits  was  set  up  at  the  Savoy. 
In  November,  1686,  the  new  Royal  Chapel  was  opened  at  Whitehall 
"  with  all  the  musique  of  the  Italian."  Evelyn,  the  diarist,  who  describes 
the  "  Cringes  "  at  the  altar  and  "  the  world  of  mysterious  ceremony," 
declares,  and  he  was  a  stanch  royalist :  "I  could  not  have  believed 
I  should  ever  have  seen  such  things  in  the  King  of  England's  palace, 
after  it  had  pleased  God  to  enlighten  this  nation."  Monks  and  friars 
in  their  religious  garb  appeared  again  in  the  streets  of  London,  and  so 
alarmed  and  enraged  the  peo'ple  that  riots  were  of  frequent  occurrence. 
When  a  mob  attacked  a  chapel  of  the  minister  of  the  Elector  Palatine 
and  set  up  the  crucifix  on  the  parish  pump,  crying,  "  No  wooden  gods," 
the  trained  bands  summoned  to  quell  the  disturbance  murmured, 
"  We  cannot  in  conscience  fight  for  Popery."  In  order  to  overawe 
the  unquiet,  13,000  men  of  the  standing  army  were  quartered  on  Houns- 
low  Heath ;  but  the  camp  became  a  great  resort  for  Londoners  who 
flocked  there  on  Sundays,  and  the  soldiers  came  to  share  more  and 
more  in  the  sentiments  of  the  citizens.  From  the  pulpits  throughout 

1  Curiously  enough  he  did  this  by  virtue  of  his  position  as  Supreme  Governor  of 
the  Church  which  he  was  striving  to  weaken. 

2  Compton,  however,  was  allowed  to  retain  his  palace  and  his  revenues. 


JAMES   II   AND   THE   "GLORIOUS  REVOLUTION"     573 

the  land,  sermons  were  preached  against  "  Popery,"  while  floods  of 
pamphlets  defending  the  Protestant  faith  issued  from  the  press. 
"  The  discontent,"  wrote  Barillon,  the  French  ambassador,  "  is 
great  and  general :  but  the  fear  of  incurring  still  worse  evils  restrains 
all  who  have  anything  to  lose."  In  spite  of  the  growing  opposition 
and  of  the  reproaches  even  of  the  Pope  and  the  moderate  Roman 
Catholics,  the  King  went  on  stubbornly  and  the  situation  grew  more 
and  more  tense.1 

The  Situation  in  Scotland  under  Charles  II.  —  In  Scotland,  too, 
there  was  grave  discontent.  The  Restoration  had  been  welcomed 
because  of  Cromwell's  military  rule  and  because  of  aversion  to  the 
domination  of  Presbyterians.  But  the  result  had  been  disappoint- 
ment. The  Scots  had  changed  governors ;  but  arbitrary  government 
continued  in  a  form  more  cruel  and  oppressive  than  ever  before,  and 
became  corrupt  as  well.  The  Presbyterians  were  kept  down  rigidly, 
and  the  Episcopalians  were  mere  creatures  of  the  Government.  Trade 
and  commerce,  too,  suffered  because  of  the  Dutch  wars  and  the  abo- 
lition of  the  free  trade  existing  under  the  Commonwealth  and  the 
Protectorate.  Furthermore,  the  nobles  were  disappointed ;  for  they 
gained  nothing  as  a  class ;  it  was  only  the  select  few  who  were  favored. 
Practically  all  power  was  vested  in  the  Privy  Council  and  the  bishops, 
who  were  pledged  to  carry  out  the  royal  will.  Parliament  merely 
registered  their  acts.  By  an  act  passed  in  1663,  popularly  known  as 
the  "  Bishops'  Drag-net,"  heavy  fines  were  imposed  on  all  who  did 
not  attend  the  parish  church.  Those  who  remained  obdurate,  and 
they  were  mainly  centered  in  the  southwestern  counties,  suffered 
cruelly  at  the  hands  of  the  King's  dragoons,  who  were  quartered  in 
their  houses  and  who  ruthlessly  searched  out  and  broke  up  their  "  field 
conventicles,"  as  the  meetings  were  called,  which  they  held  in  lonely 
and  remote  places  to  evade  the  arm  of  the  law.  An  attempt  which 
some  of  the  more  desperate  made  in  1666  to  march  on  Edinburgh  was 
frustrated ;  they  were  driven  into  the  Pentland  Hills,  and  the  rising 
only  resulted  in  harsher  measures  of  repression.  After  a  bloody  car- 
nival of  execution  and  torture  for  which  the  Primate  of  Scotland, 
Archbishop  Sharp,  rather  than  King  Charles,  must  bear  the  blame, 
Lauderdale  did  try  milder  measures;  but  when,  in  consequence, 
conventicles  began  to  multiply  again,  he  reverted  to  a  policy  of  system- 
atic coercion.  A  most  ruthless  step  was  taken  in  1678,  when  the  so- 
called  "  Highland  Host,"  a  body  of  6000  Highlanders  and  3000  Low- 
land militia,  was  quartered  in  the  southwest  in  a  vain  attempt  to  crush 
out  disaffection. 

The  Rising  of  the  Covenanters,  1679.  —  A  crisis  came  in  the  year 
1679  with  the  murder  of  Sharp,  whom  the  Presbyterians  detested  as 

1  On  one  occasion  the  King  gave  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  the  sword  of  State  to  carry 
before  him  to  his  chapel.  When  he  stopped  at  the  door,  James  said  :  "  Your  father 
would  have  gone  farther."  Whereupon  Norfolk  replied,  "Your  Majesty's  father 
would  not  have  gone  so  far." 


574  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

a  treacherous  deserter  from  their  cause,  and  as  a  bloodthirsty  perse- 
cutor. Then  followed  another  revolt  in  which  the  royalist  commander, 
John  Graham,  of  Claverhouse,  was  routed  at  Drumclog,  i  June.  The 
insurgents  failed  to  take  Glasgow,  and,  22  June,  were  defeated  at 
Bothwell  Bridge  by  the  Duke  of  Monmouth,  who  had  been  sent  from 
London  to  take  the  command  against  them.  Although  Monmouth 
was  for  a  mild  treatment  of  the  vanquished,  the  Government  showed 
the  same  revengeful  spirit  that  it  had  manifested  after  the  Pentland 
Rising.  A  notable  consequence  of  the  rebellion  of  1679,  was  the 
removal  of  Lauderdale  from  the  control  of  Scotch  affairs.  In  Decem- 
ber, 1679,  the  Duke  of  York  was  sent  to  Scotland  to  govern  the  coun- 
try.1 During  the  period  of  his  regime  he  began  a  policy  which  he 
continued  as  King  and  which  alienated  the  great  mass  of  Scotsmen  from 
his  cause.  At  first,  however,  he  had  to  devote  his  main  energies  to 
suppressing  the  Cameronians,  a  body  of  irreconcilable  and  fanatical 
Presbyterians  who,  in  1680,  broke  away  from  the  mass  of  their  brethren 
because  some  of  them  had  taken  advantage  of  a  religious  indulgence, 
or  compromise,  which  Monmouth  had  obtained  for  them  after  his 
return  to  England.  As  the  agent  of  James  in  the  warfare  against  the 
Cameronians,  Graham  earned  the  name  of  "  Bloody  Clavers."  2 

Scotland  in  the  Reign  of  James  II.  —  The  accession  of  James  was 
marked  by  even  greater  severity  against  the  Covenanters  than  had  been 
employed  under  Charles  II,  and  was  known  as  "  the  black  year  " 
and  "  the  killing  time."  Not  content  with  renewing  the  law  which 
made  the  taking  of  the  Covenant  treason,  the  first  parliament  of  the 
reign  slavishly  passed  an  act  providing  that  all  persons,  preachers  or 
hearers,  proved  to  have  been  present  at  a  conventicle,  were  to  be  pun- 
ished with  death  and  confiscation.  At  the  time  of  Argyle's  ill-starred 
invasion  the  majority  stood  by  the  Crown ;  but  when  various  members 
of  the  Privy  Council  declared  themselves  Roman  Catholics,  when 
religious  tests  were  disregarded  and  preachers  were  forbidden  to 
speak  against  "  Popery,"  the  popular  discontent  rose  to  a  high  pitch, 
and  manifested  itself  in  riots  so  serious  that  the  troops  had  to  be  called 
out.  When  the  Estates  met  again,  29  April,  1686,  James  sent  a  royal 
letter  recommending  the  repeal  of  the  penal  laws  against  his  "  innocent 
subjects,  those  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion."  When  they  returned 
a  hesitant  answer,  he  closed  the  session.  Then  he  proceeded  to  carry 
out  his  policy  by  means  of  the  Privy  Council ;  he  did  away  with  the 
tests,  he  allowed  Roman  Catholics  to  worship  in  public,  and  removed 
from  office  those  who  opposed  his  will.  This  roused  such  a  storm  that 
he  forthwith  issued  letters  of  indulgence  allowing  to  Presbyterians 
the  same  privileges  which  he  had  accorded  to  Roman  Catholics.  In- 
stead, however,  of  increasing  the  number  of  his  supporters  and  allay- 

1  He  was  soon  recalled,  but,  in  July,  1681,  appeared  again  for  a  brief  sojourn,  as 
Royal  Commissioner. 

2  Modern  authorities  are  inclined  to  think  that  he  does  not  deserve  all  the  op- 
probrium that  has  been  heaped  upon  him. 


JAMES   II   AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     575 

ing  dissatisfaction,  as  he  had  hoped,  the  measure  was  fatal  for  James' 
power  in  Scotland:  for  it  led  to  the  return  of  many  Presbyterian 
preachers  of  the  extremer  sort  who  organized  an  opposition  which 
lost  him  the  throne  of  Scotland. 

James'  Irish  Policy.  —  In  Ireland,  where  there  was  a  Roman 
Catholic  majority,  the  aims  of  the  King  were  more  far-reaching.  He 
designed  to  make  the  old  faith  dominant  and  to  employ  the  Irish  as 
an  instrument  in  his  efforts  to  bring  about  the  conversion  of  the  two 
neighboring  kingdoms.  And  he  had  good  ground  on  which  to  work. 
To  be  sure,  in  spite  of  the  restrictions  on  the  wool  trade  and  the  Cattle 
Act  of  1667,  the  country  had  prospered  since  the  Restoration;  for 
the  restrictions  had  not  been  enforced,  while  the  linen  industry  had 
flourished.  But  the  trade  shackles  were  galling;  the  Episcopal 
Church  had  power  and  revenues  in  inverse  proportion  to  its  size; 
and  the  bulk  of  the  land,  as  well  as  the  political  power,  lay  in  the  hands 
of  the  English  and  Scotch  colonists.  The  native  Irish  yearned  to 
recover  the  possessions  of  which  they  had  been  deprived,  and  the 
Catholic  extremists  were  eager  for  ascendancy.  The  "  real  director 
of  Irish  affairs  "  was  Richard  Talbot,  created  Earl  of  Tyrconnel  and 
Commander-in-Chief,  who,  in  1687,  replaced  Clarendon  as  Lord 
Lieutenant. 

James'  Efforts  to  win  over  the  Dissenters.  The  "  Closetings," 
1686-1687.  —  Clarendon's  fall  was  preceded  by  that  of  his  brother 
Rochester,  who,  for  some  time,  had  been  a  mere  figurehead  in  the 
Council.  The  pretext  for  getting  rid  of  him  was  his  refusal  to  adopt 
Roman  Catholicism.  The  office  of  Lord  Treasurer  was  intrusted  to 
a  commission.  Once  James  began  to  put  out  of  office  his  own  relatives, 
stanch  supporters  of  the  monarchy  —  experienced,  and  formerly 
trusted  counselors  —  simply  because  they  scrupled  to  abet  him  in 
his  Catholicizing  policy,  it  was  clear  that  he  would  stop  at  nothing 
to  gain  his  ends.  Some  conversions  followed,  but  the  adherents  were 
few,  and,  on  the  whole,  men  of  little  reputation.1  Finding  that  he 
could  hope  to  do  little  with  the  men  of  the  Church  of  England,  James 
turned  to  the  Dissenters,  to  whom  he  offered  the  benefits  which  he 
was  striving  to  secure  for  Roman  Catholics.  In  the  winter  of  1686- 
1687,  he  laid  his  plans  to  assemble  another  session  of  Parliament  which 
was  to  be  controlled  by  men  bound  to  support  his  policy  of  repealing 
the  tests  and  the  penal  laws.  To  this  end,  he  called  various  persons 
into  his  presence  whom  he  tried  to  win  over  by  promises,  threats,  and 
bribes.  But  these  "  closetings  "  served  only  to  show  him  how  few 
there  were  upon  whom  he  could  depend.  The  judges  who  were  com- 
missioned on  the  circuits  to  secure  supporters,  were  equally  unsuc- 
cessful. 

The  First  Declaration  of  Indulgence,  4  April,  1687.  —  Despairing 
of  achieving  his  purpose  in  a  parliamentary  way,  James  determined 

1 A  notable  exception  was  John  Dryden,  "  the  greatest  living  master  of  the  Eng- 
lish language." 


576  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

to  proceed  on  his  own  authority.  So,  4  April,  1687,  he  published  a 
Declaration  of  Indulgence  granting  to  all  his  subjects  the  free  exercise 
of  their  religion,  suspending  the  execution  of  all  penal  laws  in  matters 
ecclesiastical,  and  removing  all  oaths  and  tests  for  the  holding  of  mili- 
tary and  civil  offices.  This  went  far  beyond  Charles'  Declaration  of 
1672,  which  had  only  ventured  to  suspend  the  penal  laws  and  to  allow 
the  Roman  Catholics  liberty  of  private  worship.  The  High  Church 
Tories,  struck  with  amazement  and  terror,  thereupon  began  to  make 
overtures  to  their  old  enemies,  the  Dissenters.  All  they  could  offer, 
however,  was  remote  and  uncertain,  while  the  relief  tendered  by  James 
was  immediate.  On  the  other  hand,  his  proffered  relief  was  not  only 
unsanctioned  by  Parliament  but  coupled  with  concessions  to  the 
Roman  Catholics.  The  result  was  a  split  in  the  Nonconformist 
ranks.  A  minority  accepted  gratefully.1  The  majority,  including 
such  men  as  Baxter  and  Bunyan,  stoutly  refused.  An  attempt  was 
made  to  secure  the  approval  of  William  of  Orange;  but  while  he 
welcomed  the  repeal  of  the  penal  laws,  he  objected  flatly  to  the 
removal  of  the  tests :  "  You  ask  me  to  countenance  an  attack  on  my 
own  religion,"  he  declared ;  "  I  cannot  with  a  safe  conscience  do  it, 
and  I  will  not,  no,  not  for  the  crown  of  England,  nor  for  the  Empire 
of  the  world." 

Dykevelt's  Mission  to  England,  1687.  —  It  was  about  this  time 
thaf  many  began  seriously  to  look  to  William  as  their  champion 
against  James  and  Roman  Catholicism.  Hitherto,  he  had  held  aloof 
from  English  politics,  but  now,  while  not  yet  ready  to  strike,  'he 
undertook  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  possible  intervention  by  sending 
an  envoy,  Dykevelt,  under  the  cover  of  a  special  mission,  to  the  Eng- 
lish Government,  to  sound  the  opposition  leaders.  William  was  thirty- 
six  years  old.  Small  in  stature,  of  a  frail  and  sickly  constitution,  cold, 
and  rough  in  manner,  except  to  a  few  chosen  intimates,  nevertheless 
his  piercing  eye,  his  prominent  eagle-like  nose,  and  his  thin,  compressed 
lips  marked  him  as  an  extraordinary  man,  fitted  for  his  high  destiny. 
Excluded  as  a  mere  child  from  the  inheritance  of  his  father,  his  country 
had  chosen  him,  during  the  fateful  year  1672,  to  be  Commander- 
in-Chief  and  Stadholder.  As  a  statesman  and  diplomatist  he  showed 
a  fortitude  and  a  perseverance  rarely  equaled  in  history.  As  a  general 
he  lost  more  battles  than  he  won;  but  he  gained  results  which  few 
other  men  would  have  drawn  from  victories.  His  sole  aim  was  to 
check  the  growth  of  France  in  order  to  preserve  the  liberties  of  the 
Dutch.  His  main  reason  for  desiring  the  crown  of  England  was  that 
he  might  secure  the  resources  of  that  country  to  aid  him  in  his  great 
work.  Dykevelt,  during  his  brief  stay,  strove  busily  to  ingratiate 
himself  with  all  classes.  He  assured  High  Churchmen  of  his  master's 
friendship  for  Episcopacy  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer ;  he  held 
out  to  Nonconformists  the  prospect  of  toleration  and  comprehension ; 

1  The  King's  chief  agent  in  attaching  them  to  his  cause  was  William  Penn,  a 
sincere,  if  somewhat  ill-advised  advocate  of  toleration. 


JAMES   II  AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     577 

and  to  Roman  Catholics  the  repeal  of  the  penal  laws.  He  entered 
into  conference  with  the  great  leaders  of  both  parties,  and,  on  his 
return  to  Holland,  took  with  him  letters  from  a  number  of  the  most 
prominent  public  personages. 

About  the  same  time,  William's  Grand  Pensionary,  Fagel,  published 
an  adroit  letter  which  greatly  strengthened  him  with  his  allies  on  the 
Continent,  Catholic  and  Protestant  alike.  The  former  were  impressed 
by  his  willingness  to  repeal  the  penal  laws,  the  latter  by  his  determina- 
tion to  stand  by  the  tests.  James,  on  the  other  hand,  was  continually 
making  enemies  for  himself,  abroad  as  well  as  at  home.  He  quarreled 
with  the  Dutch  over  the  recall  of  English  regiments  in  the  Dutch 
service,  and  over  the  publication  in  Holland  of  English  books  and 
pamphlets  attacking  his  policy.  He  had  the  papal  nuncio  publicly 
consecrated  as  Archbishop  in  St.  Paul's,  and  deprived  the  Duke  of 
Somerset  of  all  his  offices  for  refusing  to  follow  in  his  train.  Somerset 
had  been  advised  that  he  could  not  do  so  without  breaking  the  law. 
"I  will  make  you  fear  me  as  well  as  the  law,"  declared  James.  "Do 
you  not  know  that  I  am  above  the  law?  "  "  Your  Majesty  may  be 
above  the  law,  but  I  am  not,"  replied  the  Duke,  "  and  while  I  obey 
the  law  I  fear  nothing." 

The  Royal  Attack  on  the  Universities.  —  James  took  one  of  the 
rashest  steps  in  his  headlong  course  when  he  ventured  to  attack  the 
Universities  who  were  traditionally  as  hostile  to  Roman  Catholicism 
as  they  were  devoted  to  monarchy.  He  began  at  Cambridge  when 
the  Vice-Chancellor  and  the  Senate  protested  against  a  royal  order  to 
confer  the  degree  of  master  of  arts  upon  a  Benedictine  monk.  The 
Vice-Chancellor  was  deprived  of  his  office  by  the  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mission, and  the  deputies  who  accompanied  him,  among  them  Isaac 
Newton,  were  dismissed  by  Jeffreys  with  the  injunction  :  "  Go  you? 
way  and  sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  happen  to  you."  But  the 
bitterest  struggle  was  waged  at  Oxford  when  James  insisted  upon 
putting  in  a  candidate  of  his  own  as  President  of  Magdalen  College. 
When  the  Fellows,  to  whom  the  right  of  election  belonged,  refused  to 
admit  the  legality  of  the  proceeding,  they  were  ejected,  September, 
1687,  and  declared  incapable  of  holding  any  ecclesiastical  benefice, 
while  Magdalen  was  for  a  brief  period  turned  into  a  Roman  Catholic 
seminary.  Oxford  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  defiant  excitement,  and 
subscriptions  were  raised  all  over  the  country  for  the  victims  of  the 
royal  wrath. 

James'  Attempt  to  pack  a  Parliament,  1687-1688.  —  Realizing 
that  the  existing  Parliament  was  unalterably  opposed  to  his  policy, 
James  had  finally  dissolved  it  in  July,  I687-1  Nevertheless,  since  he 
desired  to  secure  parliamentary  sanction  of  his  abrogation  of  the  tests 
and  the  penal  laws,  he  made  preparations  to  pack  a  body  pledged  to 
do  his  will.  His  first  step  was  to  appoint  a  board  of  regulators  who, 


.  . 

1  It  had  never  met  since  the  autumn  session  of  1685. 

2P 


578  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

with  the  aid  of  local  subcommittees,  should  remodel  or  regulate  the 
municipal  corporations  which  Charles  II  had  filled  with  High  Church 
Tories.  Also,  the  lords  lieutenants  were  directed  to  summon  the  deputy 
lieutenants  and  justices  of  their  respective  counties  in  order  to  question 
them  as  to  how  they  would  act  in  the  event  of  a  general  election,  and 
to  furnish  lists  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  Dissenters  who  might  re- 
place those  who  proved  to  be  unpliant.  Nearly  half  of  the  lords 
lieutenants,  including  the  representatives  of  the  most  ancient  peerages, 
refusing  to  carry  out  the  royal  orders,1  were  dismissed.  Their  places 
were  filled  by  Roman  Catholics  or  supple  courtiers.  The  result  of 
the  inquiry  proved  most  discouraging  to  the  King;  for  the  great 
majority  would  give  no  further  assurance  than  that,  if  elected,  they 
would  act  according  to  their  conscientious  convictions,  and  that  they 
would  vote  only  for  candidates  whose  views  agreed  with  their  own. 
When  the  list  of  sheriffs  for  the  year  was  published,  it  was  found  to  be 
filled  with  royalist  supporters,  though  the  Roman  Catholic  country 
gentry,  who  had  little  sympathy  with  James'  Roman  Catholic  court- 
iers, refused  to  serve.  Moreover,  many  of  the  new  town  councilors 
proved  untractable,  and  some  municipalities  were  regulated  three 
times  in  a  single  month;  in  a  few  instances  the  charters  recently 
granted  were  taken  away  altogether,  and  the  right  of  voting  was 
vested  in  a  small  group  bound  by  oath  to  support  the  King.  In  places 
where  he  could  prevail  in  no  other  way,  the  King  even  quartered  troops. 
Promises  of  support,  with  the  alternative  of  dismissal,  were  also  exacted 
from  officials  in  all  the  public  departments.  One  poor  customs  house 
officer  declared  that  he  obeyed  for  fourteen  reasons,  a  wife  and  thirteen 
young  children. 

The  Second  Declaration  of  Indulgence  and  the  Protest  of  the  Seven 
Bishops,  April-May,  1688.  —  On  27  April,  1688,  James  issued  a  second 
Declaration  in  which  he  repeated  the  provisions  of  that  of  the  pre- 
vious year.  Also  he  stated  that  he  had  dismissed  those  who  had  refused 
to  assist  him  in  making  them  into  law,  that  he  would  proceed  in  the 
same  way  with  others  who  declined  to  obey  him,  and  that  he  purposed 
to  call  a  parliament  in  November.  This  was  followed  by  an  Order 
in  Council,  published  7  May,  ordering  the  clergy  to  read  the  Declara- 
tion on  two  successive  Sundays,  and  directing  the  bishops  to  distribute 
copies  throughout  their  diocese.  By  way  of  reply,  Archbishop  San- 
croft,  whose  hands  were  greatly  strengthened  by  the  support  of  a 
large  body  of  the  Nonconformists,  called  a  meeting  at  Lambeth  Palace 
on  the  evening  of  18  May,  where  he  drew  up  a  petition,  in  which  it 
was  declared,  with  great  professions  of  loyalty,  that  the  Declaration 
was  illegal  and  that  the  petitioners  could  not  be  parties  to  its  public 
reading  during  divine  service.  It  was  signed  by  the  Archbishop  and 
six  of  the  assembled  bishops,  after  which  the  six  bishops  crossed  the 

1  The  reply  of  the  Earl  of  Oxford  was  typical:  "I  will  stand  by  your  Majesty 
against  all  enemies,"  said  he,  "but  this  is  a  matter  of  conscience  and  I  cannot 
comply." 


JAMES   II  AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     579 

Thames  and  delivered  it  to  the  King  at  Whitehall.  James  was  fu- 
rious. "  This  is  a  standard  of  rebellion,"  he  cried,  and,  as  was  his  cus- 
tom when  deeply  moved,  he  repeated  the  same  phrase  over  and 
over  again,  while  the  bishops  protested  that  they  were  no  rebels. 
That  night  the  petition  was  printed,  and  circulated  rapidly  through- 
out the  city  and  country.  How  it  happened  no  one  knows ;  for  the 
audience  with  the  King  was  private.  The  excitement  grew  in  inten- 
sity all  through  Saturday,  and,  when  Sunday  came,  the  Declaration 
was  read  in  only  four  of  the  hundred  churches  in  and  about  London.1 
By  the  following  Sunday  a  few  more  clergymen  had  been  whipped 
into  line ;  but  in  most  cases  the  congregation  got  up  and  left  to  avoid 
hearing  the  hated  Declaration. 

The  Birth  of  the  Prince,  10  June,  1688.  —  Although  Sunderland 
recommended  moderation,  the  King,  on  the  advice  of  Jeffreys,  ordered 
the  bishops  to  be  tried  for  libel.  On  8  June,  1688,  they  were  examined 
before  the  Privy  Council  and,  refusing  to  give  surety  to  appear  in 
Court,  they  were  committed  to  the  Tower.  As  they  passed  down  the 
Thames,  crowds  in  boats  thronged  the  river,  and  others  ran  along  the 
banks,  crying :  "  God  bless  your  Lordships."  Even  the  soldiers  who 
led  the  prisoners  into  the  Tower  asked  their  blessing,  while  those  off 
duty  drank  their  healths.  A  deputation  of  Nonconformists  came  to 
visit  them  to  assure  them  of  their  support.  On  Sunday,  10  June, 
while  they  were  still  awaiting  their  trial,  a  son  was  born  to  King 
James.  This  contributed  more  than  any  other  single  event  to  precip- 
itate the  crisis  soon  to  follow ;  for,  hitherto,  many  had  consoled  them- 
selves with  the  thought  that,  since  James  was  nearing  sixty,  he  must 
within  a  few  years  make  way  for  his  daughter  Mary,  who  was  a  Protes- 
tant. Now  the  prospect  of  an  endless  Roman  Catholic  succession 
suddenly  loomed  up.  A  story  was  at  once  started  that  no  child  had 
been  born  to  the  Queen,  that  the  little  Prince,  now  proclaimed  as  such, 
had  been  secretly  introduced  into  the  Queen's  chamber  and  passed  off 
as  the  royal  heir.  While  the  tale  was  generally  believed  and  while 
none  but  Roman  Catholics  and  professed  courtiers  were  present  at 
the  birth,  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  charge  of  trickery  was  absolutely 
baseless.  However  that  may  be,  the  popular  leaders  now  made  up  their 
minds,  when  a  fitting  moment  came,  to  send  for  William  of  Orange. 

The  Trial  of  the  Seven  Bishops,  June,  1689.  —  When  the  day  fixed 
for  the  trial  of  the  Seven  Bishops  arrived,  the  excitement  had  spread 
everywhere  from  Scotland  to  Cornwall.2  They  were  charged  with 

1  Samuel  Wesley,  father  of  the  celebrated  founder  of  Methodism,  took  for  his 
text :  "Be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  King,  that  we  will  not  serve  thy  gods;  nor  wor- 
ship the  golden  image  which  thou  hast  set  up." 

2  Trelawney,  Bishop  of  Bristol,  one  of  the  Seven,  came  from  a  well-known  Corn- 
ish family,  and  inspired  a  ballad  which  has  been  famous  ever  since : 

"And  shall  Trelawney  die,  and  shall  Trelawney  die? 
Then  thirty  thousand  Cornish  boys  will  know  the  reason  why." 
Deep  below  the  earth  it  is  said  the  grimy  Cornish  mines  roared : 
"Then  twenty  thousand  under  ground  will  know  the  reason  why." 


58o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

"  having  written  or  published  in  the  County  of  Middlesex,  a  false, 
malicious,  and  seditious  libel."  Their  counsel  at  first  rested  their 
defense  on  the  technical  ground  that  the  petition  had  not  been  pub- 
lished in  Middlesex.  Fortunately  for  the  cause  of  liberty,  they  were 
frustrated  in  this  by  the  unexpected  testimony  of  Sunderland.  There- 
upon, led  by  John  Somers,  a  rising  young  lawyer  who  became  the 
most  eminent  statesman  and  jurist  of  the  succeeding  reign,  they  shifted 
their  line  of  argument,  and  proceeded  to  prove  that  the  paper  in  ques- 
tion was  not  false,  malicious,  or  a  libel,  but  a  respectful  petition  set- 
ting forth  facts  known  to  be  true  and  delivered  privately  into  the  hands 
of  the  King  with  no  intention  of  stirring  up  strife.  The  jury  remained 
closeted  from  nightfall  until  six  o'clock  the  next  morning.  Arnold, 
a  brewer  to  the  palace,  was  the  last  to  hold  out.1  He  was  only  brought 
over  finally  by  the  determination  of  Thomas  Austin,  a  wealthy 
landed  gentleman :  "  Look  at  me,"  he  said,  "  I  am  the  largest  and 
strongest  of  the  twelve,  and  before  I  find  such  a  petition  a  libel  I 
will  stay  here  till  I  am  no  larger  than  a  tobacco  pipe."  As  the  jury 
left  the  court  after  their  verdict  of  acquittal  had  been  announced, 
the  people  surged  around  them,  crying:  "  God  bless  you!  "  "  You 
have  saved  us  all  to-day."  The  city  and  the  country,  as  the  news 
spread,  rang  with  shouts  of  joy.  Even  the  soldiers  in  Hounslow 
Heath  cheered  lustily.  James,  when  he  heard  the  sounds,  asked  the 
meaning  of  it  all.  "  Nothing,"  he  was  told,  "  the  soldiers  are  glad 
the  bishops  are  acquitted."  "  Do  you  call  that  nothing?  "  he  an- 
swered, "  So  much  the  worse  for  them."  The  Opposition  had  won  a 
great  victory  on  the  broad  constitutional  grounds  that  James'  exer- 
cise of  the  dispensing  power  was  illegal  and  that  his  subjects  had  the 
right  of  petition  against  it. 

The  Invitation  to  William,  30  June,  1688.  —  All  distinctions  of 
politics  and  religions  were,  for  the  time  being,  merged  in  a  general 
combination  against  the  King.  The  prosecution  of  the  bishops  and 
the  birth  of  the  Prince,  following  upon  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence, 
altered  profoundly  the  attitude  of  the  High  Church  Tories  toward  the 
lawfulness  of  resistance.  During  their  supremacy  they  had  argued 
that  the  laws  of  God  as  well  as  the  laws  of  man  demanded  unquestion- 
ing obedience  to  the  civil  authority.  Now  that  they  had  had  a  taste 
of  persecution  many  were  ready  to  contend :  "  that  extreme  oppres- 
sion might  justify  resistance  .  .  .  and  the  oppression  which  the  nation 
suffered  was  extreme."  Others,  who  shuddered  at  the  notion  of  active 
resistance,  were  ready  to  go  as  far  as  passive  resistance,  asserting  that, 
in  view  of  his  late  acts,  they  were  not  bound  to  obey  the  King.  Such 
was  the  state  of  the  public  mind  when,  30  June,  1688,  the  day  of  the 
acquittal  of  the  Seven  Bishops,  Admiral  Herbert,  disguised  as  a 
common  sailor,  crossed  the  Channel  bearing  a  letter  inviting  William 

1  He  was  in  a  sad  dilemma.  "Whatever  I  do,"  he  complained,  "I  am  sure  to 
be  half  ruined.  If  I  say  '  Not  guilty,'  I  shall  brew  no  more  for  the  King,  and  if  I 
say  'Guilty,'  I  shall  brew  no  more  for  anybody  else." 


JAMES   II   AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     581 

of  Orange  to  come  to  England.  It  was  signed  by  seven  of  the  great 
leaders  of  the  two  parties,1  the  Whigs  and  Tories,  and  was  the  result 
of  negotiations  with  William,  and  canvassing  at  home,  which  Edward 
Russell  and  others  had  been  conducting  for  weeks.  The  letter  assured 
William  that  nineteen  twentieths  of  the  people  of  England  would 
rally  to  his  support,  and  that  the  army  of  James  was  full  of  disaffection. 

William,  however,  realized  that  the  undertaking  bristled  with  diffi- 
culties. If  he  landed  without  an  army,  he  was  very  likely  to  meet 
the  fate  of  Monmouth.  On  the  other  hand,  English  patriotism  might 
resent  an  invasion  of  foreign  troops.  Furthermore,  there  was  great 
difficulty  in  raising  an  adequate  force  in  his  own  land ;  it  required  not 
only  the  consent  of  every  province  but  of  every  municipality,  and 
many  of  the  latter,  headed  by  Amsterdam,  were  bitterly  opposed  to 
him.  Finally,  if  he  crossed  the  Channel  as  the  champion  of  Protes- 
tantism, there  was  a  chance  that  his  Catholic  allies  might  turn  against 
him.  It  was  only  William's  courage  and  resource,  aided  by  favoring 
circumstances  and  the  stupidity  of  his  enemies,  that  overcame  all 
these  obstacles.  To  the  princes  of  northern  Germany  he  emphasized 
his  Protestantism ;  to  Austria  and  Spain,  the  dangers  of  French  as- 
cendancy and  the  harm  which  James  was  doing  to  Catholicism  by  his 
rashness.  All  the  while,  he  was  quietly  preparing  his  army  and  his 
fleet.  At  the  same  time,  Louis  managed  to  force  the  pious  and  thrifty 
burghers  over  to  William's  side  by  an  ill-judged  persecution  of  Dutch 
Protestants,  and  by  a  decree  excluding  Dutch  herring  from  his  realm. 
Also,  by  untimely  displays  of  arrogance,  he  embroiled  himself  still 
further  with  the  Pope.  James,  on  his  part,  who  was  beginning  to  dis- 
trust the  loyalty  of  his  army,  committed  a  blunder  more  serious  than 
any  in  his  long  career  of  folly  by  ordering  over  recruits  from  Ireland. 
His  English  subjects,  who  regarded  the  Irish  as  barbarians  and  recalled 
the  horrible  tales  of  1641,  were  thrown  into  such  a  panic  that  they 
were  ready  to  receive  even  an  invading  army  with  open  arms.  Lilli- 
bullero,  a  popular  song  satirizing  Tyrconnel  and  the  Irish,  was  taken 
up  everywhere,  and  the  author,  Thomas  Wharton,  later  boasted  that 
he  had  sung  a  king  out  of  three  kingdoms. 

William's  Declaration  and  James'  Belated  Concessions.  —  William 
prevented  Louis  from  rendering  James  any  effectual  aid  by  sending,  a 
force  under  Count  Schomberg  2  to  occupy  the  southeastern  frontier. 
With  the  French  army  thus  employed,  he  was  free  to  devote  his  atten- 
tion to  England.  In  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  coming,  he 
caused  a  Declaration  to  be  published  in  which  he  rehearsed  James' 
violation  of  the  fundamental  laws,  his  favor  to  Roman  Catholics,  and 
his  oppression  of  Protestants.  Disclaiming  any  thought  of  conquest, 

1  The  Earls  of  Devonshire,  Shrewsbury  and  Danby,  Lord  Lumley,  Bishop  Comp- 
ton,  Edward  Russell,  and  Henry  Sidney. 

2  Schomberg,  who  had  the  reputation  of  being  "  the  greatest  living  master  of  the 
art  of  war,"  although  a  German  and  a  Protestant,  had  been  a  marshal  in  the  French 
army  until  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes. 


582  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

he  declared  that  he  was  going  to  submit  the  issues  at  stake  to  a  full  and 
free  parliament.  James,  awaking  at  last  to  the  gravity  of  the  crisis, 
made  a  belated  effort  to  conciliate  the  Tories  who  had  once  been  so 
devoted  to  him.  In  the  last  weeks  of  September,  1688,  he  reversed 
one  after  another  of  his  late  unpopular  acts.  First,  he  promised  to 
protect  the  Church  of  England,  to  maintain  the  Act  of  Uniformity, 
and  that  he  would  not  insist  upon  the  admission  of  Roman  Catholics 
to  the  House  of  Commons.  Next,  he  declared  that  he  would  replace 
all  the  lords  lieutenants  and  .magistrates  whom  he  had  dismissed.  He 
reversed  the  suspension  of  Compton,  abolished  the  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mission, restored  the  forfeited  charters  and  agreed  to  undo  what  he 
had  done  at  Magdalen.  It  was  felt,  however,  that  these  belated  con- 
cessions were  only  drawn  from  him  by  the  impending  danger,  while, 
even  yet,  he  refused  to  give  up  his  dispensing  power  or  to  remove 
his  Catholic  supporters  from  military  and  civil  office.1 

William's  Landing  at  Torbay,  5  November,  1688.  —  William,  after 
delays  and  difficulties  caused  by  contrary  west  winds  and  storm,  at 
length  succeeded  in  landing,  5  November,  at  Torbay,  on  the  coast  of 
Devonshire.  The  "  Popish  "  weather  which  caused  his  supporters  to 
chafe  and  curse,  had  been  succeeded  by  a  Protestant  east  wind  which 
held  the  fleet  of  James  for  some  time  in  the  mouth  of  the  Thames, 
while  it  blew  William  swiftly  along  the  Channel  to  his  destination. 
From  Torbay  he  marched  to  Exeter,  which  he  selected  for  his  first 
headquarters.  Although  the  magistrates  tried  to  close  the  gates 
against  him,  crowds  flocked  to  welcome  him  as  a  deliverer.  His  army 
of  Dutch,  Swedish,  and  Swiss  veterans  struck  the  simple  west  country 
folk  with  awe ;  but  the  restraint  in  which  they  were  held  won  their 
confidence.  At  first,  so  few  men  of  rank  came  in  that  William  talked 
of  returning  to  Holland.  But,  as  a  means  of  deceiving  James,  he  had 
originally  directed  his  course  toward  the  Yorkshire  coast,  and  his 
landing  in  the  south  had  been  unexpected.  When  the  mistake  was  dis- 
covered he  had  no  cause  of  complaint. 

James  joins  his  Army  at  Salisbury,  but  returns  hastily  to  London.  — 
London  was  in  a  ferment  of  excitement.  James  hastened  to  Salisbury, 
whither  he  had  sent  his  army  to  face  the  invaders.  Just  as  he  was 
about  to  start,  however,  he  was  waited  on  by  a  deputation  of  peers, 
spiritual  and  temporal,  who  petitioned  him  to  call  a  parliament  to 
treat  with  William.  The  proposal  threw  him  into  a  rage,  and  he  de- 
clared that  he  would  call  no  parliament  while  the  Prince  remained  in 
the  country.  When  he  reached  Salisbury,  he  found  the  situation  most 
alarming ;  for,  encouraged  by  the  defection  of  men  in  higher  station, 
the  western  counties  had  risen,  and  the  gentry  who  had  joined  William 
at  Exeter  had  bound  themselves  together  in  a  formal  organization,  to 
secure  their  liberties  and  religion.  The  north,  too,  was  up  in  arms. 
William,  however,  was  anxious  to  avoid  fighting,  for  fear  of  arousing 

1  Yet  very  wisely  he  did  get  rid  of  Sunderland,  who,  in  spite  of  his  brazen  as- 
surances, was  suspected  of  treasonable  correspondence  with  the  invaders. 


JAMES  II  AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     583 

English  national  sentiment.  James,  on  his  part,  was  keen  for  bring- 
ing on  an  engagement  at  once ;  but  he  was  suddenly  taken  with  a 
hemorrhage  of  the  nose  which  kept  him  inactive  for  three  days. 
When  he  recovered,  he  was  so  disheartened  by  rumors  of  treason 
among  his  officers  that  he  decided  to  retreat.  The  flight  of  John 
Churchill,  his  most  efficient  general,  was  a  crushing  blow.  Churchill 
was  an  ambitious  climber ;  but,  if  his  own  word  can  be  relied  upon, 
he  was  guided,  in  the  present  instance,  solely  by  his  attachment  to 
Protestantism.  His  wife,  though  thoroughly  devoted  to  him,  was  a 
selfish  intriguer  who  had  the  Princess  Anne  under  absolute  control. 
Anne's  husband,  Prince  George,  fled  also.  "  What !  Est-il  possible,1 
gone,  too?  After  all  a  good  trooper  would  have  been  a  greater 
loss  "  was  James'  comment  when  the  news  was  brought  to  him ;  but, 
though  personally  George  was  a  nonentity,  his  position  lent  great  sig- 
nificance to  his  act.  Retreat  and  constant  desertions  demoralized  the 
army.  Fearing  for  his  capital,  James  hastened  back  to  London,  where 
he  found  that  Anne  herself  had  fled  from  Whitehall  by  night,  escorted 
by  a  guard  led  by  Bishop  Compton  arrayed  in  a  buff  coat  and  jack 
boots  and  armed  with  a  sword.  "  God  help  me,  "  cried  the  unhappy 
King ;  "  my  own  children  have  forsaken  me." 

The  Flight  of  James,  n  December,  1688. — In  his  extremity, 
James  called  a  council  of  the  peers,  and,  acting  on  their  advice,  issued 
writs  for  a  parliament  to  meet  13  January,  1689.  Also,  he  appointed 
a  commission,  consisting  of  Halifax,  Nottingham,  and  Godolphin  to 
treat  with  William  in  the  meanwhile,  and  issued  a  proclamation  grant- 
ing full  pardon  to  all  who  were  in  arms  against  him.  This  was  merely 
to  gain  time.  Already,  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  escape ;  for  the 
eastern  counties  had  now  risen,  and  there  were  scarcely  any  left  about 
him  upon  whom  he  could  depend.  While  the  commissioners  were 
arranging  terms  with  William,  James  hastily  made  preparations  for 
flight.  His  first  care  was  to  send  the  Queen  and  the  little  Prince  safely 
out  of  the  country ;  after  this,  he  annulled  the  writs  for  the  promised 
parliament,  destroying  those  which  had  not  yet  been  sent  out.  On  the 
morning  of  n  December,  1688,  he  rose  at  three  o'clock,  and  was  rowed 
a  short  distance  down  the  Thames  in  a  wherry,  dropping  the  Great 
Seal  in  the  river  as  he  proceeded.  At  Sheerness  he  boarded  a  hoy, 
which  he  had  engaged  to  transport  him  to  France. 

His  Capture  and  Second  Flight.  —  The  news  of  his  flight  aroused 
a  storm  of  excitement.  The  Lords  held  a  meeting  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Archbishop  Sancroft,  sent  an  urgent  message  to  William  to 
hasten  his  march  to  London,  and  arranged  to  assume  the  provisional 
government  pending  his  arrival.  That  night  lawlessness  broke  loose. 
Roman  Catholic  chapels  were  sacked  and  burned,  private  houses  were 
attacked,  and  even  the  residences  of  foreign  ambassadors  were  not 
spared.  Jeffreys,  who  had  sought  to  escape,  was  discovered  in  an  ale- 

1  This  was  his  stock  expression  when  he  heard  an  important  piece  of  news,  and 
the  name  became  fixed  to  him. 


584  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

house  in  Wapping.  Though  disguised  as  a  collier  he  was  recognized 
by  a  scrivener  who  had  never  forgotten  his  terrible  eyes.  Protected 
by  a  strong  guard  from  the  howling  mob,  he  was  taken  to  the  Tower, 
where  he  died  a  few  months  later,  petitioning  in  vain  for  a  pardon  and 
acknowledging  that  his  crimes  were  "  as  numerous  as  his  enemies." 
Suddenly,  in  the  midst  of  the  confusion,  the  rumor  spread  that  James 
had  been  caught  and  was  being  brought  back  to  London.  The  captain 
of  the  hoy,  in  attempting  to  procure  more  ballast,  lost  a  tide.  Before 
he  could  get  under  way,  his  craft  was  boarded  by  a  band  of  fishermen 
in  search  of  plunder  and  escaping  Jesuits.  The  King  was  taken  ashore, 
where  he  was  recognized  and  held  as  a  prisoner.  The  news  embarrassed 
both  parties  equally.  The  Tories  had  hoped  to  justify  their  acceptance 
of  William  from  the  fact  that  James  had  deserted  the  throne,  while 
the  Whigs,  though  they  repudiated  him  without  scruple,  realized  that 
his  return  would  greatly  complicate  the  situation. 

William,  who  received  the  tidings  at  Windsor,  was  grievously  dis- 
appointed ;  but  he  quickly  made  up  his  mind  that,  without  making  it 
too  evident,  a  second  chance  to  escape  must  be  pressed  upon  James. 
So  he  was  removed  from  Whitehall,  whither  he  had  been  taken,  to 
Rochester.  There  the  house  in  which  he  lodged  was  left  unguarded  in 
the  rear  so  that  he  was  able  to  slip  out  through  the  garden  to  the 
banks  of  the  Medway.  Thence  he  was  rowed  down  the  river  in  a 
skiff  until  he  found  a  fishing  smack  which  conveyed  him  to  France. 
Louis  XIV  received  both  James  and  his  Queen  with  great  ceremony 
and  hospitality,  lodged  them  at  St.  Germain,  and  provided  them  with 
an  ample  revenue.  It  is  even  said  that  he  registered  a  vow  that  he 
would  not  sheath  his  sword  until  the  exiled  King  had  been  restored. 

William's  Arrival  in  London,  18  December,  1689.  —  William,  on  his 
arrival  in  London,  was  waited  on  by  numerous  deputations.1  Though 
some  extremists  pressed  him  to  declare  himself  King,  forthwith,  William 
remained  true  to  the  promise  in  his  Declaration  to  settle  the  govern- 
ment in  a  parliamentary  way.  As  a  preliminary  step  he  summoned  the 
Lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  the  members  of  the  Commons  who  had 
sat  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II,2  and  a  deputa- 
tion of  the  London  magistrates.  This  body  advised  William  to  assume 
the  provisional  government  and  to  call  a  convention  to  effect  a  perma- 
nent arrangement. 

The  Six  Plans  for  Regulating  the  Succession.  —  At  least  six  plans 
were  offered  for  settling  the  future  form  of  government.  A  few 
reactionaries  wanted  to  restore  James  without  conditions,  while  a  few 
radicals  proposed  to  set  up  a  commonwealth  under  William  as  presi- 

1  Among  those  who  came  was  Sergeant  Maynard,  ninety  years  old.     "You 
must  have  survived  all  the  lawyers  of  your  standing,"  said  the  Prince.     "Yes, 
sir,"  was  the  reply,  "and  but  for  your  Highness,  I  should  have  survived  the  laws 
too. " 

2  The  members  from  the  first  and  only  parliament  of  James  were  excluded  be- 
cause the  remodeling  of  the  corporations  had  interfered  with  the  free  choice  of  the 
electors. 


JAMES  II  AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     585 

dent.1  Three  of  the  more  moderate  plans  emanated  from  the  Tory 
ranks.  One  suggested  the  restoration  of  James  with  conditions.  It 
was  difficult,  however,  to  frame  limitations  more  binding  than  those 
to  be  found  in  the  Coronation  Oath  and  the  laws  which  he  had  already 
broken ;  indeed,  it  was  evident  from  the  manifestoes  which  he  had 
sent  forth  since  his  exile  that  he  was  fixed  in  the  policy  which  he  had 
pursued  as  King.  The  second  of  these  plans,  put  forth  by  Sancroft, 
contemplated  vesting  the  administration  in  a  regent  chosen  by  the 
Estates  of  the  Realm,  on  the  assumption  that  James  was  as  incapable 
of  governing  as  if  he  were  a  child  or  one  bereft  of  reason.  But,  since 
neither  of  these  assumptions  was  true,  there  was  no  more  legal  warrant 
for  a  regency  than  for  a  deposition.  Moreover,  if  the  heirs  of  James 
continued  in  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  this  two-headed  government 
might  last  till  the  end  of  time,  with  constant  danger  of  uprisings  to 
restore  the  nominal  monarch  to  actual  power.  The  third  plan  was 
Danby's.  It  assumed  that  James  had  abdicated,  that  the  birth  of  the 
Prince  was  so  shrouded  in  mystery  as  to  invalidate  his  claim,  and  that 
the  throne  fell  to  Mary  as  the  next  legal  heir.  As  such,  she  might 
make  William  her  first  minister,  or  even,  with  the  consent  of  Parlia- 
ment, raise  him  to  the  position  of  royal  consort.  Though  this  scheme 
also  rested  upon  false  assumptions,  the  chief  obstacle  in  the  way  was 
that  William  refused  to  come  to  power  solely  by  right  of  his  wife.  The 
plan  finally  adopted  was  that  of  the  Whigs.  Its  chief  advocate  was 
Halifax,  who,  trimmer  as  he  was,  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  opposi- 
tion when  he  found  that  James,  after  putting  him  on  the  commission 
to  treat  with  the  Prince,  had  left  him  in  the  lurch.2  He  argued  that 
the  Government  was  a  contract  between  the  King  and  his  subjects, 
and  that  a  sovereign  who  broke  this  contract  by  abuse  of  his  power 
could  be  deposed.  Furthermore,  even  if  the  Prince  were  the  true  heir, 
he  would,  in  all  likelihood,  be  unfit  to  govern,  while,  in  any  event,  it 
would  be  advisable  to  break  the  line  of  succession  in  order  to  destroy 
the  exaggerated  king  worship  which  had  prevailed  since  the  Restoration. 
The  Convention  and  the  Settlement  of  the  Succession.  —  The 
Convention,  which  met  22  January,  1689,  framed,  after  some  discus- 
sion, a  resolution  declaring :  "  that  King  James,  having  endeavored 
to  subvert  the  Constitution  of  the  Kingdom  by  breaking  the  original 
contract  between  King  and  People,  and,  by  the  advice  of  Jesuits  and 
other  wicked  persons,  having  violated  the  fundamental  laws,  and  hav- 
ing withdrawn  himself  out  of  the  Kingdom,  had  abdicated  the  Govern- 
ment and  that  the  Throne  had  thereby  become  vacant."  The  King 
had  violated  the  laws,  and  he  had  been  misled  by  bad  advisers,  but  it 
was  his  flight  rather  than  his  arbitrary  policy  which  had  brought 
about  the  vacancy.  However,  this  clumsy  and  illogical  resolution  was 

1  The  advocates  of  these  two  extreme  views  did  not,  it  is  estimated,  comprise 
more  than  a  twentieth  of  the  population. 

2  There  seems  to  be  no  truth  in  the  story  that  he  wrote  a  letter  to  James,  urging 
him  to  flee. 


$86  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

adroitly  designed  to  suit  all  parties :  the  reference  to  the  original  con- 
tract was  framed  for  the  Whigs,  the  reflection  on  the  Jesuits  for  the  ex- 
treme Protestants,  and  the  assertion  regarding  the  abdication,  for  those 
Tories  who  held  that  subjects  had  no  right  to  depose  their  sovereign. 
In  the  Lords  it  was  debated  long  and  hotly,  the  other  plans  were  dis- 
cussed, and  a  conference  was  even  held  between  the  Houses.  The 
matter  was  only  finally  settled  by  the  firmness  of  William.  Conse- 
quently, the  resolution  was  adopted,  and  it  was  decided  that  William 
and  Mary  should  be  joint  sovereigns  with  the  administration  in  the 
hands  of  William. 

The  Declaration  of  Rights.  —  It  was  necessary,  next,  to  determine 
the  conditions  upon  which  the  crown  should  be  conferred.  The  result 
was  the  Declaration  of  Rights,  which,  like  its  two  great  predecessors,1 
deals  not  with  vague  general  principles,  but  with  tangible  facts, 
with  actual  grievances  of  the  last  two  reigns,  which  were  to  be  safe- 
guarded against  for  the  future.  After  enumerating  the  recent  attacks 
made  by  James  on  the  Protestant  religion  and  the  laws  and  liberties 
of  the  kingdom,  it  declared :  that  the  pretended  power  of  suspending 
laws  and  of  dispensing,  as  it  has  been  exercised  of  late,  the  court  of 
Ecclesiastical  Commission  and  other  courts  of  a  like  nature,  and  levy- 
ing money  without  consent  of  Parliament  were  all  illegal ;  that  it  was 
the  right  of  subjects  to  petition  the  King,  and  that  all  prosecutions  for 
such  petitioning  were  illegal ;  that  maintaining  a  standing  army, 
except  by  consent  of  Parliament,  was  illegal ;  that  election  of  members 
to  Parliament  ought  to  be  free ;  that  freedom  of  speech,  debate,  or 
proceedings  in  Parliament  ought  not  to  be  impeached  in  any  court 
or  place  outside  the  two  Houses  ;  that  excessive  bail  ought  not  to  be 
required,  nor  excessive  fines  imposed,  nor  cruel  and  unusual  punish- 
ments inflicted ;  that  jurors  in  cases  of  high  treason  ought  to  be  free- 
holders ;  and  that,  for  amending  and  preserving  the  laws,  parliaments 
should  be  held  frequently.2  The  Declaration  concluded  by  settling 
the  crown  upon  William  and  Mary,  and  upon  the  heirs  of  Mary,  Anne, 
and  William,  respectively. 

William  and  Mary  proclaimed,  13  February,  1689.  —  Mary  arrived 
from  Holland  12  February,  1689.  She  was  so  "  laughing  and  jolly," 
she  took  such  childish  delight  in  the  furnishings  of  Whitehall, 
that  many  thought  she  showed  a  heartless  disregard  of  her  father's 
misfortunes ;  but  she  "  was  fain  to  force  herself  to  more  mirth  than 
became  her  at  that  time  "  by  the  express  wish  of  William,  lest  people 
might  suspect  that  she  was  disappointed  because  Parliament  had  put 
the  government  into  his  hands.  The  new  sovereigns  were  proclaimed 
13  February,  in  the  presence  of  shouting  crowds. 

The  Peculiar  Character  of  the  Revolution  of  1688.  —  Thus  ended 
the  "  Glorious  Revolution."  Although,  so  far  as  possible,  every  an- 

1  The  other  two  being  Magna  Carta  (1215)  and  the  Petition  of  Right  (1628). 

2  A  review  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  and  more  especially  that  of  James  II,  will 
serve  to  show  how  these  principles  and  practices  had  been  violated. 


JAMES  II  AND   THE   "GLORIOUS   REVOLUTION"     587 

cient  form  had  been  complied  with,  it  was,  from  the  strictly  legal 
standpoint,  a  real  revolution.  The  Convention  which  settled  the 
crown  on  William  and  Mary  was  not  properly  a  parliament,  for  it  had 
been  summoned  by  no  royal  authority.  To  be  sure,  the  new  sover- 
eigns later  declared  it  a  legal  body ;  but  since  they  were  its  creatures, 
their  assertion  could  not  make  it  such.  Nevertheless,  defective  as 
were  its  proceedings  when  viewed  in  a  purely  legal  light,  the  Revolu- 
tion can  be  justified,  both  from  the  issues  at  stake  and  the  moderation 
with  which  the  movement  was  conducted.  Macaulay,  in  his  classic 
work  on  this  period,  has  pointed  out  that  it  was  a  "  preserving  "  not  a 
"  destroying  "  revolution,  in  which  all  parties  joined — Whig  and  Tory, 
Churchmen  and  Dissenters  —  to  preserve  the  fruits  of  the  Reforma- 
tion and  the  Puritan  Revolution,  to  maintain  Protestantism,  the  su- 
premacy of  Parliament,  and  the  freedom  of  the  subject.  The  funda- 
mental laws  were  not  changed  but  defined  and  secured ;  the  old  line 
of  kings,  however,  was  set  aside,  and  thus  a  final  blow  was  struck  at 
the  theory  of  Divine  Right  upon  which  James  I  had  laid  such  stress 
and  which  had  been  the  ruin  of  his  son  and  grandson.  Never  since 
the  expulsion  of  James  II  has  there  been  a  revolution  in  England. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Lodge,  Political  History,  chs.  XI-XIII.  Trevelyan,  England  tinder 
the  Stuarts,  ch.  XIII.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  V,  chs.  IX,  X.  Lingard,  X, 
chs.  II-IV.  Ranke,  IV,  bks.  XVII-XVIII.  Macaulay,  History  of  England,  II, 
chs.  IV-X;  in  spite  of  its  obvious  faults,  it  remains  the  classic  treatment  of  the  sub- 
ject. Sir  James  Mackintosh,  Review  of  the  Causes  of  the  Revolution  of  1688  (1834) 
contains  a  large  collection  of  documents  in  the  appendix. 

Constitutional.  Hallam,  III,  ch.  XIV.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  VI, 
ch.  II. 

Biography.  Viscount  Wolseley,  Life  of  M arlborough  (vols.  I,  II,  1894) ;  an  apology 
for  Marlborough,  left  uncompleted  at  1702. 

Scotland.  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  II,  bk.  VI,  ch.  VII.  Lodge,  ch.  XIV;  (Ireland) 
ch.  XV. 

Church.    Hutton,  English  Church,  ch.  XII. 

For  further  references  see  chs.  XXXII,  XXXIII  above. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  233-234.  Robertson, 
Select  Statutes,  pt.  II,  nos.  VIII,  IX. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 
PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER  ENGLAND 

Characteristics  of  Seventeenth-century  England.  —  The  period 
from  1603  to  1788  is  crowded  with  incident  and  notable  achievements. 
It  opened  with  a  struggle  of  Parliament  against  the, attempt  of  the 
first  Stuart  to  maintain  and  strengthen  the  Tudor  absolutism  in  Church 
and  State,  a  struggle  which  culminated  in  civil  war  resulting  in  the 
defeat  and  execution  of  a  king,  the  temporary  overthrow  of  monarchy 
and  episcopacy,  and  the  establishment  of  a  republic.  The  experi- 
ment proved  premature,  and  was  followed  by  the  restoration  both  of 
the  Stuarts  and  the  Established  Church.  Nevertheless,  the  Puritan 
Revolution  had  not  been  in  vain ;  henceforth,  in  spite  of  occasional 
reassertions  of  absolutism,  Parliament  became  the  supreme  power  in 
the  State,  while  Dissent  not  only  survived  and  flourished,  but  ob- 
tained, before  the  close  of  the  century,  a  substantial  if  imperfect  legal 
recognition.  The  party  system  began  to  take  shape,  and  distinct 
gains  were  made  in  law  reform.  A  standing  army  was  established, 
while  the  navy  grew  and  obtained  a  really  effective  organization. 
Long  strides  were  taken  in  the  direction  of  commercial  and  colonial 
ascendancy.  Manufactures  became  more  varied  and  wealth  increased, 
together  with  new  comforts  and  luxuries.  Coal  was  introduced  in 
London  in  place  of  charcoal ;  tea  and  coffee  appeared  and  became  the 
beverages  of  the  city  folk  and  the  well-to-do  country  families ;  travel 
and  communication  were  fostered  by  coaches  and  packet  boats,  and 
amusements  multiplied.  The  newspaper  came  into  being,  and  the 
spread  of  printing,  together  with  the  growth  of  the  party  system,  re- 
sulted in  myriads  of  caricatures  and  satires.  There  was  a  striking 
development  in  political  and  economic  thinking,  as  well  as  in  religious 
and  philosophical  speculations.  Literature,  while  not  reaching  the 
heights  of  the  wonderful  Elizabethan  Age,  was  interesting  and  varied, 
enriched  by  contributions  of  note,  and  manifesting  new  and  striking 
tendencies.  Mathematical,  physical,  and  physiological  sciences  showed 
a  marked  advance.  In  architecture  there  was  a  transition  from  "Ital- 
ianate  Elizabethan  "  and  "  Jacobean  Gothic  "  to  a  "  majestic  classi- 
cism." Such  are  some  of  the  features  of  this  complex  and  throbbing 
age. 

Regulation  of  Trade  and  Manufactures  under  James  I  and  Charles  I. 
—  While  the  monopolies  and  privileged  companies,  fostered  by  James  I 
and  Charles  I,  have  been  severely  attacked,  there  is  little  doubt  that 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER   ENGLAND  589 

both  these  monarchs  aimed  to  regulate  the  economic  life  of  the  nation 
in  the  interests  of  the  whole,  to  maintain  high  standards  of  production 
and  to  keep  the  subject  employed  as  well.  In  order  to  best  control 
the  situation,  they  endeavored  to  confine  trades  and  industries  to  special 
companies,  and  appointed  officials  to  supervise  the  manufacture  of 
various  wares.  Such  national  regulation,  however,  was  not  only  diffi- 
cult to  enforce  effectively  and  impartially,  but  it  went  against  the 
modern  spirit  of  emancipation  from  the  restrictive  policy  of  the  medi- 
eval gilds.  Moreover,  the  Stuarts  mingled  with  their  zeal  for  the 
public  welfare  a  tendency  toward  favoritism  and  a  proneness  to  utilize 
their  grants  as  sources  of  revenue.  Thus  the  system  tended  to  abuse 
of  privilege,  to  the  curbing  of  healthy  competition,  and  to  the  dis- 
couragement of  those  outside  the  pale.  Men  of  ability  and  enterprise 
were  excluded  from  trade,  especially  with  foreign  markets,  or  joined 
the  ranks  of  the  interlopers. 

Industrial  Situation  under  the  Two  First  Stuarts.  —  Nevertheless, 
the  period  was  one  of  material  progress  rather  than  decline.  Foreign 
refugees  flocked  to  the  country,  the  population  increased,  old  indus- 
tries developed  and  new  ones  were  introduced.  Exports  and  imports 
which  totaled  £4,628,586  in  1613,  had  reached  £4,939,751  in  1622, 
though,  under  a  freer  system  than  that  of  company  control,  there  might 
have  been  a  far  better  showing.  While  it  is  estimated  that  the  volume 
of  money  doubled  under  James  I,  and  while  interest  fell  from  ten  to 
eight  per  cent,  the  decline  in  prices  which  followed  in  the  first  decade 
of  the  reign  of  Charles  I,  indicates  that  the  increase  was  swallowed  up 
by  the  demands  of  the  growing  trade  arid  population.  While  the  prof- 
its of  the  producing  classes  suffered,  the  wage-earning  consumer  must 
have  benefited  somewhat.  The  silk  manufacture  began  to  flourish, 
though  to  nothing  like  the  extent  noticeable  after  the  influx  of  French 
Huguenots  which  followed  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in 
1685. l  The  cutlers  of  Sheffield  had  been  incorporated  in  1624,  but 
what  is  now  a  city  of  half  a  million  and  the  chief  center  of  the  cutlery 
industry  of  the  world,  was  then  the  possession  of  a  manorial  lord  who 
leased  the  furnaces  to  the  manufacturers.  The  total  population 
scarcely  exceeded  two  thousand,  a  third  of  whom  were  dependent  on 
charity.  There  was  a  great  opposition  to  the  smelting  of  iron  ore 
because  of  the  enormous  quantities  of  charcoal  required,  which  ex- 
hausted the  forests  and  threatened  the  supply  of  timber  for  ship- 
building. Dud  Dudley  (1599-1684)  devised  a  successful  process  in 
which  pit  coal  was  substituted.  Although  he  obtained  patents  in  1619 
and  1639,  the  jealousy  of  rivals  frustrated  his  efforts,  and  little  was 
done  toward  applying  the  method  of  smelting  till  the  following  century. 
Coal,  which  was  beginning  to  be  employed  extensively  for  fuel  in  Lon- 

1  Between  1670  and  1690,  in  consequence  of  Louis  XIV's  persecutions,  no  less 
than  80,000  persons  crossed  the  Channel.  In  1689  as  many  as  40,000  families  lived 
by  the  silk  industry,  which,  during  the  half  century  following  the  Restoration,  in- 
creased twentyfold. 


5Qo  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

don,  was  brought  by  boat  from  Newcastle  and  hence  was  known  as 
sea  coal.  The  wool  trade  was  practically  stationary  until  after  the 
Restoration.  In  order  to  encourage  the  home  consumption,  an  act 
was  passed  for  burying  in  wool :  nevertheless,  there  was  complaint 
that  many  persisted  "in  adorning  their  deceased  friend's  corpse  with 
fine  linen,  lace,  etc.,  though  so  contrary  to  our  own  true  national  in- 
terest." In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  wool  manufacturers,  calicoes, 
chintzes,  and  muslins  were  imported  from  India,  while,  in  1676,  Flem- 
ish immigrants  introduced  the  art  of  calico  printing  into  England. 

The  Period  of  the  Civil  War,  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  Protector- 
ate. —  The  Civil  War,  and  the  disorders  that  followed,  naturally  in- 
terrupted trade,  both  foreign  and  domestic.  Yet  the  harm  was  less 
serious  than  might  be  expected.  Owing  to  decline  in  prices  and  ad- 
vance in  wages,  the  laborers  were  even  better  off  though  they  enjoyed 
less  holidays  than  in  the  old  days  before  the  Puritan  ascendancy. 
The  return  of  the  Jews  under  Cromwell  gave  considerable  impulse 
to  trade,  and  the  protests  of  London  merchants  against  them  were 
based,  apparently,  rather  upon  commercial  jealousy  than  religious 
intolerance.  Though  most  of  those  who  came  to  England  had  origi- 
nally fled  from  the  Inquisition  in  Spain  and  Portugal,  they  had,  in  the 
majority  of  instances,  spent  an  interval  in  Italy  or  Holland,  where  they 
had  mastered  the  most  recent  methods  of  banking  and  credit.  The 
chief  agent  in  negotiating  their  readmission  was  Manasseh  Ben  Israel, 
a  Jew  who  had  settled  in  Amsterdam.  In  an  interview  with  Crom- 
well and  the  Council,  he  explained  the  advantages  which  his  people 
would  bring  to  England  by  their  financial  knowledge,  while,  in  addi- 
tion, he  offered  on  their  behalf  to  lend  considerable  moneys  at  five  per 
cent.  Although  the  judges  decided  that  the  law  did  not  permit  them 
to  live  in  England,  Cromwell  admitted  them  on  his  own  authority. 
Charles  II,  who  refused  to  reverse  the  Protector's  policy,  allowed  them 
to  open  a  synagogue  in  London. 

Trade  during  the  Restoration.  —  Systematic  supervision  of  trade 
and  industry  on  the  part  of  the  sovereign,  which  ceased  with  the  per- 
sonal government  of  Charles  I,  was  not  revived  at  the  Restoration. 
Commercial  regulation  passed,  to  a  large  extent,  from  the  Crown  and 
Crown  officials  to  Parliament.  Some  new  companies  were  founded ; 
but,  in  general,  encouragement  took  the  form  of  tariffs  and  bounties 
rather  than  special  privileges  to  "  particular  groups  "  of  subjects. 
The  cessation  of  rigid  supervision  led  to  some  falling  off  in  the  quality 
of  goods ;  but  that  was  counterbalanced,  somewhat,  by  competition 
and  the  use  of  trade-marks.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  general 
increase  in  trade,  especially  the  carrying  trade.  The  merchant 
marine  doubled  in  thirty  years.  The  Navigation  Acts  were  only 
partly  responsible;  for  the  act  of  1651  was  not  vigorously  enforced, 
the  measure  of  1660,  which  renewed  and  extended  it,  was  evaded  by 
the  Dutch  until  they  were  driven  from  New  York  in  1664,  and  they 
were  not  outstripped  by  the  English  until  they  had  been  exhausted  by 


PURITAN   AND   CAVALIER   ENGLAND  591 

the  wars  of  the  late  seventeenth  and  early  eighteenth  centuries.  Many 
other  factors  account  for  the  great  colonial  and  commercial  expansion 
of  the  post-Restoration  period.  In  addition  to  the  changed  attitude 
toward  the  privileged  companies,  Cromwell's  idea  of  a  great  Protes- 
tant Alliance  was  abandoned.  Charles'  Portuguese  marriage  brought 
to  the  country  Tangier  and  Bombay,  together  with  increased  facilities 
for  trade  with  the  Azores,  Madeira,  and  the  other  Portuguese  posses- 
sions. Tangier  was  soon  abandoned ;  but  Bombay  proved  a  valuable 
asset  to  the  East  India  Company.  Spain  granted  to  England  the 
privileges  of  the  Netherlands  and  other  most  favored  nations.  Also, 
treaties  were  made  to  protect  the  Levant  trade  from  Turkish  pirates, 
and  though  they  were  humbling  to  national  pride,  they  proved  effec- 
tive. In  accordance  with  a  practice  established  under  Charles  I  and 
employed  by  Cromwell,  a  permanent  committee  of  the  Privy  Council 
was  organized,  which,  reenforced  by  representatives  from  the  great 
companies  to  furnish  expert  advice,  constituted  a  Council  for  Trade. 
American  planting  was  vigorously  pushed.  In  a  word :  "  the  basis 
for  the  English  conquest  of  India,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  predomi- 
nance in  America  "  were  laid  in  this  period. 

Colonial  Expansion.  —  The  Elizabethan  Age  was  one  of  discovery 
and  exploration ;  the  Stuart  period  marked  the  beginning  of  coloniza- 
tion. Although  the  Dutch  still  overshadowed  the  English  in  the 
East,  notable  steps  in  advance  were  taken.  In  the  reign  of  James  I 
the  Persian  trade  was  first  "  enterprised  "  by  English  merchants 
from  India.  Thomas  Roe,  who  went  in  1615  as  first  ambassador  to 
the  Great  Mogul  for  the  purpose  of  negotiating  a  commercial  treaty, 
helped  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  British  Indian  Empire,  while, 
before  the  close  of  the  century,  the  East  India  Company  was  securely 
established  at  Bombay,  Calcutta,  and  Madras,  and  the  Royal  Africa 
Company  had  flourishing  possessions  on  the  Gold  Coast  and  at  other 
points  on  the  continent  of  Africa.  In  America,  several  of  the  West 
India  Islands  were  acquired,  and  all  but  one  of  the  thirteen  American 
colonies  *  were  established.  While  Spain  and  Portugal  were  mainly 
concerned  with  the  search  for  precious  metals,  and  while  the  French 
devoted  themselves  to  founding  trading  posts  and  missionary  stations, 
the  English,  if  not  free  from  the  delusions  of  their  time,  were  the  first 
to  establish  the  policy  of  home  building  in  the  New  World. 

Agriculture  under  the  First  Two  Stuarts.  —  Under  the  Stuarts  the 
agricultural  progress,  so  marked  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  prom- 
ised to  continue.  The  process  of  enclosure,  though  provocative  of 
suffering  and  discontent  among  the  small  holders,  had  stimulated 
enterprise.  Then  the  rise  in  prices,  due  to  the  increase  of  precious 
metals  and  the  growing  demand  for  food,  had  intervened  to  check  the 
turning  of  arable  land  into  sheep  pasture.  With  the  prospect  of  in- 
creasing profits  from  corn  and  meat,  renewed  energy  was  devoted  to 

1  Georgia  in  1733. 


592  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

improving  conditions  of  cultivation  and  reclaiming  waste  lands.  The 
efforts  of  landlords,  tenant  farmers,  and  yeoman  freeholders  were 
quickened  and  guided  by  resourceful  writers  on  agriculture  who  sug- 
gested more  scientific  care  of  cattle  and  poultry  as  well  as  improved 
methods  of  treating  the  soil.  Much  was  learned  from  the  Italians 
about  irrigation  and  the  utilization  of  water  meadows.  Rotation  of 
crops  by  the  planting  of  turnips  and  clover  was  urged  as  a  substitute 
for  fallow l ;  potatoes  and  carrots  began  to  be  cultivated ;  and  in- 
creasing attention  was  paid  to  orchards  and  gardens.  It  was  in  this 
period  that  the  work  of  draining  the  fens  in  the  eastern  counties  was 
first  seriously  undertaken.  It  was  a  vast  area  of  nearly  700,000  acres, 
consisting  of  marshes  and  pools,  with  here  and  there  an  island :  "af- 
fording little  benefit  to  the  realm  other  than  fish  or  fowl,  with  an  over- 
much harbor  to  a  rude  and  almost  barbarous  sort  of  rude  and  lazy 
people."  Ever  since  Roman  times  occasional  attempts  at  reclamation 
had  been  made,  especially  by  the  monks  who  made  their  homes  on  the 
islands  dotting  the  watery  and  boggy  expanse.  Of  the  projects  now 
undertaken  the  most  extensive,  and  the  one  carried  furthest  toward 
completion,  was  that  of  the  Earl  of  Bedford  and  thirteen  "  gentlemen 
adventurers,"  who  in  1630  agreed  to  drain  the  Cambridge  district 
in  return  for  a  grant  of  95,000  acres.  Work  was  interrupted  during 
the  Civil  War,  but  resumed  during  the  Commonwealth.  Similar  under- 
takings met  with  various  setbacks.  Some  of  the  work  wras  badly 
done  by  "  mountebank  engineers,  idle  practitioners,  and  slothful,  im- 
patient slubberers,"  though  the  greatest  difficulty  came  from  the 
"  riotous  letts  and  disturbances  "  of  the  natives  who  received  no  com- 
pensation for  their  rights  of  turf  cutting,  fowling,  fishing,  hunting, 
and  pasture,  and  it  was  not  till  after  the  lapse  of  a  century  and  more 
that  the  results  of  their  destruction  was  repaired. 

The  Period  of  the  Civil  Wars  and  the  Restoration.  —  The  agri- 
cultural progress  of  the  first  forty  years  of  the  century  was  greatly 
checked  by  the  war.  This  was  due  not  so  much  to  the  absorption  of 
the  population  in  fighting  as  to  the  fear  that  the  hostile  armies  at  any 
time  might  swoop  down  and  destroy  the  fruit  of  a  season's  toil,  or 
demand,  for  King  or  Parliament,  the  crops  gathered  by  painful  labor. 
The  period  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Protectorate  was  marked 
by  new  progress,  to  which  Cromwell  contributed  by  his  enlightened 
support.  Under  Charles  II,  however,  another  period  of  stagnation 
set  in:  Many  facts  beside  the  blighting  effects  of  the  war  explain  why 
the  early  promise  of  the  century  was  not  fulfilled.  For  one  thing, 
most  of  the  writers  who  urged  wise  and  necessary  improvements 
proved  to  be  failures  in  practice,  so  that  their  example  did  not  inspire 

1  Apparently  first  introduced  in  the  reign  of  James  I,  by  Sir  Richard  Weston, 
who  had  served  as  ambassador  to  the  Palatinate ;  turnips  had  the  additional  ad- 
vantage that  they  could  be  used  to  feed  cattle  over  the  winter.  Formerly  most 
of  the  cattle  had  been  killed  and  salted.  But  turnips  and  clover  did  not  come  into 
general  use  until  the  eighteenth  century. 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER  ENGLAND  593 

confidence.  Then,  the  system  of  common  tillage  and  open  fields, 
which  still  survived  in  large  parts  of  the  country  l  till  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  an  obstacle  to  individual  enterprise.  More- 
over, the  cavalier  estates  had  been  heavily  embarrassed  by  the  seques- 
trations and  exactions  from  which  they  had  suffered  during  the  Civil 
War,  while  those  of  the  other  party  who  had  acquired  their  lands  were 
uncertain  of  their  tenure  after  the  Restoration.  Landlords  were  un- 
progressive,  grasping,  and  niggardly  in  advancing  capital;  tenants 
were  discouraged  from  making  improvements  when  the  only  prospect 
was  increased  rent  or  eviction  in  the  interest  of  the  landlord  or  of  some 
one  who  would  offer  a  higher  bid.  Roads  were  bad  and  canals  as  yet 
non-existent,  so  that  new  ideas  spread  slowly,  and  the  producer  was  as 
yet  limited  to  local  markets.  The  great  development  in  agriculture 
was  not  to  come  for  almost  a  century. 

Roads  and  Travel.  —  Traveling  was  not  only  difficult,  but  danger- 
ous. On  dark  moonless  nights  the  traveler  stood  in  grave  danger  of 
losing  his  way  in  the  unenclosed  heaths  and  fens  that,  in  many  parts  of 
the  country,  lay  on  either  side  of  the  road.  If  he  managed  to  keep  a 
straight  path,  he  was,  in  wet  seasons,  constantly  liable  to  mire  his 
horse  or  his  coach,  and  sometimes  his  progress  was  altogether  cut  off 
by  floods.  The  coach  from  London  to  Oxford  —  a  distance  of  fifty- 
four  miles  —  took  two  days  of  thirteen  hours  each.  Great  was  the 
amazement  of  the  good  people  of  the  time  when,  in  1669,  a  "  Flying 
Coach  "  was  started  which  made  the  journey  between  6  A.M.  and 
7  P.M.  of  the  same  day.  In  spite  of  storms  of  opposition  at  the 
great  risk  involved  in  going  at  such  a  reckless  speed,  "  flying  coaches," 
which  averaged  fifty  miles  a  day  in  summer  and  thirty  in  winter, 
were  started,  before  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  from  most  of 
the  chief  towns  south  of  York  and  east  of  Exeter.  Many  still  traveled 
by  post  horses  rented  at  various  inns  along  the  road.  The  coaches 
were  great  lumbering  affairs,  drawn  by  four  or  six  horses.  There  were 
stage  wagons  for  merchandise,  though,  on  the  by-roads  and  on  the 
main  highways  in  the  north  and  west  goods  were  transported  on  the 
backs  of  pack  horses.  The  parishes  were  responsible  for  keeping  the 
roads  in  repair,  and  supplemented  the  rate  with  personal  labor  exacted 
from  the  peasantry.  Owing  to  the  inadequacy  of  this  system,  the  first 
Turnpike  Act  was  passed  in  the  third  year  after  the  accession  of 
Charles  II.  Work  was  begun  on  the  road  from  London  to  York ;  but 
no  further  legislation  on  the  subject  was  undertaken  for  thirty-two 
years,  and  the  roads  continued  in  the  same  old  state. 

Highwaymen.  —  To  add  to  the  woes  of  the  traveler,  there  were 
the  highwaymen  who  infested  the  roads  in  every  direction,  especially 
those  which  led  to  London.  Men  made  their  wills  before  undertaking 
a  journey  and  started  out  with  pistols  in  their  holsters,  blunderbusses 
in  their  coaches,  and  often  guarded  by  armed  attendants.  In  1669 

1  The  enclosures  had  been  practically  confined  to  eight  counties,  while,  in  four- 
teen, open  or  intermixed  fields  were  still  the  rule. 
2Q 


594  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

i 

it  is  recorded  that  the  Tuscan  Grand  Duke  Cosmo  left  Dorchester, 
"  convoyed  by  a  great  many  horse  soldiers  belonging  to  the  country." 
Some  of  the  outlaws  of  the  period  were  almost  as  famous  as  the  legen- 
dary Robin  Hood. 

Inns  and  Ale  Houses.  —  Happily  English  inns  were  famous  for 
their  plenty,  comfort,  and  good  cheer.  The  larger  ones  were  equipped 
with  monstrous  supplies  of  beef  and  mutton,  hogsheads  of  ale,  cellars 
of  wine,  and  well-stocked  stables.  Besides,  there  were  many  of  the 
humbler  sort :  "  with  the  cleanly  swept  brick  floor,  with  the  ancient 
ballads  stuck  on  the  walls,  with  the  linen  fragrant  with  the  scent  of 
lavender,  with  the  open  fire  and  the  snowy  curtains,  and  every  mate- 
rial detail  savoring  of  comfort  and  repose.  ..."  Since  the  passing 
of  the  stagecoach  and  the  advent  of  the  railroad,  the  country  inns  have 
become  largely  a  thing  of  the  past.  There  were  also  in  rural  villages 
simple  alehouses,  whither  the  natives,  from  the  squire  to  the  humblest 
toiler,  came  to  talk  and  to  doze. 

Social  Classes.  —  The  gradations  of  classes  in  rural  England  were 
the  nobility ;  country  gentry,  who  possessed  broad  acres ;  the  yeomen 
or  small  freeholders ;  the  tenant  farmers,  and  the  agricultural  laborers. 
In  addition,  there  were  the  country  parsons  who  occupied  a  somewhat 
anomalous  position.  While  class  distinctions  were  deeply  rooted  and 
most  folk  died  in  the  station  in  which  they  were  born,  there  was  a 
degree  of  close  friendly  association.  High  and  low  often  mingled  in 
the  village  school  and  the  grammar  schools  of  the  market  towns.  In 
cases  where  the  sons  of  nobility  and  gentry  were  educated  at  home  by 
tutors,  boys  of  lesser  rank  were  admitted,  not  infrequently,  as  com- 
panions or  pages,  to  share  their  studies.  After  this  preliminary  train- 
ing the  noble  and  the  wealthy,  and  even  a  favored  few  of  the  lesser 
sort,  might  proceed  to  the  great  endowed  schools  such  as  Eton,  Win- 
chester, and  Westminster.  Many  of  the  elder  sons,  after  painfully 
struggling  with  the  elements  of  learning,  settled  down  at  once  upon 
their  estates  with  a  stock  of  knowledge  not  much  in  excess  of  the 
humble  clodhopper.  Others  were  sent  with  a  tutor  to  make  a  grand 
tour  of  the  Continent.  Others,  again,  before  traveling  abroad,  went 
for  a  time  to  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  At  the  Universities  there  were 
marked  distinctions  of  rank ;  for  the  teaching  and  clerical  professions 
were  recruited  largely  from  the  middle  class,  from  the  sons  of  farmers 
and  tradesmen.  Many  had  to  earn  their  own  way,  as  servitors  or 
"  sizers,"  making  the  beds,  sweeping  the  chambers,  and  performing  other 
menial  duties  for  the  affluent  gentlemen  commoners.  Not  a  few  of  the 
younger  sons  of  the  gentry  found  a  career  in  the  law  or  medical  pro- 
fessions, although  some  took  holy  orders.  The  former  went  to  London 
to  reside  for  a  specified  number  of  terms  at  the  Inns  of  Court,  or  to  en- 
roll in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  walk  the  hospitals.  Others 
sought  service  in  the  continental  wars  or  engaged  in  commerce,  either 
in  the  city  or  in  the  neighboring  provincial  town.  These  latter  formed 
a  link  between  the  landed  and  the  trading  classes.  Frequently,  they 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER   ENGLAND  595 

married  rich  tradesmen's  daughters,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  mer- 
chants who  had  become  wealthy  bought  estates  and  set  up  as  country 
gentlemen. 

The  Nobility  and  Country  Gentry.  —  At  the  accession  of  the  Stuarts 
many  of  the  older  nobility,  especially  of  the  soberer  sort,  began  to 
travel  abroad  or  to  retire  to  their  estates,  leaving  the  pleasure  seekers 
and  the  climbers  to  seek  their  diversion  or  to  push  their  fortunes  at 
court.  And  their  country  homes  were  pleasant  places  —  fine  palaces 
and  manor  houses  —  their  huge  walls  paneled  with  somber,  splendidly 
carved  woods  and  adorned  with  trophies  of  the  chase,  with  coats  of 
arms,  and  family  portraits.  In  the  adjoining  grounds  were  gardens 
and  magnificent  parks  of  trees.  Hunting  was  the  chief  sport,  indeed, 
the  engrossing  occupation  of  most  of  the  rural  nobility  and  gentry. 
Deer  hunting  was  confined  to  the  upper  classes  and  to  poachers.  Others 
had  to  confine  themselves  to  less  noble  game  such  as  otters,  badgers, 
hares,  and  foxes.  Fowling  with  the  hawk  or  net  was  still  a  fashion- 
able pursuit.  After  a  hard  morning's  run,  an  afternoon  dinner  fol- 
lowed, either  at  home  or  in  a  neighboring  alehouse,  a  repast  which 
the  men  of  the  company  rarely  finished  in  a  sober  condition.  The 
nobility  —  there  were  about  160  temporal  lords  at  the  Restoration  — 
lived  with  the  greatest  profusion.  The  Duke  of  Beaufort,  for  in- 
stance, had,  at  Badminton  near  Bristol,  huge  retinues  of  servants  on  a 
vast  estate  that  was  almost  self-sufficing.  The  rural  gentry  —  though 
there  were  exceptions  like  Hampden  and  Hutchinson  —  were  rude  in 
their  manner  of  life,  prejudiced  and  often  illiterate.  Few  left  home 
save  at  the  most  infrequent  intervals,  and  such  fragments  of  book 
learning  as  they  had  acquired  were  soon  forgotten  amid  the  business 
and  pleasures  of  their  rural  seclusion  —  management  of  land  and 
cattle,  dickering  at  market,  riding  and  hunting,  and  huge  dinners. 
Without  newspapers  and  periodicals,  and  with  few  opportunities  for  dis- 
cussion with  men  of  affairs  and  information,  they  were  naturally  the 
reverse  of  open-minded  or  rational  in  their  opinions.  Nevertheless, 
ignorant  and  uncouth  as  they  often  were,  they  had  a  pride  of  family, 
which,  if  it  made  them  overbearing  and  impatient  of  contradiction, 
impelled  them  to  cherish  high  standards  of  honor.  It  was  from  this 
class  that  the  officers  of  the  army,  the  navy,  and  the  militia  were  re- 
cruited, as  well  as  the  justices  of  the  peace,  and  their  experience  and 
responsibility  were  bound  to  develop  self-reliance  and  executive 
capacity. 

The  Yeomen  and  the  Farmers.  —  Next  "below  the  landed  gentry 
were  the  yeomen  and  the  tenant  farmers.  The  former  were  freeholders 
who  tilled  their  lands  with  the  help  of  a  few  servants  and  laborers.  It 
is  estimated  that,  with  their  families,  they  comprised  about  a  seventh  of 
the  total  population.  They  were  a  sturdy  class,  many  of  them  Dis- 
senters, who,  with  the  city  tradesmen,  had  helped  to  recruit  the  parlia- 
mentary armies  during  the  Civil  War  and  were  among  the  stoutest 
opponents  of  the  Court  after  the  Restoration.  As  a  body,  they  went 


5Q6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

far  to  counterbalance  the  Toryism  of  the  squirearchy  and  the  country 
parson.  Toward  the  close  of  the  period,  however,  they  were  already 
on  the  road  to  extinction ;  for  the  large  landowners  had  already  begun 
the  practice  of  buying  them  out,  a  process  which  was  carried  well- 
nigh  to  completion  in  the  next  century.  Moreover,  their  lands  were 
eagerly  sought  by  well-to-do  city  merchants  anxious  to  found  estates. 
The  farmers  who  hired  their  lands,  with  holdings  averaging  from  40 
to  50  acres,  formed  a  body  almost  as  numerous  as  the  freeholders. 
Competition  was  keen,  rents  were  high,  and  they  were  destined  to  go 
the  way  of  the  freeholders,  to  give  way  to  tenants  of  large  holdings  and 
capitalist  cultivators. 

The  Clergy.  —  There  were,  in  the  Restoration  period,  about  10,000 
clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England,  four  fifths  of  whom  received  an 
income  of  not  more  than  £50  each.  While  there  was  a  great  difference 
between  the  bishops  and  town  clergy,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  do- 
mestic chaplains  and  country  parsons,  on  the  other,  the  poverty  and 
menial  status  of  the  latter  probably  has  been  exaggerated  by  the 
satirists,  the  novelists,  and  by  the  historian  Macaulay,  who  drew  a 
famous  picture  of  them.  Many  there  were,  no  doubt,  with  large 
families  in  poor  parishes,  who  had  to  eke  out  their  scanty  stipend  by 
working  small  farms ;  who,  with  few  or  no  books,  denied  the  advantages 
of  travel,  and  deprived  of  uplifting  associations,  were  in  a  state  not  far 
above  the  peasants  of  their  flocks.  There  were,  too,  chaplains  who 
were  household  drudges,  for  whom  the  cook  or  the  lady's  maid  was 
thought  a  fitting  match.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  many  younger 
sons  of  gentlemen,  or  even  nobles,  who  sought  a  career  in  the  Church ; 
not  a  few  of  the  seventeenth-century  poets  were  rural  clergymen,  and 
a  long  list  of  works  on  divinity  will  testify  to  the  erudition  of  many 
others.  Moreover,  during  the  interval  from  the  Restoration  to  the 
death  of  Anne  the  clergy  as  a  whole  exercised  great  political  influence. 

The  Agricultural  Laborers.  —  Out  of  an  estimated  population  of 
about  5,000,000  toward  the  close  of  the  century,  the  rural  portion 
totaled  approximately  3,500,000.  Of  these,  over  700,000  were 
laborers  and  small  cotters,  who,  together  with  their  families,  made  up 
about  half  the  inhabitants  of  England.  They  lived  on  intimate  terms 
with  the  small  farmers  and  yeomen  who  employed  them,  and,  if  un- 
married, they  ate  at  the  farmers'  tables,  sharing  in  all  except  puddings 
and  special  delicacies.  Yet  their  state  was  a  miserable  one.  Wages 
were  low,  though  they  were  supplemented  to  some  extent  by  surviving 
•  ights  on  the  common  lands,  by  the  domestic  system  of  spinning  and 
weaving,  and  the  employment  of  the  women  in  the  fields  at  harvest 
!  ide.  There  were  times  when  work  was  slack  in  particular  localities, 
and  the  laws  of  settlement  kept  the  poor  from  wandering  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  their  parish;  while,  in  the  towns,  the  strict  laws  of  ap- 
prenticeship and  the  monopolies  of  trading  companies  and  surviving 
gilds  were  almost  insuperable  obstacles  to  the  enterprising  youth  who 
had  nothing  to  aid  him  but  his  talents  and  his  ambitions,  It  was  in- 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER   ENGLAND  597 

finitely  harder  to  rise  from  the  ranks  of  laborer  to  that  of  trader  or 
merchant,  than  for  the  latter  to  attain  the  grade  of  gentry.  The  poor 
had  no  fresh  meat  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year,  no  wheaten 
bread,  and  as  yet  no  tea  or  coffee.  Their  houses  were  still  mere  hovels 
with  walls  of  mud  and  roofs  of  thatch,  with  rarely  more  than  a  single 
chimney,  and  no  glazed  windows.  Sanitary  conditions  were  still 
worse.  The  plague  did  not  cease  its  visitations  till  1665,  infant 
mortality  was  appalling,  and  medicine  was  only  emerging  into  a 
science.  The  humbler  folk  slept  crowded  together  in  stuffy  rooms; 
the  advantages  of  bathing  and  fresh  air  were  not  yet  understood,  and 
both  the  atmosphere  and  the  water  were  contaminated  by  sewage  and 
refuse. 

Prevalence  of  Superstition.  —  Many  superstitions  were  rife,  some 
of  them  cruel  and  terrifying.  Even  at  the  close  of  the  century  the 
bulk  of  the  people  still  believed  in  witches  —  malicious,  spiteful  old 
women  who  had  sold  their  chances  of  future  salvation  and  had  leagued 
themselves  with  the  devil,  creatures  who  blighted  the  crops  and  maimed 
the  cattle  of  their  neighbors  and  held  nightly  revels  in  cellars  and 
larders.  They  were  supposed  to  ride  on  broomsticks,  and  to  be  at- 
tended by  familiar  spirits  in  the  form  of  toads  and  cats.  While,  in 
Elizabeth's  time,  the  laws  against  witchcraft  were  the  mildest  in  Eu- 
rope, a  new  and  ferocious  act  followed  the  advent  of  James  I,  and,  be- 
fore 1680,  70,000  poor  creatures  had  been  executed.  Thanks  to  the 
good  sense  and  humanity  of  Cromwell,  the  persecution  was  abated 
during  the  Commonwealth  and  was  not  resumed  after  the  Restoration 
with  anything  like  the  old  rigor,  though  so  learned  a  judge  as  Matthew 
Hale  continued  to  nourish  the  delusion.  If  witches  were  the  victims 
of  popular  superstition  and  hatred,  —  though  they  were  often  sought 
for  their  charms  to  ward  off  diseases  and,  in  the  case  of  lovers,  to  win 
the  affections  of  some  coy  village  damsel  —  alchemists,  astrologers, 
and  fortune  tellers  —  many  of  them  thieves  and  sharpers  —  throve 
upon  the  prevailing  credulity. 

Counterbalancing  Charms  of  the  Age.  —  On  the  other  hand,  many 
current  beliefs  illumined  the  pervading  monotony  with  touches  of 
poetry.  Men  told  of  the  lubber  fiend,  or  Lob-lie-by-the-fire,  who  came 
down  the  chimney  after  the  household  was  asleep,  swept  the  floors, 
and  did  all  manner  of  work,  if  placated  by  a  bowl  of  cream  by  the  fire- 
side. It  caused  pleasant  shudders  to  think  that  ghosts  haunted  the 
church  yards,  that  goblins  peopled  the  fields  after  nightfall,  and  that 
fairies  sported  in  the  dark  recesses  of  the  forests.  Moreover,  there 
was  much  that  was  picturesque  and  charming  about  the  life  of  the 
period.  Except  for  London,  there  were  no  crowded  cities,  and  the 
teeming  factories  with  their  ceaseless  din  and  smoke  were  as  yet  far 
in  the  future.  People,  even  in  the  provincial  towns,  were  surrounded 
by  orchards  and  gardens ;  they  were  within  sight  of  field,  wood,  and 
stream.  All  this,  together  with  the  picturesque  and  graceful  architec- 
ture —  the  rambling  manor  houses,  the  quaint  homes  of  the  lesser  folk, 


598  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  the  spacious  inns,  —  lent  a  variety  and  beauty  to  life  which  was 
reflected  in  the  songs  and  verses  of  the  period.  Before  and  after  the 
gloomy  interval  of  the  Puritan  regime,  ancient  games,  festivals,  and 
pastimes  flourished.  At  Christmas  the  Yule  log  was  burned,  and  all 
classes  indulged  in  brave  feasting.  There  were  pretty  ceremonies  on 
St.  Valentine's  Day,  and  on  May  Day,  when,  in  the  early  dawn,  the 
youths  and  maidens  went  to  the  woods  and  fields  and  wove  garlands 
to  hang  on  doors  and  windows.  There  was  cockfighting  and  bull 
baiting,  wrestling,  and  football  played  with  inflated  bladders  of 
swine,  and  there  were  masks  and  pageants. 

The  North  Country.  —  The  balance  of  wealth  and  population  was 
still  in  the  south.  The  northern  counties  were  scantily  inhabited, 
poor  and  wild.  Peel  towers  l  continued  to  be  used  as  refuges,  and 
manor  houses  were  built  of  stone  and  fortified.  Judges  on  circuit 
were  usually  accompanied  by  a  strong  bodyguard.  Parishes  kept 
bloodhounds  to  protect  property,  and  local  taxes  were  levied  to  main- 
tain bands  of  armed  men. 

The  Towns.  —  Except  for  London,  which  had  a  population  of  not 
far  from  half  a  million,  there  were,  so  late  as  the  Restoration,  only 
four  towns  with  more  than  ten  thousand  inhabitants  —  Bristol,  Nor- 
wich, Exeter,  and  York.  Small  as  they  were,  the  provincial  towns 
were  far  more  important  social  centers  than  they  are  to-day.  The 
great  county  families  resorted  to  them  instead  of  to  London  for  pleas- 
ure as  well  as  for  business.  While  the  assizes,  the  quarter  sessions, 
and  the  markets  occupied  the  early  part  of  the  day,  the  evenings  were 
made  gay  with  balls  and  all  sorts  of  social  activities.  Owing  to  the 
restrictive  policy  of  the  gilds  and  the  apprentice  laws,  excluding  the 
unskilled  labor  from  the  rural  districts,  the  population  of  the  towns 
was  a  picked  one.  The  gild  system,  however  much  may  be  urged 
against  it,  inadequate  as  it  was  to  meet  the  growing  needs  of  the 
country,  was  not  wholly  without  advantages.  It  kept  up  the  stand- 
ard of  production,  and  not  only  furnished  skilled  workmen  but  pro- 
vided a  means  of  education  when  schools  were  few  and  costly.  Where 
the  apprentice  had  a  churlish,  avaricious  master  his  lot  was  sad  indeed, 
what  with  long  hours,  hard  words,  and  beatings ;  but  under  happier 
circumstances,  he  had  the  blessings  of  a  sympathetic  home  training. 
After  his  seven  years  of  service  he  began  work  as  a  journeyman. 
Often  he  prospered  sufficiently  to  set  up  in  business  for  himself,  or 
he  might  marry  his  master's  daughter  and  take  over  the  very  craft 
or  trade  to  which  he  had  been  bound.  But,  outside  the  old  centers, 
the  gilds  were  giving  way  more  and  more  to  the  domestic  system, 
especially  in  the  cloth  industry ;  more  and  more,  in  the  villages  and 
through  the  countryside,  spinners  and  weavers  were  working  in  their 
own  cottages.  Moreover,  some  towns,  like  Norwich  and  Hull,  were 
wise  enough  to  slacken  their  restrictions,  and,  by  admitting  the  sons 

1  Square  fortified  towers  with  overhanging  battlements  under  which  the  cattle 
were  placed. 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER  ENGLAND  599 

of  gentry  and  yeomen,  forged  ahead  of  York  and  other  places  which 
clung  to  their  traditional  policy.  Also,  by  welcoming  Huguenots  — 
and  here  London  was  in  the  vanguard  —  they  gained  an  advantage 
which  France  threw  away.  While  most  of  the  municipal  charters  of 
the  Tudor  and  Stuart  period  placed  the  government  in  the  hands  of 
a  narrow,  self-perpetuating  oligarchy,  there  were  many  cities  and 
boroughs  where  the  householders  retained  a  voice  in  the  elections  and 
other  public  business.  Even  where  the  franchise  was  on  a  narrow 
basis,  the  municipalities  were  citadels  of  local  autonomy  —  rarely  in- 
terfered with  except  for  a  few  years  in  the  reigns  of  Charles  II  and 
James  II  —  and  the  training  which  the  merchants  and  traders  got  in 
local  self-government  was  an  important  factor  in  the  constitutional 
development  of  the  country. 

London.  —  London  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  was, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  Amsterdam,  without  a  commercial 
rival  in  the  world,  as  well  as  the  center  of  the  social,  political,  and  in- 
tellectual life  of  England.  Its  aspect  was  very  different  from  to-day 
when  the  population  within  the  metropolitan  district l  numbers 
seven  millions,  and  the  great  army  of  those  who  have  business  in  the 
City  go  every  night  to  the  suburbs  and  the  adjoining  country.  In 
those  days  even  the  wealthy  merchants  occupied  houses  surrounded 
by  walled  gardens,  which  have  long  since  given  place  to  crowded 
streets,  banks,  shops,  and  warehouses.  Artificers  and  tradesmen 
lived  with  their  families  and  apprentices  over  or  behind  their  shops. 
The  London  of  the  Restoration  had  few  or  no  suburbs  and  most  of 
the  now  fashionable  West  End  consisted  of  fields  and  orchards  with 
here  and  there  a  great  nobleman's  estate.  Outside  the  city  walls 
were  the  "  liberties,"  a  region  of  slums  where  the  poor,  the  wretched, 
and  the  criminal  were. herded  together  in  miserable  hovels  in  dirty 
alleys.  The  city  streets  were  narrow  and  crooked ;  the  overhanging 
upper  stories  of  the  buildings  on  either  side  presented  a  quaint  ap- 
pearance, but  cut  off  fresh  air  and  sunlight.  The  rebuilding  which 
followed  the  Great  Fire  of  1666  led  to  improved  sanitary  conditions 
at  the  sacrifice  of  medieval  picturesqueness.  This,  however,  was 
preserved  in  a  few  old-time  ceremonies,  in  the  pageantry  of  the  livery 
companies,  and  the  other  occasions  of  state,  when  the  Lord  Mayor 
appeared  in  his  black  velvet  hood,  his  gold  chain,  and  jewels.  Then, 
too,  a  touch  of  varied  charm  was  added  by  the  signs  which  designated 
different  houses  —  numbers  would  have  been  of  very  little  help, 
since  few  coachmen,  chairmen,  or  porters  could  read.  The  pavements 
were  wretched,  and  the  gutters,  clogged  with  decayed  vegetables  and 
animal  refuse,  became  raging  torrents  during  rainy  weather  and 
flooded  the  streets  with  watery  filth.  This  was  splashed  upon  the 
pedestrian  by  passing  coaches  and  carts,  so  that  "  taking  the  wall  " 
was  a  much-sought  privilege  which  caused  many  a  fight.  The  street 

1  The  City  proper  has  only  19,657  inhabitants. 


600  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

vendors  kept  up  a  constant  din,  crying  their  wares,  and  the  air  was 
choked  with  the  smoke  of  sea  coal  which  arose  from  the  fires  of  brewers, 
dyers,  soap  boilers,  and  lime  burners.  Mixed  with  fog  it  often  en- 
veloped the  City  in  almost  impenetrable  gloom.  At  such  times  as 
well  as  at  night  it  was  dangerous  to  be  abroad,  what  with  the  slippery, 
foul,  and  uneven  pavements,  the  countless  thieves  and  cutthroats, 
and  bands  of  roistering  young  men  of  fashion  —  known  as  hectors, 
scourers,  and  Mohocks  —  who  took  delight  in  attacking  and  mauling 
peaceful  citizens.  Although  dueling,  which  came  in  at  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  was  a  custom  much  to  be  deplored,  it  had  the  merit 
of  superseding,  to  some  degree,  the  custom  of  seeking  revenge  against 
an  enemy  through  hired  assassins  and  bullies.  But  murders  and 
robberies  were  all  too  frequent  under  the  shroud  oj:  darkness.  Until 
the  reign  of  Charles  II  the  only  lights  came  from  links,  lanterns,  and 
torches,  borne  by  pedestrians  or  their  attendants.  Finally,  an  enter- 
prising person  obtained  an  exclusive  patent  for  lighting  the  City, 
placing  a  light  at  every  tenth  door  between  the  hours  of  six  and  twelve ; 
but  only  on  moonless  nights  and  during  the  season  from  Michaelmas 
to  Lady  Day.  There  was  no  metropolitan  police  force  until  well  into 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  decrepit  constables,  who  served  by  day, 
and  the  night  watch,  largely  composed  of  superannuated  and  feeble 
men,  afforded  little  protection.  Prosecutions  often  failed  because 
witnesses  dared  not  appear  for,  fear  of  the  vengeance  of  the  criminal 
classes  who  ran  riot  through  the  City.  The  apprentices  were  a  par- 
ticularly turbulent  element.  In  their  pretended  zeal  for  liberty, 
frequently  a  mere  cloak  for  lawlessness,  they  were  often  on  the  ram- 
page, cudgeling  those  who  came  in  their  way,  and  even  pulling  down 
buildings,  so  that  sometimes  even  the  soldiery  had  to  be  called  out  to 
suppress  them.  They  led  in  the  prejudice  of  the  London  rabble 
against  foreigners,  particularly  Frenchmen,  who  were  jeered  at,  pur- 
sued by  cries  of  "French  dog"  and  "  Mounzer,"  and  pelted  with 
stones  and  filth. 

Whitefriars,  Paul's  Walk,  Westminster,  and  Whitehall.  —  Noisy, 
disorderly,  and  dirty  as  were  the  other  quarters  of  the  City,  there  was 
one  district  on  the  western  edge,  near  the  Temple,  that  was  particu- 
larly unsavory  and  horrid.  It  was  known  as  Whitefriars,  from  the 
site  of  a  Carmelite  monastery,  founded  in  the  thirteenth  century.  A 
sanctuary  for  criminals  in  the  pre-Reformation  period,  it  still  retained 
the  privilege  of  protecting  debtors  from  arrest.  It  was  the  haunt  of 
abandoned  wretches  of  all  sorts,  gamblers,  forgers,  cheats,  murderers, 
and  highwaymen.  Officers  sent  to  make  arrests  were,  at  the  cry  of 
"  Rescue!  "  driven  away  by  furious  mobs,  so  that  it  often  required  a 
troop  of  soldiers  to  execute  a  warrant.  Between  the  hours  of  eleven 
and  twelve  in  the  forenoon  and  three  and  five  in  the  afternoon  "  Paul's 
Walk,"  the  central  aisle  in  the  Cathedral,  was  still  the  haunt  of  busi- 
ness and  pleasure.  Vendors  of  wares,  lawyers  seeking  clients,  and 
beaux  exhibiting  their  fine  raiment  wandered  up  and  down,  filling  the 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER   ENGLAND  601 

sacred  place  with  the  buzz  of  profane  conversation.  Westminster 
Hall,  the  ancient  palace  begun  by  William  Rufus  and  the  scene  of 
famous  State  trials,  was  given  over  to  hucksters  on  one  side  and  law- 
yers on  the  other.  The  court  at  Whitehall  was  a  center  of  politics, 
gayety,  and  dissipation.  Those  who  had  suits  to  press,  or  who  sought 
offices,  together  with  the  gay  libertines  who  were  boon  companions  of 
the  "  Merry  Monarch,"  thronged  at  his  levees.  The  galleries  of  the 
palace  were  filled  with  curious  crowds  watching  him  "  at  his  meals 
or  as  he  and  his  courtiers  and  mistresses  gambled  or  danced  in  the 
evening."  They  listened  eagerly,  too,  for  scraps  of  news  about  affairs, 
foreign  and  domestic,  and  greedily  devoured  such  crumbs  of  gossip 
and  scandal  as  they  were  able  to  get  hold  of. 

Coffeehouses.  —  What  was  learned  at  the  royal  palace  was  spread 
rapidly,  through  the  coffeehouses  which  filled  the  places  of  the  news- 
papers and  public  meetings  of  later  times.  Originating  in  the  sample 
room  of  a  Turkish  merchant  about  1656,  the  coffeehouses  multiplied 
so  rapidly  that  there  were  three  thousand  in  the  City  and  suburbs 
before  the  close  of  the  century.  Becoming  centers  for  political  dis- 
cussion, they  soon  aroused  the  suspicion  of  the  Government.  As  early 
as  1666,  Clarendon  suggested  that  they  be  placed  under  espionage, 
and,  in  1675,  Charles  II  ordered  them  to  be  closed;  but  the  popular 
opposition  was  so  intense  that  the  order  was  revoked  within  two  weeks, 
on  the  promise  of  the  landlords  to  do  their  best  to  stop  seditious  talk 
and  the  circulation  of  libelous  books  and  pamphlets.  There  were 
coffeehouses  for  all  classes,  professions,  and  shades  of  opinion,  for  fops 
and  courtiers,  for  medical  practitioners  and  lawyers,  for  .Puritans, 
Quakers,  Romanists,  and  even  for  Jews.  At  "  Wills,"  the  chief  resort 
for  men  of  letters,  Dryden  was  the  presiding  genius  with  the  warmest 
seat  by  the  chimney  corner  in  winter  and  a  bench  on  the  balcony  in 
summer.  There  were  various  political  clubs  as  well,  the  "  Rota  "  or 
"  Coffee  Club,"  a  Puritan  organization  frequented  by  Milton ;  the 
Old  Royalist  Club,  or  "  Sealed  Knot " ;  and  also.  Rump  and  Calves' 
Head  Clubs,  founded  by  Cavaliers  and  Puritans  respectively. 

The  Post.  —  Although  newspapers,  or,  rather,  newsbooks  or  pam- 
phlets, began  to  appear  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  news  was 
chiefly  circulated  by  coffeehouses  and  newsletters  l  until  after  the 
expiration  of  the  licensing  act  in  1695.  Postal  arrangements  were 
still  very  primitive  and  inadequate.  A  system  set  up  by  Charles  I 
was  overthrown  by  the  Civil  War  ;  but  was  resumed  during  the  Com- 
monwealth. After  the  Restoration  the  proceeds  of  the  post  office 
were  granted  to  the  Duke  of  York.  The  mail  bags  were  carried  on 
the  backs  of  horses  who  traveled  by  day  and  night  at  an  average  rate 
of  five  miles  an  hour.  Ordinarily,  the  mails  went  and  came  on  alter- 
nate days ;  but  in  the  remote  districts  letters  were  not  received  or 
dispatched  more  than  once  a  week.  Rates  were  very  high,  averaging 

1  Written  by  city  hacks  to  the  country  magnates  and  to  the  inns  of  provincial 
towns  and  villages. 


602  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

twopence  for  a  single  letter  for  eighty  miles  and  increasing  with  the 
weight  and  distance.  When  the  Court  was  traveling  from  place  to 
place,  arrangements  were  made  for  a  daily  service  with  London.  In 
the  reign  of  Charles  II,  one  William  Dockwray  established  in  London 
a  penny  post  with  a  delivery  six  or  eight  times  a  day  in  the  City  and 
four  times  in  the  suburbs.  While  he  was  able  to  withstand  the  out- 
cries of  the  porters,  he  was  obliged  to  yield  to  the  Duke  of  York,  who, 
complaining  that  the  enterprise  encroached  upon  his  monopoly,  took 
over  the  profits. 

Dress,  Food,  and  Recreations.  —  In  dress,  as  in  many  other  things, 
there  was,  after  the  Restoration,  a  decided  revolt  against  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  Puritan  regime.  Periwigs  appeared  for  men,  and  women 
of  fashion  began  to  paint  their  faces  and  to  adorn  them  with  black 
patches ;  they  also  adopted  the  practice  of  wearing  vizards,  or  masques, 
on  occasion,  and,  with  their  features  thus  concealed,  grew  more  bold 
in  their  conduct.  There  was  an  inordinate  rage  for  gambling,  and  all 
sorts  of  new  card  games  came  in  after  the  return  of  Charles  II.  Among 
the  pleasure  resorts,  Vauxhall  Gardens,  with  a  great  hall  for  prome- 
nading and  dancing  and  arbors  for  dining,  was  the  most  popular,  if 
not  the  most  respectable.  Although  the  fare  was  simpler  than  now- 
adays, there  was  such  an  excess  of  eating  and  drinking,  and  medicine 
had  made  so  little  progress  that  the  fashionable  found  it  good,  at 
certain  periods,  to  take  the  waters  and  live  on  restricted  diet.  Tun- 
bridge  Wells  and  Bath  were  the  most  famous  health  resorts.  The 
former  was  still  a  small  village,  and  the  latter  had  none  of  the  elabo- 
rate social  codes  or  fine  buildings  and  elegant  appointments  for  which 
it  was  celebrated  in  the  eighteenth  century.  All  of  that  followed  the 
advent  of  Beau  Nash  in  1705.  The  ordinary  London  citizen  con- 
tented himself  with  Epsom,  where  for  the  past  hundred  years  and 
more  the  Derby  races  have  been  held.  There  were  many  fields  near 
the  capital  where  the  lesser  folk,  particularly  the  apprentices,  went 
for  walks  on  evenings  and  holidays.  In  contrast  to  the  upper  classes, 
the  working  people  kept  very  early  hours,  beginning  the  day  at  six  or 
seven,  dining  at  one,  and  going  to  bed  at  sunset. 

Anglican  Theology.  —  The  drama,  the  choicest  of  the  choice  pro- 
ducts of  Elizabethan  literature,  began  to  decline  at  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  James  I,  and,  notwithstanding  the  appearance  of  poetry  of 
enduring  note,  the  remainder  of  the  century  was  preeminently  an  age  of 
prose.  The  exuberance  of  the  Renascence  had  spent  its  force,  the 
growing  Puritan  spirit  developed  acute  religious  controversies,  and 
pressing  political  problems  claimed  the  energies  of  active  minds. 
The  Bible,  in  the  magnificent  King  James  version,  became  the  dominat- 
ing influence  among  the  graver  people,  high  and  low  alike.  It  fos- 
tered independence  of  thought  and  stimulated  the  imagination  even 
of  the  common  man  and  prompted  him  to  noble  forms  of  expression, 
while  it  furnished  a  literary  model  of  singular  dignity  and  beauty  for 
the  man  of  letters,  and  provided  an  arsenal  of  weapons  for  the  con- 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER  ENGLAND  603 

troversialist.  Both  in  political  and  theological  discussions  there  are 
hosts  of  names,  some  furious  partisans  only  to  be  remembered  in  con- 
nection with  the  questions  of  the  day,  others  whose  productions  have 
survived  as  literary  classics.  Among  the  latter  were  many  Anglican 
divines. 

The  Latitudinarians.  —  The  mean  between  Laudian  extremists 
and  Puritan  fanatics  was  represented  by  the  "  Latitudinarians, "who 
clung  to  the  "  sweet  reasonableness  "  of  Hooker,  who  aimed  to  em- 
phasize the  essentials  of  faith  and  to  minimize  minor  differences  of 
dogma  and  Church  polity.  While  recognizing  the  claims  of  Divine 
revelation,  they  sought  to  harmonize  them  with  the  conclusions  of  a 
natural  theology,  of  reason  and  experience,  and  they  laid  stress  on 
righteousness  of  conduct  rather  than  correctness  of  opinion.  Taking 
its  rise  in  Holland,  Latitudinarianism  was  promulgated  chiefly  by  a 
small  group  of  broad-minded  thinkers  who,  on  the  eve  of  the  Civil 
War,  gathered  round  "  that  martyr  of  lucidity  of  mind  and  largeness 
of  temper,"  Lord  Falkland,  at  Great  Tew.  It  was  there  that  William 
Chillingworth  (1602-1644)  wrote  his  chief  work,  The  Religion  of 
Protestants  (1638),  a  defense  of  Anglicanism  on  rational  grounds. 
Another  of  the  Latitudinarians  was  the  "  ever  memorable  John  Hales 
of  Eton,"  who  would  often  say  that  "  he  would  leave  the  Church  of 
England  to-morrow,  if  it  obliged  him  to  believe  that;  any  other  Chris- 
tian should  be  damned,  and  that  nobody  would  conclude  another  to 
be  damned  who  did  not  wish  him  so."  In  1646,  appeared  The  Liberty 
of  Prophesying,  by  Jeremy  Taylor  (1613-1667),  "  intended  to  secure 
religious  freedom  against  spiritual  tyranny."  Taylor,  who  owed  his 
early  advancement  to  Laud  and  who  was  a  pronounced  royalist,  is 
chiefly  remembered  for  his  Holy  Living  (1650)  and  Holy  Dying  (1651), 
rare  among  devotional  works  for  its  profound  human  appeal  and  the 
splendor  of  its  style.  "  Quaint  old  Tom  Fuller  "  (1608-1661),  be- 
loved in  his  own  day  and  by  generations  of  readers  in  aftertimes  for 
his  sprightly  wit  and  playful  fancy,  was  among  those  who  sought  to 
steer  a  moderate  course.  His  peculiar  charm  is  best  manifested  in 
his  Worthies  of  England  (1662). 

The  Latitudinarian  tradition  was  continued  by  the  "  Cambridge 
Platonists,"  a  small  body  of  scholars  at  the  University  who,  opposing 
the  "  sourness  and  severity  "  of  the  extreme  Puritans  on  the  one  hand, 
and  materialism  on  the  other,  advocated  a  sort  of  Christian  Platonism. 
They  were  mystics  whose  philosophic  temper  was  held  in  check  by 
spiritual  humbleness.  In  the  troubled  days  of  the  Interregnum  and 
in  the  first  years  after  the  Restoration,  the  teaching  and  influence  of 
the  Cambridge  Platonists  was  almost  the  one  oasis  in  the  educational 
aridity  which  prevailed  at  the  Universities,  where  the  students  had  to 
depend  rather  upon  themselves  than  their  tutors.1  The  principles  of 

1  The  pursuit  of  learning,  however,  as  distinguished  from  teaching,  was  far 
from  dead,  particularly  at  Cambridge,  since  that  university  furnished  many  dis- 
tinguished members  to  the  Royal  Society  which  began  to  flourish  early  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II. 


604  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  early  Latitudinarians  and  the  Cambridge  Platonists  were  pre- 
served and  developed  by  a  long  line  of  post- Restoration  divines,  among 
them  Stillingfleet,  Tillotson,  and  the  historian  Burnet.  Though  most 
of  these  men  were  statesmen  rather  than  Christian  philosophers,  they 
strove  manfully  to  maintain  liberty  of  thought,  to  conciliate  the  Non- 
conformists, and  to  open  wider  the  doors  of  the  Establishment.  As  a 
body,  the  Latitudinarians  enriched  English  theology  with  much  good 
literature,  they  stood  for  peace  in  an  age  of  bitter  controversy,  and  for 
a  toleration  that  was  strange  alike  to  the  Laudians  and  their  oppo- 
nents.1 Moreover,  they  furnished  examples,  of  holy  living  only  equaled 
by  the  best  among  the  Puritans. 

Philosophy.  —  Among  the  speculative  thinkers  of  the  period,  the 
two  greatest  names  are  Thomas  Hobbes  (1588-1679)  and  John  Locke 
(1632-1704).  Hobbes,  during  his  long  and  busy  life,  produced  va- 
rious works  on  ethics,  metaphysics,  and  political  philosophy.  His  chief 
contribution  was  the  Leviathan  (published  1657),  in  which  he  likens 
the  State  to  the  fabulous  sea  monster  in  the  book  of  Job,  and  then  to  a 
mortal  god  who  exercises  absolute  control  over  the  subject.  This 
power,  in  his  opinion,  rested  upon  an  original  social  compact 2  between 
the  people  to  obey  the  sovereign  in  return  for  peace  and  protection 
against  war  and  anarchy  —  the  natural  state  of  mankind.  In  addi- 
tion, he  insisted  upon  the  complete  subordination  of  the  Church  to  the 
State.  His  doctrines  were  such  as  to  expose  him  to  furious  attacks 
from  the  extremists  of  both  the  opposing  camps.  The  parliamen- 
tarians were  alienated  by  his  absolutism,  while  the  royalists,  with  their 
notions  of  the  Divine  Right  of  kings,  would  not  accept  his  explanation 
of  the  origin  of  government.  Moreover,  he  was  denounced  as  an 
atheist  who  conformed  to  the  Church  of  England  merely  because  it 
was  established  by  the  State.  However,  his  political  theories  have 
had  far-reaching  consequences.  They  were  taken  up  by  Rousseau 
and  the  French  Encyclopedists  who  furnished  the  intellectual  prepara- 
tion for  the  French  Revolution,  while,  furthermore,  they  profoundly 
influenced  the  English  Utilitarians  who  contributed  so  much  to  popu- 
lar progress  during  the  nineteenth  century.  The  mouthpiece  of  the 
Tory  absolutists  was  Sir  Robert  Filmer,  whose  Patriarcha,  or  the 
Natural  Power  of  Kings  Asserted,  was  first  published  in  1680,  twenty- 
seven  years  after  the  author's  death.  While  agreeing  naturally  with 
Hobbes  as  to  the  supreme  authority  of  the  State,  he  sought  its  origin 
in  the  power  of  the  patriarchs,  beginning  with  Adam,  from  whom  the 
Divine  Right  of  kings  is  derived  by  hereditary  descent.  Another 
famous  political  theorist  of  the  period  was  James  Harrington  (1611- 
1677),  who  published  his  Commonwealth  of  Oceana  in  1656.  It  was  a 

1  Richard  Baxter  (1615-1691),  author  of  the  Saints'  Everlasting  Rest,  who  ended 
his  career  as  a  Presbyterian,  was  one  of  the  most  notable  and,  certainly,  the  most 
prolific  of  the  writers  among  the  Nonconformist  clergy. 

2  An  ancient  doctrine,  long  dormant,  which  had  been  recently  revised  by  Hooker, 
Grotius,  and  others. 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER   ENGLAND  605 

plan  of  a  new  republican  constitution  for  England,  based  on  the  model 
of  Venice  and  suggested  by  the  writings  of  Machiavelli.  But  the  only 
political  thinker  of  the  century  to  compare  with  Hobbes  was  Locke. 
He  was  a  man  of  astonishing  versatility.  He  was  a  tutor  at  Oxford. 
As  secretary  to  the  Council  for  the  Plantations  he  drafted  a  constitu- 
tion for  the  Carolinas  ;  he  had  a  share  in  the  restoration  of  coinage  in 
1696  ;  he  practiced  medicine ;  and,  according  to  John  Stuart  Mill,  he 
was  the  "  unquestioned  founder  of  the  analytic  philosophy  of  the 
mind."  His  writings  include  four  letters  on  Toleration;  two  Treatises 
on  Civil  Government;  an  Essay  concerning  Human  Understanding; 
Thoughts  on  Education;  and  a  work  on  the  Reasonableness  of  Chris- 
tianity. His  political  treatises  are  at  once  a  reply  to  Filmer  and  a 
defense  of  the  Revolution  of  1688.  Accepting  the  views  of  Hobbes 
as  to  the  origin  and  end  of  government,  he  went  beyond  him  in  insist- 
ing upon  the  supremacy  of  the  legislature  as  the  voice  of  the  people ; 
the  responsibility  of  the  prince  to  the  subject ;  and  the  right  of  resist- 
ance when  the  governors  of  the  State  failed  to  observe  their  trust. 

Economic  Theory.  —  While  the  seventeenth  century  marked  a 
considerable  output  of  economic  writing,  most  of  the  works  were 
written  for  practical  purposes  and  paid  little  attention  to  principles. 
Political  economy  as  yet  had  no  independent  name;  it  was  regarded 
merely  as  a  branch  of  statecraft  and  business.  The  writers  on  the 
subject  were,  as  a  rule,  merchants  or  politicians  concerned  with  in- 
creasing the  power,  the  treasure,  the  fisheries,  and  shipping  of  the 
country.  Chief  among  them  was  a  group  which  was  principally  en- 
gaged in  defending  the  privileges  of  the  East  India  Company.  Thomas 
Mun  (1571-1641),  one  of  the  directors,  although  a  pronounced  mer- 
cantilist, defended  the  company's  export  of  bullion  for  the  purchase  of 
goods  from  the  Orient.  In  his  Discourse  of  Trade  (1621)  he  argued 
that  a  goodly  proportion  of  such  goods  were  sold  on  the  Continent  at  a 
profit;  thus,  in  the  long  run,  bringing  to  England  a  margin  of  treasure. 
Furthermore,  he  contended  that,  since  oriental  products  would  be  im- 
ported anyway,  it  was  cheaper  for  the  Company  to  bring  them  by 
sea,  which  was  cheaper  than  the  alternative  overland  route.  He  de- 
veloped his  arguments  in  England's  Treasure  by  Foreign  Trade,  prob- 
ably written  in  1632,  though  not  published  till  1644.  Sir  Josiah  Child 
(1630-1699),  who  managed  the  affairs  of  the  Company  in  the  time  of 
Charles  II  and  James  II,  advanced  many  steps  beyond  his  predecessors 
in  economic  thinking.  He  recognized  that  gold  and  silver  were  only 
commodities  themselves  though  used  as  a  measure  of  other  commodi- 
ties, and  while  he  defended  monopoly  on  the  ground  that  it  made  for 
national  power  if  not  for  national  wealth,  he  realized  the  commercial 
advantages  of  free  trade.  Though  he  succeeded  in  grasping  some  of 
the  fundamental  principles  of  political  economy,  he  was  primarily  a 
shrewd,  experienced  business  man  who  treated  the  subject  as  an  art 
rather  than  a  science.  His  New  Discourse  of  Trade  appeared  in  1665. 
His  slightly  older  contemporary,  Sir  William  Petty  (1623-1687),  really 


606  A  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

contributed  more  toward  exposing  the  fallacies  of  mercantilism.  He 
wrote  on  money  and  taxes,  and  was  a  pioneer  in  advocating  the  use  of 
statistics  in  economic  studies.  But  perhaps  the  most  advanced 
thinker  among  seventeenth-century  economists  was  Nicholas  Barbon 
(1640-1689),  who  anticipated  Adam  Smith  —  the  creator  of  modern 
political  economy  and  the  first  great  apostle  of  free  trade  —  in  such 
fundamental  terms  as  his  definition  of  the  true  nature  of  wealth.  He 
further  prepared  the  way  for  his  great  successor  by  developing  the 
argument  that  restriction  of  imports  meant  restriction  of  exports  as 
well. 

Scientific  Progress.  —  The  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century 
was  marked  by  two  notable  scientific  achievements  —  the  inven- 
tion of  logarithms  by  John  Napier  (1550-1617)  and  discovery  of  the 
circulation  of  the  blood  by  William  Harvey  (1578-1657).  These 
advances,  however,  were  in  striking  contrast  to  the  survival  of  popular 
superstitions,  such  as  the  belief  in  witchcraft  shared  by  many  eminent 
men,  while  scientific  learning  continued  long  in  disrepute.  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  "  was  notoriously  slandered  to  have  enriched  a  school  of 
atheism  because  he  gave  countenance  to  chemistry,  to  practical  arts, 
and  to  curious  mechanical  operations,  and  designed  to  form  the  best 
of  them  into  a  college."  The  study  of  mathematics  was  not  only  much 
neglected  but  abhorred  as  a  diabolical  pursuit,  so  that  when  Sir  Henry 
Savile,  in  1619,  instituted  a  professorship  of  geometry  and  astronomy 
at  Oxford,  many  of  the  gentry  refused  to  send  their  sons  to  the  Uni- 
versity lest  they  might  be  "  smutted  by  the  black  art."  But  the  dawn 
was  beginning  to  break.  Bacon  did  much  for  the  advancement  of 
experimental  science,  though  more  by  what  he  suggested  than  by  any 
achievements  of  his  own.  Then  the  work  of  Galileo  and  Kepler  on 
the  Continent  in  time  produced  its  effect  in  England.  A  new  scientific 
era  was  heralded  by  the  establishment  of  the  Royal  Society  for  the 
promotion  of  "  Physico-Mathematical  Experimental  Learning." 
Starting  as  the  "  Invisible  College"  in  1645,  it  was  incorporated  under 
its  present  name  in  1662.  A  distinctive  feature  of  the  Restoration  was 
a  new  rationalism,  a  new  scientific  temper.  Charles  II  and  the  ver- 
satile Buckingham  toyed  with  chemistry.  The  National  Observatory 
was  built  at  Greenwich,  and  signs  of  advance  were  manifested  in 
various  fields.  Robert  Boyle  (1627-1691),  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Royal  Society  and  "  the  father  of  modern  chemistry,"  established  the 
relation  between  volume  and  pressure  of  gases  known  as  Boyle's  Law. 
Encouraging  work  was  also  done  in  botany  and  zoology,  though  none 
of  these  subjects  got  beyond  the  most  rudimentary  stages.  The 
great  scientific  genius  of  the  age,  however,  and  one  of  the  greatest  of 
any  age,  was  Sir  Isaac  Newton  (1641-1724),  who  made  no  less  than 
three  contributions  to  human  knowledge  —  the  discovery  of  the  law 
of  gravitation,  the  theory  of  fluxions  or  differential  calculus,  and  the 
compound  nature  of  white  light.  The  former  discovery,  his  supreme 
achievement,  was  made  in  1666,  and  announced  in  his  Principia  in 


PURITAN  AND    CAVALIER   ENGLAND  607 

1687.     Altogether,  much  was  being  done  to  wring  secrets  from  "  na- 
ture's close  reserve." 

Prose  Literature.  —  In  pure  literature  the  age  is  remarkable  for 
a  few  rare  products  of  scholarly  leisure,  as  delightful  in  form  as  they  are 
learned  in  content.  Among  them  is  the  Anatomy  of  Melancholy 
of  Robert  Burton  (1577-1640),  a  monument  of  erudition,  abounding 
in  fantastic  reflections  on  men  and  things,  and,  strangely  enough, 
considering  the  subject,  permeated  with  whimsical  humor.  Sir 
Thomas  Browne  (1605-1673),  a  physician  of  Norwich,  famed  for  his 
garden  and  his  collection  of  books  and  natural  specimens,  was  a  many- 
sided  scholar  who  ranged  over  wider  fields  even  than  Burton.  In  his 
Religio  Medici,  his  Enquiries  into  Vulgar  Errors,  his  Urn  Burial,  and 
his  Garden  of  Cyrus  he  displays  not  only  vast  knowledge  and  richness 
of  imagination,  but  a  pomp  and  magnificence  of  diction  rarely  equaled 
in  literature.  Izaak  Walton  (1593-1683),  an  unpretentious  London 
ironmonger,  had  a  love  of  nature,  a  genius  for  friendship,  and  a 
sweet  simplicity  and  a  cheery  humor  which  is  reflected  in  his  Com- 
plete Angler  and  in  his  lives  of  Hooker,  Donne,  Herbert,  and  Wotton. 
John  Bunyan  (1628-1688),  a  humble,  self-educated  tinsmith,  while  a 
prisoner  in  Bedford  jail,  wrote  his  immortal  Pilgrim's  Progress  (1678), 
which  stands  with  the  Divine  Comedy  and  the  Faerie  Queene  among 
the  world's  great  allegories.  With  a  unique  gift  for  direct,  vivid 
narration  and  realistic  character  portrayal,  as  well  as  an  inspired  under- 
standing of  the  spiritual  needs  and  hopes  and  fears  of  the  people 
among  whom  he  lived,  he  embodied  them  in  enduring  form  in  a  work 
which  is  at  once  a  sublime  religious  tract  and  a  forerunner  of  the 
modern  novel. 

Non-dramatic  Poetry.  —  While  as  a  whole  not  so  distinctive  as  the 
prose,  the  poetry  of  the  period  is  noteworthy  both  in  volume  and 
character,  and  altogether  too  varied  in  type  to  be  comprehended  within 
any  single  generalization.  John  Donne  (1573-1631)  was  the  first 
and  greatest  of  the  "  Fantastic  School,"  a  long  line  who  survived 
even  beyond  the  Restoration.  Another  was  George  Herbert  (1593- 
J633),  who  gave  up  glittering  worldly  prospects  to  settle  down  as  a 
simple  country  parson.  They  essayed  the  formidable  task  of  em- 
ploying the  poetic  medium  for  interpreting  profound  metaphysical 
and  religious  problems.  Moreover,  by  their  "  conceits  "  or  far-fetched 
images  and  analogies,  they  heightened  the  obscurity  of  their  themes, 
and  tended  to  become  extravagant  and  bizarre.  Nevertheless,  we 
owe  to  them  passages  of  rare  beauty,  flashing  light  on  spiritual  aspira- 
tion and  experience.  While  none  of  them  were  Puritans,  the  Puritan 
influence  goes  far  to  explain  their  earnestness  and  intensity.  A  stage 
in  the  transition  from  the  fantastic  to  the  prosaic  poets  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  was  marked  by  Andrew  Marvell  (1621-1678).  He 
turned  to  party  politics  during  the  Interregnum,  and,  after  the  Restora- 
tion, was  chiefly  active  as  a  satirist  and  pamphleteer.  Then  there  was 
a  group  of  Cavalier  poets  —  Richard  Lovelace  and  John  Suckling  — 


6o8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

who  flourished  at  the  court  of  Henrietta  Maria ;  they  were  notorious 
for  their  irregular  lives  and  produced  mostly  amatory  verse.  Also, 
there  were  pastoral  poets,  who  continued  the  Spenserian  tradition. 
Best  of  them  all  was  Robert  Herrick  (1591-1679),  who  wrote  exquisite 
verses  breathing  the  sweet  air  of  the  countryside  and  reflecting  the 
pleasures  of  the  rustic  folk  among  whom  he  lived  for  many  years  as  a 
parson.  In  view  of  the  prose  and  lyric  poetry  which  appeared  about 
the  middle  of  the  century,  it  cannot  be  said  that  either  Puritanism  or 
the  Civil  Wars  stifled  literary  production.1 

John  Milton.  —  The  finest  flower  of  Puritan  culture  was  John 
Milton,  in  whom  the  influences  of  the  Renascence  and  the  Reforma- 
tion were  strangely  mingled;  for  he  combined  finished  classical 
scholarship  with  a  profound  and  reverent  knowledge  of  the  Bible. 
As  an  undergraduate  at  Cambridge  he  began  to  write  Latin  verses, 
and,  in  1629,  the  year  in  which  he  took  his  degree,  appeared  his  splendid 
Ode  to  the  Nativity.  This  was  followed,  in  1632,  by  L' Allegro  and 
77  Penseroso,  which  contrast  in  exquisite  lines  the  joyous  mood  of 
morning  with  that  of  the  sadness  of  evening.  The  next  year  came  his 
masque,  Comus,  a  hauntingly  beautiful  double  allegory  of  the  peren- 
nial struggle  of  virtue  against  vice  and  of  the  pending  conflict  of  the 
two  parties  in  the  State.  His  next  notable  publication  was  Lycidas, 
an  elegy  on  the  death  of  a  college  friend.  Here  in  the  form  of  a  pastoral, 
reminiscent  of  Spenser  and  teeming  with  pictures  of  nature  and  with 
mythical  lore,  he  fiercely  attacked  the  corruptions  of  the  existing  es- 
tablishment. As  the  Civil  War  approached,  he  became  increasingly 
serious,  and,  turning  from  poetry  to  prose,  argued  for  religious  and 
political  freedom  in  language  of  harsh  or  impassioned  eloquence. 
His  Areopagitica  (1644)  is  a  noble  plea  for  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
and  his  Defensio  pro  Populo  Anglicano  is  regarded  as  the  finest  defense 
of  the  Commonwealth  ever  penned.  While  his  prose  writing  is  marred 
by  want  of  method,  by  bitter  partisanship,  and  occasionally  by  over- 
elaboration,  his  glowing  enthusiasm  for  liberty,  guided  by  Divine  order, 
and  the  loftiness  and  magnificence  of  his  best  passages,  give  his  work 
a  value  far  beyond  any  practical  importance  it  may  have  had.  In  1649 
he  became  Latin  secretary  to  the  Council  of  State,  retaining  the  post 
till  the  accession  of  Charles  II,  though  he  had,  in  the  meantime,  lost 
his  eyesight.  A  fugitive  for  a  short  time  after  the  Restoration,  he  was 
arrested,  but  soon  released  with  a  fine.  From  his  youth  up  he  had 
contemplated  the  dedication  of  his  poetic  talents  to  the  production 
of  a  great  work  illustrating  the  Divine  plan  of  the  universe.  Now, 
living  in  retirement,  embittered  by  the  failure  of  the  cause  he  had 

1  Samuel  Butler  (1612-1680),  during  the  years  from  1663  to  1668,  published  his 
Hudibras,  in  which,  detailing  the  adventures  of  a  Puritan  knight  and  his  squire, 
after  the  manner  of  Don  Quixote,  he  bitterly  ridicules  the  intolerance  and  hypocrisy 
which  he  seems  to  regard  as  typical  of  the  party.  Although  packed  with  learned 
allusions  and  enlivened  by  brilliant  phrases,  his  work  is  prevailingly  coarse  and 
superficial  —  more  of  a  caricature  than  a  satire. 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER  ENGLAND  609 

espoused,  by  unhappy  domestic  experiences,  by  poverty,  and  blindness 
he  completed,  between  1663  and  1667,  his  sublimest  literary  achieve- 
ment, Paradise  Lost.  The  vastness  of  the  design  and  the  marvelous 
harmony  of  the  blank  verse  give  it  a  place  among  the  highest  produc- 
tions of  the  world's  literature.  Yet  it  is  one  of  the  works  which  all 
too  many  are  content  to  admire  from  afar  rather  than  to  read,  and  Mil- 
ton received  for  it  just  £  10.  Paradise  Lost,  which  deals  with  the  temp- 
tation and  fall  of  man,  was  followed  in  1671  by  Paradise  Regained, 
which  tells  of  man's  redemption  through  Jesus  Christ.  From  its 
perfection  of  technique  it  is  essentially  a  "  poet's  poem  " ;  and  was 
pronounced  perfect  by  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge;  but,  owing  to 
its  austere  restraint,  it  has  never  made  such  a  general  appeal  as 
its  predecessor.  Samson  Agonistes,  which  appeared  at  the  same 
time,  is  a  tragedy  of  the  old  Greek  type,  though  it  relates  the 
Scriptural  story  of  Samson  fighting  against  the  Philistines.  In 
it  Milton  mirrored  his  own  heroic  but  futile  strivings  against  the 
opposing  forces  of  his  day. 

John  Dryden,  1631-1700.  —  The  representative  man  of  letters  of  the 
Restoration  period  was  John  Dryden,  poet  laureate  and  historiog- 
rapher, 1670-1689,  who  reflects  in  his  writing  his  varying  political 
and  religious  views.  Beginning  as  a  Commonwealth  man,  he  bewailed 
Cromwell's  death  in.  Heroic  Stanzas  in  1658 ;  then  he  welcomed  the 
Restorationin  Astr&a  Redux,  1660,  and  a  Panegyric,  1661.  Heattacked 
the  "  Papists  "  in  the  Spanish  Friar,  1681,  and  defended  Anglicanism  in 
Religio  Laid,  1682 ;  but,  converted  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  the 
year  after  the  accession  of  James  II,  he  denounced  the  Church  he  had 
discarded  and  eulogized  the  one  he  had  adopted  in  the  Hind  and  the 
Panther.  The  best  that  can  be  said  of  him  is  that,  after  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1688,  he  made  no  attempt  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  new  Govern- 
ment by  repudiating  Roman  Catholicism.  His  highest  achievements 
were  in  satirical  verse,  a  domain  in  which  he  has  no  peers  among  Eng- 
lish writers.  His  keen  and  dexterous  thrusts  at  his  opponents  have 
"  damned  them  to  everlasting  fame."  The  best  known  of  his  politi- 
cal satires  are  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  1681 ;  the  Medal,  1682  ;  and 
MacFlecknoe.  The  two  former  are  directed  mainly  against  Shaftes- 
bury,  while  in  the  latter  he  lashed  Thomas  Shadwell  —  his  successor 
as  Poet  Laureate  —  as  one  who  "  never  deviates  into  sense."  Two 
magnificent  odes  to  St.  Cecilia,  1687  and  1697,  the  latter  known  as 
Alexander's  Feast,  reflect  Dryden's  gentler  and  nobler  mood.  His 
Fables,  consisting  of  paraphrases  from  Chaucer,  from  Ovid,  and  other 
classics,  together  with  some  original  pieces,  also  take  a  high  rank  in 
English  verse.  He  was,  in  addition,  a  busy  and  productive  playwright, 
beginning  with  the  Wild  Gallant  in  1663  and  ending  his  dramatic  ca- 
reer with  Love  Triumphant,  a  tragi-comedy,  in  1694.  His  aim  was  to 
cater  to  the  court  and  the  town,  who,  influenced  by  the  French  taste 
acquired  by  the  Cavaliers  in  exile,  craved  novelty,  and  scorned  the 
great  products  of  the  Elizabethan  and  Jacobean  age.  This  "  refined 

2R 


6io  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

age,"  wrote  the  diarist  Evelyn,  was  "  disgusted  "  with  the  "  old 
plays,"  but  it  was  a  refinement  of  fashion,  not  of  literary  or  ethical 
standards. 

The  Drama.  —  While  there  was  growing  taste  for  masques  during 
the  reigns  of  James  I  and  Charles  I,  the  first  thirty  years  of  the  century 
witnessed  a  constant  succession  of  excellent  plays,  well  acted  and 
enthusiastically  received  by  the  public.  However,  the  decline  began 
to  set  in  during  the  decade  preceding  the  ordinance  of  September,  1642, 
closing  the  theaters.  This  was  due,  in  some  degree,  to  the  aggressive 
hostility  of  the  Puritans,1  who  turned  the  soberer  folk  against  the 
playhouses  and  forced  the  dramatic  authors  to  appeal  more  and  more 
to  the  classes,  both  among  the  fashionable  and  the  rabble,  who  were 
bound  by  no  scruples  of  taste  or  morals.  James  Shirley  (1596-1666) 
was  in  his  tragedies  the  last  of  the  Elizabethans,  while  in  his  comedy 
Hyde  Park  (licensed  1632,  printed  1637)  he  was  the  forerunner  of  the 
Restoration.  In  this  age  of  extravagant  revolt  against  the  recent 
Puritan  regime,  the  Elizabethan  spirit,  which  the  reign  of  the  saints 
had  helped  to  kill,  was  not  revived  in  the  Restoration  drama.  As 
in  so  many  other  fields,  a  new  era  of  experiment  began.  Tragedies  in 
heroic  couplets  and  prose  comedies  of  wit  and  manners  —  both  form 
and  content  markedly  influenced  by  French  models — took  the  place 
of  the  older  tragedies  and  romantic  comedies  in  blank  verse.  The 
pioneer  of  the  new  drama  was  Sir  George  Etheredge  (i635?-i69i), 
who  adapted  Moliere's  style  to  English  conditions,  and  in  his  Comical 
Revenge  (1664)  gave  the  public  a  tragi-comedy  in  the  rhymed  heroic 
couplets.  In  the  Man  of  Mode,  1676,  his  third  and  last  play,  he 
furnished  the  model  for  the  later  prose  type.  The  French  models 
were  frequently  immoral  enough ;  but  transformed  into  English  dress, 
or  rather  undress,  they  were  all  too  often  insufferably  coarse  and  cynical. 
For  this  Charles  II  and  his  courtiers  were  largely  responsible,  by  mak- 
ing sensuality  and  cynicism  the  mark  of  a  fine  gentleman.  The  come- 
dies, disagreeable  as  most  of  them  are,  have  great  historical  value 
as  reflections  of  contemporary  life,  especially  of  the  upper  classes  in 
London,  and  because  the  prologues  and  epilogues  were  used,  partic- 
ularly by  Dryden,  for  airing  political  animosities.  The  foulest  of 
the  Restoration  playwrights  was  William  Wycherley  (1640-1715). 
Queen  Mary,  setting  her  face  against  the  prevailing  tendency,  did 
somewhat  toward  purifying  the  drama,  and  Jeremy  Collier,  the  most 
learned  of  the  Non-jurors,  registered  a  vigorous  protest  in  his  Short 
View  of  the  Profaneness  and  Immorality  of  the  English  Stage,  1698. 
Dryden  admitted  the  justice  of  the  rebuke,  but  improvement  was  slow 
in  coming.  Sir  John  Vanbrugh  (1666-1726)  is  almost  as  bad  as 
Wycherley,  while  William  Congreve  (1670-1729)  and  George  Farquhar 
(1678-1707),  though  somewhat  better,  embody,  to  a  large  extent, 

1  It  has  been  well  said  that  the  Puritan  did  harm  to  the  stage  by  fixing  the  stamp 
of  frivolity  upon  it ;  but  contributed  to  poetry  by  lending  it  the  force  of  spiritual 
imagination. 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER   ENGLAND  611 

the  unpleasant  features  of  the  Restoration  drama.  Real  reform  only 
came  with  the  sentimental  comedy  initiated  by  Richard  Steele. 

Literary  Criticism.  —  Literary  criticism,  which  first  begins  to  make 
substantial  progress  during  the  years  following  the  Restoration,  also 
owes  much  to  France,  especially  to  the  French  exile  Saint-Evremond 
(1613-1703).  Dryden  shone  in  this  as  in  so  many  other  forms  of  liter- 
ary activity.  His  critical  essays,  and  indeed  those  of  most  of  his  fellow 
craftsmen,  appeared  mainly  in  prefaces  to  plays.  Nowhere  is  the 
French  influence  more  marked  than  in  the  new  prose  style.  Truly, 
the  Court  of  Louis  XIV  and  Paris  were  dicta  ting  the  fashions  in  writing 
as  well  as  in  dress.  The  majestic,  musical,  but  overinvolved  and  elab- 
orate style  of  the  Elizabethans  gave  way  to  a  clearer,  simpler  form  of 
writing,  more  adapted  for  scientific  exposition,  for  controversy,  and 
for  narrative  and  description  —  the  language  of  the  novel,  destined  to 
become  the  typical  literary  product  of  the  next  two  centuries. 

Art,  Architecture,  and  Music.  • —  While  pride  of  ancestry  prompted 
many  to  employ  Dutch  and  Flemish  artists  to  execute  family  portraits, 
and  while  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  Charles  I 
were  collectors  of  no  mean  repute,  there  was,  nevertheless,  no  general 
appreciation  of  art  among  seventeenth-century  Englishmen.  Nor, 
except  in  miniatures,  were  there  any  native  portrait  painters  of  real 
note.  Of  the  foreign  artists  in  England,  the  most  famous  were  Rubens 
(1577-1640)  and  Vandyke  (1599-1641).  The  former  during  a  brief 
sojourn,  in  1629-1630,  painted  several  portraits  and  received  an  order 
for  the  decoration  of  Whitehall.  The  latter  remained  in  England  most 
of  the  time  from  1632  till  his  death.  He  was  appointed  court  painter 
and  executed  several  fine  pictures  of  Charles  I  and  his  family,  as  well 
as  of  prominent  men  of  the  time.  Cromwell,  who  was  fond  both  of 
music  and  painting,  had  as  official  painter  Robert  Walker,  though  in 
addition  he  gave  his  patronage  to  Peter  van  der  Vars  (1618-1680), 
better  known  as  Peter  Lely.  Charles  II  inherited  none  of  his  father's 
taste  for  art,  but  Lely  became  his  court  painter,  and  is  famous  for  his 
portraits  of  the  royal  favorites.  Samuel  Cooper  (1609-1672),  a  gifted 
miniature  painter,  once  described  as  "  Vandyke  in  little,"  executed 
likenesses  of  the  prominent  men,  both  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the 
Restoration. 

In  architecture  the  century  was  dominated  by  Inigo  Jones  (1573- 
1652)  and  Christopher  Wren  (1632-1723).  This  fact  marks  a  signifi- 
cant departure  from  the  traditions  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  style 
and  not  the  man  was  the  distinguishing  factor.  Jones  was  profoundly 
influenced  by  the  Italian  Palladio,  notable  for  his  composite  adaptation 
of  the  ancient  Doric,  Ionic,  and  Corinthian  forms.  Almost  no  new 
churches  were  built  during  the  first  half  of  the  century ;  but  Jones  did 
much  in  the  way  of  restoring  ecclesiastical  edifices  and  public  build- 
ings. Wren,  his  famous  successor,  was  active  as  an  architect  from 
1663  to  1718.  The  fire  of  London  gave  him  an  opportunity  to  rebuild 
St.  Paul's  as  well  as  about  fifty  parish  churches.  Marlborough  House 


612  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  the  royal  hospital  at  Greenwich  are  among  the  other  works  of  his 
long  and  busy  life.  Unfortunately,  his  two  principal  buildings  do  not 
show  him  at  his  best ;  for  St.  Paul's  was  not  completed  according  to 
his  original  designs,  while  Greenwich  hospital  was  decidedly  marred 
by  the  dramatist  Vanbrugh,  who  succeeded  him  as  architect.  Van- 
brugh,  who  sacrificed  proportion  and  grace  in  attempts  at  grandeur, 
and  who  achieved  "  gloomy  solidity,"  is  chiefly  known  as  the  designer 
of  Blenheim,  the  country  seat  of  the  Dukes  of  Marlborough. 

With  the  striking  exception  of  Cromwell,  the  Puritans  were  notori- 
ously hostile  to  music.  Charles  II,  in  contra'st  to  his  indifference  to 
other  forms  of  art,  was  an  enthusiastic  patron  of  music.  Henry  Pur- 
cell  (1658-1695),  recognized  as  England's  greatest  musical  genius, 
came  to  the  front  in  his  reign.  As  an  organist  in  the  Royal  Chapel 
he  composed  an  ode  for  the  King's  birthday.  His  famous  grand  opera 
Dido  and  ^Eneas  (1675)  was  the  first  ever  written  to  an  English  poem. 
His  anthems  and  church  music  are  well  known ;  but  his  greatest  work 
was  the  Te  Deum  and  Jubilate  composed  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day,  1694. 

Final  Summary  of  the  Period. — Thus,  aside  from  epoch-making 
political  events,  the  century  was  a  notable  one.  It  witnessed  the  later 
plays  of  Shakespeare  as  well  as  those  of  Ben  Jonson  and  hosts  of  other 
dramatists,  the  writings  of  Milton,  and  of  innumerable  poets  be- 
sides; compositions  in  stately  prose  of  men  of  letters  and  divines; 
treatises  on  political  philosophy,  trade,  and  economics;  and,  what 
was  big  in  future  results,  the  foundation  stones  of  empire  were  laid 
in  America  and  in  India. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

General  conditions.  Traill,  Social  England,  IV,  chs.  XIII-XV.  Trevelyan, 
England  under  the  Stuarts,  chs.  I,  II;  an  admirable  picture  of  the  life  of  the  upper  and 
lower  classes  in  the  early  Stuart  period.  Macaulay,  I,  ch.  Ill ;  a  famous  description 
of  conditions  in  the  Restoration  period.  W.  E.  Sydney,  Social  Life  in  England, 
1660-1669  (1892). 

Social  and  industrial.  Cunningham,  English  Industry  and  Commerce,  "Modern 
Times,"  pt.  II,  sees.  183-208.  Unwin,  Social  and  Industrial  Organization.  Pro- 
thero,  English  Farming,  chs.  V,  VI.  Rogers,  Agriculture  and  Prices,  chs.  V,  VI.  W. 
A.  Hewins,  English  Trade  and  Finance,  chiejly  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  (1892) .  Eliza- 
beth Godfrey,  Home  Life  under  the  Stuarts  (1903)  and  Social  Life  under  the  Stuarts 
(1904).  A.  H.  Hamilton,  Quarter  Sessions  from  Elizabeth  to  Anne  (1878)  relates 
chiefly  to  Devonshire.  Lady  Verney,  Memoirs  of  the  Verney  Family  (4  vols., 
1892-1899).  H.  B.  Wheatley,  Samuel  Pepys  and  the  World  he  lived  In  (1880). 
Rose  M.  Bradley,  The  English  Housewife  in  the  XVII  and  XVIII  Centuries  (1913). 

Literary  and  intellectual.  Moody  and  Lovett,  chs.  VII-IX  (reading  guide,  pp. 
392-396).  Taine,  English  Literature,  bk.  II,  chs.,  V,  VI;  bk.  Ill,  ch.  I.  Cambridge 
History  of  Literature,  VII,  VIII  (bibliographies  at  end  of  vols.).  Lodge,  Political 
History,  ch.  XX;  Jusserand,  ch.  III.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  IV,  ch.  XXVI; 
V,  chs.  Ill,  VI,  XXIII  (bibliographies,  IV,  pp.  948-0;  V,  pp.  775-779,  799-808, 
903-910).  E.  Dowden,  Puritan  and  Anglican  (1900).  Masson,  Milton;  the  stand- 
ard work.  There  are  short  Lives  of  Milton  by  Mark  Pattison  (1879,  1906)  and 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  (1900).  See  also  Macaulay's  essay  on  Milton.  Saintsbury, 
Dryden  (1881,  1902). 


PURITAN  AND   CAVALIER   ENGLAND  613 

Religion  and  Church.  Hutton,  English  Church,  chs.  XVI-XIX.  J.  Hunt,  Religious 
Thought  in  England  (3  vols.,  1870).  J.  H.  Overton,  Life  in  the  English  Church,  1660- 
1714  (1885).  Babington,  Mr.  Macattlay's  Character  of  the  Clergy  (1849).  Cam- 
bridge Modern  History,  chs.  XI,  XXIV  (bibliography,  pp.  838-839,  911-917). 

Contemporary.  Pepys,  Diary.  Evelyn,  Diary.  R.  Baxter,  Narrative  of  the  Most 
Memorable  Passages  of  his  Life  and  Times  (ed.  M.  Sylvester,  1696).  George  Fox, 
Journal  (1694,  ed.  W.  Armistead,  2  vols.,  1852) ;  a  great  spiritual  autobiography. 

Political  philosophy.  Sir  Robert  Filmer,  Patriarcha,  or  the  Natural  Power  of 
Kings  (1680,  ed.  1903,  introd.  by  Henry  Morley).  Thomas  Hobbes,  The  Leviathan 
(1651,  ed.  A.  R.  Waller,  1904).  John  Locke,  Two  Treatises  on  Civil  Government 
(1690,  ed.  1903,  introd.  by  Henry  Morley). 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF  THE  NEW  DYNASTY  AND  THE  OPENING 
OF  THE  GREAT  WAR.    WILLIAM  AND  MARY  1689-1694 

The  Three  Leading  Characteristics  of  the  "  Eighteenth  Century." 
The  period  between  the  Revolution  of  1688-1689  and  the  passage  of 
the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  1  does  not  on  the  surface  present  any  striking 
features  of  organic  growth.  The  course,  both  of  domestic  and 
foreign  affairs,  appears  to  be  perplexed,  meaningless,  and  unfruitful : 
the  former  little  more  than  a  constant  scramble  for  office,  power,  and 
profit  between  the  various  factions,  usually  of  the  dominant  party 2 ; 
the  latter  occupied  chiefly  in  a  series  of  wars,  complex  and  bewildering 
in  their  causes  and  their  results.  In  each  case,  however,  an  impor- 
tant issue  was  being  worked  out.  The  political  struggle  at  home 
produced  the  existing  system  of  Cabinet  and  party  government,  while 
the  wars  abroad  made  Great  Britain  the  world  power  she  is  to-day. 
Moreover,  the  period  was  marked  by  a  veritable  industrial  revolu- 
tion. A  brief  preliminary  examination  of  the  origin  and  growth  of 
two  of  these  features  of  eighteenth-century  development  —  the  origin 
and  growth  of  the  Cabinet  and  party  system  and  the  expansion  of 
England  —  will  serve  to  make  clearer  the  history  of  the  period. 

The  Cabinet  and  Party  System.  —  The  English  Cabinet  and  party 
system  is  especially  notable  from  the  fact  that  its  machinery  is  the 
most  perfect  which  has  yet  been  devised  for  speedily  and  peacefully 
voicing  the  will  of  the  people 3  and  because  it  is  the  system  which  has 
been  adopted,  with  more  or  less  variation,  by  the  chief  European 
governments  in  recent  times.  It  is  essentially  a  government  by  an 
executive  committee  of  Parliament4  whose  members  represent  and 

1  Because  of  certain  prevailing  characteristics,  all  of  this  period  is  sometimes 
referred  to  as  the  "Eighteenth  Century." 

2  It  was  only  occasionally  that  the  two  great  parties  were  evenly  balanced ; 
for  during  the  earlier  part  of  the  period  the  Tories  were  generally  out  of  favor  be- 
cause of  their  devotion  to  the  exiled  Stuarts ;   while  later  the  Whigs  fell  under  an 
eclipse  because  they  were  identified  with  the  cause,  first  of  the  American,  then  of  the 
French  revolutionists. 

3  That  is  the  test  which  distinguishes  an  absolutism  from  a  constitutional  gov- 
ernment.    Under  the  former,  the  people  have  no  means  of  expressing  their  will  in 
a  regular  normal  way,  and  must  resort  to  revolution  when  they  can  no  longer  bear 
with  their  rulers. 

*  The  Cabinet  is  also  spoken  of  as  a  committee  of  the  Privy  Council;  but 
while  every  Cabinet  minister  must  be  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council,  that  is  a 
mere  formality,  since  he  is  always  made  such  if  selected  for  a  Cabinet  office.  The 
Cabinet  is  an  inner  circle  of  the  Ministry ;  many  ministers  chosen  to  be  heads  of 
departments  are  not  admitted  to  the  Cabinet. 

614 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE  GREAT  WAR     615 

are  responsible  to  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons,  which, 
in  its  turn,  represents  the  qualified  voters  of  Great  Britain.1  Just  as 
soon  as  the  majority  withdraws  its  support  the  Ministry  either  resigns, 
or  dissolves  Parliament,  and  submits  to  the  verdict  of  a  general  election. 
Contrary  to  the  earlier  practice,  the  sovereign  no  longer  arbitrarily 
appoints  and  dismisses  his  ministers,  and,  ordinarily,  he  does  nothing 
without  the  advice  of  the  body  which  has  superseded  him  as  the 
actual  head  of  the  State.2  The  Cabinet  is  united  under  a  head  known 
as  the  Prime  Minister,  and  its  members  are  both  jointly  and  severally 
responsible  to  their  party.  Except  in  rare  cases,  if  one  goes,  they  all 
go.  The  Cabinet  system  is  essentially  a  post-Revolutionary  product ; 
for,  it  has  been  well  said,  while  the  Puritan  Revolution  determined 
that  Parliament  should  be  supreme,  it  was  the  subsequent  course  of 
events  which  determined  how  the  sovereignty  should  be  exercised. 

The  Responsibility  of  Ministers  before  the  Restoration.  —  Never- 
theless, from  the  time  when  the  barons  rose  against  John,  attempts 
were  made  to  force  particular  measures  on  the  Crown  and  to  control 
its  choice  of  ministers.  Several  efforts,  particularly  of  the  latter  sort, 
were  made  under  Henry  III,  which  were  repeated  under  Edward  III, 
who  made  a  notable  but  temporary  concession  in  1341.  A  significant 
innovation  came  in  1376,  when  the  Good  Parliament  first  made  use 
of  impeachments  to  call  royal  servants  and  favorites  to  account. 
For  a  time,  during  the  "  constitutional  experiment  in  government  " 
under  the  Lancastrians,  Parliament  was  supreme  over  the  Council, 
appointing  its  members  and  supervising  its  acts.  As  yet,  however, 
there  were  no  recognized  parties ;  but  merely  factions  led  by  the  great 
nobles.  Under  the  Yorkists  and  Tudors  the  Council  again  became  an 
instrument  of  royal  despotism,  and  it  was  not  till  the  accession  of  the 
Stuarts  that  Parliament  once  more  made  any  attempt  to  call  the  King's 
ministers  to  account.  It  is  only  necessary,  in  this  connection,  to  recall 
the  impeachments  of  Buckingham  and  Strafford. 

Ministerial  Responsibility  after  the  Restoration.  —  Great  strides 
in  this  direction  were  taken  after  the  Restoration.  Clarendon,  though 
Charles  II  was  ready  to  throw  him  over,  was  really  forced  out  of  office 
by  a  parliamentary  attack,  while  Danby  had  to  be  dismissed,  in  spite 
of  the  King's  efforts  to  save  him.  Even  yet,  however,  Parliament 
had  not  recovered  its  voice  in  appointments  and  had  no  means  of 
removal  except  by  impeachments  on  serious  charges.  Meantime,  the 
practice  had  become  common  of  governing  with  the  advice  of  a  small 
group  of  men  selected  usually  from  the  larger  Privy  Council.  Charles 
II  had  more  than  one  such  Cabinet  or  Cabal,  and  so  had  James. 

The  Rise  of  Modern  Parties.  —  While  these  advisers  were  still 
responsible  to  the  King,  the  parties  were  already  in  making  who  were 
later  to  assume  that  control.  Under  the  name  Whigs  and  Tories  they 

1  The  name  of  the  country  since  the  parliamentary  union  with  Scotland  in  1707. 

2  Since  1707  there  has  been  no  case  of  a  royal  veto  of  a  bill  that  has  passed  Parlia- 
ment. 


616  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

began  to  assume  permanent  and  tangible  form  during  the  Exclusion 
Struggle,  although  their  beginnings  may  be  traced  back  to  the  Cavalier 
and  Country  parties.  The  Roundheads,  of  course,  had  been  broken 
up  by  the  Restoration,  nor  did  they  form  a  party  in  the  modern  sense ; 
since  they  had  no  recognized  voice  in  the  regular  and  normal  control  of 
the  Administration,  which  is  the  present  function  of  the  party  in 
power.  It  remained  for  William,  some  years  after  his  accession,  to 
take  the  decisive  step  that  resulted  in  a  form  of  government  controlled 
and  administered  by  a  body  of  men  representing  a  particular  policy. 

Progress  of  Cabinet  and  Party  Government  under  William  III.  — 
William's  first  Cabinet  was  composed  of  men  of  diverse  opinions,  for  he 
aimed  to  balance  parties.  While  the  Tories,  in  general,  favored 
James  II,  there  were  reasons,  as  will  be  seen  later,  why  he  hesitated 
to  put  himself  altogether  in  the  hands  of  the  Whigs.  Early  in  his 
reign,  however,  two  ministers  in  succession,  Halifax,  in  1689,  and 
Shrewsbury,  in  1690,  resigned  in  consequence  of  opposition  in  the  Com- 
mons and  when  they  were  in  no  danger  of  impeachment.  An  innova- 
tion came  when  William,  acting  on  advice  given  him  by  Sunderland, 
in  1693,  began  to  choose  his  ministers  exclusively  from  the  Whig 
party — which  was  then  in  a  majority  in  the  Lower  House  —  gradually 
got  rid  of  his  Tory  ministers,  and  depended  for  a  few  years  mainly 
on  a  body  of  Whig  ministers.  William,  however,  remained  the  real 
head  of  the  Government ;  he  was  his  own  Foreign  Minister,  acting  often 
independently,  sometimes  in  opposition  to  his  ministers,  and  frequently 
consulting  outside  advisers.  Nor  was  there  as  yet  any  ministerial 
solidarity ;  for  Parliament  held  individuals,  not  the  whole  body,  re- 
sponsible for  a  particular  policy.  Moreover,  William  had  no  notion 
of  introducing  a  new  principle  into  the  Government;  his  aim  was  simply 
to  secure  a  greater  efficiency  in  administration  and  more  united  support 
for  his  wars.  By  1699  his  leading  Whig  ministers  had  fallen  out  of 
favor  with  the  House  of  Commons  and,  one  by  one,  they  were  forced 
to  resign.  But  the  principle  that  was  in  the  end  to  prevail  —  that  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  government  belonged  not  to  the  Privy 
Council  as  a  whole,  but  to  a  small  body  chosen  and  retained  largely 
because  of  their  ability  to  command  a  majority  in  the  Lower  House  — 
had  been  advised  and  tried.  Anne,  who  succeeded  in  1702,  though  a 
weak  sovereign,  was  anxious  for  personal  rule,  and  succeeded  in  re- 
tarding somewhat  the  progress  of  the  new  system.  A  Whig  ministry 
was  forced  upon  her  in  the  middle  of  her  reign ;  but,  taking  advantage 
of  a  popular  reaction,  she  dismissed  it,  in  1711,  while  it  still  commanded 
a  majority  in  the  Lower  House. 

The  Completion  of  the  System  under  the  Hanoverians.  —  It  was 
under  the  first  two  sovereigns  of  the  House  of  Hanover,  George  I  and 
George  II,  that  the  Cabinet  system  took  practically  its  modern  form. 
Not  only  was  the  lost  ground  regained,  but  the  Prime  Minister  took 
the  place  of  the  Sovereign  as  head  of  the  Cabinet ;  gradually  he 
became  less  dependent  on  the  King  and  rather  the  leader  of  the 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE   GREAT  WAR  617 

majority  party  in  power  in  the  House  of  Commons,  dependent  on  their 
support  more  than  on  royal  favor  ; l  while  the  Cabinet  members  came 
to  act  "  as  a  unit  under  him,"  and  came  —  at  least  more  and  fre- 
quently —  to  be  responsible  jointly  as  well  as  individually  for  their 
acts.  Many  reasons  explain  this  striking  development.  For  one 
thing,  the  new  monarchs  threw  no  obstacle  in  the  way.  George  I, 
ignorant  of  the  language  and  customs  of  the  country,  and  taking  little 
interest  in  English  affairs,  soon  ceased  to  attend  Cabinet  meetings, 
and  George  II  followed  his  example.  Moreover,  their  title  was  parlia- 
mentary rather  than  hereditary,  and  they  had  been  called  in  by  the 
Whigs,  whose  policy  was  to  diminish  as  far  as  possible  the  royal  pre- 
rogative.2 Another  important  factor  was  the  ascendancy,  of  Sir 
Robert  Walpole,  who,  during  the  years  of  his  supremacy,  1721-1742, 
dominated  his  colleagues,  though  often  with  much  difficulty.3  Further- 
more, under  him  the  Commons  grew  steadily  in  power,  partly  because 
of  the  increasing  importance  of  financial  questions  in  which  they  had  a 
decisive  voice  through  their  control  of  the  purse,  and  partly  through  the 
passage  of  the  Septennial  Act  of  1716  which  increased  their  independ- 
ence by  lengthening  the  possible  duration  of  Parliament  to  seven  years. 

The  Perfection  of  the  System  by  the  Extension  of  the  Electorate.  — 
George  III  attempted  for  a  time  to  restore  personal,  in  place  of  minis- 
terial rule ;  but  the  new  system  had  become  too  firmly  established  to 
be  permanently  shaken ;  consequently,  he  had  to  give  in  before  he  had 
half  finished  his  reign.  The  crowning  step  was  taken  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  when,  by  a  series  of  reform  bills,  the  House  of  Commons 
was  made  truly  representative  of  the  people.  Cabinet  and  party 
government  as  it  exists  to-day,  while  it  is  not  the  result  of  any  prin- 
ciples embodied  in  the  Revolution  of  1688,  was  made  possible  by  events 
which  developed  in  consequence  of  that  movement. 

The  Wars  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  and  their  Significance.  — 
Passing  to  the  external  history  of  the  period,  the  most  evident  feature 
is  the  constant  succession  of  wars.  During  the  interval  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  years  which  elapsed  between  the  Revolution  of 
1688  and  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon  at  Waterloo  in  1815  there  were 
seven,  occupying  sixty-four  years,  or  more  than  half  the  period.4 

1  George  I  did  dismiss  his  leading  minister,  Townshehd,  in  1716-1717  ;  but  that 
was  because  he  opposed  him  in  a  matter  of  foreign  policy,  a  subject  in  which  the 
King  was  vitally  interested. 

2  The  Tories,  too,  were  for  a  long  time  enemies  of  the  prerogative  because  the 
Hanoverians  occupied  the  throne. 

3  It  has  been  recently  shown  that  Walpole  was  more  dependent  on  royal  sup- 
port than  has  been  commonly  supposed. 

4  They  were : 

1.  "King  William's  War,"  1689-1697. 

2.  The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  1702-1713. 

3.  The  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  1739-1748. 

4.  The  Seven  Years'  War,  1756-1763. 

5.  The  War  of  the  American  Revolution,  1775-1783. 

6  and  7.  Two  wars  with  France,  1793-1802  and  1803-1815. 


6i8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

They  not  only  convulsed  all  Europe,  but  extended  over  a  wide  area 
of  the  globe  as  well.  While,  at  first  sight,  they  seem  to  have  no  unity 
of  cause  or  result,  a  single  issue,  so  far  as  Great  Britain  is  concerned, 
really  connected  them  all.  Five  began  and  ended  with  France,  and, 
though  the  third  began  with  Spain  and  the  fifth  with  the  American 
Colonies,  France  became  involved  in  both  before  the  close.  The  chief 
result  of  this  persistent  duel  was  that  England  —  at  the  cost  of 
thousands  of  lives  and  a  public  debt  of-^  £840,000,000 —  gained  an 
unrivaled  commercial  ascendancy  and  vast  colonial  possessions,  chiefly 
at  the  expense  of  France.  In  King  William's  War,  which  was  directed 
mainly  against  the  ascendancy  in  Europe  of  Louis  XIV,  these  issues 
were  not  yet  evident ;  but  the  crippling  of  French  resources  had  an 
important  bearing  on  the  subsequent  struggles. 

In  the  war  of  the  Spanish  Succession  many  causes  were  operative, 
but  commercial  questions  played  a  leading  role ;  for  the  English 
entered  the  conflict  largely  from  fear  of  the  colonial  monopoly  which 
might  result  in  case  the  House  of  Bourbon  should  acquire  the  Spanish 
inheritance,  and  secured,  by  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  trade  concessions 
and  territories  in  the  New  World.  In  the  three  wars  from  1739  to 
I783,1  although  many  other  questions  were  involved,  a  most  significant 
factor  was  a  prolonged  struggle  between  England  and  France  for  the 
control  of  America  and  India.  Great  Britain  lost  the  thirteen  colonies, 
but  she  secured  from  France  the  territory  now  known  as  the  Dominion 
of  Canada  and  gained  the  upper  hand  in  India.  Even  in  the  Napo- 
leonic wars  colonial  issues  were  by  no  means  overlooked.  Napoleon, 
who  recovered  Louisiana,  the  territory  west  of  the  Mississippi  which 
Spain  had  held  since  1763,  designed  to  make  it  the  basis  of  a  western 
empire,  a  plan  from  which  he  was  only  diverted  by  an  insurrection 
in  Haiti.  He  also  led  an  expedition  to  Egypt  to  strike  at  the  British 
power  in  India,  but  was  frustrated  by  the  genius  of  Nelson.  In  this 
"  gigantic  rivalry  between  England  and  France  "  it  will  be  necessary 
to  search  for  the  causes  which  led  England  to  prevail. 

The  Rise  of  the  Atlantic  Seaboard  States  and  the  Decline  of  Portu- 
gal, Spain,  and  the  Dutch.  —  Up  to  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  Mediterranean  remained  the  center  of  commerce,  and  the  chief 
seats  of  business  and  wealth  were  the  Italian  cities.  But  the  capture  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Turks  in  1453,  which  blocked  the  overland  trade 
routes  from  the  East,  led  men  to  search  for  new  routes  by  sea  to  India 
and  China.  With  their  discovery,  and  the  discovery  of  a  new  con- 
tinent as  well,  the  Atlantic  took  the  place  of  the  Mediterranean  as  a 
highway  of  commerce.  Italy,  harassed  at  the  same  time  by  invasions 
of  rival  sovereigns  contending  for  dominion  and  by  the  depredations 
of  the  rising  Turkish  sea  power,  rapidly  declined.  Gradually,  the 
five  Atlantic  seaboard  states  —  Portugal,  Spain,  the  Dutch,  France,  and 

1  So  far  as  Great  Britain  and  France  were  concerned  they  were  really  "varying 
phases  of  one  war";  for  throughout  the  period  their  forces  were  fighting  pretty 
constantly  in  America  and  India. 


THE  OPENING   OF  THE   GREAT  WAR  619 

England  —  came  to  the  front.  The  first  three,  one  after  another,  fell 
back  in  the  race,  in  spite  of  promising  starts,  leaving  France  and 
England  to  fight  for  the  ultimate  supremacy. 

Reasons  why  Great  Britain  prevailed  over  France.  —  France  had 
great  resources,  broad  territories,  and  industrial  aptitude,  yet  she 
failed  to  prevail.  Certain  local  causes  were  operative  in  America,  — 
her  object  was  to  trade  and  to  advance  the  Roman  Catholic  faith 
rather  than  to  send  colonists  who  would  found  homes,  and  her  pos- 
sessions were  inferior  both  from  the  standpoint  of  climate  and  strategy 
to  those  of  the  English,  —  but  the  chief  reason  for  her  failure  was  that 
her  energies  were  divided  between  the  New  World  and  the  Old.  At 
the  very  time  that  she  was  contending  for  colonial  supremacy  she  was 
obliged  to  fight  constantly  in  Europe  to  maintain  her  ascendancy, 
frequently  to  defend  her  own  borders.  Great  Britain  entered  com- 
paratively late  in  the  race  for  maritime  supremacy.  At  the  close  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  even  after  Portugal  and  Spain  had  penetrated 
into  unknown  seas  and  mastered  broad  territories  in  the  New  World, 
she  remained  chiefly  an  agricultural  country.  She  first  became  a 
recognized  sea  power  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  and  it  was  not  till  the 
following  century  that  she  acquired  any  considerable  colonial  pos- 
sessions. By  her  buccaneering  expeditions  and  her  repulse  of  the 
Armada  she  was  a  powerful  factor  in  breaking  down  the  supremacy  of 
Spain.  Under  the  first  two  Stuarts,  English  colonies  were  established 
in  Virginia,  New  England,  and  Maryland.  Under  the  Commonwealth 
and  the  Protectorate,  with  the  navy  developed  to  an  effectiveness 
hitherto  unequaled,  war  was  begun  with  Holland,  and  another  blow 
struck  at  the  monopoly  of  Spain.  The  progress  continued  after  the 
Restoration.  Charles  II  obtained  Bombay  by  his  marriage,  New  York 
and  Delaware  were  captured  in  the  second  Dutch  War,  and  the 
Carolinas  and  Pennsylvania  were  founded.  After  the  Restoration 
Great  Britain  united  for  a  time  with  her  former  commercial  rival,  Hol- 
land, in  a  common  effort  to  check  France  and  Catholicism.  Holland, 
however,  who  never  recovered  from  the  effect  of  her  earlier  wars  with 
her  present  ally,  was  further  exhausted  by  the  strain  of  the  great  ef- 
forts against  the  French  and  ceased  to  be  formidable.  While  Great 
Britain's  only  remaining  antagonist  was  seriously  handicapped,  the 
British  were  protected  from  European  attack  by  intervening  waters ; 
they  were  not  obliged  to  send  armies  abroad  unless  they  chose,  and,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  confined  themselves  largely  to  subsidizing  allies  in 
the  continental  struggles,  thus  leaving  their  energies  free  to  develop 
their  navy,  and  to  extend  their  colonial  possessions. 

The  Significance  of  the  Reign  of  William  and  Mary.  —  The  reign 
of  William  is  significant  from  the  fact  that,  as  "  that  champion  of 
Protestantism  and  the  liberties  of  Europe  against  French  Ascendancy," 
he  plunged  England  into  a  whirlpool  of  European  war  and  diplomacy 
which  led  to  such  momentous  results.  The  internal  progress  of  the 
period  is  also  noteworthy.  Fundamental  constitutional  questions 


620  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

were  defined  and  settled :  the  order  of  succession  was  regulated  in  the 
Bill  of  Rights,  and  in  the  Act  of  Settlement  which  supplemented  it ; 
a  Toleration  Act  was  passed ;  the  National  Debt  was  founded ;  the 
Bank  of  England  was  established ;  the  censorship  of  the  press  came 
to  an  end ;  procedure  in  treason  trials  was  reformed ;  and  Cabinet 
and  party  government  began  to  take  modern  shape. 

The  Reaction  against  William,  1689.  —  In  spite  of  the  joy  mani- 
fested at  his  accession,  a  reaction  against  William  soon  set  in.  It 
was  due  partly  to  the  King's  own  character  and  policy,  partly  to  the 
nature  of  the  situation.  He  was  cold  and  unsympathetic,  he  loved 
Dutchmen  and  Dutch  ways,  he  distrusted  Englishmen  and  chafed  at  his 
necessary  residence  in  England  as  a  joyless  exile.  Patient  and  coura- 
geous in  great  matters,  he  was  irritable  and  impatient  of  opposition  in 
little  things,  while  his  manners  left  much  to  be  desired.1  Then  his 
policy  was  a  disappointment  to  the  Whigs  who  had  led  the  movement 
to  place  him  on  the  throne ;  for  he  was  no  friend  of  popular  liberty 
and  had  ousted  James  primarily  to  break  up  the  royal  alliance  with 
France  and  to  secure  English  resources  for  his  great  work.  Further- 
more, he  had  to  face  a  most  difficult  situation;  for,  impelled  by  a 
common  fear  of  James,  the  most  diverse  elements  had  combined 
momentarily  to  support  him.  Truly,  Englishmen  and  Dutchmen, 
Whigs  and  Tories,  Churchmen  and  Nonconformists  made  strange 
bedfellows.  The  English  and  the  Dutch  were  old  trade  rivals  who 
had  been  three  times  at  war  within  half  a  century.  The  Whigs  were 
for  a  limited  monarchy  and  toleration,  and  had  old  scores  to  settle 
with  the  party  who  had  oppressed  them  during  the  reign  of  Charles  II 
and  the  early  years  of  James  II.  The  Tories,  who  stood  for  Divine 
hereditary  right  and  an  exclusive  Establishment,  directly  the  excite- 
ment was  over,  came  to  be  ashamed  of  the  part  they  had  taken  in 
expelling  the  Lord's  anointed.  The  extremists  began  to  excuse 
James'  misdeeds,  while  many,  even  of  the  moderates,  revived  the  ar- 
gument that  it  was  possible  to  restore  him  with  guarantees.  Many 
of  the  Whigs,  too,  were  dissatisfied ;  some  because  they  felt  themselves 
insufficiently  rewarded,  others  because  their  advice  in  ordering  public 
affairs  was  neither  sought  nor  heeded.  Although  the  really  disaffected 
were  in  a  minority,  they  were  so  vociferous  and  busy  that  they  might 
have  caused  serious  trouble  but  for  the  fact  that  Louis  XIV,  by  under- 
taking to  restore  James  by  force,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  dreaded 
Irish  in  the  bargain,  forced  the  moderates  of  both  parties  to  cling  to 
William. 

The  Convention  turned  into  a  Parliament.     The  Mutiny  Act,  1689. 

-  William,  in  selecting  his  first  ministry,  sought  to  balance  parties. 

Halifax,  whom  he  made  Lord  Privy  Seal,  was,  from  his  moderate  and 

conciliatory  temper,  a  great  aid  to  him  while  he  remained  in  office. 

The  Tory  Earl  of  Nottingham  and  the  Whig  Earl  of  Shrewsbury, 

1  Once  when  a  dish  of  green  peas,  the  first  of  the  season,  was  brought  in,  he  ate 
them  all  without  offering  any  to  Anne,  who  was  a  guest  at  his  table. 


THE   OPENING  OF  THE   GREAT  WAR  621 

the  latter  a  man  of  rare  personal  charm  but  unstable  character,  were 
made  Secretaries  of  State.  In  view  of  the  critical  situation  abroad 
William  took  charge  of  foreign  affairs  himself.  Directly  after  the 
Convention  had  settled  the  crown  on  William  and  Mary,  the  new 
sovereigns  had  returned  the  compliment  by  declaring  it  to  be  a  Parlia- 
ment. One  of  the  most  pressing  questions  which  confronted  it  was 
the  settlement  of  the  revenue ;  but,  after  voting  temporary  supplies, 
the  matter  was  laid  over  until  the  following  year.1  The  mutiny  of  an 
English  regiment  at  Ipswich  led  to  the  passage,  in  this  session,  of  a 
measure  which  was  bound,  in  any  case,  to  have  come  before  long ; 
for,  according  to  the  existing  law,  there  was  no  adequate  means  of 
dealing  with  such  crises.  The  Mutiny  Act,  which  began  by  declaring 
courts  martial  and  military  discipline  illegal,  conferred  upon  William 
authority  to  provide  for  the  exercise  of  such  extraordinary  jurisdiction 
for  six  months.2  Later  the  act  was  regularly  renewed,  but  never  for 
longer  than  a  year.  It  is  now  called  the  Army  Act. 

The  Toleration  Act,  1689.  —  Also  in  this  eventful  year  the  Protestant 
Dissenters,  for  the  first  time,  obtained  legal  recognition  and  tolera- 
tion. William,  now  the  official  head  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  a 
Calvinist  by  training  and  a  Latitudinarian  by  conviction,  was  a  prime 
mover ;  but  Nottingham,  who  feared  for  the  stability  of  the  Church 
if  the  promises  which  her  leaders  had  made  in  adversity  were  disre- 
garded, was  an  able  second.  Moreover,  rationalistic  views  were  com- 
ing to  prevail  more  and  more,  views  which  were  voiced  by  the  cele- 
brated philosopher  John  Locke  in  his  Letters  on  Toleration,  in  which 
he  took  the  ground  that  the  State  had  no  right  to  interfere  with  the 
way  men  might  choose  to  worship.  William  and  his  supporters  had 
three  objects  at  heart :  freedom  of  worship ;  comprehension,  or  the 
opening  the  doors  of  the  Establishment  to  let  in  all  moderate  Protes- 
tant sects ;  and  the  admission  of  all  Protestants  to  civil  office.  Of 
these  only  the  first  was  attained  at  this  time ;  the  second  was  hope- 
lessly defeated ;  while  the  third  was  not  legally  recognized  for  nearly 
a  century  and  a  half.  The  Act  of  1689,  while  it  did  not  repeal  the 
existing  penal  laws,  suspended  their  operation  against  those  who 
absented  themselves  from  the  services  of  the  Established  Church  and 
attended  other  places  of  worship,  provided  they  took  the  Oath  of 
Allegiance  and  Supremacy  and  subscribed  to  a  declaration  against 
transubstantiation.  Dissenting  ministers,  however,  had  to  subscribe 
to  thirty-five  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  to  a  greater  part  of  two 
more.  But  Quakers,  who  scrupled  to  take  oaths,  were  allowed  to 
hold  their  assemblies  undisturbed  on  condition  of  signing  the  declara- 
tion against  transubstantiation,  making  a  confession  of  Christian 

1  The  Hearth  Tax,  however,  which  was  a  great  hardship  to  the  poor,  was  abol- 
ished forthwith. 

2  It  is  a  striking  commentary  upon  the  habits  of  the  time  that  the  court  martials 
were  to  be  held  between  6  A.M.  and  i  P.M.,  because  there  was  little  chance  that  offi- 
cers would  be  sober  after  dinner. 


622  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

belief,  and  promising  fidelity  to  the  Government.  "  Papists  "  and 
those  who  did  not  believe  in  the  Trinity  l  were  expressly  excluded 
from  the  benefits  of  the  Act.  Although  the  toleration  thus  granted 
was  far  from  complete,  "it  removed  a  vast  mass  of  evil  without 
shocking  a  vast  mass  of  prejudice." 

The  Non-jurors.  The  Failure  of  Comprehension.  —  Since  the 
Tories  would  not  vote  for  the  admission  of  Nonconformists  to  office, 
William  insisted  that  all  the  beneficed  clergy  should  take  a  new  oath 
of  allegiance,  a  requirement  which  he  would  otherwise  have  consented 
to  waive.  Out  of  a  total  of  about  10,000,  some  400,  including  the 
Primate  and  six  bishops,  refused.  The  "  Non-jurors,"  as  they  were 
called,  continued  in  schism  till  1805,  when  the  last  of  their  bishops  died. 
A  comprehension  bill  was  discussed  in  Parliament,  but  relegated  to 
Convocation.  Though  favored  by  the  liberal  bishops  in  the  Upper 
House,  it  was  finally  given  up,  largely  because  of  the  opposition  of 
the  country  parsons  of  the  Tory  party  who  were  in  control  of  the 
Lower  House.  It  should  be  said,  however,  that  the  leading  Non- 
conformist ministers,  particularly  in  the  cities,  viewed  the  scheme 
with  distrust,  because  they  received  large  voluntary  offerings,  together 
with  a  consideration  that  they  could  not  hope  for  within  the  Estab- 
lishment. 

The  Bill  of  Rights,  1689.  —  After  a  recess  of  two  months,  the  old 
Convention  met  for  its  second  session,  19  October,  1689.  The  chief 
work  of  the  session  was  to  turn  the  Declaration  into  a  Bill.  A  few 
new  provisions  were  introduced.  One  provided  that  any  sovereign 
professing  the  "  Popish  "  religion  should  be  incapable  of  reigning  in 
England,  and  in  case  he  married  a  "  Papist  "  his  subjects  were  to  be 
absolved  from  their  allegiance ;  but  no  attempt  was  made  to  define 
the  term,  nor  was  any  machinery  devised  for  carrying  the  provision 
into  effect.  Furthermore,  the  dispensing  power  which,  according 
to  the  Declaration,  was  illegal  only  "  as  it  hath  been  exercised  of  late," 
was  now  done  away  with  altogether.2  The  Whigs  were  most  active 
and  vindictive  all  through  the  session,  but  when  they  went  so  far  as 
to  block  an  Indemnity  Bill  by  attaching  to  it  a  bill  of  pains  and  penal- 
ties 3  against  a  number  of  Tories,  William  dissolved  Parliament  in 
disgust. 

The  Moderate  Tories  come  to  Power.  The  Settlement  of  the 
Revenue.  —  The  Moderate  Tories  now  obtained  control.  Danby, 
created  Marquis  of  Carmarthen  at  the  coronation,  became  the  head 
of  the  Ministry,  and,  under  his  practical  guidance,  a  systematic  policy 
of  corruption  in  electing  and  managing  parliaments  was  resumed. 
William  accepted  it  as  a  disagreeable  necessity.  ' '  Nobody  hates  bribery 

1  I.e.  Jews  and  Socinians,  the  latter  being  forerunners  of  the  Unitarians. 

2  At  least,  that  was  the  result ;  for  it  was  provided  that  exceptions  might  be 
enumerated  during  the  session,  and  none  were  made  into  law. 

*  Such  a  bill  differs  from  an  attainder  merely  from  the  fact  that  its  penalties  do 
not  extend  to  capital  punishment. 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE   GREAT  WAR  623 

more  than  I  do,"  he  complained,  "  but  I  have  to  do  with  a  set  of  men 
who  must  be  managed  in  that  vile  way  or  not  at  all.  I  must  strain  a 
point  or  the  country  is  lost."  In  his  opening  speech  to  the  new 
Parliament  which  met  20  March,  1690,  he  urged  a  speedy  settlement 
of  the  revenue  and  the  passage  of  an  act  of  indemnity.  "  Let  us  not 
be  engaged  in  debates,"  he  said,  "  while  our  enemies  are  in  the  field." 
After  some  discussion,  the  Commons  voted  that  William  should  have, 
in  addition  to  the  hereditary  Crown  revenue,  amounting  to  £400,000 
a  year,  the  income  from  the  excise,  which  yielded  some  £300,000 
annually.  This  sum,  about  £700,000  in  the  aggregate,  which  came  to 
be  known  as  the  Civil  List,1  was  to  be  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of 
the  royal  household,  the  payment  of  civil  officials,  and,  in  general,  to 
the  non-military  expenses  of  the  State.  The  income  from  the  cus- 
toms, variously  estimated  between  £400,000  and  £600,000,  was 
granted  only  for  four  years.  Although  the  outbreak  of  the  war  neces- 
sitated the  grant  of  extraordinary  supplies,  Parliament  adhered  to 
the  principle  that  a  fixed  amount  only  should  be  allowed  to  the  King 
for  the  ordinary  needs  of  the  State.  Moreover,  in  the  future  all  grants 
were  appropriated  annually  and  for  specified  purposes.  Thus  the 
principle  of  appropriation  of  supply,  foreshadowed  in  the  reign  of 
James  I  and  Charles  II,2  became  a  regular  practice. 

The  Act  of  Grace.  —  William,  who  desired  a  free  hand  for  the  great 
war  in  which  he  had  embarked,  had  hoped  to  obtain  a  revenue  for 
life  at  least  as  large  as  that  granted  his  predecessor.  He  was  so 
bitterly  disappointed  that  he  talked  of  withdrawing  to  Holland. 
"  The  gentlemen  of  England,"  he  complained,  "  trusted  King  James, 
and  they  will  not  trust  me  by  whom  their  religion  and  their  laws  have 
been  preserved."  He  was  assured  that  it  was  not  a  question  of  per- 
sonal confidence  but  of  principle ;  that  many  evils  had  arisen  from  in- 
discriminate grants  to  bad  kings,  and  that  by  acquiescing  in  the 
limitations  imposed  upon  him,  he  might  be  a  deliverer  to  future 
generations.  He  yielded  only  grudgingly.  Finding  it  hopeless  to 
obtain  an  Act  of  Indemnity,  but  impressed  with  the  folly  of  alienating 
the  Tories  by  ill-timed  harshness,  he  secured  the  passage  of  an  Act 
of  Grace,3  20  May,  1690,  from  which,  for  the  sake  of  placating  the 
opposition,  he  excepted  about  forty  persons.  Then  he  prorogued 
Parliament,  for  the  situation  in  Ireland  claimed  his  personal  atten- 
tion. 

James  appears  in  Ireland,  March,  1690.  —  The  attempts  of  James, 
through  Tyrconnel,  to  make  Ireland  a  Roman  Catholic  stronghold, 

1  Later,  Parliament  took  over  the  payment  of  all  public  expenses,  leaving  to  the 
sovereign  merely  the  maintenance  of  the  royal  household.     The  income  which 
he  has  for  this  purpose  is  still,  curiously  enough,  known  as  the  Civil  List. 

2  In  conjunction  with  the  Mutiny  Act  it  insured,  for  the  future,  annual  session* 
of  Parliament. 

3  It  differs  from  an  act  of  indemnity  from  the  fact  that  it  originates  with  the 
sovereign  and  cannot  be  amended  by  Parliament,  which  must  pass  or  reject  it  as  a 
whole. 


624  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  transfer  of  the  administration,  civil,  judicial,  and  military,  into 
the  hands  of  members  of  that  faith,  the  remodeling  of  the  municipal 
corporations,  the  insults,  the  attacks,  and  rumors  of  worse  to  come,1 
had  thrown  the  Protestants  into  a  panic.  Many  fled  to  England, 
others  prepared  to  defend  themselves.  Tyrconnel,  while  he  dallied 
with  the  terms  offered  by  William,  hastened  to  gather  his  forces, 
seized  cattle  and  supplies,  and  sent  for  James.  Leinster,  Munster, 
and  Connaught  he  speedily  reduced.  In  Ulster,  which  contained  the- 
bulk  of  the  Protestant  element,  numbers  fled  for  refuge  to  London- 
derry and  Enniskillen,  leaving  their  lands  and  goods  at  the  mercy 
of  their  exultant  and  infuriated  enemies.  William,  scantily  provided 
with  troops  and  supplies,  occupied  with  the  settlement  of  English 
affairs,  with  a  Jacobite  rising  in  Scotland,  and  with  the  launching  of 
his  great  European  coalition,  at  first  did  nothing,  and  was  loudly 
blamed  for  his  inaction.  James  arrived  in  Dublin,  24  March,  1689. 
Louis  XIV  refused  him  an  army,  partly  because  he  distrusted  his 
abilities,  partly  because  he  needed  his  troops  at  home.  Nevertheless, 
he  gave  him  a  fleet,  together  with  arms,  money,  and  officers  to  drill  the 
Irish. 

The  Irish  Parliament.  —  There  were  two  factions  in  the  Irish  Coun- 
cil. One  aimed  primarily  to  recover  Ireland  for  the  Irish,  to  make  the 
Catholic  religion  supreme,  and  was  bitterly  opposed  to  any  English 
rule,  even  under  the  restored  James.  The  other  regarded  Ireland 
merely  as  an  instrument  with  which  to  make  James  again  King,  as  a 
basis  of  operations,  and  hence  were  opposed  to  any  measure  calculated 
to  alienate  English  supporters.  The  Irish  faction  proved  the  stronger. 
It  absolutely  dominated  Parliament,  which  met  7  May,  and  which 
was  made  up  of  men  devoid  of  experience  in  public  affairs  and  burning 
to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  their  religion  and  their  race.  James  succeeded 
in  passing  a  Toleration  Act ;  but  he  was  obliged  to  consent  to  a  series 
of  measures  calculated  to  alienate  utterly  his  English  supporters. 
The  authority  of  the  English  Parliament  was  repudiated.  The  tithes 
of  the  Roman  Catholics  were  transferred  to  their  own  clergy  and  the 
Act  of  Settlement  was  repealed.  All  lands  forfeited  in  consequence 
of  the  Rebellion  of  1641  were  restored.  To  provide  for  this,  the  estates 
of  absentees  who  had  adhered  to  William  of  Orange  were  confiscated, 
and  a  famous  act  of  attainder  was  passed,  comprising  over  2000  names. 
The  property  of  those  included  on  the  list  was  appropriated  forthwith, 
and  though  the  owners  were  ordered  to  appear  for  trial  before  a  certain 
date  to  prove  their  innocence,  it  was  at  the  risk  of  being  hanged,  drawn, 
and  quartered,  in  the  event  of  almost  certain  conviction.  To  relieve 
the  deplorable  financial  condition,  an  issue  of  base  money  was  author- 
ized. Buttons,  kettles,  indeed,  all  sorts  of  brassware,  were  pressed 

1  The  alarm  spread  that  there  was  to  be  a  general  massacre  of  all  Protestants, 
o  December,  1688;  although  Tyrconnel  denied  it  with  the  most  solemn  assevera- 
tions and  dashed  his  hat  and  wig  into  the  fire  to  prove  his  sincerity,  it  was  generally 
believed. 


THE  OPENING  OF   THE   GREAT   WAR  625 

into  service ;  a  tariff  of  prices  was  fixed,  and  those  who  refused  to  part 
with  their  goods  on  such  terms  were  brutally  treated.  After  a  ten 
weeks'  session  Parliament,  having  passed  more  than  thirty-five  drastic 
measures,  was  prorogued  in  July. 

The  Siege  and  Relief  of  Londonderry.  Newton  Butler,  1689.  — 
Meantime,  19  April,  1689,  the  siege  of  Londonderry  had  begun. 
Threatened  with  starvation,  and  exposed  to  constant  attacks  against 
the  weak  walls  of  the  city,  the  dauntless  garrison  held  out  with  grim 
determination.  At  length,  28  July,  Colonel  Kirke,  who  had  been 
sent  out  in  May  with  a  relieving  force,  obeyed  the  positive  orders  of 
Schomberg  and  broke  the  boom  in  the  river  Foyle  by  which  the 
besiegers  had  guarded  the  approach  from  the  sea.  After  a  siege  of 
one  hundred  and  five  days,  during  which  the  garrison  was  reduced 
from  7000  to  4000,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fugitives  slaughtered  and 
starved  outside  the  walls,  the  troops  of  James  withdrew,  i  August. 
The  joyous  news  of  the  relief  of  Londonderry  was  immediately  fol- 
lowed by  the  tidings  that  the  men  of  Enniskillen  had  saved  themselves 
by  repulsing  an  attacking  force  at  Newton  Butler,  2  August.  Schom- 
berg arrived  in  Ireland  the  same  month ;  but  his  army,  consisting 
largely  of  raw  recruits,  was  in  no  condition  to  fight.  What  with  heavy 
autumn  rains  and  bad  food,  supplied  by  greedy  and  dishonest  Eng- 
lish contractors,  a  pestilence  broke  out.  He  was  obliged  to  go  into 
winter  quarters,  while  the  mass  of  Englishmen,  who  did  not  understand 
the  situation,  howled  at  his  inaction  and  at  the  sufferings  to  which  his 
troops  were  exposed.  Admiral  Herbert,  recently  created  Earl  of 
Torrington,  was  supposed  to  guard  the  Channel.  Although  of  un- 
questioned courage,  his  love  of  ease  and  luxury  won  for  him  the  name 
"  Lord  Tarry-in-Town."  He  kept  no  discipline,  he  was  the  prey  of 
contractors,  and  proved  so  inactive  that  English  merchant  fleets 
had  to  make  use  of  Dutch  privateers  for  protection.  Such  was  the 
situation  when  William  started  for  Ireland  in  June,  1690. 

The  Battle  of  Beachy  Head,  29  June,  1690.  —  Scarcely  had  he  gone 
when  Tourville  appeared  in  the  Channel  with  a  French  fleet  from 
Brest.  Torrington,  whose  combined  English  and  Dutch  fleet  was  so 
unprepared  that  he  dared  not  fight,  retreated  up  the  English  coast, 
until  he  received  positive  orders  from  the  Queen  to  engage.  On  29 
June,  1690,  he  was  defeated  at  Beachy  Head,  after  which  he  con- 
tinued to  retreat  and  took  refuge  in  the  Thames.  The  Dutch  were 
furious  because  he  had  put  their  ships  where  they  had  to  bear  the  brunt 
of  the  fighting.  At  a  court  martial,  subsequently  held,  it  developed 
that  their  own  recklessness  was  to  blame,  and  Torrington  was  ac- 
quitted, though  he  never  received  another  command.  Truly  it  was 
an  anxious  time  for  Englishmen.  The  Channel  was  left  undefended, 
the  country  was  swarming  with  Jacobites,  while,  to  cap  all,  news  ar- 
rived that  the  French  had  won  a  victory  in  the  Netherlands  at  Fleurus. 
Queen  Mary,  in  the  depths  of  despair,  wrote :  "I  believe  never  was 
any  person  left  in  greater  straits  of  all  kinds."  Fortunately,  however, 

2S 


626  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  sudden  fear  that  Louis  XIV  might  send  over  an  invading  army  from 
Dunkirk  was  enough  to  unite  practically  the  whole  country  in  defense 
of  the  Crown.  Many  who  wanted  to  see  James  restored  had  no  desire 
to  see  it  done  at  the  cost  of  a  great  national  humiliation.  The  prospect 
was  still  dark  enough  when  William  sent  back  word  of  a  notable  victory. 

The  Battle  of  the  Boyne,  i  July,  1690.  —  On  30  June  he  had  come 
face  to  face  with  the  enemy  drawn  up  behind  the  river  Boyne.  "  I 
am  glad  to  see  you,  gentlemen,"  he  is  reported  to  have  said ;  "  if  you 
escape  me  now,  the  fault  will  be  mine."  In  the  famous  battle  of  the 
Boyne,  which  took  place  the  next  day,  the  English  forced  their  way 
across  the  river,  and  scattered  their  foes  in  the  utmost  confusion,  in 
spite  of  the  stubborn  resistance  of  the  Irish  cavalry.  Unfortunately, 
the  veteran  Schomberg  was  among  the  slain.  James,  who  had  lost 
the  bravery  of  his  youthful  days,  watched  the  fighting  from  a  safe 
distance,  and  hurried  away  as  soon  as  he  foresaw  the  result.  In  a 
speech  at  Dublin  Castle  he  declared  that  he  would  never  command  an 
Irish  army  again.  From  Dublin  he  hastened  to  the  coast,  sailed  for 
Brest,  and  posted  off  to  urge  Louis  to  invade  England  while  William 
was  absent.  The  French  King,  though  polite  and  non-committal, 
would  do  nothing  further  just  then.  Tourville,  who  had  cruised 
along  the  coast  unopposed  after  the  battle  of  Beachy  Head,  met  with 
a  hot  reception  directly  he  sought  to  land.  The  men  of  Devonshire 
and  the  neighboring  counties  made  speedy  preparation  for  defense, 
the  militia  were  everywhere  mustered,  and  it  was  not  long  before  all 
England  "  was  up  in  arms  on  foot  and  on  horseback  .  .  .  and  rang 
with  shouts  of  '  God  bless  King  William  and  Mary.'  "  The  chief 
result  of  Tourville's  hostile  demonstrations  was  to  undo  the  work  of 
English  Jacobites. 

The  Siege  and  Treaty  of  Limerick,  1691.  —  After  the  battle  of  the 
Boyne  the  bulk  of  the  Irish  army  took  refuge  in  Limerick.  William, 
after  failing  to  take  the  town  by  assault,  27  August,  1690,  was  soon 
forced  to  raise  the  siege,  owing  to  heavy  rains  and  lack  of  powder.  He 
himself  returned  to  England ;  but  the  garrison  finally  capitulated  to 
his  army,  3  October,  1691.  Two  treaties  were  framed.  By  a  military 
treaty  it  was  provided  that  all  officers  who  desired  should  be  trans- 
ported to  France.  In  a  civil  treaty  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland 
received  a  promise  that  they  "  should  enjoy  such  privileges  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  religion  as  were  consistent  with  the  law,  or  as  they  had 
enjoyed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II."  The  bulk  of  the  soldiery  elected 
to  go  to  France ;  many  afterwards  deserted ;  but  numbers  won  high 
distinction  in  the  ensuing  wars.  Those  who  remained  in  Ireland  were 
so  cowed  that  the  country  was  free  from  formidable  insurrection  for 
over  a  century. 

The  Violation  of  the  Treaty.  Oppressive  Restrictions  and  Penal 
Laws.  —  Unhappily,  England  did  not  temper  her  victory  with  mercy 
or  wisdom ;  but  allowed  intolerance,  greed,  and  oppression  to  prevail. 
A  new  statute  was  passed  by  Parliament  at  Westminster,  not  only 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE   GREAT  WAR  627 

excluding  Roman  Catholics  from  office,  but  enacting  for  the  first 
time  that  they  could  not  sit  in  the  Irish  Parliament.  That  body,  con- 
sisting henceforth  of  the  representatives  of  the  Protestant  minority, 
passed  laws,  in  1695,  providing  that  no  "  Popish  "  teacher  should  be 
allowed  in  schools  or  private  houses,  forbidding  "  Papists  "  to  carry 
arms  or  to  own  a  horse  worth  more  than  £5.  In  1697,  in  distinct  viola- 
tion of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick,  all  Roman  Catholic  prelates  were 
banished  from  the  kingdom ;  and  Roman  Catholics  and  Protestants 
were  forbidden  to  marry.  These  were  the  forerunners  of  a  penal  code 
which  was  carried  to  completion  in  the  reigns  of  Anne  and  the  first 
two  Georges.  They  were  not  only  cruelly  oppressive  but  degrading, 
since  every  inducement  was  offered  to  informers  and  to  those  who 
would  desert  the  faith  of  their  fathers ;  for  example,  in  the  inheritance 
of  property  the  nearest  Roman  Catholic  heirs  were  passed  over  in 
favor  of  the  more  remote,  provided  they  were  Protestants.  All  that 
can  be  said  is  that  the  more  ferocious  were  seldom  enforced.  Added 
to  the  religious  restrictions,  binding  shackles  were  imposed  on  Irish 
industry  and  commerce.  The  Irish  were  excluded  from  the  English 
colonial  trade,  and,  by  an  Act  of  1699,  the  export  of  their  wool  and 
woolen  goods  was  practically  prohibited.  About  20,000  Ulstermen 
migrated  to  America,  and  Ireland  was  left  largely  to  the  native  peas- 
ants, tenants  of  absentee  landlords,  and  mostly  under  the  influence  of 
priests.  The  tyranny  and  avarice  of  the  Protestant  minority  slowly 
but  surely  bore  bitter  fruit. 

The  Revolution  in  Scotland.  —  The  Revolution  in  Scotland  was  not 
accomplished  without  excitement,  disorder,  and  even  a  brief  period 
of  war.  A  Convention  Parliament  met  in  Edinburgh,  24  March,  1689. 
Since  the  castle  was  held  by  the  Duke  of  Gordon  in  the  interest  of 
James,  the  Whigs,  to  protect  themselves  during  the  session,  brought 
up  a  body  of  western  Covenanters,  whom  they  concealed  in  cellars 
about  the  city,  while  William  sent  a  fleet  and  three  regiments  from 
England.  In  the  Convention  it  was  declared  that  James  by  his  mis- 
deeds had  forfeited  the  government,  and  William  and  Mary  were 
named  as  his  successors.  Following  the  English  precedent,  a  Claim 
of  Right  was  promulgated  which  declared  the  existing  law,  and  enumer- 
ated a  list  of  grievances  to  be  redressed  by  new  laws.  The  Claim  of 
Right  having  been  accepted  by  William  and  Mary  at  Whitehall, 
they  took  the  coronation  oath,  n  May,  1689,  and  became  King  and 
Queen  of  Scotland.  The  forces  of  opposition,  however,  were  various 
and  vehement.  One  discontented  faction,  known  as  the  Club,  con- 
sisted of  original  supporters  of  the  new  dynasty  who  had  been  dis- 
appointed in  the  distribution  of  offices.  The  Club  was  joined  by  all 
who  were  opposed  to  a  strong  monarchy  or  to  any  monarchy  at  all. 
Then  there  were  the  Covenanters,  who  were  unwilling  to  recognize  an 
uncovenanted  King  —  a  Calvinist  who  had  proved  false  to  his  faith  by 
conforming  to  the  Church  of  England,  But  the  only  serious  armed 
revolt  came  from  the  Highlanders. 


628  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

The  Rising  of  the  Highland  Clans  under  Dundee.  —  This  pic- 
turesque and  beautiful  region  was  then,  to  the  mass  of  Englishmen, 
and  even  of  the  Lowland  Scots,  an  unknown  country,  described  by  the 
few  who  had  dared  to  penetrate  its  rugged  mountains  and  bleak  moor- 
lands as  a  grim,  unlovely  waste,  inhabited  by  savage  tribes,  utterly 
ignorant  of  the  ways  of  civilization  and  regardless  of  life  and  the  laws 
of  property.  "  It  is  a  part  of  the  creation  left  undressed,"  wrote  a 
traveler  in  1694;  "  rubbish  thrown  aside  when  the  magnificent  fabric 
of  the  world  was  created,  as  void  of  form  as  the  natives  are  indigent  of 
morals  and  good  manners."  Their  southern  neighbors,  who  knew  the 
Highlanders  as  cattle  stealers  and  murderous  enemies,  were  as  little 
acquainted  with  their  virtues  —  their  courage,  their  hospitality,  their 
dignity,  and  their  devotion  to  clan  and  family  — •  as  they  were  with  tho' 
beauties  of  their  scenery.  Thither  Dundee  sought  recruits,  after  he 
had  fled  from  the  Whig-dominated  Parliament  at  Edinburgh.  The 
clans  pressed  to  join  him,  as  they  had  joined  Montrose  half  a  century 
before,  not  so  much  out  of  attachment  for  the  Stuart  cause  as  from 
hatred  of  the  Campbells,  whose  chief,  the  Marquis  of  Argyle,  had 
taken  the  side  of  William.  Another  motive,  of  course,  was  the  pros- 
pect of  fighting  and  plunder.  They  mustered  in  May,  1689,  at 
Lochaber,  near  the  home  of  the  venerable  Sir  Ewen  Cameron  of 
Lochiel,  "  the  Ulysses  of  the  Highlands."  Dundee's  difficulties  were 
enormous.  Each  clan  was  a  unit  in  itself.  Many  nourished  long- 
standing feuds  and  jealousies ;  the  chiefs  were  so  proud  and  sensitive 
that  it  was  next  to  impossible  to  weld  the  discordant  elements  into  an 
army.  "  I  would  rather,"  he  declared  in  his  despair,  "  carry  a  musket 
in  a  respectable  regiment  than  be  a  captain  of  such  a  gang  of  thieves." 
However,  he  succeeded  in  eluding  for  weeks  Hugh  Mackay,  the  com- 
mander sent  against  him. 

Killiekrankie,  27  July,  1689.  The  Collapse  of  the  Highland 
Rising.  —  At  length,  the  two  armies  met  in  the  pass  of  Killiekrankie. 
Mackay  was  driven  from  the  pass  and  retreated  over  the  mountains  to 
Stirling ;  but  the  victory  of  the  Highlanders  was  more  than  offset  by 
the  death  of  Dundee,  who  was  shot  during  the  triumphant  charge. 
Mackay  soon  rallied  his  men,1  but  the  Highlanders  had  lost  the  only 
leader  who  could  hold  them  together.  Before  the  end  of  August  the 
whole  force  had  dispersed  to  their  homes.  It  was  not  long  either 
before  the  Club  had  ceased  to  exist.  Some  became  Jacobites,  others 
were  bought  up  by  the  Government.  In  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
the  Episcopalians  and  the  extreme  Covenanters,  Presbyterianism 
was  again  reestablished  in  1690.  William  was  embittered  by  having 
to  contend  with  so  many  elements  of  opposition.  "  I  wish  Scotland 
were  a  thousand  miles  off,"  he  once  declared,  "  and  then  I  should  be 

1  Mackay's  defeat  led  him  to  make  a  contribution  to  the  art  of  war  by  inventing 
the  modern  bayonet  fixed  outside  of,  instead  of  fitting  into  the  gun  barrel.  He 
attributed  the  loss  of  the  battle  largely  to  the  fact  that  his  men  after  they  fired 
could  not  attach  their  bayonets  quickly  enough  to  meet  the  charging  Highlanders. 


THE   OPENING   OF   THE   GREAT   WAR  629 

rid  of  it."  Unhappily  his  triumph  was  marred  by  a  brutal  crime,  due 
to  his  carelessness  or  indifference,  to  the  vindictiveness  of  the  Camp- 
bells, and  the  desire  of  the  Master  1  of  Stair  —  the  King's  chief  adviser 
—  to  root  out  the  most  unyielding  of  the  clans. 

The  Massacre  of  Glencoe,  1692.  —  A  proclamation  was  issued  from 
Edinburgh  offering  pardon  to  every  rebel  who,  before  31  December, 
1691,  should  swear  to  live  peaceably  under  William  and  Mary.  The 
chief  of  the  Macdonalds  of  Glencoe 2  waited  stubbornly  until  the  very 
last  day,  when  he  presented  himself  before  the  governor  of  Fort  Wilj 
liam.  This  official,  who  was  not  empowered  to  take  the  oath,  sent  him 
with  a  letter  to  the  sheriff  of  Argyleshire.  The  sheriff,  after  some 
hesitation,  accepted  the  submission  and  forwarded  the  certificate  to 
Edinburgh,  6  January.  This  the  Master  of  Stair  suppressed,  after 
which  he  secured  William's  signature  to  an  order  authorizing  the  ex- 
termination of  the  clan.  On  i  February,  a  company  of  soldiers  under 
Captain  Campbell  was  dispatched  to  Glencoe,  where  they  stayed  for 
nearly  two  weeks  enjoying  the  rude  but  plentiful  hospitality  of  the 
clan.  Suddenly,  in  the  early  morning  of  the  i3th,  they  rose  up  and 
began  to  massacre  their  hosts.  But  they  made  the  mistake  of  shooting 
instead  of  stabbing  their  victims,  while  the  troops  detailed  to  block 
the  exits  of  the  Glen  failed  to  arrive  in  time,  so  that  a  majority  escaped. 
Many  of  them,  however,  perished  of  exposure ;  their  homes  were  set 
on  fire,  and  their  cattle  driven  off.  Stair's  only  regret  was  that  so 
many  got  away.  His  enemies,  however,  and  the  opponents  of  the 
Government  raised  such  an  outcry  that  William,  though  he  regarded 
the  deed  as  a  wholesome  example  visited  on  a  gang  of  thieves  and  out- 
laws, was  forced  to  consent  to  a  commission  of  inquiry.  Stair  was 
retired  and  remained  in  private  life  till  the  next  reign. 

The  Alliance  against  France,  1689.  —  Meantime,  William,  in  the 
autumn  of  1689,  had  completed  an  alliance  against  France  on  which 
he  had  been  laboriously  working  for  years.  It  included  the  Empire, 
Spain,  England,  and  the  Dutch.  Parliament,  which  might  otherwise 
have  been  reluctant  to  engage  in  a  continental  war,  was  won  over 
because  of  Louis  XIV's  interference  in  Ireland.  After  his  authority 
had  been  established  in  the  neighboring  kingdoms,  William  was  free 
to  turn  his  attention  abroad.  He  departed,  18  January,  1691,  to  meet 
the  allies  in  a  congress  at  the  Hague.  Though  his  combination  seemed 
an  overwhelming  one  it  had  almost  no  cohesion.  Each  of  the  Powers, 
determined  on  giving  as  little  and  getting  as  much  as  possible,  counted 
on  leaving  the  Dutch  and  English  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  fighting  and 
the  expense.  They  quarreled  with  one  another  about  points  of  pre- 
cedence, they  were  separated  by  trade  rivalries  and  religious  differences, 
while,  Louis,  fighting  on  inside  lines,  was  master  of  the  resources  of  his 
kingdom,  and,  ably  assisted  by  Louvois,  the  greatest  war  minister, 

1  The  title  of  the  eldest  son  of  a  viscount  in  Scotland. 

2  Meaning  literally  Glen  of  Weeping.     It  was  a  dreary,  inaccessible  spot  on  the 
western  coast. 


630  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Luxembourg,  the  greatest  general,  and  Vauban,  the  greatest  engineer 
of  the  age,  could  direct,  singly  and  unopposed,  the  operations  of  his 
armies.  William  had  not  only  to  manage  his  allies  and  to  keep  up 
their  enthusiasm,  but  to  face  one  Jacobite  plot  after  another.  Even 
those  in  whom  he  had  placed  the  greatest  trust,  Russell,  Godolphin, 
and  Marlborough,1  all  entered  into  treasonable  negotiations  with  the 
enemy.  Russell  was  Admiral  of  the  Fleet  and  Treasurer  of  the  Navy, 
but  he  was  not  satisfied  with  the  grants  and  revenues  he  had  received. 
Godolphin,  first  Commissioner  of  the  Treasury,  a  cautious  man  who 
feared  for  the  stability  of  the  new  Government,  was  merely  laying  his 
plans  to  be  on  the  safe  side  in  case  of  change.  Maryborough's  schemes 
were  more  far-reaching. 

The  Campaign  of  1691.  The  Dismissal  of  Marlborough.  —  In  the 
campaign  of  1691,  Louis  struck  the  first  blow  by  sending  a  force  wrhich 
captured  Mons,  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses  in  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands. William,  hampered  as  he  was,  arrived  too  late  to  relieve  it. 
During  the  summer  he  was  unable  to  accomplish  anything  against 
Luxembourg,  though  his  army  —  the  first  which  had  been  led  abroad 
by  an  English  king  since  Henry  VIII  took  Boulogne  —  gained  valu- 
able experience.  It  was  a  serious  loss  that  throughout  the  war  he  was 
deprived  of  the  aid  of  Marlborough,  destined  to  prove  himself  in  the 
next  reign  the  most  remarkable  of  England's  generals.  Marlborough 
had  intrigued  with  the  Jacobites  to  get  rid  of  William.  His  plan  was 
to  involve  Parliament  in  a  quarrel  with  the  King  over  the  removal  of 
his  foreign  favorites,  to  get  an  army  to  support  parliamentary  liberties, 
and  then  use  it  to  proclaim,  not  James,  but  Anne.  The  Jacobites, 
becoming  suspicious,  disclosed  his  designs,  which  led  William  to  dismiss 
him,  10  January,  1692. 

The  Naval  Victory  of  La  Hogue,  1692.  —  Early  in  1692,  James, 
counting  on  the  discontent  of  Russell,  who  commanded  the  Channel 
fleet,  prepared  an  invasion  of  England.  Having  assembled  a  fleet  and 
mustered  an  army  of  French  and  Irish  at  La  Hogue,  whence  they  were 
to  be  transported  to  the  English  coasts,  he  issued  a  stupid  and  ill-timed 
Declaration,  in  which  he  not  only  expressed  no  regret  for  the  past  and 
gave  no  promises  for  the  future,  but  breathed  dire  vengeance  against 
all  who  should  oppose  his  return,  and  even  published  a  list  of  those 
whom  he  had  marked  out  for  punishment,  Indeed,  it  was  so  damning 
that  the  Government  had  it  licensed  and  freely  distributed.  Some  of 
the  Non-jurors  even  went  so  far  as  to  pronounce  it  false  and  to  issue  a 
forged  paper  promising  a  free  pardon,  with  only  a  few  exceptions. 
Few  were  deceived,  however,  and  the  Declaration,  together  with  the 
prospect  of  attack  from  the  French  and  Irish,  roused  the  intensest 
patriotism.  Russell,  who,  after  all,  was  a  stanch  Whig  and  zealous 
for  the  fame  of  the  English  navy,  declared :  "  Do  not  think  that  I  will 
let  the  French  triumph  over  us  in  our  own  sea.  Understand  this,  that 

1  John  Churchill  had  been  created  Earl  of  Marlborough  at  the  coronation. 


THE  OPENING  OF  THE   GREAT  WAR  631 

if  I  meet  them,  I  fight  them,  aye,  though  his  Majesty  himself  should 
be  on  board."  Vigorous  preparations  for  defense  were  made,  the 
few  dangerous  Jacobites  were  locked  up,  and  Mary  gained  the  waverers 
in  the  fleet  by  a  touching  appeal.  So  when  Tourville  again  appeared 
in  the  Channel,  he  was  met  by  a  combined  force  of  the  English  and  the 
Dutch,  who  drove  his  ships  back  to  the  Norman  coast  and  burned  the 
bulk  of  them  in  the  harbor  of  La  Hogue  before  the  very  face  of  James 
and  his  army.  The  battle  of  La  Hogue,  19-24  May,  1692,  marked  a 
decisive  step  in  the  supremacy  of  the  English  sea  power  over  the 
French ;  for  Louis  was  too  much  occupied  with  his  land  wars  to  repair 
the  destruction  of  his  fleet. 

William's  Loss  of  Namur  and  Defeat  at  Steenkerke,  1692.  — 
William,  however,  was  unable  to  prevent  the  French  from  capturing 
Namur,  June  1692.  This  town,  situated  at  the  confluence  of  the 
Meuse  and  the  Sambre,  was  commanded  by  a  citadel  which  had  never 
before  been  taken.  On  3  August  he  was  defeated  and  driven  back 
at  the  Battle  of  Steenkerke,  in  an  attempt  to  surprise  Luxembourg,  who 
was  guarding  the  road  from  Namur  to  Brussels  with  a  force  of  80,000 
men.  These  reverses,  together  with  the  repulse  of  an  attack  on  the 
French  coast  at  St.  Malo,  combined  to  counterbalance  the  triumph 
of  La  Hogue.  When  the  King  returned  to  England  in  October,  after 
narrowly  escaping  an  attempt  on  his  life  hatched  in  the  French  war 
office,  the  situation  was  altogether  discouraging.  English  merchant- 
men were  suffering  from  the  pillaging  of  the  enemy's  privateers ;  an 
earthquake  in  Jamaica  had  destroyed  Port  Royal;  the  harvest  had 
failed,  owing  to  heavy  rains ;  and  the  insecurity  and  discontent  were 
aggravated  by  a  startling  increase  of  crime.  Housebreakers  and 
footpads  were  so  bold  and  active  that  William  had  to  detail  cavalry  to 
guard  the  roads  to  the  capital,  and  take  the  sternest  measures  to  put 
down  disorder.  Having,  with  the  greatest  difficulty,  secured  supplies 
for  the  coming  campaign  from  a  parliament  torn  by  faction,  he  started 
back  for  the  Netherlands,  24  March,  1693. 

William's  Defeat  at  Neerwinden,  19  July,  1693.  —  In  the  early 
spring,  the  court  at  Versailles,  tired  of  supporting  James  in  his  uncom- 
promising attitude,  forced  him  to  issue  a  new  Declaration  framed  to 
conciliate  the  English.  But  it  came  too  late.  Moreover,  most  people 
distrusted  its  sincerity,  as  well  they  might;  for  James'  secretary 
accompanied  the  copy  sent  to  the  Pope  with  the  assurance  that : 
"  After  all,  the  object  of  this  Declaration  is  only  to  get  us  back  to  Eng- 
land. We  shall  fight  the  battle  of  the  Catholics  with  much  greater 
advantage  at  Whitehall  than  at  St.  Germain."  This  year  Louis  took 
the  field  in  person,  hoping  by  moving  quickly  to  capture  either  Liege  or 
Brussels.  When  the  appearance  of  William  made  a  battle  necessary, 
he  hastened  back  to  Versailles ;  for  he  was  always  careful  of  his  own 
safety.  The  allied  army  took  a  strongly  intrenched  position,  where 
Luxembourg  attacked  it,  19  July.  The  battle  of  Neerwinden  —  or 
Landen,  as  it  is  sometimes  called  from  a  neighboring  village  —  the 


632  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

bloodiest  battle  of  the  century  and  one  of  the  most  terrible  ever  fought 
in  the  Netherlands,  resulted  in  another  defeat  for  William.1  But 
Luxembourg,  though  he  drove  him  from  the  field,  did  not  follow  him 
up,  either  because  his  forces  were  too  crippled  or  because  he  lacked 
energy.  William,  with  the  wonderful  power  of  recovery  for  which  he 
was  famous,  rallied  his  forces  at  Brussels,  and  ended  the  year's  cam- 
paign in  a  position  fully  as  strong  as  when  it  began.  Moreover,  the 
French  resources  were  nearly  exhausted.  Bread  was  cheap  in  Paris, 
to  be  sure,  but  the  rural  districts  were  starving. 

The  Failure  of  the  Expedition  to  Brest.  English  Successes  in  the 
Mediterranean,  1694.  —  The  French  plan  of  war  for  1694  was  to  con- 
centrate its  energies  against  Spain  in  the  Mediterranean.  The  Eng- 
lish planned  to  send  out  two  naval  expeditions,  one  against  Brest,  the 
other  to  the  Mediterranean.  The  destination  of  the  first  was  be- 
trayed by  Marlborough,  who  can  by  no  means  be  exonerated  on  the 
ground  that  Godolphin  had  disclosed  the  secret  before  him.  He 
apparently  had  a  double  motive :  to  secure  himself  in  case  William's 
enemies  triurflphed,  and  to  discredit  his  ablest  rival,  Talmash,  who  was 
in  command.  The  expedition,  delayed  also  by  contrary  winds,  failed 
in  its  object  and  accomplished  nothing  beyond  devastating  a  few  unde- 
fended points  along  the  French  coast.  Russell,  however,  who  went  to 
the  Mediterranean,  was  able  to  save  Barcelona  from  an  attack  of  a 
combined  French  army  and  fleet  and  to  force  Tourville  to  take  refuge 
under  the  guns  of  Toulon,  after  which  he  went  to  Cadiz  to  refit  for 
the  winter.  His  success,  by  checking  Louis  XIV's  Spanish  designs, 
exercised  an  effective  influence  on  the  subsequent  course  of  the  war. 

The  Death  of  Queen  Mary,  28  December,  1694.  —  On  28  Decem- 
ber, 1694,  Queen  Mary  died  of  smallpox  at  the  early  age  of  thirty- 
two.  Her  birth  had  "  pleased  nobody,"  since  a  male  heir  to  the  Eng- 
lish throne  was  wanted.  By  her  marriage,  however,  with  William  of 
Orange  she  became  a  great  factor  in  frustrating  the  designs  of  James 
II  and  checking  the  growing  ascendancy  of  Louis  XIV.  At  first  the 
union  was  not  a  happy  one.  William,  twelve  years  her  senior,  was  an 
old  young  man,  who,  confronted  with  tremendous  problems,  neglected 
her  sadly.  But  she  bore  it  with  cheerful  resignation,  and,  learning  to 
appreciate  his  mission  and  his  great  qualities,  came  to  love  him  so 
exclusively  that  when  he  started  on  his  expedition  to  England,  she 
declared  "  that  if  she  lost  him,  she  should  not  care  for  an  angel." 
For  him  she  sacrificed  her  father  and  the  affections  of  her  sister.  Her 
amiable  qualities  and  her  absolute  devotion  gradually  won  William's 
heart,  especially  when  she  readily  renounced  her  hereditary  rights 
that  he  might  be  the  more  a  king.  She  endeared  herself  to  the  Dutch, 
and  her  popularity  with  the  English  went  far  to  soften  the  animosity 

1  Macaulay,  in  one  of  his  striking  passages,  points  how  this  battle,  led  on  the 
one  side  by  a  "hunch-backed  dwarf,"  on  the  other  by  an  "asthmatic  skeleton," 
illustrates  the  remarkable  change  in  the  art  of  warfare  since  the  Middle  Ages. 
Yet  William  is  said  to  have  performed  prodigies  of  valor  in  person. 


THE   OPENING   OF   THE   GREAT  WAR  633 

against  her  sour  consort  and  his  Dutch  favorites.  While  she  had 
no  desire  to  mingle  in  public  affairs,  she  was  ever  ready  to  do  all  she 
could  to  take  William's  place  during  his  frequent  absences.  She  was 
very  charitable,  and  she  did  much  to  raise  the  standard  of  religion 
and  morals  at  court.  The  King's  grief  at  her  loss  was  terrible.  As  a 
memorial  to  her  he  caused  the  splendid  palace  which  had  been  begun 
by  Charles  II  at  Greenwich  to  be  turned  into  a  hospital  for  aged  and 
disabled  seamen,  a  plan  which  she  had  suggested  after  the  battle  of 
La  Hogue.  But  the  Jacobites  exulted  over  the  news  of  her  death,  one 
Non-juring  divine  preaching  on  the  text :  "  Go :  see  now  this  cursed 
woman  and  bury  her,  for  she  is  a  king's  daughter."  James,  who  hoped 
that  now  he  would  have  a  better  chance  of  overthrowing  William, 
forbade  any  one  at  his  court  to  wear  mourning. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Lodge,  Political  History,  chs.  XVI.  Trevelyan,  England  under  the 
Stuarts,  ch.  XIV.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  V,  ch.  X.  Macaulay,  History  of 
England,  III,  IV,  chs.  XVII-XX.  Ranke,  IV,  bk.  XIX,  V;  bk.  XX. 

Constitutional.  Maitland,  English  Constitutional  History,  period  IV ,  pp.  281-293. 
Hallam,  III,  ch.  XV.  Taswell-Langmead,  ch.  XVI.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth, 

II,  bk.  VI,  ch.  III.     Mary  T.  Blauvelt,  The  Development  of  Cabinet  Government 
(1902) ;  a  good  brief  sketch.     For  scholarly  treatments  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  the 
Cabinet,  see  H.  W.  V.  Temperly  and  Sir  William  Anson,  English  Historical  Review, 
XXVII,  682  ff.  and  XXIX,  56-78,  and  E.  R.  Turner,  American  Historical  Review, 
XVIII,  751-768,  XIX,  27-43.     A.  S.  Turberville,  The  House  of  Lords  in  the  Reign 
of  William  III  (1913). 

Army  and  Navy.  Fortescue.  Clowes.  Mahan,  Sea  Power,  ch.  IV.  Corbett, 
England  in  the  Mediterranean,  I. 

Scotland  and  Ireland.    P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  III,  bk.  VII,  chs.  I,  II.    Macaulay, 

III,  chs.  XII,  XIII.     For  a  full  bibliography,  see  Cambridge  Modern  History,  V, 
pp.  825-837. 

Special.  Seeley,  British  Policy,  II,  pt.  V,  and  The  Expansion  of  England  (1895) ;  a 
luminous  treatment. 

Contemporary.    Burnet,  History  of  His  Own  Times  (ed.  1833),  chs.  Ill,  IV. 

Church.  Hutton,  English  Church,  ch.  XIII.  Stoughton,  Religion  in  England, 
III,  IV. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  235-240.  Robertson 
Select  Statutes,  pt.  I,  nos.  XII-XVII. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

THE  COMPLETION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  OF   1688.    WILLIAM 
ALONE   (1694-1702) 

The  Assassination  Plot,  1695-1696.  —  The  death  of  Mary,  though  it 
broke  one  of  the  strongest  links  between  William  and  the  English 
people  and  revived  the  hopes  of  the  Jacobites,  helped  the  King  to  this 
extent,  that  it  paved  the  way  for  a  reconciliation  with  Marlborough. 
The  Earl  now  realized  that  the  best  way  to  secure  the  succession  of 
Anne  was  to  support  the  reigning  sovereign,  who  was  a  childless 
widower  not  likely  to  live  very  long.  Meanwhile,  the  supporters  of 
James  planned  another  attempt  to  restore  him,  this  time  by  means  of 
an  assassination  plot,  later  coupled  with  a  scheme  for  raising  an  insur- 
rection assisted  by  an  invasion  from  France.  The  attempt  on  William's 
life  was  delayed  by  his  departure  for  the  Netherlands  in  May,  1695. 
During  the  campaign  of  that  year  he  recovered  Namur ;  for  Luxem- 
bourg, who  had  died  a  few  hours  after  Mary,  was  succeeded  in  the 
command  of  the  French  army  by  Villeroy,  a  royal  favorite  of  inferior 
military  ability.  The  Duke  of  Berwick,  a  natural  son  of  James,  who 
came  to  England,  in  January,  1696,  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  projected 
invasion,  failed  to  induce  the  Jacobites  to  rise,  while,  in  February,  1696, 
a  design  to  intercept  and  kill  the  King  as  he  was  returning  to  Kensing- 
ton House  after  a  hunting  party  at  Richmond,  was  betrayed.  The 
kingdom  was  hastily  put  in  a  state  of  defense,  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act 
was  suspended,  provision  was  made  to  continue  Parliament  for  six 
months  in  the  event  of  the  King's  death,  and  an  association  was  formed 
to  protect  the  royal  person. 

The  Attainder  of  Fenwick,  1697.  —  Most  of  the  conspirators  were 
arrested,  though,  owing  to  the  King's  wise  forbearance,  only  eight  were 
executed.  Among  them  was  Sir  John  Fenwick,  who  was  captured  in 
June  as  he  was  trying  to  escape  to  France.  Though  he  had  once 
publicly  insulted  the  late  Queen  and  was  implicated  in  the  projected 
insurrection,  he  seems  to  have  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  attempt  to 
murder  his  sovereign.  As  a  means  of  saving  himself  he  made  a  con- 
fession, in  which,  on  hearsay,  he  accused  Russell,  Marlborough, 
Godolphin,  and  Shrewsbury  of  Jacobite  intrigues.  William,  to  whom 
all  that  was  disclosed  was  an  old  story,  at  once  sent  the  confession 
to  Shrewsbury  with  the  magnanimous  comment  that  Fenwick  had 
only  accused  the  King's  friends  without  saying  anything  of  the  plans 

634 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  635 

of  the  Jacobites.  Fenwick  was  brought  to  trial,  but,  after  his  friends 
succeeded  in  getting  one  of  the  two  witnesses  against  him  to  flee  the 
country,1  a  bill  of  attainder  was  framed  against  him.  He  was  ex- 
ecuted 28  January,  i6g7.2 

The  Restoration  of  the  Coinage,  1696.  —  Meantime,  the  great  war 
was  drawing  to  a  close.  In  the  -campaign  of  1696  the  movements  of 
both  armies  were  hampered  by  lack  of  money.  France  was  reduced 
to  a  state  of  downright  misery,  while  England  was  suffering  from  a 
temporary  financial  stringency,  due  largely  to  a  restoration  of  the 
currency.  In  spite  of  severe  penalties,  old  clipped  and  mutilated  coins 
circulated  freely,  while  new  ones  with  milled  edges  were  hoarded  or 
melted  down  and  sold  as  bullion.  The  evil  was  bound  to  continue  so 
long  as  those  under  weight  were  accepted  at  their  face  value.  The 
matter  was  finally  taken  up  by  four  remarkable  men,  John  Locke, 
Lord  Somers,  Charles  Montague,  and  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  recognized 
respectively  as  the  greatest  political  philosopher,  the  greatest  lawyer 
and  statesman,  the  greatest  financier,  and  the  greatest  natural  philos- 
opher of  the  age.  Locke  outlined  the  scheme,  Somers  framed  the  bill, 
Montague  secured  its  passage,  and  Newton,  as  master  of  the  mint, 
carried  it  into  effect.  The  Recoinage  Act,  passed  in  January,  1696, 
provided  that  the  old  damaged  coins  should  cease  to  be  legal  tender  by 
4  May.  The  Government  agreed  to  replace  at  their  face  value  old 
coins  that  were  turned  in ;  but,  though  the  new  issue  was  made  with 
unprecedented  rapidity,  it  did  not  come  fast  enough  at  first  to  supply 
the  place  of  the  money  drawn  from  circulation.  It  was  not  till  March, 
1697,  that  the  crisis  was  past.  However,  the  establishment  of  a  sound, 
stable  currency  was  well  worth  the  temporary  hardship. 

The  Peace  of  Ryswick,  1697.  —  When  William  met  the  Houses  in 
October,  1696,  he  was  able  to  inform  them  that  overtures  for  peace 
had  already  been  made  by  Louis  XIV ;  but  he  pointed  out  that  an 
adequate  force  was  necessary  if  England  was  to  hold  her  own  in  the 
negotiations.  Parliament  .responded  loyally  by  voting  supplies  for 
40,000  seamen  and  an  army  of  87,000.  On  9  May,  1697,  a  congress  of 
the  allies  assembled  at  Ryswick,  but  it  occupied  so  much  time  in  cere- 
monious display  and  trifling  points  of  precedence  that  William  decided 
to  open  negotiations  with  Louis  on  his  own  account.  Accordingly,  in 
the  month  of  June,  he  sent  his  trusted  agent,  the  Earl  of  Portland,  to 
confer  with  Marshal  Boufflers,  one  of  the  most  efficient  of  the  French 
generals,  whom  Louis  had  selected  as  his  representative.  Before  the 
end  of  July  they  had  settled  all  the  terms  in  which  England  and  France 
were  concerned,  while  the  Congress  was  still  wrangling  over  tedious 
formalities.  "  It  is  odd,"  declared  Harlay,  the  French  plenipotentiary 
at  Ryswick,  "  that  while  the  ambassadors  are  making  war,  the  gen- 

1  Nominally,  though  the  law  was  often  strained,  two  witnesses  were  required 
to  convict  a  man  of  treason. 

2  Curiously  enough,  it  was  Fenwick  who  had  moved  the  attainder  of  Monmouth 
in  1685.     He  was  the  last  man  in  England  to  be  executed  under  a  bill  of  attainder. 


636  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

erals  should  be  making  peace."  So,  30  September,  1697,  the  Treaty  of 
Ryswick  was  signed  by  England,  France,  the  United  Provinces,  and 
Spain,  the  latter  power  having  been  whipped  into  line  by  the  cap- 
ture of  Barcelona  in  the  Old  World  and  Carthagena  in  the  New.  Ac- 
cording to  the  terms  of  the  peace,  William  was  acknowledged  as  King 
of  England  and  Anne  his  successor,  and  Louis  promised  not  to  aid  in 
plots  against  him.  All  conquests  made  during  the  war  were  restored, 
though  Louis  was  allowed  to  retain  certain  places  which  he  had  "  re- 
united "  :  since  the  peace  of  Nymwegen,  and  the  chief  fortresses  in  the 
Netherlands  were  garrisoned  with  Dutch  troops  as  a  barrier  against 
France.  The  Emperor  thus  isolated  made  peace  with  France,  30 
October. 

Significance  of  the  Peace  of  Ryswick.  —  While  Louis  regarded  the 
peace  simply  "  as  a  breathing  time  "  until  he  could  make  ready  to 
resume  his  conquests,  the  mass  of  Englishmen  hailed  it  with  joy  as  the 
completion  of  the  Revolution  of  1688.  In  spite  of  crushing  defeats,  of 
threatened  dangers  in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  of  Jacobite  intrigue  and 
party  strife,  Louis  had  been  checked  for  the  first  time  in  his  victorious 
career,  and  had  been  forced  to  acknowledge  William  in  place  of  James. 

Internal  Progress  in  England  since  the  Outbreak  of  the  War.  — 
During  the  years  that  war  raged  on  the  Continent,  a  series  of  measures 
were  passed  in  England  of  far-reaching  importance  in  financial,  eco- 
nomic, political,  and  legal  developments. 

The  New  East  India  Company,  1698-1708.  —  The  East  India  Com- 
pany, now  nearly  a  century  old,  had  become  a  great  monopoly. 
Shortly  after  the  Revolution,  however,  the  independent  traders  began 
a  determined  agitation  for  a  share  in  the  lucrative  business  which  it 
controlled.  Though  the  old  Company,  by  the  efforts  of  its  able  leader, 
Sir  Josiah  Child,  and  by  a  lavish  use  of  bribery,  was  able  to  obtain  a 
renewal  of  its  charter,  its  opponents  gained  a  victory  in  the  end.  By 
an  act  which  received  the  royal  assent  5  July,  1698,  a  new  General 
Society  was  authorized  which  was  to  contribute  £2,000,000  to  the 
State.  Members  consisted  of  subscribers  to  the  fund,  who  received 
exclusive  trading  rights  in  the  East  Indies  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
subscribed.  It  was  provided  in  the  Act  that  members  might,  under 
royal  charter,  form  joint  stock  companies  within  the  Society,  or  the 
whole  Society  might  form  itself  into  a  single  joint  stock  company. 
During  the  course  of  the  struggle  the  House  of  Commons  passed 
a  notable  resolution,  declaring  that  no  power  except  Parliament  alone 
could  grant  exclusive  trading  privileges  to  English  subjects,  either 
individuals  or  companies.  Finally,  in  1708,  the  old  East  India  Com- 
pany and  the  General  Society  were  consolidated  under  the  name  of 
the  "  United  Company  of  Merchants  of  England  trading  to  the  East 
Indies."  It  survived  for  over  a  century  and  a  half,  though  toward 
the  end  with  steadily  diminishing  powers. 

1  I.e.  appropriated  on  the  ground  that  they  had  once  belonged  to  France. 


COMPLETION   OF   THE   REVOLUTION  637 

A  New  Financial  Era.  —  The  £2,000,000  subscribed  by  the  General 
Society  in  1698  was  only  one  indication  of  a  new  financial  era  which 
had  opened  in  England.  Since  the  accession  of  William  a  series  of 
measures  had  been  inaugurated  of  momentous  importance  both  abroad 
and  at  home.  Louis,  during  the  late  war,  had  declared  that  the  Power 
with  the  last  gold  piece  would  win,  and  it  was  due  largely  to  the  effec- 
tive financial  organization  begun  in  this  period  that  England  won  her 
successes  in  the  great  European  conflicts  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Moreover,  it  resulted  in  the  ascendancy  of  the  Whigs  and  the  perma- 
nence of  the  Revolution  Settlement.  The  moneyed  classes  —  the 
merchants  and  traders  —  belonged  mainly  to  the  Whig  party,  which 
grew  in  strength  and  influence  as  the  State  turned  to  it  more  and  more 
for  loans.  Then,  naturally,  men  who  had  invested  their  funds  under 
the  existing  Government  would  struggle  to  uphold  it ;  since  the  return 
of  James  meant  repudiation  of  the  debts  which  it  had  contracted. 

The  Beginnings  of  the  National  Debt.  —  The  new  policy  was  chiefly 
the  work  of  a  remarkable  politician  and  financier,  Charles  Montague 
(1665-1715),  created  Baron  and  later  Earl  of  Halifax.  At  the  very 
beginning  of  King  William's  War  it  became  evident  that,  in  spite  of 
new  and  increased  taxes,  the  annual  revenue  was  insufficient  to  cover 
expenses.  The  experience  of  the  goldsmiths,  in  consequence  of  the 
Stop  of  the  Exchequer,  made  the  prospects  of  obtaining  further  loans 
in  the  ordinary  way  very  discouraging.  However,  there  was  a  surplus 
of  capital  in  the  country  and.  few  opportunities  of  placing  it  safely  and 
profitably.  Many  were  reduced  to  hoarding  their  savings  in  strong 
boxes  or  burying  them  in  the  ground.  In  consequence,  stockjobbers 
and  fraudulent  companies,  with  all  sorts  of  speculative  schemes,  began 
to  multiply  alarmingly.  There  was,  for  instance,  a  Royal  Academies 
Company  for  the  education  of  young  gentlemen  in  every  branch  of 
learning,  and  a  Diving  Company  to  recover  lost  treasure  from  the  sea. 
Following  the  example  of  Italy,  France,  and  the  Netherlands,  which  had 
long  had  permanent  debts,  Montague  determined  to  secure  for  the 
use  of  the  Government  some  of  the  surplus  capital  which  was  lying 
idle  or  being  wasted  in  futile  speculation.  To  that  end  he  framed  a 
measure,  which  became  law  in  January,  1693,  for  borrowing  £1,000,000. 
The  subscribers  were  to  receive  life  annuities  of  10  per  cent  till  1700 
and  7  per  cent  after  that  date.  As  the  annuitants  died  off,  their 
yearly  portions  were  to  be  divided  among  the  survivors  until  only 
seven  were  left.  Henceforth  the  payments,  guaranteed  by  special 
taxes,  were  to  go  to  the  State.  Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  National 
Debt.1 

The  Foundation  of  the  Bank  of  England,  1694.  —  Neither  the  loan 
of  1693  nor  various  new  devices  which  were  adopted  2  proved  adequate 

1  It  amounted  to  £50,000,000  at  the  Peace  of  Utrecht  in  1713,  to  £240,000,000 
at  the  close  of  the  American  Revolution  in  1783,  and  in  1815  to  £840,000,000. 

2  One  was  a  state  lottery  loan  of  which  the  details  were  arranged  by  a  profes- 
sional gambler. 


638  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

to  meet  the  constantly  swelling  expenses  of  the  war,  whereupon  Monta- 
gue adopted  another  expedient  —  the  founding  of  the  Bank  of  England. 
Already,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  men  had  begun  to  intrust  their 
money  to  the  goldsmiths  who  had  special  facilities  for  the  safe  keep- 
ing of  the  precious  metals  which  they  employed  in  their  business. 
The  depositors  received  notes  which  they  circulated  in  their  transac- 
tions, while  the  goldsmiths  frequently  let  out  at  interest  the  funds 
intrusted  to  their  care.  In  this  way  the  banking  business  in  England 
began.  Before  the  close  of  Charles'  reign  the  question  of  a  national 
bank  commenced  to  be  discussed.  At  Genoa  there  had  been  such  an 
institution  for  almost  three  centuries,  and  there  was  a  Bank  of  Amster- 
dam nearly  a  hundred  years  old.  Various  plans  were  suggested  to  the 
English  Government,  some  wise  and  some  foolish.  The  one  adopted 
by  Montague  in  1694  had  been  outlined  in  a  pamphlet  three  years 
previously  by  William  Paterson,  a  brilliant  but  erratic  Scotchman 
destined  soon  to  attain  unenviable  notoriety.  The  new  project 
provided  that  the  Government  should  borrow  £1,200,000  at  8  per  cent 
and  that  the  subscribers  should  be  incorporated  as  the  "  Governor  and 
Company  of  the  Bank  of  England."  The  corporation  was  authorized 
to  engage  in  private  banking ;  it  could  borrow  at  4  per  cent  and  lend 
upon  security ;  it  could  deal  in  bullion  and  bills  of  exchange,  but  was 
prohibited  from  dealing  in  merchandise  in  any  form.  It  could  issue 
notes,  though  they  were  not  legal  tender,  nor  was  the  institution  in  any 
sense  a  monopoly. 

The  Bank,  during  its  early  years,  had  to  struggle  against  formida- 
ble obstacles.  It  was  fiercely  attacked,  chiefly  by  the  Tories  and  the 
disappointed  authors  of  rival  schemes.  The  most  absurd  and  con- 
tradictory arguments  were  advanced  to  discredit  it.  Some  denounced 
it  as  a  republican  institution,  apparently  on  the  ground  that  no  bank 
had  ever  existed  in  a  monarchy,  while  others  prophesied  that  it  would 
be  an  agent  of  despotism.  Any  possible  danger  of  the  latter  sort 
was  met  by  a  provision  that  it  could  not  loan  any  money  to  the  Crown 
except  by  act  of  Parliament.  Some  of  its  noisiest  opponents  had  a 
scheme  for  creating  a  bank  which  should  lend  money  and  circulate 
notes  on  the  security  of  land,  and,  on  the  promise  to  lend  the  Govern- 
ment £2,500,000  at  7  per  cent,  they  got  a  bill  through  Parliament 
authorizing  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution.  Fortunately  the 
land  bank  project  collapsed,  because  its  chief  advocates  were  land- 
owners who  wanted  to  borrow,  while  men  who  had  money  to  lend 
were  so  distrustful  that  only  a  few  thousand  pounds  were  subscribed. 
A  more  serious  danger  came  from  certain  goldsmiths  who  bought 
up  notes  and  presented  them  for  payment  during  the  money  stringency 
caused  by  the  recoinage  act.  The  directors  met  the  attempted  run  by 
refusing  to  cash  such  notes,  though  they  endeavored  to  care  for  those 
who  honestly  needed  money.  The  Bank  advanced  the  funds  required 
to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  recoinage  and  also  the  sum  which  the  land 
bank  had  promised  to  loan.  In  consequence  it  was  granted  new  priv- 


COMPLETION  OF  THE   REVOLUTION  639 

ileges  in  1697 :  it  was  made  a  monopoly  until  1710,  and  was  allowed 
to  issue  notes  payable  on  demand. 

The  Triennial  Act,  1694.  —  An  attempt  at  parliamentary  reform 
resulted  in  a  new  Triennial  Act  in  1694.  The  act  of  1641  had  been 
concerned  primarily  to  secure  frequent  parliaments,  but  the  practice 
of  passing  the  Mutiny  Act  and  of  appropriating  supplies  annually  had, 
since  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary,  rendered  a  precaution  of  this 
sort  no  longer  necessary.  A  crying  evil,  however,  was  the  corruption 
and  bribery  which  had  come  to  flourish  so  rankly,  particularly  since  the 
early  days  of  the  Pensionary  Parliament.  If  members  were  only 
called  to  account  by  their  constituents  at  long  and  infrequent  intervals, 
they  were  bound  to  barter  their  votes  all  the  more  readily.1  The 
Tories  preferred  a  measure  excluding  all  placemen  from  the  Commons, 
but  that  did  not  reach  those  who  took  bribes  of  money,  and,  further- 
more, the  Place  Bill  which  they  introduced  in  1692  went  too  far  in 
excluding  the  great  ministers  of  State  as  well  as  minor  officials.  If 
that  practice  had  been  permanently  incorporated  into  the  Constitution, 
the  present  system  of  Cabinet  government  would  have  been  impossible. 
A  bureaucracy  would  have  grown  up,  or  the  sovereign  would  have 
chosen  his  advisers  solely  from  the  House  of  Lords,  and  the  Lower 
House  would  never  have  secured  that  direct  control  over  the  ministers 
which  it  now  enjoys.  By  the  Triennial  Act  of  1694,  the  Whigs  carried 
their  plan,  first  introduced  in  1692,  which  was  to  limit  the  duration  of 
Parliament  to  three  years. 

The  Act  regulating  Trials  for  Treason,  1696.  —  While  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  had  made  it  difficult  to  hold  accused  persons  in  prison 
without  cause  and  while  juries  were  no  longer  answerable  for  verdicts 
contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  Government,2  the  case  of  a  prisoner 
brought  before  the  courts  was  grievous.  He  was  not  shown  a  copy  of 
his  indictment  before  the  trial,  and  so  did  not  know  of  what  he  was 
accused  until  he  appeared  at  the  bar.  He  had  no  power  to  compel 
the  attendance  of  witnesses,  nor  to  force  such  as  came  to  testify  under 
oath,  and  he  was  denied  the  benefit  of  counsel.  After  the  Tories  had 
got  a  taste  of  what  the  Whigs  and  Nonconformists  had  long  suffered, 
they  began  to  join  in  seeking  a  remedy.  In  the  session  of  1690-1691  a 
bill  for  regulating  trials  in  cases  of  high  treason  was  introduced  into  the 
House  of  Commons,  where  it  passed  by  a  large  and  enthusiastic  major- 
ity. Then  a  sudden  obstacle  arose.  Peers  accused  of  treason  and 
felony  were  tried  by  their  own  House  under  the  presidency  of  a  High 
Steward  appointed  by  the  sovereign.  When  Parliament  was  in  session 
the  whole  Upper  House  acted  as  judges,  at  other  times  the  High 

1  One  Titus,  who  had  been  in  public  life  since  the  days  of  the  Commonwealth, 
put  the  matter  with  as  much  truth  as  quaintness  when  he  declared  in  a  speech, 
that:    "Parliament  resembled  the  manna  which  God  bestowed  upon  the  chosen 
people.     They  were  excellent  while  they  were  fresh :   but,  if  kept  too  long,  they 
became  noisome,  and  foul  worms  were  engendered  by  the  corruption  of  that  which 
had  been  sweeter  than  honey." 

2  Decided  in  Bushel's  case,  1670. 


640  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Steward  arbitrarily  selected  twelve  peers  from  his  court.  To  remedy 
this  obvious  injustice,  the  Lords,  when  the  treason  bill  reached  them, 
introduced  an  amendment  providing  that  in  all  cases,  whether  Parlia- 
ment was  in  session  or  not,  peers  should  be  tried  by  the  whole  House. 
The  extreme  Whigs  objected  to  this  amendment  and  held  out  for  some 
years,  with  the  result  that  the  act  did  not  finally  pass  till  1696.  Its 
main  provisions  were :  that  no  person  could  be  convicted  of  a  treason 
committed  more  than  three  years  before  the  indictment  was  found ; 
that  every  person  accused  of  high  treason  should  be  allowed  the  bene- 
fit of  counsel ;  that  he  should  be  furnished  with  a  copy  of  the  indict- 
ment at  least  five  days  before  the  trial,  and  a  list  from  which  the  jury 
was  to  be  taken;  that  his  witnesses  should  be  sworn  ;  that  they  should 
be  cited  by  the  same  process  as  those  summoned  against  him ;  and 
that  there  must  be  for  conviction  two  witnesses  to  the  same  overt  act 
or  to  two  related  acts  of  the  same  treason.1 

The  End  of  the  Censorship  of  the  Press,  1695.  —  Meantime,  a  long 
step  had  been  taken  toward  the  emancipation  of  the  press.  For  a  great 
while  the  Government  had  sought  to  muzzle  the  expression  of  public 
opinion  by  a  strict  censorship  over  all  printed  matter.  Nothing  could 
be  published  without  a  license  and  the  official  censor  exercised  a  wide 
and  oppressive  discretion.  Milton,  in  the  Areopagitica,  made  a  noble 
but  futile  plea  against  such  a  state  of  things.  At  length,  in  1693,  when 
the  licensing  act  came  up  for  renewal,  a  curious  quarrel,  in  which  the 
official  licenser  became  involved  and  which  had  no  bearing  on  the 
merits  of  the  question,  led  to  the  first  debate  in  Parliament  on  the 
liberty  of  the  press,  with  the  consequence  that  the  act  was  renewed 
only  for  two  years  and  then  allowed  to  expire.  This  final  renunciation 
of  the  censorship  of  the  press  was  based,  not  on  any  broad  grounds  of 
principle,  but  was  due  to  petty  abuses  connected  with  the  administra- 
tion of  the  act.  The  new  era  of  the  modern  newspaper  now  began. 
Hitherto,  since  the  Restoration,  the  only  authorized  newspaper  had 
been  the  London  Gazette?  which  contained  nothing  but  such  official 
news  as  the  Secretary  of  State  was  pleased  to  allow  to  be  published. 
Now  appeared  the  English  Courant,  followed  by  others  in  quick  suc- 
cession. With  the  removal  of  the  censorship  the  temper  of  the 
pamphlets  and  papers  improved  perceptibly ;  for,  up  to  this  time, 
only  the  violent  and  reckless  had  dared  to  defy  the  law.  Even  yet 
the  press  was  far  from  being  absolutely  free.  The  law  of  libel  was 
strictly  enforced,  and  from  the  time  of  Anne  until  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury heavy  stamp  duties  operated  to  keep  down  the  number  of  cheap 
newspapers. 

1  Anthony  Ashley  Cooper,  grandson  of  the  famous  Shaftesbury,  is  said  to  have 
furthered  the  final  passage  of  the  act  by  breaking  down  in  his  speech  and  then  com- 
paring his  case  to  that  of  a  poor  prisoner  brought  suddenly  before  his  accusers. 
Prisoners  in  ordinary  criminal  cases  had  to  wait  till  the  nineteenth  century  before 
their  lot  was  appreciably  bettered. 

2  Started  in  1665  as  the  Oxford  Gazelle. 


COMPLETION   OF  THE  REVOLUTION  641 

William  turns  toward  the  Whigs,  1693.  —  The  press  came  to  be  the 
chief  organ  for  informing  and  expressing  public  opinion  —  an  essential 
factor  in  party  government.  It  was  in  this  period  that  ministers  were, 
for  the  first  time,  chosen  because  they  represented  the  party  dominant 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  As  early  as  1690,  Shrewsbury  had  advised 
William  to  govern  exclusively  through  Whig  ministers,  for  the  reason 
that  the  Tories  were  chiefly  Jacobites.  William,  however,  disliked 
to  bind  himself  absolutely  to  the  Whigs.  While  the  Tories,  as  a  party, 
were  inclined  to  the  exiled  James,  they  were  supporters  of  prerogative 
and  their  leaders  were  experienced  in  administration.  The  Whigs, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  been  so  long  out  of  office  that  few  of  their 
number  were  well  versed  in  public  affairs,  and  they  were  opposed  to 
giving  the  King  a  free  hand  either  at  home  or  abroad.  But,  gradually, 
William's  own  political  sagacity  and  the  arguments  of  Sunderland, 
who  had  wormed  himself  into  his  confidence,  had  convinced  him  that 
the  success  of  his  contest  against  Louis  could  best  be  secured  by  con- 
fining himself  to  ministers  who  commanded  the  support  of  the  Whig 
party,  which  controlled  the  Commons,  was  financing  the  war,  and  of 
which  the  commercial  prosperity,  property,  and  religious  and  political 
security  depended  upon  its  favorable  issue.  Its  leaders  at  that  time 
'consisted  of  a  group  of  four  men  of  remarkable  ability  and  influence, 
known  as  the  "  Junto." 

The  "  Junto  "  and  the  First  Party  Cabinet,  1694-1697.  —  Edward 
Russell,  later  Earl  of  Orford,  in  spite  of  his  treasonable  intrigues  l  and 
his  wayward  temper,  was  distinguished  as  a  member  of  one  of  the  lead- 
ing English  families  and  for  notable  services  to  his  country  and  the  new 
dynasty.  John  Somers  was  a  sagacious,  many-sided  man ;  not  only 
was  he  one  of  the  most  eminent  jurists  and  statesmen  of  his  time, 2  but 
he  was  famous  as  a  connoisseur  of  art  and  a  patron  of  scholars.  Mon- 
tague was  already  recognized  for  his  financial  ability  and  skill  in  debate. 
Thomas  Wharton,  author  of  Lillibullero,  was  the  most  picturesque 
member  of  the  group,  unrivaled  in  the  tricks  of  electioneering  and  as 
a  party  organizer.  Known  as  "  Honest  Tom  "  by  his  adoring  fol- 
lowers, and  endowed  with  rare  personal  charm  and  courage,  he  was, 
nevertheless,  dissipated,  shameless,  and  an  unprincipled  liar.  The 
Tories,  disunited  and  disorganized,  had  no  effective  leaders  to  pit 
against  this  combination ;  for  their  ablest  men  had  lost  their  influence. 
Yet  William,  who  disliked  Russell  and  Wharton  and  valued  the  services 
of  Carmarthen,  Nottingham,  and  Godolphin,  only  slowly  and  of  neces- 
sity got  rid  of  his  Tory  advisers.  In  1693,  in  consequence  of  disputes 
between  Russell  and  Nottingham  over  the  management  of  the  fleet, 
he  reluctantly  dismissed  the  latter.  In  1695,  Carmarthen,  now  Duke 
of  Leeds,  was  forced  to  retire,  owing  to  charges  of  bribery  in  connec- 
tion with  the  renewal  of  the  charter  of  the  Old  East  India  Company. 

1  They  were  not  known  to  the  rank  and  file  of  his  party. 

2  Recently,  however,  some  historians  have  come  to  think  that,  owing  to  the  in- 
fluence of  Macaulay,  the  attainments  and  integrity  of  Somers  have  been  overrated. 

2T 


642  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

In  1697  Goldolphin  resigned  as  a  result  of  the  disclosures  of  Fenwick. 
Thus,  at  the  time  when  the  nation  was  celebrating  the  conclusion  of  the 
Peace  of  Ryswick,  the  Cabinet  was  entirely  Whig,  though  William  con- 
tinued to  consult  such  unofficial  advisers  as  Sunderland  and  his  Dutch 
favorite  the  Earl  of  Portland. 

The  Reduction  of  the  Standing  Army,  1697-1698.  —  No  sooner  was 
the  war  over  than  Parliament  came  into  violent  conflict  with  the  King 
by  insisting  on  a  reduction  of  the  standing  army.  The  step  was  due 
partly  to  economy,  for  the  public  debt  had  increased  to  £17,000,000, 
and  partly  to  the  prevalent  view  that  a  standing  army  was  not  only 
contrary  to  the  Constitution  but  dangerous  to  liberty.  People  remem- 
bered the  power  that  Cromwell  had  been  able  to  wield  with  the  New 
Model  at  his  back  and  the  strife  which  his  generals  had  caused  after 
his  death ;  they  remembered  how  James  had  tried  to  overawe  London 
with  his  force  on  Hounslow  Heath ;  and  they  recalled  with  shudders 
the  excesses  of  Kirke's  Lambs  and  Dundee's  bloody  suppression  of  the 
Covenanters.  In  a  hot  pamphlet  war  which  preceded  the  debates  in 
Parliament,  Somers  contributed  his  famous  "Balancing  Letter, "  in 
which  he  contended  that  the  militia  were  by  no  means  sufficient  for 
the  defense  of  England,  and  argued  ably  for  an  adequate  standing  force 
dependent  on  parliamentary  support  and  control.  In  spite  of  all,  the 
army  was  reduced  from  87,000  to  10,000,  though  a  liberal  grant  was 
made  for  the  maintenance  of  the  navy.  An  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  extreme  Tories  to  strike  a  blow  at  William's  favorites  by  annulling 
all  grants  of  Crown  lands  made  since  the  Revolution  was  cleverly 
frustrated  by  the  Ministry,  who  coupled  with  the  measure  bills  to 
include  the  grants  made  by  Charles  II  and  James  I.  The  King,  who 
was  firmly  convinced  that  such  a  wholesale  reduction  of  the  army  was 
the  surest  way  to  precipitate  a  new  war,  and  who  had  frankly  stated 
his  views  in  a  speech  to  the  Houses,  was  provoked  to  the  unconstitu- 
tional step  of  leaving  sealed  orders,  when  he  went  to  Holland  at  the 
close  of  the  session,  that  16,000  men  should  be  kept  on  foot.  As  a 
result,  a  bill  was  forced  on  him  in  the  autumn  of  1698  reducing  the 
army  from  10,000  to  7000.  It  was  further  provided  that  it  should 
consist  of  Englishmen  alone,  thus  necessitating  the  exclusion  of  the 
Dutch  guards.  The  King  was  so  disgusted  that  he  again  talked  of 
quitting  the  country.1 

The  Irish  Forfeitures,  1699-1700.  —  In  another  quarrel  between  the 
Crown  and  the  Commons,  neither  side  appears  to  great  advantage. 
It  had  been  decided  to  devote  a  large  share  of  the  property  of  James' 
adherents  in  Ireland  to  the  public  service.  Although  the  sovereign 
had  a  legal  right  to  dispose  of  such  forfeitures  at  will,  William  had 
agreed,  in  answer  to  an  address  from  Parliament,  20  January,  1690,  to 
make  no  grants  until  the  matter  had  been  acted  upon  in  the  next 
session.  Nothing  was  done,  apparently  owing  to  the  obstruction  of 

1  The  story  is  probably  not  true  that  William  stamped  furiously  about  the  room, 
declaring :  "If  I  had  a  son,  by  God,  the  guards  should  not  leave  me." 


COMPLETION  OF  THE  REVOLUTION  643 

Government  agents,  whereupon  the  King  proceeded  to  make  lavish 
grants  to  his  favorites.  Finally,  in  1699,  the  Commons  appointed  a 
committee  to  investigate  the  question  and  to  frame  a  plan  of  resump- 
tion. In  order  to  prevent  the  Lords  from  amending  the  measure,  it 
was  "  tacked  "  to  the  Land  Tax  Bill ;  for  it  was  the  rule  that  the  Upper 
House  must  pass  or  reject  a  money  bill  in  the  form  in  which  they 
received  it.  In  the  next  year  a  Resumption  Bill,  based  on  the  major- 
ity report  of  the  committee,  was  passed,  again  by  tacking.  Unfor- 
tunately, the  act  included  in  its  "  resumptions  "  Irish  lands  which  had 
never  been  forfeited.  This  was  especially  unjust  to  those  who  had 
stood  by  William,  as  well  as  to  some  who  had  been  induced  to  accept 
the  new  dynasty  on  the  distinct  understanding  that  they  should  retain 
their  estates.  While  the  lavishness,  the  favoritism,  and  sharp  practice 
of  the  King  cannot  be  defended,  the  temper  and  methods  of  the  Com- 
mons are  scarcely  less  blameworthy. 

The  Break-up  of  the  Whig  Ministry,  1699.  —  The  defeat  of  the 
King  in  his  attempt  to  prevent  the  reduction  of  the  army  and  the 
resumption  of  the  Irish  forfeitures  are  only  the  chief  indications  of  the 
failure  of  his  Ministry  to  control  Parliament  after  the  general  election 
of  1698.  The  Tories  did  not  get  an  actual  majority  until  the  Parlia- 
ment of  1701 ;  but,  reenforced  by  the  malcontent  Whigs,  they  were 
able  to  obstruct  the  Junto  at  every  turn.  There  was  blame  on  both 
sides ;  for  while  the  Commons  were  meddlesome  and  overbearing, 
Montague,  who  had  once  been  such  an  effective  parliamentary  mana- 
ger, spoiled  by  his  success,  had  grown  haughty  and  uncompromising. 
Orford  retired  from  the  position  of  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  in 
May,  1699 ;  Montague  resigned  the  Chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer 
and  the  First  Lordship  of  the  Treasury  in  the  autumn,  while  Somers 
was  deprived  of  the  Great  Seal  in  the  following  year.  In  the  later, 
more  developed  stage  of  the  party  system  they  would  have  retired  in  a 
body  directly  a  hostile  majority  was  formed  against  them,  or  have 
appealed  to  the  country  in  a  general  election.  However,  the  fact  that 
William  dismissed  Somers  in  consequence  of  a  parliamentary  attack 
marked  another  stage  in  the  progress  of  party  government. 

The  Act  of  Settlement,  1701.  —  One  measure  of  great  significance 
stands  out  in  the  midst  of  the  strife  and  confusion  of  these  years  — 
the  Act  of  Settlement,  which  formed  a  necessary  supplement  to  the 
Bill  of  Rights.  It  was  occasioned  by  the  death,  in  July,  1701,  of  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  Anne's  last  surviving  child.  In  providing  for  the 
succession  the  Bill  of  Rights  went  no  farther  than  the  descendants  of 
Anne.  The  new  Act,  excluding  all  other  claimants,  provided  that, 
in  the  event  of  the  death  of  Anne  without  heirs,  the  crown  should  pass 
to  Sophia,  Electress  of  Hanover,  and  her  descendants.  She  was  the 
granddaughter  of  James  I  and  the  nearest  Protestant  representative 
of  the  English  royal  house.1  Various  limitations  were  also  embodied 

1  She  was  a  daughter  of  Elizabeth  and  Palsgrave  Frederick,  and  had  married 
the  Elector  of  Hanover.  Two  branches  of  the  House  of  Stuart  were  nearer  in  the 


644  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  the  Act,  some  to  take  effect  only  when  the  new  line  came  to  the 
throne.  Eight  of  the  provisions  are  specially  important,  (i)  Who- 
ever shall  come  to  the  throne  of  England  shall  join  in  communion  with 
the  Church  of  England.  (2)  In  case  such  sovereigns  shall  not  be 
natives  of  England  they  shall  not  engage  the  nation  in  war  in  defense 
of  territories  not  belonging  to  the  crown  of  England  except  by  consent 
of  Parliament.  (3)  Such  a  sovereign  shall  not  go  out  of  the  realm 
without  parliamentary  consent.  (4)  No  foreigner  shall  be  a  member 
of  Parliament,  hold  any  office,  or  have  any  grant  of  land  from  the 
Crown.  (5)  All  matters  relating  to  the  well  governing  of  the  kingdom 
properly  belong  to  the  whole  Privy  Council,  shall  be  considered  there, 
and  all  resolutions  taken  shall  be  signed  by  all  members  that  advise 
and  consent.  (6)  No  person  having  an  office  or  place  of  profit  under 
the  king,  or  who  receives  a  pension  from  him,  shall  sit  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  (7)  Judges  shall  hold  office  during  good  behavior  (quam- 
diu  se  bene  gesserini)  and  shall  only  be  removed  upon  an  address  of 
both  Houses.  (8)  No  pardon  may  be  pleaded  in  bar  of  an  impeach- 
ment. 

While  the  first  four  of  these  provisions  were  designed  as  safeguards 
in  the  event  of  a  foreign  sovereign  coming  to  the  throne,  the  last  four 
dealt  with  distinctly  domestic  problems.  The  attempt  to  revive  and 
extend  the  powers  of  the  old  Privy  Council  was  aimed  at  the  royal 
practice  of  consulting  unofficial  advisers  and  at  the  practice  of  transact- 
ing State  business  in  Cabinet  meetings  where  no  formal  records  were 
kept.  But  ministers  were  not  inclined  to  accept  the  increased  respon- 
sibility of  attaching  their  names  to  the  measures  which  they  supported, 
and  sovereigns  did  not  care  to  be  bound  to  the  whole  Privy  Council, 
so  the  measure  was  repealed  in  the  reign  of  Anne.  The  provision 
relating  to  officeholders  not  sitting  in  Parliament  was  simply  the  old 
Place  Bill,  to  which  all  the  former  objections  could  be  urged.  It  was 
modified  by  an  Act  of  1705,  which  remains  in  force  today.  That  Act 
provided  that  holders  of  offices  created  after  that  date  should  be  in- 
eligible to  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons, 1  while  a  member  of  the  Lower 
House  appointed  to  an  office  which  existed  earlier  must  resign  his  seat 
and  submit  himself  for  reelection.  The  seventh  provision  merely 
remedied  the  evil  of  appointing  judges  during  the  royal  pleasure,  a 
power  which  the  first  two  Stuarts  had  so  grossly  abused.  The  last 
was  a  legal  confirmation  of  the  attitude  taken  by  Parliament  in  the 
impeachment  of  Danby  in  1678. 

The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  The  Claimants  to  the  Spanish 
Throne.  —  Meantime,  England  had  been  drifting  into  another  great 

line  of  descent,  but  were  both  excluded  because  of  their  Roman  Catholic  faith. 
The  elder  line,  descended  from  James  II,  became  extinct  with  the  death  of  his 
grandson  Henry,  Cardinal  of  York,  in  1807.  The  younger  was  descended  from  the 
sister  of  James  II  who  married  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  It  is  at  present  represented 
by  Mary,  wife  of  the  King  of  Bavaria. 

1  This,  however,  does  not  prevent  Parliament  in  an  act  creating  a  new  office 
from  providing  that  the  incumbent  may  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons. 


COMPLETION  OF  THE   REVOLUTION  645 

continental  war  occasioned  by  a  scramble  for  the  Spanish  inheritance. 
Spain  had  been  nominally  ruled  since  1665  by  Charles  II,  who  had 
ascended  the  throne  as  a  boy  of  four.  In  spite  of  its  vast  European 
and  colonial  possessions,  the  country  was  in  a  state  of  misery  and 
decay,  bankrupt,  and  priest-ridden.  Under  Philip  IV,  Portugal  had 
recovered  her  sovereignty,  and  the  Northern  Provinces  of  the  Nether- 
lands had  secured  the  recognition  of  their  independence.  Charles  II, 
feeble  in  mind  and  body,  had  been  forced  to  yield  Tranche  Comte,  and 
many  border  territories  in  the  Spanish  Netherlands  to  France.  Now 
Louis  XIV  and  the  Emperor  Leopold  I  were  impatiently  waiting  the 
death  of  the  shadow  King  to  seize  the  residue  of  the  monarchy,  the  one 
for  the  House  of  Bourbon,  the  other  for  the  House  of  Hapsburg.  Both 
had  a  claim  on  the  inheritance,  while  still  a  third  claim  was  advanced 
in  behalf  of  Joseph  Ferdinand,  the  infant  son  of  the  elector  of  Bavaria.1 
Since,  in  the  interest  of  the  European  balance  of  power,  neither  England 
nor  Holland  would  consent  to  a  union  of  Spain  either  with  France  or 
the  Empire,  Louis  urged  the  Bourbon  claim  in  behalf  of  his  second 
grandson,  Philip,  while  Leopold  put  in  his  for  his  second  son,  Charles. 
The  First  and  Second  Partition  Treaties,  1698  and  1700.  —  The 
pride  of  the  Spanish  demanded  that  the  monarchy  should  be  handed 
on  intact,  while  a  partition  between  the  claimants  seemed  the  only 
possible  solution  of  the  vexed  question.  The  French  King  played  a 
double  game.  While  his  ambassador,  Harcourt,  was  laboring  at  the 
Spanish  court  to  secure  the  whole  of  the  Spanish  inheritance,  Louis  2 
and  William  negotiated  the  First  Partition  Treaty,3  signed  October, 

i  PHILIP  III 

I 


Louis  XIII  m.  Anna  Maria  PHILIP  IV       Maria  Anne  m.  Ferdinand  III 


Louis  XIV  m.  Maria  Theresa  CHARLES  II     Margaret  m.  Leopold  I  m.  Eleanor  of  New- 

burg,  3d  wife 
Louis 


Louis         Philip    Max  Emanuel  of  Bavaria  m.  Maria  Antonia 
Joseph  Ferdinand 


Joseph 


Both  Louis  XIII  and  Louis  XIV  had  married  elder  daughters  of  Philip  III  and 
Philip  IV,  respectively ;  but  both  Infantas  had  renounced  on.  their  marriage  any 
claim  to  inherit  the  throne  of  Spain.  Louis  XIV,  however,  denied  the  validity  of 
these  renunciations.  Philip  IV  by  will  had  left  the  crown,  in  the  event  of  the 
death  of  Charles  without  issue,  to  the  heirs  of  Margaret.  Their  daughter  Maria 
Antonia,  however,  had  renounced  her  claim  in  favor  of  any  son  that  her  father 
might  have  from  a  subsequent  marriage ;  but  this  step  was  not  recognized  as  legal 
by  the  Spanish. 

2  He  feared  that,  in  case  Harcourt  failed,  William  might  come  to  terms  with  the 
Emperor. 

3  John  Arbuthnot  wrote  a  witty  satire  entitled  The  History  of  John  Bull,  in  which 
he  represented  England  and  Holland  as  a  clothier  and  a  linen  draper  undertaking 
to  settle  the  estate  of  a  bedridden  old  gentleman.      The  name,  now  applied  to  the 
typical  Englishman,  may  be  traced  to  this  work. 


646  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

1698,  whereby  the  Electoral  Prince  of  Bavaria  was  to  have  Spain,  the 
Spanish  Netherlands,  and  the  colonies,  while  the  remainder  of  the 
Spanish  possessions  should  be  divided  between  the  Bourbons  and  the 
Hapsburgs.  The  Emperor,  who  was  to  receive  only  the  Duchy  of 
Milan  by  the  arrangement,  was  indignant  enough  when  the  news 
leaked  out;  but  the  Spanish  were  furious.  "They  will  rather," 
wrote  the  English  ambassador,  "  deliver  themselves  up  to  the  French 
or  the  devil,  so  they  may  all  go  together,  than  be  dismembered."  In 
consequence,  Charles  II,  14  November,  1698,  proceeded  to  confirm  the 
will  of  Philip  IV,  leaving  the  whole  dominion  to  Joseph  Ferdinand. 
This  arrangement,  however,  was  upset  by  the  sudden  death  of  the 
Electoral  Prince,  5  February,  1699,  of  smallpox,  it  was  said,  though 
many  believed  he  was  poisoned.  Thereupon,  a  second  Partition 
Treaty  was  framed  between  England  and  France  which  was  finally 
signed  in  February,  1700.  It  provided  that  Spain,  the  Netherlands, 
and  the  Colonies  should  go  to  the  Archduke  Charles,  while  the  French 
dauphin  was  to  have  Naples,  Sicily,  and  Guipuzcoa.  In  addition, 
France  was  to  receive  Lorraine,  while  the  Duke  of  that  country  was  to 
be  indemnified  with  Milan.  The  Emperor,  who  wanted  the  whole 
Spanish  inheritance  for  his  House,  hung  off. 

King  Charles,  when  the  news  was  communicated  to  him,  "  flew 
into  an  extraordinary  passion,  and  the  Queen,  in  her  rage,  smashed 
to  pieces  everything  in  the  room."  French  diplomacy,  supported 
by  the  Church,  now  worked  so  effectively  upon  him  and  his  advisers 
that  he  signed  a  final  will,  3  October,  1700,  less  than  a  month  before 
his  death,  leaving  all  his  dominions  to  Philip  of  Anjou  on  condition 
that  they  should  never  be  united  to  France.  Louis  forthwith  threw 
over  the  Second  Partition  Treaty. 

The  Impeachment  of  William's  Whig  Ministers,  1701.  —  War 
was  now  inevitable ;  but  it  seemed  at  first  doubtful  whether  William 
could  carry  England  with  him ;  for  the  Tories,  whose  policy  was  peace 
with  France,  were  in  a  majority  in  the  new  Parliament  which  opened 
in  February,  1701.  One  of  their  first  acts  was  to  impeach  Portland, 
Orford,  Halifax,  and  Somers  for  negotiating  the  Partition  Treaties.1 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  William  had  employed  only  Portland,  without 
even  consulting  the  others,  to  whom  he  presented  only  the  barest 
outline  of  the  treaties  for  signature  after  all  the  terms  had  been  settled. 
This  was  the  most  high-handed  action  of  William's  whole  reign ;  but, 
considering  that  the  parliamentary  action  had  reduced  his  standing 
army  to  almost  nothing,  he  had  made  even  better  terms  than  they 
had  a  right  to  expect.  They  overreached  themselves  by  their  parti- 
san zeal,  and  antagonized  the  Lords  by  their  overbearing  demands, 
so  that  all  the  proceedings  had  to  be  dropped. 

1  In  the  case  of  Halifax  and  Somers  other  charges  were  complicated  with  those 
relating  to  their  supposed  share  in  the  Partition  Treaties.  Halifax  was  accused  of 
misuse  of  public  funds,  and  Somers  with  contributing  to  the  expedition  of  the  fa- 
mous Captain  Kidd. 


COMPLETION  OF  THE   REVOLUTION  647 

The  Tories  forced  to  join  the  War  Party.  —  However,  the  realiza- 
tion that  Spain  was  to  be  used  as  a  pawn  in  Louis'  great  game  of  es- 
tablishing the  political  and  commercial  ascendancy  of  France  aroused 
such  a  storm  of  anti-French  wrath  throughout  England  that  even  the 
Tory  House  of  Commons  was  forced  to  join  in  the  cry  for  war.  The 
Spanish  ambassador  at  Paris  first  aroused  disquiet  by  declaring: 
II  n'y  a  plus  de  Pyrenees.1  Then  Louis  showed  his  hand:  in 
December  of  1700  he  declared  that  Philip  by  mounting  the  throne  of 
Spain  did  not  renounce  his  place  in  the  line  of  succession  to  the  crown 
of  France ;  in  February,  1701,  his  troops  took  possession  of  the  barrier 
fortresses  in  the  Spanish  Netherlands;  and  what  touched  the  great 
mercantile  class  in  England  even  more  closely,  he  issued  a  proclama- 
tion that  France  would  be  treated  as  the  most  favored  nation  in  the 
Spanish- American  trade.  A  stream  of  pamphlets  appeared  —  one  of 
them  by  Daniel  Defoe,  later  famous  as  the  author  of  Robinson  Crusoe 
—  unfolding  vehemently  the  dangers  which  threatened  the  country 
and  her  commerce.2  Public  opinion  demanded  immediate  action,  and 
.a  famous  petition  from  Kent,  8  May,  1701,  voiced  the  prevailing  senti- 
ment in  begging  the  Commons  to  "  turn  its  loyal  addresses  into  bills 
of  supply  "  and  to  enable  the  King  "  powerfully  to  assist  his  allies 
before  it  is  too  late."  The  House,  though  it  showed  its  resentment 
of  the  proceeding  and  attempted  to  punish  those  who  introduced  the 
petition,  nevertheless  voted  William  a  generous  sum  for  aiding  his 
allies  to  the  extent  of  waging  war  if  necessary. 

The  Grand  Alliance,  7  September,  1701.  —  In  July,  negotiations 
were  opened,  with  the  result  that  the  treaty  of  the  Hague,  known  as 
the  Grand  Alliance,  was  signed  7  September,  1701.  By  it  the  Spanish 
possessions  in  the  Netherlands  and  Italy  were  to  be  secured  for  the 
House  of  Austria,  while  England  and  Holland  were  to  have  any  con- 
quests which  they  might  make  in  the  western  world.  The  Emperor 
had  hoped  that  the  Allies  would  back  him  in  his  attempt  to  secure  the 
whole  of  the  Spanish  kingdom  for  his  son  Charles ;  but,  for  the  present, 
they  refused  to  go  so  far.  The  general  purposes  of  the  war  were  to 
check  the  growth  of  France,  to  protect  the  Netherlands  by  an  ade- 
quate barrier,  and  to  secure  English  and  Dutch  trade.  With  the 
Emperor  political  considerations  dominated,  while  the  interests  of 
the  English  were  primarily  commercial,  and,  except  for  the  defense 
of  her  borders,  this  was  equally  true  of  Holland. 

The  Death  of  James  II,  6  September,  1701.  —  Although  William 
had  not  heard  of  it  when  he  signed  the  treaty  of  the  Grand  Alliance, 
another  event  had  occurred  which  accentuated  the  growing  hostility 
to  France.  James  II  died  6  September,  and  Louis,  visiting  him  on 
his  deathbed,  promised  solemnly  to  recognize  his  son  as  James  III, 

1  Literally,  "There  are  no  more  Pyrenees,"  meaning   that  henceforth  France 
and  Spain  were  one. 

2  England  did  much  legitimate  business  with  the  Spanish  possessions  in  the  way 
of  carrying  on  trade  and  exchange  of  wares,  and  still  more  smuggling. 


648  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

King  of  England.  William  was  so  affected  by  the  news  that  he  pulled 
his  hat  over  his  face  to  conceal  his  emotions.  In  a  splendid  speech, 
the  last  he  ever  made  to  Parliament,  he  emphasized  eloquently  the 
danger  which  this  recognition  involved  to  the  Protestant  religion  and 
to  the  "  present  and  future  tranquillity  and  happiness  of  the  country." 
The  Houses,  in  reply,  begged  him  to  insert  a  provision  in  the  treaty 
that  no  peace  would  be  made  without  a  further  guarantee  of  the  Prot- 
estant succession;  they  voted  an  army  of  40,000  soldiers,  together 
with  an  equal  force  for  the  fleet,  and,  early  in  1702,  passed  an  Abjura- 
tion Bill.  It  attainted  the  son  of  James  of  high  treason,  made  it 
treasonable  to  have  any  dealings  with  him,  and  imposed  a  new  oath 
on  certain,  classes,  acknowledging  William  as  the  rightful  heir  and 
lawful  King  and  abjuring  the  Pretender. 

Death  of  William,  8  March,  1702.  —  William  did  not  live  to  open 
the  spring  campaign ;  the  great  work  which  he  had  begun  was  taken 
up  and  carried  to  a  splendid  fulfillment  by  Marlborough,  who  had 
once  sought  to  betray  him.  All  through  the  winter  of  1701  William 
was  steadily  failing  in  health.  On  20  February,  1702,  as  he  was 
riding  in  Hampton  Court  Park,  his  favorite  horse,  Sorrel,1  stumbled 
and  threw  him  to  the  ground.  He  never  recovered  from  the  shock, 
and  died,  8  March.  Although  he  had  come  to  England  as  a  deliverer, 
he  had  never  been  popular  with  the  mass  of  his  subjects.  His  faults 
of  temper,  his  dislike  of  the  country  and  the  people,  his  weak  health 
and  engrossing  occupations,  which  gave  him  little  opportunity  to 
cultivate  his  subjects,  go  far  to  account  for  this.  But  the  explanation 
lies  even  deeper.  In  order  to  concentrate  his  resources  for  his  supreme 
task  —  that  of  frustrating  the  designs  of  France  —  he  labored  to 
maintain  a  strong  executive  at  a  time  when  the  tendency  was  toward 
increased  parliamentary  control.  Many  of  the  chief  constitutional 
reforms  of  the  reign,  such  as  the  Triennial  Act,  the  Act  regulating 
Treason  Trials,  and  the  Act  of  Settlement,  not  only  did  not  originate 
with  him,  but  were  only  accepted  by  him  as  inevitable  concessions. 
The  Public  Debt  and  the  Bank,  though  occasioned  by  his  financial 
necessities,  were  the  work  of  others.  He  directed  his  own  foreign 
policy  without  consulting  his  ministers  any  more  than  he  was  abso- 
lutely obliged  to  ;  he  was  opposed  to  the  Whigs  and  to  parliamentary 
inquiry ;  and  he  struggled  throughout  his  reign  for  a  standing  army 
and  an  independent  revenue,  commonly  regarded  as  the  instruments 
of  despotism.  Yet  his  merits  and  achievements  were  great.  Men 
who  did  not  love  him  respected  his  courage  and  his  steadfastness. 
He  forced  the  Act  of  Grace  on  the  angry  and  revengeful  Whigs,  he 
was  largely  responsible  for  the  Toleration  Act,  and  he  was  the  first 
to  put  into  operation  the  system  of  party  government.  Finally, 
though  he  did  not  appreciate  what  was  to  come,  his  expulsion  of  the 
Stuarts  made  possible  the  great  Revolution  Settlement  which  so  pro- 

1  Curiously  enough,  a  horse  which  had  once  been  owned  by  Fenwick. 


COMPLETION  OF  THE   REVOLUTION  649 

foundly  affected  the  subsequent  development  of  the  English  Constitu- 
tion, and  his  wars  with  France  prepared  the  way  for  Great  Britain's 
commercial  and  colonial  supremacy. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Lodge,  chs.  XVII-XIX.  Macaulay,  IV,  chs.  XVII  ff.  V.  Ranke,  V., 
bks.  XX,  XXI. 

Special.  C.  F.  Dunbar,  Theory  and  History  of  Banking  (2  ed.,  O.  M.  W.  Sprague, 
1901),  ch.  XI;  an  excellent  brief  account  of  the  Bank  of  England.  A.  Andreades, 
History  of  the  Bank  of  England  (tr.  C.  Meredith,  1909). 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  241-243.  Robertson, 
Select  Statutes,  pt.  I,  nos.  XVIII-XX. 

For  further  references,  see  ch.  XXXVI  above. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

THE    END    OF    THE    STUART    DYNASTY.     ANNE    (1702-1714) 

The  Character  of  Anne.  —  Anne  was  thirty-seven  years  old  when 
she  succeeded  William,  8  March,  1702.  Naturally  meek  and  sluggish 
and  of  a  limited  understanding,  she  was  incapable  of  dealing  inde- 
pendently with  the  great  problems  at  home  and  abroad  which  confronted 
her.  She  had  strong  prejudices  and  warm  affections,  she  allowed  her 
friends  to  influence  her,  and,  like  her  father,  obstinately  regarded 
those  who  disagreed  with  her  as  unworthy  of  all  confidence.  Her 
life  was  full  of  unhappiness  and  illusions.  Her  mother  died  when  she 
was  six  years  old,  religious  differences  estranged  her  from  her  father, 
the  designs  of  unscrupulous  intriguers  alienated  her  from  William 
and  Mary,  while  necessity  forced  her  to  support  the  party  whose 
political  and  religious  principles  were  absolutely  antagonistic  to  her 
own.  Nor  could  she  have  been  more,  unfortunate  in  her  closest  as- 
sociates. Prince  George  of  Denmark,  whom  she  married  as  a  girl  of 
eighteen,  was  a  kindly  gentleman  who  either  had  no  capacity  or 
lacked  the  force  to  assert  it,  and  who,  as  the  years  went  on,  did  little 
but  grow  fat  and  become  more  and  more  addicted  to  his  bottle.  Sarah 
Jennings  (wife  of  John  Churchill,  Earl  of  Marlborough) ,  with  whom, 
as  a  girl,  she  had  contracted  the  most  intimate  of  friendships,  gained 
a  complete  ascendancy  over  her,  which  lasted  well  into  the  new  reign. 
Waiving  the  formalities  of  royalty,  the  favorite,  under  the  name  of 
Mrs.  Freeman,  addressed  her  nominal  mistress  as  Mrs.  Morley. 
Sarah  was  a  beautiful  and  capable,  but  a  designing,  avaricious  woman. 
Utterly  without  scruple,  her  interests  were  thoroughly  bound  up  with 
those  of  her  husband,  though  she  often  quarreled  with  him,  as  she 
did  with  every  one  who  came  within  range  of  her  shrewish  tongue. 
Yet,  while  she  embittered  all  Anne's  family  relationships  and  fomented 
party  strife,  her  efforts  to  advance  her  family  contributed  greatly  to 
the  triumph  which  England  achieved  in  the  war  about  to  open. 

Her  Relation  to  Parties  and  to  her  People.  —  Anne  abhorred  fac- 
tion ;  but  she  was  passionately  devoted  to  the  Church,1  and  she  hated 
the  Whigs,  whom  she  regarded  as  hostile  alike  to  the  Establishment 
and  to  the  prerogative.  This  led  her  to  meddle  busily  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  government,  to  attend  cabinet  councils  and  debates  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  to  assert  herself  in  appointments  of  Church 

1  She  wrote  to  Mary  in  1688  that "  she  would  rather  live  on  alms  than  change  her 
religion." 

650 


THE   END   OF  THE   STUART  DYNASTY  651 

and  State  officials.  Thus  she  came  into  sharp  conflict  with  the  grow- 
ing tendency  toward  party  government.  Her  activity,  however,  was 
confined  largely  to  politics.  She  took  little  interest  in  the  learning 
and  literature  of  the  period.  Nor  did  she  care  for  art,  either  in  build- 
ing, painting,  or  music.  All  in  all,  however,  she  was  popular.  Never 
a  beauty,  she  grew  very  fat  in  her  last  years ;  but  she  had  a  comfort- 
able, placid  appearance ;  she  was  very  amiable,  until  the  persecution 
of  Mrs.  Freeman  made  her  suspicious  and  irritable ;  her  domestic 
life  was  beyond  criticism ;  and  the  fact  that  she  was  a  woman  always 
appealed  to  the  mass  of  her  subjects.  Then,  too,  she  was  generous 
and  charitable.1  More  important  still,  she  represented  the  cause  of 
Protestantism  against  the  Pretender,  while  she  supported  the  con- 
tinental war  until  the  zeal  of  her  subjects  was  spent,  until  they  began 
to  grumble  over  the  expense  and  to  ask  themselves  what  they  were 
getting  in  return  for  all  they  had  done  for  the  allies. 

The  Tories.  —  While  Anne's  prejudices,  worked  upon  by  "  court 
intrigues  and  faction,"  played  a  great  part  in  the  history  of  the  reign, 
the  two  great  parties  came  to  exercise  a  steadily  increasing  influence. 
The  Tories,  composed  largely  of  the  most  conservative  element  in 
the  realm  —  the  squirearchy  and  the  country  parsons  —  set  them- 
selves obstinately  against  the  changes  which  followed  in  the  wake  of 
the  Revolution.  They  were  opposed  bitterly  to  toleration  for  Dis- 
senters as  a  serious  menace  to  true*  religion ;  to  the  National  Debt 
and  the  Bank,  which  tended  to  enhance  the  power  of  the  moneyed  classes 
over  the  landed;  and  to  a  standing  army  raised  primarily  against 
the  monarch  who  sheltered  their  true  king.  The  great  Whig  lords 
were  abominable  in  their  eyes ;  since  many  of  them  were  new  men, 
not  a  few  sprung  from  trading  and  dissenting  stock,  and  most  of 
them  allied  with  that  class.  The  Whig  bishops  and  Low  Churchmen 
they  classed  as  free  thinkers  or  Presbyterians.  Many  who  did  not 
love  going  to  church  enjoyed  pulling  down  Dissenting  meeting  houses ; 
indeed  the  religion  of  this  sort  consisted  chiefly  in  hating  their  op- 
ponents, in  which  class  they  included  Huguenot  and  Lutheran 
refugees,  who  furnished  more  recruits  for  their  opponents  and  who 
seemed  to  them  all  the  more  odious  from  the  fact  that  they  brought 
new  industries  into  the  country.  "  Trade,"  they  cried,  "  would  be 
the  ruin  of  the  English  nation."  Although  the  majority  were  stanch 
supporters  of  the  existing  sovereign  against  the  Pretender,  they  were 
seriously  handicapped  from  the  fact  that,  in  principle,  they  still  ad- 
hered to  their  anti-Revolutionary  doctrines,  a  fact  which  caused  their 
loyalty  to  Anne  and  the  Hanoverian  succession  to  be  seriously  doubted. 

1  One  of  the  lasting  monuments  of  her  reign  is  Queen  Anne's  Bounty.  As  a 
means  of  augmenting  the  incomes  of  the  poor  clergy  she  furthered  a  measure,  which 
passed  in  the  session  of  1703-1704,  for  devoting  to  this  purpose  the  tenths  and  the 
annates  which  Henry  VIII  had  appropriated  for  the  Crown.  At  that  time  amount- 
ing to  only  £14,000,  it  has  since  been  increased  by  parliamentary  grants  and  private 
donations  until  it  now  amounts  to  several  millions. 


652  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Whigs.  —  The  Whigs,  made  up  of  the  great  lords,  the  bulk  of 
bishops  and  town  clergy,  the  Nonconformists,  the  army  men,  trie 
merchants,  the  financiers,  and  the  small  freeholders,  were,  in  general, 

—  although  their  practice  did  not  always  accord  with  their  principles * 
—  the  party  of  progress,  of  popular  as  distinct  from  class  interests, 

favoring  the  growth  of  commerce  and  toleration  and  the  limitation  of 
the  prerogative.  While  they  carried  the  war  too  far  and  had  to  yield 
to  their  opponents  the  credit  —  such  as  it  was  —  of  the  peace,  they 
achieved  notable  results.  They  broke  up  the  great  combination  be- 
tween France  and  Spain  and  all  the  dangers  which  it  might  have  in- 
volved to  national  independence,  Protestantism,  and  freedom  of  trade. 
They  secured  the  Dutch  by  an  adequate  barrier  and  the  transference 
of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  checked  France's  expansion  in  the 
Mediterranean  by  lopping  off  her  Italian  possessions.  For  England 
the  Whigs  secured  important  possessions  in  the  New  World  and  a 
share  in  western  trade  as  well  as  Gibraltar,  the  key  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean. The  union  with  Scotland  and  the  peaceful  accession  of  the  Han- 
overians, with  all  that  was  involved,  were  also  the  work  of  the  Whigs. 
The  Resources  of  France  and  the  Allies  at  the  Opening  of  the  War. 

—  On  4  May,  1702,  the  Allies  at  London,  the  Hague,  and  Vienna  all 
declared  war  on  France,  while  the  Imperial  General  had  already  begun 
fighting  in  Italy  during  the  previous  year.     In  many  respects  Louis 
XIV  seemed  to  have  even  greater  advantages  than  in  the  previous 
struggle.     Not  only  was  he  fighting  on  inside  lines,  but  his  flanks  were 
guarded  by  Spain  on  the  south  and  by  the  fortresses  in  the  Nether- 
lands on  the  north,  while  his  alliance  with  the  Elector  of  Bavaria 
thrust  a  wedge  between  the  Dutch  and  the  Austrians.     He  had  an 
army  of  400,000  men  well  disciplined  and  full  of  confidence.     His 
fleet  numbered  no  men-of-war,  of  which  60  carried  104  guns  apiece. 
He  had  a  revenue  of  100,000,000  livres.     On  the  other  hand,  the  tre- 
mendous strain  due  to  the  expenses  of  the  "  Sun  King's  "  magnificent 
court  and  his  constant  wars  had  begun  to  tell.     His  debts  were  so 
enormous  that  he  could  only  borrow  money  at  1 5  to  20  per  cent,  and 
it  took  half  his  annual  revenue  to  pay  the  interest.     Of  the  Allies, 
Holland  had  a  small  army  but  a  strong  fleet  and  extensive  public 
credit,  while  the  Emperor,  who  could  furnish  large  contingents,  had 
no  money  to  pay  them.     The  burden  of  the  war  fell  more  and  more 
on  the  English.     When  it  opened,  they  had  a  fleet  of  174  men-of-war, 
24  of  them  carrying  no  guns  each,  besides  numerous  fireships  and 
gunboats,  "  yachts  "  as  they  were  called.     Their  standing  army  con- 
sisted of  only  7000  troops  in  England  and  12,000  in  Ireland,  though 
adequate  forces  were  soon  equipped  and  sent  into  the  field.    The 
total  debt  was  £17,500,000;  but  £6,750,000  of  this  was  funded2  and 

1  This  was  more  especially  true  during  their  long  tenure  of  power  later  in  the 
century. 

2  That  is,  put  on  a  permanent  footing  with  the  interest  guaranteed  by  special 
taxes. 


THE   END   OF -THE   STUART  DYNASTY  653 

money  could  be  borrowed  at  6  per  cent.  Though  the  annual  revenue 
was  only  £2,400,000,  this  was  speedily  swelled  by  extraordinary  sup- 
plies. On  the  other  hand,  though  the  Tories  at  first  supported  the 
war,  party  strife  soon  became  acute,  while  the  Allies,  who  had  nothing 
in  common  but  the  desire  to  crush  France,  were  torn  by  conflicting 
interests. 

General  Features  of  the  War.  —  There  were  four  main  theaters  of 
war :  the  Dutch  border ;  the  valley  of  the  Danube,  which  commanded 
the  road  to  Vienna ;  the  Po  valley,  the  key  to  southern  France ;  and 
Spain,  where  Philip  V  had  been  set  up  as  King.  William  had  been 
unable  to  recover  any  of  the  ground  gained  by  Louis  during  the  long 
years  of  his  aggression,  and  it  seemed  impossible  to  succeed  where  he 
had  failed.  Nevertheless,  the  Allies  drove  the  French  out  of  Ger- 
many in  1704,  out  of  Italy  in  1706,  and  out  of  the  Netherlands  in  the 
years  from  1706  to  1708.*  This  was  due  to  their  two  remarkable 
leaders,  Maryborough  and  Prince  Eugene ; 2  to  the  invaluable  lessons 
which  the  allied  troops  had  learned  from  their  defeats  under  William ; 
and  to  the  diminished  French  resources,  caused  by  Louis'  dazzling 
but  costly  conquests.  At  sea,  while  there  were  no  noteworthy  battles, 
the  English  naval  supremacy  over  France  was  carried  a  stage  further, 
and  a  permanent  foothold  was  secured  in  the  Mediterranean. 

Marlborough  and  Godolphin.  —  In  spite  of  Marlborough's  at- 
tempted treason,  William,  recognizing  his  remarkable  military  and 
diplomatic  ability,  had  employed  him  in  the  negotiations  leading  up 
to  the  Grand  Alliance.  Now,  owing  to  the  influence  of  his  wife,  he 
was  made  Captain-General  of  the  English  forces,3  while  the  Dutch 
made  him  Commander-in-Chief  of  their  army  as  well.4  He  fought 
nobly  for  England  in  court  and  camp ;  but  he  was  so  consumed  with 
ambition  and  so  sordid  in  his  love  of  money  that  one  is  bound  to  be- 
lieve that  with  him  personal  considerations  counted  more  than  love 
of  country.  Otherwise,  unless  the  loftiest  and  most  misguided  of 
patriots,  it  is  difficult  to  explain  why  he  later  sacrificed  his  self-respect 
and  the  interests  of  his  party  to  remain  in  office.  But  if  he  was  a 
base,  he  was  a  splendid  figure ;  his  beauty,  his  charm  of  manner,  his 
tact  and  patience  made  him  irresistible.  And  he  had  many  virtues 
besides ;  he  was  a  devoted  husband  and  father,  he  was  sincere  in  his 
religious  beliefs,  and  he  was  humane  in  war.  As  a  general,  in  planning 
campaigns  and  in  conducting  battles  and  sieges,  he  showed  a  courage 
and  energy,  a  boldness  tempered  with  caution,  and  gained  a  degree 

1  Indeed  it  was  only  in  Spain  that  they  failed  to  gain  ground. 

2  Eugene  was  of  the  ducal  House  of  Savoy.     He  was  a  son  of  the  Count  of  Sois- 
sons  and  had  begun  his  military  career  in  France.     In  1683,  at  the  age  of  twenty, 
after  Louis  XIV  refused  him  a  command,  he  fled  the  country,  took  service  under 
Leopold,  and  became  the  most  brilliant  Imperial  commander  of  the  century. 

3  Prince  George  had  the  nominal  command  as  Generalissimo  and  Lord  High 
Admiral. 

4  William  left  no  one  to  succeed  him  as  Stadholder,  and  the  Grand  Pensionary 
Heinsius  succeeded  to  the  control  of  civil  and  military  affairs. 


654  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  success  which  no  English  general  has  ever  equaled.  In  his  di- 
plomacy, brilliant  as  it  was,  he  made  the  ultimate  mistake  of  pressing 
Louis  too  far,  possibly  because  he  wanted  to  continue  the  war  for  his 
own  glory,  possibly  because  'he  honestly  felt  that  there  could  be  no 
safety  for  Europe  until  his  opponent  was  absolutely  crushed.  Sid- 
ney Godolphin,  who,  as  Lord  Treasurer,  provided  funds  for  his  cam- 
paigns, was  in  many  respects  a  very  unedifying  person.  He  was  known 
as  "  Baconface  "  from  his  heavy  features ;  he  had  no  gifts  as  an  orator 
and  no  love  for  culture,  spending  his  leisure  in  drinking,  card  playing, 
cockfighting,  and  horse  racing.  He  was  timid  and  cautious,  and  a 
timeserver,  who  did  not  hesitate  even  at  treasonable  intrigue  to  secure 
his  personal  safety.  On  the  other  hand,  he  had  a  remarkable  knowl- 
edge of  trade  and  finance  and  was  so  honest  that  he  died  a  poor  man. 

Their  Relation  to  Parties.  —  Both  Marlborough  and  Godolphin 
started  as  moderate  Tories ;  but  as  that  party  cooled  in  its  warlike 
zeal  and  lost  control  of  the  Commons,1  they  threw  themselves  on  the 
support  of  the  Whigs.  This  brought  them  into  conflict  with  Anne, 
while  the  violence  of  Mrs.  Freeman,  who  became  a  furious  Whig 
partisan,  only  widened  the  breach.  It  was  a  period  of  transition 
from  ministers  who  were  individually  servants  of  the  Crown  to  the 
system  under  which  they  became  a  united  body,  collectively  respon- 
sible to  Parliament.  Marlborough  originally  wanted  to  carry  on 
the  government  with  the  aid  of  the  moderate  men  of  both  parties ; 
later,  when  his  Whig  supporters  were  forced  out  he  sought  to  hold  on 
regardless  of  that  fact.  Thus  he  made  the  mistake  of  going  too  far 
against  the  old  system  without  going  far  enough  in  the  direction  of 
the  new.  It  was  only  his  great  victories  and  the  division  among  his 
opponents  that  enabled  him  to  remain  in  control  as  long  as  he  did. 

The  Campaign  of  1702. — Marlborough,  who  took  command  in 
the  Netherlands  in  1702,  was  so  hampered  by  the  Dutch  field  deputies 
that  he  was  unable  to  bring  on  a  pitched  battle  during  this  or  the  fol- 
lowing year.  It  must  be  said  for  the  Dutch  that,  primarily  concerned 
with  the  defense  of  their  own  borders,  they  realized  that  a  single  de- 
feat might  expose  them  to  disastrous  invasion.  Marlborough 's  efforts 
during  the  years  1702  and  1703  were  not  wasted,  however;  for  he 
succeeded  in  forcing  the  French  back  along  the  roads  in  the  Spanish 
Netherlands  and  the  Rhine  country  by  which  they  might  strike  at 
the  Dutch  from  the  southeast  and  east.  At  sea,  the  English  began, 
in  1702,  by  sending  a  combined  naval  and  land  force  to  take  Cadiz, 
an  attempt  in  which  they  failed,  largely  owing  to  dissensions  between 
the  admiral,  Sir  George  Rooke,  and  the  Duke  of  Ormonde,  who  com- 
manded the  troops.  On  its  way  home  the  expedition  partly  retrieved 
itself  by  an  attack  on  a  convoy  of  French  and  Spanish  warships  which 
were  guarding  the  unloading  of  the  plate  fleet  in  Vigo  Bay ;  for,  though 
they  lost  most  of  the  treasure,  they  inflicted  great  damage  on  the  enemy. 

1  Of  the  five  parliaments  elected  during  the  reign  three  were  Tory :  1702-1705, 
1710-1713,  1713-1714;  and  two  were  Whig:  1705-1708,  1708-1710. 


THE   END   OF  THE   STUART   DYNASTY  055 

Progress  of  the  War  in  1703.  — As  a  result,  Portugal  joined  the 
Grand  Alliance  in  the  following  year,  thus  furnishing  a  basis  of  opera- 
tions against  Spain.  By  the  Methuen  Treaty,  concluded  between 
Portugal  and  England,  English  woolens  were  admitted  into  Portugal, 
and  the  duty  on  Portuguese  wines  was  reduced  to  one  third  less  than 
those  from  France  —  a  treaty  responsible  for  much  of  the  gout  of 
succeeding  generations  of  Englishmen.  The  elections  of  the  summer 
of  1702  had  brought  back,  with  a  strong  majority,  the  Tories,  who 
showed  their  partisan  spirit  by  reflecting  on  the  memory  of  William 
in  a  vote  that  Marlboro  ugh  had  "  signally  retrieved  the  honor  and 
glory  of  the  English  nation."  In  the  campaign  of  1703,  the  interest 
centered  in  an  attempt  of  the  French  in  conjunction  with  Bavarians 
to  make  a  dash  on  Vienna.  It  miscarried,  owing  to  the  supineness 
of  the  Elector,  but  the  danger  remained  critical ;  for  the  French 
generals  gained  decided  successes  in  western  Germany,  while  the 
Emperor  had  to  face  a  rising  of  the  Hungarian  Protestants  led  by 
Prince  Rakoczy.  Added  to  this,  Leopold  was  so  poor  that  he  had 
to  coin  the  plate  in  the  churches  to  pay  and  equip  his  troops.  During 
the  winter  the  Elector  aroused  himself  sufficiently  to  capture  Passau 
on  the  Danube.  The  Empire  seemed  lost  to  the  Allies  unless  a  decisive 
blow  could  be  struck. 

Maryborough's  Campaign  of  1704.  —  In  the  face  of  the  crisis  Marl- 
borough  framed  and  executed  a  daring  plan  which  marked  the  turning 
point  in  the  war.  This  was  to  march  down  to  the  Danube  and  relieve 
the  Imperial  capital  by  defeating  the  combined  French  and  Bavarian 
armies.  Realizing  that  the  Dutch  would  never  consent  to  leave  their 
frontier  thus  exposed  and  that  Louis  would  forestall  him  if  the  secret 
leaked  out,  he  took  no  one  into  his  confidence,  except  the  Queen  and 
Godolphin,1  and  gave  out  to  the  Grand  Pensionary  that  he  was  going 
to  operate  along  the  Moselle.  Leaving  a  portion  of  his  forces  to  guard 
the  Netherlands,  he  marched  rapidly  up  the  Rhine,  followed  by  the 
incompetent  Villeroy,  who  was  completely  in  the  dark  as  to  his  move- 
ments. Crossing  the  river  after  he  had  passed  the  Moselle,  he  struck 
southeast  into  Wiirtemburg,  where,  late  in  June,  he  held  a  conference 
with  Prince  Eugene  whom  he  left  to  hold  the  Rhine  against  Villeroy, 
halting  uncertainly  on  the  left  bank,  and  joined  forces  with  the  Mar- 
grave of  Baden.  Thence  he  proceeded  to  cross  the  Danube  at  Donau- 
worth,  while  the  Elector,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  dispute  his  passage, 
retreated  to  Augsburg.  Marlborough  was  now  between  the  enemy 
and  Vienna  with  Bavaria  at  his  mercy.  He  at  once  began  to  ravage 
and  burn,  though,  as  he  wrote  his  wife,  it  was  so  contrary  to  his  dis- 
position that  nothing  but  absolute  necessity  could  bring  him  to  con- 
sent to  it.  The  Elector,  who  was  joined  at  Augsburg  by  a  large  French 
contingent  under  Tallard,  refused  to  save  his  people  by  giving  up  his 
alliance  with  Louis  XIV. 

1  It  is  possible,  however,  that  he  took  Prince  Eugene  into  his  confidence  as  early 
as  the  winter  of  1 703-1 704. 


656  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

The  Battle  of  Blenheim,  13  August,  1704.  —  Marlborough,  in  danger 
of  being  cut  off  from  his  communications  and  his  bases  of  supply,  saw 
that  the  time  had  now  come  to  risk  a  battle.  So,  leaving  the  Mar- 
grave to  besiege  Ingoldstadt,  he  quietly  recrossed  to  the  northern 
bank  of  the  Danube,  n  August,  where  he  effected  a  junction  with 
Prince  Eugene,  who  had  dropped  back  from  the  Rhine.  Meantime, 
the  Elector  and  Tallard,  thinking  that  they  had  only  Eugene  to  deal 
with,  left  their  strong  position  and  crossed  the  river  in  their  turn, 
with  the  design  of  destroying  the  magazines  of  the  Allies  at  Nordlingen 
and  Nuremburg.  On  the  i2th,  Marlborough  and  Eugene  from  a 
village  church  tower  saw  the  enemy  pitching  their  tents  between  the 
villages  of  Blenheim  and  Lutzingen.1  Here  in  a  strong  position 
behind  the  little  river  Nebel,  which  flows  into  the  Danube,  the  com- 
bined French  and  Bavarian  forces  were  attacked,  13  August,  by  the 
allied  commanders.  Tallard,  whom  Marlborough  cooped  up  between 
the  Nebel  and  the  Danube,  was  taken  prisoner,  though  the  Elector  who 
faced  Eugene  managed  to  escape  with  a  considerable  portion  of  his 
forces.  The  Allies,  at  a  cost  of  12,000  men,  destroyed  14,000  of  the 
enemy  and  took  11,000  prisoners.  It  was,  as  Marlborough  wrote  his 
wife  in  the  gathering  darkness,  "  a  glorious  victory."  The  spell 
which  had  so  long  seemed  to  render  the  French  arms  irresistible  had 
at  last  been  broken.  As  a  more  immediate  result,  the  Empire  had 
been  saved.  Though  Marlborough  was  not  in  condition  to  run  down 
and  crush  the  fugitives,  Villeroy,  who  came  to  their  aid,  was  obliged 
to  recross  the  Rhine,  and,  before  the  close  of  November,  the  Elector 
had  agreed  to  a  treaty  by  which  Bavaria  was  made  subject  to  Imperial 
authority.  Before  returning  home  for  the  winter,  Marlborough  made 
a  journey  to  Berlin,  where  he  secured  from  the  King  of  Prussia  an  army 
of  8000  men  for  the  coming  year. 

The  Capture  of  Gibraltar,  1704.  —  Meantime,  nine  days  before  the 
Battle  of  Blenheim,  an  event  had  happened  on  the  coast  of  Spain  in 
consequence  of  which  Great  Britain  controls  the  entrance  to  the 
Mediterranean  to-day.  Sir  George  Rooke,  returning  home  after 
failing  both  to  capture  Barcelona  and  to  engage  a  French  fleet  which 
had  come  round  from  Brest  to  join  the  Toulon  squadron,  fell  in 
with  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel.  Finding  the  commanding  stronghold  of 
Gibraltar  was  almost  undefended  —  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  had  a  garri- 
son of  only  eighty  men  —  they  sent  a  force  ashore  to  whom  the  gov- 
ernor surrendered,  4  August,  1704. 

The  Reception  of  the  News  in  England.  —  The  news  of  Blenheim 
was,  of  course,  received  in  England  with  transports  of  joy.  It  was  the 
first  great  victory  on  land  which  the  English  had  won  against  the 
French  in  three  hundred  years.  The  days  of  Crecy,  Poitiers,  and  Agin- 
court  were,  it  seemed,  to  be  repeated,  and  Louis  XIV,  who  had  so  long 
lorded  it  over  Europe,  was  to  be  brought  to  his  knees.  Anne,  7  Sep- 

1  Hochstadt,  after  which  the  French  name  the  battle,  lies  farther  to  the  west. 


THE  END   OF   THE   STUART   DYNASTY  657 

tember,  went  in  state  to  St.  Paul's  to  return  solemn  thanks  to  the 
Almighty.  Marlborough  was  greeted  when  he  arrived  in  December 
with  fervent  demonstrations.  The  Queen,  supported  by  an  address 
begging  that  measures  might  be  taken  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 
the  conqueror,  granted  him  the  manor  of  Woodstock  and  other  Crown 
lands  and  commissioned  the  architect  Vanbrugh  to  erect  a  castle, 
which  is  still  known  as  Blenheim.1  The  Duke's  head,  however,  was 
far  from  being  turned.  He  knew  that  the  Tories  were  murmuring 
at  the  cost  of  the  war  and  seeking  to  disparage  his  triumph.  Indeed, 
Parliament  congratulated  her  Majesty  in  a  single  sentence  upon  his 
victory  and  that  of  Rooke,  while  his  detractors,  so  the  Duchess  in- 
formed him,  insisted  that,  in  view  of  the  French  King's  resources,  it 
amounted  to  no  more  than  taking  a  bucket  of  water  from  a  river. 
This  factional  spirit  wrung  from  him  bitter  complaints.  During  the 
session,  charges  were  brought  against  the  Ministers  for  "  mismanage- 
ment of  the  navy  "  and  "  extravagance  in  conducting  the  war." 

The  Allies  gain  a  Foothold  in  Spain,  1705.  —  In  spite  of  sharp  party 
differences,  Parliament  made  generous  grants.  It  seemed  as  if  France 
could  not  stand  the  financial  strain  much  longer :  her  commerce  was 
all  but  destroyed ;  her  manufactures  were  languishing  for  want  of 
markets ;  the  country  apparently  could  bear  no  more  taxation ;  and 
the  bankers  would  lend  no  more  money.  Yet,  by  heroic  exertions 
and  by  various  shifts,  three  armies  were  sent  into  the  field  for  the  cam- 
paign of  1705,  one  to  Luxembourg  on  the  northeast  frontier,  one  to 
the  Netherlands,  and  one  to  guard  the  Rhine.  Marlborough,  who, 
notwithstanding  his  brilliant  success  of  the  previous  year,  was  still 
held  in  by  the  timid  field  deputies,  could  do  nothing  but  mark  time. 
In  Spain,  after  war  had  been  waged  for  some  time  on  the  Portuguese 
frontier  with  no  decisive  results,  the  Allies,  late  in  the  year,  gained 
their  first  signal  success  in  quite  another  part  of  the  country.  A 
naval  expedition  was  sent  out,  at  Marlborough's  suggestion,  to  aid 
the  Duke  of  Savoy,  who  had  joined  the  Grand  Alliance  in  1703.  The 
land  forces  were  under  the  command  of  the  Earl  of  Peterborough, 
the  most  eccentric  and  adventurous  character  of  the  age  —  a  belated 
knight-errant,  in  fact.  The  Archduke  Charles,  whom  the  Allies  had 
named  as  King  when  Portugal  passed  over  to  their  side  two  years  be- 
fore, and  who  had  landed  at  Lisbon  the  year  following,  was  taken  on 
board.  Rather  against  his  will,  Peterborough  was  induced  to  make  an 
attempt  on  Barcelona  and  succeeded  in  capturing  the  city,  14  Sep- 
tember, 1705.  This  was  followed  by  the  submission  of  the  whole 
province  of  Catalonia  and  parts  of  the  adjoining  Aragon.  The  Arch- 
duke was  formally  proclaimed  as  King  Charles  III.  Meantime,  his 
feeble  and  ineffective  father,  Leopold,  had  died.  Joseph,  who  suc- 
ceeded as  Emperor,  was  able  and  energetic.  He  at  once  set  about  to 
reform  the  Imperial  administration,  and,  with  the  aid  of  Marlborough, 

1  At  the  end  of  the  campaign  of  1702  he  had  been  made  a  duke  and  given  a  pen- 
sion of  £5000  a  year  for  life. 

2TJ 


658  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

whom  he  created  a  Prince  of  the  Empire,1  planned  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign for  the  year  1706. 

A  Whig  Parliament,  October,  1705,  to  April,  1708.  — The  summer 
elections  had  gone  in  favor  of  the  Whigs,  largely  owing  to  the  growing 
enthusiasm  for  the  war  which  the  Tories  were  ceasing  to  support 
with  the  ardor  that  they  had  shown  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign.  The 
Queen,  who  obstinately  regarded  a  Whig  "  as  a  Republican  and  an 
atheist,"  opposed  every  one  that  was  introduced  into  the  Ministry; 
but  owing  to  the  domineering  Sarah  and  the  war  fever,  she  gave  way 
in  each  case,  until  at  the  end  of  three  years  not  a  single  Tory  was  left. 
A  series  of  quarrels  resulted  which  in  the  end  left  the  Queen  hopelessly 
estranged  from  her  old  favorite,  and  she  seized  the  earliest  opportunity, 
though  it  did  not  come  till  1710,  to  restore  the  party  whose  views  of 
government  in  Church  and  State  coincided  with  her  own.  Meantime, 
the  Whigs  were  to  attain  great  results  and  the  Tories  to  meet  with 
serious  reverses. 

The  Regency  Bill,  1705-1706.  —  Perhaps  their  worst  blunder  was  a 
motion  that,  in  order  to  insure  the  safety  of  the  Protestant  succession, 
the  Electress  Sophia  should  be  invited  to  reside  in  England.  Since 
Anne  was  as  morbidly  sensitive  on  this  subject  as  Queen  Elizabeth  had 
been,  they  had  hoped  to  put  the  Whigs  in  a  quandary.  If  they  op- 
posed the  motion,  they  ran  a  chance  of  offending  the  Hanoverians.  If 
they  adopted  it,  they  would  certainly  distress  the  Queen,  who  could  not 
but  regard  the  residence  of  her  successor  in  the  country  as  a  perpetual 
reminder  of  death.  They  skillfully  eluded  the  trap  by  framing  a  Re- 
gency Bill  which  provided  that,  on  the  death  of  the  Queen,  the  govern- 
ment should  be  carried  on  until  the  arrival  of  her  lawful  successor  by  a 
regency  composed  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, and  other  great  officers  of  State,  with  the  addition  of  certain  per- 
sons named  by  the  next  successor  and  sent  in  a  sealed  list  not  to  be 
opened  till  the  death  of  the  sovereign.  The  bill  received  the  royal 
signature  in  February,  1706. 

Marlborough's  Gains  in  the  Netherlands,  1706.  —  The  Queen's 
speech  in  opening  the  first  session  of  her  Whig  Parliament  was  notable 
for  the  declaration  "  that  nothing  short  of  Philip's  resigning  the 
Spanish  monarchy  would  content  this  country,"  thus  for  the  first 
time  giving  her  royal  sanction  to  the  candidacy  of  Charles.  A  vic- 
tory was  essential  to  Louis,  and  the  vain  and  foolish  Villeroy  started 
for  the  Netherlands,  bent  on  obeying  his  sovereign's  injunction  to  re- 
turn "  covered  with  glory."  Accordingly,  he  left  a  strong  position 
whence  it  might  have  taken  a  whole  campaign  to  dislodge  him  ;  where- 
upon, Marlborough  unexpectedly  swooped  down  on  him,  and  engaged 
him  in  battle  at  Ramillies,  twenty-nine  miles  southeast  of  Brussels, 
on  Whitsunday,  23  May,  1706.  Villeroy,  though  he  fought  bravely, 
was  outgeneraled  and  his  forces  driven  from  the  field  hotly  pursued 

1  He  conferred  on  him  the  territory  of  Mindelheim  with  1500  subjects  and  an 
income  of  about  £1000  a  year. 


THE  END  OF  THE  STUART  DYNASTY  659 

by  the  Allies.  Although  he  lost  only  6000  killed  and  4000  wounded, 
his  army  was  reduced  from  60,000  to  40,000  by  desertions.  Many  of 
the  leading  towns  of  Brabant  and  Flanders,  including  Brussels,  Ghent, 
and  Bruges,  surrendered  one  after  another,  while  Ostend  yielded  after 
a  short  siege.  The  victors,  shortly  after  the  battle,  issued  a  proclama- 
tion promising  to  all  who  submitted  to  Charles  III  protection  of  their 
religion  and  property,  as  well  as  all  the  privileges  they  had  enjoyed 
under  the  late  Charles  II.  Aside  from  the  danger  involved  in  holding 
out,  the  thrifty  burghers  welcomed  the  terms ;  for  the  sovereignty  of 
Philip  really  subjected  them  to  the  despotism  of  Louis  XIV,  while  the 
Emperor  who  had  stood  behind  his  younger  brother  Charles  III  was 
poor  and  far  away.  Marlborough,  who  had  begun  the  campaign 
three  weeks  before  in  the  deepest  dejection,  could  scarcely  realize  his 
sudden  good  fortune.  His  joy  must  have  been  dashed  by  the  attitude 
of  the  Dutch,  who  practically  forced  him  to  decline  the  governorship 
of  the  Netherlands  which  the  Austrians  offered  him  as  a  reward  for  his 
achievements.  Greedy  as  he  was,  what  ground  him  most  was  to  re- 
linquish the  fat  salary  of  £60,000  attached  to  the  office.  Louis 
XIV,  who  bore  the  blow  of  Villeroy's  defeat  and  all  that  resulted  from 
it  with  amazing  serenity,  immediately  called  Vendome  from  Italy  to 
restore  some  spirit  to  the  beaten  army. 

The  French  driven  out  of  Northern  Italy,  1706.  —  Eugene,  reen- 
forced  by  an  army  of  Germans  and  provided  with  English  subsidies, 
was  able  to  profit  by  the  transfer  of  his  efficient  opponent  to  the 
Netherlands.  Effecting  a  junction  with  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  the  two 
marched  on  Turin,  and,  7  September,  defeated  the  French  army  which 
was  besieging  the  city.  As  a  result,  Louis  XIV  soon  withdrew  his 
troops  from  northern  Italy.  Already,  in  August,  he  had  approached  the 
Dutch  with  proposals  for  peace.  He  offered  them  a  string  of  barrier 
fortresses,  agreed  to  grant  Naples  and  Sicily  to  Charles,  and  even  held 
out  the  prospect  of  erecting  the  Spanish  Netherlands  into  an  inde- 
pendent province.  But  the  Dutch  would  not  make  peace  without  the 
English,  and  the  Whigs  who  were  now  in  power  would  listen  to  no  such 
terms. 

Events  in  England  during  the  Early  Years  of  the  War.  —  While  the 
war  naturally  absorbed  most  of  the  public  energy,  a  few  steps  of  con- 
stitutional importance  were  taken  during  the  early  years  of  Anne.  In 
1702  the  Lords  took  occasion  to  denounce  the  practice  of  "  tacking  "  as 
"  unparliamentary  and  tending  to  the  destruction  of  the  constitution 
of  this  Government."  In  the  case  of  Ashby  vs.  White,  or  the  Aylesbury 
election  case  (1702-1704),  it  was  decided  that  a  man  unjustly  deprived 
of  his  right  to  vote  might  collect  damages.  In  1705,  when  the  new 
Place  Bill  was  passed,  a  clause  was  introduced  repealing  the  provision 
in  the  Act  of  Settlement  for  reviving  the  powers  of  the  Privy  Council. 
In  December,  1706,  an  important  though  somewhat  premature  step  in 
the  direction  of  party  government  was  taken  when  the  Whig,  Charles, 
Earl  of  Sunderland  (son-in-law  of  Marlborough)  and  son  of  the  man 


660  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

who  had  played  such  a  part  in  the  two  preceding  reigns,  was  forced 
upon  the  Queen  as  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Southern  Department.1 
He  was  an  object  of  horror  to  Anne  because  of  his  ungovernable 
temper  and  his  religious  and  political  radicalism :  Sarah  scolded  and 
stormed,  Godolphin  threatened  to  resign,  and  the  Duke  had  to  bring 
to  bear  all  of  his  rare  powers  of  persuasion  before  she  would  submit. 
The  victory  was  a  costly  one ;  for  the  Queen  never  forgot  that  Mrs. 
Freeman  had  presumed  to  tell  her  that  the  misfortunes  of  her  race  had 
been  due  to  obstinacy  and  listening  to  bad  advice. 

The  Question  of  the  Union  between  England  and  Scotland.  —  The 
one  really  "  great  act  of  domestic  statesmanship  "  of  the  reign  was  the 
union  of  England  and  Scotland,  brought  to  completion  in  the  session 
of  1706-1707.  The  personal  union,  beginning  in  1603,  had  weathered 
the  great  Civil  War  and  the  Revolution  of  i688,2  but,  as  the  century  drew 
to  a  close,  the  Scots  began  to  realize  more  and  more  acutely  the  un- 
satisfactory character  of  the  existing  arrangement.  To  most  of  them 
it  was  a  "  loose  and  irregular  tie  ...  wherein  we  are  not  considered 
as  subjects,  nor  allies,  nor  friends,  nor  enemies,  but  all  of  them  only 
when,  how  and  how  long  our  taskmaster  pleases."  Two  possibilities 
were  open :  complete  separation  or  closer  union.  To  the  former 
course,  ardently  desired  by  the  Presbyterians  and  the  patriots,  Eng- 
land would  never  consent,  particularly  in  view  of  Scotland's  ancient 
attachment  to  France.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  large  and 
steadily  increasing  class  with  whom  considerations  of  trade  outweighed 
those  of  religious  and  political  independence.  They  naturally  wanted 
to  draw  closer  to  England  3  in  order  to  share  in  her  markets. 

The  Darien  Project,  1695-1699.  —  The  new  commercial  spirit 
manifested  itself  in  a  daring  attempt  to  break  into  the  Spanish  mo- 
nopoly in  the  New  World.  It  was  a  product  of  the  fruitful  brain  of 
William  Paterson,  who  induced  the  Scotch  Parliament  to  pass  an  act, 
June,  1695,  founding  a  "  Company  of  Scotland  for  Trading  to  Africa 
and  the  Indies."  As  a  means  of  commanding  the  trade  routes  of 
the  eastern  and  western  world  the  "  Darien  Company,"  as  it  was 
popularly  called,  designed  to  establish  a  colony  on  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,4  a  spot  which  Paterson  had  once  visited,  whether  as  a  pirate 
or  a  missionary  is  uncertain.  The  capital  stock,  fixed  at  £400,000 
and  issued  in  £100  shares,  was  quickly  subscribed,  and  more  than  half 
the  amount  was  actually  paid  in,  though  the  price  of  a  single  share 
represented  a  fortune  to  the  poor  and  thrifty  Scot  of  those  days. 
The  opposition  in  London  was  intense,  partly  from  trade  rivalry  and 
partly  from  the  fear  of  complications  with  Spain,  who  possessed  the 

1  At  this  time  there  were  two  Secretaries  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  one  for 
Northern,  the  other  for  Southern  Europe. 

2  For  a  brief  interval,  also,  during  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Protectorate, 
Scotch  members  had  sat  in  the  English  Parliament. 

3  The  Scotch  Episcopalians,  for  obvious  reasons,  allied  themselves  with  this 
party.  4  Then  called  Darien. 


THE   END   OF   THE   STUART  DYNASTY  661 

territory  in  which  Darien  was  situated.  Nevertheless,  ^5  July,  1698, 
the  first  group  of  colonists  was  sent  to  the  Isthmus.  The  cargo  which 
they  took,  consisting  of  felt  slippers,  periwigs,  heavy  woolens,  and 
English  Bibles,  could  not  have  been  more  useless  for  trading  in  a  trop- 
ical country  with  illiterate  natives  who  wore  the  scantiest  of  garments. 
The  climate  proved  unbearable ;  those  who  survived  at  length  gave 
up  and  sailed  away.  In  October,  1699,  a  miserable  remnant  reached 
New  York.  Meantime,  in  August,  a  second  expedition,  enticed  by 
lying  reports  of  the  indefatigable  leaders,  had  started  across  the  seas. 
Settling  on  the  deserted  site,  they  held  on  in  spite  of  faction  and  fever, 
until  April,  when  they  were  driven  out  by  the  Spanish.  Paterson's 
brilliant  Darien  scheme  had  succumbed  to  a  deadly  climate  and  Spanish 
monopoly ;  but  it  had  the  result  of  finally  convincing  the  commercial 
party  in  Scotland  that  nothing  could  be  accomplished  without  the 
backing  of  England,  which  could  only  be  secured  by  a  closer  union. 

The  Union  finally  brought  about,  1706-1707.  — William,  a  month 
before  his  death,  urged  that  the  terms  be  arranged  as  speedily  as 
possible,  and  Anne,  who  was  of  the  same  opinion,  appointed  commis- 
sioners in  the  very  first  year  of  her  reign.  Not  only  did  they  fail  to 
come  to  an  agreement,  but  the  Scotch  Parliament  took  the  bit  in  its 
teeth.  In  1703  it  passed  a  series  of  resolutions,  limiting  the  power  of 
the  English  Crown ;  also  an  Act  of  Security,  which  provided  that,  in 
the  event  of  the  reigning  sovereign's  death  without  issue,  the  Scotch 
Estates  should  choose  a  Protestant  successor  from  the  House  of  Stuart, 
but  not  the  same  person  chosen  by  the  English  Parliament,  except 
under  conditions  that  should  secure  to  Scotland  complete  freedom 
of  government,  liberty,  and  trade.  While  the  Act  of  Security  received 
the  grudging  assent  of  the  Queen,  since  otherwise  she  would  have  got 
no  vote  of  supplies  from  the  Scotch  Estates,  their  defiant  attitude  led 
the  English  Parliament  to  pass  an  act,  in  1705,  declaring  that  unless 
the  Scots  settled  the  succession  by  Christmas  Day,  all  Scotsmen 
would  be  adjudged  aliens  and  all  Scotch  exports  into  England  for- 
bidden. At  the  same  time  they  empowered  the  Queen  to  appoint 
commissioners  to  reopen  negotiations  for  the  union.  Thus  threatened, 
the  Scots  hastened  to  choose  commissioners  on  their  side.  The  two 
bodies  met  in  April,  1706,  and  before  the  close  of  the  summer  had 
arranged  a  treaty.  The  Scotch  Estates,  when  they  met  in  October, 
had  to  face  a  torrent  of  popular  opposition ;  the  mob  outside  hooted 
and  hustled  those  known  to  favor  the  measure,  riots  broke  out  both 
in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  and  petitions  poured  in  from  all  over  the 
country.  It  has  been  thought  that  but  for  the  tempestuous,  wintry 
weather  armed  hordes  might  have  marched  down  from  the  north  and 
broken  up  the  session.  The  Church  was  won  over  by  an  act  guaran- 
teeing the  existing  Presbyterian  Establishment,  and,  notwithstanding 
continued  resistance,  the  treaty  was  ratified,  16  January,  1707. 
"  Trade  with  most,  Hanover  with  some,  ease  and  security  with  others, 
together  with  a  generall  aversion  at  civill  discords,  intolerable  poverty, 


662  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  the  constant  oppression  of  a  bad  ministry,"  as  a  contemporary 
had  predicted,  were  the  reasons  that,  doubtless,  influenced  the 
majority,  though  the  battle  of  Ramillies,  which  seemed  to  point  to 
the  certain  downfall  of  the  French,  unquestionably  influenced  the 
result. 

The  Terms  of  the  Union.  —  The  speedy  and  favorable  outcome 
created  general  surprise  in  England,  where  bets  had  been  freely  laid 
that  the  treaty  would  be  rejected.  In  view  of  the  manifestly  popular 
opposition  throughout  Scotland  many  insisted  that  the  majority 
had  only  been  secured  by  bribery,  and  agreed  with  the  apt  remark 
that  it  was  "  like  marrying  a  woman  without  her  consent."  When  the 
articles  were  taken  up  in  the  English  Parliament,  in  February,  1707, 
the  chief  opposition  came  from  the  High  Church  Tories  who  feared 
for  the  safety  of  the  Establishment  if  any  considerable  number  of 
Presbyterians  were  admitted  to  a  share  in  the  Government.  This 
objection  was  met  by  an  act  securing  the  Church  of  England,  and 
the  ratification  was  pushed  forward  so  rapidly  that  cries  of  "  Post 
haste !  Post  haste !  "  were  heard  from  the  majority.  The  Act  of 
Union  provided  that  the  two  kingdoms  were  to  be  united  under  the 
name  of  Great  Britain  and  represented  by  one  Parliament.  The 
Crown  was  to  pass  to  the  House  of  Hanover  as  provided  by  the  Act 
of  Settlement.  There  was  to  be  complete  freedom  of  trade  between 
the  two  countries  at  home  and  abroad.  As  an  "  equivalent  "  for 
assuming  a  share  in  the  National  Debt,  and  for  losses  incurred  from 
English  trading  companies,  the  Scots  were  paid  nearly  £400,000, 
some  of  which  was  employed  in  indemnifying  the  shareholders  of 
the  Darien  Company.  Scottish  laws  and  legal  procedure  were  to 
be  preserved.  Forty-five  Scotch  members  were  to  sit  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  while,  for  every  session,  the  Scotch  peers  were  to 
elect  sixteen  of  their  number  to  represent  them  in  the  House  of 
Lords. 

Its  Ultimate  Results.  — '•  Anne,  in  giving  her  consent,  6  March, 
1707,  expressed  the  wish  that  henceforth  her  subjects  of  both  kingdoms 
would  have  "  hearts  disposed  to  become  one  people  "  ;  but  it  was  long 
before  the  hope  was  fulfilled.  The  mass  of  Scots,  traditionally  hos- 
tile to  their  richer  southern  neighbors,  clung  to  the  belief  that  they 
had  been  betrayed  by  a  knot  of  corrupt  politicians.  The  eighteenth 
century  had  run  more  than  half  its  course  before  the  "  prosperity  of 
the  country  convinced  them  that  the  Union  had  been  a  necessity 
and  a  blessing."  Each  nation,  as  it  proved,  needed  the  other.  The 
combination  of  resources  contributed  to  further  the  wonderful  com- 
mercial and  industrial  developments  which  were  to  mark  the  later 
years  of  the  eighteenth,  and  come  to  fruition  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  Political  and  Military  Situation,  1707.  —  Notwithstanding 
the  victories  in  the  Netherlands  in  the  summer  of  1706,  the  situation 
of  Maryborough  and  Godolphin  was  far  from  untroubled.  Anne 
viewed  them  with  increasing  disfavor;  for,  in  spite  of  her  prayer  to 


THE  END   OF  THE  STUART  DYNASTY  663 

the  Lord  Treasurer  to  keep  her  "  out  of  the  power  of  the  merciless 
men  of  both  parties,"  they  had  surrounded  her  with  leaders  of  the 
one  she  could  scarcely  endure.  Then  the  Dutch,  feeling  that  France 
was  "  reduced  to  what  she  ought  to  be,  and  that  to  carry  on  the  war 
further  would  only  serve  to  make  England  greater  than  is  desirable," 
were  sorely  tempted  by  the  terms  of  Louis.  Marlborough,  backed 
by  the  Emperor,  finally  induced  them  to  reject  the  French  offers ; 
but  the  campaign  of  1707  was  discouraging.  Charles  XII  of  Sweden, 
who  was  approached  with  overtures  from  the  French  King,  proved 
a  new  and  troublesome  factor ;  for  though  Marlborough  dissuaded 
him  from  his  purpose  of  attacking  the  Empire,  his  threatening  atti- 
tude kept  the  North  German  princes  from  sending  contingents  to 
the  Netherlands.  Vendome  conducted  an  able  defensive  campaign ; 
the  Dutch  deputies  refused  to  allow  the  Duke  to  force  an  engagement 
when  he  at  length  brought  his  army  up  to  the  requisite  strength,  and 
he  had  to  go  into  winter  quarters  with  nothing  accomplished. 

Reverses  of  the  Allies,  1707.  —  Elsewhere,  the  successes  of  the  year 
were  all  with  the  French.  The  energetic  Villars  forced  a  passage 
across  the  Rhine,  and  "  overran  the  lazy  and  sleepy  Empire,  and  not 
only  maintained  and  paid  a  great  army  in  it  all  the  year,  but  by  vast 
contributions  sent  money  into  France  to  help  the  King's  other  affairs." l 
In  Spain  an  Anglo-Portuguese  force  under  the  Earl  of  Galway  had 
taken  Madrid,  26  June,  1706,  but  although  reenforcedby  Peterborough, 
had  been  forced  to  evacuate  it  soon  after.  Thence  they  had  retired 
to  Valencia  for  the  winter.  In  the  spring,  Galway,  against  the  advice 
of  his  impetuous  colleague,  who,  however,  was  soon  recalled,  started 
back  to  recover  the  city.  Seriously  weakened  from  the  fact  that 
Charles  insisted  on  withdrawing  his  forces,  he  was  overwhelmingly 
defeated,  25  April,  at  Almanza.  He  lost  three  fourths  of  his  troops, 
all  his  artillery,  and  most  of  his  baggage.  He  escaped  into  Cata- 
lonia ;  but  all  of  the  territory  gained  during  the  past  two  years  was 
recovered  by  the  enemy.  The  list  of  the  reverses  of  the  Allies  was 
completed  by  Eugene's  unsuccessful  invasion  of  Provence.  This  was 
largely  the  fault  of  the  Emperor  Joseph,  who  detached  a  force  to 
invade  southern  Italy,  where  the  capture  of  Naples  by  no  means  made 
up  for  the  miscarriage  in  the  north. 

The  Attempted  Descent  on  Scotland,  1708. — In  March,  1708, 
England  was  thrown  into  consternation  by  the  news  that  a  French 
expedition  was  being  prepared  at  Dunkirk  for  a  descent  on  Scotland. 
The  commander,  Tourbin,  was  accompanied  by  the  Pretender,  now 
twenty-seven  years  old,  a  youth  of  engaging  manner,  not  devoid  of 
courage,  but  lacking  in  force  and  enthusiasm.  For  the  first  time  in 
English  history  the  sense  of  public  danger  was  indicated  by  a  sharp 
fall  in  stocks.  Had  the  invaders  succeeded  in  effecting  a  landing,  the 
result  might  have  been  serious,  in  view  of  the  anti-English  fury  which 

1  These  are  the  words  of  one  of  Marlborough's  colonels. 


664  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

prevailed  among  the  Scots.  Fortunately  the  starting  was  delayed 
by  the  Chevalier  de  St.  George  —  as  the  Pretender  called  himself  — 
catching  the  measles.  Consequently,  when  Tourbin  at  length  reached 
the  Firth  of  Forth,  the  English  Admiral  Byng  was  ready  with  a  fleet 
of  such  size  that  he  turned  and  hurried  back  to  France.  Anne  re- 
ferred to  her  half  brother  for  the  first  time  as  the  "  Popish  Pre- 
tender," yet,  during  a  meeting  of  the  Council  to  consider  what  steps 
should  be  taken  against  him,  she  burst  into  tears,  and  became  so  agitated 
that  the  discussion  had  to  stop. 

The  Campaign  of  1708  in  the  Netherlands.  Oudenarde,  n  July. 
—  Vendome  opened  the  campaign  in  the  Netherlands  by  recovering 
Ghent  and  Bruges,  where  the  citizens,  alienated  by  the  domineering 
behavior  of  the  Dutch,  readily  admitted  him.  Marlborough  saw 
that  it  was  necessary  to  force  a  battle.  By  a  rapid  march  of  fifty 
miles  in  a  little  over  two  days  he  came  upon  the  enemy  near  Oude- 
narde, on  the  road  between  the  newly  recovered  cities  and  the  frontier. 
He  won  a  brilliant  victory  n  July,  darkness  alone  saving  the  enemy 
from  capture.  The  Duke  was  now  for  marching  straight  into  France ; 
but  both  the  Dutch  and  Eugene',  who  had  arrived  in  time  to  share  in 
the  victory,  rejected  the  plan  as  too  daring.  Instead,  it  was  finally 
agreed  to  besiege  Lille,  the  masterpiece  of  Vauban,  which  guarded  the 
frontier  and  which  might  serve  as  an  excellent  basis  of  operations 
against  the  kingdom  of  Louis.  The  siege  began  13  August ;  the  town 
was  taken  22  October  and  the  citadel  9  December.1  Ghent  was  re- 
captured, 2  January,  1709,  and  the  French  were  forced  to  evacuate 
all  western  Flanders,  including  Bruges. 

The  Negotiations  of  1709  and  the  First  Barrier  Treaty.  —  In  1709 
Louis  was  reduced  to  the  point  of  consenting  that  the  House  of 
Bourbon  should  resign  the  Spanish  inheritance.  When,  however, 
the  Allies  insisted  that,  in  case  of  Philip's  refusal,  he  should  assist 
in  driving  his  own  grandson  out  of  the  country,  he  withdrew  his  am- 
bassador from  the  Hague,  28  May,  and  issued  an  appeal  to  his  people. 
Exhausted  as  they  were,  they  responded  loyally.  While  it  was  natural 
to  demand  some  guarantee  for  Louis  for  carrying  out  the  promised 
renunciation,  he  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  refusing  the  harsh  terms 
imposed  upon  him.  The  fault  rested  with  the  Whigs,  for  the  Emperor, 
stubborn  as  he  was,  could  not  have  continued  the  war  alone.  They 
bribed  the  Dutch  to  keep  on  fighting  by  the  Barrier  Treaty,  signed 
29  October,  by  which  nine  fortified  places  on  the  border  were  handed 
over  to  them,  and  certain  others  were  promised  in  case  they  could 
capture  them.  In  these  towns  the  Dutch  were  not  only  to  have 
the  sole  right  to  have  garrisons,  but  to  impose  taxes  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  English  and  Austrian  merchants.  In  return  they  were,  in 
case  of  need,  to  send  troops  to  Great  Britain  to  defend  the  Hanoverian 
succession. 

1  Among  the  visitors  to  the  allied  camp  was  Augustus  of  Saxony,  with  a  little 
twelve-year-old  son,  later  famous  as  the  Marshal  de  Saxe. 


THE   END   OF   THE   STUART  DYNASTY  665 

Successes  of  the  Allies  in  the  Netherlands  and  Reverses  in  Spain, 
1709-1710.  —  Villars,  who  was  put  in  command  of  the  army  of  the 
Netherlands  which  the  French  had  put  into  the  field  only  with  the 
most  heroic  sacrifices,  profited  by  the  delay  which  the  peace  nego- 
tiations afforded  to  strengthen  his  lines.  On  1 1  September,  the  Allies 
attacked  him  in  a  very  strong  position  at  Malplaquet.  While 
Marlborough  and  Eugene  cut  the  French  forces  in  two  and  drove 
them  from  the  field,  they  retired  in  good  order  with  a  loss  far  less  than 
that  of  the  victors.  In  Spain  the  Allies  never  recovered  the  ground 
lost  in  1707.  Their  only  success  in  the  next  three  years  was  the 
capture  in  September,  1708,  of  the  island  of  Minorca,  which  furnished 
an  admirable  naval  base  for  the  English  fleet  in  the  Mediterranean. 
On  23  September,  1710,  the  Allies  succeeded  once  more  in  taking 
Madrid,  but  Vendome,  who  was  sent  to  command  in  the  peninsula, 
cut  off  their  supplies  from  Portugal  and  forced  them  to  hurry  back 
to  their  base  in  Catalonia.  One  division  of  the  retreating  army  was 
defeated  at  Brihuega,  8  December,  while  another,  though  it  fought 
a  drawn  battle  at  Villa  Viciosa,  was  obliged  to  retire  from  the  field. 
Thus  the  victories  of  Oudenarde  and  Malplaquet  were  neutralized 
as  Ramillies  had  been  by  Almanza.  In  Spain  alone,  where  a  decisive 
victory  might  have  put  an  end  to  the  war,  the  Allies  were  unable  to 
prevail. 

Growing  Reaction  against  the  Whigs  and  the  War.  —  Louis  re- 
opened peace  negotiations  with  the  Dutch  in  the  autumn  of  1 709 ; 
but  nothing  was  accomplished  till  the  overthrow  of  the  Whigs 
nearly  a  year  later.  Their  party  had  won  again  in  the  autumn  elec- 
tions of  1708;  but  its  power  steadily  declined.  Anne  had  taken  to 
herself  a  new  favorite  in  Abigail  Hill,  a  poor  relation  of  the  Duchess 
of  Marlborough,  who  had,  some  time  before,  obtained  for  her  a  position 
as  a  bed-chamber  woman.  The  extent  of  the  Queen's  attachment  was 
first  evident  when,  in  1707,  she  attended  the  wedding  of  her  humble 
attendant  with  one  Masham,  an  equerry  of  Prince  George.  The 
gravity  of  the  situation  lay  in  the  fact  that  Harley,  leader  of  the  Tory 
opposition  was  also  related  to  Mrs.  Masham,  and  through  her  kept  in 
constant-  communication  with  his  sovereign.  Mrs.  Freeman,  that 
"  monument  of  unchangeable  folly,"  made  matters  worse  by  becoming 
more  and  more  abusive  as  her  influence  waned.  In  one  quarrel  she 
so  far  forgot  the  respect  due  to  the  Lord's  anointed  as  to  tell  her 
Sovereign  to  hold  her  tongue.  Marlborough  tried  in  vain  to  soothe 
the  two  incensed  women,  and,  in  his  eagerness  to  put  himself  above 
the  danger  of  party  strife,  made  the  mistake  of  asking  that  the  office 
of  Captain-General  be  conferred  upon  him  for  life.  This  gave  his 
enemies  a  chance  to  compare  him  with  Cromwell  and  to  accuse  him 
of  aiming  at  military  dictatorship.  Sunderland,  too,  with  his  rough 
manners  and  extreme  views,  was  another  source  of  weakness  to  his 
party.  The  people  were  growing  more  and  more  restive  under  the 
increasing  burden  of  taxation,  and  the  public  discontent  was  fed  and 


666  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

voiced  by  the  press  and  by  virulent  party  pamphlets.  Some  of  the 
most  famous  names  in  English  literature  engaged  in  the  controversy, 
but  the  man  who  produced  a  fury  of  reaction  which  swept  the  Whigs 
from  power  was  an  obscure  parson. 

Dr.  Sacheverell's  Sermon,  5  November,  1709.  —  Dr.  Henry 
Sacheverell,  who  had  already  achieved  some  reputation  by  the  fervor 
of  his  oratory  and  by  the  vigor  of  his  personal  attacks  on  those  in 
high  places  who  favored  Dissent  and  were  supposed  to  be  cold  toward 
the  Establishment,  preached  his  first  notable  sermon  at  the  Derby 
assize  in  August,  1709,  on  the  text:  "  Be  not  a  partaker  in  other 
men's  sins."  In  the  dedication  to  the  printed  edition  he  declared 
that  "  the  principles  and  interests  of  our  Church  and  Constitution 
were  shamefully  betrayed."  He  followed  up  the  attack  in  another 
sermon,  5  November,  at  St.  Paul's  before  the  lord  mayor  and  aldermen 
on  the  "  Perils  of  Paul  among  false  brethren."  He  lashed  the 
Administration,  railed  at  toleration,  and  exhorted  his  hearers  to  rise 
in  defense  of  the  Church.  Coming  as  they  did  in  the  midst  of  intense 
party  excitement,  these  utterances  roused  a  panic  of  religious  bigotry 
against  the  Dissenters  and  the  Whigs  who  protected  them.  Godol- 
phin  regarded  parts  of  the  "  circumgiration  of  coherent  words  " l 
as  directed  against  himself,  while  Maryborough  was  always  madly 
sensitive  at  anything  that  looked  in  the  least  like  an  attack  on  himself 
or  his  policies.  Consequently,  in  December,  the  Ministry  resolved 
to  impeach  Sacheverell  for  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  a  pro- 
ceeding which,  it  is  estimated,  offended  five  sixths  of  the  nation.  Four 
charges  were  framed.  First,  that  he  had  denied  the  lawfulness  of 
resistance.  Secondly,  that  he  had  declaimed  against  the  toleration 
granted  to  Dissenters.  Thirdly,  that  he  had  declared  that  the  Church 
was  in  danger.  Fourthly,  that  for  seditious  purposes  he  had  asserted 
that  her  Majesty's  Administration  in  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs 
tended  to  the  destruction  of  the  Constitution. 

His  Trial,  1710.  —  His  trial,  which  opened  in  February,  1710,  was 
attended  with  the  wildest  excitement.  It  was  hotly  discussed  in  the 
coffeehouses,  in  the  streets,  indeed,  in  every  sort  of  assembly.  The 
Doctor  was  cheered  and  praised  as  a  martyr  and  saint,  while  Anne, 
whenever  she  passed  by  on  her  way  to  the  sittings  in  Westminster 
Hall,  was  greeted  with  cries  of  "  God  bless  your  Majesty  and  the 
Church !  "  "  We  hope  your  Majesty  is  for  Dr.  Sacheverell !  " 
The  more  violent,  whose  destructiveness  far  exceeded  their  piety, 
attacked  the  Dissenting  meeting  houses  and  created  such  an  uproar 
that  the  troops  had  to  be  called  out  to  restore  order.  After  three 
weeks  of  altercation,  the  Doctor  was  found  guilty;  but  was  let  off 
with  a  light  sentence.  He  was  suspended  from  preaching  for  three 
years  and  his  sermons  were  burnt  by  the  common  hangman.  His  con- 
viction proved  to  be  a  costly  victory.  Books,  such  as  the  Pious 

1  Harley's  phrase. 


THE   END   OF  THE   STUART  DYNASTY  667 

Life  and  Sufferings  of  Dr.  Sacheverell  from  his  Birth  to  his  Sentence, 
with  his  Prayers  and  Meditations  on  the  Days  of  his  Trial,  poured 
from  the  press,  together  with  other  manifestations  of  sympathy, 
until  Godolphin,  in  a  letter  to  Marlborough,  expressed  the  wish  that : 
"  this  uneasy  trial  had  never  begun,  for  it  had  occasioned  a  very  great 
ferment,  and  given  opportunity  to  a  great  many  people  to  be  im- 
pertinent who  always  had  the  intention  but  wanted  the  opportunity 
to  show  it." 

The  Queen  dismisses  the  Whigs  and  calls  in  the  Tories,  1710.  — 
The  anti-Whig  revulsion,  which  came  to  a  head  in  the  Sacheverell 
trial,  gave  the  Queen  the  chance  which  she  had  long  been  seeking  to 
get  rid  of  the  party  so  hateful  to  her.  Mrs.  Freeman  had  her  last 
personal  interview  17  April,  1710,  and  a  stormy  one  it  was.  The 
Duchess  only  made  the  breach  more  complete  by  sending  the 
Queen,  shortly  after,  a  packet  containing  an  enumeration  of  her 
services  to  her  Sovereign  during  twenty-six  years,  fortified  by  citations 
from  various  divines  on  the  mutual  obligations  of  friends.  The 
strength  of  the  Cabinet  was  weakened  from  the  fact  that  every  man 
was  working  for  himself.  The  chief  offender  was  Marlborough,  who 
made  it  quite  clear  that  he  would  cling  to  office  whatever  happened, 
whereas,  if  he  had  threatened  to  resign,  he  might  have  kept  his 
colleagues  in  office  some  time  longer.  The  break-up  began  13  June, 
1710,  with  the  removal  of  Sunderland,  and,  8  August,  Godolphin  was 
dismissed  without  ceremony.  Though  Parliament  was  still  Whig, 
Anne  replaced  the  fallen  Ministers  by  the  Tories  Harley  and  St. 
John,  congratulating  herself  that  she  was  now  released  from  cap- 
tivity. Robert  Harley  was  a  "  dull,  puzzle-headed  man,"  who 
cultivated  poets  and  scholars,  who  had  an  extensive  knowledge  of 
parliamentary  precedent,  and  to  extreme  caution  united  a  talent  for 
intrigue;  but  he  had  no  gifts  as  a  speaker,  few  statesmanlike  qualities. 
He  had  been  a  member  of  Parliament  since  1689  and  in  the  Cabinet 
from  1704  to  1708,  when,  owing  to  his  influence  with  Mrs.  Masham, 
a  pretext  had  been  found  for  forcing  him  out.  St.  John,  brilliant, 
erratic,  audacious,  and  dissipated,  was,  in  most  respects,  the  very 
opposite  of  his  plodding,  decorous,  and  secretive  colleague,  though 
neither  was  ever  burdened  with  scruple.  Harley  gave  evidence  of 
this  in  October,  when  he  submitted  a  plan  to  the  Queen  for  filling 
all  offices  with  Tories,  while  at  the  same  time  he  was  privately  assur- 
ing Somers  and  Halifax  that  a  "  Whig  game  was  intended  at  bottom." 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  he  tried  to  steer  a  middle  course  all 
through  his  tenure  of  power,  while  St.  John  was  bent  on  an  out-and- 
out  Tory  Administration.  Yet  this  ill-assorted  couple  managed  to 
pull  together  long  enough  to  bring  the  war  to  a  close. 

A  Tory  Parliament  Elected,  1710.  —  In  the  September  elections  the 
Tories,  thanks  to  the  Sacheverell  frenzy,  the  royal  control  of  patronage, 
the  heavy  war  taxes,  and  the  insufficient  preparation  of  the  Whigs, 
recovered  a  majority  which  they  held  for  four  years.  The  voting,  as 


668  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

was  usual  at  the  time,  was  attended  with  the  greatest  violence, 
drunkenness,  fighting,  hooting,  and  hustling,  making  the  polls  unsafe 
as  well  as  unpleasant  except  for  the  hardiest.  The  popularity  of 
Harley  was  greatly  enhanced  from  an  attempt  on  his  life,  in  March, 
1711,  by  a  desperate  and  half-crazed  refugee,  an  attempt  that  was 
magnified  into  a  plot  to  murder  the  Queen  and  bring  in  the  Pretender. 
The  influence  of  the  landowning  gentry  and  their  animus  against  the 
mercantile  classes  was  shown  by  the  Property  Qualification  Act,  1711, 
providing  that,  except  in  the  case  of  sons  of  peers  and  representatives 
of  universities,  every  county  member  should  have  an  estate  of  £6oc 
a  year  and  every  borough  or  city  member  one  of  £300.  Although 
frequently  evaded,  this  measure  was  not  repealed  till  1858. 

Peace  Negotiations  with  France,  1711.  —  Marlborough  had  taken 
a  few  fortresses  in  1710,  but  had  not  ventured  upon  any  daring  move. 
In  1711,  however,  with  an  army  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  Villars, 
he  succeeded  by  a  series  of  brilliant  feints  and  sieges  in  piercing  his 
adversary's  strong  lines,  so  that  by  autumn  he  was  in  a  position  to 
invade  France.  But  this  proved  to  be  his  last  campaign.  Harley 
and  St.  John,  realizing  that  if  Anne  should  die,  the  Whigs  might  come 
in  and  prolong  the  war  indefinitely,  and  realizing  also  that  the  only 
hope  of  settlement  lay  in  treating  with  France  separately,  had  already 
opened  negotiations  between  London  and  Paris  in  January,  1711. 
The  preliminaries  were  finally  agreed  upon  in  October.  They  had 
been  greatly  facilitated  by  a  change  of  heart  on  the  part  of  Anne : 
"  'Tis  a  good  work,"  she  declared  in  an  audience  which  she  granted 
to  the  French  agent,  "  Pray  God  you  succeed  in  it.  I  am  sure  I  long 
for  peace.  I  hate  this  dreadful  work  of  blood."  Furthermore,  the 
death  of  the  Emperor  Joseph,  17  April,  1711,  leaving  Charles  as  his 
heir,  greatly  strengthened  the  peace  party ;  for  it  was  futile  to  drive 
Philip  from  Spain  in  order  to  unite  the  country  to  the  Hapsburg 
dominions.  While  there  was  some  reason  for  the  action  of  the  Tory 
Ministry  in  keeping  the  Allies  out  of  the  preliminaries,  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  underhand  dealing  —  for  which  St.  John  was  largely 
responsible  —  that  cannot  be  justified ;  moreover,  in  view  of  his  many 
defeats  and  the  state  of  his  resources,  the  English  were  oversubservient 
to  the  Grand  Monarch. 

The  Whig  Attempt  to  obstruct  the  Peace.  The  Occasional  Con- 
formity Act,  1711.  — After  Marlborough's  return  to  England  in  Novem- 
ber, at  the  close  of  the  campaign  of  1711,  his  party,  in  order  to  obstruct 
the  peace,  concluded  a  strange  alliance  with  the  High  Church  wing  of 
the  Tories.  Nottingham  — "  Not-in-the-game,"  as  he  was  called 
at  this  time,  from  the  fact  that  he  had  not  been  provided  with  an  office 
under  the  new  Government  —  was  keen  to  pass  an  Occasional  Con- 
formity Bill,  which  had  been  twice  defeated  in  the  House  of  Lords  in 
1703  and  again  in  1704.  The  Whigs  now  assisted  him  to  carry  the 
measure,  which  provided  that  any  holder  of  an  office  who  had  qualified 
himself  by  taking  the  sacrament  according  to  the  established  form  and 


THE   END   OF  THE   STUART  DYNASTY  669 

who  should  afterwards  be  convicted  of  attending  Dissenting  places 
of  worship,  should  be  fined  £40  and  forfeit  his  office.  Thus  the  practice 
of  evading  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  by  the  device  of  "  occasional 
conformity  "  was  effectually  checked.  The  Dissenters  were  assured 
that  when  the  Whigs  returned  to  office  the  Act  would  be  repealed. 
In  the  words  of  a  Tory  satirist :  "  Jack  had  been  induced  to  hang 
himself  on  the  promise  that  he  would  soon  be  cut  down."  l  In  return, 
Nottingham  bent  his  influence  to  carry  an  amendment  in  the  Lords 
to  the  royal  address  on  the  preliminaries,  that  "  no  peace  could  be 
safe  in  which  Spain  and  the  West  Indies  were  left  to  the  House  of 
Bourbon."  Thus  the  Whigs  sacrificed  their  principles  on  religious 
liberty  and  a  section  of  the  Tories  their  convictions  on  the  prolonga- 
tion of  the  war.  It  was  all  in  vain,  for  a  similar  amendment  was  re- 
jected in  the  Commons. 

The  Removal  of  Marlborough,  31  December,  1711.  —  Swift  en- 
tered the  fray  with  his  famous  Conduct  of  the  Allies,  in  which  he  argued 
that  the  English,  who  had  least  to  gain,  had  come  to  assume  practi- 
cally the  whole  burden  of  the  war.  Prepared  under  the  supervision 
of  St.  John  and  written  in  the  most  trenchant,  logical  style  of  the 
greatest  living  master  of  English,  the  work  was  eagerly  read  and  had 
a  powerful  influence  on  public  opinion.  As  a  means  of  stirring  up 
the  waning  anti-Romanist  and  anti-French  sentiment,  the  Whigs 
planned,  on  17  November,?  1711,  a  great  procession  with  effigies  of 
the  Pope  and  the  Pretender,  the  Devil  and  various  cardinals ;  but  it 
was  broken  up  by  the  energetic  action  of  the  Government.  In  order 
to  prevent  any  further  obstruction,  it  was  proposed  to  remove  Marl- 
borough  from  his  command.  He  controlled  a  strong  party  among 
the  peers,  he  was  high  in  the  councils  of  the  Allies,  and  he  might,  in 
another  campaign,  gain  a  victory  that  would  raise  the  demands  of  the 
opponents  of  peace.  He  was  charged  with  appropriating  funds  from 
the  moneys  granted  to  the  bread  contractors,  and  with  deducting  two 
and  one  half  per  cent  from  the  sums  appropriated  for  soldiers'  pay. 
While  he  doubtless  did  do  so,  it  is  equally  clear  that  he  employed 
what  he  took  in  the  secret  service.  In  the  interests  of  peace  it  was 
well  that  he  was  removed ;  but  it  was  hard  that  he  should  have  suf- 
fered because  of  charges  that  could  not  be  proved.  While  his  dis- 
missal filled  the  Whigs  with  consternation  and  even  some  of  the  Tories 
with  misgivings,3  the  price  of  stocks  rose  in  the  City,  owing  to  the 
growing  conviction  that  Marlborough  was  prolonging  the  war  for 
"  his  own  glory  and  profit."  His  dismissal  was  accompanied  by  the 
creation  of  twelve  new  peers  which  gave  the  Tories  control  of  the 
Upper  House.  Wharton,  when  the  news  was  announced,  inquired 
sneeringly  whether  they  were  to  vote  individually  or  by  their  foreman. 

1  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  repealed  in  1718. 

2  The  anniversary  of  Elizabeth's  accession. 

3  Even  Swift  wrote :  "How  far  this  step  may  encourage  the  French  to  play  tricks 
with  us  no  man  knows," 


670  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Opening  of  the  Congress  of  Utrecht  and  the  End  of  the  War.  — 

This  same  month  of  January,  1713,  a  congress  of  the  Allies  opened 
at  Utrecht  to  discuss  terms  of  peace,  but  weeks  were  consumed  in 
tedious  formalities.  The  Emperor,  who  held  off,  sent  Eugene  on  a 
special  mission  to  England;  but,  arriving  three  days  after  Marl- 
borough's  dismissal,  he  was  unable  to  accomplish  his  purpose  of 
blocking  the  preliminaries  which  the  French  and  the  Tories  had 
already  arranged.  Since  no  suspension  of  hostilities  had  been  pro- 
vided for,  Eugene  took  the  field  in  the  spring  as  commander  of  the 
Allies,  with  the  aim  of  turning  the  French  lines  and  opening  the  way 
to  Paris.  The  English  contingents  were  under  the  Duke  of  Ormonde, 
who  had  orders  to  engage  in  no  battle  or  siege  without  further  in- 
structions. For  a  time  he  assisted  the  Prince  by  covering  his  siege 
operations;  but,  16  July,  in  response  to  instructions  from  home,  he 
drew  his  troops  off  to  Dunkirk,  leaving  the  Austrians  and  the  Dutch 
to  continue  the  campaign  alone.1  With  their  lines  thus  weakened, 
Villars  succeeded  in  defeating  a  force  of  the  Dutch  at  Denain,  24  July, 
before  Eugene  could  come  to  their  assistance.  Following  this  reverse, 
he  had  to  yield  several  strong  places  and  retire  beyond  the  Scheldt. 
The  Tory  Ministers  who  were  responsible  for  what  happened  had  only 
this  justification  that  nothing  else  would  induce  the  Emperor  to  make 
peace.  In  Spain  a  suspension  of  hostilities  was  concluded  during 
the  summer,  though  the  Austrian  forces  were  not  withdrawn  from 
Catalonia  for  some  months. 

The  Peace  of  Utrecht,  1713. — The  Peace  of  Utrecht  was  signed 
with  France,  12  April,  1713,  by  Great  Britain,  the  States  General, 
Savoy  and  Portugal.  Eugene  marched  his  forces  across  the  Rhine, 
but  he  was  too  ill  supported  by  his  master  and  the  German  princes 
to  conduct  even  a  defensive  campaign.  Fortunately,  Louis  was  too 
exhausted  to  follow  him  up,  and  a  peace  between  him  and  the  Emperor 
was  arranged  at  Rastadt,  7  March,  1714,  which  was  formally  ratified 
by  the  German  diet  at  Baden  in  October.  By  the  terms  concluded 
between  England  and  France,  Louis  (i)  recognized  the  order  of  suc- 
cession established  by  the  Act  of  Settlement,  and  agreed  that  the  son 
of  the  late  James  II  should  never  be  allowed  in  France.  (2)  He 
solemnly  ratified  a  renunciation  by  Philip  V,  made  5  November,  1712, 
of  his  claims  to  the  throne  of  France.  (3)  Hfe  promised  to  accept 
for  his  French  subjects  no  advantages  of  trade  with  Spain  not  extended 
to  the  other  powers.  (4)  He  agreed  to  raze  the  fortifications  of  Dun- 
kirk and  fill  up  the  harbor.  (5)  He  ceded  to  Great  Britain  considerable 
portions  of  territory  in  the  New  World,  including  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Settlement,  Acadia,2  and  Newfoundland,  retaining,  however,  certain 

1  The  British  Government  stopped  the  subsidies  of  the  Germans  and  the  Danes 
when  they  refused  to  follow  Ormonde, 

2  In  the  New  World  the  British  had  fought  with  varying  success.     In  1708  they 
had  been  driven  out  of  Newfoundland ;  in  1 7 10  an  expedition  led  by  Francis  Nichol- 
son had  secured  the  stronghold  of  Port  Royal,  which  he  renamed  Annapolis,  and 


THE   END   OF  THE   STUART  DYNASTY  671 

fishing  rights  in  the  neighboring  waters  and  the  right  to  dry  fish  on 
the  shores  of  Newfoundland. 

England  and  Spain.  —  The  treaty  between  England  and  Spain  was 
not  concluded  till  July ;  for  Philip  had  no  representatives  at  the  Con- 
gress and  no  power  to  treat  till  the  powers  had  acknowledged  him  as 
King,  (i)  Gibraltar  and  Minorca  were  ceded  to  England.  (2)  By 
the  Asiento  1  she  was  granted  for  thirty  years  the  monopoly  of  import- 
ing negroes  into  Spanish  America,  a  monopoly  which  went  to  the  South 
Sea  Company.2  (3)  British  merchants  were  accorded  the  right  of 
sending  one  ship  a  year  to  trade  in  these  ports. 

France  and  the  States  General.  —  The  Spanish  Netherlands  were 
handed  over  to  the  Dutch  to  be  ceded  to  Austria  so  soon  as  an  "  ade- 
quate barrier  "  could  be  agreed  upon.  In  1713  a  new  treaty  was 
arranged  in  place  of  that  of  1709  which  had  caused  great  dissatisfac- 
tion because  of  the  too  great  concessions  made  to  the  Dutch ;  but  it 
was  not  till  the  conclusion  of  still  a  third,  in  1715,  between  the  Imperial 
Government  and  the  States  General  that  the  Spanish  Netherlands 
were  finally  secured  by  Austria.  Separate  arrangements  were  alsa 
made  with  Prussia,  Portugal,  and  Savoy,  the  latter  securing  Sicily. 
By  the  treaty  between  France  and  the  Empire  the  former  kept  the 
Rhine  as  a  boundary,  while  the  latter  obtained,  in  addition  to  the 
Spanish  Netherlands,  Naples,  Milan,  and  Sardinia. 

Results  of  the  War.  —  The  arrangements  made  at  Utrecht  lasted 
for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century,3  during  which  interval  Great  Britain 
kept  practically  clear  of  continental  wars.  In  general,  the  Allies  had 
gained  the  objects  for  which  they  had  taken  up  arms  in  1700-1702. 
This  had  been  possible  as  early  as  1706,  or  certainly  in  1708  ;  but  not 
long  after  the  opening  of  the  conflict  they  had  undertaken  the  further 
design  of  driving  Philip  from  the  throne  of  Spain,  and,  puffed  up  by 
their  successes,  they  had  driven  Louis  to  desperation,  with  the  con- 
sequence that  he  had  continued  the  fighting  until  he  forced  them  to 
accept  less  than,  in  the  full-tide  of  their  triumph,  they  had  once  rejected. 
Marlborough,  who,  with  his  Whig  supporters,  was  largely  responsible 
for  pushing  the  war  to  an  extremity,  might,  but  for  adverse  conditions 
at  home  and  abroad,  have  realized  his  ambition  of  crushing  France 
utterly  and  dictating  any  terms  he  pleased.  In  strategy  and  in  tactics 
his  achievements  had  been  almost  unparalleled,  but,  on  the  Continent, 
he  had  been  fatally  handicapped  by  the  timidity  of  the  Dutch,  the 
feeble  support  of  the  German  princes,  the  selfish  conflicting  aims  of 
the  Allies,  and  the  inopportune  death  of  Joseph ;  in  England  he  had 

had  occupied  Acadia  (Nova  Scotia) ;  in  1711  an  invasion  of  Canada,  with  the  cap- 
ture of  Quebec  as  its  main  objective,  failed. 

1  A  Spanish  word  meaning  "legal  compact." 

2  An  organization  founded  by  Harley  in  1711  as  a  means  of  funding  the  floating 
debt,  which  then  amounted  to  about  £9,500,000.     The  creditors  were  incorporated 
into  the  South  Sea  Company  and  given  a  monopoly  of  trading  in  the  Spanish 
American  colonies  before  there  was  any  assurance  that  Spain  would  acquiesce. 

*  Except  that  Austria  in  1720  exchanged  Sardinia  for  Sicily. 


672  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

been  confounded  by  Anne's  incurable  horror  of  Whig  domination, 
by  the  violence  of  his  own  wife,  and  the  final  revulsion  of  popular 
feeling  against  contributing  any  more  men  and  money  to  a  cause  in 
which  the  British  had  nothing  further  to  gain.  Nevertheless,  chiefly 
through  his  efforts,  Great  Britain  had  played  a  remarkable  role. 
She  had  "  held  the  Grand  Alliance  together;  she  financed  the  other 
nations ;  her  fleet  had  almost  a  monopoly  of  the  ocean ;  her  soldiers, 
for  the  first  time  since  Agincourt,  decided  the  fate  of  Europe  on  famous 
fields  .  .  .  and  British  ministers  had  dictated  the  terms  of  peace." 
One  seeming  advantage  had  been  lost.  By  a  treaty,  signed  by  the 
French  and  English  on  the  same  day  as  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  each 
had  agreed  to  accord  the  other  privileges  of  the  most  favored  nations ; 
but  owing  to  the  storm  raised  by  the  English  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers, who  declared  that  the  country  would  be  reduced  to  beggary 
if  French  products  were  freely  admitted,  and  who  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing the  Tory  squires  —  by  what  process  of  reasoning  it  is  difficult 
to  appreciate  —  that  rents  and  land  values  would  be  reduced,  the 
ratification  was  defeated  in  Parliament,  June,  1713.  While  England 
has  since  thriven  on  free  trade,  there  seems  to  be  little  doubt,  in  the 
immature  state  of  her  industries  at  that  time,  that  a  small  measure 
of  protection  was  desirable.  Louis,  who  in  eleven  years  had  lost  as 
many  pitched  battles,  succeeded  in  retaining  the  throne  of  Spain 
for  his  grandson  and  for  himself  with  the  exception  of  a  few  border 
towns,  practically  all  that  he  had  acquired  during  the  long  years  of 
his  aggrandizement ;  but  Great  Britain,  besides  making  substantial 
territorial  and  commercial  gains,  had  put  a  stop  to  his  oppressions 
and  struck  a  heavy  blow  at  the  old  regime,  which,  after  a  series  of 
'attacks  more  and  more  frequent  as  the  century  advanced,  was  finally 
swept  away  by  the  French  Revolution. 

The  Rivalry  of  Harley  and  St.  John,  1713-1714.  — The  remainder 
of  Anne's  reign  was  chiefly  occupied  with  the  question  of  the  succes- 
sion and  with  the  struggles  of  the  two  leaders  of  the  Tory  party. 
The  relations  between  Harley  and  St.  John,  which  had  become  strained 
after  the  settlement  of  the  terms  of  peace,  finally  developed  into  an 
open  feud.  St.  John  not  only  chafed  at  the  wary,  unenterprising 
policy  of  his  inscrutable  colleague,  but  he  was  jealous  of  him  as  well. 
Harley  had  been  made  Earl  of  Oxford  and  Lord  Treasurer  in  1711, 
while  St.  John,  created  Viscount  Bolingbroke,  2  June,  1712,  had  to  be 
content  with  the  next  lower  grade  in  the  peerage.  This  he  attributed 
to  the  treachery  of  his  rival,  though  it  was  really  due  to  the  Queen, 
who  could  not  overcome  her  distrust  of  a  man  reputed  to  be  a  free 
thinker  and  a  notorious  evil  liver.  As  yet,  the  Whigs  were  in  no  posi- 
tion to  profit  by  this  personal  rift  in  the  ministry.  Godolphin  died 
in  1712,  while  Marlborough  was  hopelessly  discredited.  Threatened 
with  judicial  proceedings,  baited  by  abusive  pamphlets  and  even 
pursued  on  the  street  by  cries  of  "  Stop  thief !  "  he  finally  retired 
to  the  Continent,  whence  he  did  not  return  till  the  close  of  the  year. 


THE   END   OF  THE  STUART  DYNASTY  673 

The  Whigs,  however,  had  some  advantages  over  their  opponents 
which  told  in  the  long  run :  they  were  grouped  mostly  in  the  populous 
commercial  and  manufacturing  centers,  where  they  could  be  easily 
organized  at  a  crisis,  and  they  were  united  on  the  Hanoverian  succes- 
sion. The  Tories,  on  the  other  hand,  were  scattered  in  the  country 
regions  and  they  were  divided  between  the  exiled  Stuarts  and  the 
Hanoverians.  The  majority  were  unwilling  to  accept  the  Pretender 
so  long  as  he  remained  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  most  of  them, 
remembering  their  blunder  in  1705-1706,  were  disinclined  to  disturb 
the  Queen  any  further  on  the  subject.  The  shifty  Oxford  did  indeed 
try  to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  Hanoverian  family,  but,  finding 
that  the  Whigs  prejudiced  them  against  him,  he  resumed  very  non- 
committal negotiations  with  the  Pretender.  The  Whigs,  who  had 
nothing  more  to  hope  from  royal  favor,  took  no  pains  to  disguise 
their  attitude. 

The  Schism  Act,  1714.  —  The  session  of  1714  proved  a  stormy  one. 
The  Tory  Ministry  was  bitterly  attacked  for  the  recent  peace,  as  well 
as  for  not  taking  more  effectual  means  to  secure  the  Protestant  suc- 
cession. With  great  difficulty  it  defeated  a  motion,  declaring  that 
the  latter  was  in  danger  "  under  the  present  Government,"  and,  by 
a  supreme  effort,  carried  an  address  of  thanks  to  her  Majesty  "  for 
having  by  a  safe,  honorable,  and  advantageous  peace,  delivered  these 
nations  from  a  long  and  consuming  .  .  .  war."  Bolingbroke,  who 
had  at  length  got  a  free  hand,  aimed  a  crushing  blow  at  the  Dissenters 
by  passing  the  Schism  Act,  which  provided  that  no  person  was  to 
keep  or  even  teach  a  public  or  private  school  unless  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Church  of  England.  This  measure,  repealed  four  years  later, 
was  an  attempt  to  cut  at  the  very  roots  of  the  growth  of  the  Dissenting 
faiths  by  making  it  impossible  for  them  to  educate  their  children. 
Bolingbroke,  who  had  himself  been  educated  by  a  Nonconformist 
minister,  was  impelled  by  no  religious  motive ;  his  sole  aim  was  to  out- 
bid the  cautious  Oxford  for  the  favor  of  Queen  Anne. 

The  Dismissal  of  Oxford,  29  July,  1714.  Bolingbroke's  Momentary 
Triumph.  —  He  saw  that  the  time  had  now  come  to  strike  if  ever  he 
were  to  secure  the  supremacy.  The  Queen  was  failing  in  health, 
and,  with  a  Tory  majority,  both  in  Parliament  and  throughout  the 
kingdom,  it  was  essential  to  improve  the  opportunity  while  she  still 
lived  to  fill  every  position,  military  and  civil,  with  trusted  followers, 
in  order  to  meet  the  Whig  reaction  which  was  bound  to  come  with 
her  death  and  the  accession  of  the  Hanoverians.  Oxford  had  shown 
himself  unequal  to  the  work ;  but  Bolingbroke  yearned  to  supplant 
him  in  any  event.  He  has  been  accused  of  plotting  to  bring  in  the 
Pretender,  but  while  his  design  is  far  from  clear,1  it  is  more  probable 
that  his  aim  was  to  secure  control  of  the  State,  ally  himself  with  the 

1  He  himself  wrote  later  to  Sir  W.  Windham :  "As  to  what  might  happen  after- 
wards on  the  death  of  the  Queen,  to  speak  truly,  no  one  of  us  had  any  settled  reso- 
lution." 

ax 


674  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Jacobites,  and,  with  these  weapons  in  his  hands,  make  such  terms  with 
the  Hanoverians  as  would  place  him  at  the  head  of  the  new  Govern- 
ment. It  was  a  time  of  great  perplexity,  when  opinion  and  interests 
were  divided  between  "  attachment  to  the  legitimate  line,  hatred  for 
Germans,  Whigs,  and  Dissenters,  dread  of  French  influence,  and  detes- 
tation of  Popery."  Bolingbroke  made  a  bold  stroke  for  fortune,  and 
it  seemed  for  a  moment  as  if  he  were  going  to  succeed.  On  27  July, 
Oxford  was  suddenly  dismissed  from  office.  While  his  overthrow 
was  due  largely  to  the  intrigues  of  his  rival,  the  reasons  which  Anne 
gave  to  the  Council  have  a  curious  interest :  "  He  neglected  all  busi- 
ness, she  could  seldom  understand  him,  and  even  when  he  was  in- 
telligible she  could  place  no  dependence  on  what  he  said.  He  never 
came  punctually  at  times  when  she  appointed.  When  he  did  come, 
he  was  often  tipsy,  and  behaved  toward  her  with  .  .  .  disrespect." 

The  Death  of  Anne  and  the  Defeat  of  Bolingbroke's  Schemes, 
i  August,  1714.  —  Suddenly,  29  July,  the  Queen  was  stricken  with 
her  last  illness,  and  Bolingbroke's  well-laid  plans  were  thrown  into  con- 
fusion. Had  the  Queen  only  lived  six  weeks,  he  calculated  that  he 
could  have  made  himself  master  of  the  situation.  Already,  a  strong 
faction  had  developed  against  him  and  the  crisis  forced  them  to  act 
quickly.  On  the  3oth,  a  meeting  of  the  Privy  Council,  opened  at 
Whitehall,  adjourned  to  the  royal  residence  of  Kensington.  The 
anti-Bolingbroke  combination  triumphed,  and  either  proposed  or 
forced  Bolingbroke  to  propose  the  old  Whig,  Shrewsbury,  as  Lord 
Treasurer.  His  ascendancy  over  men  was  such,  when  he  chose  to 
assert  it,  that  he  was  known  as  the  "  King  of  Hearts."  Subject  to 
fits  of  faint-heartedness,  he  had  left  England  early  in  William's  reign 
and  lived  for  long  years  in  obscurity  in  Italy.  Since  his  return  in 
1710  he  had  been  a  trusted  councilor  of  the  Queen.  Fortunately 
for  the  cause  of  peace  and  the  Hanoverians,  he  now  showed  a  courage 
and  decision  foreign  to  him  since  the  Revolution  days.  At  the  bed- 
side of  the  dying  Queen  he  received  the  white  staff  of  office  with  the 
royal  command  to  use  it  for  the  good  of  the  country.  At  once  he 
took  measures  for  the  defense  of  the  kingdom  and  the  securing  of  the 
succession.  On  the  morning  of  i  August,  Anne  died.  The  list  of  the 
Council  of  Regency  was  opened  and  read,  and  that  afternoon  the  heralds 
went  about  London  and  Westminster  proclaiming  George  as  King  of 
Great  Britain.  "  The  Earl  of  Oxford  was  removed  on  Tuesday," 
wrote  Bolingbroke  to  Swift,  "  The  Queen  died  on  Sunday.  What 
a  world  is  this !  and  how  does  fortune  banter  us."  His  schemes, 
whatever  they  were,  had  come  to  naught,  and  the  last  of  the  Stuarts 
had  ceased  to  reign. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING 

Narrative.  I.  S.  Leadam,  Political  History  of  England,  1702-1760  (1909),  chs. 
I-XII  (annotated  list  of  authorities,  pp.  502-516).  Trevelyan,  England  under  the 


THE   END   OF  THE   STUART  DYNASTY 


675 


Stuarts,  ch.  XV.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  ch.  XV  (bibliography,  pp.  857-860). 
Ranke,  V,  bk.  XXII,  chs.  I,  II.  J.  F.  Bright,  History  of  England  (1889),  III,  pp.  875- 
928 ;  a  clear  and  accurate  summary  valuable  for  the  remainder  of  the  period.  F.  W. 
Wyon,  History  of  Great  Britain  during  the  Reign  of  Queen  Anne  (2  vols.,  1876) ;  the 
fullest  history  of  the  reign,  but  dry  and  somewhat  antiquated.  Lord  Stanhope,  The 
Reign  of  Queen  Anne  (1870) ;  a  careful  but  less  detailed  account.  W.  E.  H.  Lecky, 
History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (cab.  ed.,  7  vols.,  1907),  I,  chs.  I,  II; 
the  most  informing  general  work  on  the  period. 

Special.  W.  F.  Lord,  "Development  of  Political  Parties  during  the  Reign  of 
Queen  Anne,"  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Historical  Society,  New  Series,  XIV,  1900. 

Army  and  Navy.  W.  Coxe,  Memoirs  of  Marlborough;  good  maps  in  the  ed.  of 
1818.  Fortescue,  British  Army,  chs.  I,  II.  Mahan,  Sea  Power,  ch.  V.  Corbett, 
England  in  the  Mediterranean,  ch.  II. 

Biography.  Hon.  H.  Elliot,  The  Life  of  Sidney,  Earl  of  Godolphin  (1888).  T. 
Macknight's  (1863)  is  still  the  best  life  of  Bolingbroke;  a  more  recent  work  is  that 
of  W.  Sichel  (1901) ;  C.  Collin's  (1888)  is  a  stimulating  sketch.  E.  B.  Roscoe, 
Harley,  Earl  of  Oxford  (1902). 

Contemporary.  Burnet,  Own  Times,  chs.V,  VI.  Swift,  The  Conduct  of  the  Allies 
(1711);  the  Four  Last  Years  of  Queen  Anne.  Bolingbroke,  Letters  on  the  State  of 
Parties  at  the  Accession  of  George  I. 

Scotland  and  Ireland.  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  III,  bk.  VII,  ch.  III.  W.  L.  Matthie- 
son,  Scotland  and  the  Unionl  1695-1747  (1905).  D.  DeFoe,  History  of  the  Union, 
between  England  and  Scotland  (1787);  a  valuable  contemporary  account.  Lecky, 
Ireland  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (3  vols.,  1873-1874),  I. 

The  Church.  Hutton,  English  Church,  chs.  XIV,  XV.  Stoughton,  V.  Abbey,  and 
Overton,  The  English  Church  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (1896);  the  authoritative 
work  on  the  period. 


Louis  XIII, 

1609-1643 

1 

Louis  XIV, 

Philip, 

1643-1715 

Duke  of  Orleans, 

d.  1710 

Louis  (dauphin), 
d.  1711 

Philip  (Regent), 

d.  1723. 

Louis, 
Duke  of  Burgundy, 

Philip,  King  of  Spain, 
d.  1746 

Great-great-grand- 
father of 

d.  1712 

1 

Loxns  XV, 

r~           ~~i 

Ferdinand                Charles, 

1715-1774 

of  Spain            King  of  Naples 

Louis  (dauphin), 

d.  1765 

Louis  XVI, 
i774~I793 

Louis  XVIII,              CHARLES  X, 

1815-1824                    1824-1830, 
abdicated. 

Louis  PHILIPPE, 
1830-1848 

Louis  XVII, 

Grandfather 

never  reigned, 
d.  1795 

of  the  Count 
de  Chambord, 

Duke  of         Duke 

who  died 

Orleans,       d'Aumale 

without  issue, 

d.  1842 

1884 

i 

Count  de 

Paris, 

d.  1894 

Philip, 

Duke  of  Orleans 

CHAPTER  XXXIX 
THE  FIRST  HANOVERIAN,   GEORGE  I   (1714-1727) 

The  Peaceful  Reception  of  the  Hanoverian  Dynasty.  —  While 
the  people  were  "  gaping  and  staring,"  the  crisis  passed.  Bolingbroke 
and  the  other  Tory  leaders  remained  inactive,  stocks  rose,  and  Par- 
liament, when  it  met,  voted  a  reward  of  £100,000  for  the  capture  of 
the  Pretender.  Hurrying  to  Paris  on  the  news  of  Anne's  death,  he 
found  the  prospect  so  discouraging  that  he  returned  to  Lorraine. 
The  arrival  of  the  new  King,  18  September,  provoked  no  opposition 
and  awakened  some  enthusiasm.  Already  before  crossing  the  Channel 
he  dismissed  Bolingbroke.  "  The  grief  of  my  soul  is  this,"  wrote  the 
fallen  Minister ;  "I  see  plainly  that  the  Tory  party  is  gone."  The  new 
Ministry  was  wholly  Whig,  with  the  exception  of  Nottingham,  who 
had  joined  in  opposition  to  the  peace  in  1711.  Charles,  Viscount 
Townshend,  was  made  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Northern  Depart- 
ment and  Chief  Minister.  Robert  Walpole,  his  brother-in-law,  be- 
came Paymaster  General.  Marlborough  was  restored  to  his  position 
as  Commander-in-Chief,  but  was  rarely  consulted ;  and  was  soon 
attacked  by  a  paralytic  stroke  which  left  him  with  impaired  powers 
during  the  few  remaining  years  of  his  life.  Shrewsbury,  although  he 
retained  the  office  of  Lord  Chamberlain,  resigned  the  Treasurership 
and  relapsed  into  his  former  inactivity. 

The  New  Bang.  —  George  Lewis  inherited  the  crown  from  his 
mother,  Sophia,  who  had  died  in  the  previous  June  at  the  ripe  age  of 
eighty-three.  He  was  at  this  time  fifty-four  years  old  and  had  been 
Elector  of  Hanover  since  1698.  As  a  youth  of  twenty  he  had  visited 
England  as  a  suitor  for  the  Princess  Anne,  but  had  been  recalled  to  marry 
his  cousin,  Sophia  Dorothea.  Two  children  resulted  from  this  union  : 
George  who  succeeded  to  the  English  throne  in  1727,  and  Sophia  Doro- 
thea, who  became  the  mother  of  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia.  George 
alienated  his  wife  by  coldness  and  neglect  until  finally  in  the  night  of 
i  July,  1694,  she  attempted  to  flee  with  a  Swedish  adventurer, 
Philip  von  Konigsmarck.  The  plan  was  discovered,  though  George 
was  absent  on  a  journey  to  Berlin;  Konigsmarck  was  murdered; 
Sophia  was  divorced  and  kept  prisoner  till  her  death  in  1726.  This 
rigorous  treatment  was  one  of  the  many  grounds  of  hostility  between 
father  and  son  in  years  to  come.  The  early  life  of  the  future  King 
had  been  an  active  one:  he  had  fought  for  the  Emperor  against 
the  Turks,  he  had  seen  service  under  King  William,  he  had 

676 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,    GEORGE  I  677 

joined  the  Grand  Alliance,  and  for  three  years  commanded  the  Im- 
perial forces  on  the  Upper  Rhine.  While  he  remained  loyal  to  the 
cause,  he  finally  withdrew  from  the  command  in  1710,  disgusted  at 
the  lack  of  support.  He  had  carefully  refrained  from  meddling  in 
English  affairs,  though  after  the  death  of  his  mother  he  apparently 
took  a  more  lively  interest  in  the  succession  struggle. 

Personal  Traits  and  Favorites.  —  Even  as  a  young  man  he  was  frigid 
and  silent,  qualities  which  clung  to  him  through  life.  His  vivacious 
granddaughter,  WiLhelmina,  sister  of  Frederick  the  Great,  describing 
a  visit  to  Berlin,  speaks  of  his  "Spanish  manners,"  his  "'extreme 
gravity,"  and  says  he  "  hardly  spoke  a  word  to  anybody."  He  was 
heavy  and  awkward,  narrow  and  obstinate.  In  Hanover  he  was 
extremely  popular ;  for  he  loved  his  country  and  his  people  as  much  as 
he  was  capable  of  loving  anything.  So  he  started  for  his  new  king- 
dom "  without  ceremony  and  without  elation."  Two  female  favorites 
followed  in  his  train.  One,  the  Countess  von  Kielmannsegge,  created 
Countess  of  Darlington,  was  so  fat  and  unwieldy  that  she  was  known 
as  the  "  Elephant " ;  the  other,  the  Countess  von  Schulenburg,  created 
Duchess  of  Kendal,  was  old,  tall,  and  lean,  and  got  the  name  of  the 
"  Maypole,"  1  —  a  queer  creature  who,  after  George's  death,  thought 
that  his  spirit  came  to  her  in  the  form  of  a  raven  perched  at  her  window. 
Both  were  rapacious  and  drove  a  thriving  trade  in  patronage.  In  addi- 
tion, there  were  George's  German  councilors,  Bothmar  and  Bernstorff, 
and  his  French  secretary,  Robethon.  These,  and  even  his  two  black 
servants,  Mustapha  and  Mahomet,  combined  to  fleece  the  people, 
thus  adding  to  the  unpopularity  which  the  new  King's  uncouth  ways, 
low,  common  tastes,  his  unconcealed  preference  for  his  native  land, 
and  ignorance  of  the  English  language  and  customs  were  bound  to 
create.  Yet,  unheroic  and  parsimonious  as  he  was,  he  was  much  to  be 
preferred  to  his  Stuart  rival.  He  was  courageous,  just,  and  prudent, 
painstaking,  frugal  in  his  expenses,  and  punctual  in  his  payments ; 
he  defended  the  country  from  invasion,  kept  the  peace  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  formed  strong  alliances.  He  has  been  justly  accused  of 
guiding  his  foreign  policy  primarily  in  the  Hanoverian  interests, 
but  they  were  usually  to  England's  advantage  and  never  to  her  detri- 
ment. Moreover,  by  his  very  indifference  to  English  domestic  con- 
cerns, and  by  letting  his  Whig  ministers  run  the  affairs  of  the  country,2 
he  contributed  greatly  to  the  growth  of  Cabinet  and  party  government. 

The  Prospects  of  the  New  Reign.  —  Although  the  new  King  had 
been  brought  in  without  bloodshed,  his  prospects  were  by  no  means 
unclouded.  The  energy  of  Shrewsbury  and  the  Council  had  dumb- 
founded the  Jacobites,  and  the  army,  and  the  moneyed  classes  were 
strongly  Hanoverian  ;  but  George's  unqualified  support  of  the  Whigs, 
the  exclusion  of  the  Tories  from  all  preferment,  together  with  the 
bitter  attacks  directed  against  them  for  their  actions  during  the  last 

1  Carlyle  suggested  that  she  might  better  have  been  called  the  "hop-pole." 

2  Except  at  rare  intervals  when  they  came  in  conflict  with  his  foreign  policy. 


678  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

years  of  Queen  Anne,  tended  to  force  even  the  more  moderate  into 
the  arms  of  the  Pretender.  Scotland  was  seething  with  discontent,  and 
Ireland  was  only  held  down  by  crushing  laws  backed  by  military 
force.  Abroad,  Prussia  and  Holland  were  the  only  Powers  upon  which 
the  Hanoverians  could  safely  count ;  France  was  still  smarting  from 
her  recent  humiliation,  while  Spain  was  her  ally.  The  Emperor  felt 
himself  defrauded  by  the  late  peace,  and  was  not  on  good  terms  with 
George. 

Popular  Discontent  in  England.  The  Riot  Act,  1715.  —  No  sooner 
was  the  -crisis  of  the  succession  passed  than  popular  discontent  began 
to  manifest  itself.  Riots  broke  out  at  Bristol  and  other  places, 
"  foreign  government  "  was  denounced,  Dissenters  were  insulted, 
their  chapels  were  attacked,  and  Tory  pamphlets  poured  from  the 
press  with  such  titles  as  "  Stand  Fast  for  the  Church,"  and  "  No 
Presbyterian  Government."  l  Nevertheless,  the  Tory  Parliament, 
which,  according  to  law,  came  to  an  end  six  months  after  the  death  of 
the  late  Sovereign,  was  succeeded  by  one  in  which  the  Whigs  were 
in  the  majority,  a  majority  which  they  retained  for  nearly  fifty  years. 
The  elections  were  attended  with  the  usual  violence.2  In  view  of  the 
recent  tumults  a  Riot  Act  was  passed  early  in  1715,  providing  that 
if  any  twelve  persons,  assembled  for  the  disturbance  of  the  peace, 
should  refuse  to  disperse  after  proclamation  read  by  a  magistrate, 
they  might  be  treated  as  felons,  and  those  who  shot  them  down  would 
not  be  answerable  for  murder. 

Impeachment  of  the  Tory  Leaders,  1715.  —  A  select  committee  was 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  and  Bolingbroke, 
Oxford,  and  Ormonde  were  impeached.  Bolingbroke  and  Ormonde 
fled  the  country,  which  drew  down  acts  of  attainder  upon  their  heads. 
Oxford  remained  to  face  his  accusers.  Party  spirit  was  intense 
during  the  investigation.  Walpole,  for  instance,  declared  that  he 
wanted  words  "  to  express  the  villany  of  the  late  Frenchified  Ministry." 
The  only  defense  Oxford  could  offer  was  that  he  had  acted  under 
royal  orders.  Though  he  was  held  prisoner  in  the  Tower  for  two 
years,  proceedings  against  him  were  dropped  in  1717.  His  was  the 
last  case  in  English  history  of  an  impeachment  on  purely  political 
grounds.  Ormonde  never  again  set  foot  in  England,  though  in  his 
exile  he  was  busy  for  years  in  the  Pretender's  cause.  Bolingbroke,  after 
the  news  of  his  attainder  reached  him  in  France,  openly  espoused  the 
Stuart  cause,  and  became  Secretary  of  State  to  James  and  the  leading 
spirit  in  the'famous  movement  of  1715  to  restore  the  old  line  by  means 
of  a  general  rising  supported  by  an  invasion  from  France. 

1  The  best  reply  was  by  Addison,  entitled  A  Tory's  Creed,  in  which  he  exposed 
the  inconsistencies  of  the  High  Church  Jacobites.     The  first  article  declares  ironi- 
cally :   "The  Church  of  England  will  always  be  in  danger  till  it  has  a  Popish  King 
for  its  defender." 

2  At  Cambridge,  for  instance,  a  body  of  undergraduates  mounted  on  the  roof  of 
St.  John's  College  "with  a  good  store  of  brickbats"  to  discharge  on  the  heads  of 
the  newly  elected  members  as  they  passed. 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,   GEORGE  I  679 

The  Rising  of  1715.  —  The  success  of  the  undertaking  depended 
upon  three  conditions:  England  and  Scotland  should  rise  together; 
James  should  be  on  the  spot;  and  he  should  have  substantial  aid 
from  abroad.  None  of  these  conditions  were  fulfilled,  the  movement 
only  came  to  a  head  in  the  north  of  England  and  in  Scotland,  and 
resulted  in  hopeless  failure.  The  prompt  and  decisive  measures  of 
the  Government  prevented  a  rising  in  the  south  and  west  of  England 
which  Ormonde  had  been  planning  before  his  flight ;  fleets  were  set 
to  guard  the  ports,  and  when  he  sought  to  return  at  the  head  of  a 
small  expedition,  he  was  prevented  even  from  landing.  The  next 
blow  came  with  the  death  of  Louis  XIV,  i  September.  Again  Boling- 
broke  had  been  frustrated  by  a  death ;  for  Louis  was  an  ardent  cham- 
pion of  the  exiled  family  and  was  burning  to  retrieve  his  recent  defeat. 
He  was  succeeded  by  his  great-grandson  Louis  XV,  a  sickly  child. 
The  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  became  Regent,  was  the  next  heir  after 
Philip  V  of  Spain.  Hoping  (in  the  event  of  the  death  of  the  little 
King)  to  prevent  Philip  from  repudiating  his  renunciation  of  the  throne 
of  France,  he  gave  no  countenance  to  the  Jacobite  leaders.  With  no 
prospect  of  a  rising  in  southern  England  or  of  support  from  France, 
Bolingbroke  sent  messages  to  prevent  the  Scots  from  taking  up  arms 
but  it  was  too  late. 

The  Earl  of  Mar  summons  the  Clans  and  occupies  Perth.  —  North 
of  the  Border  the  opposition  to  the  existing  Government  was  too  bitter 
and  widespread  to  be  satisfied  with  scheming,  grumbling,  drinking 
toasts  to  the  "  King  over  the  water,"  and  with  occasional  riots.  The 
Highlanders  still  nursed  their  hatred  against  the  Campbells;  the 
Episcopalians  and  the  Roman  Catholics  chafed  at  the  Presbyterian 
regime ;  and  the  majority  of  Scotsmen  were  not  yet  reconciled 
to  the  Union.  The  leader  of  the  rising  was  the  Earl  of  Mar,  known 
as  "  Bobbing  John,"  from  the  readiness  with  which  he  shifted  from 
one  party  to  the  other.  Though  he  had  professed  loyalty  to  George  I 
he  was  dismissed  from  office,  whereupon  he  went  over  to  the  Jacobites. 
On  6  September,  1715,  he  set  up  the  Stuart  banner  at  Braemar, 
whither,  within  a  few  days,  thousands  flocked  to  join  him.  The 
English  authorities  acted  promptly,  suspected  persons  were  arrested, 
an  attempt  of  the  Edinburgh  Jacobites  to  seize  the  Castle  was  frustrated, 
the  Duke  of  Argyle  was  put  in  command  of  the  Government  forces 
and  occupied  Stirling.  Mar,  marching  south,  entered  Perth,  28 
September,  but  as  a  general  he  proved  overcautious  and  ineffective. 
The  Highlanders  could  only  be  relied  upon  for  a  short,  dashing  cam- 
paign, a  victory  was  essential  to  encourage  the  disaffected,  while 
every  day  Argyle's  forces  swelled  in  numbers  as  his  own  dwindled 
away.  Nevertheless,  he  remained  inactive  for  weeks. 

Preston  and  Sheriff  Muir,  13  November,  1715.  —  He  did,  however, 
dispatch  a  force  under  Brigadier  Mackintosh,  which,  after  failing 
to  capture  Edinburgh,  marched  to  the  Border.  There,  22  October, 
Mackintosh  combined  with  a  small  force  of  Lowlanders  who  had  re- 


680  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

cently  been  joined  by  a  body  of  Jacobite  gentlemen  from  Cumberland 
and  Northumberland  under  Thomas  Forster,  a  member  of  Parliament. 
The  English  would  not  march  farther  north  into  Scotland,  while 
the  Scots  were  reluctant  to  enter  England.  Finally,  they  moved 
aimlessly  southwest  along  the  Cheviots;  five  hundred  Highlanders 
deserted,  and  Forster  proceeded  southward  with  the  remainder  of  his 
little  force.  He  got  as  far  as  Preston,  where,  hemmed  in  by  General 
Wills  from  Manchester  and  General  Carpenter  from  Newcastle,  he 
surrendered  13  November.1  On  the  same  day,  Mar's  army,  which 
had  at  length  advanced  from  Perth,  and  Argyle's  marching  up  from 
Stirling,  met  at  Sheriff  Muir.  Each  was  victorious  against  his  op- 
ponent's left  wing,  but  Mar  withdrew  his  forces  from  the  field.  Many 
no  doubt  shared  the  feelings  of  the  Highlander  who  cried :  "  Oh  for 
an  hour  of  Dundee !  "  and  the  Camerons  on  their  return  to  their 
native  glen  kept  the  secret  from  their  aged  chief.  Argyle,  content 
with  having  stopped  the  advance  of  the  rebels,  returned  to  Stirling. 

The  Arrival  of  the  Pretender.  The  Final  Collapse.  —  While 
Mar's  forces  were  rapidly  melting  away,  and,  just  as  he  had  opened 
peace  negotiations,  the  Pretender  arrived,  22  December,  1715,  with 
a  single  ship  and  attended  by  only  eight  gentlemen.  He  had  started 
from  Lorraine  in  October ;  but,  unable  to  take  ship  at  St.  Malo  as 
he  had  planned,  he  was  obliged  to  journey  on  horseback  all  the  way 
to  Dunkirk.  Mar,  directly  he  heard  of  his  landing,  hastened  to 
meet  him.  He  was  proclaimed  as  James  III  of  England  and  James 
VIII  of  Scotland.  He  was  received  with  some  enthusiasm  as  he 
journeyed  to  Scone,  where  his  coronation  was  appointed  to  take  place. 
There  he  set  up  a  court,  and  the  Jacobite  ladies  contributed  their 
jewels  to  make  him  a  crown.  But  he  was  in  a  desperate  position. 
The  Earl  of  Sutherland,  who  had  taken  the  Hanoverian  side,  was  closing 
in  on  him  from  the  north,  while  Argyle,  reenforced  by  6000  Dutch 
troops,  was  marching  up  from  the  south.  Nor  was  James  the  one  to 
inspire  a  forlorn  hope  in  "  the  little  kings  "  or  their  clans.  "  Some 
said  the  circumstances  he  found  us  in  dejected  him,"  wrote  a  sup- 
porter; "  I  am  sure  the  figure  he  made  dejected  us."  Mar  speedily 
realized  that  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  get  him  out  of  the  coun- 
try as  soon  as  possible.  The  Pretender  himself  has  been  accused  of 
urging  the  flight ;  if  so,  it  was  only  because  he  recognized  the  inevi- 
table. At  Montrose  he  and  the  Earl  embarked  for  France,  while  the 
clansmen  sullenly  dispersed  to  their  homes  across  the  snow.2  James 
retired  first  to  Avignon  and  thence  to  Rome.  While  still  in  France 
he  foolishly  dismissed  Bolingbroke,  the  wisest  councilor  he  had,  who 

1  The  ineffectiveness  of  the  defense  is  explained  partly  from  the  fact  that  For- 
ster did  not  leave  his  bed  that  morning  when  a  council  of  war  was  held,  having 
received  "some  damage  at  a  convivial  entertainment"  the  night  before. 

*  James  left  money  to  be  distributed  among  those  whose  homes  had  been  devas- 
tated for  his  sake  :  "So  that  I  might  at  least  have  the  satisfaction,"  he  declared, 
"of  having  been  the  destruction  of  none,  at  a  time  when  I  came  to  free  all." 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,    GEORGE  I  681 

expressed  a  wish  "  that  his  arm  might  rot  off  if  he  ever  again  drew 
his  sword  or  his  pen  "  in  his  cause.  The  treatment  of  those  concerned 
in  the  rebellion  was  as  mild  as  could  be  expected.  Six  peers  captured 
at  Preston  were  impeached :  two  were  spared ;  two  escaped  from  the 
Tower,  one,  Lord  Nithesdale,  in  his  wife's  clothes ;  the  other  two  were 
executed.  The  lesser  men  were  tried  in  the  ordinary  courts,  but  of 
those  adjudged  guilty  only  about  thirty  were  put  to  death.  Forster 
escaped,  and  few  of  the  Scots  were  captured.  Thus  ended  the  ill- 
managed  and  unfortunate  rising  of  1715. 

The  Septennial  Act,  1716.  —  Such  little  popularity  as  the  Whig 
Government  enjoyed  was  bound  to  be  diminished  by  the  repressive 
measures  which  it  was  necessary  to  employ  against  the  Jacobites. 
Consequently,  the  Ministry  was  unwilling  to  run  the  risk  of  a  general 
election  at  the  end  of  another  year.  This  was  the  real  reason  which 
led,  in  1716,  to  the  passage  of  the  Septennial  Act,  extending  the  possible 
duration  of  Parliament  from  three  to  seven  years.1  The  difficulty 
might  have  been  met  by  a  temporary  measure;  but  it  was  thought 
wiser  to  justify  the  action  on  permanent  grounds.  The  Act  of  1694, 
designed  to  remedy  an  obvious  abuse,  had  proved  far  from  effectual 
and  was  open  to  serious  objections  besides.  It  was  too  great  a  strain 
on  the  country  to  choose  representatives  every  three  years,  at  a  time 
when  elections  were  long,  costly,  and  usually  tumultuous.  Then,  as 
Steele  argued  without  overmuch  exaggeration,  the  first  year  of  a 
parliament  was  largely  occupied  in  deciding  contested  elections,  in  the 
third  the  members  were  mainly  engaged  in  cultivating  their  con- 
stituents, so  that  practically  only  one  year  was  devoted  to  business  of 
legislation.  Also,  a  longer  term  was  necessary  to  protect  the  members, 
on  the  one  hand,  from  the  Crown  and  the  peers  who  controlled  many 
seats ;  and,  on  the  other,  from  too  great  subservience  to  electors.  It 
should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  there  are  many  good  reasons 
why  the  people,  capricious  as  they  often  are,  should  have  frequent 
opportunities  to  call  their  representatives  to  account.  Such  was  not 
the  view  which  prevailed  among  the  Whig  aristocracy  then  in  control. 

George's  Journey  to  Hanover,  1716.  The  European  Situation.  — 
No  sooner  was  the  danger  from  the  rebellion  over  than  George  deter- 
mined to  visit  his  Hanoverian  dominion.  There  were  two  difficulties 
in  the  way.  The  first  was  the  restraining  clause  in  the  Act  of  Settle- 
ment. That  was  easily  repealed  without  an  opposing  vote ;  for  the 
Whigs  were  anxious  to  please  the  King,  while  the  Tories,  by  making 
it  possible  for  him  to  make  frequent  trips  abroad,  hoped  to  increase 
his  unpopularity.2  The  other  difficulty  which  arose  from  his  un- 
willingness to  intrust  the  government  to  Prince  George  during  his 
absence  caused  more  difficulty.  Father  and  son  were  bitterly  at 
odds,  a  characteristic  of  the  Hanoverian  family  which  continued 
through  the  next  three  or  four  generations.  The  King  suggested 

1  It  remained  in  force  till  1911,  when  the  term  was  shortened  to  five  years. 

2  Altogether  he  made  seven  journeys  to  Hanover  and  died  during  the  last. 


682  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

a  commission  for  the  exercise  of  the  royal  authority ;  but  the  matter 
was  finally  compromised  by  conferring  upon  the  Prince  of  Wales  the 
title  of  Guardian  of  the  Realm  and  Lieutenant,1  instead  of  the  more 
usual  one  of  Regent,  at  the  same  time  carefully  restricting  his  powers. 
Thereupon,  9  July,  1716,  George  started  for  Hanover,  where  he  was 
so  happy  that  "  he  seemed  to  have  forgot  the  accident  that  happened 
to  him  i  August,  1714."  The  situation,  however,  which  he  had  to 
face  was  very  disquieting.  Among  the  European  powers  he  had  only 
two  sure  friends  and  many  enemies,  active  or  passive. 

The  Triple  Alliance,  1716-1717.  —  The  desire  of  the  Regent  of 
France  to  secure  English  support  appeared  to  offer  the  best  prospect 
of  strength  abroad  and  peace  at  home.  Yet  an  alliance  with  France 
seemed  on  the  face  of  it  such  a  reversal  of  traditional  Whig  policy 
that  Townshend  and  Stanhope  2  naturally  hesitated ;  but,  after  all, 
the  principal  aims  of  that  party  had  been  to  secure  the  Revolution 
settlement,  and  to  prevent  the  French  from  securing  the  control  of 
the  Spanish  colonies  and  trade.  If  both  these  objects  could  be  secured 
by  a  diplomatic  arrangement  with  the  Regent,  there  was  no  reason  for 
continued  hostility  to  France.  The  agent  selected  by  the  Regent  in 
the  negotiations  which  followed  was  the  Abbe  Dubois,  afterwards 
Cardinal  and  Chief  Minister,  a  man  of  uncommon  abilities,  but  shame- 
less and  unprincipled,  who  sought  the  advancement  of  his  master's 
interests  and  his  own  at  the  expense  of  those  of  his  country  —  "  a 
priest  without  religion  and  a  politician  without  honor."  Before  the 
close  of  1716  a  treaty  was  signed  by  Stanhope  and  Dubois  in  which 
the  Dutch  were  to  be  included.  It  provided  that  the  Pretender 
should  be  excluded  from  France  and  that  the  renunciation  of  Philip 
should  be  confirmed.  Thus  the  danger  in  the  south  was  in  a  fair 
way  to  be  averted ;  but  the  situation  in  the  north  continued  threaten- 
ing. Charles  XII  of  Sweden  was  roused  to  hostility  from  an  arrange- 
ment which  George  had  made  with  Denmark  by  which  he  was  enabled 
to  purchase  the  old  German  bishoprics  of  Bremen  and  Verden.3 
Moreover,  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia,  anxious  to  secure  a  foothold  in 
the  Empire,  had  recently  poured  an  army  into  the  Duchy  of  Mecklen- 
burg and  quartered  an  army  in  Denmark.  George  was  anxious  to 
employ  the  English  fleet,  which  had  been  sent  to  the  Baltic  in  July, 
1715,  to  drive  him  out.  Stanhope  agreed,  but  Townshend  warmly 
opposed  the  project.  He  also  withheld  his  assent  to  the  Triple 
Alliance  until  he  was  assured  of  the  willingness  of  the  Dutch  to  join.4 

The  Cabinet  Crisis  of  1716-1717.  —  The  remonstrances  of  George, 
backed  by  Denmark  and  the  Emperor,  finally  induced  the  Tsar  to 
recall  his  troops  without  war ;  but  the  attitude  of  Townshend  con- 

1  A  title  which  had  not  been  used  since  the  days  of  the  Black  Prince. 

2  Townshend's  colleague  as  Secretary.    He  accompanied  George  to  Hanover. 

3  They  had  been  acquired  in  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia  by  the  Swedes  in  1648, 
but  had  been  conquered  by  the  Danes  in  1712. 

4  They  finally  signed  in  January,  1715. 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,   GEORGE  I  683 

tributed  to  a  split  in  the  Whig  Ministry.  Many  other  causes  were 
at  work  to  alienate  the  King  from  Townshend  and  his  supporters. 
For  one  thing,  a  serious  misunderstanding  arose  as  to  the  payment 
of  a  body  of  German  troops  which  George  had  engaged  to  assist  in 
the  suppression  of  the  Rising  of  1715.  Since  Walpole,  who  had  ar- 
ranged the  matter  with  the  King,  could  speak  no  French  or  German 
and  George  could  speak  no  English,  with  the  consequence  that  they 
had  been  reduced  to  communicating  in  Latin,  there  was  ample  oppor- 
tunity for  misunderstandings.  In  addition,  the  German  favorites, 
whose  schemes  for  fleecing  the  English  Townshend  rudely  opposed, 
threw  their  influence  against  him,  while  Sunderland,  embittered  be- 
cause he  had  not  obtained  a  leading  place  in  the  Cabinet,  was  intrigu- 
ing busily  with  the  King  in  Hanover.  They  made  the  most  of  the 
fact  that  the  Chief  Secretary  was  overbearing  in  manner  and  inclined 
to  be  negligent  in  business.  The  crisis  came  when  Townshend  applied 
for  more  discretionary  power  for  the  Prince  of  Wales,  whereupon 
the  King  dismissed  him  from  the  office  of  Secretary  in  December. 
Stanhope,  who  managed  to  secure  for  him  the  Lord  Lieutenancy  of 
Ireland,  has  been  accused  of  bad  faith  toward  his  colleague,  but, 
whether  or  no  that  be  true,  the  attitude  he  took  is  an  indication  that 
the  idea  of  Cabinet  solidarity  had  as  yet  made  little  progress.  The 
prevailing  Whig  sentiment  was  gloomy  and  resentful.  They  de- 
nounced the  step  as  a  proof  of  "  the  ascendancy  of  continental  politics 
over  English  concerns  "  and  the  period  from  1717  to  1720,  during 
which  Stanhope  was  at  the  head  of  affairs,  was  known  as  that  of  the 
"  German  Ministry." 

Walpole  in  Opposition,  1717.  —  In  April,  the  King  finally  dismissed 
Townshend  from  office  altogether.  Walpole,  though  George  pressed 
him  to  stay,  insisted  on  resigning,  thus  acting  on  the  principle  of 
Cabinet  unity  which  he  later  did  so  much  to  develop.  In  spite,  how- 
ever, of  his  profession  "  that  the  tenor  of  his  conduct  should  show  that 
he  never  intended  to  make  the  King  uneasy,  nor  to  embarrass  his 
affairs,"  he  entered  on  a  course  of  violent  opposition  which  lasted  till 
he  again  resumed  office.  He  opposed  the  renewal  of  the  Mutiny  Act 
and  he  made  a  strenuous  effort  to  reduce  the  standing  army  to  12,000 
men.  "  The  parties  of  Walpole  and  Stanhope,"  wrote  Pope,  "  are 
as  violent  as  Whig  and  Tory."  l  In  spite  of  discord,  however,  the 
session  of  1 7 1 7  was  fruitful  in  wise  legislation.  Among  other  measures, 
Stanhope  carried  into  effect  a  scheme  for  the  reduction  of  the  National 
Debt  which  Walpole  himself  had  devised  just  before  his  resignation, 
which  marks  the  beginning  of  the  English  Sinking  Fund.  In  1718  he 

1  In  this  year,  1717,  a  bitter  struggle  between  Benjamin  Hoadley,  Bishop  of 
Bangor,  and  the  High  Church  party  came  to  a  head.  He  expressed  views  against 
the  Divine  Right  of  kings  and  the  Divine  Institution  of  Episcopacy  which  cut  at 
the  very  foundations  of  their  belief  and  led  them  to  denounce  him  in  Convocation. 
The  chief  result  was  the  suspension  of  the  sittings  of  that  body,  which  never  met 
again  till  1852. 


684  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

managed  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the  Occasional  Conformity  Act  of 
1711  and  the  Schism  Act  of  1714.  Again,  he  met  with  the  bitter  re- 
sistance of  Walpole,  who  had  once  compared  the  latter  measure  to  a 
"  decree  of  Julian  the  Apostate."  At  the  same  time,  Stanhope  tried 
and  failed  to  do  away  with  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts.  The 
custom  of  employing  the  sacrament  as  "an  office  key,  a  picklock  to  a 
place, " :  was  a  grave  scandal,  bound  to  degrade  the  most  sacred  symbol 
of  Christianity,  as  well  as  the  men  of  Dissenting  faith  or  of  no  faith 
at  all,  who  took  it  for  purely  political  purposes.  Swift  once  com- 
mented on  the  practice  with  his  usual  biting  sarcasm.  "  I  was  early," 
he  writes,  "  with  the  Secretary  [Bolingbroke],  but  he  was  gone  to  his 
devotions  and  to  receive  the  sacrament.  Several  rakes  did  the  same. 
It  was  not  from  piety,  but  for  employment  under  the  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment." Beginning  in  1727,  the  custom  arose  of  passing  annual  in- 
demnity acts,  protecting  from  punishment  those  who  accepted  office 
without  taking  the  sacramental  test ;  but  the  concession  was  churlish 
and  unsatisfactory,  for  it  purported  to  relieve  only  those  who  "  through 
ignorance  of  the  law,  absence  or  unavoidable  accident,"  failed  to 
qualify.  Some  who  could  allege  none  of  these  excuses  were  chal- 
lenged, others  were  too  scrupulous  to  take  advantage  of  such  an 
evasion  of  the  law ;  but  numbers  of  Dissenters  were  admitted  to  office 
in  this  way  till  the  final  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  in 
1828. 

The  Projects  of  Elizabeth  of  Spain  and  Cardinal  Alberoni.  —  Mean- 
time, Elizabeth,  second  wife  of  Philip  of  Spain,  and  her  Minister  and 
favorite,  Cardinal  Alberoni,  had,  by  their  ambitious  projects,  plunged 
into  a  war  with  Austria,  a  war  in  which  England  and  France  took  a 
slight  share.  There  were  many  outstanding  difficulties,  for  no  formal 
peace  had  ever  been  made  between  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of  Spain. 
Elizabeth  Farnese 2  was  determined  to  secure  the  duchies  of  Parma  and 
Tuscany  both  as  a  check  on  imperial  dominion  in  Italy  and  as  a  herit- 
age for  her  son  Don  Carlos  3  Alberoni,  the  son  of  a  poor  Italian 
gardener,  was  fired  with  an  ambition  to  drive  Austria  from  his  native 
country  and  to  restore  Spain  to  her  former  greatness.  He  was  a 
grotesque  creature,  but  possessed  of  a  soaring  imagination,  tireless 
energy,  and  considerable  executive  ability.  By  a  series  of  funda- 
mental reforms  he  managed  to  lift  Spain  from  her  sloth,  corruption, 
and  superstition,  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  sought  to  dictate  the  policy 
of  Europe.  Before  he  had  time  to  develop  his  resources  he  was  forced 
into  war  by  the  fiery  Queen.  Still,  it  seemed  a  good  time  to  strike ; 
for  Austria  was  involved  in  war  with  the  Turks,  1716-1718. 

The  Quadruple  Alliance,  August,  1718.  —  In  August,  1717,  a 
Spanish  fleet  made  itself  master  of  Sardinia.  Thereupon,  England, 

1  The  phrase  occurs  in  a  famous  poem  of  Cowper  on  the  subject. 

2  Carlyle  called  her  the  "Spanish  virago,"  the  "termagant  of  Spain." 

3  The  heir  to  Spain  was  Ferdinand ,  son  of  Philip  by  his  first  wife,  though  Carlos 
ultimately  succeeded  him  as  Charles  III. 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,   GEORGE   I  685 

which  in  May,  1716,  had  made  a  treaty  with  Austria  by  which  each 
Power  guaranteed  the  dominions  of  the  other  against  attack,  felt  bound 
to  mediate.  Without  declaring  war  on  Spain,  a  fleet  was  fitted  out 
under  Admiral  Byng.  When  Alberoni,  who  roared  that  his  master 
was  treated  like  a  "  king  of  plaster,"  or  a  "  German,"  refused  to  listen 
to  peace,  and  prepared  a  second  and  much  more  formidable  expedition, 
the  English  squadron  was  dispatched  to  the  Mediterranean.  In 
July,  1 718,  peace  with  the  Turks  freed  a  considerable  force  of  Imperial 
troops  for  service  in  Italy.  The  same  month  a  treaty  was  concluded 
by  England  and  France  with  Austria,1  which,  after  it  was  joined  by 
the  Dutch  in  the  following  year,  was  known  as  the  Quadruple  Alli- 
ance. It  provided,  among  other  things,  that  Spain  should  renounce 
all  claims  on  Italy,  though  Parma  and  Tuscany  were  to  revert  to  Don 
Carlos,  independent  of  Spanish  control,  and  Austria  was  to  exchange 
Sardinia  for  Sicily.  Meantime,  the  Spanish  invaders  had  landed  in 
force  in  Sicily  and  were  in  a  fair  way  of  overcoming  the  island  when, 
ii  August,  Byng  defeated  and  nearly  destroyed  their  fleet  off  Cape 
Passaro,  thus  cutting  off  the  invading  force  from  aid  and  supplies. 
In  December  Charles  XII,  on  whom  Alberoni  had  counted  to  combine 
with  Peter  of  Russia,  and  to  threaten  his  enemies  from  the  north, 
was  killed  while  besieging  a  Norwegian  fortress,  and  the  next  year 
Sweden  came  to  terms  with  Hanover.  Also,  a  plot  actively  furthered 
by  the  Cardinal  for  overthrowing  the  Regent  of  France  was  discovered. 
In  consequence,  France  declared  war,  9  January,  1719,  a  step  which 
England  had  already  taken  17  December. 

The  Fall  of  Alberoni,  December,  1719.  —  Alberoni's  hopes  were  now 
centered  on  a  Jacobite  invasion  of  Britain  which  he  sent  from  Spain 
under  the  Duke  of  Ormonde,  but  the  fleet,  struck  by  a  violent  gale 
in  the  Bay  of  'Biscay,  never  reached  its  destination.  Two  frigates 
did  succeed  in  landing  a  body  of  Jacobites  on  the  Scotch  coast  in  April, 
1719.  There  they  were  joined  by  a  few  hundred  Highlanders,  but 
were  speedily  tracked  down  and  scattered.  The  Spanish  cause  was 
doomed.  Berwick  led  a  French  army  across  the  Pyrenees,  an  English 
expedition  captured  Vigo,  while  the  Austrians  steadily  gained  ground 
in  Sicily.  As  a  result,  Alberoni  was  dismissed  and  banished  from 
Spain,  5  December,  1719.  Undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  extraordi- 
nary men  of  the  eighteenth  century,  he  fell  a  victim  to  his  rash  ambition 
and  the  insuperable  obstacles  he  had  to  face.  In  February,  1720, 
Philip  gave  his  assent  to  the  terms  of  the  Quadruple  Alliance,  renewed 
his  renunciation  of  the  French  Crown,  and  agreed  to  evacuate  Sardinia 
and  Sicily  within  six  months.  Aided  by  favoring  circumstances,  Stan- 
hope's diplomacy  had  been  a  brilliant  success.  He  had  averted  danger 
from  the  north,  he  had  foiled  the  hopes  of  the  Jacobites,  he  had  kept 
Spain  and  France  apart,  had  secured  powerful  allies  for  England  abroad 
and  given  her  again  a  leading  place  in  the  councils  of  Europe.  Some 

1  Signed  in  London,  20  August,  1718, 


686  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

outstanding  causes  of  dispute  still  remained ;  but  Europe  was  free  from 
war  for  twelve  years. 

The  Peerage  Bill,  1719.  —  The  differences  between  the  two  Whig 
factions  continued  acute.  In  1719  a  bill  passed  the  House  of  Lords 
which  provided  that  henceforth,  exclusive  of  those  conferred  on  mem- 
bers of  the  royal  family,  only  six  more  peerages  could  be  created. 
The  Scotch  were  bribed  by  a  provision  that  their  sixteen  representa- 
tive peers  were  to  be  replaced  by  twenty-five  named  by  the  Crown 
who  were  to  be  hereditary.  There  were  three  main  reasons  for  the 
Peerage  Bill:  to  prevent  a  repetition  of  what  had  occurred  in  1711, 
the  sudden  creation  of  a  number  of  peers  for  political  purposes ;  to 
check  the  influence  of  the  King's  German  favorites ;  and  to  prevent 
the  Prince,  if  ever  he  became  King,  from  rewarding  his  supporters  at 
the  expense  of  his  opponents.  In  other  words,  it  was  designed  by  the 
dominant  faction  to  secure  and  perpetuate  its  own  power.  It  was 
open  to  two  grave  objections :  it  would  have  made  the  body  of  peers 
a  closed  caste  by  stopping  that  vitalizing  stream  of  recruits  —  mer- 
chants, warriors,  statesmen,  and  lawyers  —  from  which  it  was  con- 
stantly nourished,  and  it  would  have  prevented  the  Ministry  from 
exercising  any  control  over  the  Upper  House.  Walpole  proved  to  be 
its  most  effective  opponent.  In  a  splendid  speech  in  which  he  de- 
clared "  that  the  usual  path  to  the  temple  of  honor  had  been  through 
the  temple  of  virtue,  but,  by  this  bill,  it  is  now  to  be  only  through 
the  sepulcher  of  a  dead  ancestor,"  he  "  bore  down  everything  before 
him."  Though  the  Peerage  Bill  was  defeated  in  the  Commons  269 
to  1 7  7,  the  Ministry  had  no  thought  of  resigning.  It  held  its  customary 
majority  in  Parliament  and  seemed  in  a  very  strong  position  both  at 
home  and  abroad  when  the  financial  crash,  known  as  the  South  Sea 
Bubble,  came  and  overthrew  it  within  a  few  months. 

The  National  Debt  and  the  South  Sea  Company.  —  The  National 
Debt  now  amounted  to  over  £50,000,000,  much  of  it  burdened  with  7 
to  8  per  cent  interest,  while  private  loans  could  be  secured  for  4  per 
cent.  In  view  of  the  peaceful  and  prosperous  condition  of  the  coun- 
try the  Government  desired  to  cut  down  this  rate  of  interest  and  to 
reduce  the  principal  as  rapidly  as  possible.  There  was  this  great  diffi- 
culty, however,  that  a  large  part  of  it  was  irredeemable ;  that  is,  it  ran 
for  a  long  term,  some  in  the  form  of  ninety- nine  year  annuities,  and  could 
neither  be  paid  nor  the  interest  diminished  without  the  consent  of  the 
creditors.  In  1711,  Harley  had  funded  £9,500,000  of  the  floating 
debt  by  the  creation  of  the  South  Sea  Company.  In  1 7 1 7,  two  schemes 
devised  by  Walpole  were  carried  into  effect  by  Stanhope.  One  pro- 
vided for  a  loan  of  £600,000  at  4  per  cent,  raised  by  general  subscrip- 
tion. This  was  to  be  employed  to  pay  off  a  portion  of  the  debt  bur- 
dened with  a  higher  rate,  but  the  taxes  imposed  to  meet  the  old  interest 
were  continued,  and  the  difference  was  to  be  applied  toward  reducing 
the  principal.  By  the  second,  which  proved  more  popular,  the  South 
Sea  Company  and  the  Bank  were  induced  to  cut  down  the  rate  of 


THE    FIRST  HANOVERIAN,   GEORGE  I  687 

interest  on  their  existing  loans  and  to  advance  £4,500,000  additional 
for  buying  up  the  redeemable  debts  of  those  who  refused  to  accept  a 
lower  rate.  But  there  still  remained  over  £30,000,000  which  the 
Government  was  anxious  to  group  into  a  single  fund,  yielding  only  the 
market  rate  and  redeemable  at  will. 

Since  the  South  Sea  Company  desired  to  increase  its  capital,  an 
arrangement  was  suggested  whereby  the  holders  of  the  outstanding 
debt  should  be  paid  in  shares  of  the  Company.  Thus  the  Government 
was  to  have  one  creditor  —  a  joint  stock  company  —  instead  of  many. 
It  was  to  pay  the  company  5  per  cent  till  1727,  and  from  that  date 
4  per  cent,  until  the  principal  should  be  finally  paid.  The  plan  looked 
so  tempting  that  other  companies  clamored  for  a  share.  Accordingly, 
they  were  given  a  chance  to  bid.  The  Bank  of  England  proved  to  be 
the  leading  competitor,  but  the  South  Sea  Company  won  by  agreeing 
to  pay  a  bonus  of  £7,500,000.  Since  no  money  was  received  from  those 
who  took  stock  in  exchange  for  annuities,  funds  had  to  be  raised  to 
pay  the  bonus  as  well  as  to  satisfy  such  creditors  as  refused  to  accept 
stock.  At  first  all  went  well ;  most  of  the  annuitants  accepted  the 
Company's  terms,  and  over  £5,000,000  were  subscribed  in  cash  for 
new  shares.  But  the  arrangement  resulted  in  disaster.  In  the  first 
place,  the  Company  had  paid  for  more  than  it  got ;  moreover,  it  bur- 
dened itself  by  the  creation  of  additional  blocks  of  stock  which  it  ac- 
tually gave  away  to  influential  members  of  the  Government  and  to 
Court  favorites ;  while,  worse  than  all,  the  project  fostered  a  fever  of 
speculation  which. was  taking  possession  of  the  country.  Before  this 
speculative  bubble  burst,  it  had  soared  to  dizzy  heights.  By  August, 
1720,  the  shares  of  the  Company,  which  stood  at  £130  during  the  previous 
winter,  had  risen  to  £1000.  In  spite  of  a  royal  proclamation  against 
"  mischievous  and  dangerous  undertakings  .  .  .  presuming  "  to  raise 
"  stocks  and  shares  without  legal  authority,"  all  sorts  of  schemes 
sprang  up  like  Jonah's  gourd,  and  the  offices  in  Change  Alley  became 
so  crowded  that  clerks  had  to  transact  business  in  the  streets.  Some 
were  legitimate  projects :  for  manufactures,  paving,  water  works,  and 
the  like ;  but  most  of  them  were  absurd :  for  fishing  up  wrecks  from 
off  the  Irish  coast;  making  salt  water  fresh;  making  oil  from  sun- 
flower seeds,  and  for  a  wheel  of  perpetual  motion  ;  and,  most  amazing 
of  all,  for  "  an  undertaking  in  due  time  to  be  revealed."  Before  long 
it  was  estimated  that  £300,000,000  was  invested,  largely  in  crazy 
ventures. 

The  Bursting  of  the  South  Sea  Bubble.  —  People's  eyes  were  only 
opened  when  the  South  Sea  Company,  bent  on  monopolizing  all  the 
gain,  began  to  prosecute  certain  of  its  bogus  rivals.  It  won  the  suits, 
but,  at  the  same  time,  gave  a  shock  to  public  confidence  which  led  to 
its  own  downfall.  Shareholders  began  eagerly  to  offer  their  bonds  for 
sale,  and  speedily  came  to  realize  the  difference  between  paper  prom- 
ises and  solid  gain.  By  September  the  Company's  shares  fell  to  £300, 
when  news  from  France  brought  the  crisis  to  a  head.  This  was  the 


688  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

flight  of  John  Law,  a  Scotch  adventurer  who  had  set  all  Paris  wild 
with  his  financial  schemes,  particularly  his  "  Indian  Company  "  for 
controlling  the  trade  of  the  Mississippi.  The  rage  of  the  disillusioned 
speculators  flamed  out  against  those  to  whose  promises  they  had 
listened  all  too  readily.  "  The  very  name  of  a  South  Sea  man  "  grew 
"  abominable."  Resentment  spread  to  the  court  favorites,  to  the  Min- 
istry, and  even  to  the  King  himself.  George  hastened  back  early  in 
November  from  Hanover ;  but,  in  spite  of  his  return,  stocks  fell  to  135. 

The  End  of  the  Stanhope  Ministry,  1721.  —  Parliament  met,  8 
December,  1720,  when  the  directors  of  the  Company  were  ordered  to 
lay  a  full  account  of  their  proceedings  before  the  Houses ;  also,  bills 
were  passed,  obliging  them  to  declare  on  oath  the  value  of  their  estates, 
prohibiting  them  from  leaving  the  kingdom,  and  offering  rewards  to 
informers.  A  secret  committee  of  inquiry  was  appointed  in  the 
Commons,  while  several  of  the  directors  were  examined  in  the  Lords. 
The  excitement  was  intense.  Stanhope  in  the  midst  of  a  speech  was 
attacked  by  a  rush  of  blood  to  the  head  and  died  the  next  day.  Town- 
shend  replaced  him  as  Secretary.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
deeply  involved  in  the  recent  speculations,  resigned,  and  Walpole 
was  appointed  to  fill  the  vacancy.  The  report  of  the  secret  committee 
disclosed  a  mass  of  corruption;  notably,  that  £500,000  of  fictitious 
stock  had  been  distributed  among  certain  ministers  and  favorites. 
Craggs,  one  of  the  accused,  who  had  been  the  other  Secretary  of  State, 
died  opportunely  of  smallpox  the  day  the  report  was  read,  and  his 
father  poisoned  himself  soon  after.  Sunderland  was  tried ;  but, 
though  acquitted,  he  had  to  give  up  his  office  of  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury,  which  was  assumed  by  Walpole  along  with  the  Chancellor- 
ship of  the  Exchequer.  The  directors  suffered  heavily;  they  were 
disabled  from  holding  office  or  from  sitting  in  Parliament,  and  their 
estates,  amounting  to  £2,000,000,  were  appropriated  for  the  unfor- 
tunate investors.  Petitions  poured  in  and  pamphlets  multiplied  in 
which  they  were  denounced  as  "  Monsters  of  pride  and  covetousness," 
"  Cannibals  of  Change  Alley,"  and  not  a  few  demanded  that  they  be 
hanged.  Yet  the  people  were,  in  no  small  degree,  to  blame  for  their 
eagerness  to  make  money.  Before  the  inquiry  was  completed,  Wal- 
pole, to  whom  all  eyes  were  turned,  had  proposed  a  scheme  for  restor- 
ing the  public  credit.  While  he  had  bought  South  Sea  Stock  and  had 
sold  out  at  enormous  profit,  he  had  been  so  fortunate  as  to  be  out  of 
office  when  the  Government  had  made  its  arrangements  with  the  Com- 
pany. By  his  advice,  the  bonus  which  the  latter  had  agreed  to  pay 
was  practically  remitted,  its  liabilities  were  settled,  and  what  remained 
of  the  capital  stock,  about  33  per  cent,  was  divided  among  the  pro- 
prietors. 

The  Beginning  of  Walpole's  Ascendancy.  His  Early  Career.  — 
Walpole  now  became  Chief  Minister,1  a  position  which  he  retained  for 

1  Townshend  confined  himself  almost  solely  to  foreign  affairs. 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,   GEORGE  I  689 

over  twenty  years.  The  Tory  party  was  handicapped  by  being  more 
or  less  identified  with  the  cause  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Pretender  and 
rebellion ;  but  the  Whig  ascendancy  would  not  have  been  so  easily 
maintained  had  it  not  been  for  the  great  abilities  of  their  leader  as  an 
administrator  and  as  a  party  and  parliamentary  manager.  Born  in 
1676,  Robert  Walpole  was  one  of  the  nineteen  children  of  a  Norfolk 
squire.  As  a  younger  son  he  was  destined  for  the  Church,  but  the 
death  of  his  elder  brother  leaving  him  heir  to  the  family  estates,  he 
entered  Parliament  in  1701.  He  was  made  Secretary  at  War  in  1708 
and  subsequently  Treasurer  of  the  Navy ;  but  shared  in  Marlborough's 
fall  in  1711.  He  was  even  expelled  from  the  House  on  charge  of  breach 
of  trust  and  corruption,  but  since  he  had  pocketed  nothing  for  him- 
self and  had  merely  used  his  influence  in  behalf  of  a  friend,  he  was 
regarded  as  a  martyr  by  his  party.  By  virtue  of  his  skill  in  debate, 
his  industry,  patience  and  calmness  of  temper  he  came  rapidly  to  the 
front,  so  that  at  the  accession  of  George  he  was  recognized  as  the 
leader  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

His  Strength  and  Achievements.  —  He  was  not  a  man  of  ideals, 
neither  was  he  strikingly  brilliant  or  original,  but  he  was  essentially 
sane  and  efficient.  His  services  to  his  country  were  many  and  great. 
He  established  the  Hanoverian  succession  on  a  secure  foundation; 
he  gave  England  twenty  years  of  peace  and  prosperity ;  he  softened 
the  bitterness  of  political  and  ecclesiastical  faction,  and  raised  the 
House  of  Commons  to  the  leading  position  in  the  State.  Remaining 
master  of  that  body,  he,  at  the  same  time,  gained  a  firm  hold  on  the 
confidence  of  two  successive  kings,  an  achievement  all  the  more  remark- 
able from  the  fact  that  he  aimed  to  keep  clear  of  foreign  complications, 
while  both  George  I  and  George  II  were  primarily  interested  in  con- 
tinental affairs,  while  the  latter  had  a  consuming  ambition  for  military 
glory.  Walpole  was  so  economical  that  George  I  declared  that  he 
"  could  make  gold  from  nothing."  A  typical  squire  —  it  is  said  that 
he  always  opened  the  letters  from  his  gamekeeper  first  —  he  worked 
for  the  interest  of  the  landed  gentry,  and  as  a  result,  had  their  strong 
support ;  but  he  held  the  commercial  classes  to  him  as  well,  by  his 
knowledge  of  trade  and  finance,1  and  his  furtherance  of  their  concerns. 
Careful  not  to  arouse  the  apprehension  of  High  Churchmen  by  any 
radical  legislation  on  the  subject  of  toleration,  he,  nevertheless,  by 
appointing  liberal  bishops  and  by  his  lax  administration  of  the  existing 
laws  relating  to  religious  disabilities,  managed  to  keep  from  alienating 
the  Dissenters.  He  was  a  strict  party  disciplinarian,  who,  so  far  as 
he  was  able,  would  brook  no  opposition  in  the  Cabinet  or  in  Par- 
liament, but  he  showed  a  deference  to  public  opinion  rare  up  to  that 
time,  which  marks  him  as  the  forerunner  of  the  modern  minister. 

His  Faults  and  Limitations.  —  Yet,  while  Walpole's  merits  and 
services  were  great,  they  were  counterbalanced  by  decided  faults  and 

1  He  was  said  to  be  the  "best  master  of  figures"  of  any  man  of  his  time. 
2  Y 


690  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

limitations,  some  of  which  were  typical  of  the  age  and  of  his  class. 
He  was  coarse  in  his  conversation,  loose  in  his  private  life,  and  cared 
nothing  for  learning  or  letters.  His  sole  refined  taste  was  his  love  for 
paintings,  of  which  he  made  a  famous  collection.  While  he  had  the 
welfare  of  his  country  at  heart  and  was  faithful  to  his  sovereign  and 
never  enriched  himself  at  the  public  expense,  he  was  greedy  of  power, 
he  was  unscrupulous  in  his  party  tactics,  and  utterly  lacking  in  any 
high  sense  of  honor.  In  opposition  he  opposed  principles  which  he 
had  supported  from  his  entrance  into  public  life ;  in  office  he  made  no 
effort  to  secure  the  passage  of  measures,  however  worthy,  that  might 
endanger  his  ascendancy,1  and  he  finished  his  career  by  offering  to 
give  up  his  cherished  policy  of  peace  in  order  to  remain  at  the  head  of 
affairs.  He  preferred  to  be  served  by  those  men  of  mediocre  attain- 
ments and  low  standards  of  conduct  who  obeyed  his  will,  and  repelled 
gifted  and  high-minded  men  who  might  become  his  rivals.  He  stood 
in  the  way  of  all  attempts  of  the  Tories  to  reconcile  themselves  with 
the  Hanoverian  dynasty.  It  would  have  endangered  the  Whig  mo- 
nopoly, but  the  wholesome  rivalry  of  the  two  fairly  well-balanced 
parties  has  always  proved  a  stimulus  to  good  government.  Wai- 
pole's  influence  on  the  younger  generation  of  statesmen  was  baneful : 
he  scoffed  at  ideals  of  purity  and  patriotism,  scornfully  labeling  those 
who  professed  them  as  "  Spartans,"  "  Romans,"  and  "  saints."  Pat- 
ronage was  regarded  as  legitimate  for  a  long  time  to  come,  and  Walpole 
used  it  openly  and  effectively ;  but  the  extent  to  which  he  employed 
money  bribes  for  corrupting  members  of  Parliament  has  never  been 
proved.  In  all  likelihood,  however,  it  was  great.  Unfortunately,  the 
practice  did  not  begin  or  end  with  him.  The  methods,  however,  had 
become  more  secret  by  Walpole's  time,  and  his  transgressions  in  the 
matter  may  have  been  exaggerated  by  his  opponents.  Nevertheless, 
this  fact  remains  true  that,  during  the  long  period  of  his  ascendancy, 
he  discouraged  the  cooperation  of  the  nobler  spirits,  and  not  only  did 
nothing  to  raise,  but  much  to  depress  the  already  low  state  of  public 
morality.  This  must  not  be  forgotten  in  giving  him  due  credit  for 
his  great  services  in  the  material  development  of  his  country. 

Atterbury's  Plot,  1722-1723.  —  Speedily  as  the  Whig  Government 
recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  South  Sea  Company  panic,  the  in- 
cident had  the  effect  of  reviving  the  hopes  of  the  Jacobites.  They 
were  further  encouraged  in  1722  by  the  birth  of  a  son  to  James  — 
"  Prince  Charlie  "  as  his  followers  fondly  named  him,  but  known  to 
his  opponents  as  the  "Young  Pretender."  In  the  same  year,  Francis 
Atterbury,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  famous  for  his  eloquence  as  a  preacher 
and  for  his  literary  gifts,  thought  the  time  had  come  to  strike  another 
blow  for  the  exiled  family.  Largely  through  his  efforts  a  wide-reach- 
ing plot  was  devised  to  seize  the  Tower  and  the  Bank,  to  start  a  rising 
throughout  England,  to  bring  over  Ormonde  from  Spain  and  James 

1  His  motto  was  quieta  non  movere,  do  not  stir  up  unnecessary  strife. 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,   GEORGE  I  691 

from  Rome.  The  design  was  discovered  through  the  Regent  of  France, 
various  suspected  persons  were  arrested,  and  in  August  the  Bishop 
was  seized  and  lodged  in  the  Tower.  He  was  tried,  and,  in  spite  of  a 
great  uproar  from  the  Tory  parsons,  a  bill  of  pains  and  penalties  was 
framed  in  Parliament  which  sentenced  him  to  banishment  on  pain  of 
death.  As  he  landed  at  Calais  in  1723  he  met  Bolingbroke  on  his  way 
home,  to  whom  he  remarked  wittily:  "Then  we  are  exchanged." 
He  died  abroad  in  1732,  in  the  service  of  the  Old  Pretender. 

Wood's  Halfpence  and  the  Drapier  Letters,  1723-1724.  —  No 
sooner  had  this  flurry  of  Jacobitism  blown  over  than  a  tumult  arose 
in  Ireland,  owing  to  a  measure  of  the  English  Government  which  the 
unquiet  genius  of  Swift  magnified  into  a  great  oppression.  Ireland 
had  long  been  suffering  from  an  insufficiency  of  copper  coin.  To  meet 
this  need  the  Treasury,  after  considering  various  projects,  granted  to 
one  William  Wood  a  patent  to  coin  farthings  and  halfpence  to  the 
amount  of  £108,000.  It  is  true  that  Wood  agreed  to  pay  the  Duchess 
of  Kendal  a  bribe  to  gain  her  influence  in  securing  the  patent,  but  the 
need  in  Ireland  was  real  and  the  quality  furnished  was  excellent.  It 
is  also  true  that  the  Irish  coin  was  lighter  than  the  English,  though 
that  was  counterbalanced  by  the  difference  in  exchange  and  by  the 
superior  quality  of  the  former.  Various  causes,  however,  contrib- 
uted to  work  against  the  scheme.  The  Irish  courtiers  opposed  it 
because  they  saw  nothing  in  it  for  themselves,  and  the  plan  was  not 
clearly  explained  until  it  was  already  discredited.  Moreover,  Wood 
made  matters  worse  by  boasting  that  he  would  cram  his  halfpence 
down  their  throats.  Both  the  Irish  and  the  English  Parliaments 
passed  addresses  to  the  Crown,  condemning  the  patent  and  declaring 
that  it  would  involve  a  heavy  loss  to  the  kingdom.  The  main  basis 
for  the  assertion  was  that  while  a  pound  of  copper  was  worth  1 2d.  it 
would  circulate  for  2s.  6d.,  but  Walpole,  calculating  the  cost  of  minting, 
duty,  and  exchange,  proved  that  the  profit  could  not  exceed  over  one 
or  two  pence  a  pound.  The  Privy  Council  reported  in  favor  of  the 
patent,  July,  1724;  whereupon  Swift,  under  the  assumed  name  of 
"  M.B.,  a  Drapier  of  Dublin,"  launched  a  series  of  savage  but  bril- 
liantly finished  letters  against  the  Government.  He  was  hailed  as  a 
deliverer,  while  the  popular  fury  reached  such  a  pitch  that  the  patent 
was  withdrawn.  Wood  was  granted  £3000  by  way  of  compensation. 

The  Treaty  of  Vienna,  1725.  — At  the  close  of  the  session  of  1725 
George  made  another  visit  to  Hanover;  for  the  European  situation 
had  again  become  critical.  The  Spanish  were  bent  on  recovering  Gi- 
braltar. Furthermore,  they  had  just  received  an  affront  from  France 
which  stung  them  to  madness.  As  a  means  of  attaching  Philip  V  to 
the  Quadruple  Alliance,  Louis  XV  had  been  betrothed  to  the  Infanta, 
a  child  of  four,  who  had  been  sent  to  Paris  for  her  education.  But  the 
Duke  of  Bourbon,  who  succeeded  as  Chief  Minister  when  both  the 
Regent  and  Dubois  died  in  1723,  sent  the  little  Princess  home  in  March, 
1725,  and,  shortly  after,  married  Louis  to  Maria,  Leczinska,  daughter 


692  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  Stanislaus,  the  deposed  King  of  Poland.  As  a  result,  they  deter- 
mined to  combine  with  their  old  enemy  the  Emperor.  Charles  VI 
was  willing  to  meet  these  overtures  for  various  reasons,  chief  among 
them  the  fact  that  England,  allied  with  France  and  Holland,  was 
opposing  his  design  for  establishing  a  company  at  Ostend  in  the  Span- 
ish Netherlands  for  trading  with  the  East  Indies.  By  the  treaty  of 
Vienna,  signed  i  May,  1725,  the  King  of  Spain,  among  other  things, 
accepted  the  Ostend  Company  and  agreed  to  the  Pragmatic  Sanction, 
an  arrangement  by  which  Charles  VI,  who  had  daughters  but  no  sons, 
provided  that  his  Austrian  lands  might  descend  in  the  female  line. 
Also,  each  monarch  engaged  to  defend  the  other  in  case  of  attack. 
More  disquieting  still,  in  secret  articles  which  afterwards  came  to 
light,  the  new  allies  agreed  to  demand  the  restoration  of  Gibraltar 
and  Minorca,  and,  in  case  of  refusal,  to  resort  to  force  and  put  the 
Pretender  on  the  throne  of  England.  The  combination  was  made  all 
the  more  dangerous  by  the  adhesion  of  Russia  now  governed  by 
Catherine,  widow  of  Peter  the  Great. 

The  Counter  Treaty  of  Hanover,  1725.  —  As  a  counterstroke,  Eng- 
land, France,  and  Prussia  signed  the  Treaty  of  Hanover,  or  Herren- 
hausen,  3  September.  The  anti-Whig  opposition  complained  that 
"  Hanover  rode  triumphant  on  the  shoulders  of  England  "  ;  but  there 
were  plenty  of  purely  English  interests  which  needed  to  be  safeguarded. 
Not  long  after,  the  incapable  Duke  of  Bourbon  was  replaced  by  the 
Bishop  of  Frejus,  better  known  as  Cardinal  Fleury.  Already  seventy- 
three  years  old  when  he  came  to  office  in  1726,  he  ruled  France  till 
1742.  Aimable  and  retiring  in  manner,  he  was  really  very  ambitious 
and  able  as  well.  Like  Walpole,  he  strove  for  peace,  and  since  he 
was  thrifty  as  well,  his  administration  proved  a  blessing  to  his  country 
wasted  by  generations  of  war.  The  Emperor  managed  to  draw  Prussia 
to  his  side,  and  made  an  attempt  which  proved  futile  to  stir  up  the 
English  people  against  their  sovereign ;  but,  after  the  Spanish  failed 
in  an  attempt  to  recover  Gibraltar,  his  ambassador,  31  May,  1727, 
signed  the  preliminaries  of  a  peace  with  England,  France,  and  Holland. 
By  it  the  Emperor  was  to  suspend  the  charter  of  the  Ostend  Company 
for  seven  years,  to  confirm  all  treaties  previous  to  1725,  and  to  submit 
other  points  at  issue  to  a  general  congress.  Spain,  however,  refused  to 
yield  her  pretensions  to  Gibraltar,  so  that  the  situation  remained  tense. 

Death  of  George  I,  3  September,  1727.  —  Such  was  the  state  of 
affairs  when  the  King  died  on  his  way  to  Hanover,  3  June,  1727.  His 
wife,  the  unfortunate  Sophia  Dorothea,  had  died  seven  months  before, 
after  thirty-two  years  of  captivity  at  Ahlden.  Rumor  said  that  a 
paper  which  she  had  left  summoning  him  to  meet  her  before  the  Divine 
judgment  seat  within  a  year  and  a  day,  and  which  was  first  delivered 
to  him  as  he  was  traveling,  brought  on  the  apoplectic  fit  which  caused 
his  death.  He  left  the  country  united  at  home  and  powerful  abroad. 
The  dangers  due  to  disputed  succession  had  been  averted,  and  the 
leading  position  which  the  genius  of  William  and  Marlborough  had 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,    GEORGE  I  693 

secured  in  European  affairs  had  been  not  only  maintained  but  in- 
creased. England  was  the  guiding  spirit  in  the  Triple  and  Quadruple 
Alliances,  her  fleets  had  checked  Alberoni  in  the  Mediterranean  and 
those  of  Russia,  backed  by  Sweden,  in  the  Baltic;  while  by  the  Treaty 
of  Hanover  she  had  checkmated  the  menacing  combination  of  Spain 
and  Austria. 

The  Material  Bases  of  the  Hanoverian  Power.  —  The  power  of  the 
first  Hanoverians  rested  wholly  on  material  bases :  the  Riot  Act, 
the  standing  army,  the  attachment  of  the  moneyed  classes,  and  the 
organization  of  the  Whig  party,  with  a  vast  amount  of  patronage  at 
its  disposal,  and  effectively  led  by  Walpole,  a  master  of  the  art  of 
parliamentary  management  and  corruption.  As  a  further  means  of 
securing  its  tenure  of  power  the  dominant  party  made  every  effort  to 
discredit  its  Tory  opponents  by  identifying  them  with  Jacobitism  and 
all  its  dire  consequences  —  the  overthrow  of  the  existing  dynasty, 
the  restoration  of  Roman  Catholicism,  and  the  repudiation  of  the 
National  Debt.  -George  recognized  that  he  owed  his  position  to  Whig 
support.  Partly  for  this  reason  and  partly  because  of  his  ignorance 
of  the  English  language  and  English  ways,  he  gave  the  Whig  leaders, 
especially  Walpole,  practically  a  free  hand  in  matters  of  domestic 
concern.  His  Hanoverian  favorites,  while  they  enriched  themselves 
at  the  public  expense,  exercised  little  real  control  over  public  policy. 
In  consequence  of  the  attitude  which  the  King  felt  himself  forced  to 
adopt  he  lost  the  advantage  of  playing  off  one  party  against  another ; 
but  the  growth  of  the  Cabinet  and  the  power  of  Parliament  was  greatly 
fostered.  While  the  King  was  strong  in  the  strength  of  the  party 
supporting  him,  the  old  sentiment  and  respect  for  the  monarch  had 
declined.  The  title  of  the  new  line  was  parliamentary,  and  the  idea 
of  Divine  Right  was  fast  fading  away.  The  Whigs  repudiated  it ; 
the  Hanoverian  Tories  could  not  consistently  maintain  it,  while  the 
Jacobites,  its  most  enthusiastic  advocates,  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
reigning  sovereign.  The  High  Churchmen  who  regarded  it  as  an 
essential  feature  of  their  doctrine  now  counted  for  little.  Many  of 
the  bishoprics  which  -they  had  once  held  were  now  filled  with  Low 
Churchmen ;  some  of  them  had  discredited  themselves  by  accepting 
William  and  George ;  and  the  King  to  whom  the  others  clung  was  of 
a  different  faith.  Furthermore,  the  mass  of  Englishmen  were  growing 
more  material  and  increasingly  indifferent  to  religious  questions.  Not 
only  were  there  few  if  any,  either  Churchmen  or  laymen,  to  attribute 
to  George  that  "  divinity  that  doth  hedge  a  King,"  but  there  was 
nothing  about  him  to  command  King  worship.  At  his  court  all 
pomp,  ceremony,  and  superstitious  reverence  was  done  away  with ; 
he  was  not  like  his  predecessors  served  on  the  knee  at  meals,  and  with 
his  accession  touching  for  the  "  King's  evil  "  ceased. 

The  Character  of  the  Age.  —  The  age  was  one  of  coarseness  in  pri- 
vate life  and  of  indifference  to  high  ideals,  and  there  was  much  cor- 
ruption and  venality.  One  Lord  Chancellor  was  impeached  for 


694  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

financial  irregularities  : ;  three  members  of  the  Ministry  were  involved 
in  the  South  Sea  scandals;  favors  and  support  were  bought  and  sold ; 
many,  even  in  high  office,  engaged  in  treasonable  negotiations  with  the 
Pretender;  and  not  a  few  irreverently  submitted  to  religious  tests 
for  the  sake  of  getting  or  holding  places.  Yet  it  is  to  be  doubted 
whether  the  tone  of  patriotism  or  sense  of  public  obligation  was  lower 
than  during  the  two  preceding  reigns ;  and  peace,  material  progress, 
and  the  growth  of  enlightened  public  opinion  were  preparing  the  way 
for  better  things. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Leadam,  Political  History,  chs.  XIII-XIX.  C.  G.  Robertson,  Eng- 
land under  the  Hanoverians  (1911),  introduction  and  ch.  I  (bibliography,  517-532). 
Cambridge  Modern  History,  VI,  ch.  I  (bibliography  pp.  839-843).  Lecky,  England  in 
the  XVIII  Century,  I.  Lord  Mahon  (Earl  Stanhope),  History  of  England  from  the 
Peace  of  Utrecht  to  the  Peace  of  Versailles  (4th  ed.,  1853,  7  vols.),  I,  II,  chs.  XI-XVI. 
Bright,  History  of  England,  III,  pp.  729—964. 

Constitutional.  Hallam,  III,  ch.  XVI.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  VII, 
ch.  I. 

Biography.  W.  Coxe,  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Administration  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole  (3  vols.,  1 798).  J.  Morley  (Viscount),  Sir  Robert  Walpole  (1889) ;  an  excellent 
sketch. 

Special.  G.  B.  Hertz,  British  Imperialism  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (1908). 
J.  F.  Chance,  George  I,  and  the  Great  Northern  War  (1909).  A.  W.  Ward,  Great 
Britain  and  Hanover  (1899).  Thackeray's  Four  Georges  is  worth  reading  chiefly 
for  its  literary  charm. 

Church.    Overton  and  Relton,  The  English  Church,  1714-1800,  chs.  I-V. 

For  other  references  see  ch.  XXXVIII  above. 

Scotland.  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  III,  bk.  VII,  chs.  IV-VII.  Cambridge  Modern 
History,  VI,  ch.  Ill;  for  fuller  bibliography,  pp.  853-863. 

Selections  from  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  246-248.  Robertson,  pts. 
XXV-XXVIII. 

1  Thomas  Parker,  Earl  of  Macclesfield,  in  1725. 


THE   FIRST  HANOVERIAN,   GEORGE  I 


695 


THE  HOUSE  OF  HANOVER 
GEORGE  I,  1714-1727 


GEORGE  II, 
1727-1760 

1 
Sophia= 

=  Frederick  William  I, 
King  of  Prussia, 
1713-1740 

Frederick  the  Great, 
Frederick      =  Augusta  of                     William,  Duke                                 1740-1786 
Prince  of  Wales,      Saxe-Gotha                   of  Cumberland, 
d.  1751                                                         d.  1765 

George  111=  Sophia  Charlotte  of 
1760-1820     Mecklenburg-StreUtz 

GEORGE  IV,                     WILLIAM  IV, 
1820-1830                           1830-1837 

Princess  Charlotte, 

1 
Frederick, 
Duke  of  York, 
d.  1827 

Edward, 
Duke  of  Kent, 
d.  1820 

Victoria  =  Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg, 
1837-1901                   d.  1861 

VICTORIA  =  Frederick,                       Albert  Edward 
d.  1901       German  Emperor,            EDWARD  VII, 
March-June,  1888               1901-1910 

WILLIAM  II, 
German  Emperor, 
1888                                         George  V= 

Alfred,                Arthur,               Leopold. 
Duke  of              Duke  of               Duke  of 

Edinburgh,          Connaught              Albany, 
d.  1900                                           d.  1884 

Princess  Mary  of 

Edward  George  Patrick  Andrew  David 

THE  EXILED  STUARTS 
CHARLES  I 


ixs  II                            JAMES  II 

Henrietta  =  Philip  of  Orleans, 

brother  of 

James  Francis 

Louis  XIV 

Edward, 
James  III 

Anne  = 

=  Victor  Amadeus, 

the  Old  Pretender, 

Duke  of  Savoy, 

d.  1765, 

ist  King_  of 
Sardinia 

Charles  Edward, 

1 
Henry, 

Charles  En 

manuel  III, 

Charles  III, 

Cardinal  of 

King  of  Sardinia, 

The  Young  Pretender, 

York, 

d.  1773 

d. 

1788 

d.  1807 

Victor  Amadeus  III, 

d.  1796 

Victor  Emmanuel  III, 

d.  1824 

Mary  = 

Francis  IV, 

d.  1840 

Duke  of  Modena 

Ferdinand  =  Archduchess  Elizabeth  of  Austria 


Th 


Mary  Theresa1  =  Ludwig,  King  of  Bavaria,  1913 
Rupert 

Luitpold 
1  Mary  IV,  the  present  head  of  the  House  of  Stuart. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  ASCENDANCY  AND  FALL  OF  WALPOLE  AND  THE  OPENING 
OF  A  NEW  ERA  OF  WAR.  THE  FIRST  PART  OF  THE  REIGN 
OF  GEORGE  II  (1727-1748) 

Walpole  proves  Indispensable.  —  The  younger  George  was  so 
bitter  against  all  his  father's  late  supporters  that  his  first  step  as  King 
was  an  attempt  to  get  rid  of  their  chief.  But  Sir  Spencer  Compton, 
whom  he  selected  as  head  of  the  Ministry,  showed  his  incompetence 
at  the  very  start  by  begging  the  man  he  was  to  supplant  to  draw  up 
the  royal  declaration  to  the  Privy  Council.  Indeed,  Walpole  was 
indispensable.  The  Queen,  who  already  recognized  this  fact,  was 
completely  won  over  when  he  secured  the  doubling  of  her  jointure 
from  £50,000  to  £100,000,  while  George  was  induced  to  withdraw  his 
opposition  by  an  increase  in  the  Civil  List  from  £700,000  to  £800,000. 

Prince  George's  Relations  with  his  Father.  —  George  II,  who  was 
born  in  1683,  was  a  mature  man  when  he  accompanied  his  father  to 
England  in  1714.  Adapting  himself,  with  considerable  readiness  to 
his  new  surroundings,  he  was  able  to  achieve  some  popularity  and  to 
attract  around  him  a  considerable  party  of  supporters,  which  only 
widened  the  breach  already  opened  between  him  and  the  elder  George. 
The  quarrel  came  to  a  head  in  1717  when  his  harsh  old  father  drove 
him  from  the  royal  presence,  and  imposed  all  sorts  of  humiliations 
upon  him :  he  denied  him  the  custody  of  his  children,  and  even  went 
so  far,  according  to  one  story,  as  to  listen  to  a  proposal  for  kidnapping 
him  and  sending  him  off  to  America.  In  1720  there  was  a  formal  but 
hollow  reconciliation,  and  Leicester  House,  the  residence  of  the  Prince 
and  Princess,  become  a  center  of  opposition  to  the  Sovereign  and  his 
all-powerful  Minister,  Walpole. 

George  II  as  Man  and  King.  —  George  II  was  a  dapper  little  man, 
vain,  pompous,  and  fond  of  the  show  of  power.  Also  he  was  madly 
ambitious  to  shine  as  a  general ;  but,  though  he  fought  bravely  at 
Oudenarde  and  at  Dettingen,1  he  showed  no  military  ability  except 
personal  bravery.2  He  was  very  methodical,  fond  of  detail,  and  had 
considerable  capacity  for  routine  business.  His  temper  was  very 
gusty,  and  he  was  apt  to  fly  into  a  passion  over  little  things  when,  so 
it  is  reported,  he  sometimes  indulged  in  the  unkingly  pursuit  of  kicking 
his  hat  and  wig  about  the  room.  Avarice,  or  at  least  extreme  thrifti- 
ness,  was  one  of  his  marked  traits.  It  may  be  that  his  practice  of 

1  In  1743,  the  last  engagement  where  an  English  king  ever  appeared  at  the 
head  of  his  troops.  2  He  was  sometimes  called  "  the  little  captain." 

696 


THE  ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE      697 

frequently  counting  his  money,  like  the  king  in  the  nursery  tales,  was 
one  of  his  diversions,  but  certainly  he  was  very  stingy  with  his  minis- 
ters and  favorites.  The  only  present  Walpole  ever  got  from  him  was 
a  diamond  with  a  flaw  in  it.  However,  he  must  have  spent  much  on 
his  Hanoverian  dominions,  since  he  died  comparatively  poor.  While 
he  cared  nothing  for  art  or  letters,  he  was  fond  of  music  and  a  stanch 
patron  of  the  famous  composer,  Handel. 

In  foreign  policy  he  was  an  opportunist  without  consistency  of 
purpose;  though,  in  general,  he  put  Hanoverian  and  Imperial  before 
English  interests.  In  domestic  politics  he  was  timid  and  cautious 
except  for  occasional  outbursts  of  temper.1  Yet  his  lack  of  political 
courage  led  to  a  moderation  and  prudence  of  conduct  which  had  a 
most  happy  effect  on  the  growth  of  the  constitutional  government: 
"  his  reign  of  thirty- three  years  deserves  this  praise  —  that  it  never 
once  invaded  the  rights  of  the  nation,  nor  harshly  enforced  the  prerog- 
ative of  the  Crown  .  .  .  and  that  it  left  the  dynasty  secure,  the 
Constitution  unimpaired,  and  the  people  prosperous."  Moreover,  in 
the  midst  of  George's  faults,  two  virtues  stand  out  conspicuously: 
petty,  spiteful,  and  ungracious  as  he  was,  he  was  absolutely  a  man  of 
his  word,  and,  though  he  gave  his  confidence  grudgingly,  he  never 
withdrew  it  from  a  minister  who  proved  worthy.  It  was  only  at 
intervals  that  he  was  popular ;  his  Hanoverian  interests,  his  quarrels 
with  his  son,  Prince  Frederick,  and  his  treatment  of  his  wife  made 
him  so  cordially  hated  at  times  that  his  people  wished  him  at  the 
bottom  of  the  sea,  and  his  soldiers  drank  to  his  damnation. 

Queen  Caroline,  1683-1737. — In  1705  he  married  Caroline  of 
Anspach,  fondly  known  as  "  Caroline  the  Good."  Though  he  neg- 
lected and  abused  her,  she  gained  such  an  ascendancy  over  him  that 
she  and  Walpole  came  to  be  regarded  as  "  the  King's  two  ears."  Pure 
in  character,  patient,  and  gracious,  she  was  gifted  with  a  keen  sense  of 
humor  and  uncommon  tact.  Understanding  her  consort  thoroughly, 
she  realized  that  he  could  be  easily  led  but  never  driven.2  While  she 
spelled  atrociously  and  spoke  English  only  imperfectly  and  was  not 
averse  to  gossip  and  broad  jests,  she  posed  as  a  learned  woman  and  was 
fond  of  metaphysical  and  theological  discussion.  However,  she  gave 
her  patronage  to  pious,  learned,  and  worthy  men  and  interested  her- 
self in  getting  them  high  positions,  particularly  in  the  Church.  Her 
death  in  1737  was  a  sad  loss  to  the  country.  The  King,  sincerely 
pentitent,  gave  way  to  spasms  of  grief. 

1  In  a  Cabinet  crisis  in  1746  he  declared  that  he  was  a  prisoner  on  the  throne, 
and  called  one  of  his  Ministers  a  fool  and  another  a  rascal.     A  few  years  later  he 
refused  to  prosecute  the  libel  of  a  speech  from  the  throne,  remarking  shrewdly 
that  he  regarded  it  as  better  than  the  original.     By  that  time,  the  Ministers,  not 
the  King,  wrote  these  speeches. 

2  This  was  recognized  in  a  song  of  the  day  which  ran : 

"You  may  strut,  dapper  George,  but  'twill  all  be  in  vain, 
We  know  'tis  Queen  Caroline  and  not  you  that  reign." 


698  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Strength  of  Walpole's  Government.  —  Again,  at  the  accession 
of  George  II,  the  Pretender,  who  had  hoped  to  benefit  from  a  change 
of  rulers,  was  doomed  to  disappointment.  There  was  a  noisy  op- 
position in  Parliament,  which  Bolingbroke  helped  to  organize,1  made 
up  of  discontented  Whigs,  Jacobites,  and  Hanoverian  Tories,  who 
called  themselves  the  "  Patriots  "  ;  but  they  were  too  divided  in  their 
personal  and  political  interests  to  pull  strongly  together.  Outside, 
the  Government  was  fiercely  assailed  in  the  Craftsman  —  a  brilliantly 
written  sheet  —  and  other  weekly  periodicals,  as  well  as  in  pamphlets 
and  ballads,  though  to  little  practical  effect.  The  speeches  of  the 
Opposition  speakers  were  prevented  from  circulating  by  Parliament's 
jealous  refusal  to  allow  its  debates  to  be  printed,  and  Walpole's  peace- 
ful, businesslike  administration  made  for  prosperity  and  contentment 
among  the  influential  classes.  Moreover,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  a 
Secretary  of  State  for  thirty  years,  was,  in  spite  of  his  fussy  ineffec- 
tiveness and  his  absurd  timidity,2  an  adroit  political  manager,  who,  by 
his  vast  control  of  patronage,  pensions,  and  boroughs,  held  Parlia- 
ment in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  Thus,  Sir  William  Pulteney,3  the 
Opposition  leader,  had  to  struggle  against  tremendous  obstacles. 

Walpole  Prime  and  Sole  Minister,  1730.  — Not  only  was  Walpole 
able  to  frustrate  the  attacks  of  his  opponents  in  Parliament,  but  he 
managed  to  make  himself  supreme  in  the  Cabinet  by  getting  rid  of  his 
only  rival.  Thus  he  became  the  first  "  Prime  Minister  "  in  the  mod- 
ern sense  of  the  term,  though  the  name  was  first  applied  to  him  by  his 
enemies.  His  brother-in-law,  Townshend,  who  had  been  Chief  Min- 
ister from  1715  to  1717,  but  who,  since  his  return  to  office  in  1721, 
had  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  foreign  affairs  resigned,  16  May, 
1730.  Various  differences  of  opinion  on  questions  of  public  policy 
contributed  to  the  final  breach  4 ;  but  the  underlying  cause  of  all  the 
trouble  was  that  the  "  firm  "  which  had  once  been  "  Townshend  and 
Walpole  "  had  now  become  "  Walpole  and  Townshend."  The  latter, 
however,  magnanimously  refused  to  join  the  Opposition  and  retired 
to  his  estates.  One  or  two  measures  of  reform  were  carried  in  the 

1  Although  he  was  allowed  to  return  to  the  country  in  1723  he  was  still  excluded 
from  the  House  of  Lords  and  lived  at  Darnley  some  distance  from  London. 

2  His  family  name  was  Thomas  Pelham-Holles.     There  seems  to  be  little  proof 
for  the  assertion  that  he  was  a  man  of  greater  understanding,  than,  for  political 
purposes,  he  pretended  to  be.     It  was  once  said  that:  "It  seemed  as  if  he  had 
lost  half  an  hour  every  morning  .  .  .  which  he  is  running  after  the  rest  of  the  day 
without  overtaking  it."     Various  anecdotes  are  told  of  his  ignorance  and  vacil- 
lating timidity.     In  the  morning  his  reception  room  was  crowded  with  place- 
hunters,  and,  according  to  a  famous  story,  he  would  often  rush  out  of  his  bedroom 
with  his  face  covered  with   soapsuds  to  announce  an  appointment  to  some  happy 
applicant  for  himself  or  relative.     Possessed  of  an  immense  fortune  he  sought 
nothing  for  himself  except  power,  and  left  office  poorer  than  when  he  began. 

8  A  malcontent  Whig,  he  had  made  common  cause  with  Bolingbroke,  was  one 
of  the  chief  organizers  of  the  "  Patriots, "  and  a  tireless  contributor  to  the  Craftsman. 

4  On  one  occasion  the  brothers-in-law  became  so  heated  as  to  seize  each  other  by 
the  collar  and  to  draw  their  swords. 


THE  ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE      699 

years  immediately  following.  In  1731,  for  example,  it  was  provided 
that  the  proceedings  in  the  courts  of  justice  should  henceforth  be 
in  English  instead  of  Latin.  "  Our  prayers,"  urged  the  Duke  of 
Argyle,  "  are  in  our  native  tongue,  that  they  may  be  intelligible,  and 
why  should  not  the  laws  wherein  our  lives  and  properties  are  con- 
cerned be  so  for  the  same  reason?  " 

Walpole's  Excise,  1733.  —  The  Government  was  at  the  height  of  its 
popularity  when  Walpole  introduced  an  excise  scheme,  in  1733,  which, 
in  spite  of  its  obvious  merits,  roused  such  a  howl  of  opposition  that 
he  bowed  to  the  storm  and  abandoned  it.  As  a  means  of  strengthen- 
ing himself  in  the  support  of  the  country  aristocracy  he  had  reduced 
the  land  tax  from  two  shillings  in  the  pound  to  one,  a  step  which 
obliged  him  to  resort  to  various  substitutes.  No  opposition  was 
raised  when  he  diverted  half  a  million  from  the  Sinking  Fund  of  1717 
toward  the  expenses  of  the  current  year.  In  this  way  the  whole  fund 
was  consumed  within  a  short  time,  and  no  effectual  effort  was  again 
made  to  reduce  the  Debt  until  toward  the  close  of  the  century.  While 
it  was  a  shrewd  political  device  to  maintain  the  security  of  the  existing 
Government  by  holding  the  influential  moneyed  classes  as  its  creditors, 
it  was  financially  unjust  to  hand  on.  the  whole  burden  to  posterity. 
A  measure  to  impose  an  internal  tax  on  salt,  which  bore  rather  heavily 
on  the  poorer  classes,  was  carried  by  a  small  majority.  When  this 
proved  inadequate,  Walpole  introduced  a  measure  providing  that,  in 
the  case  of  tobacco  and  wine,  the-  customs  duty  at  the  ports  should  be 
abolished,  and  that  in  its  place  an  excise  should  be  imposed  on  retail 
traders.  At  the  same  time,  goods  bonded  for  reexport  were  to  be 
warehoused  free  of  duty.  The  plan  had  much  to  commend  it.  It 
would  do  away  with  smuggling  in  these  commodities  which  prevailed 
to  such  an  extent  that  £  500,000  a  year  was  lost  out  of  a  possible 
£  750,000.*  Moreover,  prices  were  not  raised,  while,  by  the  warehous- 
ing provision,  London  would  become  a  free  port  and  the  center  of  the 
world's  markets. 

The  Opposition  and  Withdrawal  of  the  Measure.  —  At  once,  how- 
ever, the  Opposition  fermented  an  indignation  which  spread  through- 
out the  land.  The  excise  was  denounced  as  a  "  plan  of  arbitrary 
power,"  as  a  "  many-headed  monster,  which  was  to  devour  the  peo- 
ple," 2  and  its  author  compared  with  Empson  and  Dudley.  The 
number  of  collectors  required  was  magnified  into  a  standing  army  who 
would  be  employed  as  creatures  of  the  Government  to  control  elections, 
while  the  right  to  enter  and  search  places  where  goods  were  stored  was 
condemned  as  an  inquisitorial  attack  on  liberty.  There  was  cer- 
tainly good  ground  for  objecting  to  the  increase  of  placemen ;  but  the 

'  1  It  is  estimated  that  250  customhouse  officers  had  suffered  violence  and  6 
had  been  murdered  in  the  pursuit  of  their  duties  during  nine  years. 

2  So  late  as  1755  Dr.  Johnson  in  the  first  edition  of  his  famous  Dictionary,  defined 
an  excise  as  "hateful  tax  levied  upon  commodities,  and  adjudged  not  by  common 
judges  of  property,  but  by  wretches  hired  by  those  to  whom  the  excise  is  paid." 


700  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

number  required  was  only  126,  and  they  were  to  have  power  to  search 
only  shops  and  warehouses,  not  private  dwellings.  These  assurances, 
however,  fell  on  deaf  ears.  During  the  debates  crowds  surged  about 
the  Parliament  House,  threatening  and  yelling.  Pamphlets  multi- 
plied, and  petitions  poured  in  from  all  quarters.  "  The  public  was  so 
heated  "  that  rebellion  was  threatened.  Even  the  army  was  infected : 
one  officer  flatly  told  the  Queen  that  he  would  answer  for  his  regiment 
"  against  the  Pretender,  but  not  against  the  opposers  of  the  excise." 
While  he  still  had  a  small  though  decreasing  majority  for  his  bill, 
Walpole,  yielding  to  the  popular  clamor,  quietly  withdrew  it ;  for  he 
regarded  it  as  impolitic  to  cross  the  will  of  the  people,  even  for  their 
good.  Toward  his  colleagues  who  opposed  him  he  took  a  different 
attitude.  The  Earl  of  Chesterfield  1  wyas  dismissed  from  his  post  of 
Lord  Steward  of  the  Household,  and  several  others  were  deprived  of 
their  offices  at  Court  or  of  their  commissions  in  the  army.  Some  might 
regard  this  as  a  "  monstrous  piece  of  resentment,  "  but  Walpole,  by 
thus  punishing  men  in  official  position  who  opposed  a  Government 
measure,  took  a  long  step  in  the  direction  of  Ministerial  unity  under 
the  chief  of  the  Cabinet. 

The  War  of  the  Polish  Succession,  1733-1738.  —  True  to  his  pacific 
policy,  Walpole  managed  to  keep  England  out  of  the  war  which  arose 
over  the  disputed  Polish  succession,  which  broke  out  in  1733  and  in- 
volved most  of  the  leading  European  states.  It  was  only  with  the 
greatest  difficulty  that  he  managed  to  hold  aloof,  the  Opposition  declar- 
ing sarcastically  that  the  engagements  of  the  English  bound  them  to 
help  both  parties,  so  they  prudently  refrained  from  helping  either  one. 
To  the  Queen,  who  was  eager  to  enter  the  fray,  in  1734,  his  reply  was : 
"  Madame,  there  are  fifty  thousand  men  slain  this  year  in  Europe  and 
not  one  Englishman."  Preliminaries  of  peace  were  arranged  in  1735, 
but  the  definitive  peace  of  Vienna  was  not  signed  until  8  November, 
1738.  England,  though  a  non-combatant,  had  a  considerable  voice 
in  the  settlement  of  the  terms  which  resulted  in  significant  territorial 
changes.  Louis  Kill's  father-in-law,  Stanislaus  Lesczinski,  the 
defeated  candidate  for  the  Polish  crown,  was  compensated  with  the 
duchy  of  Lorraine  which  was  to  revert  to  France  at  his  death.  Francis, 
the  reigning  Duke,  the  future  husband  of  Maria  Theresa,  daughter 
and  heir  of  the  Emperor  Charles  VI,  was  given  in  exchange  the  grand 
duchy  of  Tuscany,  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  the  last  Medici  in 
1737.  Austria  yielded  Naples  and  Sicily  to  Carlos,  son  of  Elizabeth 
Farnese,  receiving  in  return  Parma  and  Piacenza  which  Carlos  had 
been  ruling  since  1731. 

Quarrels  between  George  II  and  Prince  Frederick.  —  All  the  while, 
Walpole  had  to  face  scathing  attacks  from  the  Patriots,  who  denounced 
him  as  "  a  man  abandoned  to  all  notions  of  virtue  and  honor  .  .  . 

1  The  author  of  the  celebrated  letters  to  his  son,  and  the  "Mr.  Chester"  of  Dick- 
ens' Barnaby  Rudge.  He  was  one  of  the  most  witty  and  elegant  gentlemen  of  his 
time. 


THE  ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE       701 

afraid  or  unwilling  to  trust  any  but  creatures  of  his  own  making  .  .  . 
with  a  Parliament  of  his  own  making,  most  of  their  seats  purchased, 
and  their  votes  bought  at  the  public  expense."  However,  he  managed 
after  great  exertion  —  spending,  it  is  said,  £60,000  of  his  private 
fortune  —  to  win  a  good,  though  decreased  majority  for  the  Parlia- 
ment of  1735.  Bolingbroke  in  despair  left  the  country.  Although 
he  returned  later,  he  never  again  mingled  actively  in  party  politics. 
After  the  withdrawal  of  the  old  Tory  chief,  the  Opposition  began  to 
center  about  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales,  who  first  became  estranged 
from  his  father  because  of  the  latter's  refusal  to  carry  out  a  treaty  by 
which  the  Prince  was  to  marry  the  Princess  royal  of  Prussia  with  whom 
he  fancied  himself  in  love.  Frederick  was  vain  and  weak  1 ;  but  by 
his  affability  and  his  superficial  graces  he  managed  to  attract  the  men 
of  talent  and  letters  whom  Walpole  and  the  King  had  neglected  or 
repulsed.  His  marriage  to  Augusta  of  Saxe-Gotha,  in  1736,  only  led 
to  new  quarrels  due  mainly  to  the  unwillingness  of  the  avaricious  old 
King  to  allow  him  such  moneys  as  he  demanded  to  run  his  household. 
Finally  a  foolish  act  of  petulance  on  the  Prince's  part  led  to  his  being 
ordered  from  the  royal  presence  altogether,  and  the  Queen  refused  to 
see  him  even  on  her  deathbed.  This  estrangement  between  father 
and  son,  unedifying  as  it  was,  was  really  a  source  of  strength  to  the 
dynasty ;  for  many  of  the  Tories  who  had  only  seen  a  way  to  power 
through  the  Stuarts,  now  began  to  fix  their  hopes  on  Frederick. 

Troubles  with  Spain.  —  The  death  of  Queen  Caroline,  20  November, 
1737,  deprived  Walpole  of  his  stanchest  supporter.  He  kept  his 
office  over  four  years  longer ;  but  his  peace  policy,  more  and  more 
fiercely  assailed,  at  length  broke  down.  Even  the  King,  while  he 
refused  to  accept  his  resignation,  constantly  thwarted  his  foreign 
negotiations  in  order  to  force  him  into  a  warlike  attitude.  In  the  end 
he  yielded  to  the  Opposition,  but  too  late  to  save  his  place.  The 
trouble  started  with  Spain.  There  were  several  causes  of  friction. 
One  had  to  do  with  the  unsettled  boundary  between  Florida  and  Geor- 
gia ;  but  the  most  acute  and  important  concerned  trade  relations, 
arising  from  the  determination  of  the  English  to  break  down  the  colo- 
nial monopoly  to  which  the  Spanish  clung  so  jealously.  By  the 
Treaty  of  Seville,  1729,  the  old  concessions,  which  Alberoni  had  with- 
drawn, were  renewed,  but  each  nation  was  allowed  the  right  of  search 
and  the  seizure  of  contraband  goods.  While  the  Spanish  exercised 
their  rights  with  rigor  and  cruelty,  the  English,  to  the  total  disregard  of 
treaty  obligations,  were  guilty  of  shameless  smuggling.  Fleets  were 
constantly  putting  into  Spanish-American  ports  under  pretence  of 
refitting,  really  to  buy  and  sell  goods.  Others  lay  offshore  where 

1  His  mother  is  said  to  have  declared:  "My  dear  first  born  is  the  greatest  ass 
and  the  greatest  liar  ...  in  the  whole  world."  A  story  more  generally  believed 
relates  that  when  Prince  Charlie  reached  Derby  on  his  road  to  London  in  1745* 
and  when  the  whole  City  was  filled  with  alarm,  Frederick  was  playing  blindman's 
buff  with  his  pages. 


702  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

they  were  visited  by  hosts  of  illicit  traders.  The  one  ship  allowed  by 
the  Asiento  was  moored  a  short  distance  from  the  coast  and  continu- 
ally loaded  and  unloaded.  Cases  of  violence  and  indignities  which 
English  seamen  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Spanish  coast  guard  were 
indignantly  emphasized,  while  the  violations  of  the  law  which  called 
them  forth  were  veiled  in  discreet  silence.  The  ungracious  delay  of 
the  Court  at  Madrid  in  redressing  actual  grievances  added  fuel  to  the 
flames. 

The  Case  of  Jenkins'  Ear,  1738.  — -  Parliament  was  flooded  with 
petitions  from  the  merchants  demanding  redress.  Sailors  were  posted 
in  the  Exchange,  exhibiting  specimens  of  the  loathsome  food  they  had 
to  eat  in  Spanish  dungeons.  Some  brought  before  the  bar  of  the 
Commons  told  their  stories  in  minute  and  harrowing  detail.  While 
there  was  some  truth  in  what  they  said,  they  were  not  examined  under 
oath.  Moreover,  they  were  encouraged  by  partisan  zeal,  even  by 
bribes,  to  exaggerate  and  invent.  The  tale  of  a  shipmaster,  Robert 
Jenkins,  related  in  March,  1738,  aroused  the  chief  interest.  According 
to  his  account,  his  ship  had  been  boarded  in  1731  by  a  body  of  the 
Spanish  coast  guard,  and  the  .captain  had  cut  off  one  of  his  ears.  He 
produced  as  evidence  the  severed  member  which  he  had  carried  about 
wrapped  in  cotton  ever  since.  In  reply  to  the  question  as  to  what  he 
had  done,  he  replied :  "I  commended  my  soul  to  God  and  my  cause 
to  my  country."  While  this  stirring  phrase,  which  became  famous, 
was  very  likely  coined  for  him,  it  is  now  believed  that  he  lost  his  ear  in 
the  manner  he  described,  and  not  in  the  pillory  as  some  have  hinted. 
With  a  number  even  of  his  own  colleagues  against  him,  Walpole 
struggled  in  vain  to  stem  the  swelling  tide  of  anti-Spanish  opposition. 
The  cry  of  "no  search  "  ran  "  from  the  sailor  to  the  merchant,  from 
the  merchant  to  the  Parliament,"  and  the  Lords  carried  a  resolution 
denying  the  right. 

Walpole  forced  to  declare  War,  23  October,  1739.  —  The  Prime 
Minister,  while  admitting  that  the  English  merchants  and  sailors  had 
grievances,  still  hoped  to  settle  them  by  treaty.  At  the  same  time 
he  sought  to  put  pressure  on  the  Court  at  Madrid  by  preparations  for 
war.  In  consequence,  the  Spanish  released  several  prizes  and  cap- 
tives, and  14  January,  1739,  signed  a  Convention  by  which  they  agreed 
to  pay  £95,000  damages  to  English  merchants.  When  it  became 
known  that  no  provisions  had  been  made  to  limit  the  right  of  search, 
to  punish  those  who  had  inflicted  cruelties  on  English  sailors,  or  to 
settle  other  outstanding  questions,  the  Convention  was  denounced 
furiously.  Walpole  in  his  defense  declared  in  words  which  have 
become  famous:  "  Any  peace  is  preferable  even  to  successful  war." 
It  was  in  this  debate  that  William  Pitt  first  impressed  the  Commons  in 
a  fiery  speech  in  which  he  declared  that  the  Convention  was  "  nothing 
but  a  stipulation  for  national  ignominy."  Born  in  1708,  he  had 
entered  the  army  in  1731,  and  four  years  later  was  returned  to  Parlia- 
ment from  the  family  borough  of  Old  Sarum  and  joined  the  party  of 


THE  ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE      703 

"  Boy  Patriots  "  organized  by  his  relative,  Lord  Cobham.  In  1736 
he  was  deprived  of  his  military  commission  for  a  speech  on  the  mar- 
riage of  Prince  Frederick,  which  caused  offense  to  the  Government. 
"  We  must  muzzle  this  terrible  young  cornet  of  horse,"  said  Walpole, 
who  thus  early  recognized  his  possibilities.  Pitt  spent  years  in  opposi- 
tion before  he  obtained  a  Cabinet  office.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the 
pacific  Fleury  to  mediate,  Walpole  finally  realized  that  he  must  either 
declare  war  or  resign.  So  he  framed  a  series  of  demands,  including 
absolute  renunciation  of  the  right  of  search,  immediate  payment  of  the 
£95,000  fixed  by  the  Convention,1  and  an  express  acknowledgment  of 
British  claims  in  North  America.  When  the  Spanish  rejected  the 
ultimatum,  war  was  declared,  23  October,  1739. 

Walpole  and  the  War.  —  The  English  people,  anticipating  much 
plunder  and  an  easy  victory,  went  mad  with  joy.  "  They  may  ring 
bells  now,"  murmured  Walpole ;  "  before  long  they  will  be  wringing 
their  hands."  He  foresaw,  as  the  country  at  large  did  not,  the  dangers 
involved  in  the  course  entered  upon  so  jauntily.  He  knew  that 
France  and  Spain  had  allied  themselves  in  a  Family  Compact  in  1733, 
and,  although  Fleury  had  striven  for  peace,  his  country  was  bound 
sooner  or  later  to  make  common  cause  with  Spain.  Moreover,  the 
Jacobites  were  again  active,  and  were  to  prove  a  serious  menace. 
While  the  responsibility  for  stirring  the  national  resentment  to  a  war 
fever  rests  with  the  Opposition,  Walpole  must  be  blamed  for  yielding 
in  order  that  he  might  cling  to  office.  There  are  many  reasons  to 
explain  his  action :  the  King  begged  him  to  stay  on,  he  did  not  want 
to  surrender  to  his  enemies,  and  he  felt  that,  if  a  conflict  were  inevi- 
table, he  was  more  capable  of  bringing  it  to  a  successful  conclusion 
than  any  other  man  of  the  time.  No  doubt,  however,  love  of  power 
warped  his  judgment,  and  he  made  the  supreme  mistake  of  his  life  in 
undertaking  to  carry  on  a  war  which  he  believed  was  neither  just  nor 
expedient.  He  found  at  once  that  he  had  gained  nothing  by  sacrificing 
his  convictions.  The  "  accumulated  resentments  of  twenty  years  " 
were  arrayed  against  him.  In  vain  the  once  domineering  Minister 
made  concessions.  His  old  opponents,  and  the  "  Boy  Patriots  "  whom 
they  had  trained,  were  bent  on  driving  him  out.  Against  this  formi- 
dable combination  he  had  to  fight  practically  alone,  for  he  had  on  his 
side  only  men  of  mediocre  attainments  or  damaged  character.  Thus 
he  payed  the  penalty  for  his  jealousy  of  rivals  in  office.  The  strain 
began  to  tell  on  his  health,  he  slept  little,  and  grew  moody  and  silent. 

The  War  of  Jenkins'  Ear,  1739-1741.  —  Meantime,  19  July,  1739, 
three  months  before  the  war  was  formally  declared,  Admiral  Vernon 
was  sent  to  the  Spanish- American  waters  with  instructions  "  to 
destroy  the  Spanish  settlements  and  to  distress  their  shipping."  On 
21  November,  he  took  by  assault  Porto  Bello  on  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,  an  important  station  for  fitting  out  the  guarda-costas  or 

1  Spain  had  delayed  payment  on  the  ground  of  counterclaims  against  the  South 
Sea  Company. 


704  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

revenue  cutters.  The  victory  was  turned  against  Walpole ;  for  Vernon 
had  been  one  of  his  most  determined  political  opponents.  The  Ad- 
miral's triumph  was  offset  two  years  later  when,  with  a  great  fleet 
and  a  large  army,  his  attempt  to  capture  Carthagena,1  "  the  strong- 
est place  in  Spanish  America,"  resulted  in  disastrous  failure.  Some 
months  before,  18  September,  1740,  Commodore  Anson  started  for 
the  Pacific  and  only  returned  from  a  toilsome  circumnavigation  of  the 
globe  in  June,  1744,  after  an  absence  of  three  years  and  nine  months. 
His  achievements  recalled  the  old  glories  of  Drake.  He  brought  back 
only  five  of  his  six  ships  and  four  fifths  of  his  crew,  but  had  created 
much  consternation  among  the  Spanish  and  brought  home  a  vast 
treasure  of  £500,000  from  a  galleon  captured  in  the  Philippine  waters. 
Merged  into  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  1740.  —  On  20 
October,  1740,  the  Emperor  Charles  VI  died.  Having  no  sons,  he  had 
by  the  so-called  "  Pragmatic  Sanction  "  2  provided  that  his  Austrian 
lands  should  descend  to  his  eldest  daughter.  This  was  Maria  Theresa, 
married  to  Francis  of  Tuscany.  England,  who  had  pledged  herself 
by  the  second  Treaty  of  Vienna  in  1731  to  accept  this  arrangement,  at 
once  found  her  conflict  with  Spain  merged  into  a  grave  European 
complication,  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession.  Various  male 
members  of  the  Hapsburg  house  set  up  a  claim  to  the  family  inherit- 
ance,3 but  at  length  united  to  support  the  pretensions  of  Charles 
Albert  of  Bavaria.  At  the  same  time  a  new  Power  loomed  up  on  the 
horizon.  Frederick,  known  to  history  as  "  The  Great,"  who  had 
succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Prussia  the  previous  May,  advanced  a 
claim  to  a  portion  of  the  Austrian  province  of  Silesia  with  the  ultimate 
intention  of  absorbing  the  whole.  His  grandfather  had  secured  the 
royal  title  for  the  house  of  Hohenzollern  in  1701 ;  his  testy,  avaricious, 
and  eccentric  father,  Frederick  William,  had  laid  the  foundations  of  a 
strong  monarchy  by  accumulating  considerable  financial  resources 
and  building  up  a  standing  army  that  was  the  apple  of  his  eye.  Freder- 
ick, a  grim  and  ruthless  figure,  proved  to  be  a  military  genius,  a 
statesman,  and  an  administrator  of  the  first  rank.  With  the  materials 
that  he  inherited  he  succeeded,  by  an  amazing  clarity  of  vision,  by 
sleepless  vigilance,  and  by  unremitting  perseverance  and  toil,  in  per- 
fecting a  model  state  of  the  despotic  type  and  forcing  it  into  the  front 
rank  of  European  Powers.  In  the  conflict  which  he  now  entered  he 

1  Among  those  with  him  was  Lawrence  Washington,  who  named  his  estate  on 
the  Potomac  "Mount  Vernon,"  later  famous  as  the  residence  of  his  younger  brother 
George.     A  young  ship's  surgeon,  Tobias  Smollett,  afterwards  described  in  Roderick 
Random  the  sufferings  which  he  himself  witnessed  on  the  voyage. 

2  Originally  the  term  was  applied  to  certain  decrees  of  the  Byzantine  Emperors 
regulating  the  conditions  of  subject  provinces ;  in  another  sense  it  came  to  mean 
a  form  of  limitation  set  to  the  temporal  powers  of  the  Pope  in  various  countries, 
and  finally  signified  an  arrangement  made  by  a  ruler  for  settling  the  succession  of 
his  family  lands. 

3  The  office  of  Emperor  was  elective,  but  for  centuries  the  head  of  the  House  of 
Austria  had  been  chosen. 


THE  ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE      705 

allied  himself  with  France,  Spain,  Bavaria,  and  Saxony,  and  the  first 
two  Silesian  wars  (1740-1742  and  1744-1745)  proved  to  be  a  significant 
factor  in  the  general  war  of  the  Austrian  Succession.  Hard  beset 
by  a  Prussian  army  in  Silesia  and  by  a  combined  French,  Bavarian, 
and  Saxon  army  in  Bohemia,  the  young  Maria  Theresa  was  confronted 
with  a  gloomy  prospect.  At  Frankfort,  14  February,  1742,  Charles 
Albert  was  elected  Emperor  under  the  title  of  Charles  VII. 

The  Fall  of  Walpole,  1742.  — With  the  new  turn  of  affairs  on  the 
Continent  the  attacks  against  Walpole  increased  in  intensity.  In  a 
motion  to  "  remove  him  from  his  Majesty's  presence  and  counsels 
forever  "  one  of  the  main  charges  was  that  he  had  made  himself 
"  Prime  and  Sole  Minister."  This,  and  a  phrase  in  his  defense  that  an 
attempt  to  remove  one  of  his  Majesty's  "  servants  without  so  much  as 
alleging  any  particular  crime  against  him,  is  one  of  the  greatest  en- 
croachments ever  made  on  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown,"  are  indica- 
tions that  two  of  the  essential  features  of  modern  Cabinet  government 
were  as  yet  not  generally  recognized.  While  the  motion  was  defeated 
in  both  Houses,  Walpole's  majority  steadily  decreased.  Various  causes 
added  to  his  unpopularity:  Vernon's  failure  at  Carthagena;  heavy 
commercial  losses  due  to  Spanish  attacks  on  English  shipping;  and 
the  fact  that  George  had  declared  the  neutrality  of  Hanover.  In  none 
of  these  cases  was  Walpole  to  blame.  Vernon's  expedition  was  ade- 
quately equipped,  and  he  and  the  commander  of  the  land  forces  must 
share  the  responsibility  for  the  repulse;  Walpole  had  foreseen  the 
suffering  which  the  merchants  would  have  to  bear  on  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities;  and  he  was  not  informed  of  George's  action  regarding 
Hanover  until  it  was  too  late  to  oppose  it.  Nevertheless,  when  a  new 
Parliament  opened,  4  December,  1741,  the  Opposition  was  so  strong 
that  his  friends  begged  him  to  resign.  But  he  fought  on  with  amazing 
resourcefulness,  keenness,  and  courage,  until,  after  his  party  had  been 
defeated  by  sixteen  votes  in  a  petition  relating  to  a  disputed  election 
at  Chippenham,  he  was  finally  persuaded  that  his  retirement  was 
"  become  absolutely  necessary,  as  the  only  means  to  carry  on  public 
business."  On  n  February  he  resigned  all  his  offices,  though  not 
before  he  had  made  extremely  favorable  terms  for  himself  and  his 
family.  He  was  created  Earl  of  Orford,  and  received  other  marks  of 
royal  favor ;  moreover,  during  the  three  remaining  years  of  his  life  he 
continued  to  exert  such  an  influence  on  public  affairs  as  to  justify  in 
some  measure  the  popular  outcry  that  he  was  "still  Minister  behind 
the  curtain."  Material  as  were  his  interests,  his  achievements  gave 
him  a  leading  place  "  amongst  the  master-makers  of  modern  Great 
Britain." 

Pulteney's  "  Great  Refusal."  Carteret's  "  Drunken  Administra- 
tion." -  Pulteney,  the  leader  of  the  Opposition,  who  had  often  de- 
clared that  he  wanted  no  office  and  who  thought  he  could  retain  his 
influence  over  his  party  by  a  show  of  disinterestedness,  refused  to 
accept  the  office  of  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  Events  proved  that 

2Z 


706  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

he  made  the  supreme  mistake  of  his  life  by  declining  to  assume  the 
responsibility  which  he  had  forced  his  rival  to  lay  down.  The  incapa- 
ble Lord  Wilmington  was  made  nominal  head  of  the  Ministry  * ;  but 
the  leading  figure  of  the  new  Administration,  particularly  in  the  control 
of  foreign  affairs,  was  John  Carteret,  who  became  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Northern  Department.  He  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  his  time ;  he  was  a  master  of  many  languages,  ancient 
and  modern ;  he  had  a  high  reputation  as  a  debater,  especially  owing 
to  his  unusual  gifts  for  pungent  utterances ;  and  he  had  a  wide  and 
thorough  knowledge  of  European  politics  and  diplomacy  based  on  long 
experience.  But  he  was  one  of  those  curious  figures  whose  achieve- 
ments fall  woefully  short  of  their  reputed  attainments.  Politics  was 
to  him  a  diverting  game  rather  than  a  serious  occupation,  and  he  dis- 
dained the  arts  of  the  parliamentary  manager.2  Moreover,  in  an  age 
when  the  vice  was  all  too  prevalent,  he  was  noted  for  his  excessive 
fondness  for  drink.  It  was  partly  this  fact  and  partly  the  erratic 
course  of  his  policy  that  caused  the  period  of  his  brief  tenure  of  power 
to  be  called  the  "  Drunken  Administration." 

In  home  affairs  little  or  no  change  in  domestic  policy  resulted  from 
the  overthrow  of  Walpole.  For  one  thing  the  King  desired  that  as 
many  of  the  old  ministers  as  possible  might  be  retained ;  but,  more 
than  this,  the  opposition  had  been  directed  mainly  against  Walpole's 
personal  domination  and  his  peace  policy  rather  than  against  his 
domestic  administration.  Newcastle  was  retained  as  Secretary  for 
the  Southern  Department,  and  Lord  Hardwicke,  one  of  the  ablest 
men  who  ever  filled  that  office,  continued  as  Lord  Chancellor,3  The 
Tories  who  were  left  out  were  very  bitter,  loudly  demanding  an  admin- 
istration "  founded  on  the  broad  bottom  of  both  parties."  4  Pulteney, 
failing  to  realize  that  the  center  of  parliamentary  strength  was  in  the 
Commons,  unwisely  accepted  a  peerage  under  the  title  of  Lord  Bath. 
"  I  have  turned  the  key  of  the  closet  on  him,"  cried  his  shrewd  old 
rival,  who  welcomed  him  to  the  House  of  Lords  with  the  remark: 
"  You  and  I  are  now  two  as  insignificant  men  as  any  in  England." 
He  was  hissed  and  scoffed  at  as  a  deserter  for  grasping  at  an  "  empty 
honor  "  when  he  refused  a  public  duty,  and  "  shrank  into  insignifi- 
cance." 

The  Course  of  the  War,  1742-1743.  —  The  advent  of  Carteret  drew 
England  into  the  thick  of  the  continental  struggle.  During  the 
session  of  1742  a  subsidy  of  £500,000  was  granted  to  Maria  Theresa, 
£5,000,000  was  voted  for  troops  and  supplies,  and  an  auxiliary  force 

1  Formerly  Sir  Spencer  Compton. 

2  He  scorned  the  advantage  which  he  might  have  got  from  a  control  of  patron- 
age.    "What  is  it  to  me,"  he  once  declared,  "who  is  a  judge  and  who  is  a  bishop. 
It  is  my  business  to  make  kings  and  emperors  and  to  maintain  the  balance  of 
Europe." 

*  It  is  said  of  him  that  "he  transformed  equity  from  a  chaos  of  precedents  into 
a  scientific  system." 

4  It  was  at  this  time  the  term  so  famous  in  English  political  history  took  rise. 


THE  ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE      707 

of  16,000  men  was  sent  to  the  Netherlands.  While,  owing  to  the 
lack  of  Dutch  cooperation,  they  did  little  during  the  whole  year  but 
quarrel  with  the  inhabitants,  the  armies  of  the  Empress  gained  ground 
against  the  French  in  Bohemia  and  in  the  valley  of  the  Danube.  By 
the  Peace  of  Breslau  and  Berlin,  June-July,  1742,  which  put  an  end  to 
the  first  Silesian  War,  Frederick  the  Great  withdrew  temporarily  from 
the  anti-Austrian  alliance.  This  was  a  welcome  relief  to  Maria 
Theresa,  though  the  concession  of  the  greater  part  of  Silesia  which  it 
involved  was  a  sore  blow  to  her  pride.  George,  anxious  alike  to  pro- 
tect his  electoral  dominions  and  to  emulate  William  of  Orange  as  the 
head  of  a  great  continental  alliance,  was  eager  to  plunge  actively  into 
the  fray.  Already  before  his  fall  Walpole  had  concluded  a  treaty  for 
subsidizing  a  force  of  6000  Hessians.  Now,  the  King  and  Carteret, 
without  consulting  Parliament,  arranged  to  take  16,000  Hanoverians 
into  the  British  pay.  Parliamentary  sanction  was  secured  only  in  the 
teeth  of  the  bitterest  opposition.  "  This  powerful,  this  formidable 
kingdom,"  declared  Pitt,  who,  as  usual,  was  foremost  in  violent  denun- 
ciation, "  is  considered  only  as  a  province  to  a  despicable  electorate." 
Yet  the  step  had  the  advantage  of  stirring  the  Dutch  to  furnish  a 
contingent,  while  King  George  levied  6000  more  of  his  Hanoverian 
subjects  whom  he  paid  with  electoral  money. 

The  Battle  of  Dettingen,  27  June,  1743.  — In  February,  1743,  the 
English  forces  in  Flanders,  commanded  by  the  Earl  of  Stair,  started 
east  and  south  with  the  object  of  cutting  off  the  French  from  their 
Bavarian  allies.  On  the  march  they  were  joined  by  some  Austrian 
forces  and  by  the  Hanoverians  in  British  pay.  Halfway  between 
Mainz  and  Frankfort,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Main,  they  sat  down  to 
await  the  Hessian  and  Hanoverian  reinforcements.  Meantime,  a 
French  army  under  the  Marshal  de  Noailles  had  also  crossed  the  Rhine 
and  approached  the  Main  from  the  south.  Strangely  enough,  neither 
France  nor  England  had  as  yet  declared  war  on  one  another,  but  were 
merely  supporting  their  respective  allies.  "  A  ridiculous  situation," 
wrote  Horace  Walpole 1 :  "we  have  the  name  of  war  with  Spain  without 
the  thing,  and  war  with  France  without  the  name."  De  Noailles,  by 
admirable  strategy,  managed  to  throw  strong  detachments  across  the 
river  and  to  check  an  attempted  march  of  the  "  Pragmatic  "  2  army 
toward  Austrian  territory  and  at  the  same  time  to  intercept  its  return 
to  Hanau  (just  east  of  Frankfort),  which  served  as  a  base  of  supplies 
and  a  rendezvous  for  the  expected  reinforcements.  Thus  hemmed  in, 
the  army  of  Stair,  now  joined  by  George  II  and  his  son,  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  had  no  alternative  but  to  engage  the  main  body  of  the 
French  whom  de  Noailles  had  sent,  under  the  command  of  his  nephew, 
the  Duke  of  Gramont,  to  occupy  the  village  of  Dettingen,  strongly 

1  The  son  of  Robert,  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  letter  writer  England  has  ever 
produced,  and  the  most  entertaining  of  contemporary  authorities. 

2  Stair's  army  was  so  called  because  it  was  fighting  to  maintain  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction. 


yo8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

guarded  by  a  stream  flowing  into  the  Main,  as  well  as  by  a  ravine  and  a 
morass.  A  desperate  battle  was  fought  27  June.  In  spite  of  the  valor 
shown  by  the  King  and  the  Duke  it  was  only  the  rashness  of  Gramont 
in  leaving  an  impregnable  position  that  enabled  their  army  to  rout  the 
French  and  cut  their  way  through.  Truly  the  battle  of  Dettingen 
was  "  a  happy  escape  rather  than  a  great  victory."  Finding  that  the 
Imperial  forces  had  driven  across  the  Rhine  another  French  army, 
which  had  been  operating  in  Bavaria,  de  Noailles  also  withdrew,  so 
that  by  the  end  of  the  campaign  Germany  was  altogether  free  from  the 
French. 

England  and  France  as  Principals  in  the  War.  —  France  was  no 
longer  guided  by  the  pacific  counsels  of  Cardinal  Fleury  who  had  died, 
29  January,  1743,  and,  impelled  by  fear  and  hatred  of  her  ancient  rival, 
drew  closer  to  Spain.  By  the  Treaty  of  Fontainebleau,  or  the  Second 
Family  Compact,  concluded  25  October,  1743,  she  agreed  to  assist 
Spain  to  recover  Gibraltar  and  Minorca,  and  to  destroy  the  colony  of 
Georgia,  while  Spain,  on  her  part,  agreed  to  transfer  to  France  the 
privileges  formerly  accorded  to  England  under  the  Asiento.  The 
whole  face  of  the  war  had  been  changed  by  the  events  of  the  past  year. 
England,  first  coming  into  conflict  with  Spain  over  trade  disputes  in 
the  western  world,  had  been  drawn  into  the  European  struggle  as  the 
ally  of  Maria  Theresa,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction  and  the  integrity  of  the  Austrian  lands.  Now  she  and  France 
had  been  brought  face  to  face  as  principals.  George,  "  greedy  for 
glory,"  had  not  only  sent  contingents  to  fight  the  French,  but  had 
actually  gone  in  person  to  lead  them.  Maria  Theresa,  more  aspiring 
still,  and  thirsting  for  revenge  against  the  Powers  who  had  combined 
against  her,  was  determined  to  secure  the  Imperial  Crown  for  her 
husband  Francis,  to  annex  Bavaria,  to  recover  Naples  from  the  Spanish 
line,  to  invade  France,  and  secure  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  So  far  as 
France  and  England  were  concerned  the  area  of  the  conflict  was  not 
confined  to  Europe,  but  spread  to  America  and  India.  These  two 
Powers  were  to  emerge  more  clearly  than  ever  before  as  rivals  for 
maritime  and  colonial  supremacy. 

The  Ministry  of  Henry  Pelham,  1743-1754.  —  Meantime,  on  the 
death  of  Wilmington,  2  July,  1743,  the  Earl  of  Bath,  backed  by  Carteret, 
sought  when  it  was  too  late  to  gain  the  office  which  he  had  once  refused. 
Newcastle,  with  the  support  of  Orford,  succeeded  in  securing  the 
coveted  post  for  his  brother  Henry  Pelham,  who  remained  head  of  the 
Ministry  until  his  death  eleven  years  later.  "  A  timid  and  peace- 
loving  politician,  without  any  commanding  abilities  or  much  strength 
of  character,"  he  was  sensible,  tolerant,  and  industrious,  and  proved 
to  be  a  capable  and  economical  financier  as  well  as  an  excellent  parlia- 
mentary manager.  He  was  honest,  too ;  though  bowing  to  the  custom 
of  the  times,  he  made  considerable  use  of  patronage  and  corruption, 
in  which  his  brother  was  such  a  past  master.  While  the  King  man- 
aged for  more  than  a  year  to  keep  Carteret  in  control  of  foreign  affairs, 


THE  ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE       709 

he  was  obliged  to  defer  more  and  more  to  the  Pelhams  because  of  their 
immense  influence  in  Parliament.  After  Dettingen  there  was  a  brief 
reaction  against  the  dominant  aggressive  policy  abroad  because  of  the 
feeling  that  the  burden  of  expense  was  thrown  more  and  more  on 
England  and  that  George  was  employing  her  resources  mainly  in  the 
interest  of  Hanover.  Carteret  was  denounced  by  Pitt  as  "an  execra- 
ble .  .  .  Minister  who  had  .  .  .  seemed  to  have  drunk  the  potion 
described  in  poetic  fictions  which  made  men  forget  their  country." 
Opposition,  however,  was  silenced  by  the  news  that  the  French  were 
preparing  another  invasion  in  favor  of  the  Pretender. 

The  Attempted  French  Invasion  of  1744.  —  After  the  Jacobite 
exiles  had  felt  the  way  by  means  of  their  English  and  Scotch  com- 
mittees, a  force  of  10,000  men,  under  Marshal  Saxe,  the  most  capable 
general  in  the  French  army,  was  collected  at  Dunkirk.  Here  it  was 
joined  by  "  Prince  Charlie,"  in  whom  the  Jacobites  centered  their 
hopes,  since  his  father  no  longer  cherished  any  illusions  and  was  com- 
pletely discredited  by  repeated  failure  and  by  constant  quarrels  with 
his  wife  and  followers.  The  Young  Pretender,  now  in  his  twenty- 
fourth  year,  was  handsome,  gracious,  dignified,  and  brave,  endowed 
with  all  the  charm  and  enthusiasm  of  youth.  "  I  go,  Sire,"  said  he, 
on  his  departure,  "  in  search  of  three  crowns,  which  I  doubt  not  but 
to  have  the  honor  and  happiness  of  laying  at  your  Majesty's  feet. 
If  I  fail  in  the  attempt,  your  next  sight  of  me  shall  be  in  my  coffin." 
The  French  fleet  which  put  out  26  January,  1744,  to  cover  the  embarka- 
tion of  the  land  force,  found  the  Channel  strongly  guarded  by  their 
vigilant  opponents.  On  top  of  this,  a  heavy  storm  came  up,  and  the 
expedition,  from  which  so  much  had  been  expected,  had  to  put  back  in  a 
very  shattered  condition.  The  only  result  was  a  declaration  of  war 
by  both  countries.  That  of  Louis  XV  was  issued  4  March,  alleging, 
as  its  chief  reason,  that  England  had  broken  the  peace  by  her  expedi- 
tion to  Germany.  The  English  replied,  29  March,  asserting,  among 
other  things,  the  violation  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  aid  to  Spanish 
privateers  in  the  West  Indies,  and  the  attempted  invasion  of  England. 

Dismissal  of  Carteret,  1744.  —  Toward  the  end  of  November,  1744, 
the  King  was  obliged  to  consent  to  the  dismissal  of  Carteret,  now  Earl 
Granville,  who  had  stanchly  directed  his  Hanoverian  policy.  George 
yielded  only  with  much  grumbling,  and  denounced  Newcastle  as  a 
"  puppy  "  who  was  jealous  of  Granville  as  he  had  been  of  Orford  ;  but 
the  Pelhams  had  too  firm  a  hold  on  Parliament  to  be  resisted.  Gran- 
ville, with  his  accustomed  nonchalance,  is  said  to  have  left  his  office 
laughing.  A  "broad-bottom  "  administration,  known  as  the  "Minis- 
try of  all  the  Factions,"  was  thereupon  constructed  by  the  admission 
of  some  Tories  and  some  of  the  party  of  Prince  Frederick.  The  Dutch 
now  entered  the  war,  and  the  campaign  of  1745  centered  in  the  Nether- 
lands. Marshal  Saxe,  with  a  greatly  superior  army,  defeated  a  com- 
bined force  of  the  Austrians,  British,  and  Dutch  at  Fontenoy,  n  May, 
and  before  the  close  of  the  summer  was  practically  in  control  of  Flan- 


710  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

ders.  These  and  other  reverses  of  the  English  and  their  allies  were 
offset  by  a  few  gains,  chiefly  diplomatic.  Frederick  had  entered  the 
war  again,  10  August,  1744 ;  but  after  he  had  driven  a  combined  army 
of  Austrians  and  Saxons  from  Silesia  into  Bohemia,  the  English  Cabinet, 
holding  before  him  the  danger  of  French  ascendancy,  induced  him  to 
listen  to  terms.  At  the  same  time,  by  threatening  to  withhold  further 
subsidies,  they  forced  Maria  Theresa  to  ratify  the  arrangement.  In 
return  for  the  cession  of  Silesia,  Frederick  agreed  to  acknowledge 
Maria  Theresa's  husband  as  Emperor.1  By  the  Peace  concluded  at 
Dresden,  25  December,  1745,  the  Second  Silesian  War  came  to  an  end. 

The  Capture  of  Louisburg,  1745.  —  Meantime,  in  North  America, 
the  New  England  militia,  assisted  by  a  British  fleet,  had  gained  a 
brilliant  success  by  the  capture  of  Louisburg,  17  June,  1745.  This 
stronghold,  situated  on  Cape  Breton  Island,  had  been  fortified  by  the 
French  at  great  expense.  It  was  one  of  the  most  important  positions 
in  the  New  World,  for  it  commanded  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
it  controlled  the  North  American  fisheries,  and  had  served  the  French 
as  a  naval  base,  both  for  their  operations  against  New  England  and 
for  securing  their  communications  between  France  and  Canada. 
The  daring  expedition,  planned  by  Governor  Shirley  of  Massachusetts 
and  commanded  by  William  Pepperell,  was  a  striking  manifestation  of 
the  colonial  phase  which  the  war  had  assumed. 

The  Coming  of  Prince  Charlie,  25  July,  1745.  —  Encouraged  by  the 
reverses  of  the  English  and  their  allies  in  Flanders,  Prince  Charlie, 
2  July,  1745,  embarked  from  the  coast  of  France  and  sailed  for  Scot- 
land in  a  final  attempt  to  recover  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  Perhaps 
the  most  romantic  episode  in  the  history  of  a  country  teeming  with 
traditions  of  valorous  and  desperate  exploits,  the  Rising  of  1745  2  was 
undertaken  in  the  face  of  every  chance  of  failure.  Unsupported  by  a 
single  European  power,  the  Young  Pretender  landed  on  the  west  coast 
of  Scotland,  25  July,  with  only  seven  companions,  trusting  alone  to  his 
personal  charm  and  his  family  name.  The  Highlanders,  even  had 
they  given  him  their  united  support,  numbered  not  more  than  one 
twelfth  of  the  population  of  the  country.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  some 
had  been  won  over  to  the  Hanoverian  dynasty,  while  of  those  clans 
who  responded  to  his  call,  most  were  destitute  of  discipline,  torn  by 
jealousy,  and  primarily  concerned  in  plundering  their  enemies.  In 
the  Lowlands,  while  the  Episcopalians  were  generally  attached  to  his 
cause  and  while  there  was  some  enthusiasm  for  the  Stuart  name  and  a 
lingering  discontent  against  the  Union,  the  growing  commercial  and 
industrial  classes  saw  that  their  best  interests  were  bound  up  with  the 
existing  Government.  George  II  was  abroad,  the  bulk  of  the  English 
army  was  in  the  Netherlands,  and,  at  first,  public  opinion  was  apa- 

1  Charles  VII  had  died  the  previous  January.    His  son  concluded  a  treaty  with 
Maria  Theresa  by  which  his  Bavarian  territories  were  restored,  and  he  agreed  to 
vote  for  Francis  who  was  elected  Emperor  at  Frankfort  in  September. 

2  It  has  been  immortalized  in  literature  in  Sir  Walter  Scott's  Waverley. 


THE  ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE      ;n 

thetic ;  yet,  nevertheless,  the  English  Jacobites  made  little  or  no  effort 
to  organize  an  insurrection. 

His  Occupation  of  Edinburgh,  17  September.  Prestonpans,  21 
September.  —  Having  won  over  a  few  of  the  western  chiefs,  notably 
Cameron  of  Lochiel,  Charles  raised  his  standard,  19  August,  1745,  in 
the  dreary  vale  of  Glenfinnan.  Though  the  Scots  had  declared  before 
his  arrival  that  they  would  not  aid  hirn  unless  he  came  with  6000 
troops  and  10,000  stand  of  arms,  such  was  the  magic  of  his  presence 
and  his  name  that  many,  from  a  glorious  but  mistaken  loyalty,  flocked 
to  join  him.  Others  held  aloof,  waiting  upon  events.  Sir  John  Cope,  • 
the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Government  forces,  leaving  a  small 
troop  of  dragoons  at  Stirling,  drew  off  his  army  to  Inverness  with  the 
intention,  he  asserted,  of  assembling  the  friendly  clans  and  cutting 
off  the  Prince  from  the  rear,  though  he  has  been  accused  of  fearing  to 
face  an  engagement.  With  the  road  thus  practically  unobstructed, 
Charles  hastened  south.  At  Perth  he  was  joined  by  Lord  George 
Murray,  a  veteran  of  1715,  who  rendered  effective  service  as  a  general, 
but  added  another  element  of  discord  by  his  hot  temper  and  overbear- 
ing manner.  On  17  September,  after  overcoming  a  feeble  opposition 
to  his  advance,  Charles  entered  the  panic-stricken  capital.  As  he 
rode  through  the  town  in  a  tartan  coat,  wearing  a  blue  bonnet  sur- 
mounted by  a  white  cockade,  he  was  welcomed  with  raptures  by  the 
Jacobites.  That  night  a  ball  was  given  at  Holyrood,  the  royal  palace 
of  his  ancestors,  where  he  completed  his  conquest  by  winning  the  hearts 
of  the  ladies.  After  a  single  day  of  rest  he  marched  forth  to  meet 
Cope  who  had  taken  ship  at  Aberdeen,  landed  at  Dunbar,  and  was  on 
his  way  westward.  The  two  armies  joined  battle,  21  September,  near 
the  little  village  of  Prestonpans.1  Cope's  forces,  unable  to  withstand 
the  terrific  onslaught  of  the  Highlanders,2  were  routed  completely  in 
little  more  than  five  minutes.  Unable  to  rally  the  remnants,  Sir  John 
joined  in  the  flight.  At  Berwick,  where  they  took  refuge,  he  was  wel- 
comed with  the  remark  that  "  he  was  the  first  general  on  record  who 
carried  the  tidings  of  his  own  defeat." 

The  Pretender  invades  England,  31  October,  1745.  — •  Charles  was 
for  pushing  on  at  once  for  London  while  the  Government  was  still 
unprepared,  but  his  advisers  urged  him  to  wait  for  reinforcements  and 
for  supplies.  So  many  of  his  Highlanders  had  gone  home  with  their 
plunder  that  he  was  obliged  to  yield,  and  remained  in  Edinburgh 
gathering  recruits.  The  delay  destroyed  any  chance  of  success  that 
he  may  have  had.  George  II  returned  from  Hanover,  3 1  August ; 
the  Dutch  were  called  on  to  furnish  6000  auxiliaries  that  they  were 
bound  by  treaty  to  supply;  the  militia  were  mustered  in  several 

1  Not  to  be  confused  with  Preston  in  Lancashire. 

2  It  is  a  curious  illustration  of  the  simplicity  of  the  Highlanders  that  one  of 
them  who  captured  a  watch  and  disposed  of  it  shortly  after  it  had  run  down,  re- 
marked :   "He  was  glad  to  get  rid  of  the  creature;   for  she  died  no  long  time  after 
he  caught  her." 


712  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

counties ;  and  General  Wade  was  ordered  to  collect  an  army  at  New- 
castle. The  mass  of  the  people  still  remained  indifferent;  but  the 
Government  made  itself  stronger  every  day.  Charles,  who  had  been 
drilling  his  motley  following  and  doing  his  best  to  hold  them  in  restraint, 
began  his  invasion  of  England,  31  October,  taking  the  western  route 
to  avoid  General  Wade.  Dressed  in  Highland  garb  the  Prince 
marched  on  foot,  sharing  the.hardships  of  the  common  soldier,  paying 
for  all  he  took,  and  maintaining  admirable  discipline.  It  was  with 
great  relief  that  the  invaders  passed  Preston,  so  fatal  to  their  predeces- 
sors in  1648  and  1715.  At  Manchester  they  were  received  enthusias- 
tically with  the  ringing  of  bells,  with  illuminations,  as  well  as  with 
other  signs  of  popular  favor,  and  were  even  joined  by  a  body  of  volun- 
teers ;  but  their  position  grew  every  day  more  desperate.  Beyond  the 
Border  Hanoverian  forces  were  gathering  at  Inverness  ;  Glasgow  and 
several  other  considerable  towns  returned  to  their  allegiance;  and 
the  Crown  officers  reentered  Edinburgh.  Regiments  from  Flanders 
had  been  hurried  to  England  and  the  Dutch  auxiliaries  had  arrived. 
General  Wade  was  advancing  through  Yorkshire,  while  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland  lay  in  front  with  a  force,  part  of  which  he  had  raised  in 
the  Midlands.  A  third  army  was  forming  at  Finchley  for  the  defense 
of  London,  while  fleets  patrolled  the  Channel  to  intercept  any  possible 
aid  from  France.  Various  means  were  t.aken  to  rouse  the  people : 
staring  placards  informed  them  that  the  invaders  were  "  Papists," 
who  ate  no  meat  in  Lent,  and  the  Highlanders  were  pictured  as  sav- 
ages capable  of  all  sorts  of  ferocities. 

The  Retreat  to  Scotland.  —  Charles,  whose  courage  and  enthusiasm 
never  waned,  managed  to  elude  Cumberland  and  to  get  as  far  as  Derby, 
situated  only  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  miles  north  of  London. 
The  6  December,  the  day  the  news  reached  the  City,  was  long  remem- 
bered as  "  Black  Friday."  "  Terror  scarce  to  be  credited  "  reigned, 
shops  were  closed,  and  a  threatened  run  on  the  Bank  of  England  was 
only  met  by  paying  in  sixpences.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Lord 
George  Murray  and  the  other  leaders  insisted  upon  turning  back. 
In  vain  Charles  argued  and  pleaded,  declaring  that  he  would  rather  be 
"  twenty  feet  under  ground."  In  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said  to  the 
contrary,  the  Scots,  had  they  not  turned  back,  would  have  passed  on  to 
certain  destruction.  Almost  no  Englishmen  of  note  had  joined  their 
ranks ;  the  French  had  sent  no  aid ;  and,  even  if  they  had,  their  ships 
would  certainly  have  been  intercepted  in  the  Channel.  Cumberland 
and  Wade  were  closing  in  from  the  north,  and  the  army  in  the  front  of 
London  outnumbered  that  of  Charles  two  to  one.  Moreover,  the 
inertness  of  the  masses  had  changed  to  fear  and  hatred.  The  retreat 
was  a  striking  contrast  to  the  advance.  Discipline  was  relaxed,  and 
the  embittered  Highlanders  ruthlessly  plundered  the  countryside, 
causing  the  hostility  to  the  "  wild  petticoat  men  "  to  grow  steadily 
more  intense.  Cumberland  started  in  hot  pursuit,  but  on  a  false 
report  that  the  French  were  preparing  to  land,  gave  up  the  chase. 


THE   ASCENDANCY   AND    FALL   OF   WALPOLE      713 

The  retreating  army  succeeded  in  recrossing  the  Border  and,  26  Decem- 
ber, 1745,  reached  Glasgow,  having  accomplished  the  extraordinary 
feat  of  marching  nearly  six  hundred  miles  in  fifty-six  days. 

The  Defeat  at  Culloden,  16  April,  1746.  —  Early  in  January,  1746, 
Charles,  whose  depleted  army  had  been  swollen  by  reinforcements  to 
nearly  9000  men,  undertook  the  investment  of  Stirling  Castle,  and,  on 
the  1 7th,  defeated  General  Hawley,  who,  with  stupid  contempt  for 
"  Highland  rabble,"  led  the  Government  forces  in  Scotland  to  raise 
the  siege.  But  the  victory  did  as  much  harm  as  good  to  the  Pre- 
tender's cause.  New  dissensions  arose,  the  clansmen  dispersed  with 
their  booty,  and  Cumberland  was  sent  to  take  command  in  Scotland. 
Again  Murray  persuaded  Charles  to  retreat,  this  time  to  the  High- 
lands, where  he  might  spend  the  winter  in  recruiting  and  preparing  for 
the  spring  campaign.  As  the  season  advanced  the  suffering  of  his 
troops  became  pitiful.  The  district  where  they  were  quartered  was 
bleak  and  barren,  they  were  cut  off  from  the  richer  Lowlands,  whence 
they  might  have  drawn  means  of  subsistence,  and  most  of  the  supplies 
from  France  were  intercepted.  Early  in  April  Cumberland,  who  had 
finally  got  his  army  in  fighting  shape,  marched  from  Aberdeen  with 
9000  well-armed  and  well-fed  troops  to  offer  battle.  Charles,  able  to 
muster  a  force  of  only  5000  half-starved  men,  made  a  vain  attempt  to 
surprise  the  enemy  during  a,  night  carousal  in  celebration  of  the  Duke's 
birthday.  "  Spent  and  discouraged,"  his  little  army  returned  to  its 
original  position  at  Culloden  Moor  about  five  miles  east  of  Inverness. 
Here,  16  April,  in  the  midst  of  a  storm  of  snow  and  hail  which  blew 
directly  in  their  faces,  they  were  attacked  and  overcome  by  Cumber- 
land's forces,  superior  to  them  in  every  respect,  in  numbers,  organiza- 
tion, and  equipment.  To  cap  all,  when  the  center  and  right  had  been 
driven  back,  the  Macdonalds  on  the  left,  who  felt  that  they  had  been 
insulted  because  they  had  not  been  given  the  post  of  honor  which 
tradition  had  assigned  to  them  since  Bannockburn,  refused  to  move, 
standing  stolidly  while  their  chief  rushed  forward  and  was  shot  down, 
murmuring :  "  My  God  !  have  the  children  of  my  tribe  forsaken 
me  ?  "  The  army  of  the  Pretender  was  destroyed,  his  cause  was  ruined. 

Cumberland's  Butchery  and  the  Flight  of  Prince  Charlie.  —  Cum- 
berland earned  his  name  of  "  the  Butcher  "  by  the  ferocity  with  which 
he  hunted  down,  slew,  and  even  tortured  the  vanquished,  and  pillaged 
and  destroyed  their  property.1  Many  who  escaped  perished  from 
hunger  and  exposure.  The  English,  however,  hailed  him  as  a  deliverer : 
Parliament  voted  him  the  formal  thanks  of  the  nation,  as  well  as  an 
annual  pension  of  £25,000  for  himself  and  his  heirs.2  Lord  George 
Murray  made  a  vain  effort  to  rally  the  clans ;  but  Charles,  thanking 
them  for  their  zeal,  bade  them  seek  safety.  Lord  George  himself 

1  Though  a  recent  authority  has  advanced  evidence  to  show  that  his  responsi- 
bility for  the  cruelties  after  Culloden  has  been  exaggerated. 

2  Thanks  to  an  enthusiastic  poet,  his  name  has  survived  in  the  flower  known 
as  the  Sweet  William. 


yi4  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

escaped  to  Holland.  For  five  months,  from  April  to  September, 
Charles  wandered  about  a  fugitive,  sometimes  on  the  main  land, 
sometimes  among  the  islands  off  the  coast.  In  spite  of  a  reward  of 
£  30,000  offered  for  his  capture,  no  one  could  be  found  to  betray  him. 
At  one  critical  moment  he  was  saved  by  the  cleverness  and  devotion  of 
a  young  woman,  Flora  Macdonald,  who  dressed  him  as  a  waiting  maid.1 
It  was  during  this  period  of  exposure  that  he  contracted  the  habit  of 
drunkenness,  which  later  proved  his  ruin.  At  length,  20  September, 
he  was  shipped  out  of  the  country  from  Loch-na-Nuagh,  the  very 
place  where  he  had  landed  fourteen  months  before.  In  spite  of  his 
failure,  his  exploit  was  a  marvelous  one,  and  devotion  to  the  name  of 
"  Prince  Charlie  "  lingered  in  the  Highlands  for  generations  to  come. 
Unfortunately,  except  for  occasional  flashes  of  his  old  courage  and 
generosity,  his  later  life  was  sad  and  inglorious.  Driven  from  France, 
he  wandered  about  Europe,  visited  London  in  disguise  at  least  once 
—  when  he  is  said  to  have  declared  himself  a  Protestant  —  and  finally 
took  refuge  in  Italy.  Becoming  titular  King  on  the  death  of  his  father, 
he  married,  in  1772,  Louise  of  Stolberg ; 2  but  he  grew  to  be  an  invet- 
erate sot  and  so  ill  treated  her  that  she  finally  deserted  him.  He 
died  in  Rome,  31  January,  1788.  With  the  death  of  his  brother  Henry, 
Cardinal  of  York,  in  1807,  the  male  line  of  the  House  of  Stuart  became 
extinct. 

Measures  following  the  "  Forty-five."  —  The  Duke  of  Cumberland 
continued  to  press  "  for  the  utmost  severity,"  in  consequence  of  which 
more  than  eighty  were  put  to  death,  including  three  noblemen  who 
were  beheaded  on  Tower  Hill.  The  last  to  suffer  was  Simon  Fraser, 
Lord  Lovat,  a  despicable  intriguer  eighty  years  old,  who  had  crowned 
a  long  life  of  meanness  and  treachery  by  trying  to  attach  himself  both 
to  the  Stuarts  and  the  Hanoverians.3 

The  Transformation  of  Scotland  after  the  Union.  —  The  repression 
of  the  rising  of  1745,  and  the  measures  that  followed,  completed  the 
social  and  economic  transformation  of  Scotland  which  had  been  going 
on  since  the  Union.  Before  that  time  the  Highlands  had  been  inacces- 
sible and  barbaric.  The  clans  formed  a  group  of  petty  kingdoms,  each 
under  an  hereditary  chief  who  knew  no  law  but  tribal  law.  The  clans- 
men, scorning  labor,  left  their  women  and  children  to  gather  such 
scanty  crops  as  their  barren  lands  afforded  and  devoted  themselves 
to  the  chase,  to  cattle  raids,  and  to  fighting.  The  Lowlands,  where  the 
chief  industrial  energy  and  progressiveness  centered,  were  handicapped 
by  a  bare,  rugged  soil,  by  exposure  to  attack  from  the  north  and  south, 
by  religious  persecution  and  rigid  exclusion  from  English  markets. 

1  In  this  disguise  he  behaved  so  awkwardly  that  one  who  saw  him  declared : 
"Your  enemies  call  you  a  Pretender,  but  if  you  be,  I  can  tell  you,  you  are  the  worst 
of  your  trade." 

2  Known  to  history  as  the  Countess  of  Albany. 

3  He  was  impeached  in  the  House  of  Commons.    One  result  of  his  trial  was  an 
act  extending  to  those  impeached  for  treason  the  right  to  have  counsel. 


THE   ASCENDANCY  AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE      715 

The  period,  following  the  Revolution  and  the  Union  marked  a  turning 
point  in  their  history.  Presbyterianism  was  restored,1  schools  were 
established,  and,  with  the  removal  of  restrictions  on  commerce,  trade 
and  manufactures  began  to  flourish.  The  Highlands  remained  for  a  long 
time  untouched  by  the  change,  in  spite  of  various  innovations.  Paro- 
chial schools  were  set  up  with  a  view  to  rooting  out  the  Gaelic  tongue, 
a  barrier  to  rapid  assimilation.  After  1715  an  attempt  was  made  to 
disarm  the  clansmen ;  but  the  inaccessible  character  of  the  country 
proved  a  serious  obstacle  to  its  enforcement.  In  1726,  however, 
General  Wade  began  the  construction  of  roads,  which,  completed  in  a 
little  over  ten  years,  greatly  facilitated  the  efforts  of  the  Government 
in  dealing  with  the  disaffected,  and  in  opening  up  the  remote  districts 
to  civilizing  influences.2 

After  the  Rising.  —  The  crushing  of  the  Rebellion  completed  what 
the  rise  of  the  Lowland  industrial  class,  the  extension  of  education,3  and 
the  new  roads  had  begun.  Many  powerful  chieftains  were  forced  to 
go  into  exile,  others  were  ruined,  so  that  ties  which  bound  them  to  their 
clansmen  were  naturally  weakened.  In  addition,  a  series  of  impor- 
tant measures  was  passed  in  1746,  which  swept  away  the  last  vestiges 
of  the  old  clan  organization.  One  abolished  all  "  heritable  jurisdic- 
tions," providing  £152,000  byway  of  compensation.  Another  made 
the  Disarming  Act  a  reality,  and  prohibited  any  but  soldiers  from 
wearing  the  national  dress  under  penalty  of  six  months'  imprisonment 
for  the  first  offense  and  seven  years'  transportation  for  the  second. 
English  Ministers,  however,  notably  Pitt,  wisely  enlisted  Highland 
regiments  in  the  British  service,  who  by  their  valiant  achievements 
aroused  a  sense  of  national  loyalty  which  went  far  to  soften  the  animos- 
ity called  forth  by  the  previous  measures  of  repression.  Much  of  the 
old-time  chivalry,  romance,  and  picturesqueness  passed  away,  and  no 
little  temporary  distress  resulted ;  for  the  old  chiefs  who  had  been 
fathers  to  their  people  were  often  replaced  by  rapacious  landlords 
intent  on  squeezing  a  profit  from  the  tenants.  But,  by  the  extension 
of  schools,  by  the  introduction  of  improved  methods  of  agriculture  and 
cattle  breeding,  by  the  encouragement  of  the  fisheries  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  linen  industry  and  stocking  weaving,  and  by  the  enforce- 
ment of  law,  thrift  and  security  came  to  prevail  over  disorder  and 
poverty.  Throughout  the  country  much  that  was  sordid  and  miser- 
able remained,  while  the  despotism  of  the  Church  and  the  gloomy 

1  By  an  act  of  1712  toleration  was  extended  to  Episcopalians:    Presbyterian 
despotism  was  checked,  and  a  small  but  disaffected  class  was  to  some  degree  recon- 
ciled. 

2  The  road  system,  faulty  as  it  may  have  been,  was  praised  in  the  following 
curious  couplet : 

"If  you  had  seen  these  roads  before  they  were  made 
You  would  lift  up  your  hands  and  bless  General- Wade." 

3  The  periods  of  residence  of  the  Scotch  representative  peers  in  London  was 
another  important  factor. 


716  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Sabbath  tended  to  darken  and  deaden  the  national  character ;  but  the 
native  shrewdness  of  the  Scot,  together  with  his  frugality  and  diligence, 
led  him  to  achieve  great  things  at  home  and  brought  him  to  the  front 
wherever  he  went. 

The  Ministerial  Crisis,  February,  1746.  —  While  the  forces  of  the 
Pretender  were  still  unconquered,  the  Pelhams  took  occasion  to  add  a 
number  of  supporters  to  the  Ministry,  among  them  Pitt,  whom  they 
demanded  should  be  made  Secretary  at  War.  When,  the  King, 
who  hated  Pitt  because  of  his  fierce  opposition  to  subsidies  and  his 
contempt  for  Hanover,  refused  to  comply,  they  resigned.  Granville 
and  Bath,  however,  were  unable  to  form  a  Ministry,  and  the  Pelhams 
had  to  be  recalled.  The  office  of  Secretary  at  War  was  given  to  Henry 
Fox,  a  man  of  great  ability,  industrious  and  affable,  but  a  "  political 
adventurer,"  destitute  of  all  principle  and  sense  of  public  duty,  aiming 
solely  at  personal  gain.  By  way  of  compromise  George  very  reluc- 
tantly appointed  Pitt  a  Vice-Treasurer  of  Ireland.  In  May  he  was 
promoted  to  the  office  of  Paymaster  of  the  Forces.  The  whole  affair 
is  important  from  the  fact  that  the  Pelhams  were  obliged,  much  against 
their  will,  to  take  up  a  man  because  of  the  public  opinion  that  was  back 
of  him  and  to  force  him  upon  the  King.  Pitt  now  showed  such  en- 
thusiasm in  supporting  subsidies  that  he  was  bitterly  attacked ;  but 
he  had  come  to  see  the  need  of  what  he  formerly  opposed.  He  showed 
his  personal  honesty,  indeed  ostentatiously  advertised  it,  by  refusing 
to  follow  his  predecessors  in  taking  percentages  on  foreign  subsidies  or 
in  pocketing  the  interest  on  public  moneys  which  he  placed  on  deposit. 

The  End  of  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  and  the  Peace  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  1748.  —  The  recall  of  the  English  troops  to  deal  with 
the  rising  of  the  Scots  had  left  the  Allies  even  more  at  the  mercy  of 
the  French  in  the  Netherlands  than  they  had  been  before.  On  the 
other  hand,  Austria  had  been  relieved  by  the  withdrawal  of  both  Prus- 
sia and  Bavaria  from  the  war,  and  by  the  death,  9  July,  1746,  of  Philip 
V  of  Spain,  whose  son  and  successor,  Ferdinand  VI,  was  pacifically 
inclined.  Bereft  of  two  allies,  languidly  supported  by  a  third,  alarmed 
at  her  increasing  debt,  unsuccessful  against  the  Austrians  in  Italy 
and  with  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Canada  threatened  by  the  capture  of 
Louisburg,  the  French  were  ready  to  listen  to  terms  of  peace;  but 
the  English  demands  were  so  high  that  the  struggle  dragged  on  for 
more  than  a  year  longer.  In  the  campaign  of  1747  Marshal  Saxe 
pushed  into  Holland,  defeated  a  combined  British,  Dutch,  and  Aus- 
trian force  at  Laffeldt,  2  July,  and,  in  September,  his  forces  took  the 
important  fortress  of  Bergen-op-Zoom,  one  of  the  keys  of  the  country. 
These  gains,  however,  were  counterbalanced  by  decisive  victories 
of  Anson,  off  Cape  Finisterre,  3-4  May,  and  of  Hawke,  off  Belleisle, 
25  October,  actions  which  practically  ruined  the  French  navy  for  the 
time  being.  Thereupon,  the  question  of  peace  was  referred  to  a 
congress  called  to  meet  at  Aix-la-Chapelle. 
Though  Maria  Theresa,  George  II,  and  William,  recently  elected 


THE  ASCENDANCY   AND   FALL  OF  WALPOLE      717 

Stadholder  of  Holland,  strung  out  the  negotiations  in  the  vain  hope 
of  a  victory  on  land  which  might  enable  them  to  make  better  terms, 
the  English  and  the  Dutch  finally  gave  in  and  signed  preliminaries, 
30  April,  1748,  without  waiting  for  their  Austrian  allies.  The  chief 
terms  were:  (i)  The  renewal  of  all  former  treaties,  except  in  such 
points  as  were  specifically  changed,  and  the  mutual  restoration  of  all 
conquests.  Thus  Cape  Breton  reverted  to  France,  and  Madras  to 
Great  Britain.  (2)  The  Asiento  was  to  be  revived  for  four  years. 
(3)  The  Protestant  Succession  was  again  guaranteed,  and  the  exclusion 
of  the  Pretender  and  his  family  from  France  confirmed.  (4)  The 
Emperor  Francis  was  to  be  acknowledged  by  France  and  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction  renewed.  (5)  The  Duchy  of  Silesia  and  the  County  of  Glatz 
were  to  remain  in  the  hands  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  The  Empress 
Maria  Theresa  protested  bitterly,  and  at  first  refused  to  confirm  the 
preliminaries,  declaring  that  she  was  neither  a  child  nor  a  fool.  At 
length,  however,  a  definitive  peace  was  signed,  18  October. 

The  Results  of  the  War.  —  Curiously  enough,  the  issue  in  which 
England  and  Spain  had  originally  gone  to  war  —  the  right  of  search 
—  was  passed  over  without  mention,  while  England  and  France,  after 
a  tremendous  expenditure  of  men  and  money,  remained  in  much  the 
same  position  as  before.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Austrian  lands  and 
the  Imperial  title  had  been  preserved  to  the  daughter  of  Austrian 
Hapsburgs,  though  at  the  cost  of  a  cherished  province;  Holland, 
already  seriously  weakened  in  the  previous  struggles  with  France, 
finally  ceased  to  be  a  great  Power ;  while  Prussia,  destined  in  another 
war  to  be  the  most  effective  ally  of  Great  Britain  and  a  dominating 
force  in  Europe,  had  made  her  way  into  the  front  rank  of  European 
States.  It  was  only  late  in  the  struggle  that  England  had  asserted  the 
maritime  supremacy  that  had  once  been  hers,  and  which  she  was  soon 
to  demonstrate  again  so  signally.  On  land  she  had  been  beaten  "  on 
every  spot  which  my  lord  Marlborough  had  conquered."  Although 
it  was  not  clear  to  her  statesmen  at  the  time,  the  system  of  William  III, 
and  the  Duke  who  followed  him,  was  outworn.  When,  after  a  brief 
interval  of  repose,  the  conflict  was  again  resumed,  Pitt,  who  now  held 
only  a  subordinate  place  in  the  Ministry,  was  to  show  that  his  country's 
primary  mission  was  not  to  devote  her  best  strength  to  fighting  France 
in  the  Netherlands  and  in  Germany,  but  to  bend  her  main  energies  to 
mastering  her  great  rival  on  the  sea,  in  America  and  in  India. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 
See  ch.  XLI  below. 


CHAPTER  XLI 

THE  DUEL  FOR  EMPIRE.    THE  CLOSING  YEARS  OF  GEORGE   ITS 
REIGN   (1748-1760) 

A  Period  of  Calm.  —  The  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  followed  in 
England  by  several  years  of  political  tranquillity.  The  Pelhams, 
secure  in  the  control  of  Parliament,  sought  to  avoid  trouble,  while 
Pitt,  for  the  time  being,  lent  his  support  to  the  Government.  The 
opposition  was  confined  to  Prince  Frederick  and  his  Leicester  House 
Circle  ;  but,  guided  by  no  great  man  or  principle,  it  was  divided  by 
bickering  and  intrigue.  On  the  Prince's  death  in  1751,  the  Princess 
Dowager  passed  over  to  the  King's  side,  and  in  1752  Horace  Walpole 
suggested  as  an  advertisement  :  "  Lost,  an  Opposition."  The 
Jacobites  were  still  uneasy;  but  satisfied  themselves  with  futile  evi- 
dences of  loyalty  to  the  Pretender,1  such  as  singing  songs  in  his  praise 
and  drinking  his  health.2  Granville  returned  to  office  as  President 
of  the  Council,  "  a  mere  spectator  of  others'  greatness  and  ghost,  of 
his  own,"  chiefly  famous  henceforth  for  his  sparkling  epigrams. 

The  Reform  of  the  Calendar,  1751.  —  During  these  years  of  quiet 
two  notable  reforms  were  carried  through.  The  first  was  the  reform  of 
the  Calendar.  The  English  year  began  on  "  Lady  Day,"  25  March,3 
and,  owing  to  an  ancient  astronomical  error,  her  reckoning  was  eleven 
days  wrong.  The  "  new  "  or  corrected  style  had  been  brought  into 
general  use  in  Europe  in  1582  by  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  Only  Sweden, 
Russia,4  and  England  clung  to  the  "  old  style,"  partly  from  conserva- 
tism, partly  because  the  innovation  was  a  "  Popish  "  measure.  In 
England  the  change  was  proposed  by  Chesterfield,  and  was  worked 
out  with  the  aid  of  two  prominent  mathematicians.  New  Year's  Day 
was  changed  to  i  January,  and  the  day  following  2  September,  1752, 
was  called  the  I4th.  The  timid  Newcastle  begged  Chesterfield  not 
to  meddle  with  "  new  f  angled  things  "  ;  but  the  measure  was  easily 
carried  through  Parliament.  Outside,  however,  the  opposition  was 


gentlemen  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lichfield  dressed  their  fox  hounds  in 
tartan  plaids  and  hunted  in  red  uniforms. 

2  Even  to-day  finger  bowls  are  not  used  at  Court  or  Guildhall  dinners,  owing, 
it  is  said,  to  the  Jacobite  custom  of  waving  a  glass  over  them  and  drinking  to  the 
King  "over  the  water." 

3  The  Feast  of  the  Annunciation  of  the  Virgin  Mary.     This  was  the  first  of  the 
"quarter  days"  into  which  the  year  was  divided.     The  others  were  Midsummer 
Day,  21  June;  Michaelmas,  29  September;  and  Christmas,  25  December. 

4  Russia  still  retains  it. 

718 


THE   DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  719 

for  some  time  intense.  "  Give  us  back  our  eleven  days  "  was  a  popular 
cry  in  the  next  election.  The  altering  of  holy  days  was  regarded  as  a 
profanation,  and  when  one  of  the  mathematicians,  Bradley,  died  of  a 
lingering  illness,  it  was  regarded  as  a  just  judgment,  because  he  had 
"  banished  the  old  Christmas." 

Lord  Hardwicke's  Marriage  Bill,  1753.  —  The  other  measure  —  the 
marriage  Act  of  1753  —  did  away  with  a  crying  abuse.  Hitherto 
marriages  could  be  celebrated  by  a  priest  at  any  time  and  place,  with- 
out previous  notice  or  registration  and  without  the  knowledge  and 
consent  of  either  parent  or  guardian,  even  if  the  parties  were  minors. 
Consequently,  disreputable  persons,  usually  prisoners  for  debt,  did 
a  thriving  business  in  joining  runaway  couples,  as  well  as  young  heirs 
and  heiresses  entrapped  by  unscrupulous  persons.  This  nefarious 
work  centered  chiefly  in  and  about  the  "  Fleet."  l  Almost  every 
neighboring  tavern  and  grog  shop  had  a  "  Fleet  parson  "  in  its  pay. 
In  one  period  of  four  months  nearly  3000  "Fleet  marriages  "  were  per- 
formed. Once  joined,  the  tie  was  almost  indissoluble,  since  divorces 
could  only  be  secured  by  act  of  Parliament.  Various  attempts  to 
remedy  the  evil  proved  ineffective  till  Lord  Hardwicke's  celebrated 
act  of  1753,  which  provided  that,  except  in  the  case  of  Quakers  and 
Jews,  no  marriage  should  be  valid  which  was  not  celebrated  according 
to  the  Anglican  liturgy  by  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  England.  Fur- 
thermore, banns2  must  be  published  in  the  parish  church  for  three 
successive  weeks.  The  only  alternative  was  a  special  license  issued 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  very  costly.  In  the  case  of 
minors  such  licenses  could  not  be  procured  without  the  consent  of 
parents  or  guardians.  Persons  celebrating  marriages  contrary  to 
law  were  liable  to  transportation.  The  new  arrangement  was  natu- 
rally a  grievance  to  Dissenters ;  but  the  evils  that  it  remedied  were 
greater  than  the  hardships  it  caused,  and  the  Act  continued  in 
force  for  nearly  a  century. 

The  Death  of  Henry  Pelham,  1754.  The  Newcastle  Ministry, 
1754-1756.  —  The  death  of  Henry  Pelham,  6  March,  1754,  put  an 
end  to  the  prevailing  political  calm.  "  Now  I  shall  have  no  more 
peace,"  cried  the  old  King ;  words  which  proved  all  too  true.  New- 
castle, in  order  to  insure  the  maintenance  of  his  own  power,  assumed 
the  office  of  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  took  his  brother's  place  as 
Prime  Minister.  His  great  difficulty  came  in  selecting  a  leader  of 
the  House  of  Commons.3  The  three  persons  most  capable  of  filling 
the  post  were  William  Murray,  known  as  "  the  father  of  modern 
Toryism,"  who,  as  Lord  Mansfield,  became  one  of  England's  most  fa- 
mous judges ;  William  Pitt ;  and  Henry  Fox.  Newcastle  at  length  made 
overtures  to  Fox,  who  refused  when  he  found  that  he  was  to  have  no 
voice  in  the  disposal  of  secret  service  money  or  patronage.  Thereupon, 
Newcastle  chose  Sir  Thomas  Robinson,  a  very  dull  man,  quite  ignorant 

1  A  celebrated  debtor's  prison  in  London.  2  Or  notices  of  marriages. 

*  When  the  Prime  Minister  is  not  a  peer,  he  assumes  this  position  himself . 


720  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  parliamentary  usages,  whose  chief  recommendation  was  his  com- 
pliant temper.  Pitt,  who  declared  that  "  the  Duke  might  as  well  send 
his  jack  boot  to  lead  us,"  at  once  allied  himself  with  Fox.  Day  after 
day  they  led  deadly  attacks  against  the  poor,  bewildered  Sir  Thomas : 
Pitt  with  thundering  eloquence ;  Fox  with  insidious  irony.  From  the 
modern  standpoint  their  attitude  would  be  indefensible,  since  they 
were  both  Ministers  under  the  Chief  whose  representative  they  were 
attacking.  At  length,  Newcastle,  when  he  could  bear  the  trouncing 
no  longer,  succeeded,  January,  1755,  in  bringing  Fox  over  to  his  side. 
Pitt  at  once  broke  off  all  connection  with  his  temporary  and  ill-assorted 
ally. 

The  Issues  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  1756-1763.  —  Before  many 
months  a  new  war  was  to  break  out,  destined  to  settle,  to  a  large  degree, 
"  problems  "  "  which  had  long  been  ripe  for  solution,"  problems 
"  which  concerned  not  only  the  British  kingdom  but  all  the  civilized 
and  almost  all  the  inhabited  world.  Whether  France  or  England  was 
to  rule  in  India;  whether  the  French  manners,  language,  and  insti- 
tutions or  the  English  were  to  prevail  over  the  immense  continent  of 
North  America ;  whether  Germany  was  to  have  a  national  existence ; 
whether  Spain  was  to  monopolize  the  tropics ;  who  was  to  command 
the  ocean ;  who  was  to  be  dominant  in  the  islands  of  the  Spanish- 
American  waters ;  what  power  was  to  possess  the  choice  stands  for 
business  in  the  great  markets  of  the  globe."  At  first  it  seemed  as  if 
England  had  no  one  great  enough  to  deal  with  the  crisis.  However, 
at  the  appointed  hour,  a  man  came  to  the  front  in  the  person  of  William 
Pitt,  who  proved  the  heaven-sent  genius  whom  his  countrymen  needed 
so  sorely.  The  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  which  had  settled  so  little  in 
Europe,  did  less  toward  defining  the  situation  in  India  and  America. 
In  the  years  following  the  inconclusive  treaty,  the  ambitious  activity 
of  the  French  came  to  menace  more  and  more  dangerously,  not  only 
the  security,  but  the  very  existence  of  the  English  in  both  these  vast 
areas.  The  situation  in  India  can  best  be  made  clear  by  a  brief  survey 
of  its  history. 

The  Beginnings  of  the  English  Activity  in  India.  —  Early  in  the 
sixteenth  century  the  district  now  known  as  India,  formerly  under  a 
number  of  independent  rulers,  was  conquered  and  united  by  a  line 
of  emperors  called  by  Europeans  the  Great  Moguls.  Rajahs  or 
princes  became  tributary,  and  districts  were  formed  under  the  ap- 
pointed viceroys.  The  Mogul's  court  at  Delhi  was  a  center  of  great 
magnificence.  The  decline  of  the  dynasty,  however,  was  rapid.  The 
last  great  ruler  died  in  1707,  and  his  successors  degenerated  into  mere 
figureheads.  While  the  rajahs  and  viceroys  continued  nominally 
dependents,  it  was  they  who  came  to  wield  the  real  power.  Mean- 
time, Europeans  began  to  press  in.  First  came  the  Portuguese,  then 
the  Dutch.  Close  on  the  heels  of  the  latter  came  the  English.  The 
East  India  Company  received  its  first  charter  from  Elizabeth  in  1600. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Company  had  three 


THE   DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  721 

separate  and  independent  settlements,  or  "  presidencies,"  at  Madras, 
Calcutta,  and  Bombay.  Already,  the  Portuguese  and  the  Dutch 
had  ceased  to  be  formidable  rivals ;  but  a  new  competitor  had  arisen 
in  the  French.  During  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV  they  too  founded  an 
East  India  Company,  establishing  fortified  settlements  at  Chander- 
nagore  near  Calcutta,  and  at  Pondicherry,  about  eighty  miles  southeast 
of  Madras.  In  the  Indian  Ocean  off  the  Island  of  Madagascar  they 
acquired  two  fertile  islands,  which  they  named,  respectively,  the  Isle 
de  France,  now  Mauritius,  and  the  Isle  de  Bourbon.  The  former 
served  as  a  naval  base  for  India  as  Cape  Breton  did  for  Canada. 

The  French  strive  for  Supremacy  in  India.  Dupleix  and  Clive.  — 
When  the  conflict  broke  out  between  England  and  France  in  the  War  of 
the  Austrian  Succession,  the  Isle  de  France,  one  of  the  two  French  pres- 
idencies, was  ruled  by  La  Bourdonnais ;  Pondicherry,  the  other,  by 
Dupleix.  Both  were  remarkable  men,  though  bitterly  jealous  of  one 
another.  La  Bourdonnais  managed  to  capture  Madras  in  1746; 
but  it  was  handed  back  to  the  British  at  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 
The  unhappy  conqueror  was  overthrown  by  the  intrigues  of  his  rival 
and  died  a  broken-hearted  man  in  1754.  Dupleix,  now  in  undisputed 
control,  had  a  consuming  ambition  to  establish  a  French  empire  in 
India.  Vain,  pompous,  and  no  general,  he  was  wary  in  council, 
he  had  great  organizing  ability,  he  knew  how  to  play  upon  the  rivalries 
of  the  native  rulers,  and  his  energy  was  tireless.  With  the  aid  of  an 
able  commander,  the  Marquis  de  Bussy,  he  made  himself  supreme  in 
the  southeastern  and  south  central  districts  known  as  the  Carnatic 
and  the  Deccan.  When  he  seemed  in  a  fair  way  to  drive  the  British 
out  of  India,  his  victorious  career  was  suddenly  checked  by  a  man  to 
whom,  more  than  any  other,  Great  Britain  owes  the  beginning  of  her 
present  Indian  Empire. 

This  was  Robert  Clive  (1725-1774),  the  son  of  an  impoverished 
squire.  Owing  to  his  idle,  wayward  temper,  his  father,  despairing 
of  his  chances  of  a  career  at  home,  procured  for  him  a  clerkship 
in  the  East  India  Company.  Arriving  almost  penniless,  he  was 
frequently  so  depressed  that  he  more  than  once  attempted  suicide. 
However,  he  soon  secured  a  military  commission.  In  August,  1751, 
he  first  showed  the  stuff  that  was  in  him  when  with  a  little  army 
of  five  hundred,  more  than  half  of  them  Sepoys,1  he  took  the  city  of 
Arcot,  in  the  face  of  over  a  hundred  thousand  spectators,  without 
firing  a  shot.  Though  the  fort  was  almost  in  ruins,  he  successfully 
defended  the  conquered  city  against  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men. 
Under  his  senior,  Major  Lawrence,  he  followed  up  his  first  success 
by  a  series  of  brilliant  victories  in  the  surrounding  Carnatic.  The 
French  Company,  who  cared  more  for  dividends  than  for  political 
dominion,  finally  gave  way  to  the  English  in  this  district,  and  Dupleix 
died  in  1763,  crushed  with  grief  and  disappointment.  Clive,  who 

1  Native  troops  in  the  European  service.  Of  his  eight  officers  five  were  mer- 
chants' clerks. 

3A 


722  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

went  to  England  to  recover  his  health,  returned  in  1755  with  tremen- 
dous work  before  him.  For  some  time,  however,  the  interest  of  the 
English  Government  centered  chiefly  in  North  America. 

The  French  and  English  in  North  America.  —  There  the  boundary 
line  between  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia  had  been  left  unsettled  by  the 
late  peace,  while,  in  addition,  there  was  a  large,  ill-defined  territory 
between  the  head  waters  of  the  Ohio  River  and  the  southern  shore  of 
Lake  Erie,  claimed  by  both  Great  Britain  and  France.  More  serious 
still,  the  French  determined  to  establish  themselves  in  the  disputed 
district  and  to  secure  the  control  of  the  Mississippi  basin  with  a  view 
to  uniting  their  settlements  on  the  St.  Lawrence  with  those  on  the 
coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  To  that  end,  the  Marquis  Duquesne, 
Governor  of  Canada,  was  instructed  to  undertake  the  construction  of 
a  chain  of  forts  in  the  Ohio  country.  In  the  spring  of  1753  he  sent 
out  an  expedition  which  built  two,  one  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Erie,  the  other  on  a  tributary  of  the  Allegheny.  If  the  French  suc- 
ceeded in  carrying  out  their  policy,  the  English  colonists  would  be  con- 
fined to  a  narrow  strip  of  territory  between  the  Appalachians  and  the 
Atlantic,  unable  to  expand  westward,  cut  off  from  the  profitable 
Indian  trade  beyond  the  barrier,  and  surrounded  on  three  sides  by 
their  greatest  rival  and  enemy.  By  way  of  protest  the  Governor  of 
Virginia  sent  George  Washington,  then  a  young  surveyor  who  had 
been  active  in  opening  new  trade  routes  to  the  Great  Lakes,  to  demand 
that  they  withdraw  from  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  country.  He  failed, 
of  course.  Moreover,  in  1754,  the  enemy  succeeded  in  planting 
another  stronghold,  which  they  named  Fort  Duquesne,  at  the  point 
where  the  Monongahela  and  Allegheny  rivers  unite  to  form  the  Ohio, 
and  defeated  a  small  force  of  colonial  militia  which  Washington  led 
against  them.  The  struggles  to  secure  disputed  territory  brought  on 
the  war  between  Great  Britain  and  France  which  led  to  the  expulsion 
of  the  latter  from  the  main  land  of  North  America. 

Boscawen's  Attack  and  Braddock's  Defeat,  1755. — While  as  yet 
no  formal  declaration  of  war  had  been  issued,  Admiral  Boscawen,  sent 
early  in  1755  with  instructions  to  attack  the  French  fleet  from  Brest 
if  it  should  sail  for  the  St.  Lawrence,  met  the  enemy  in  a  thick  fog 
off  the  banks  of  Newfoundland.  Though  he  captured  two  ships, 
the  remainder  got  safely  into  Louisburg.  On  9  July,  General  Brad- 
dock,  who  had  been  dispatched  from  England  to  recover  Fort  Du- 
quesne, was  caught  in  ambush  almost  ten  miles  from  his  destination 
and  mortally  wounded.  Seven  hundred  of  his  troops  were  shot  down, 
while  the  rest  sought  safety  in  flight. 

The  Plight  of  Newcastle.  —  In  April,  1755,  George  had  gone  abroad 
to  look  after  his  Electorate.  The  efforts  of  Newcastle  to  meet  the 
crisis  which  had  arisen  were  confused  and  vacillating.  Public  re- 
sentment grew  steadily  more  intense  against  the  "  hoary  jobber," 
"  who  would  embrace  everything,  and  was  fit  for  nothing."  Yet,  in 
justice  to  him,  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  was  in  a  difficult  position. 


THE  DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  723 

While  bound  to  defend  the  British  colonial  possessions  in  America, 
he  did  not  want  to  seem  to  begin  the  war.  Great  Britain  had  a 
defensive  alliance  with  the  Dutch,  and  Spain  was  peacefully  inclined. 
The  alliance  of  the  one  and  the  neutrality  of  the  latter  depended  upon 
England's  not  being  openly  the  aggressor.  Moreover,  Hanover 
was  in  an  exposed  position,  while  Sweden  and  Denmark  were  inclined 
to  France.  When  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  refused  to  sign 
the  treasury  warrants  for  the  payment  of  a  subsidy  to  Hesse,  the  al- 
ready perplexed  Minister  was  reduced  to  such  despair  that  he  turned 
to  Pitt.  He  offered  him  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  and  dangled  before  him 
the  most  glowing  prospects,  if  he  would  only  support  the  policy  of 
subsidies  —  for  there  were  other  subsidy  treaties  pending  —  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  But  though  Newcastle  pleaded  and  even  wept, 
Pitt  firmly  refused.  He  was  in  favor  of  a  national  war,  he  wa's  willing 
to  protect  Hanover,  and  he  ardently  desired  an  office  where  he  could 
exercise  for  his  country's  good  the  powers  which  he  was  convinced 
that  he  possessed ;  but  he  could  not  give  his  sanction  to  the  subsidy 
treaties.1  Fox,  who  was  next  applied  to,  was  superior  to  scruples, 
and  in  return  for  a  Secretaryship  of  State  and  the  leadership  of  the 
Commons,  agreed  to  support  the  treaties.  In  spite  of  a  brilliant 
speech  of  Pitt's,  the  royal  address  recommending  the  subsidies  was 
carried.  The  next  day,  together  with  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
and  other  opponents  of  the  policy,  he  was  dismissed. 

The  Loss  of  Minorca,  June,  1756.  —  In  the  early  months  of  1756 
the  nation  was  trembling  at  the  prospect  of  an  invasion  from  France, 
but  the  French  menace  was  intended  merely  to  cover  another  design  — 
the  capture  of  Minorca.  Although  the  English  Ministers  were  warned 
of  preparations  at  Toulon,  they  refused  to  see  anything  in  them  but 
a  feint  to  disguise  what  they  regarded  as  the  real  objective  —  the 
attack  on  England.  While  there  was  still  time,  they  made  no  attempt 
to  reenforce  Minorca,  where  the  Deputy  Governor  in  command  was 
an  old,  infirm  man.  It  was  not  till  7  April,  just  three  days  before 
the  French  armament  sailed  from  Toulon,  that  an  English  fleet  was 
dispatched  from  Spithead.  The  commander,  Admiral  Byng,2  was 
the  last  person  to  choose  for  the  work  ahead  of  him :  while  personally 
brave,  he  was  overcautious,  irresolute,  inclined  to  magnify  difficulties, 
and  reluctant  to  assume  responsibility.  When  he  reached  Gibraltar, 
he  found  that  the  French  had  already  descended  upon  Minorca  and 
that  the  commander  had  withdrawn  into  the  fortress  of  St.  Philip's 
which  protected  Port  Mahon.  Sailing  on,  he  engaged  the  enemy, 
20  May.  While  slightly  worsted  in  the  engagement,  the  investing 

1  "I  am  sure,"  he  declared  a  short  while  later,  "that  I   can  save  this  country 
and  that  nobody  else  can."     The  King  had  at  first  refused  to  allow  Newcastle  to 
offer  him  a  Cabinet  office.     "Pitt  will  not  do  my  German  business,"  he  said,  re- 
ferring to  his  policy  with  regard  to  subsidies. 

2  Son  of  the  famous  victor  at  Cape  Passaro,  who  had  shared  in  the  British  cap- 
ture of  Minorca  in  1708. 


724  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

fleet  were  driven  off  by  the  energetic  attack  of  his  rear  admiral,  West. 
Nevertheless,  he  became  very  despondent  and  held  a  council  of  war 
in  which  he  recommended  withdrawal  to  Gibraltar  on  the  grounds 
that  his  losses  were  great,  that  his  ships  were  in  a  bad  condition,  and 
that  even  a  victory  would  not  enable  him  to  relieve  the  fortress  be- 
sieged by  the  land  forces  of  the  French.  The  Council  agreed,  and 
Minorca  was  left  to  its  fate.  Byng's  real  fault  was  in  not  realizing 
the  moral  effects  of  a  naval  victory  whatever  happened  to  Minorca,  and 
that  even  a  defeat  was  preferable  to  inglorious  retreat.  Toward  the 
close  of  June,  St.  Philip's  and  Minorca  passed  into  French  hands. 
The  news  was  received  in  England  with  a  storm  of  grief  and  indigna- 
tion. While  the  Ministers  were  blamed  for  their  delay,  the  chief 
resentment  was  directed  against  Byng.  In  the  great  towns  he  was 
burned  in  effigy,  his  country  house  was  attacked  by  a  mob,  while 
Parliament  and  the  Ministers  were  overwhelmed  with  petitions  de- 
manding vengeance.  Newcastle,  hoping  to  divert  the  popular  wrath 
from  himself,  not  only  yielded  to  it,1  but  sought  to  excite  it  still  more. 
Byng  was  recalled  and  confined  at  Greenwich. 

The  Declaration  of  War,  1756.  The  Grouping  of  the  Powers.  — 
Meantime,  England  had  declared  war,  18  May;  France  replied,  9  June, 
and  before  long  nearly  all  Europe  was  involved.  The  grouping  of 
the  Powers  was  different  from  that  in  the  previous  conflict ;  for  Prussia 
now  appeared  as  an  ally  of  England,  and  Austria  as  an  opponent. 
Frederick,  with  a  greedy  eye  on  Hanover,  had  hitherto  opposed  his 
uncle,  George  II ;  but  a  combination  of  great  Powers  against  him  com- 
pelled a  change  of  attitude.  Austria,  finding  that  England  was  dis- 
inclined to  go  to  war  to  aid  her  in  recovering  Silesia,  had  turned'  to  her 
old  enemy,  France.2  Louis  XV,  in  responding  to  her  overtures,  was 
influenced  by  three  considerations:  an  Austrian  alliance  promised 
an  extension  of  boundaries  into  the  Netherlands;  a  combination  of 
the  Catholic  against  the  Protestant  powers  appealed  to  him  in  the 
light  of  a  grand  crusade,  for  he  was  as  devout  as  he  was  debauched ; 
and,  finally,  he  was  personally  embittered  against  Frederick,  who  had 
unguardedly  referred  to  him  more  than  once  with  great  contempt  and 
had  openly  scoffed  at  his  all-powerful  favorite,  Madame  de  Pom- 
padour.3 In  consequence,  a  treaty  was  concluded,  i  May,  1756, 
between  France  and  Austria,  aiming  at  the  partition  of  Prussia.  Russia, 
Poland,  Saxony,  and  Sweden  joined  the  combination.  Outnumbered 
by  90,000,000  to  5,000,000,  Frederick,  directly  he  suspected  what  was 
afoot,  made  advances  to  King  George.  The  result  was  a  treaty  by 
which  the  two  Kings  bound  themselves  during  the  trouble  in  America 
to  allow  no  troops  of  any  foreign  nation  to  enter  or  pass  through 
Germany. 

1  To  a  deputation  from  the  City  he  exclaimed:  "Oh,  indeed,  he  shall  be  tried 
immediately,  he  shall  be  hanged  directly." 

2  Maria  Theresa's  astute  minister  Kaunitz  had  influenced  her  to  this  step, 

3  Frederick  named  his  favorite  lap  dog  after  her. 


THE   DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  725 

Frederick  and  the  Third  Silesian  War,  1756-1763.  —  In  spite  of 
the  great  combination  against  him,  Frederick  enjoyed  many  advan- 
tages over  his  opponents;  his  army,  though  small,  was  admirably 
equipped  and  trained ;  he  had  a  goodly  supply  of  treasure  on  hand, 
while  they  were  ill  supplied  with  ready  funds ;  then,  not  only  was  he 
a  transcendent  military  genius,  but  he  was  fighting  against  a  many- 
headed  grouping,  always  difficult  to  operate  in  concert ;  finally,  he 
was  prepared  and  they  were  not.  Suddenly,  in  August,  1756,  he  de- 
manded from  the  Empress  a  statement  of  her  intentions,  with  war 
as  the  alternative.  When  he  received  an  evasive  answer  he  poured  his 
troops  into  Saxony.  Thus  began  the  third  Silesian  War  which  was 
coterminous  with  the  Seven  Years'  War  (17 56-1 763). 1  Frederick 
had  many  defeats  as  well  as  victories  during  the  course  of  the  struggle ; 
but  he  fought  on  with  rare  constancy  and  ability,  and  his  activity 
furnished  an  invaluable  diversion  to  the  English. 

The  Devonshire  Ministry,  November,  1756,  to  April,  1757.  Pitt  a 
Secretary  of  State.  —  The  autumn  of  1756  was  marked  by  a  revolu- 
tion in  the  English  Ministry.  Fox,  finding  that  Newcastle  gave  him 
no  power  or  confidence  and  tried  to  thrust  upon  him  responsibility 
for  measures  in  which  he  had  no  share,  resigned  his  secretaryship  in 
October.  After  trying  once  more  to  win  over  Pitt,  and  after  a  vain 
effort  to  find  a  Secretary  sufficiently  strong  to  support  him  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  Newcastle  resigned  very  reluctantly.  .A  ministry  was 
finally  constructed  with  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  as  the  nominal  head, 
but  Pitt,  who  became  a  Secretary  of  State,  was  the  real  power  in  the 
Cabinet.  Among  other  things,  his  appointment  is  significant  from  the 
fact  that  he  was  the  first  English  statesman  forced  into  a  Cabinet 
position  by  pressure  of  public  opinion.  Beyond  his  family  connection 
with  the  Grenvilles 2  he  had  no  organized  following  in  the  Commons 
and  little  parliamentary  influence.  Indeed,  he  was  opposed  to  party 
connection  and  aimed  to  break  the  power  of  the  Whig  oligarchy,  to 
call  to  the  service  of  the  State  the  best  men  irrespective  of  their  political 
affiliations,  to  bring  the  royal  power  into  harmony  with  the  parlia- 
mentary, which  in  its  turn  should  be  the  true  servant  of  the  people. 
Abroad,  he  wanted  to  build  up  the  British  Empire,  and  —  but  only  as 
a  means  to  that  end  —  to  make  Great  Britain  a  dominant  power 
in  Europe.  Great  as  was  his  success  in  asserting  the  power  of  his 
country  abroad,  his  efforts  to  bring  about  unity  at  home  were  less 
happy,  largely  because  he  failed  to  realize  the  distinction  between 
party  and  faction.  By  scorning  to  attach  to  himself  a  strong  party 
backing,  he  was  bound  in  the  long  run  to  be  overcome  by  his  opponents. 

Estimate  of  Pitt.  —  The  man  who  now  at  the  close  of  his  forty- 
eighth  year  first  had  a  chance  to  try  his  ability  on  a  large  scale  had 

1  Known  in  American  history  as  the  French  and  Indian  War. 

2  In  1754  he  had  married  Lady  Hester  Grenville,  sister  of  Richard  (Lord  Temple) 
and  George  Grenville.     The  family  in  the  course  of  half  a  century  furnished  twelve 
great  officers  of  State,  including  three  First  Lords  of  the  Treasury. 


726  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

hitherto  distinguished  himself  as  a  furious  critic  of  the  Administration, 
as  an  orator  of  fiery  and  irresistible  eloquence,  and  as  a  man  who 
refused  to  enrich  himself  at  the  public  expense.  Gifted  with  a  rich, 
sonorous  voice  and  an  inspiring  presence,  he  had  also  an  uncommon 
power  of  launching  phrases  that  compelled  attention.  While  he 
was  a  careful  student  of  language  and  of  the  subjects  which  came  up 
for  debate,  his  greatest  effects  were  produced  extemporaneously. 
His  set  speeches  were  usually  failures.  At  times  he  was  overelaborate, 
florid,  and  even  bombastic ;  but  by  his  terrible  earnestness  and  his 
fierce  and  majestic  bearing  he  struck  his  listeners  with  awe  and 
held  the  House  in  absolute  control.  He  was  fully  conscious  of  his 
ability,  but  his  ambition  was  for  public  service,  not  for  private  ad- 
vancement. The  people,  whom;  as  no  other  statesman  of  the  time, 
he  loved  and  understood,  made  him  their  idol.  Nevertheless,  when 
he  felt  that  they  were  wrong,  he  never  hesitated  to  cross  their  will. 
He  openly  defended  Byng  and  later  denounced  their  hero  John  Wilkes. 
Yet  in  this  lofty,  heroic  character  there  were  many  grave  faults  and 
inconsistencies.  Under  Walpole  he  clamored  for  war,  while  at  the 
same  time  opposing  the  maintenance  of  a  standing  army ;  he  bitterly 
attacked  both  Walpole  and  Carteret  for  their  policy  of  subsidizing 
Hanover  and  other  German  states,  though  afterwards,  in  order  to 
obtain  office,  he  allied  himself  with  the  Pelhams  and  supported  the 
very  policy  he  had  unsparingly  condemned.  To  be  sure,  he  had  high 
motives  for  desiring  office,  he  had  a  right  to  alter  his  opinion,  and 
circumstances  had  changed ;  but  it  is  a  wonderful  tribute  to  his  mag- 
netic influence  that  neither  this  change  of  front  nor  various  other  in- 
consistencies seriously  affected  his  moral  ascendancy.  Another  of 
his  traits  is  the  most  difficult  of  all  to  explain.  While  he  spent  most  of 
his  life  in  opposition  and  could,  at  times,  be  almost  insolent  to  his 
sovereign,  he  adopted,  at  others,  an  attitude  toward  royalty  that  was 
almost  abject.  "  The  least  peep  into  the  closet,"  wrote  Burke,  a 
younger  contemporary,  "  intoxicates  him  and  will  to  the  end  of  his 
life."  At  the  royal  levees  it  is  said  that  "  he  used  to  bow  so  low  that 
you  could  see  the  tip  of  his  crooked  nose  between  his  legs."  He  was 
vain,  artificial,  and  always  posing  for  effect.1  Moreover,  he  was  so 
irritable,  hot-tempered,  and  overbearing  that  it  was  almost  impossible 
for  any  one  to  work  with  him.  But  his  temper  can  be  excused  from 
the  fact  that  he  was  a  lifelong  sufferer  from  gout  and  from  a  nervous 
disease  frequently  so  acute  as  to  amount  almost  to  insanity.  Yet, 
after  all  has  been  said,  he  was  tireless  in  his  country's  service,  her 
greatest  War  Minister,  one  of  the  great  builders  of  her  Empire, 
a  true  friend  of  liberty,  and  a  true  patriot  —  in  short  a  grand, 
heroic  figure  whose  character  and  achievements  overshadow  his 
blemishes. 

1  On  occasion  he  read  aloud  from  Shakespeare's  plays  to  his  family,  and  when  he 
came  to  the  comic  parts,  he  had  another  read  them,  thinking  that  to  do  it  himself 
was  derogatory  to  his  dignity. 


THE  DUEL   FOR  EMPIRE  727 

Pitt's  "  System."  —  Pitt's  hand  was  seen  in  the  speech  from  the 
throne  at  the  opening  of  Parliament,  2  December,  1756,  in  which  a 
scheme  for  a  national  militia,  to  which  George  II  was  known  to  be 
opposed,  was  recommended.  Although  prostrated  shortly  after  by 
gout,  he  soon  reappeared  and  took  energetic  measures  for  carrying 
on  the  war.  Highland  regiments  were  pressed  into  service,  and  a 
force  of  militia  was  drafted  to  defend  the  country  in  place  of  a  body  of 
Electoral  troops  who  were  sent  back  to  Hanover.  Regardless  of  the 
charge  of  inconsistency  to  which  it  exposed  him,  he  next  proposed  a 
grant  for  the  defense  of  the  Electorate,  and,  in  this  case,  he  was 
justified,  since  the  proposed  subsidies  were  not  for  purely  German 
objects,  but  as  a  measure  of  defense  against  the  French,  who  were 
making  ready  to  attack  Hanover.  Pitt's  great  combination  of 
military  and  naval  strategy  known  as  his  "  system,"  which  he  now 
began  to  develop,1  was  for  a  long  time  misunderstood,  largely  owing 
to  the  remark  which  he  once  made,  and  which  has  been  so  frequently 
quoted,  that  he  would  conquer  America  in  Germany.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  his  main  energies  were  devoted  to  beating  the  French  -in 
America  and  to  securing  command  of  the  seas  in  order  to  prevent 
them  from  sending  reinforcements  and  supplies  to  their  colonial 
forces.  His  continental  operations  were  designed  to  keep  them 
occupied  and  to  prevent  them  from  gaining  such  successes  as  would 
counterbalance  English  achievements  in  the  central  theater  of  the 
war.2  While  he  contented  himself  with  sending  abroad  subsidies 
and  occasional  contingents,  France,  by  virtue  of  her  position,  was 
obliged  to  divide  her  energies  between  the  European  war  and  the 
colonial  and  maritime  struggle  with  Great  Britain. 

The  Execution  of  Byng,  14  March,  1757.  — During  December  and 
January  Byng  was  tried  by  court  martial  at  Portsmouth.  The  court, 
while  acquitting  him  of  treachery  or  cowardice,  rendered  an  opinion 
that  he  had  not  done  his  utmost  to  relieve  St.  Philip's  castle  or  to 
defeat  the  French  fleet.  According  to  the  Articles  of  War,  it  was 
obliged  to  impose  the  death  penalty  for  neglect  of  duty,  though  it  unani- 
mously recommended  the  Admiral  to  the  royal  mercy.  The  public, 
however,  demanded  a  victim  for  the  loss  of  Minorca.  Threatening 
letters  were  sent  to  George,  and  glaring  posters  appeared  with  the 
jingle:  "Hang  Byng  or  take  care  of  your  King."  Pitt  strove  manfully 
against  the  tide,  but  he  had  no  parliamentary  support  and  had  not 
yet  won  the  royal  favor.  So  the  public  had  its  way.  Byng,  meeting 
his  fate  with  manly  courage,  was  shot,  14  March,  1757.  The  judges 
have  been  criticized  for  confusing  error  of  judgment  with  neglect  of 

1  Newcastle  may  have  anticipated  him  in  recognizing  the  usefulness  of  the 
Highland  troops  and  foreseeing  the  advantage  of  concentrating  the  main  efforts 
in  America ;  but  he  lacked  the  force  to  put  his  ideas  into  effect. 

2  Clive  was  unable  to  persuade  Pitt  of  the  importance  of  winning  an  empire  in 
India,  and  the  expeditions  sent  to  that  region  were  intended  mainly  for  the  protec- 
tion of  trade  and  commerce.     Nevertheless,  what  was  accomplished  there  in  this 
war  was  to  bear  rich  fruit  in  the  future. 


728  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

duty;  but  the  blame  rests  on  the  King;  he  no  doubt  felt  that  an 
example  was  necessary  for  hesitating  commanders  in  the  future,  but  he 
was  also  influenced  by  the  late  Ministers  who  wanted  a  scapegoat 
for  their  own  short-comings. 

The  Dismissal  of  Pitt.  His  Recall  as  Secretary  in  the  Second  New- 
castle Ministry.  —  George  II  had  not  yet  overcome  his  aversion 
to  Pitt,  and  he  hated  his  brother-in-law,  Earl  Temple.  As  he  wrote 
to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  he  did  not  look  upon  himself  as  King  while 
he  was  "  in  the  hands  of  those  scoundrels,"  adding  that  he  was  de- 
termined "  to  get  rid  of  them  at  any  cost."  The  die  was  cast  by  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland  who  refused  to  accept  the*  command  of  the 
electoral  army  if  Pitt  continued  as  Secretary.  As  a  result,  the  latter 
was  dismissed  in  April.  Newcastle  was  intrusted  with  the  task  of 
forming  a  Cabinet,  but  the  "  Aspen  Duke  "  vacillated  long  between 
his  "  thirst  for  place  and  his  dread  of  danger."  For  nearly  three 
months  the  distracted  country,  with  a  tremendous  war  on  its  hands, 
remained  without  a  Government.  Public  sentiment  was  manifestly 
for  Pitt ;  stocks  fell,  while  so  many  cf  the  chief  towns  presented  him 
with  the  freedom  of  their  city  that  "  it  rained  gold  boxes."  *•  At 
length,  much  to  the  disgust  of  the  King,  an  arrangement  was  made 
by  which  Pitt  came  back  as  Secretary  with  the  whole  charge  of  foreign 
affairs,  while  Newcastle  became  Prime  Minister,  devoting,  himself  to 
the  congenial  task  of  managing  Parliament. 

The  Campaign  of  1757.  —  Pitt,  forced  to  "  borrow  the  majority  of 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle,"  was  to  achieve  glorious  things;  but  on  his 
advent  to  office,  June,  1757,  the  prospect  seemed  gloomy  enough. 
"  Whoever  is  in  or  whoever  is  out,"  wrote  Chesterfield,  "  I  am  sure 
we  are  undone  both  at  home  and  abroad.  ...  I  never  yet  saw  so 
dreadful  a  prospect."  Everything  was  in  confusion,  the  debt  was 
piling  up,  the  country  was  in  constant  fear  of  invasion,  and  the  loss 
of  Minorca  was  not  only  a  blow  to  British  prestige,  but  threatened 
her  supremacy  in  the  Mediterranean  and  her  commerce  in  the  Levant. 
Moreover,  the  military  events  of  the  year  were  almost  uniformly  un- 
successful. In  America  the  Earl  of  Loudon,  a  weak  and  irresolute 
man  —  wittily  likened  to  "  St.  George  upon  the  sign  posts,  always  on 
horseback,  but  never  advances  "  —  proved  no  match  for  the  able  and 
alert  Montcalm,  commander  in  Canada.  A  joint  land  and  naval 
expedition,  sent  by  Pitt  in  September  against  the  coast  of  France,  with 
a  view  of  effecting  a  diversion  for  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  and 
Frederick,  proved  a  costly  and  fruitless  failure.  In  Germany,  too, 
the  results  were  most  discouraging.  Cumberland,  with  an  army  of 
50,000  composed  of  Hanoverians,  Prussians,  and  contingents  of  mer- 
cenaries, was  unable  to  prevent  the  French,  with  a  superior  force  of 
80,000,  from  overrunning  and  devastating  the  Electorate.  Finally, 
hemmed  in  at  Stade,  with  his  communications  cut  off  from  the  neigh- 

1  In  reference  to  the  boxes  in  which  the  freedom  was  presented. 


THE   DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  729 

boring  Elbe,  where  four  English  men-of-war  were  stationed,  he  signed 
a  convention  at  Kloster-Zeven,  8  September,  by  which  he  agreed  to 
send  home  his  auxiliaries  and  to  withdraw  his  remaining  forces  across 
the  river,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  garrison  which  he  was  allowed 
to  leave  at  Stade.  Cumberland  made  the  best  terms  possible,  but  both 
the  English  and  the  Germans  denounced  the  convention  as  an  "  ignomin- 
ious capitulation."  George,  who  in  a  panic  had  given  him  full  powers 
to  treat,  immediately  recalled  the  Duke,  refused  to  speak  to  him,  and 
said  in  his  hearing :  "  This  is  my  son  who  has  ruined  me  and  disgraced 
himself."  Cumberland  never  served  again  during  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  Frederick,  already  hard  pressed  by  the  Austrians  and 
threatened  by  the  Russians,  now  had  to  face,  in  addition,  two  French 
armies  released  from  the  west  by  the  recent  capitulation.  So  de- 
spondent that  he  contemplated  suicide,  he  nevertheless  managed  to 
defeat  the  French  at  Rossbach  in  Saxony,  5  November,  and  then, 
with  amazing  energy  and  ability,  to  advance  into  Silesia  and  to  win 
an  overwhelming  victory  over  the  Austrians  at  Leuthen,  5  December, 
thus  bringing  to  a  triumphant  close  a  long  and  desperate  campaign. 

The  Campaign  of  1758.  Operations  in  North  America  and  Africa.  — 
In  1758  the  effect  of  Pitt's  system  first  began  to  bear  fruit.  He  de- 
vised elaborate  plans  to  carry  on  the  war  on  four  continents :  in  America, 
Africa,  India,  and  Europe.  His  chief  energies  were  devoted  to  America. 
Three  forces  were  prepared.  The  main  attack,  which  was  directed 
against  Louisburg,  was  intrusted  to  Amherst,  and  was  supported  by 
a  fleet  under  Boscawen.  The  fortress  surrendered  27  July,  and  the 
submission  of  the  whole  island  followed  at  once.  Most  conspicuous 
for  bravery  and  energy  was  General  Wolfe,  the  second  in  command, 
a  "  chinless,  sandy-haired  young  man  "  of  thirty.  His  father  was  a 
general  under  Marlborough ;  he  himself  had  served  in  the  army  since 
he  was  fourteen  years  old ;  he  was  an  earnest  student  of  his  profes- 
sion, and  had  fought  at  Dettingen  and  other  famous  battles ;  but  his 
abilities  had  first  been  discovered  during  the  ill-fated  expedition  against 
the  French  coast  in  the  previous  year.  His  appointment  marked 
one  of  Pitt's  most  daring  innovations,  splendidly  justified  by  its  re- 
sults —  selection  for  important  posts  on  the  basis  of  merit  rather  than 
seniority  or  influence.  A  second  force,  under  General  Abercromby, 
was  ordered  to  secure  the  French  forts  commanding  Lake  George  and 
Lake  Champlain  in  order  to  open  the  way  for  an  attack  on  Canada, 
but  he  was  repulsed  in  a  foolhardy  attack  against  Ticonderoga  and 
returned  to  New  York.  A  third  army,  sent  out  from  Philadelphia 
under  Brigadier  Forbes,  succeeded  in  capturing  Fort  Duquesne, 
thus  securing  the  "  Key  of  the  great  West."  The  next  year  Fort 
Pitt  was  erected,  a  name  which  survives  to-day  in  the  great  manu- 
facturing city  of  Pittsburgh.  An  expedition  against  the  French  pos- 
sessions on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  sent  out,  curiously  enough,  at  the 
suggestion  of  a  Quaker,  secured  possession  of  the  river  Senegal  and  the 
Island  of  Goree. 


730  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  War  in  Europe,  1758.  —  Fleets  were  fitted  out  to  seal  up  the 
French  ports  and  to  guard  the  Channel.  During  the  summer,  two 
expeditions  were  sent  against  the  coast  of  France.  In  view  of  the 
actual  damage  inflicted  on  the  enemy  —  the  destruction  of  a  relatively 
small  amount  of  shipping  —  Fox's  tart  comparison,  "  breaking  win- 
dows with  guineas,  "  had  some  point.  Nevertheless,  these  invasions 
effected  their  purpose  of  diverting  the  French  from  sending  reenforce- 
ments  to  Germany.  Frederick's  victories  had  been  received  with 
joy  in  England,  where  he  was  hailed  as  the  "  Protestant  hero."  Par- 
liament voted  him  a  subsidy  of  £670,000  and  agreed  to  support  an 
army  of  35,000  in  western  Germany,  the  command  of  which,  on 
Frederick's  suggestion,  was  given  to  Prince  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick, 
a  capable  general  who  had  already  distinguished  himself  in  the  Prus- 
sian service.  Ferdinand  during  the  year  fought  the  French  on  the 
whole  with  success;  but  the  poor  Hanoverians  suffered  pitifully 
from  the  fighting  as  well  as  from  the  marching  and  countermarching 
through  their  territory.  Farther  east,  Frederick  managed  to  beat 
back  an  invasion  of  the  Russians  who  got  within  a  few  days'  march  of 
Berlin;  but  he  was  severely  handled  by  the  Austrians  in  Saxony, 
though  they  failed  to  profit  by  the  victory  of  Hochkirchen,  14  October, 
in  which  they  nearly  annihilated  his  army.  Even  Pitt  was  appalled 
by  the  increasing  cost  of  the  war.  "  I  wish  to  God,"  he  wrote  to  New- 
castle, "  we  could  see  our  way  through  this  mountain  of  expense." 
But  the  people  supported  him  loyally,  and  Newcastle,  though  with  a 
sour  grace,  used  his  influence  in  Parliament  to  secure  the  necessary 
grants.  The  generous  outlays  were  rewarded  the  coming  year  by  a 
series  of  victories  rarely  paralleled  in  history. 

Measures  for  Home  Defense,  1759.  —  Owing  to  a  threatened 
French  invasion  in  1759,  Pitt's  first  care  was  to  provide  for  the  defense 
of  the  country.  There  was  ample  ground  for  the  "  magnanimous 
fear  "  which  prompted  him.  Flat-bottomed  boats  were  building  at 
Havre  and  at  various  points  along  the  French  coast;  fleets  were 
equipped  at  Toulon  and  Brest,  and  a  squadron  was  collected  at  Dun- 
kirk under  Thurot.  The  British  preparations  were  equally  elaborate. 
A  fleet  was  stationed  in  the  Channel,  troops  were  drawn  up  along  the 
exposed  parts  of  the  coast,  and  the  country  militia  were  mustered: 
"  All  the  country  squires  are  in  regimentals,"  wrote  Horace  Walpole, 
i  August,  1759.  In  order  to  forestall  the  expected  attack,  Rodney 
bombarded  Havre  and  demolished  many  of  the  transports.  Bos- 
cawen,  by  destroying  two  ships  of  the  Toulon  fleet  and  forcing  two 
more  to  run  aground  off  Lagos  in  August,  practically  put  an  end 
to  the  danger  of  an  invasion  on  a  large  scale.  Another  English 
fleet  covered  Dunkirk,  while  still  another  under  Hawke  blockaded 
Brest. 

The  Plan  of  Campaign  against  Quebec.  —  Pitt,  however,  did  not 
allow  these  measures  for  home  defense  to  interrupt  his  plans  for  the 
conquest  of  North  America.  A  fleet  was  dispatched  to  the  West 


THE  DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  731 

Indies,  which,  though  checked  at  Martinique,  captured  Guadaloupe, 
i  May,  1759;  but  Canada  was  the  main  object  of  the  campaign. 
Three  expeditions,  starting  from  different  points,  were  directed  to 
converge  on  Quebec,  the  stronghold  of  the  Province.  One  from 
the  west,  forming  the  left  wing  and  consisting  of  colonial  forces  and 
friendly  Indians,  was  to  reduce  Niagara,  sail  across  Lake  Ontario, 
and  pass  down  the  St.  Lawrence  by  way  of  Montreal.  The  army  of 
the  center,  under  Amherst  who  had  superseded  Abercromby,  was  to 
start  from  New  York,  strike  again  at  Ticonderoga,  secure  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  push  on  by  the  river  Richelieu  into  the  St.  Lawrence. 
The  eastern  or  right  wing,  composed  of  an  army  under  General  Wolfe 
and  a  fleet  under  Admiral  Saunders,  was  to  sail  up  to  Quebec  from  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  It  was  an  extremely  hazardous  under- 
taking for  such  widely  separated  bodies  of  troops  to  attempt  to  co- 
operate ;  because,  dependent  as  they  were  upon  slow  and  uncertain 
means  of  communication,  they  stood  every  chance  of  failing  to  com- 
bine at  the  proper  moment,  in  which  case  the  separate  contingents 
were  exposed  to  the  danger  of  being  crushed  in  detail  by  the  vigilant 
and  energetic  Montcalm.  That  the  attempt  succeeded  was  due  to 
the  genius  of  Wolfe,  "  formed  to  execute  the  designs  of  such  a  master  as 
Pitt,"  and  to  the  loyal  and  intelligent  cooperation  of  Saunders.  Wolfe 
was  frail  of  body,  weak  in  health,  unattractive  in  manners  as  well  as 
appearance,  subject  to  flurries  of  temper,1  and  inclined  to  vain  boast- 
ing ; 2  but  he  was  endowed  with  an  indomitable  spirit  which  rose 
supreme  over  his  faults  and  infirmities.  As  a  general  he  combined 
bravery  with  knowledge,  dash  with  caution.3 

The  western  expedition  succeeded  in  taking  Niagara;  but  though 
it  did  a  good  work  in  breaking  the  line  of  communication  between 
Louisiana  and  Canada  and  in  partially  isolating  Detroit  and  the  other 
western  posts,  it  did  not  undertake  to  descend  the  St.  Lawrence. 
Amherst,  too,  was  only  partially  successful.  The  French  abandoned 
Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point  at  his  approach;  but  they  gave  him 
such  serious  trouble  at  the  northern  end  of  Lake  Champlain  that  it 
was  too  late  in  the  season,  after  he  had  disposed  of  them,  to  proceed 
further.  Thus  the  whole  task  of  reducing  Quebec  rested  upon  Wolfe 
and  Saunders.  Fortunately  for  Great  Britain,  the  French  adminis- 
tration was  corrupt  and  divided  and  the  country  was  too  exhausted 

1  The  following  is  an  example  of  one  of  his  outbursts :   "The  Americans  are  in 
general  the  dirtiest,  most  contemptible,  cowardly  "dogs  you  can  conceive.     Such 
rascals  ...  are  rather  an  incumbrance  than  any  real  strength  to  an  army." 

2  Pitt  invited  him  to  dinner  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  the  Quebec  campaign. 
During  the  evening  he  drew  his  sword,  strutted  about  and  burst  into  a  "stream 
of  gasconade  and  bravado."     Earl  Temple,  the  only  other  guest,  relates  that, 
after  Wolfe  had  left,  Pitt  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  arms  and  exclaimed :  "  Good  God  ! 
that  I  should  have  trusted  the  fate  of  the  country  and  of  the  Administration  to  such 
hands." 

3  George  II,  who  came  to  have  implicit  confidence  in  him,  replied  to  one  of  his 
detractors :  "Mad,  is  he  ?  then  I  hope  he  will  bite  some  of  my  generals." 


732  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

by  the  continental  war  to  send  adequate  forces  to  the  relief  of  Canada. 
Montcalm,  on  the  news  of  the  impending  attack,  concentrated  the 
whole  French  defense  in  and  about  Quebec,  which,  from  its  situation 
on  a  steep  bluff  commanding  the  St.  Lawrence,  was  one  of  the  strong 
places  of  the  world.  While  the  French  and  Canadians  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  position  and  outnumbered "  the  British  as  well,  the  latter 
were  better  drilled  and  organized,  and  were  backed  by  a  powerful 
fleet.  Between  one  and  two  thousand  of  the  defenders  were  gathered 
in  the  town ;  the  remainder,  nearly  fourteen  thousand,  were  stationed 
along  the  steep  and  strongly  fortified  left  bank  of  the  river  below  the 
town. 

The  Capture  of  Quebec,  September,  1759.  —  From  July  to  Septem- 
ber they  successfully  withstood  all  attempts  of  the  British  to  overcome 
them  from  this  side.  At  length,  on  the  advice  of  his  brigadiers,  Wolfe 
decided  to  move  his  forces  past  Quebec  and  attack  from  the  other  side. 
For  thirty  miles  the  river  bank  was  sheer  and  rocky  with  only  an 
occasional  break.  Montcalm,  who  expected  that  the  attempted  land- 
ing would  be  made  some  miles  up  the  river,  had  disposed  his  chief  forces 
accordingly ;  but  Wolfe  had  discovered  a  place  only  a  mile  and  a  half 
down  the  bank  which  led  to  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  a  plateau  over- 
looking the  town.  In  the  early  morning  of  13  September,  1759,  he 
crossed  from  the  southern  shore 3  with  four  thousand  men  and  made  his 
way  up  the  almost  impassable  ascent  by  a  path  so  narrow  that  in 
places  two  could  not  walk  abreast,  and  gained  possession  of  the  bluff 
which  was  guarded  by  a  garrison  of  only  two  hundred  men,  who  fled 
and  left  the  invaders  in  possession.  Montcalm,  when,  from  his  camp 
below  Quebec,  he  heard  the  sound  of  muskets,  hurriedly  mounted 
his  horse  and  rode  toward  the  scene  of  action.  "  This  is  serious  busi- 
ness," he  murmured,  as  he  saw  the  redcoats  in  the  distance,  and 
hastily  summoned  his  forces.  Unable,  however,  to  contend  against 
the  superior  discipline  of  their  adversaries,  the  French  wavered,  broke, 
and  fled  for  refuge  within  the  walls  of  the  town.  In  this  conflict  on 
the  Plains  of  Abraham,  which  decided  the  fate  of  New  France,  both 
commanders  were  mortally  wounded.  "  See  how  they  run,"  said 
an  officer  as  Wolfe  lay  dying.  "  Who  run?  "  cried  Wolfe,  raising  him- 
self on  his  elbow.  "  The  enemy,"  replied  the  officer.  "  Then  God 
be  praised  !  I  die  happy."  Montcalm  died  the  next  day.  When 
told  that  his  end  was  near,  he  answered :  "So  much  the  better ;  I 

1  Some  supplies,  however,  were  sent,  and  it  added  greatly  to  the  difficulties  of 
Wolfe  and  Saunders  that  the  French  men-of-war  in  which  they  were  conveyed 
managed  to  elude  the  latter's  second  in  command  and  slip  into  the  mouth  of  the 
river  directly  the  ice  broke  up  in  the  spring. 

2  Wolfe  started  with  an  army  of  about  8000. 

3  Before  embarking  he  took  from  his  neck  the  miniature  of  his  betrothed  to  be 
sent  to  her  in  far-off  England  in  case  he  did  not  survive.     There  is  a  familiar  story, 
that  as  he  floated  along  the  dark,  silent  stream  he  repeated  to  the  officers  in  the 
boat  Gray's  Elegy,  adding :  "Now,  gentlemen,  I  would  rather  be  the  author  of  that 
poem  than  take  Quebec." 


THE   DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  733 

Shall  not  live  to  see  the  surrender  of  Quebec."  The  garrison  yielded 
1 8  September.  However,  the  junction  with  Amherst  had  been  pre- 
vented, and  the  French  who  fled  to  Montreal  were  able  to  hold  out 
for  another  year. 

Hawke's  Victory  at  Quiberon  Bay,  20  November,  1759.  —  The  news 
of.  the  fall  of  the  stronghold  which  the  British  had  begun  to  believe 
impregnable  was  received  with  wild  exultation,  but  it  was  mingled 
with  mourning  for  the  loss  of  the  man  who  had  brought  the  conquest 
of  Canada  within  sight.  "  Joy,  grief,  curiosity,  astonishment," 
wrote  Walpole,  "  were  painted  on  every  countenance."  On  the  mo- 
tion of  Pitt,  who  in  his  speech  did  not  fail  to  pay  a  deserved  tribute 
to  Saunders,  the  House  of  Commons  voted  a  monument  to  Wolfe  in 
Westminster  Abbey.  Within  a  few  weeks  came  the  news  that 
Hawke,  20  November,  had  overcome  the  Brest  fleet  in  Quiberon  Bay. 
His  achievement  was  a  marvel  of  daring  and  skill.  Heedless  of  the 
rocks  and  shoals  of  an  unfamiliar  coast,  and  in  the  teeth  of  a  heavy 
storm  and  a  high  sea,  he  had  boldly  pursued  the  enemy  toward  the 
shore,  and  with  the  loss  of  only  two  ships  he  took  or  sunk  five  of  the 
French  and  scattered  the  rest.  Following  upon  Boscawen's  victory 
over  the  Toulon  fleet  in  August,  the  result  was  to  make  the  British 
again  supreme  at  sea  and  to  put  an  end  to  the  prospect  of  a  general  in- 
vasion by  the  French.  Thurot  did  manage  to  escape  the  British 
blockading  squadron  at  Dunkirk  and  to  reach  the  coast  of  Ireland 
in  February,  1760,  but  his  little  squadron  was  defeated  and  he  him- 
self killed  in  an  engagement  fought  with  three  British  frigates  on 
the  28th. 

The  War  in  Germany.  —  All  the  while,  Frederick  was  struggling  for 
existence  against  the  Austrians  and  Russians,  who  were  pressing  in 
upon  the  Saxon  and  Silesian  frontier.  In  spite  of  defeat  and  despon- 
dency, he  held  his  ground,  leaving  Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  free  to  deal 
with  two  great  armies  in  western  Germany.  The  latter,  after  some 
preliminary  reverses  gained  a  decisive  victory  over  the  combined 
forces  of  the  enemy  at  Minden,  i  August.  The  entire  destruction  of 
the  French  was  only  prevented  by  the  refusal  of  Lord  George  Sackville 
—  either  from  panic  or  spleen  against  Frederick  —  to  charge  the 
broken  columns  with  his  cavalry,  which  had  been  held  in  reserve  during 
the  earlier  part  of  the  fight. 

The  "  Great  Year  "  of  Victories,  1759.  —  Altogether,  the  year 
was  unique  in  the  annals  of  the  British  military  achievement.  In 
America,  in  Africa,  in  India,  in  Europe,  by  land  and  sea,  wherever 
her  forces  had  been  engaged,  they  had  been  signally  victorious.  Al- 
most every  month  had  brought  news  of  a  fresh  triumph :  in  January 
the  capture  of  Goree ;  in  June  of  Guadaloupe ;  in  August  of  the 
victory  at  Minden ;  in  September  of  Lagos ;  in  October  of  the  reduc- 
tion of  Quebec ;  in  November  of  the  success  in  Quiberon  Bay.  "  In- 
deed," said  Horace  Walpole,  "  one  is  forced  to  ask  every  morning 
what  victory  there  is  for  fear  of  missing  one."  Fortunately,  too, 


734  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

British  trade  and  manufactures  grew  and  flourished,  thus  enabling 
the  country  to  bear  the  enormous  burden  of  the  war.  Pitt,  who  by 
his  genius  and  his  industry  had  planned  the  campaign,  equipped  the 
expeditions,  and  selected  the  commanders,  had  breathed  into  the  na- 
tion his  own  heroic  spirit.  At  length  England,  as  Frederick  the 
Great  joyfully  testified,  "  had  borne  a  man."  Even  the  King  had  been 
completely  won  over.  "  Give  me  your  confidence,  sir,"  Pitt  had  said 
to  George,  not  long  after  his  appointment,  "  and  I  will  deserve  it." 
"  Deserve  my  confidence  and  you  shall  have  it,"  was  the  royal  reply. 
Pitt  made  good  his  pretensions  and  the  King  kept  his  word.  "  Those 
only  who  had  favors  to  solicit  remembered  that  there  was  a  Duke  of 
Newcastle,"  the  real  Prime  Minister  was  Pitt,  and  the  Commons  loy- 
ally voted  him  all  that  he  demanded. 

India,  1756-1760.  The  "  Black  Hole  "  of  Calcutta,  20  June,  1756. 
—  Meantime,  an  empire  was  being  won  in  India.  The  conquest 
began  in  Bengal,  where  a  powerful  line  of  princes  ruled  independently 
of  the  Moguls  in  everything  but  name.  In  April,  1756,  Suraja  Dowlah 
succeeded  to  this  great  inheritance.  He  was  only  nineteen,  feeble 
in  intellect,  but  ferocious  in  temper,  and  consumed  with  hatred  for  the 
Europeans.  When  the  presidency  of  Calcutta  began  to  erect  new 
fortifications  against  the  French,  he  led  forth  a  vast  army  and  took 
possession  of  Fort  William,  20  June,  1756.  That  very  night,  in  spite 
of  his  promise  that  the  lives  of  the  prisoners  should  be  spared,  one 
hundred  and  forty-five  men  and  one  woman  were,  by  the  command  of 
the  officers,  thrust  into  the  common  dungeon  of  the  fort,  known 
to  the  English  as  the  "  Black  Hole  "  of  Calcutta.  It  was  only  eigh- 
teen feet  by  fourteen,  with  two  small  windows  overhung  by  a  low 
veranda.  After  a  night  of  indescribable  suffering,  witnessed  by  the 
guards  with  "  fiendish  glee,"  twenty- three  of  the  hundred  and  forty- 
five  were  found  alive' in  the  morning.  Although  Suraja  Dowlah  had 
not  given  the  orders  for  committing  this  atrocity,  he  expressed  no 
regret ;  he  caused  the  dead  to  be  flung  into  a  pit,  the  living  to  be  plun- 
dered, and  sent  some  of  them  to  prison  loaded  with  heavy  chains. 
The  news  which  reached  Madras,  16  August,  found  the  English  in  the 
midst  of  a  struggle  with  the  French  for  the  control  of  the  Carnatic. 
After  a  long  quarrel  as  to  who  should  command,  Clive,  with  a  force  of 
nine  hundred  Europeans  and  fifteen  hundred  Sepoys,  was  dispatched 
north  in  a  British  fleet.  The  native  garrison  at  Calcutta  was  easily  put 
to  flight,  the  settlement  being  abandoned  to  the  English,  2  January, 
1757.  Not  long  after,  the  news  reached  India  of  the  declaration  of  war 
between  Great  Britain  and  France.  Suraja  advanced  with  a  huge  though 
motley  army,  but,  frightened  at  the  determined  attitude  of  his  foes, 
first  concluded  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  them,  and  later  sought  to  ally 
himself  with  the  French.  Thereupon,  Clive,  who  in  the  meantime 
had  taken  possession  of  Chandernagore,  made  up  his  mind  that  there 
could  be  "  neither  peace  nor  trade  "  until  Suraja  Dowlah  was  disposed 
of. 


THE   DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  735 

Clive's  Victory  at  Plassey,  23  June,  1757.  —  Sending  a  letter  to  the 
Nawab  in  which  he  charged  him  with  his  breach  of  the  recent  alliance, 
Clive  marched  from  Calcutta  with  3000  men,  of  whom  only  a  third 
were  English.  On  the  morning  of  23  June,  1757,  he  engaged  the  enemy 
at  the  village  of  Plassey,  where  they  had  mustered  a  force  of  35,000 
infantry  and  15,000  cavalry,  together  with  forty  canon  under  the  di- 
rection of  Frenchmen  in  the  native  service.  _  "  If  a  defeat  had  ensued," 
declared  Clive,  "  not  one  man  would  have  returned  to  tell  it."  How- 
ever, timidity,  lack  of  organization  and  treachery  neutralized  the 
Suraja's  superiority  of  numbers.  Before  night  his  army  was  in  full 
flight.  With  a  loss  of  twenty-two  slain  and  fifty  wounded,  Clive 
had  won  Bengal  and  laid  the  foundations  of  the  British  Empire  in 
India.  Suraja,  who  had  escaped  during  the  battle,  was  later  caught 
in  the  foothills  of  the  Himalayas,  brought  back,  and  —  though  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  English  —  executed.  The  directors  of  the  East 
India  Company  made  Clive  Governor  of  Bengal,  in  which  capacity 
he  displayed  the  same  astonishing  ability  that  he  had  shown  as  a 
conqueror.  When  he  again  returned  to  England  on  account  of  his 
health,  in  February,  1760,  it  was  said  that  "  with  him  it  appeared  that 
the  soul  was  departing  from  the  body  of  the  government  of  Bengal." 
He  was  rewarded  with  an  Irish  peerage  and  a  seat  in  the  English  House 
of  Commons.1  While  he  had  made  a  fortune  for  himself,  and  while 
vanity  and  instances  of  bad  faith  may  be  charged  against  him,  he  was 
subjected  to  unusual  temptations.2  Chatham,  mindful  of  his  achieve- 
ments, hailed  him  as  a  "  heaven-born  general."  He  was  destined  to  go 
out  to  India  for  a  third  and  final  visit. 

The  Battle  of  Wandewash  and  the  Winning  of  the  Carnatic,  1760.  — 
All  the  while,  the  struggle  between  the  English  and  the  French  had 
continued  in  the  southeast.  In  April,  1758,  a  great  French  armament 
arrived  under  the  command  of  the  Comte  de  Lally.  His  aim  was  to 
secure  Madras  and  to  drive  the  English  altogether  out  of  the  Carnatic. 
He  succeeded,  not  long  after  his  arrival,  in  taking  and  destroying 
Ford  St.  David's ;  but  he  alienated  the  natives  by  trampling  on  their 
caste  distinctions,  he  was  hampered  by  lack  of  funds,  and  he  grew 
steadily  unpopular  even  with  the  French.  In  view  of  all  the  obstacles 
which  he  found  or  created,  he  was  still  occupied  with  the  siege  of  Madras 
when  the  arrival  of  an  English  fleet  forced  him  to  retire.  Colonel 
Eyre  Coote,  who  later  landed  with  reinforcements  of  English  troops, 
27  October,  1759,  captured  the  French  fort  of  Wandewash.  On  29 
November,  Lally,  in  an  attempt  to  recover  the  fort,  was  defeated  by 
Coote  at  the  battle  of  Wandewash,  22  December,  an  engagement  which 
established  the  English  ascendancy  in  the  Carnatic,  as  Plassey  had 

1  Irish  peers  were,  and  are,  eligible  for  election  to  the  English  Lower  House. 

2  He  appropriated  £200,000  from  Suraja's  vast  stores  of  wealth.     "When  I 
recollect  entering  the  Nawab's  treasury,"  he  declared  years  later,  "with  heaps  of 
gold  and  silver  to  the  right  and  left,  and  those  covered  with  jewels — at  this  moment 
do  I  stand  astonished  at  my  own  moderation." 


736  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

in  Bengal.  One  place  after  another  yielded  to  their  arms,  and  with 
the  fall  of  Pondicherry  in  January,  1761,  the  French  lost  their  last 
stronghold  in  India.  In  spite  of  restorations  of  territory,  made  in 
1763,  they  were  never  able  to  recover  their  lost  ground,  and  their 
East  India  Company  soon  became  extinct.  The  future  struggles  of 
the  British  were  with  the  natives  and  not  with  the  rival  European 
Powers.  Clive,  not  Pitt,  directed  the  movements  which  started 
his  country  on  the  road  to  her  Indian  Empire,  but  the  latter  by  his 
timely  reinforcements  and  by  keeping  the  French  occupied  in  other 
quarters  contributed  not  a  little  to  the  result. 

The  Capture  of  Montreal,  and  the  Completion  of  the  Conquest  of 
Canada,  1760.  —  With  the  approach  of  the  spring,  in  1760,  the  condi- 
tion of  Quebec  became  critical.  The  garrison  was  greatly  reduced  by 
sickness,  the  opening  of  the  St.  Lawrence  was  blocked  by  ice,  while 
the  defenses  of  the  town  on  the  land  side  were  far  from  strong.  How- 
ever, Murray,  the  English  commander,  was  able  to  hold  off  an  attack- 
ing force  sent  by  the  French  Governor-General,  Vaudreuil,  until  an 
English  fleet  came  to  his  relief.  After  his  failure  to  retake  Quebec, 
Vaudreuil  shut  himself  up  in  Montreal.  Three  British  armies  were 
sent  against  him  —  General  Murray's  from  Quebec,  another  from 
Crown  Point,  and  the  third  under  Amherst  from  Oswego.  Amherst, 
who  acted  as  commander-in-chief,  by  "  one  of  the  most  perfect  and 
astonishing  bits  of  work  which  the  annals  of  British  warfare  can  show," 
managed  to  concentrate  these  various  forces  so  effectively  that  Mon- 
treal, surrounded  without  hope  of  relief,  was  forced  to  capitulate,  8  Sep- 
tember, 1760,  and  the  British  conquest  of  Canada  was  finally  complete. 

The  Turn  in  the  Tide  of  Frederick's  Fortunes,  1760.  —  While  his 
ally  was  winning  empires  in  America  and  India,  Frederick  was  trying 
to  recover  from  his  reverses  and  to  hold  his  own  against  the 
Austrians  and  the  Russians.  Unwilling  to  contract  new  loans  or  to 
impose  further  taxes  upon  his  own  subjects,  he  resorted  to  desperate 
devices  to  eke  out  his  English  subsidy;  he  levied  assessments  in 
Mecklenburg  and  Saxony,  he  sold  great  quantities  of  the  Saxon  forest 
to  speculators,  he  withheld  the  pay  of  officials,  he  debased  the  coinage, 
he  forced  prisoners  to  enlist  in  his  service,  and  sent  hired  adventurers 
throughout  Germany  to  secure  recruits  by  force  and  by  specious 
promises.  Although  he  defeated  one  Austrian  army  at  Liegnitz, 
15  August,  1760,  thereby  securing  Silesia,  he  was  unable  to  prevent 
another  force  from  joining  with  the  Russians  and  marching  on  Berlin, 
which  they  occupied  for  three  days.  Having  relieved  his  capital, 
Frederick  marched  into  Saxony,  which  the  Austrians  had  again 
entered,  and  drove  them  out  after  a  victory  at  Torgau,  3  November, 
the  last  and  bloodiest  battle  of  the  Third  Silesian  War,  in  which  he 
lost  14,000  and  the  enemy  20,000.  At  the  close  of  the  campaign  he 
fixed  his  headquarters  at  Leipzig  with  the  feeling  that  the  tide  in  his 
fortunes  had  turned.  Ferdinand,  though  with  some  difficulty,  held 
the  southern  and  western  frontier  against  two  French  armies  which 
together  amounted  to  two  hundred  thousand  men. 


THE   DUEL   FOR   EMPIRE  737 

The  Death  of  George  II,  25  October,  1760.  —  In  the  midst  of  the 
triumph  of  English  arms  George  II,  who  was  seventy-seven  years  old, 
and  who  had  for  two  years  been  losing  his  sight  and  his  hearing,  died, 
25  October,  1760.  In  spite  of  his  faults,  he  could  boast  that  during 
a  reign  of  thirty-three  years  he  had  not  in  a  single  instance  violated 
the  Constitution.  To  whatever  cause  his  moderation  may  have 
.been  due,  t"he  result  was  happy  for  England.  Coveting  military 
glory,  he  was  for  years  in  "  awful  contemplation  of  a  very  involved 
European  situation  "  and  at  length  "  plunged  into  the  infinite  sea 
of  perplexity."  Curiously  enough,  Pitt,  the  man  who  had  begun  by 
earning  his  hatred,  crowned  his  reign  with  glorious  achievement.1 
Though  George  gave  his  confidence  grudgingly,  he  gave  it  unreservedly, 
and,  from  1757  until  the  end  of  his  reign,  the  policy  of  the  country 
was  practically  Pitt's  policy.  With  the  accession  of  George's  son 
a  momentous  change  was  to  come. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Leadam,  Political  History,  chs.  XX-XXVII.  Robertson,  England 
under  the  Hanoverians,  chs.  II,  III.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  VI,  ch.  II  (bibliog- 
raphy, pp.  844-857).  Bright,  History  of  England,  III,  pp.  966-1033.  Stanhope, 
History  of  England,  II-IV.  Lecky,  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  I,  II. 

Constitutional.  Hallam,  III,  ch.  XVI.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  VII, 
ch.  I. 

Biography.  Coxe's  and  Morley's  Walpole.  Hon.  Evan  Charteris,  William 
Augustus,  Duke  of  Cumberland,  1721-1748  (1913);  a  brilliant  scholarly  apology. 
Lord  Rosebery,  Lord  Chatham,  His  Early  Life  and  Connections  (1910)  goes  to  1756, 
scholarly,  and  charmingly  written.  F.  Harrison,  William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham 
(1905) ;  a  brief  sketch.  Macaulay,  Critical  and  Historical  Essays  (3d  ed.  1853),  I, 
II ;  two  famous  essays  on  Pitt.  The  two  great  biographies  of  Pitt  are  A.  von  Ruville, 
William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham  (3  vols.,  1907,  Eng.  tr.),  and  Basil  Williams,  The  Life 
of  William  Pitt  (2  vols.,  1913) ;  the  former  hostile,  the  latter  favorable.  T.  W.  Riker, 
Henry  Fox,  First  Lord  Holland  (2  vols.,  1911).  P.  C.  Yorke,  The  Life  and  Correspond- 
ence of  Philip  Yorke,  Earl  of  Hardwicke  (3  vols.,  1913). 

Scotland.  P.  H.  Brown,  III,  bk.  VII,  chs.  YI-VTII.  Cambridge  Modern  History, 
III  (bibliography,  pp.  858-863). 

Army  and  Navy.  Fortescue,  British  Army,  I,  II.  Mahan,  Sea  Power,  ch.  VIII. 
J.  S.  Corbett,  England  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  (2  vols.,  1907).  Clowes,  Royal  Navy, 
III. 

America.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  VII,  chs.  I-IV  (bibliography,  pp.  753-779). 
India,  ibid.,  VI,  ch.  XV  (bibliography,  pp.  925-932).  For  further  bibliography  on 
America  and  India,  Robertson,  523,  and  Leadam,  515. 

Contemporary.  John,  Lord  Hervey,  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  II  to  the 
Death  of  Queen  Caroline  (ed.  J.  W.  Croker,  2  vols.,  1848) ;  ill-natured  and  to  be  read 
with  caution.  Horace  Walpole,  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  II  (ed.  Lord  Holland, 
3  vols.,  1846). 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  no.  249,  and  Robertson,  pt.  I, 
nos.  XXIX-XLIII. 

1  "I  shall  burn  my  Greek  and  Latin  books,"  wrote  Horace  Walpole.  "They  are 
the  histories  of  little  people.  .  .  .  We  subdue  the  globe  in  three  campaigns,  and  a 
globe  ...  as  big  again  as  it  was  in  their  days."  "You  would  not  know  your 
country  again,"  he  writes  to  his  friend,  Sir  Horace  Mann.  "You  left  it  a  private 
little  island  living  upon  its  means.  You  will  find  it  the  capital  of  the  world ;  St. 
James'  Street  crowded  with  nabobs  and  Indian  chiefs." 


CHAPTER  XLII 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  THE  ROYAL  ASCENDANCY.    THE  FIRST  YEARS 
OF  GEORGE  III  (1760-1770) 

The  Significance  of  the  Reign  of  George  III.  —  The  accession  of 
George  III,  25  October,  1760,  marked  a  notable  attempt  to  revive 
the  personal  power  of  the  sovereign,  and  a  consequent  interlude  in 
the  progress  of  Cabinet  and  party  government  for  over  twenty  years. 
The  reign,  which  lasted  for  sixty  years  and  which  was  only  exceeded 
in  length  by  that  of  one  English  monarch,1  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most 
eventful  in  the  annals  of  the  country.  While  his  two  predecessors 
had  seen  the  wisdom  of  leaving  the  Government  largely  in  the  hands 
of  their  Whig  ministers,  George  III  bent  all  his  energies  to  break  the 
power  of  the  dominant  oligarchy  and  systematically  to  impose  his  will 
upon  the  nation.  No  sovereign  has  ever  repeated  the  attempt,  in 
which  he  succeeded  during  the  first  third  of  his  reign.  Another  result 
of  his  accession  was  the  return  to  power  of  the  Tories  after  nearly 
fifty  years  of  exclusion  from  office.  Events  had  been  working  in  their 
favor  for  some  years  before  George  III  ascended  the  throne.  Al- 
though the  Whigs  monopolized  office  and  power  and  controlled  Parlia- 
ment, they  were  at  odds  among  themselves.  The  party  was  split 
into  various  factions,  each  dominated  by  one  of  the  great  families.2 
Moreover,  Pitt,  while  he  was  nominally  a  Whig,  bound  by  close  family 
connection  with  the  Grenvilles  and,  since  1757,  by  a  working  agree- 
ment with  Newcastle,  hated  all  party  combinations.  His  views  and 
example  did  something  to  discredit  the  old  system,  though  his  methods 
and  aims  were  quite  the  opposite  of  those  of  the  new  King,  Pitt's 
idea  was  to  call  in  the  best  men  of  both  parties,  who  were  backed  by 
the  people  and  who  voiced  popular  opinion.  George's  was  to  put  in 
office  only  those  who  would  serve  his  purpose  in  establishing  the  royal 
ascendancy.  Consequently,  Pitt,  in  spite  of  his  hatred  of  the  great 
Whig  families  which  he  shared  with  George,  was  one  of  the  first  to  go. 
Aside  from  the  disintegration  of  the  Whigs,  other  causes  rendered  the 
situation  most  favorable  for  the  revival  of  a  strong  monarchy.  The 
Stuart  rivals  of  the  Hanoverian  line  had  been  hopelessly  discredited 
by  the  failure  of  1745.  Furthermore,  the  victories  of  Pitt  had  aroused 

1  Victoria,  1837-1901. 

2  These  were  the  Pelham  Whigs  led  by  Newcastle;  the  Russell  Whigs  by  the  Duke 
of  Bedford ;   the  Grenville  Whigs  by  Lord  Temple ;   and  the  Cavendish  Whigs  led 
by  the  Duke  of  Devonshire. 

738 


THE   FIRST  YEARS  OF  GEORGE  III  739 

a  tremendous  loyalty  and  national  enthusiasm  that  was  bound  to 
reflect  luster  on  the  Crown.  Finally,  the  new  King  inspired  in  his 
subjects  the  confidence  that  he  was  a  typical  Englishman. 

George  III,  his  Personal  Traits.  —  George  III  was  now  twenty-two 
years  old.  Owing  to  the  quarrels  of  his  father,  Prince  Frederick,  with 
the  late  King,  the  boy's  early  years  were  passed  apart  from  the  royal 
court,  so  that  he  grew  up  "  full  of  prejudices  .  .  .  fostered  by  women 
and  pages."  He  was  generally  good-natured  and  cheerful,  but  idle 
and  inclined  to  fits  of  sullenness  whenever  his  will  was  crossed. 
Utterly  ignorant  of  business  when  he  became  King,  he  shook  off  his 
slothful  habits  and  applied  himself  zealously  to  his  duties.  Yet  he 
never  overcame  his  early  lack  of  education.  To  be  sure,  he  spoke 
French  and  German  fluently ;  but  he  was  deficient  in  general  informa- 
tion, and  his  letters  were  always  ungrammatical  and  full  of  mis- 
spelled words.  Though  he  had  a  good  ear  for  music,  of  which  he 
was  very  fond,  he  was  woefully  lacking  in  taste  for  art  and  literature. 
His  favorite  occupation  was  agriculture,  which  gained  for  him  the 
popular  title  of  "  Farmer  George."  In  private  life  he  was  unpre- 
tentious, even  homely,  and  most  thrifty  in  his  management  of  his 
household ;  in  public  he  bore  himself  with  exceeding  dignity,  and  was 
insistent  in  small  points  of  ceremony,  always  requiring,  for  instance, 
that  his  ministers  should  stand  in  his  presence.  Perhaps  his  most 
admirable  quality  was  his  unquestioned  bravery.  This,  together 
with  his  simplicity,  purity  of  family  life,  and  his  piety,  endeared  him 
to  the  middle-class  Englishman.  Conscientious  he  was,  too,  and  right 
in  his  intentions ;  but  overestimating  his  own  wisdom  and  rectitude, 
he  could  appreciate  no  point  of  view  but  his  own,  and  treated  with 
rudeness,  vindictiveness,  and  even  treachery  all  those  who  presumed 
to  differ  with  him. 

His  Policy.  —  Patriotic  and  high-minded  statesmen  who  were  as- 
sertive and  independent  were  kept  out  of  office,  while  those  who  did 
his  bidding,  however  incompetent  or  dissolute,  were  given  the  royal 
confidence  and  favor.  Economically  as  he  managed  his  household, 
he  spent  such  vast  sums  in  the  bestowal  of  bribes  and  pensions  that 
with  a  Civil  List  greater  than  that  of  any  of  his  predecessors  —  it  was 
£800,000  —  he  was  always  in  debt.  His  money,  together  with  the 
patronage  and  the  boroughs  which  he  controlled,  was  lavishly  em- 
ployed in  maintaining  a  strong  body  of  supporters1  in  Parliament, 
who  were  known  as  the  "  King's  friends."  They  were  not  admitted 
to  the  circle  of  his  personal  intimates,  who  were  all  kindly,  honest 
folk ;  but  a  monarch  professing  such  high  principles  should  not  have 
tolerated  them  at  all.  Employing  such  men  and  such  methods,  he 
might  well  say :  "  This  trade  of  politics  is  rascally  business.  It  is 
a  trade  for  a  scoundrel  and  not  for  a  gentleman."  Yet  something 

1  He  was  not  above  coercing  tradesmen.  There  is  a  story  that  in  the  election 
of  1780,  when  he  opposed  Admiral  Keppel,  he  rushed  into  a  shop,  crying:  "The 
Queen  wants  a  gown,  wants  a  gown.  No  Keppel !  No  Keppel!" 


740  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

should  be  said  by  way  of  extenuation.  His  mother,  Augusta  of  Saxe- 
Coburg,  who  had  so  much  to  do  with  forming  his  mind,  was  narrowly 
pious  and  brought  to  England  the  traditions  of  a  petty  German 
court.  Ceaselessly  she  instilled  into  him  the  idea  of  prerogative,  and 
exhorted  him  to  "  be  a  King."  Her  closest  and  most  trusted  adviser, 
John  Stuart,  Earl  of  Bute,  reenforced  her  teachings.  Bute  was  a 
Scotsman,  a  handsome  man  of  elaborate  polished  manners,  of  literary 
and  scientific  tastes,  with  a  great  talent  for  intrigue ;  but  of  slender 
ability,  pompous,  haughty,  and  unpopular.  A  magnifier  of  royalty, 
he  is  said  to  have  procured  for  his  pupil  the  manuscript  of  Black- 
stone's  famous  Commentaries  on  the  Constitution,1  which  voiced  his 
views.  The  work,  however,  with  which  he  chiefly  influenced  the  young 
George  was  Bolingbroke's  Idea  of  a  Patriot  King,  which  advocates 
the  principle  that  a  king  shall  govern  as  well  as  reign,  that  he  shall 
rule  independently  of  party.2  Had  George  carried  out  these  latter 
precepts  according  to  Pitt's  ideal  he  might  have  rendered  a  service 
in  breaking  up  the  Whig  oligarchy ;  for  its  leaders  were  at  odds  among 
themselves,  it  had  ceased  to  stand  for  definite  principles,  and  it  main- 
tained its  ascendancy  by  bribery  and  corruption  in  an  unrepresentative 
parliament.  It  admitted  Pitt  to  power  solely  by  virtue  of  necessity ; 
otherwise  it  was  absolutely  regardless  of  public  opinion.  Unfortu- 
nately, the  state  of  things  which  George  brought  about  was  worse 
than  that  which  he  attacked.  In  order  to  restore  the  influence  of  the 
Crown,  he  used  the  Tories  as  a  body  of  servile  henchmen,  instead  of 
building  up  the  party  on  a  strong,  wholesome  footing ;  instead  of  re- 
forming the  representative  system  and  the  public  service  he  in- 
creased parliamentary  and  official  corruption ;  he  swelled  the  National 
Debt,  made  serious  encroachments  on  the  liberty  of  the  subject, 
and  lost  to  England  the  richest  and  most  flourishing  of  her  colonies. 
In  short,  although  no  one  could  have  had  better  intentions,  he  "  in- 
flicted more  profound  and  enduring  injuries  upon  his  country  than 
any  modern  English  King."  In  a  final  estimate  some  allowance  must 
be  made  for  the  fact  that  twice  in  the  first  half  of  his  reign  he  was 
attacked  by  fits  of  insanity,  and  spent  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life 
in  complete  mental  darkness. 

The  Opening  of  the  Reign,  1760.  —  George's  first  aim  was  to  break 
up  the  coalition  between  Pitt  and  Newcastle,  to  put  an  end  to  the 
war  with  France,  and  to  place  his  favorite  Bute  at  the  head  of  affairs. 
The  Cabinet  was  torn  with  dissension,  and  Pitt  was  so  high-handed 
that  he  had  not  a  single  stanch  supporter  in  the  whole  body.  Yet 
he  was  still  the  popular  idol,  while  Bute  was  hated,  partly  as  a  Scots- 

1  The  four  volumes  were  published  successively  from  1765  to  1769. 

2  George's  Queen,  Charlotte  of  Mecklenburg-Stretlitz,  whom  he  married  in  Sep- 
tember, 1761,  played  no  part  in  the  politics  of  the  reign.     She  was  a  model  of  do- 
mestic virtues,  apparently  with  little  inclination  or  ability  for  affairs,  concerning 
which  the  King  seems  never  to  have  consulted  her.     She  brought  up  a  family  of 
fifteen  children,  though  unfortunately  some  of  them,  notably  the  Crown  Prince, 
were  no  credit  to  their  home  training. 


THE   FIRST  YEARS  OF   GEORGE  III  741 

man  and  more  particularly  because  of  the  suspicion  that  the  Princess 
Dowager  was  too  much  under  his  influence.  Only  a  few  days  after 
the  beginning  of  the  new  reign  a  handbill  appeared  in  the  Royal 
Exchange  with  "  No  Petticoat  Government "  in  glaring  letters. 
And  it  was  a  favorite  practice  for  the  city  mob  at  almost  every  demon- 
stration during  the  next  years  to  hang  a  petticoat  or  a  bonnet,  together 
with  a  jack  boot,1  on  a  pole  or  burn  them  in  effigy.  The  King  himself, 
however,  was  received  at  first  with  an  enthusiasm  unequaled  since 
the  Restoration.  He  declared  his  intention  of  striving  for  an  "  honor- 
able and  lasting  peace,"  but  was  wise  enough  to  substitute  at  Pitt's 
suggestion  the  words  "  just  and  necessary,"  in  place  of  "  bloody  and 
expensive,"  in  characterizing  the  war.  In  other  respects,  too,  he 
seemed  at  first  to  be  liberally  inclined.  After  the  first  Cabinet  Council 
he  ceased  to  attend,  thus  fixing  a  practice  which  prevailed  henceforth, 
and  he  yielded  his  hereditary  revenues,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Duchies 
of  Lancaster  and  Cornwall,  in  return  for  an  increased  Civil  List. 

The  Resignation  of  Pitt,  5  October,  1761.  —  While  the  English 
successes  continued  during  the  year  1761,  and  while  the  Allies  in  Ger- 
many managed  to  keep  the  enemy  occupied,  there  were  various  indi- 
cations that  George's  efforts  to  bring  about  a  peace  would  soon  prevail. 
In  March,  1761,  Bute  became  Pitt's  colleague  as  Secretary  of  State, 
and  other  Tories  were  brought  into  office.  What  with  subsidies  and 
the  steadily  increasing  military  establishment  the  debt  was  piling  up 
alarmingly ;  increasing  difficulty  was  experienced  in  filling  the  ranks, 
and  riots  were  of  frequent  occurrence.  Worse  yet,  now  that  the  French 
no  longer  had  colonies  to  defend,  there  was  every  prospect  that  they 
would  concentrate  in  Germany,  which  meant  the  loss  of  Hanover 
unless  more  men  and  money  were  sent  abroad.  Peace  negotiations 
which  had  begun  as  early  as  November,  17^9,  were  resumed  in  the 
spring  of  1761,  but  Pitt,  who  had  once  declared  that,  so  long  as  he 
retained  power,  "  no  peace  of  Utrecht  should  stain  the  annals  of 
England,"  was  bent  on  utterly  destroying^  the  power  of  France. 
Bedford  argued  in  reply  that  such  a  result  would  inevitably  bring 
about  a  great  European  coalition  against  England  in  the  interest  of 
the  balance  of  power,  and  that  to  take  Canada  from  France  would 
remove  an  effective  means  of  retaining  a  hold  on  the  North  American 
colonies.  The  French,  who  might  have  been  forced  to  accept  Pitt's 
hard  terms,  were  encouraged  to  resist  when  Charles  III  of  Spain,  who 
had  succeeded  the  pacific  Ferdinand  VI  in  1759,  ranged  himself  on 
her  side  and  presented  a  series  of  demands  to  the  English  through  the 
French  negotiators.  Pitt  scornfully  refused  to  consider  any  claims 
brought  before  him  in  such  a  manner,  and  before  long  broke  off  negotia- 
tions with  the  French  as  well.  Suspecting  that  the  two  monarchies 
were  in  secret  alliance,  and  that  Spain  was  on  the  point  of  joining  in 
the  conflict,  he  made  ready  to  strike  at  her  exposed  places,  while,  in 

1  To  represent  John,  Earl  of  Bute. 


742  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

a  Cabinet  Council,  held  2  October,  he  proposed  an  immediate  declara- 
tion of  war  against  Spain  before  she  could  complete  her  preparations. 
Events  proved  that  he  had  interpreted  the  situation  correctly ;  for, 
15  August,  Charles  III  and  Louis  XV  had  signed  a  new  Family  Com- 
pact uniting  their  countries  in  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance. 
No  one  in  the  Council  except  Lord  Temple  agreed  with  Pitt;  so,  after 
a  series  of  stormy  discussions,  he  resigned,  5  October.1 

The  End  of  the  Newcastle  Ministry,  1762.  —  Thus  the  King  and 
his  party  succeeded  in  overthrowing  the  great  War  Minister  in  the  full 
course  of  his  victorious  career.  More  than  this,  they  adroitly  turned 
the  people  against  him,  for  the  moment,  by  inducing  him  to  accept  the 
title  of  Baroness  Chatham  for  his  wife  and  a  pension  for  three  lives 
for  himself  and  his  family.2  He  certainly  deserved  all  the  recognition 
which  the  Government  could  offer ;  but  it  was  contrary  to  his  former 
professions  to  take  a  reward  for  his  services,  and,  what  is,  indeed, 
pathetic,  he  received  these  marks  of  royal  condescension  with  almost 
servile  gratitude.  Public  opinion,  however,  veered  once  more  to  his 
favor  when  Spain,  having  completed  her  arrangements,  openly  pro- 
claimed her  alliance  with  France.  Great  Britain  was  forced  to  reply 
by  a  declaration  of  war,  2  January,  1762.  Thanks  to  Pitt's  prepara- 
tions a  series  of  new  and  striking  successes  followed.  Martinique 
and  the  neighboring  islands  were  speedily  taken ;  14  August,  Havana 
yielded  after  a  siege  of  little  more  than  two  months ;  and  the  capture 
of  Manila  followed  in  October.  Moreover,  the  Spanish,  who  had 
invaded  Portugal,  were  driven  out  of  that  country,  while  the  French 
were  held  in  check  in  Germany.  Newcastle,  who  had  rejoiced  at  the 
fall  of  Pitt  in  the  hope  that  he  might  recover  his  lost  ascendancy,  had 
been  speedily  disillusioned.  The  King  and  his  followers  treated  him 
with  studied  rudeness  and  neglect.  When  they  ceased  even  to  consult 
him  in  questions  of  patronage,  the  veteran  old  place-rnonger  resigned, 
May,  1762,  seizing  as  a  pretext  Bute's  refusal  to  continue  the  Prussian 
subsidy.  The  King's  favorite,  who  for  months  had  been  virtually 
Prime  Minister,  now  openly  assumed  the  position. 

The  Bute  Ministry,  1762-1763,  and  the  Peace  of  Paris.  —  Bound 
to  secure  peace  at  all  costs,  Bute  bribed  the  energetic  and  unscrupu- 
lous Fox  with  the  promise  of  a  peerage  to  serve  as  leader  in  carrying 
it  through  the  Commons.  "  We  must,"  said  George,  "  call  in  bad 
men  to  govern  bad  men."  The  resulting  Treaty  of  Paris  bears  a 
striking  resemblance  in  many  respects  to  that  concluded  at  Utrecht 
in  1713.  In  both,  the  terms  obtained,  though  advantageous  to  Great 
Britain,  were  nothing  like  as  favorable  as  her  military  and  naval 

1  In  view  of  what  he  had  achieved  the  language  of  a  court  flatterer  to  Bute  is 
curious :  "I  sincerely  wish  your  Lordship  joy  of  being  delivered  of  a  most  impracti- 
cable colleague,  his  Majesty  of  a  most  imperious  servant,  and  the  country  of  a  most 
dangerous  minister.     I  am  told  the  people  are  sullen  about  it." 

2  "What !    To  blast  one's  character  for  the  sake  of  a  paltry  annuity  and  a  long- 
necked  peeress  !"  was  Horace  Walpole's  biting  comment. 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF   GEORGE  III  743 

successes  entitled  her  to  demand ;  both  were  pushed  through  Parlia- 
ment by  corruption  and  intimidation  in  the  teeth  of  stout  opposition; 
in  both,  the  Tories,  who  came  to  power  after  the  Whigs  had  fought  the 
battles,  excluded  from  the  final  settlement  the  man  who  had  led  the 
country  to  victory.  Now,  as  fifty  years  earlier,  the  dominant  party 
was  accused  of  deserting  the  allies  of  the  country.  Bute  protested 
that  Prussia  was  guaranteed  from  danger  before  British  subsidies 
and  troops  were  withdrawn  from  Germany ;  but  Frederick,  who  also 
believed  that  the  new  Prime  Minister  intrigued  with  Austria  behind 
his  back,  was  so  infuriated  that  he  became  hopelessly  alienated.  The 
loss  of  his  support  was  seriously  felt  in  the  crises  of  years  to  come. 

The  Terms  of  the  Peace.  —  The  preliminary  articles  were  con- 
cluded, 3  November,  1762,  and  the  definitive  peace  was  signed  at 
Paris,  10  February,  1763.  France  withdrew  her  troops  from  Germany ; 
she  restored  Minorca,  and  ceded  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  Cape  Breton, 
and  all  the  islands  in  the  river  and  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  together  with 
such  territories  as  she  claimed  east  of  the  Mississippi,  except  New 
Orleans.  She  also  gave  up  several  of  the  West  Indian  islands,  in- 
cluding Granada,  St.  Vincent,  and  Dominica,  as  well  as  her  African 
possessions  on  the  Senegal.  Great  Britain,  on  her  part,  restored  Belle 
Isle ;  she  granted  the  French  certain  fishing  rights  in  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  off  the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  ceding  the  islands  of  St.  Pierre 
and  Miquelon  as  shelters,  on  condition  that  they  should  never  be 
fortified,  and  agreed  that  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  should  be 
free  to  both  countries.  She  also  restored  Martinique,  Guadaloupe, 
and  other  West  Indian  islands,  together  with  Goree  in  Africa.  In 
India  there  was  a  mutual  restoration  of  conquests  made  since  1749, 
though  the  French  were  forbidden  to  have  troops  or  fortifications  in 
Bengal,  and  obliged  to  agree  to  acknowledge  the  native  princes  in 
the  Carnatic  and  the  Deccan  whom  the  British  chose  to  support. 
Spain  ceded  to  Great  Britain  Florida,  together  with  all  her  other 
possessions  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  gave  up  her  claims  to  the  New 
England  fisheries.  France  compensated  her  with  Louisiana  and  New 
Orleans,  while  England  restored  Havana,  but  reserved  the  right  to 
cut  logwood  in  the  Bay  of  Honduras.  Manila  and  the  Philippines  were 
handed  back  without  any  territorial  equivalent,  since  the  news  of  the 
conquest  did  not  arrive  until  after  the  signature  of  the  preliminaries.1 

The  Opposition  to  the  Peace  and  the  Resignation  of  Bute,  1763.  — 
These  terms  were  substantially  what  Pitt  had  rejected  in  1761,  so 
that  England  profited  nothing  by  another  year  of  victories.  She 
had  made  tremendous  gains ;  but  she  had  ceded,  without  adequate 
compensation,  territories  actually  held  at  the  end  of  the  war.  The 
restoration  of  Martinique,  Manila,  Goree,  the  exchange  of  Havana 
for  Florida,  together  with  concessions  to  France  of  her  fishing  rights 
and  the  return  of  her  factories  in  India  roused  a  storm  of  protest 

1  Manila,  however,  paid  a  ransom  of  £1,000,000,  but  half  of  this  sum  was  in 
bills  on  the  Spanish  treasury  which  Spain  refused  to  honor. 


744  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

throughout  England.  Bute  was  hissed  and  pelted  as  he  went  to  and 
from  Parliament,  and  had  to  employ  a  bodyguard  of  bruisers  and 
butchers  to  protect  him.  Numerous  abusive  libels  appeared,  some, 
it  is  said,  instigated  by  the  agents  of  Frederick  the  Great.  The  feeling 
against  the  Administration  was  embittered  by  a  new  loan  at  n  per 
cent,  let  out  to  royal  supporters,  and  by  a  tax  on  cider  which  caused 
a  revolt  in  the  western  counties.  Bute  resigned,  7  April,  1763. 
Doubtless  he  was  weary  of  duties  to  which  his  abilities  were  unequal ; 
his  unpopularity  was  injuring  the  cause  of  his  royal  master,  and  he 
felt  that  he  could  exercise  his  influence  just  as  effectively  behind  the 
throne.  He  had  accomplished  the  King's  two  main  purposes  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  war  and  breaking  up  the  Whig  connection ; 
but  he  left  the  country  seething  with  discontent  and  deprived  of  its 
only  powerful  ally. 

The  Grenville  Ministry,  1763-1765.  John  Wilkes  and  his  Sig- 
nificance.—  Bute  was  succeeded  by  George  Grenville  (1712-1770), 
who  took  the  offices  of  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury  and  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer.  He  had  entered  Parliament  as  one  of  the  "  Boy 
Patriots,"  and  for  years  worked  side  by  side  with  Pitt.  Owing, 
however,  to  his  opposition  to  the  increasing  cost  of  the  war,  he  went 
over  to  the  royal  side  after  the  accession  of  George  III,  receiving  the 
office  of  Secretary  of  State  in  Bute's  Cabinet.  He  was  upright,  in- 
dustrious, skillful  in  finance,  and  well  versed  in  parliamentary  pro- 
cedure; but  he  was  overbearing,  narrow-minded,  and  ungracious, 
utterly  lacking  in  tact  and  breadth  of  political  outlook.  George 
hoped  that  he  would  prove  a  pliant  instrument ;  but  in  this  he  was 
disappointed,  as  he  was  in  the  hope  that  the  retirement  of  Bute  would 
put  an  end  to  the  unpopularity  of  the  royal  policy.  No  sooner  had 
the  new  Minister  come  into  office  than  he  became  involved  in  a  momen- 
tous quarrel  with  John  Wilkes,  a  profane  and  profligate  man  of  fashion, 
who,  by  his  wit,  his  audacity,  and  his  skill  in  meeting  the  ill-advised 
attempts  of  the  Government  to  suppress  him,  became  the  darling  of 
the  populace.  By  the  agitation  which  he  stirred  up,  at  least  two 
important  principles  in  the  progress  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject  were 
established :  that  general  warrants 1  were  illegal,  and  that  the  House 
of  Commons  may  not  permanently  exclude  any  member,  not  legally 
disqualified,  whom  the  constituents  may  choose  to  elect.2  More- 
over, in  the  conflicts  centering  about  this  prince  of  popular  agitators, 
public  meetings  and  associations  first  came  to  figure  prominently  in 
English  politics. 

The  North  Briton  Review,  No.  45,  and  its  Consequences,  1763- 
1764.  —  In  June,  1762,  Wilkes  had  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  found- 
ing the  North  Briton  Review,  a  journal  devoted  to  attacking  the 
Government.  Unlike  its  predecessors,  it  printed  in  full  the  names  of 
those  against  whom  its  articles  were  directed  instead  of  using  merely 

1  That  is,  warrants  which  do  not  specify  the  persons  to  be  arrested  for  a  partic- 
ular offense.  2  This  was  not  finally  recognized  till  1782. 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF  GEORGE  III  745 

the  initial  letter.    In  the  famous  "  No.  45,"  which  appeared  23  April, 

1 763 ,  a  speech  from  the  throne  defending  the  recent  peace  was  vigorously 
assailed,   together  with  the  whole  policy  of  the  past  few  months. 
While  the  personal  character  of  the  King  was  referred  to  with  respect, 
his  favorite  was  lashed  unmercifully.     It  had  been  the  practice  for 
some  time  for  the  chief  ministers  to  prepare  the  speech  from  the  throne, 
and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Bute  had  been  the  author  of  the  one  in  ques- 
tion.    Wise  old  George  II  had  been  content  to  accept  the  situation ; 
but  his  grandson  was  infuriated  at  the  assumption  that  he  was  only 
the  "  first  magistrate  of  this  country  .  .  .  responsible  to  his  people 
for  due  exercise  of  the  royal  function  in  the  choice  of  his  ministers," 
and  he  determined  to  crush  the  man  who  sought  to  reduce  him  to 
a  mere  figurehead  and  who  presumed  to  assail  those  whom  he  had 
selected  to  do  his  will.     Accordingly,  a  general  warrant  was  issued, 
directing  the  arrest  of  the  "  authors,  printers,  and  publishers  "  of 
the  offensive  number  as  well  as  the  seizure  of  their  papers.     Wilkes 
was  apprehended  on  the  word  of  the  publishers  and  lodged  in  the  Tower. 
He  protested  on  two  grounds :    that  general  warrants  were  illegal ; 
and  that,  as  a  member  of  Parliament,  he  was  entitled  to  the  privilege 
of  freedom  from  arrest  on  civil  process.     He  succeeded  in  bringing 
the  case  before  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  where  Chief  Justice  Pratt 
decided  in  favor  of  his  parliamentary  privilege  and  pronounced  the 
momentous  opinion  that  general  warrants l  were  illegal. 

The  End  of  the  First  Stage  of  the  Proceedings  against  Wilkes, 

1764.  —  Wilkes  was  not  only  released  but  was  awarded  damages.     He 
celebrated  his  triumph  with  audacious  assurance;    he  accused  the 
Secretary  of  State,  who  had  ordered  the  seizure  of  his  papers,  of  robbing 
his  house,  and  reprinted  No.  45  with  notes,  to  prove  that  during  the 
two  preceding  reigns  the  ministers  had  written  the  royal  speech  from 
the  throne.     This  prompted  the  Government   to   measures   of   sys- 
tematic vindictiveness :  Wilkes  was  dismissed  from  his  office  of  colonel 
of  militia ;   spies  were  set  upon  his  track ;   his  letters  were  opened  at 
the  post  office,  and  the  Attorney-General  brought  suit  for  libel  against 
him  in  legal  form.     Parliament  met,  15  November,  1763.     Though 
the  case  was  still  pending,  the  Commons  proceeded  to  vote  No.  45 
"  a  false,  scandalous,  and  seditious  libel,"  and  to  order  it  to  be  burned 
by  the  common  hangman.     In  the  Upper  House,  Lord  Sandwich, 
one  of  Wilkes'  boon  companions  and  a  man  of  the  most  abandoned 
rrtbrals,  suddenly  produced  an  indecent  parody  of  Pope's  Essay  on 
Man,  entitled  an  Essay  on  Woman  and  a  blasphemous  version  of  the 
Veni  Creator,  which  the  Peers  at  once  voted  to  be  "  scandalous, 
obscene,  and  impious  libels."     Undoubtedly  they  were;  but  Wilkes 
had  intended  them  only  for  private  circulation,  and  the  motives  of 
his  opponents  were  only  too  apparent.     The  popular  excitement  be- 
came intense.     The  London  mob  defeated  an  attempt  to  burn  No. 

1  They  had  hitherto  been  held  to  be  legal,  though  regarded  as  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution  and  subversive  to  the  liberty  of  the  subject. 


746  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

45,  substituting  a  jack  boot  and  a  petticoat  in  its  place.  Wilkes  was 
hailed  as  the  champion  of  popular  liberty,  and  his  portrait  became 
a  favorite  sign  for  taverns.  In  Parliament,  however,  the  Court  in- 
fluence was  so  strong  that  a  resolution  was  carried  through  both  Houses 
"  that  privilege  of  Parliament  does  not  extend  to  ...  writing  and 
publishing  seditious  libels."  Wilkes,  in  danger  of  his  life,  fled  to 
France.  In  his  absence  he  was  expelled  from  the  Commons,  19 
January,  1764,  and,  21  February,  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  passed 
sentence  against  him  for  reprinting  No.  45  and  for  writing  the  Essay 
on  Woman.  On  his  failure  to  appear  he  was  outlawed.  Four  years 
later  he  was  destined  to  return  and  raise  a  new  issue. 

The  Beginning  of  the  Breach  with  the  Colonies.  The  Causes  of 
the  Revolution.  —  No  sooner  was  Wilkes  temporarily  out  of  the  way 
than  Grenville,  supported  by  George  III,  adopted  a  series  of  measures 
relating  to  the  American  Colonies  which  produced  the  first  of  a  series 
of  explosions  that  led  to  the  Revolutionary  War  and  the  consequent 
dismemberment  of  the  British  Empire.  In  order  to  understand  the 
causes  for  this  crisis,  at  least  two  great  and  difficult  questions  have  to 
be  answered.  First,  what  was  the  situation,  political,  social,  and  eco- 
nomic, in  the  Colonies?  and  what  was  their  attitude  toward  Great 
Britain  when  the  attempt  was  made  to  impose  the  new  policy  upon 
them?  Secondly,  what  measures  really  called  forth  the  resistance 
and  what  measures  or  causes  merely  contributed?  Furthermore, 
one  is  bound  to  ask  whether  the  British  measures  may  be  justified, 
historically,  politically,  economically,  or  legally,  and  on  what  grounds 
the  Colonies  had  a  right  to  resist. 

The  Institutional  Divergence  between  the  American  Colonies  and 
Great  Britain.  —  The  answer  to  the  first  question  must  be  sought  in 
the  institutional  development  of  the  two  countries,  from  the  first 
planting  of  the  Colonies  in  America.  This  will  show  that  two  separate 
branches,  two  types  of  people,  had  grown  from  one  parent  stock. 
The  England  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  not  the  mother  country 
of  those  settled  across  the  Atlantic ;  but  both  were  the  offspring  of  the 
Puritan  England  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Those  who  migrated 
carried  with  them  the  tradition  of  the  opposition  to  absolute  mon- 
archy and  an  established  Episcopal  Church,  New  England,  particularly, 
coming  to  represent  the  "  dissidence  of  Dissent."  Those  who  remained 
at  home  turned  their  backs  on  the  extreme  results  of  the  Puritan 
Revolution,  and  even  restored,  in  a  modified  form,  both  monarchy  and 
Episcopacy.  Moreover,  growth  in  a  different  environment  tended  to 
accentuate  divergence  in  form  and  spirit  of  government.  The 
Americans  had  progressed  to  far  greater  lengths  in  the  direction  of 
democracy  and  equality.  Almost  every  man  who  possessed  a  moder- 
ate amount  of  property  could  vote  and  be  represented  in  the  colonial 
assembly.  In  some  colonies,  to  be  sure,  he  must  own  land,  but  land 
was  cheap  and  easy  to  acquire.  In  England  the  franchise  depended 
upon  no  general  rule  but  upon  queer  and  illogical  qualifications. 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF   GEORGE  III  747 

Differences  in  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Representation.  —  Even 
more  striking  were  the  differences  in  the  distribution  of  representatives 
and  in  the  theory  of  representation.  In  the  Colonies  it  was  the  general 
practice  for  a  member  of  the  assembly  to  represent  his  town  or  district ; 
the  areas  of  representation  were  frequently  reapportioned,  and  bribery 
at  elections  was  practically  unknown.  In«  England  corruption  pre- 
vailed to  an  alarming  extent,  and  the  greatest  inequalities  existed. 
Rotten  boroughs  with  scarcely  an  inhabitant  returned  two  members 
each,  while  flourishing  towns  like  Manchester  and  Birmingham  sent 
none.  It  is  estimated  that  a  majority  of  the  558  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons  were  elected  by  less  than  15,000  voters  in  a  popu- 
lation that  numbered  almost  half  as  many  millions,  and  that  154  in- 
dividuals, among  them  the  King  and  various  peers,  controlled  the 
choice  of  307  members.  The  British  theory  was  that  every  one  was 
virtually  represented  in  Parliament.  The  essential  thing  was  to  have 
an  elective  body'between  the  King  and  the  people,  and  it  was  contended 
that  a  Cornish  man  was  just  as  truly  a  representative  of  Lancashire 
as  if  he  had  been  returned  from  that  county.  The  Colonists,  who 
were  used  to  a  different  system,  refused  to  accept  this  theory  of  vir- 
tual representation.  Furthermore,  they  were  in  a  different  situation. 
In  England  public  opinion,  voiced  in  petitions  and  public  meetings, 
counted  for  something  even  in  the  unrepresented  districts,  while  a 
handful  of  colonists  three  thousand  miles  across  the  sea  could  do  little 
to  affect  the  course  of  British  legislation. 

Training  and  Preparation  for  Independence.  —  Thus  the  English- 
men in  the  New  World  were  steadily  growing  apart  from  the  English- 
men in  the  Old.  Moreover,  the  Colonists  had  received  a  long  and 
effective  training  in  self-government  in  their  town  meetings,  in  their 
county  administration,  and  in  their  provincial  assemblies.  Also 
hard  conditions  of  life  in  an  undeveloped  country  had  generated 
courage,  energy,  resourcefulness,  and  independence  of  restraint. 
Their  preachers,  saturated  with  the  revolutionary  doctrines  of  Milton, 
Locke,  and  other  advanced  thinkers  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
preached  and  taught  views  quite  at  variance  with  the  views  of  the 
men  in  power  under  George  III.  Then,  although  up  to  this  time 
there  had  been  no  common  grievance  to  call  forth  united  resistance, 
there  had  been  constant  friction  and  bickerings  between  the  colonial 
assemblies  and  the  Crown  officials,  men  who  were  all  too  frequently 
either  incompetent  or  unscrupulous.1 

The  Commercial  System.  —  Along  with  these  differences  in  political 
theory  and  practice,  the  British  commercial  system  was  an  equally, 
perhaps  a  more  important  factor  in  preparing  the  way  for  the  final 
break.  As  in  the  case  of  the  other  European  powers  of  the  period, 
the  British  policy  for  the  regulation  of  colonial  trade  was  mainly  one 

1  "America,"  it  was  complained,  "  has  been  for  many  years  made  the  hospital  of 
Great  Britain  for  her  decayed  courtiers  and  worn-out  dependents." 


748  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  selfish  and  jealous  exclusiveness.  The  aim  of  her  Navigation  Acts 
was  to  confine  the  carrying  trade  of  "  English  "  J  lands  to  ships  built 
within  the  British  Empire,  owned  by  the  people  thereof,  and  navigated 
by  officers  and  crews  who  were  subjects  of  the  English  King,  and  to 
give  England  a  monopoly  of  colonial  trade.  Certain  colonial  products, 
such  as  tobacco  and  sugar,  known  as  "  enumerated  goods,"  had  to 
be  laid  on  the  shore  of  England  or  pay  an  export  duty  from  the  prov- 
ince where  they  were  produced.  Furthermore,  with  few  exceptions, 
European  goods  destined  for  the  Colonies  must  pass  through  England, 
the  prime  object  being  to  give  to  English  merchants  the  profit  of 
handling  the  wares.2  In  1733  the  famous  "  Sugar  Act  "  was  passed, 
imposing  heavy  duties  on  rum,  molasses,  and  sugar  imported  from  the 
French,  Dutch,  and  Spanish  West  Indies  into  English  colonies  on  the 
American  continent.  This  act,  had  it  been  enforced,  would  have 
completely  stifled  a  very  profitable  three-cornered  trade  by  which 
the  New  Englanders  shipped  lumber  and  fish  to  the  foreign  West 
Indies  and  exchanged  them  for  rum  and  sugar  and  molasses.  With 
the  West  Indian  rum,  and  with  New  England  rum  made  from  West 
Indian  molasses,  they  bought  slaves  on  the  coast  of  Africa  which 
they  sold  to  the  planters.  Restrictive  as  were  all  these  regulations, 
they  were  to  some  degree  counterbalanced  in  various  ways.  Colonial 
industry,  especially  shipbuilding,  was  promoted  by  the  share  the 
Colonists  enjoyed  in  the  carrying  trade  of  the  Empire.  Then  there 
were  drawbacks  of  duties  on  goods  reexported  from  England ;  there 
were  bounties  to  encourage  the  production  of  certain  commodities; 
and  certain  privileges  and  certain  exceptions  were  allowed.  For 
example,  colonial  tobacco  enjoyed  a  monopoly  in  England,  and  rice 
could  be  shipped  south  of  Cape  Finisterre  directly  from  the  Colonies.3 
Owing  to  the  lax  administration  prevailing  before  the  advent  of  Gren- 
ville,  they  manufactured  what  they  liked,  sent  ships  where  they  pleased, 
and  purchased  European  wares  more  cheaply  than  Englishmen  them- 
selves. The  theory  of  trade  regulation  was  not  questioned  because 
it  was  rarely  enforced  in  practice ;  but  it  was  a  potential  grievance. 
The  Colonies  had  become  economically  self-sufficing  and  were  in  a 
position  to  resist  when  the  restrictions  on  their  trade  became  a 
reality. 

The  Seven  Years'  War  as  a  Factor  in  Provoking  the  Crisis.  —  At 
the  moment  when  the  constitutional  and  economic  development  of 
the  Colonies  was  reaching  its  maturity,  the  Seven  Years'  War  came  to 
precipitate  the  crisis.  It  gave  the  Colonies  a  sense  of  unity  resulting 
from  achievement  in  a,  common  undertaking,  it  stimulated  a  martial 
spirit,  and  by  transferring  Canada  from  France  to  Great  Britain  it 
removed  a  serious  menace  to  the  safety  of  the  Colonies,  and  thereby 
one  of  the  most  powerful  bonds  which  might  have  held  them  to  the 

1  This  term  included  the  Colonies. 

2  These  provisions  may  be  found  in  the  acts  of  1660,  1663,  1672,  and  1696. 

3  Also  they  had  the  advantage  of  the  English  naval  protection. 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF   GEORGE  III  749 

Home  Country.1  However,  the  war  furnished  the  occasion  for  the 
new  British  policy  which  gave  the  impulse  to  revolt.  The  Grenvilie 
program  comprehended  three  measures :  the  enforcement  of  the 
Trade  and  Navigation  Acts  ;  a  Stamp  Act ;  and  a  Quartering  Act. 
There  was  justification  for  them  all.  Not  only  had  the  Colonists 
openly  and  systematically  evaded  the  acts  regulating  commerce, 
but  they  had  actually  supplied  the  enemy  with  goods  during  the  recent 
conflict.  Moreover,  a  formidable  rising  of  the  Indians  in  1763,  known 
as  the  Conspiracy  of  Pontiac,  had  shown  that  the  Colonies  were  in 
real  danger.  The  English  Ministry  felt  that  the  Home  Government 
should  not  bear  the  whole  burden  of  the  defense  of  the  Empire,  laden 
as  it  now  was  with  an  enormous  debt  of  nearly  £140,000,000  and 
intended  to  employ  the  money  to  be  raised  by  the  stamp  tax  solely 
for  colonial  purposes.  On  their  part,  the  several  Colonies  had  made 
considerable  contributions  toward  the  French  and  Indian  War,  for 
which  most  of  them  were  still  in  debt.  Now  it  was  proposed  to  curtail 
one  of  their  chief  means  of  livelihood,  and,  at  the  same  time  to  subject 
them  to  taxation  over  which  they  had  no  control.  In  addition,  the 
act  for  quartering  troops  in  their  midst,  together  with  a  proposed  plan 
for  taking  over  the  payment  of  judges  and  other  chief  civil  officials 
hitherto  at  the  mercy  of  the  provincial  assemblies,  threatened  to  re- 
duce them  to  complete  administrative  dependence.  They  felt  that 
they  were  bound  to  resist. 

The  Question  of  Parliamentary  Supremacy  over  the  Colonies.  — 
The  question  of  the  legal  right  of  the  British  Parliament  to  tax  the 
Colonies  was  hotly  debated  and  provoked  sharp  differences  of  opinion 
both  in  America  and  in  England.  Franklin  drew  a  distinction 
between  internal  taxes  and  import  duties ;  but  leading  patriots 
almost  from  the  start  refused  to  accept  it,  and  it  was  soon  discarded. 
Pitt's  distinction  between  import  duties  for  purposes  of  revenue  and 
for  regulation  of  trade  was  one  that  had  historical  justification,  but 
it  was  impracticable.  Moreover,  the  shackling  of  the  trade  was,  from 
the  colonial  point  of  view,  fully  as  unjust  and  involved  fully  as  much 
hardship  as  the  imposition  of  revenue  duties.  The  theory  later  ad- 
vocated by  Edmund  Burke  was  the  most  reasonable;  that,  while 
Parliament  had  the  right  to  tax,  it  was  inexpedient  to  exercise  it. 
The  Colonies,  however,  not  only  denied  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax 
them,  but  even  called  in  question  the  legislative  supremacy  of  that 
body,2  asserting  that  they  were  the  peculiar  subjects  of  the  King. 

1  This  result  had  been  predicted  by  many  far-seeing  thinkers,  among  others  by 
the  Swedish  traveler  Kalm  in  1748,  by  the  French  minister   Vergennes,  and  by 
various  Englishmen,  including  Lord  Bath  and  the  Duke  of  Bedford.     Canada 
would   have  been  just  as  dangerous  in  the  hands  of  Great   Britain,  except   that 
after  it  became  a  British  possession  there  was  a  chance  of  winning  the  Canadians 
over  to  the  colonial  side. 

2  As  early  as  1761  James  Otis,  in  a  celebrated  speech  against  the  legality  of 
writs  of  assistance  (i.e.  general  writs  of  search  which  did  not  specify  the  particular 
place  to  be  searched) ,  declared  that  acts  of  Parliament  tyrannical  to  the  subject 
were  unconstitutional  and  hence  null  and  void. 


750  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

It  was  only  later  that  they  discovered  l  that  it  was  George  III  who 
was  responsible  for  most  of  the  measures  which  they  resented.  There 
was  another  instance  of  the  institutional  divergence  which  had  de- 
veloped between  the  two  branches  of  the  English  race.  England  had 
no  written  rigid  constitution  limiting  the  power  of  Parliament ;  the 
English  Constitution  was  the  whole  body  of  law  and  custom  which 
had  accumulated  through  the  ages.  The  Puritan  Revolution  had 
decided  that  Parliament  was  practically  omnipotent,  and  since  1707 
the  King  had  never  ventured  to  veto  a  bill.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Colonies  all  had  some  form  of  written  constitution  supreme  over 
legislative  enactment  —  a  charter,  a  proprietary  grant,  or  governor's 
instructions  —  and  the  veto  was  a  reality.  While  they  strove  to 
extend  the  powers  of  their  assemblies,  they  had  grown  up  in  the  tra- 
dition of  limited  powers.  The  Crown  lawyers,  however,  in  maintain- 
ing the  legislative  supremacy  of  the  Parliament  over  the  Colonies 
could  point  to  a  long  series  of  measures,  including  the  Navigation  Acts, 
which  applied  to  them.2  Undoubtedly  Parliament  had  a  legal  right 
to  legislate  for  the  Colonies,  nor  was  its  claim  to  impose  taxes  strictly 
illegal,  but  it  was  contrary  to  custom.  George  III  and  his  supporters 
in  the  Ministry,  like  the  Stuarts  before  them,  failed  to  realize  the  un- 
wisdom of  insisting  upon  legal  rights  in  the  teeth  of  popular  opposition. 
Summary  of  the  Causes  of  the  Revolution.  —  This,  in  brief,  was  the 
situation.  The  Colonies  were  ready  to  break  away.  Politically  they 
had  grown  apart  from  Great  Britain,  they  were  prepared  for  self- 
government  by  long  training  in  managing  their  local  concerns,  and 
they  had  been  estranged  by  frequent  quarrels  with  the  executives  sent 
from  home.3  They  were  economically  self-sufficing,  and  would  only 
tolerate  the  selfish  and  exclusive  system  framed  in  the  interests  of 
British  merchants  so  long  as  it  was  not  enforced.  The  first  attempt 
to  make  it  a  reality  would,  no  doubt,  of  itself  have  provoked  opposition. 
It  happened,  however,  that  the  new  policy  was  accompanied  by  an 
inexpedient  innovation  in  taxation  which  led  to  the  first  outbreak  of 
resistance. 

1  Patrick  Henry  (in  1763),  in  arguing  a  celebrated  legal  case  known  as  the  "Par- 
son's Cause,"  which  involved  the  right  of  the  sovereign  to  veto  an  act  of  the  Virginia 
Legislature,  was  one  of  the  few  thus  early  who  went  further.     He  declared  that  even 
a  king  had  no  right  to  veto  a  good  law. 

2  Among  them  an  Act  for  establishing  a  General  Post  Office  (1710);    an  Act 
regulating  the  Transportation  of  Criminals  (1717);   an  Act  extending  the  Bubble 
Act  of  1 7  20 ;  an  Act  for  the  Naturalization  of  Foreign  Protestants  in  the  American 
Colonies  (1740) ;  and  an  Act  extending  the  New  Style  of  Calendar  to  the  Colonies, 
1752. 

s  Another  factor  which  contributed  to  the  final  break  had  its  origin  in  religious, 
ecclesiastical,  and  sectarian  differences.  Certain  devoted  Episcopalians  on  both 
sides  of  the  water  wanted  to  see  Church  of  England  bishops  established  in  the  Colo- 
nies. The  Government  made  no  attempt  to  comply  with  the  request ;  but  the  fear 
that  it  would,  became  real  and  general ;  the  ministers  of  the  opposing  sects,  together 
with  the  patriot  leaders  among  the  laymen,  played  upon  this  fear,  and  the  prejudice 
and  apprehension  thus  excited  became  a  potent  cause  of  estrangement. 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF   GEORGE  HI  751 

Grenville's  New  Customs  Act  and  Provisions  for  Enforcing  Trade 
Regulations,  1764.  —  Up  to  the  close  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  the 
British  Government  had  never  seriously  regarded  the  Colonies  as 
revenue  producers,  indeed,  the  greatest  ignorance  prevailed  concern- 
ing them.1  The  new  plan  of  imposing  upon  them  a  share  of  the  im- 
perial burden  had  been  contemplated  in  Bute's  administration;  but 
it  was  left  to  Grenville  to  carry  it  through.2  His  great  knowledge  of 
administrative  detail,  his  hatred  of  irregularity  and  evasion  of  law, 
and  his  want  of  tact  led  him  to  press  the  policy.  He  found  that  the 
customs  revenue  from  the  Colonies  amounted  to  less  than  £2000  which 
it  cost  nearly  £8000  to  collect,  and  further,  that  nine  tenths  of  their 
tea,  wine,  sugar,  and  molasses  were  smuggled.  In  1763  the  old 
Sugar  Act  of  1733  expired.  In  spite  of  petitions,  supported  even  by 
the  royal  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  against  the  renewal  of  its  pro- 
visions, Grenville  in  1763  passed  a  new  act  imposing  several  new  duties. 
The  duty  on  molasses  was  reduced  one  half,  and  new  bounties  and 
concessions  were  offered ;  but  all  this  was  to  no  purpose ;  for  stringent 
measures  were  taken  to  prevent  smuggling,  and  the  principle  was 
announced  in  the  preamble  that  the  purpose  was  to  raise  a  revenue. 

The  Stamp  Act  suggested,  1764.  —  The  apprehension  thus  excited 
was  further  enhanced  on  the  news  of  the  design  to  quarter  10,000  troops 
in  the  Colonies.  The  East  India  Company  and  Ireland  provided  their 
own  armies,  and  the  British  Government  felt  that  the  Americans 
should  do  the  same,  since  the  several  provinces  were  extremely  re- 
luctant to  supply  militia  for  the  common  defense,  especially  to  send 
contingents  to  exposed  points  when  their  own  particular  localities 
were  free  from  danger.  It  was  to  help  defray  the  expenses  of  this 
standing  army  that  the  Stamp  Act  was  imposed.  It  was  expected  to 
yield  about  £100,000,  an  amount  less  than  one  third  the  cost  of  main- 
taining the  contemplated  military  establishment.  There  is  little 
doubt,  however,  that  if  the  Colonies  had  paid  their  part  willingly,  they 
would  very  soon  have  been  called  upon  to  provide  the  whole.  More- 
over, the  form  of  tax  was  a  decided  innovation.  Hitherto,  internal 
taxation  had  been  left  to  the  provincial  assemblies.  In  1739,  a 
similar  project  for  raising  funds  by  a  Stamp  Act  had  been  proposed 
to  Walpole;  but  he  had  wisely  refused.3  Again,  in  1754,  Pitt  had 
rejected  a  more  reasonable  suggestion  to  levy  a  tax  to  be  apportioned 
among  the  several  Colonies  and  raised  in  any  manner  they  should  see 
fit.  Grenville,  however,  was  a  man  of  a  different  stamp  from  either 
Walpole  or  Pitt.  In  March,  1764,  along  with  his  customs  bill,  he 
introduced  and  carried  a  resolution  declaring  that  "  for  further  de- 

1  It  is  said  that  letters  had  been  sent  even  from  the  Secretary  of  State  to  the 
Governor  of  the  Island  of  New  England. 

2  Macaulay's  saying  is  famous  that  he  lost  the  Colonies,  because  he  was  the  first 
minister  to  read  the  American  dispatches. 

8  "I  have  set  Old  England  against  me,"  he  declared  to  Chesterfield,  "and  do 
you  think  I  will  have  New  England  likewise  ?  " 


752  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

fraying  the  expenditure  of  protecting  the  Colonies  it  may  be  proper 
to  charge  certain  stamp  duties  on  the  Colonies."  At  the  same  time, 
though  he  preferred  this  form  of  tax  as  the  fairest,  as  well  as  the  easiest 
and  least  expensive  to  collect,  he  gave  the  Colonists  a  year  to  suggest 
a  better  scheme. 

The  Passage  of  the  Stamp  Act,  22  March,  1765.  — The  Colonies, 
instead  of  suggestions,  framed  resolutions  and  addresses  denying  the 
right  of  Parliament  to  tax  them  at  all.  If  the  measure  were  carried, 
they  asserted,  "  it  would  establish  the  melancholy  truth  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Colonies  are  the  slaves  of  the  Britons,  from  whom 
they  are  descended."  One  possible  solution  of  the  difficulty,  advocated 
by  Otis  and  Franklin,  was  to  admit  American  representatives  into 
the  British  Parliament.  Grenville,  after  a  short  consideration,  re- 
jected it.  It  is  doubtful  if  he  could  have  carried  it  through,  and  equally 
doubtful  whether,  in  the  end,  it  would  have  satisfied  the  Colonies 
themselves.  In  January,  1765,  the  measure,  so  momentous  in  its 
consequences,  was  carried  in  a  thinly  attended  session  after  a  "  most 
languid  debate."  Among  the  few  opponents  was  Colonel  Barre,  who 
is  said  to  have  originated  on  that  occasion  the  term  "  sons  of  liberty."  : 
Pitt,  the  stanchest  colonial  champion,  was  in  bed  with  one  of  his 
frequent  attacks  of  gout.  Outside,  the  indifference  was  as  great  as  in 
Parliament ;  George  III,  who  gave  his  assent  to  the  bill,  22  March,  was 
one  of  the  first  to  recognize  the  gravity  of  the  situation.2  According 
to  the  Stamp  Act  all  newspapers,  bills,  policies  of  insurance,  and  legal 
documents  were  to  be  written  on  stamped  paper  to  be  sold  by  officials 
appointed  for  the  purpose.  It  was  provided  that  they  should  be 
Americans,  and  Franklin,  though  as  colonial  agent 3  he  had  opposed 
the  measure,  anticipated  so  little  difficulty  that  he  procured  an  appoint- 
ment for  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends. 

The  Stamp  Act  Congress  and  the  American  Opposition,  1765.  — 
When  the  news  reached  America,  where  public  sentiment  was  being 
worked  upon  by  skilful  agitators,  storms  of  protest  burst  forth. 
Virginia  passed  a  series  of  resolutions  which  were  termed  "  the  alarum 
bell  to  the  disaffected,"  and  7  November,  a  Congress  representing 
nine  Colonies  met  in  New  York.  Declaring  "  that  it  is  inseparably 
essential  to  the  freedom  of  a  people,  and  the  undoubted  right  of  English- 
men, that  no  taxes  be  imposed  upon  them,  but  with  their  own  con- 
sent, given  personally  or  by  their  representatives 4 ;  "  they  sent 
petitions  embodying  their  views  to  the  King  and  to  both  Houses. 
Like  the  Short  Parliament  of  1640,  the  Stamp  Act  Congress  was 

1  The  phrase,  however,  does  not  occur  in  the  report  of  the  debate. 

2  "I  am  more  and  more  grieved  at  the  accounts  of  America,"  he  wrote,  5  Decem- 
ber, 1765.     "Where  the  spirit  will  end  is  not  to  be  said.     It  is  undoubtedly  the 
most  serious  matter  that  ever  came  before  Parliament." 

3  The  various  Colonies  were  represented  by  agents  in  London. 

4  They  repudiated  the  idea  of  representation  in  the  British  Parliament  and  in- 
sisted that  they  could  only  be  taxed  by  their  provincial  assemblies. 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF   GEORGE  III  753 

chiefly  significant  for  bringing  the  leaders  of  the  opposition  together 
and  enabling  them  to  formulate  a  common  plan  of  resistance.  But 
the  opposition  did  not  stop  with  peaceful  methods.  In  Massachu- 
setts there  were  wild  outbursts  of  mob  violence,  an  unruly  example 
that  was  followed  in  many  other  colonies.  The  merchants  entered 
into  agreements  to  import  no  more  goods,  to  cancel  orders  already 
given,  and  to  pay  no  debts  to  .English  creditors  till  the  Act  should 
be  repealed.  The  lawyers  refused  to  use  the  stamped  paper,  and  all 
legal  business  came  to  a  standstill.  On  i  November,  the  day  the 
measure  was  to  have  gone  into  effect,  shops  were  closed,  bells  were 
tolled,  flags  were  hung  at  half  mast,  newspapers  appeared  with  a 
death's  head  in  place  of  the  stamp  required  by  law,  and  copies  of  the 
Act  were  hawked  about  the  streets  with  the  inscription :  "  The  folly 
of  England  and  the  ruin  of  America."  Finding  that  it  was  hopeless 
to  transact  business  otherwise,  the  governors  were  obliged  to  issue 
orders  "  authorizing  non-compliance  with  the  Act." 

The  Regency  Bill  and  the  Fall  of  Grenville,  July,  1765. — The 
opposition  had  been  encouraged  by  the  fall  of  Grenville  in  July,  1765. 
For  some  time  George  had  wanted  to  get  rid  of  him.  His  Ministry 
was  weak  and  unpopular  in  Parliament,  and  had  aroused  an  increasing 
spirit  of  dissatisfaction  among  the  people.  Also,  he  had  proved  to  be 
a  disappointment  personally:  he  was  too  stubborn  to  suit  the  King's 
purposes  and  wore  him  out  with  constant  interviews  and  long  lectures. 
"  When  he  has  wearied  me  for  two  hours,"  complained  George,  "  he 
looks  at  his  watch  to  see  if  he  may  not  tire  me  an  hour  more,"  and  he 
once  declared :  "I  would  rather  see  the  devil  in  my  closet  than  Mr. 
Grenville."  His  only  reason  for  continuing  to  put  up  with  him  was 
the  dreadful  alternative  of  falling  into  the  clutches  of  a  Whig  Ministry. 
The  final  break  came  over  a  Regency  Bill  following  upon  a  mental 
disturbance  which  attacked  the  King  early  in  1765.  George  was 
induced  to  give  his  assent  to  the  exclusion  of  his  mother,  the  Princess 
Dowager,  from  the  list  of  regents  on  the  ground  that  otherwise  the 
Commons  would  not  pass  it.  When  he  discovered  that  this  was 
merely  a  trick  devised  by  the  opponents  of  Bute,  he  ordered  Grenville 
to  announce  to  the  Commons  a  royal  message  recommending  that  the 
Princess  be  included.  The  Prime  Minister,  although  no  party  to  the 
original  deceit,  refused.  Thereupon,  the  King  made  a  vain  effort 
to  form  a  Ministry  that  would  consent  to  his  terms.  Pitt  refused 
twice,  because  his  brother-in-law,  Lord  Temple,  would  not  join  him. 
Grenville,  however,  had  become  so  intolerable  that  George  dismissed 
him  in  July,  and  called  in  the  Whigs  under  the  leadership  of  the  Mar- 
quis of  Rockingham.  He  intended  to  submit  to  them  only  until  he 
could  make  another  arrangement.  Grenville,  whose  tenure  of  power 
had  been  marked  by  the  disastrous  struggle  with  Wilkes  and  the 
opening  of  the  conflict  with  the  Colonies,  managed  to  achieve  one  good 
result  before  his  dismissal :  he  secured  from  the  King  a  promise  that 
henceforth  he  would  cease  to  consult  Bute  in  affairs  of  State. 


754  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Rockingham  Ministry,  1765-1766.  —  The  Rockingham  Minis- 
try was  a  "  mixture  of  wornout  veterans  and  raw  recruits."  The  Whig 
majority  were  young  men  of  rank  and  wealth.  Lord  Rockingham, 
their  leader,  who  possessed  vast  estates  and  extensive  influence,  was 
primarily  a  sportsman.  He  was  lacking  in  knowledge  and  industry 
and  was  a  bad  and  reluctant  speaker ;  but  he  was  modest,  aimiable, 
and  thoroughly  upright.  It  is  said  that  he  had  a  way  of  looking 
when  George  advanced  questionable  proposals  that  caused  that  mon- 
arch to  dread  him  worse  than  men  of  more  fluent  tongues.  The  com- 
bination wyas  far  from  strong  and  it  was  contemptuously  described 
as  "  a  lute-string  Ministry  fit  only  for  summer  wear."  Yet  by  sheer 
force  of  character  and  united  devotion  to  the  public  service  it  not 
only  set  a  noble  example,  but  made  a  strong  fight  against  the  arbi- 
trary ambition  of  the  King  and  the  prevailing  corruption,  and  carried 
through  important  remedial  measures.  It  repealed  the  Stamp  Act, 
secured  the  parliamentary  condemnation  of  general  warrants,  and 
put  an  end  to  the  practice  of  depriving  military  officers  of  their  com- 
mands for  political  opposition.  It  accomplished  all  this  in  the  teeth 
of  the  constant  and  underhanded  opposition  of  the  King,  and,  except 
in  the  case  of  the  Stamp  Act,  without  the  much-needed  help  of  Pitt, 
who  had  refused  to  join.1  While  sympathizing  with  their  measures, 
he  was  opposed  to  government  by  the  aristocratic  Whig  connection 
that  did  not  rest  on  the  good  will  of  the  King  and  people. 

The  Advent  of  Edmund  Burke,  1765.  —  In  the  session  of  1765-1766 
Edmund  Burke  made  his  first  appearance  in  Parliament.  The  son 
of  a  Protestant  Irish  attorney,  he  had  come  as  a  young  man  to  Lon- 
don, where  he  was  soon  recognized  as  a  writer  of  wide  learning,  deep 
discernment,  and  uncommon  power  of  literary  expression.  In  1765 
he  became  the  secretary  of  Rockingham,  through  whose  patronage 
he  secured  his  seat.  Although  he  never  attained  the  influence  in 
the  House  of  Commons  which  his  talents  and  his  commanding  per- 
sonality 2  warranted,  men  of  later  generations  have  come  to  regard 
him  as  the  most  profound  thinker  on  political  subjects  of  his  time. 
Lofty  in  ideals  and  free  from  corruption,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
tactless,  irritable,  and  partisan,  and  he  was  more  effective  in  dealing 
with  principles  than  with  men.  His  fluency,  his  vast  knowledge, 
and  the  overrichness  of  his  imagination  led  him  to  speak  too  often 
and  at  too  great  length,  and  he  emptied  the  House  so  frequently  that 
he  was  known  as  the  "  dinner  bell."  A  body  made  up  mostly  of 
placemen  and  mediocrities  was  not  calculated  to  appreciate  him. 
Nevertheless,  he  was  from  the  first  recognized  as  a  power  to  be 
reckoned  with,  and  there  were  times  when  the  sweep  of  his  eloquence 

1  Chesterfield  described  the  Ministry  as  "an  arch  that  wanted  a  keystone  and 
that  keystone  was  Pitt." 

2  Dr.  Johnson  once  remarked  that:   "No  man  of  sense  could  meet  Mr.  Burke 
by  accident  under  a  gateway  to  avoid  a  shower  without  being  convinced  that  he 
was  the  first  man  in  England." 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF   GEORGE  III  755 

rendered  him  irresistible.  He  differed  from  Pitt  not  only  upon  many 
current  questions,  but  in  fundamental  principles  of  policy.  For 
example,  in  opposition  to  his  older  contemporary,  he  believed  in 
building  up  a  strong  permanent  party  independent  of  the  Crown. 
Moreover,  while  he  strove  against  abuses,  he  was  opposed  to  any 
alteration  of  the  machinery  of  the  Constitution.  He  advocated  the 
publication  of  debates  and  improved  methods  of  election  and  he  led 
the  fight  against  placemen  and  parliamentary  corruption.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  was  opposed  to  shortening  the  term  of  Parliament,  on 
the  ground  that  more  frequent  elections  would  only  increase  disorder 
and  bribery ;  a  place  bill,  he  maintained,  would  exclude  many  men 
of  standing  and  ability ;  binding  members  by  instructions  from  their 
constituents,  he  insisted,  would  deprive  them  of  that  power  of  exercis- 
ing the  reason  and  judgment  which  is  the  true  function  of  the  legis- 
lator. Disfranchisement  of  rotten  boroughs  and  redistribution  of 
seats  he  condemned  as  a  rash  experiment.  The  excesses  of  the  French 
Revolution  drove  him  into  a  still  more  conservative  position,  though 
his  later  views  are  by  no  means  inconsistent  with  his  earlier.  Al- 
though the  mainstay  of  the  Rockingham  party,  he  never  held  a  seat 
in  the  Cabinet. 

The  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  1766.  —  Burke  made  two  speeches 
on  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  which  "  filled  the  town  with  wonder,1' 
and  Pitt  championed  the  cause  of  the  Colonies  with  his  wonted  fire. 
"  The  idea  of  a  virtual  representation  of  America,"  he  declared,  "  is 
the  most  contemptible  idea  that  ever  entered  the  head  of  a  man." 
He  rejoiced  that  the  Colonies  had  resisted  l  the  attempted  taxation 
and  insisted  that  the  Stamp  Act  be  "  repealed  absolutely,  totally, 
immediately."  Effective  as  were  all  these  speeches,  a  still  more  ef- 
fective argument  was  the  attitude  of  the  British  merchants,  who  rep- 
resented in  strong  petitions  that  the  interruption  of  American  trade 
and  the  non-payment  of  debts  had  already  involved  a  loss  of  £4,000,- 
ooo.  In  vain  did  the  Iting  seek  to  block  the  efforts  of  the  Ministry 
by  secret  instructions  to  his  agents  in  Parliament.  Unfortunately, 
the  bill  for  repeal  which  passed  both  Houses  in  March,  1766,  was 
coupled  with  a  Declaratory  Act  to  which  the  Rockinghamites  gave  a 
reluctant  consent,  maintaining  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  the 
Colonies.  For  the  moment,  however,  this  ill-advised  and  empty 
assertion  did  nothing  to  temper  the  joy  with  which  the  news  was 
received  throughout  England  and  America.  The  trouble,  however, 
had  only  begun.  The  commercial  restrictions  still  remained,2  and 
the  Colonies,  having  won  in  their  first  encounter,  were  bound  to  resist 
in  the  future,  any  measures  that  touched  their  interests.  The  Minis- 

l" Three  millions  of  people,"  he  cried,  "so  dead  to  all  feelings  of  liberty  as 
voluntarily  to  submit  to  be  slaves,  would  have  been  fit  instruments  to  make  slaves 
of  all  the  rest." 

2  Though  some  of  the  duties,  notably  on  molasses,  were  materially  reduced  by 
the  Rockingham  Ministry. 


756  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

try,  which  by  its  conciliatory  policy  might  have  won  their  confidence, 
did  not  long  survive ;  for  George  took  advantage  of  divisions  among 
its  members  to  turn  it  out  of  office  in  July. 

The  Grafton-Pitt  Ministry,  1766-1770. — The  new  Ministry  was 
formed  by  Pitt,  who  finally  consented  to  employ  his  great  talents 
and  popularity  in  defending  the  Crown  against  the  great  Whig  houses 
and  their  connections.  He  had  other  large  and  ambitious  plans,  in- 
cluding the  formation  of  a  great  Protestant  league  in  Europe  and  the 
reform  of  Parliament  at  home ;  but  his  whole  undertaking  ended  in 
failure.  Declining  to  take  the  responsibility  himself,  he  chose  the 
office  of  Lord  Privy  Seal  and  selected  as  a  figurehead  the  Duke  of 
Grafton,  one  of  his  admirers  who  had  entered  politics  from  a  sense  of 
duty  rather  than  for  personal  or  factional  ends.  Unfortunately,  he 
was  timid,  irresolute,  loose  in  morals,  and  inclined  to  neglect  public 
business  for  racing  and  hunting.  Without  a  party  following  Pitt 
was  obliged  to  fill  the  remaining  offices  in  such  a  haphazard  fashion 
that  his  product  was  known  as  the  "  Mosaic  Ministry."  Moreover, 
he  duinfounded  his  friends  by  accepting  a  peerage.  In  ceasing 
to  be  the  "  great  commoner,"  for  that  had  been  his  title,  the  Earl  of 
Chatham  impaired  his  influence  with  the  people,  and  shut  himself 
out  of  the  House  which  was  the  only  proper  field  for  his  match- 
less eloquence.  Tortured  by  the  gout,  he  became  increasingly 
irritable,  and  was  finally  attacked  by  a  "  gloomy  and  mysterious 
malady,"  probably  nervous  prostration,  which  led  him  to  shun  all 
public  business.  In  March,  1767,  he  went  into  retirement,  whence  he 
did  not  emerge  for  over  two  years. 

The  Townshend  Acts,  1767.  —  In  the  absence  of  Pitt  the  chief 
power  was  seized  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Charles  Towns- 
hend, whose  inability  and  lack  of  judgment  or  scruple  was  unhappily 
combined  with  a  brilliancy  of  wit  and  personal  charm  which  made 
him  "  the  spoiled  child  of  the  House  of  Commons."  His  budget  for 
the  year  1767  having  been  defeated  by  a  vote  to  reduce  the  land  tax 
from  four  to  three  shillings  in  the  pound,1  he  rashly  attempted,  in- 
stead of  resigning,  to  make  up  the  deficiency  by  duties  on  American 
commerce.  In  thus  reopening  the  controversy  he  shares  with  Gren- 
ville  and  the  King  the  responsibility  for  the  disastrous  results  that 
followed.  Late  in  the  spring  he  carried  an  act  imposing  port  duties 
on  glass,  lead,  painters'  colors,  paper,  and  tea,  legalizing  writs  of 
assistance  and  providing  that  the  revenue  raised  under  the  act 
should  be  employed  in  maintaining  civil  officials  independently  of 
the  colonial  assemblies.  Any  surplus  was  to  go  toward  the  support 
of  troops.  Another  act  aimed  to  make  the  customs  service  more  ef- 
fective by  establishing  an  American  Board  of  Commissioners.  Before 
it  passed  Townshend  had  died,  1767,  leaving  a  fatal  legacy  to  his  suc- 
cessors. It  was  estimated  that  the  Townshend  duties  would  yield  only 

1  This  is  notable  as  the  first  defeat  of  a  Ministry  on  a  money  bill  since  the  Revo- 
lution of  1688, 


THE  FIRST  YEARS  OF  GEORGE  III  757 

£40,000;  but  they  involved  principles  most  dangerous  in  their  con- 
sequences —  limitless  possibilities  of  taxation,  coercion,  and  crippling 
of  trade. 

The  Resistance  of  the  Colonies  and  the  Weakness  of  the  Grafton 
Ministry,  1766-1769. — The  hollowness  of  the  distinction  between 
internal  and  external  taxation  was  now  generally  evident x  and  the 
smoldering  embers  of  opposition  in  the  Colonies  again  burst  forth 
into  flame.  Once  more,  Massachusetts  led  the  way :  the  merchants 
renewed  their  non-importation  agreements,  the  Assembly  petitioned 
the  King,  and  a  circular  letter,  composed  by  Samuel  Adams,  was  dis- 
patched early  in  1768  to  the  other  colonial  legislatures  asking  for 
concerted  action.  The  Letters  of  a  Pennsylvania  Farmer  by  John 
Dickinson,  recommending  peaceful  but  resolute  resistance,  both  voiced 
and  influenced  the  prevailing  sentiment.  Unfortunately,  the  British 
Ministry  was  unfitted  either  for  conciliation  or  vigorous  repression. 
Grafton  could  exercise  little  authority  over  his  disorganized  and  unruly 
colleagues,  and  sorely  harassed  by  the  attacks  of  opposing  factions,  he 
weakly  allowed  the  Cabinet,  which  had  only  sullenly  acquiesced  in 
the  passage  of  the  Townshend  Acts,  to  fall  more  and  more  under  the 
royal  control.  Townshend  was  succeeded  by  Lord  North,  a  favorite 
of  the  King's,  and,  one  by  one,  the  ministers  were  replaced  by  advocates 
of  an  uncompromising  policy.  A  force  of  troops  under  General  Gage 
was  sent  to  Boston  in  the  autumn  of  1768;  but,  though  quiet  was 
maintained  for  a  time,  contentment  was  not  restored.  Then  a  sug- 
gestion to  apply  to  Massachusetts  an  old  law  of  Henry  VIII,  providing 
that  offenders  outside  the  kingdom  might  be  brought  to  England  for 
trial,  provo'ked  the  Virginia  Resolves  of  1769.  They  declared  that 
such  a  step  was  "  highly  derogatory  of  the  right  of  the  British  sub- 
ject," denied  again  the  authority  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  Colonies, 
and  insisted  upon  the  right  of  joint  petition.  In  general,  such  resolute- 
ness was  displayed,  and  the  non-importation  agreements  worked  so 
effectively  against  British  trade,  that  the  Ministry  proposed,  as  a 
means  of  reconciliation,  to  remove  all  the  Townshend  duties  except  a 
tax  of  three  pence  per  pound  on  tea.  Grafton,  and  even  North, 
wanted  to  do  away  with  the  duty  on  tea  as  well,  but  they  were  over- 
ruled. The  measure,  carried  in  1769,  was  announced  to  the  Colonies 
in  a  "  harsh  and  ungracious  "  circular  letter. 

The  Middlesex  Election,  1768.  —  The  situation  at  home  was  also 
charged  with  trouble.  High  prices  and  hard  times  had  aroused  grave 
popular  discontent,  which  manifested  itself  in  frequent  riots  and  strikes. 
The  general  election  of  1768  was  marked  by  more  buying  and  selling 
of  votes  than  ever  before,  and  those  in  the  past  had  been  corrupt 
enough.  The  most  notable  fact  in  the  election,  however,  was  the 
choice  of  John  Wilkes  as  a  member  from  Middlesex.  He  had  divided 
his  time  abroad  between  scholarly  pursuits  and  disreputable  wander- 

1  A  witty  Irishman  remarked  that  it  made  no  difference  whether  the  money  was 
taken  from  the  coat  pockets  of  the  Colonists  or  their  waistcoat  pockets. 


758  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

ings.  Returning  only  a  few  weeks  before  the  election,  he  had  been 
escorted  to  and  from  the  polling  place  by  an  unruly  London  mob. 
After  the  votes  had  been  taken  he  submitted  to  the  authorities,  and 
under  the  old  sentence  was  committed  to  the  King's  Bench  prison, 
where  he  remained  till  April,  1770.  During  this  period  of  nearly 
two  years  he  was  active  with  tongue  and  pen,  and,  besides  contesting 
a  significant  parliamentary  issue,  managed  to  get  himself  elected  as  an 
alderman  of  London.  A  huge  mob,  which  gathered  to  demand  his 
release,  was,  after  an  order  to  disperse,  fired  upon  by  the  King's  troops, 
10  May,  1768.  This  incident,  known  as  the  "  Massacre  of  St.  George's 
Fields,"  aroused  intense  popular  fury.  In  February,  1769,  the  Com- 
mons decided  on  Wilkes'  expulsion.  So  far,  they  were  technically 
within  their  rights,  for  they  were  the  sole  judges  of  the  validity  of 
election  returns.  When,  however,  the  men  of  Middlesex  proceeded 
to  reelect  him,  they  overstepped  their  authority  by  declaring  him  in- 
capable of  sitting  in  the  existing  parliament.  There  was  no  law  de- 
claring ineligibility  for  any  of  the  charges  standing  against  him,  and 
it  required  more  than  a  resolution  of  either  House  to  make  one.1 

Finally,  on  the  fourth  election,  Colonel  Luttrell,  the  court  candidate, 
though  receiving  a  minority  of  the  votes,  was  awarded  the  seat.  The 
King,  who  had  influenced  the  Commons  partly  through  his  "  Friends," 
and  partly  by  working  on  their  jealousy  of  privilege,  had  won  a  tem- 
porary and  costly  victory.  He  had  defied  the  rights  of  the  electors, 
and  Wilkes,  who  in  the  beginning  was  supported  only  by  the  enemies 
of  the  Court  and  the  more  turbulent  among  the  masses,  became  the 
popular  hero.2  In  spite  of  annual  motions  in  his  behalf,  he  was  never 
admitted  to  the  Parliament  of  1768,  though  he  continued  to  be  a 
thorn  in  the  flesh  of  his  opponents.  In  1774  he  was  returned  in  the 
new  general  election  and  admitted  without  opposition.  In  May, 
1782,  he  finally  carried  a  motion  to  expunge  from  the  Journal  the 
record  of  his  incapacity  made  in  1769.  He  had  given  a  decided  im- 
pulse to  public  agitation  outside,  and  had  taught  the  Commons  a 
lesson  which  they  never  forgot  —  that  the  voice  of  the  electors  could 
not  be  defied.3 

The  "Letters  of  Junius,"  1769-1772. — The  example  of  Wilkes 
in  the  North  Briton  had  greatly  stimulated  attacks  on  the  Government 
in  the  newspapers.  These  were  usually  in  the  form  of  letters  signed 
with  a  fictitious  name,  preferably  that  of  a  patriot  of  antiquity.  The 
most  famous  are  the  "  Letters  of  Junius  "  which  have  survived  as  an 

1  Such  a  law,  of  course,  would  have  to  pass  both  Houses  and  receive  the  royal 
signature. 

2  Franklin  in  1784  stated  as  his  belief  that  "if  George  IV  had  had  a  bad  private 
character  and  John  Wilkes  a  good  one,  the  latter  might  have  turned  the  former  out 
of  the  kingdom." 

3  Wilkes,  however,  had  long  ceased  to  be  a  firebrand ;  though  he  advocated  some 
liberal  measures  he  never  counted  as  a  force  in  Parliament.     He  ended  his  days 
in  the  scholarly  leisure  which  he  loved,  but,  owing  to  his  extravagant  habits,  died 
a  poor  man. 


THE   FIRST  YEARS   OF  GEORGE  III  759 

English  classic.  The  first  to  attract  attention  appeared  in  the  Public 
Advertiser,  21  January,  1769,  and  though  the  "  acme  of  audacity  " 
was  reached  in  a  famous  letter  to  the  King  on  19  December,  the  se- 
ries did  not  come  to  an  end  till  21  January,  1772.  They  owe  their  in- 
fluence to  three  facts :  the  men  and  the  times  which  they  attacked ; 
their  wonderful  style ;  and  the  mystery  of  their  authorship.  Grafton, 
North,  Sandwich,  and  George  himself  were  fair  game ;  the  policy  of 
the  Ministry  was  timid  and  bungling;  the  Colonies  were  defiant; 
Spain  and  France  were  contemptuously  overriding  British  foreign 
interests ;  the  people  at  home  were  restive ;  and  the  King  could  count 
only  upon  the  hide-bound  Tories  and  paid  henchmen.  Junius,  to  be 
sure,  had  no  firm  grasp  of  general  principles  or  liberal  progressive 
views,  having  no  sympathy,  for  example,  either  with  the  American 
cause  or  with  the  parliamentary  reform;  but  he  had  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  political  situation,  he  saw  clearly  the  weakness  and 
the  vices  of  the  men  in  power,  and  exposed  them  with  fiendish  skill. 
His  style  for  clearness,  polish,  and  sustained,  biting  invective  has  never 
been  surpassed,  though  his  prolonged  fury  grows  monotonous,  and  his 
hatred  of  those  he  attacked  led  him  at  times  to  violate  both  truth  and 
decency.  Naturally  a  man  who  wrote  what  Junius  did  could  not  dis- 
close his  identity,  but  he  realized  fully  that  the  effect  which  he  pro- 
duced was  greatly  enhanced  by  the  baffling  secrecy  in  which  he  wrapped 
himself.  "  There  is  something  oracular  in  the  delivery  of  my  opin- 
ion," he  wrote  to  Wilkes;  "  I  speak  from  a  recess  which  no  man  can 
penetrate  .  .  .  the  mystery  of  Junius  increases  his  importance." 
True  to  prediction  which  he  once  made,  his  secret  apparently  died 
with  him.  More  than  thirty  names  have  been  suggested  as  possible 
authors  of  the  letters.  The  weight  of  evidence,  however,  points  most 
conclusively  to  Sir  Philip  Francis  (1740-1818),  who  in  early  life  was 
an  amanuensis  to  Pitt,  later  a  clerk  in  the  War  Office,  and  subsequently 
a  member  of  the  Council  for  India. 

The  End  of  the  Grafton  Ministry  and  the  Advent  of  Lord  North, 
1770.  —  Chatham,  who  emerged  from  his  seclusion  in  July,  1769,  at 
once  threw  himself  into  opposition  against  the  Ministry  which  he  had 
constructed  in  its  original  form.  He  vehemently  denounced  its 
American  policy  and  its  attitude  toward  the  Middlesex  election,  in 
which,  he  maintained,  the  Commons  had  betrayed  their  constituents 
and  violated  the  Constitution.  Lord  Chancellor  Camden,  who  sup- 
ported him,  was  dismissed,  17  January,  1770,  and  various  resignations 
followed.  Grafton,  unable  to  fill  their  places  and  finding  his  situation 
hopelqss,  resigned  on  the  28th.  George  at  once  offered  the  vacant 
place  to  Lord  North,  who  continued  to  hold  the  Chancellorship  of  the 
Exchequer  as  well.  North  was  ludicrous  in  appearance :  he  was  un- 
wieldy in  figure,  awkward  in  movement,  while  his  prominent,  short- 
sighted eyes  and  puffy-cheeks  led  Horace  Walpole  to  remark  that  he 
looked  like  a  blind  trumpeter.  Neither  was  he  a  statesman  nor  orator 
of  the  first  rank ;  but  he  was  an  admirable  gentleman,  an  excellent 


760  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

scholar,  he  was  gifted  with  a  ready  wit 1  and  uncommon  tact.  Un- 
fortunately, though  obstinate .  at  times,  he  was  too  easy-going  and 
too  fond  of  the  King.  Against  his  better  judgment,  and  with  indolent 
docility,  he  allowed  George  to  persuade  him  into  measures  so  disas- 
trous 2  as  to  make  his  Administration  one  of  the  most  inglorious  in 
English  history.  Again  and  again  he  tried  to  resign,  only  to  yield 
when  George  begged  him  not  to  desert  him.  In  the  face  of  bitter 
attack  he  placidly  slept  on  the  Treasury  Bench  and  made  no  effective 
effort  to  check  the  blundering  and  corruption  for  which  he  was  offi- 
cially responsible.  After  a  decade  of  tireless  and  unscrupulous  effort 
George  III  had  made  his  personal  power  supreme,  and  as  long  as 
North  remained  in  office  the  King  ruled  as  well  as  reigned ;  but  his 
policy  proved  so  fatal  in  its  results  that  he  was  at  length  obliged  to 
resign  the  conduct  of  affairs  to  a  Minister  responsible  to  public  opinion. 
One  result,  however,  he  achieved,  —  he  broke  the  power  of  the  Whig 
oligarchy  beyond  hope  of  recovery. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 
See  ch.  XLIII  below. 

1  Once  when  Thomas  Townshend,  later  Lord  Sydney,  after  whom  the  capital  of 
New  South  Wales  is  named,  declared  in  a  violent  attack:   "I  will  have  his  head, 
I  will  have  his  head,"  he  replied :  "The  honorable  gentleman  has  expressed  a  desire 
to  have  my  head,  let  me  state  that  under  no  circumstances  would  I  have  his." 

2  "In  all  my  memory,"  he  once  remarked,  "I  do  not  recollect  a  single  popular 
measure  I  ever  voted  for." 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  AND  THE  END  OF  THE  PERSONAL 
ASCENDANCY  OF  GEORGE  III   (1770-1783) 

The  North  Ministry  and  the  Ascendancy  of  the  King,  1770-1782.  — 

Contrary  to  expectation,  North's  Ministry,  described  as  a  "  forlorn 
hope,"  remained  in  power  longer  than  all  the  previous  Ministries  of 
the  reign  combined.  George  III  to  a  large  degree  directed  the  policy 
of  the  Government,  and  his  extensive  use  of  patronage  and  corruption, 
the  activity  of  his  "  Friends,"  together  with  the  adroitness  of  North 
as  a  party  leader,  enabled  him  to  maintain  a  "  crushing  and  docile 
majority  "  in  Parliament.  The  eclipse  of  Chatham  in  the  House  of 
Lords  and  the  dissensions  between  his  followers  and  those  of  Rocking- 
ham  were  also  elements  of  strength  to  the  headstrong  King.  More- 
over, the  popular  excitement  aroused  by  the  Middlesex  election  gradu- 
ally subsided  and  gave  place  to  a  state  of  almost  unexampled  political 
stupor.  "  A  little  spirit,"  George  had  written  to  North,  "  will  soon 
restore  order  in  my  service." 

The  Grenville  Election  Act,  1770.  —  Nevertheless,  the  Opposition 
succeeded  in  carrying  one  or  two  measures  of  reform.  First  in  im- 
portance was  a  bill  introduced  by  Grenville  for  trying  disputed  elec- 
tions. Formerly  such  cases  had  been  tried  by  a  committee  of  the 
whole  House,  with  the  result  that  they  had  been  invariably  decided 
in  favor  of  the  candidate  whose  party  had  a  majority  in  the  Commons, 
quite  regardless  of  the  rights  of  the  electors.  According  to  the  new 
arrangement  forty-nine  members  were  chosen  by  ballot ;  from  them 
each  party  removed  one  member  alternately  until  the  number  was 
reduced  to  thirteen,  and  then  added  one  member  each.  The  body  of 
fifteen  thus  constituted  was  sworn  to  render  its  decisions  independ- 
ently of  Parliament.  As  each  party  would  naturally  seek  to  exclude 
the  abler  men  among  its  opponents,  the  method  of  reduction  was  known 
as  "  knocking  the  brains  out  of  the  committee,"  but  the  Act,  limited 
at  first  to  seven  years,  worked  so  well  in  practice  that  in  1774  it  was 
made  permanent.  It  remained  in  force  till  1868,  when  the  duties  were 
handed  over  to  the  judges.  Grenville  died  a  few  months  after  the 
passage  of  the  measure  which  did  honor  to  his  name. 

The  Struggle  over  the  Reporting  of  Debates,  1771.  —  In  this  same 
year,  1770,  the  jury  in  the  case  of  Woodfall,  one  of  the  publishers  of 
the  "  Letters  of  Junius,"  brought  in  a  verdict  of  "  guilty  of  printing 
and  publishing  only."  Nevertheless,  Lord  Mansfield  rendered  an 
opinion  confirming  the  old  doctrine  that  the  jury  could  only  bring 

761 


762  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  a  verdict  as  to  the  facts,  and  that  it  was  within  the  province  of  the 
judges  alone  to  decide  whether  or  no  the  accused  was  guilty  of  libel. 
In  spite  of  intense  opposition  his  ruling  remained  law  till  Fox's  cele- 
brated Libel  Act  of  1792.  In  the  session  of  1771  the  Commons  became 
involved  in  a  quarrel  with  the  press  over  the  question  of  reporting 
debates.  It  had  guarded  its  privilege  of  excluding  strangers  so  jeal- 
ously that  it  was  known  as  "  the  unreported  Parliament."  In  view 
of  the  growing  strength  of  public  opinion  it  was  unwise  to  attempt  to 
keep  its  proceedings  secret,  and  it  was  only  natural  that  erroneous 
and  unfair  accounts  of  what  was  said  and  done  should  be  spread  abroad 
in  print.  The  matter  came  to  an  issue  when,  on  the  complaint  of 
Colonel  Onslow,  the  House  sought  to  arrest  some  offending  printers. 
The  newspapers  replied  with  the  most  vehement  denunciations,  char- 
acterizing Onslow,  for  instance,  as  a  "  paltry,  insignificant  insect." 

The  Lord  Mayor  Crosby  and  the  aldermen  of  London,  chief  among 
them  Wilkes  and  Oliver,  intervened  to  protect  the  printers  from  ar- 
rest within  the  City,  and  apprehended  the  messenger  of  the  Commons 
for  assault.  For  this  they  were  called  to  the  bar  of  the  House,  and 
Crosby  and  Oliver  were  sent  to  the  Tower,  where  they  were  held  until 
the  end  of  the  session.  Wilkes  refused  to  appear  except  as  a  member 
from  Middlesex.  After  he  had  twice  repeated  his  refusal,  the  Commons 
wisely  avoided  another  conflict  with  such  a  dangerous  person  by  sum- 
moning him  before  them  on  a  day  when  the  House  was  adjourned. 
George  approved  of  their  discretion,  declaring  that  "  he  would  have 
nothing  more  to  do  with  that  devil  Wilkes."  The  result  of  the  struggle 
was  really  another  step  in  the  direction  of  the  freedom  of  the  press,  for, 
although  the  House  still  maintained  that  publication  of  debates  was  a 
breach  of  privilege,  no  further  attempt  was  made  to  punish  the  reporters. 
The  great  progress  of  the  press  as  a  political  factor  is  one  of  the  most  sig- 
nificant features  of  this  period ;  next  to  the  failure  of  George's  Ameri- 
can policy,  it  played  the  most  important  part  in  putting  an  end  to  the 
personal  ascendancy  of  the  monarch  which  he  had  succeeded  in 
reviving. 

The  Royal  Marriage  Act,  1772.  —  Blameless  in  his  private  life  as 
he  was  corrupt  in  his  political  methods,  George  III  suffered  keenly 
from  the  scandalous  conduct  of  two  of  his  brothers,  the  Dukes  of 
Cumberland  and  Gloucester.  Even  worse  to  his  exalted  ideas  of 
royalty  was  the  fact  that  both  of  them  married  below  their  station. 
To  prevent  such  indiscretions  for  the  future,  which  would  inevitably 
lower  the  prestige  of  the  kingly  family,  and,  in  case  of  secret 
alliances,  might  bring  confusion  to  the  succession,  he  procured  the 
passage  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act.  It  provided  that  no  descendant 
of  George  III  under  twenty-five  years  of  age  could  contract  a  valid 
marriage  without  the  consent  of  the  sovereign,  nor  after  that  age  ex- 
cept by  the  sanction  of  Parliament.  The  Act  —  which  remains  sub- 
stantially in  force  to-day  —  while  working  hardship  to  individuals, 
has  proved  to  be  beneficial  from  the  public  standpoint. 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  763 

The  Boston  Massacre,  5  March,  1770.  —  Meantime,  early  in  1770, 
the  first  blood  had  been  shed  in  the  controversy  between  Great  Britain 
and  her  American  Colonies.  For  some  time  the  more  unruly  element 
in  the  city  of  Boston  had  been  annoying  the  British  troops  until,  on 
the  evening  of  5  March,  they  were  provoked  into  firing  upon  their 
tormenters.  Three  were  killed,  some  half  dozen  were  slightly  wounded, 
and  two  mortally.  Whoever  was  to  blame,  the  "  Boston  Massacre  " 
excited  the  fiercest  indignation  throughout  the  Colonies.  Yet  when 
the  soldiers  were  brought  to  trial,  leading  patriots  volunteered  to  de- 
fend them,  and  all  were  acquitted  except  two  who  received  light 
sentences. 

The  Hutchinson  Letters,  1773-1774.  —  Although  the  Government 
paid  little  attention  to  the  Colonies  for  three  years,  the  unrest  there 
grew  steadily.  Extremists  were  active ;  mobs  were  frequent ;  loyal- 
ists were  roughly  handled,  in  some  cases  tarred  and  feathered;  and 
revenue  officers  were  obstructed  in  the  performance  of  their  duties. 
In  June,  1772,  the  Gaspee  —  whose  commander  had  shown  more  zeal 
than  discretion  and  regard  for  law  in  the  pursuit  of  smugglers  in 
Narragansett  Bay  —  ran  aground  and  was  promptly  boarded  and 
burned  by  the  natives.  An  attempt  to  bring  those  concerned  to 
England  for  trial  failed.  It  led,  however,  to  the  formation  of  colonial 
committees  of  correspondence  in  1773,  which,  in  conjunction  with 
local  committees  organized  the  previous  year,  furnished  a  complete 
system  of  machinery  for  united  revolutionary  action.  Early  in  this 
same  year,  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  was  acting  as  agent  for  Pennsyl- 
vania, Massachusetts,  and  two  of  the  other  Colonies,  procured  certain 
confidential  letters  written  by  Hutchinson  l  to  a  former  secretary  of 
Grenville,  in  which  the  methods  which  the  British  Government  should 
employ  in  dealing  with  the  Colonies  were  very  frankly  discussed.  .  He 
sent  them  to  Massachusetts  to  be  handed  about  among  a  few  of  the 
leading  patriots,  on  condition  that  they  should  not  be  published  or 
even  copied.  Nevertheless,  they  soon  found  their  way  into  print, 
were  circulated  throughout  the  Colonies,  and  aroused  the  greatest 
indignation.  Franklin  was  summoned  before  the  Privy  Council,  29 
January,  1774,  where  he  was  denounced  by  Wedderburn,  the  Solicitor- 
General,  in  terms  of  studied  insult.  The  Council  roared  with  laughter 
while  Franklin  stood  without  moving  a  muscle.  His  methods  of  pro- 
curing the  letters  may  have  been  questionable ;  but  he  was  an  old 
and  eminent  man,  while  his  accuser  was  a  shifty  politician  of  whom 
Junius  said :  "  There  was  something  about  him  that  treachery  could  not 
trust."  The  treatment  which  Franklin  received  was  bound  to  turn 
him  into  an  uncompromising  opponent  of  the  English  Government,2 
and  to  affect  hosts  of  sympathizers  in  the  same  way. 

1  He  had  been  Governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay  since  1771. 

2  There  is  a  familiar  story,  not  well  authenticated,  that  Franklin  laid  aside  the 
homespun  suit  which  he  wore  on  that  day  and  never  put  it  on  again  until  he  signed 
the  French  alliance  in  1778. 


764  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Boston  Tea  Party,  16  December,  1773.  —  Meantime  the 
Government  by  an  ill-advised  attempt  to  assist  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, whose  affairs  were  in  a  bad  way,  opened  the  breach  still  wider. 
Among  other  measures  of  relief  it  was  provided  that  a  large  amount 
of  tea  which  the  Company  had  on  hand  should  be  sent  from  England 
free  of  duty  and  subject  only  to  a  tax  of  three  pence  per  pound  payable 
at  the  American  ports.  Since  the  tea  sold  in  England  was  burdened 
with  duties  aggregating  a  shilling  a  pound,  the  Colonists  were  greatly 
favored  over  the  home  consumer.  It  has  commonly  been  said  that 
what  they  objected  to  was  the  principle  of  taxation  involved,  and 
that  North  would  have  done  wisely  to  impose  the  duty  at  the  time  of 
export,  leaving  the  Company  to  reimburse  itself  by  a  proportional  in- 
crease of  price  on  the  sale  of  the  goods  in  America.  It  has  recently 
been  shown,  however,  that  the  objection  was  not  so  much  to  the  tax 
as  to  the  fact  that  the  tea  was  consigned  to  friends  of  the  Government, 
and  that  the  resistance  was  instigated  mainly  by  the  English  and 
American  merchants  who  resented  being  discriminated  against  in 
order  that  a  great  monopoly  might  be  benefited.  Toward  the  close 
of  the  year  1773,  consignments  of  East  India  tea  were  shipped  to  Bos- 
ton, New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Charleston.  On  the  night  of  16 
December,  a  body  of  men  disguised  as  Indians  boarded  the  vessels 
which  had  recently  arrived  at  Boston  and  emptied  three  hundred  and 
forty  chests,  valued  at  £18,000,  into  the  harbor.  The  ships  for  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  returned  without  landing  their  cargoes,  while 
the  consignment  for  Charleston  was  stored  in  the  customhouse,  whence 
it  was  sold  later. 

The  Acts  of  1774.  —  The  action  at  Boston,  following  upon  the  heels 
of  the  printing  and  circulation  of  the  Hutchinson  letters,  determined 
George  III  to  make  an  example  of  the  town  and  at  the  same  time  to 
impose  such  coercion  upon  Massachusetts  as  would  break  its  spirit 
and  check  further  resistance.  To  that  end,  four  "  penal  laws  "  were 
passed  in-  1774.  The  first  closed  the  harbor  of  Boston  and  trans- 
ferred the  port  to  Salem  until  the  losses  of  the  East  India  Company 
should  be  made  good.  The  second  suspended  the  charter  of  the 
Province,  increased  the  power  of  the  Governor,  transferred  to  the 
Crown  the  nomination  of  councilors,  and  provided  that  town  meetings, 
regarded  as  "  nurseries  of  sedition,"  should  not  be  held  without  the 
Governor's  consent.  The  third  enacted  that  all  persons  charged  with 
a  capital  offense  in  executing  the  law  in  Massachusetts  should  be  taken 
to  Nova  Scotia  or  to  England  for  trial.  The  fourth  was  a  new  quarter- 
ing act.  The  so-called  "  Quebec  Act,"  passed  the  same  year,  extended 
the  boundaries  of  Canada  to  the  Mississippi  on  the  west  and  to  the 
Ohio  on  the  south ;  granted  freedom  of  worship  to  Roman  Catholics ; 
and  allowed  them  to  be  tried  by  French  law  in  civil  cases,  though  in 
criminal  matters  the  English  law  was  to  prevail.  It  provided  further, 
that  the  Governor-General  should  be  assisted  by  a  legislative  council 
appointed  by  the  Crown :  there  was  to  be  no  representative  assembly, 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  765 

and  taxation  was  reserved  to  the  British  Parliament.  The  measure, 
designed  to  deal  with  problems  and  promises  arising  from  the  peace 
of  1763,  was  a  wise  and  just  one,  for  it  gave  the  Canadians  —  nine 
tenths  of  whom  were  French  —  what  they  expected  and  desired,  and 
they  showed  their  satisfaction  by  remaining  loyal  throughout  the  en- 
suing war.  The  American  Colonies,  however,  were  furious,  for  the 
Act  seemed  to  them  a  design  to  cut  them  off  from  the  western  lands 
which  they  claimed,  and  to  extend  "  Popery  "  and  arbitrary  govern- 
ment to  their  very  doors. 

The  First  Continental  Congress,  5  September,  1774.  —  The  Ministry 
had  calculated  that  the  leaders  would  be  intimidated  by  a  show  of 
force  and  that  the  other  colonies  would  not  support  Massachusetts. 
On  the  contrary,  the  repressive  measures  of  1774  called  forth  a  de- 
termined and  united  opposition  from  north  to  south  and  led  swiftly 
to  the  final  crisis.  George  III  himself  realized  the  gravity  of  the 
situation :  "  The  die  is  now  cast,"  he  declared ;  "  the  Colonies  must 
either  submit  or  triumph."  On  5  September,  a  Congress  met  at 
Philadelphia  in  which  all  the  thirteen  Provinces,  except  Georgia, 
were  represented.  Doubtless  the  majority,1  while  insistent  on  re- 
dress of  grievances,  hoped  that  some  means  of  averting  the  conflict 
might  be  arranged.  As  yet  there  was  little  thought  of  independence. 
Owing,  however,  to  the  activity  of  the  aggressive  party,  the  Congress 
took  a  series  of  decided  steps.  It  approved  the  "  Suffolk  Resolves,"2 
looking  toward  armed  resistance  in  case  of  necessity;  it  demanded 
the  revocation  of  a  number  of  recent  laws,  notably  those  of  1774; 
it  drew  up  a  declaration  of  rights ;  it  framed  general  non-importation 
and  non-exportation  agreements ;  it  sent  a  petition  to  the  King  and 
an  address  to  the  English  people,  after  which  it  adjourned  till  May. 
In  spite  of  warm  professions  of  loyalty  it  was  evident  that  the 
leaders  would  consent  to  no  terms  short  of  complete  surrender. 
The  British  Government  had  failed  either  to  conciliate  or  coerce, 
and  had  blundered  along  to  a  point  where  it  was  impossible  to 
turn  back. 

Attempts  at  Conciliation.  —  Chatham,  who  had  risen  from  a  sick 
bed  in  time  to  lift  his  voice  against  the  last  of  the  repressive  acts  of 
1774,  rejoiced  in  the  "  manly  wisdom  and  calm  resolution  of  Con- 
gress." Yet  he  was  anxious  to  avert  a  rebellion,  foreseeing  that  France 
and  Spain  would  seize  the  opportunity  to  avenge  their  defeat  in  the 
Seven  Years'  War.  Moreover,  both  he  and  Burke  were  insistent  on 
regulation  of  trade,  failing  to  realize  that  the  Colonies  would  now  op- 
pose that  as  strenuously  as  they  had  resisted  the  attempts  to  tax 
them.  A  few  of  the  Ministers,  including  North,  were  inclined  to  con- 
ciliation, though  they  were  ready  to  do  the  King's  will,  while  Parlia- 
ment was,  since  the  general  election  of  1774,  more  than  ever  under  his 

1  According  to  John  Adams,  one  third  were  Whigs,  one  third  Tories,  and  the  rest 
"mongrels." 

2  So-called  because  they  were  passed  in  Suffolk  County,  Massachusetts. 


766  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

control.  The  views  of  two  of  the  most  acute  and  most  original 
thinkers  of  the  time  are  interesting.  Josiah  Tucker,  Dean  of  Glouces- 
ter, argued  that  it  would  be  for  England's  best  interests  to  let  the 
Colonies  go.  Since  they  refused  to  contribute  to  the  expenses  of  the 
Empire,  they  were  only  a  useless  burden,  while  separation  would 
make  no  difference  to  commerce ;  for  it  was  an  economic  law  that 
trade  sought  the  best  markets,  and  England's  were  far  superior  to 
those  of  any  European  nation.  Adam  Smith  maintained  that  restric- 
tions of  trade  were  not  only  injurious  to  the  Colonies,  but  to  the 
Mother  Country  as  well.  He  favored  peaceful  separation,  though*  in 
view  of  the  impossibility  of  bringing  it  about,  he  recommended  colo- 
nial representation  in  the  British  Parliament.  Neither  the  views  of 
Tucker  nor  of  Smith,  however,  met  with  acceptance  even  from  the 
leading  Whigs.  Nevertheless,  the  Opposition  in  Parliament  kept  up 
a  jealous  but  futile  agitation  against  coercion.  Both  Chatham  and 
Burke,  early  in  1775,  introduced  conciliation  schemes  which  failed  to 
pass,  and  numerous  petitions  from  the  commercial  towns  were 
"  shelved."  On  20  March,  North,  with  the  consent  of  the  King,  did 
move  a  resolution,  providing  that  if  any  Colony  would  pay  its  quota 
toward  the  common  defense  and  the  expenses  of  the  civil  administra- 
tion, no  taxes  would  be  imposed  except  for  regulation  of  trade.  This 
attempt  came  too  late. 

The  Outbreak  of  War,  Lexington  and  Concord,  19  April,  1775. — 
Already,  Massachusetts  had  been  declared  in  rebellion.  On  19  April 
occurred  the  memorable  skirmishes  of  Lexington  and  Concord  which 
opened  the  war  that  lasted  until  American  independence  was  secured. 
The  result  was  due  to  the  courage  and  persistence  of  a  resolute  mi- 
nority. Many  were  opposed  to  fighting  at  all.  Others  who  in  the 
beginning  put  their  hand  to  the  plow  later  sought  to  turn  back. 
Spread  through  the  Colonies  there  was  a  large  and  influential  body  of 
loyalists  numbering  from  a  third  to  a  half  of  the  population.  In  a 
minority  in  New  England,  it  formed  a  majority  in  the  Middle  Colonies, 
and  fully  equaled  the  patriot  party  in  the  South.  It  is  estimated  that 
at  least  20,000  subsequently  joined  the  British  army.  Their  motives 
were  various.  Some  were  timid,  some  were  indifferent,  some  had 
large  property  interests  which  they  feared  to  jeopardize,  others  were 
actuated  by  a  sincere  desire  to  maintain  the  unity  of  the  British  Em- 
pire. Many  held  to  their  convictions  in  spite  of  privation,  suffering, 
and  danger :  they  were  tarred  and  feathered,  their  property  was 
destroyed  or  confiscated,  and  they  were  imprisoned  and  exiled.  In 
England,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  King  and  his  ministerial 
agents  not  only  controlled  Parliament,  but  were  supported  by  the 
bulk  of  the  nobility  and  landed  gentry,  the  clergy  of  the  Established 
Church,  and  the  legal  profession.  The  opposition  was  confined  to  the 
merchants,  the  Dissenting  preachers,  and  the  laboring  classes,  the 
latter  of  whom  were  disinclined  to  serve  beyond  the  seas  or  to  fight 
against  men  of  their  own  blood. 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  767 

Comparative  Strength  of  the  Combatants.  —  The  troops  who  en- 
listed on  the  Colonial  side  were  mostly  raw,  insubordinate,  and  unwill- 
ing to  serve  for  any  length  of  time  away  from  their  own  neighborhoods. 
The  total  population  was  less  than  three  million  souls,  funds  were 
scanty,  and  the  supply  of  arms,  ammunition,  clothes,  and  provisions 
was  lamentably  inadequate.  The  Colonists  had  to  contend  against 
a  wealthy  country  with  a  population  nearly  three  times  their  own, 
against  trained  armies,  and  a  navy  reputed  to  be  invincible.1  Owing, 
however,  to  recent  economies  and  to  dishonest  contractors  both  arms 
of  the  service  were  reduced  in  numbers  and  faulty  in  equipment. 
Then  the  British  undervalued  the  fighting  capacity  of  the  Americans  2 
and  the  obstacles  to  be  overcome.  The  country  which  was  to  be  sub- 
dued was  three  thousand  miles  off  and  extended  along  a  thousand 
miles  of  sea  coast.  There  could  be  no  theater  of  war,  for  the  vast 
stretch  of  country  was  cut  into  pieces  by  many  and  great  rivers,  and 
reached  back  to  a  region  of  trackless  forests.  It  was  difficult  to  con- 
quer and  impossible  to  hold.  Great  Britain,  "  by  her  command  of 
the  sea,  might  easily  destroy  its  commerce,  disturb  its  fisheries,  bom- 
bard its  seaport  towns,  and  deprive  it  of  many  of  the  luxuries  of  life, 
but  it  could  strike  no  vital  blow."  The  Colonies  were  hardy  and  re- 
sourceful, they  had  a  widely  extended  militia  system,3  and  they  had 
the  experience  of  two  great  wars,  and  were  led  by  a  commander  whose 
greatness  of  character  and  devotion  to  duty  have  rarely  been  equaled. 
The  British  generals  proved  singularly  ineffective  4  and  confined  their 
attention  mainly  to  taking  and  holding  the  leading  seaboard  towns, 
when  their  best  chance  of  success  lay  in  tracking  down  and  destroying 
the  opposing  army.  The  issue  was  only  decided,  however,  when 

1  The  British  army  at  the  opening  of  the  war,  including  the  forces  in  Ireland 
and  the  garrisons  at  Gibraltar  and  Minorca,  numbered  less  than  40,000.      George 
had  tried  unsuccessfully  for  some  time  to  increase  this   establishment.     When  a 
larger  force  became  necessary,  he  determined  to  employ    German  mercenaries. 
As  Elector  of  Hanover  he  lent  a  force  to  set  free  the  garrison  at  Gibraltar  and  hired 
from  the  petty  princes  of  Brunswick,  Hesse  Casset,  and  Waldeck   about  17,000 
troops.     The  Americans  and  the  English  Whigs  were  bitter  against  this  step ;  but, 
impolitic  as  was  the  action  of  the  King,  the  conduct  of  the  German  rulers  was  most 
reprehensible.     Frederick  the  Great  declared  that  if  their  troops  passed  through 
his  territories,  he  would  tax  them  like  cattle.     Much  more  barbarous  was  the  em- 
ployment of  Indians.     They  proved  of  little  value  in  regular  fighting;    for  they 
fled  to  the  woods  at  moments  of  danger  when  they  were  most  needed,  but  were  guilty 
of  bloodthirsty  raids  against  lonely,  exposed  settlements.      The  Americans  were 
the  first  to  employ  Indians  and  would  have  used  more  if  they  could  have  got  them, 
but  that  does  not  excuse  the  British  for  sending  them  to  massacre  defenseless  women 
and  children. 

2  The  first  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  for  example,  declared :  "They  will  bluster  and 
swell  when  danger  is  at  a  distance,  but  when  it  comes  "near,  will  like  other  mobs 
throw  down  their  arms  and  run  away." 

3  Though  its  efficiency  was  weakened  by  the  custom  of  short-term  enlistments. 
4 Lord  North  is  said  to  have  remarked  of  the  British  generals:  "I  do  not  know 

whether  they  will  frighten  the  enemy,  but  I  am  sure  they  frighten  me  whenever  I 
think  of  them." 


768  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

France  and  Spain  finally  threw  their  weight  in  the  scale  against  Great 
Britain. 

The  Continental  Congress,  10  May,  1775.  Washington,  Com- 
mander-in-Chief .  —  The  Continental  Congress  assembled  at  Phila- 
delphia for  its  second  meeting,  10  May,  1775.  It  assumed  executive 
powers,  rejected  North's  plan  of  conciliation,  and  provided  for  the 
organization  into  a  Continental  Army  of  the  troops  which  had  flocked 
to  the  blockade  of  Boston  after  the  Lexington  fight.  Doubtless  their 
most  important  step  was  the  appointment  of  Washington  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  15  June;  for  to  him  more  than  to  any  other  single 
man  was  due  the  triumph  of  the  American  .cause. 

Bunker  Hill,  17  June,  1775.  The  Siege  of  Boston,  1775-1776.  — 
Before  he  arrived  in  Boston  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  had  occurred, 
1 7  June,  in  which  the  bravery  of  the  British  troops  and  the  stupidity 
of  their  generals  were  alike  conspicuous.  It  was  a  defeat  for  the 
Americans,  with  all  the  moral  effects  of  a  victory.  Washington,  when 
he  heard  "  how  they  had  fought,"  declared  that  "  the  liberties  of  the 
country  were  safe."  The  siege  of  Boston  continued  for  nine  months, 
though  the  American  commander  found  the  greatest  difficulty  in 
holding  his  ill-assorted  forces  together  during  the  winter.  Howe, 
who  had  superseded  Gage  in  October  and  was  "  equally  incompetent," 
was  finally  forced  to  evacuate  the  town,  17  March,  1776.  Thence  he 
sailed  to  Halifax,  where  he  waited  for  reinforcements  in  order  to  attack 
New  York.  King  George,  who  was  disappointed  in  his  hope  that  the 
Southern  Colonies  would  remain  loyal,  finally  resorted  to  force.  He 
sent  an  expedition  against  the  Carolinas ;  but  an  attempt  in  June  to 
reduce  Charleston  was  heroically  repulsed,  and  the  British  com- 
mander Clinton  sailed  to  New  York  to  join  Howe.  For  three  years 
the  South  was  left  free  to  send  help  to  the  North. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence,  4  July,  1776.  —  By  the  beginning 
of  1776,  the  idea  of  separation  had  become  very  strong  in  the  Colonies, 
which,  hitherto,  had  been  fighting  mainly  to  secure  redress  of  griev- 
ances. The  change  of  sentiment  was  due  to  various  causes,  among 
them  the  employment  of  German  troops  and  the  discovery  that  King 
George  and  not  the  Ministry  or  Parliament  was  responsible  for  the 
coercive  policy  of  the  past  few  years.  More  influential  than  all  else, 
however,  was  a  pamphlet  by  Thomas  Paine1  (1737-1809),  entitled 
Common  Sense.  Paine  was  a  radical,  and  later  a  free  thinker,  who 
after  a  quarrel  with  the  English  Government,  had  come  to  America 
in  1774  and  had  been  warmly  welcomed  by  Franklin.  On  4  July,  1776, 
Congress  at  Philadelphia  adopted  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
It  was  printed  the  following  day,  and  signed  by  such  members  as  were 
present,  2  August. 

The  Campaign  of  1776.  —  In  the  teeth  of  the  Whig  opposition  the 
Government  made  vigorous  preparations  for  the  campaign  of  1776. 

1  He  later  boasted  that  his  pen  had  been  as  effective  as  Washington's  sword. 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  769 

At  the  same  time,  General  Howe  and  his  brother  Admiral  Lord  Howe 
were  appointed  commissioners  to  treat  with  any  colonies  or  individuals 
who  were  willing  to  submit.  The  military  operations  of  this  year 
centered  about  New  York.  Howe,  with  his  Halifax  forces,  his  reen- 
forcements,  and  the  troops  of  Clinton,  had  an  army  of  25,000  to  which 
Washington,  who  had  hurried  from  Boston,  could  only  oppose  19,000 
ill-equipped  and  half-trained  men.  So  the  Americans  were  driven 
successively  from  Long  Island,  from  Manhattan  Island,  then  over  the 
Hudson  into  New  Jersey,  and  finally  across  the  Delaware.  It  was 
only  Howe's  incapacity  and  Washington's  energy  that  prevented  the 
"  disorderly  mob  "  from  being  utterly  crushed.  Washington  thought 
"  the  game  was  pretty  well  played  out,"  and  Congress  in  a  panic 
fled  to  Baltimore.  Suddenly,  however,  he  revived  the  dying  hopes 
of  his  countrymen  by  recrossing  the  Delaware  River  on  Christmas 
night  and  capturing  a  Hessian  force  at  Trenton,  and  then  destroying 
a  detachment  at  Princeton.  Neither  commander  attempted  any- 
thing further  till  spring.  In  England,  although  the  Opposition 
was  so  discouraged  by  the  successes  of  the  King's  army  about 
New  York  that  they  almost  ceased  to  attend  Parliament,  the  situa- 
tion was  far  from  satisfactory.  It  was  impossible  to  procure  sailors 
except  by  impressment  and  extravagant  bounties.  Expenses  were 
so  heavy  that  another  loan  had  to  be  raised  and  new  and  burden- 
some taxes  imposed. 

Burgoyne's  Campaign,  1777.  —  The  British  plan  of  campaign  for 
1777  was  suggested  by  Burgoyne,  a  general  of  high  connections  and 
considerable  military  experience,  who  was  also  a  man  of  fashion  and  a 
writer  of  plays.  He  was  to  lead  an  army  down  from  Canada,  by  way 
of  Lake  Champlain  and  the  Hudson,  and  to  effect  a  junction  at  Al- 
bany with  Howe,  who  was  to  march  up  from  New  York.  Had  the 
plan  succeeded,  the  road  to  Canada  would  have  been  secured.  New 
England  would  have  been  isolated,  and  the  British  would  have  been 
able  to  concentrate  their  efforts  against  the  middle  and  southern  prov- 
inces. The  cooperation  of  Howe  was  essential  in  order  to  prevent 
the  Americans  from  thrusting  an  army  in  between  and  crushing  Bur- 
goyne before  the  junction  could  be  effected.  Howe,  as  usual,  did  the 
wrong  thing,  and  was  backed  by  the  Colonial  Secretary,  Lord  George 
Germain,  who,  as  Lord  George  Sackville,  had  played  such  a  sorry  part 
at  Minden.  He  decided  to  proceed  first  against  Philadelphia,  trust- 
ing that  he  could  return  in  time  to  cooperate  with  Burgoyne,  who,  he 
calculated,  could  not  reach  Albany  till  September.  Leaving  Clinton 
with  an  army  of  8500  to  garrison  New  York  and  to  "  act  as  circum- 
stances may  direct,"  Howe  embarked  late  in  July.  Obliged  to  take 
the  longer  route  by  Chesapeake  Bay  and  forced  to  fight  a  battle  with 
Washington,  whom  he  repulsed  at  the  Brandywine,  it  was  27  Sep- 
tember before  he  occupied  Philadelphia.  He  spent  another  month 
in  opening  up  the  Delaware  in  order  to  secure  his  communications 
with  New  York,  and  then  passed  the  winter  restfully  in  the  city,  while 
30 


770  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

his  troops  and  officers  wasted  their  time  in  idleness  and  social  diver- 
sions. Washington,  who  had  been  repulsed  at  Germantown,  4  October, 
in  an  attempt  to  enter  Philadelphia,  went  into  winter  quarters  at  Val- 
ley Forge.  His  army,  half  starved  and  almost  barefoot,  seemed  on  the 
verge  of  dissolution ;  but  during  those  gloomy  months  the  men  were 
drilled  into  an  effective  fighting  machine  by  Baron  Steuben,  a  German 
officer  who  had  adopted  the  American  cause.  Moreover,  events  had 
happened  which  turned  the  tide  of  the  war. 

The  Failure  and  Surrender  of  Burgoyne.  —  Burgoyne's  first  move- 
ments had  promised  well.  George,  on  receipt  of  the  news,  is  said  to 
have  rushed  into  the  Queen's  rooms,  crying :  "I  have  beat  them ! 
beat  all  the  Americans."  But  his  rejoicing  proved  premature.  The 
invaders  had  a  rough  country  to  travel  over,  they  found  it  difficult 
to  procure  supplies,  and  a  strong  American  force  was  collected  to 
meet  them  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Hudson.  Defeated  in  a  series  of 
engagements  and  surrounded  by  a  force  outnumbering  his  own  by 
four  to  one,  Burgoyne  surrendered  to  General  Gates  at  Saratoga, 
17  October,  1777.  By  the  Convention  there  concluded  his  troops  were 
to  be  allowed  to  return  to  England  on  condition  of  not  serving  in 
America  again  during  the  war.  These  favorable  terms  were  doubtless 
due  to  Clinton's  advance  up  the  Hudson  early  in  the  month  with  the 
small  force  which  Howe  had  left  him.  The  Continental  Congress, 
much  to  its  discredit,  evaded  the  agreement,  and,  although  Burgoyne 
and  his  staff  were  allowed  to  go  home  in  the  spring  of  1778,  the  rank 
and  file  were  held  in  the  country.  Howe's  failure  to  cooperate  with 
the  northern  army  and  his  failure  to  track  down  and  crush  the  ex- 
hausted forces  of  Washington  were  largely  responsible  for  the  miscar- 
riage of  the  campaign.1  The  result  determined  France  to  throw  her 
weight  in  the  scale,  Spain  followed  later,  and  the  conflict  between 
Great  Britain  and  her  colonies  was  enlarged  into  another  great  Euro- 
pean struggle. 

The  French  Alliance,  1778.  —  For  some  time,  the  French  and  Span- 
ish Governments  had  been  secretly  providing  the  Americans  with 
money  and  supplies,  and  many  Frenchmen,  chief  among  them  the 
Marquis  de  la  Fayette,  volunteered  for  service  in  the  Continental 
Army.2  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  went  as  diplomatic  agent  to  France 
in  December,  1776,  was  warmly  welcomed  by  the  circle  who  were  be- 
ginning to  interest  themselves  in  those  problems  of  religious  and  politi- 
cal philosophy  which  heralded  the  approach  of  the  Revolution  of  1789. 
The  French  Government,  however,  had  no  enthusiasm  for  the  American 
cause ;  its  aim  was  to  revenge  the  humiliation  it  had  suffered  at  the 
hands  of  Pitt  and  to  recover  as  much  as  possible  of  the  colonial  trade 
and  pos%essions  it  had  lost.  On  6  February,  1778,  a  few  weeks  after 

1  He  sent  in  his  resignation  22  October,  after  it  was  too  late  to  retrieve  what 
had  been  lost. 

2  France  was  not  the  only  country  which  furnished  volunteers.     At  one  time  it 
was  estimated  that,  out  of  twenty-nine  major  generals,  eleven  were  foreigners. 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  771 

the  news  of  Burgoyne's  surrender  reached  Paris,  a  formal  treaty  of 
alliance  was  concluded  with  the  United  States,1  by  which  it  was  agreed 
that,  in  case  of  war  between  France  and  Great  Britain,  neither  party 
would  make  peace  without  consulting  the  other,  or  until  the  independ- 
ence of  the  United  States  should  be  acknowledged.  France  gave  up 
all  claim  to  Canada,  but  was  to  have  any  conquests  she  might  make  in 
the  West  Indies.  This  alliance  proved  a  godsend  to  the  American 
cause.  It  created  an  effective  diversion  against  Great  Britain ;  it 
opened  French  ports  to  American  privateers ;  it  brought  increased 
money,  supplies,  munitions  of  war,  powerful  fleets,  and  at  length  an 
army.  Furthermore,  it  breathed  enthusiasm  into  the  lukewarm  and 
despairing.  It  was  high  time,  for  the  situation  was  gloomy  enough. 
Finances  were  at  a  low  ebb ;  large  issues  of  paper  money  had  disor- 
ganized prices  and  gravely  damaged  public  credit;  enlistments  had 
fallen  off  woefully,  and  it  was  difficult  to  pay  the  soldiers  who  remained 
in  the  service ;  Congress  was  at  odds  with  the  army,  and  the  officers 
were  intriguing  and  quarreling  among  themselves.  Now,  at  last,  the 
steadfastness  of  Washington  and  those  who  supported  him  was  to  be 
rewarded. 

The  Party  Situation  in  England.  The  Death  of  Chatham,  1778.  - 
The  American  disaster,  while  it  aroused  various  individuals  and  cities 
to  raise  troops,  encouraged  the  Opposition  to  renewed  attacks  against 
the  Government.  Their  force  was  greatly  weakened,  however,  by  a 
sharp  difference  in  policy.  Chatham,  though  continuing  to  urge 
extreme  concessions,  stopped  short  at  independence,  while  the  Rock- 
ingham  party  were  now  ready  to  grant  even  that.  North,  who  had 
carried  on  the  war  for  years  against  his  better  judgment,  after  begging 
in  vain  that  the  King  allow  him  to  resign,  finally  introduced  and  car- 
ried a  conciliation  bill  conceding  practically  all  that  Chatham  had 
advocated.  Commissioners  were  sent  to  America;  but  Congress, 
now  backed  by  France,  would  listen  to  no  terms  which  did  not  include 
recognition  of  independence,  and  when  the  commissioners  appealed 
to  the  people  in  an  ill-advised  manifesto,  they  only  met  with  rebuff. 
The  Court  party  in  its  straits  had  already  made  overtures  to  Chatham, 
who  might  have  had  some  influence  with  the  revolutionists,  but  he 
would  take  no  steps  without  an  "  entire  new  Cabinet."  George  III 
replied  stolidly  that  "  no  advantage  to  the  country  nor  personal 
danger  to  himself  would  make  him  stoop  to  the  Opposition."  Now- 
adays such  action  would  be  impossible ;  but  for  the  time  being  the 
King  had  arrested  the  growth  of  responsible  Cabinet  government. 
He  showed  an  obstinacy  equal  to  that  of  the  Stuarts  though  his  posi- 
tion was  not  the  same;  for  he  had  a  majority  in  Parliament,  even 
though  it  was  held  together  by  corrupt  methods  unknowr^in  their 
days.  Yet  George  cannot  be  wholly  blamed,  for  the  Opposition  was 
bitter,  it  rejoiced  unpatriotically  at  the  American  successes,  and 

1  The  name  assumed  by  the  Colonies  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 


772  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

obstructed  his  military  plans.  The  majority,  to  be  sure,  had  laudable 
reasons  for  desiring  the  failure  of  the  King's  war,  some  because  they 
thought  it  unrighteous,  others  because  it  would  break  down  the  royal 
ascendancy,  force  upon  the  Crown  a  Ministry  of  the  people,  and  put 
an  end  to  the  regime  of  corruption.  Naturally  George  could  not  see 
this.  On  the  other  hand,  many  supported  his  policy  from  a  sincere 
feeling  that  the  greatness  of  England  depended  upon  the  retention 
of  the  Colonies  even  by  force.  On  7  April,  1778,  Chatham,  broken  by 
illness,  appeared  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  made  his  last  speech, 
which  was  an  earnest  plea  against  conceding  American  sovereignty 
and  yielding  to  the  claims  of  France.  In  the  midst  of  the  debate  he 
fell  in  a  fit  and  was  taken  home,  where  he  died,  1 1  May.  Thus  passed 
the  "  great,  illustrious,  faulty  being  "  who  had  achieved  so  much  for 
England.  His  death  made  for  a  partial  unity  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Opposition. 

The  Military  and  Naval  Events  of  1778-1779.  —  Clinton,  who  had 
succeeded  Howe  as  Commander-in-chief,  evacuated  Philadelphia, 
1 8  June,  1778,  and  hastened  to  New  York  to  meet  an  expected  French 
attack.  In  July,  a  fleet  under  D'Estaing  arrived,  but,  after  failing 
in  an  attack  on  Newport,  departed  for  the  West  Indies,  without  at- 
tempting anything  further.  The  center  of  the  war  now  shifted  to  the 
Southern  Colonies.  In  November,  Clinton  sent  a  British  force  to 
Georgia,  which  captured  Savannah,  overran  the  whole  Province,  and 
opened  the  way  for  an  invasion  of  South  Carolina  before  the  close  of 
the  year.  In  the  West  Indies,  the  advantage  lay  with  the  French 
during  the  years  1778  and  1779.  In  spite  of  the  skill  of  her  officers 
and  the  boldness  of  her  sailors,  Great  Britain  was  failing  to  maintain 
her  supremacy  at  sea.  This  was  due  to  the  sad  state  into  which  the 
naval  administration  had  fallen  since  the  last  war,  and  to  the  abandon- 
ment of  Pitt's  policy  of  striking  at  the  fleets  of  the  enemy  before  they 
got  to  sea.  On  12  April,  1779,  Spain  joined  France  in  an  alliance 
against  Great  Britain,  and  declared  war,  16  June.  Her  first  step  was 
to  attempt  the  recovery  of  Gibraltar  which,  however,  was  ably  de- 
fended by  General  Eliott  during  a  memorable  three  years'  siege. 
Though  the  combined  French  and  Spanish  fleets  were  unable  to  effect 
their  aim  of  destroying  British  commerce,  American  privateers  proved 
very  troublesome.  It  is  estimated  that  by  the  end  of  1778  they  had 
taken  over  a  thousand  merchant  ships.  Privateering  kept  many  from 
enlisting  in  the  regular  service,  drew  others  from  the  farm  and  the 
shop,  but  it  weakened  the  enemy,  brought  much  money  into  the 
country,  and  helped  to  keep  up  enthusiasm  for  the  war.  A  most 
notable  exploit  was  that  of  John  Paul  Jones,  a  Scottish  adventurer  in 
the  American  service,  who,  23  September,  1779,  while  cruising  off  the 
coast  of  Scotland,  attacked  a  fleet  of  British  merchantmen  convoyed 
by  the  Serapis  and  the  Countess  of  Scarborough.  He  compelled  the 
two  men-of-war  to  strike,  though  the  merchantmen  escaped.  His 
ship  the  Bonhomme  Richard,  an  old  French  East  Indiaman  made 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  773 

over,  sank  the  next  day.     Washington  spent  the  year  above  New  York, 
quietly  watching  Clinton. 

The  English  Situation.  The  Gordon  Riots,  1780. —  The  North 
administration  was  beginning  to  lose  strength,  and  the  people  were 
growing  weary  of  war  taxes.  On  6  April,  1780,  Dunning,  an  Opposi- 
tion member,  succeeded  in  carrying  a  resolution  in  the  Commons  — 
"  that  the  influence  of  the  Crown  has  increased,  is  increasing,  and  ought 
to  be  diminished."  In  the  House  of  Lords,  the  Duke  of  Richmond  was 
urging  manhood  suffrage  and  annual  parliaments.  Such  was  the 
situation  when  a  sudden  wave  of  anti-Roman  Catholic  fanaticism 
swept  over  the  country.  In  1778,  Sir  George  Savile  had  carried  a  bill 
in  Parliament  "  enabling  Catholics  who  abjured  the  temporal  juris- 
diction of  the  Pope  to  purchase  and  inherit  land  and  freeing  their 
priests  from  liability  to  imprisonment."  A  similar  measure  for  Scot- 
land was  defeated,  owing  to  a  violent  popular  outcry  which  manifested 
itself  in  riots  at  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh.  This  encouraged  a  number 
of  bigots  in  England  to  form  a  Protestant  Association  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Lord  George  Gordon,  a  half-crazed  scion  of  a  noble  Scottish 
house.  On  2  June  he  marched  to  Westminster  at  the  head  of  60,000 
persons,  bearing  a  monster  petition  demanding  the  repeal  of  Savile's 
Relief  Act.  The  firm  refusal  of  Parliament  led  to  a  furious  uprising, 
and,  from  the  2d  to  the  7th,  mob  violence  reigned  in  the  City.1  Some 
who  took  part  were  honest  fanatics,  but  the  majority  were  the  crim- 
inal and  disorderly  class  bent  more  on  plunder  than  the  safeguarding 
of  religion.  They  sacked  Roman  Catholic  chapels  and  the  houses  of 
those  who  favored  the  Relief  Act,  they  invaded  wine  cellars,  dram- 
shops, and  distilleries,  smashed  open  casks  of  raw  spirits  and  drank  the 
fiery  contents  as  it  flowed  in  the  streets.  They  broke  into  prisons, 
released  the  inmates,  and  the  terrifying  rumor  spread  that  they  were 
going  to  free  the  lunatics  from  Bedlam  2  and  the  lions  from  the  Tower. 
The  authorities  seemed  paralyzed,  peaceful  citizens  were  obliged  to 
wear  blue  cockades  3  and  join  in  the  cry  "  No  Popery!  "  to  protect 
their  lives  and  property.  The  man  who  finally  arose  to  the  occasion 
was  King  George,  who  declared  that  there  was  at  least  one  magistrate 
who  would  do  his  duty.  By  a  royal  Order  in  Council  the  King's 
troops  and  the  militia  were  called  out  and  they  dispersed  the  rioters. 
Of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  prisoners  brought  to  trial  twenty-one 
were  executed.  Gordon  was  acquitted  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
not  anticipated  the  outrages  arising  from  his  foolish  demonstration.4 
Smaller  riots  took  place  in  Bristol,  Hull,  and  Bath,  but  the  Govern- 
ment stood  by  its  Relief  Act.  The  whole  affair  is  a  curious  example 

1  Dickens  has  told  the  story  in  a  popular  and  graphic  fashion  in  Barnaby  Rudge. 

2  A  popular  corruption  of  St.  Mary  of  Bethlehem.     The  asylum  was  originally 
a  priory. 

3  Symbol  of  the  Association. 

4  He  ended  a  very  chequered  career  in  Newgate  in  1793,  dying  in  the  Jewish 
faith. 


774  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  belated  bigotry  and  of  the  weakness  of  the  public  authorities.1 
The  riots,  however,  did  something  to  strengthen  the  Government; 
for  they  discredited  popular  agitation  to  which  the  Whigs  had  ap- 
pealed, and  united  the  forces  of  law  and  order  in  support  of  the  exist- 
ing system. 

The  Armed  Neutrality.  —  In  1778,  France  had  adopted  a  novel 
principle  in  maritime  law,  namely,  that  the  goods  of  neutral  powers 
trading  with  belligerents  were  exempt  from  seizure,  provided  they  were 
not  contraband  of  war.  Holland,  because  of  her  great,  carrying  trade, 
•welcomed  this  innovation,  as  did  Frederick  the  Great;  for  he  saw 
that  it  would  weaken  Great  Britain,  who  had  always  exercised  freely 
the  right  of  seizure  of  ships  engaged  in  commerce  with  her  enemies. 
Early  in  1780,  Catherine  of  Russia  was  induced  to  issue  a  declaration 
asserting,  in  addition  to  the  above  principles,  that  only  specified 
goods  were  contraband  and  that  blockades  to  be  binding  must  be 
effectual.  On  the  basis  of  this  declaration  —  accepted  by  France, 
Spain,  and  the  Americans  —  Denmark,  Sweden,  Prussia,  and  the  Em- 
peror joined  her  in  a  league  of  "  armed  neutrality."  Great  Britain, 
thus  isolated,  found  it  necessary  henceforth  to  deal  cautiously  with 
neutral  ships,  since  she  was  dependent  upon  the  Baltic  powers  for 
naval  stores.  Fortunately,  Catherine  was  not  unfriendly,  and  jo- 
cosely referred  to  the  league  as  the  "  armed  nullity."  It  was  a  gain 
rather  than  a  misfortune  that  Great  Britain  added  Holland  to  the 
list  of  her  enemies  by  declaring  war  on  her  20  December,  1780.  She 
had  been  supplying  France,  Spain,  and  the  Americans  with  military 
and  naval  stores  and  had  allowed  privateers  to  fit  and  to  sell  prizes  in 
her  ports.  Her  navy  was  not  strong,  and,  since  she  was  no  longer  a 
neutral,  her  commerce  and  her  colonies  could  be  attacked  with  im- 
punity. 

The  War  in  1780-1781.  The  Southern  Campaign.  —  Early  in 
1780,  Clinton  went  South  in  person  and  attacked  Charleston,  which 
surrendered,  12  May.  Leaving  Corn  walk's,  who  soon  overran  the 
greater  part  of  South  Carolina,  he  returned  to  New  York,  for  another 
French  fleet  was  under  way,  laden  with  troops  to  assist  Washington. 
The  year,  however,  was  a  gloomy  one  for  the  Americans  in  the  North 
as  well  as  in  the  South.  Washington's  army  had  spent  the  winter  of 
1779-1780  at  Morristown,  exposed  to  rigorous  weather  and  "  con- 
stantly on  the  point  of  starving  " ;  the  French  squadron  which  ar- 
rived in  July  with  6000  troops  under  the  command  of  Rochambeau 
was  blockaded  in  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  by  a  British  fleet  and  did 
nothing ;  the  paper  money  issued  by  Congress  had  so  depreciated  that 
a  hundred  dollars  in  bills  was  only  worth  one  of  gold,  and  France  was 
so  nearly  bankrupt  that  her  Chief  Minister,  Vergennes,  suggested  a 
truce.  In  September,  1780,  Benedict  Arnold,  after  an  unsuccessful 

1  "Our  danger  is  at  an  end,"  wrote  the  historian  Gibbon,  "but  our  disgrace  will 
be  lasting,  and  the  month  of  June,  1 780,  will  ever  be  marked  by  a  dark  and  diabolical 
fanaticism  which  I  supposed  to  be  extinct." 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  775 

attempt  to  betray  West  Point  on  the  Hudson  to  the  British,  fled  to 
the  enemy's  camp  and  received  a  commission  in  the  King's  army.1 
For  the  remainder  of  the  war  the  decisive  fighting  was  in  the  Southern 
Colonies  and  on  the  sea.  General  Gates,  who  had  been  overwhelm- 
ingly defeated  at  Camden  in  South  Carolina,  16  August,  was  super- 
seded in  December  by  Nathaniel  Greene,  one  of  Washington's 
favorites,  and  perhaps  his  ablest  officer.  Though  unsuccessful  in 
winning  battles,  he  had  the  genius  of  William  of  Orange  for  wag- 
ing victorious  campaigns.2  Aided  by  bands  of  irregular  forces 
under  independent  leaders  like  Sumter  and  Marion,  he  gained 
ground  steadily.  In  May,  1781,  Cornwallis,  after  a  series  of  Pyrrhic 
victories,  marched  into  Virginia  to  join  a  British  force  which  Clinton 
had  sent  to  that  Province.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  the  forces 
which  he  left  behind  had  abandoned  everything  in  the  Carolinas 
except  Charleston.3 

The  Struggle  for  the  Command  of  the  Sea.  —  With  the  British 
armies  divided  between  New  York  and  Virginia,  the  command  of  the 
sea  proved  a  deciding  issue.  In  the  spring  of  1780  the  English  Ad- 
miral Rodney  arrived  in  the  West  Indies.  Owing  to  the  inability  of 
his  officers  to  understand  his  signals,  he  failed  to  crush  a  French  fleet 
under  De  Guichen,  after  which  he  sailed  for  the  New  York  station, 
where  he  committed  a  serious  blunder  in  not  destroying  the  squadron 
blockaded  in  Newport.  Although  a  brave  and  able  officer,  he  was  an 
old  man,  enfeebled  by  sickness  and  dissipation,  whose  misfortunes 
and  mistakes  proved  very  costly  in  this  critical  period.  On  3  Feb- 
ruary, 1731,  he  seized  the  Dutch  island  of  St.  Eustatius,  a  rich  entrepot 
for  the  French,  English,  and  American  traders  alike.  In  his  anxiety 
to  guard  his  booty  he  allowed  a  fleet  from  Brest  under  De  Grasse  to 
reach  the  American  coast  in  August,  1781. 

The  Surrender  of  Cornwallis,  19  October,  1781.  —  It  was  a  time 
when  "  some  splendid  advantage  was  essentially  necessary  ...  to 
revive  the  expiring  hopes  and  languid  exertions  of  the  country,"  when 
the  "  poor  old  currency  was  breathing  its  last  gasp."  Assured  of  the 
cooperation  of  De  Grasse,  Washington  and  Rochambeau  now  ar- 
ranged a  joint  movement  against  the  British.  Washington  wanted  to 
strike  at  Clinton  in  New  York ;  but  yielded  to  the  French,  who  pre- 
ferred to  direct  their  efforts  against  Cornwallis  in  Virginia.  He  man- 
aged to  deceive  Clinton  as  to  their  intentions  by  letters  meant  to  be 
intercepted.  Supported  by  the  King  and  his  Ministers,  Cornwallis 
had  marched  into  Virginia  against  the  wishes  of  his  superior  officer, 
who  wanted  him  to  remain  in  the  Carolinas  until  he  had  conquered 

1  Major  Andr6,  who  acted  as  Clinton's  agent  in  the  negotiations  was  captured, 
tried  by  court  martial,  and  hanged  as  a  spy.     He  has  had  many  sympathetic  advo- 
cates, but  it  is  now  generally  agreed  that  his  trial  was  fair,  his  sentence  just,  and  that 
Washington  only  did  his  duty  in  refusing  to  mitigate  it. 
1  "We  fight,"  he  said,  "get  beat  and  fight  again." 
3  The  British  held  Charleston  and  Savannah  till  the  end  of  the  war. 


776  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

them  completely.  As  the  result  of  a  misunderstanding,  due  to  this 
difference  of  opinion,  Cornwallis  concentrated  his  forces  at  Yorktown 
on  a  tongue  of  land  between  the  mouths  of  the  York  and  James  Rivers, 
where  he  could  be  easily  bottled  up.  Admiral  Graves,1  who  sailed 
south  in  pursuit  of  the  French  fleet  from  Rhode  Island,  found  De  Grasse 
blocking  the  Chesapeake  and  was  so  roughly  handled  that  he  went 
back  to  New  York  to  refit.  Cornwallis,  cut  off  from  all  help  from  the 
sea,  surrendered  to  Washington  and  Rochambeau,  19  October,  1781. 
On  that  same  day  Graves  had  again  left  New  York,  bearing  on  board  a 
relieving  army  under  Clinton.  Finding  that  they  were  too  late,  they 
turned  back.  The  catastrophe  at  Yorktown  was  due  to  four  causes : 
to  the  conflict  of  opinion  between  Clinton  and  Cornwallis ;  to  the  un- 
tenable position  which  Cornwallis  selected;  to  the  fact  that  Clinton 
allowed  himself  to  be  deceived  by  Washington ;  and  to  the  failure  of 
the  British  admirals  to  secure  the  command  of  the  sea.  It  sealed  the 
fate  of  the  war. 

The  Resignation  of  North,  20  March,  1782.  —  The  King  received  the 
news  with  his  accustomed  fortitude,  and  stubbornly  insisted  on  con- 
tinuing the  fight,  but  North  now  gave  up  all  hope.  Various  reverses 
followed :  Minorca  was  lost  in  February,  and  by  spring  the  French 
had  secured  many  of  the  West  India  Islands.  The  peace  party  grew 
to  be  overwhelming  in  Parliament  and  throughout  the  country :  the 
Opposition  combined  forces  against  the  Government,  and,  20  March, 
North,  after  barely  escaping  a  vote  of  want  confidence,  announced  his 
resignation.  George  was  so  appalled  that  he  talked  of  retiring  to 
Hanover.  Although  they  had  acted  together  for  the  moment,  there 
were  still  two  parties  in  the  Opposition.  Lord  Shelburne  led  the  old 
Chatham  Whigs  opposed  to  party  connection  and  American  inde- 
pendence, while  Rockingham,  backed  by  Burke  and  Charles  James 
Fox,  stood  for  both  of  these  policies.  As  the  lesser  of  two  evils,  George 
invited  Shelburne  to  form  a  Ministry,  but,  realizing  that  he  could  not 
get  one  without  the  Rockinghamites,  Shelburne  refused.  George  was 
finally  forced  to  accept  Rockingham  as  Prime  Minister,  though  he 
refused  to  negotiate  with  him  personally.  Shelburne  was  made 
Secretary  for  Home  and  Colonial  affairs  and  Charles  James  Fox 
became  Foreign  Secretary.  Burke  had  to  content  himself  with  the 
office  of  Paymaster  of  the  Forces.  By  a  curious  compromise  that 
would  be  no  longer  possible  the  Tory  Lord  Thurlow  2  was  retained 
as  Lord  Chancellor. 

The  Second  Rockingham  Ministry,  March- July,  1782,  and  its  Work. 
• —  The  new  Ministry,  in  spite  of  the  royal  attempt  to  thwart  its  efforts, 
accomplished  much  during  its  brief  tenure  of  power.  Contractors 
were  excluded  from  the  House  of  Commons  and  revenue  officers  were 

1  He  had  with  him  a  portion  of  the  West  India  fleet  under  Hood  sent  by  order  of 
Rodney,  who  had  gone  home  on  sick  leave. 

2  One  of  his  great  assets  was  his  imposing  appearance.     Burke  once  said  that 
no  one  could  be  as  great  as  he  looked. 


THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  777 

deprived  of  the  right  to  vote.1  Burke,  after  having  tried  for  years, 
succeeded  at  length  in  carrying  a  measure  of  economical  reform. 
While  far  short  of  what  he  desired  or  his  party  expected,  it  saved  the 
country  £72,000  a  year  by  the  abolition  of  useless  offices.  This 
Ministry  also  opened  the  peace  negotiations  and  granted  legislative 
independence  to  Ireland. 

The  Irish  Situation. —  Although  the  material  condition  of  the  people 
had  improved  during  the  century,  Ireland  was  in  a  pitiable  state  at 
the  opening  of  the  reign.  It  was  governed  as  a  subject  country.  It 
was  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  the  Navigation  Acts  and  from  all 
commerce  that  might  compete  with  that  of  England.  Greedy  agents 
and  middlemen  crushed  the  peasantry  with  heavy  rents  and  burdens, 
while  the  great  landlords  were  mostly  absentees.  Arable  lands  were 
turned  into  pasture,  and  rights  of  common  were  disregarded.  In- 
tense poverty  and  suffering  were  the  result.  Religious  grievances 
were  equally  acute.  Although  the  worst  provisions  of  the  penal  laws 
were  not  enforced,  Roman  Catholics  were  excluded  from  office,  from 
the  practice  of  law,  and  from  the  army.  The  poor  were  called  upon  to 
pay  tithes  for  the  support  of  the  Anglican  Establishment,  the  clergy 
of  which  were  indifferent  to  their  interests  and  whom  they  hated  as 
cordially  as  they  loved  their  own  ignorant  but  devoted  priests.  Par- 
liament represented  exclusively  the  Protestant  aristocratic  minority. 
The  management  of  affairs  was  in  the  hands  of  a  body  of  men  called 
"  undertakers,"  and  abuses  in  corruption  and  patronage  flourished 
rankly.  In  1761,  a  secret  organization,  known  as  Whiteboys,  from  the 
white  smocks  which  they  wore,  began  to  manifest  the  widespread 
resentment  against  enclosures  and  tithes  by  nocturnal  raids  in  which 
they  maimed  cattle,  destroyed  fences,  and  resorted  to  other  violence. 
They  were  eventually  put  down,  but  their  advent  marks  the  beginning 
of  secret  associations  and  armed  risings. 

The  Independence  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  1782.  — The  American 
war  exercised  a  marked  influence  on  the  situation.  The  reasons  were 
three :  heavier  taxes  and  the  closing  of  the  American  and  French 
markets  aroused  increased  discontent ;  the  example  of  the  American 
Colonists  stimulated  resistance ;  and  the  English  Government  was  too 
much  occupied  to  crush  it.  Pressed  by  their  leaders,  Grattan  and 
Flood,  Lord  North  in  1778  removed  a  few  of  the  restrictions  on  trade. 
He  would  have  gone  further  but  for  the  opposition  of  the  English 
manufacturing  interests.  Another  bill  was  passed  enabling  Catholics 
to  secure  leases  for  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  years,  and  even  to 
inherit  lands,  provided  they  were  not  converts.  As  a  means  of  secur- 
ing further  concessions,  non-importation  agreements  were  formed ;  but 
another  method  proved  more  effective.  The  war  had  necessitated 
the  removal  of  the  Irish  garrison.  To  supply  their  place  in  defending 

1  It  was  estimated  that  there  were  from  40,000  to  60,000  in  an  electorate  of 
300,000. 


778  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  country  from  attack  and  internal  disorder,  the  Irish  Protestants  l 
organized  into  bodies  of  volunteers.  While  thoroughly  loyal,  they  were 
masters  of  the  situation  and  insisted  on  their  demands.  In  conse- 
quence, the  English  Parliament,  at  North's  instigation,  removed  a 
number  of  the  remaining  shackles  in  1779-1780.  About  the  same  time 
a  bill  was  passed  freeing  the  Irish  Dissenting  Protestants  from  the 
sacramental  test  for  omceholding.2  Grattan  now  began  an  eloquent 
and  earnest  demand  for  legislative  independence.  This  was  finally 
granted  by  the  Rockingham  Ministry  in  May,  1782.  A  host  of 
grievances  still  existed  and  bitter  struggles  were  to  follow;  but 
something  had  been  gained. 

The  Revival  of  British  Sea  Power,  1782.  —  The  British  still  occupied 
New  York,  Charleston,  and  Savannah,  and  now  their  navy,  which  had 
at  length  been  brought  into  shape,  showed  itself  worthy  of  its  tradi- 
tions, even  those  of  the  days  of  Pitt.  On  12  April,  1782,  Rodney, 
having  returned  to  the  West  Indies,  engaged  De  Grasse,  who  was 
planning  to  join  the  Spanish  in  an  attack  on  Jamaica.  The  "  Battle 
of  the  Saints,"  so-called  because  it  was  fought  off  the  Isle  des  Saintes, 
is  notable  for  the  successful  employment  of  a  form  of  tactics  common 
in  the  Dutch  wrars  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Recently  revived, 
it  was  destined  to  be  used  with  great  effect  in  the  next  war  with  France. 
The  form  of  fighting  most  in  vogue  during  the  interval  had  been  to 
engage  the  enemy  ship  by  ship,  van  to  van,  center  to  center,  and  rear 
to  rear.  By  the  new  manceuver,  known  as  "  breaking  the  line,"  the 
British  ships  would  force  a  gap  somewhere  in  the  enemy's  line,  isolate 
a  portion  of  their  ships,  and  overwhelm  them  by  force  of  numbers.3 
At  the  Saints  the  French  line  was  cut  in  two  places  and  the  attack 
directed  against  the  center,  De  Grasse  was  captured,  together  with 
five  of  his  ships,  Jamaica  was  saved,  and  a  serious  blow  struck  at  the 
French  navy.  In  September,  Eliott  met  a  final  attack  on  Gibraltar 
with  admirable  skill  and  daring,  though  the  siege  was  not  finally  raised 
till  February,  1783,  after  the  close  of  the  war. 

Lord  Shelburne  (1737-1805).  — The  Rockingham  Cabinet  worked 
together  in  securing  domestic  reforms  and  granting  legislative  inde- 
pendence to  Ireland ;  but  a  split  came  over  its  chief  problem  —  the 
peace  negotiations.  This  was  due  to  the  strained  relations  between 
the  two  remarkable  men  who  dominated  all  the  others.  The  Earl  of 
Shelburne  had  passed  fourteen  years  in  opposition,  but  was  now  en- 
joying the  royal  favor  because  of  his  hostility  to  the  Rockingham 
wing.  He  was  a  progressive  thinker,  quite  in  advance  of  his  time  in 

1  Many  of  the  Catholics  would  have  joined  them,  but  they  were  prevented  at 
first  by  the  old  law  forbidding  them  to  bear  arms. 

2  It  was  not  till  1828  that  English  Dissenters  secured  this  concession. 

3  It  is  no  longer  believed  that  Rodney  was  responsible  for  the  revival  of  this 
form  of  fighting.     Howe  and  Kempenfelt  were  among  the  first  to  take  it  up,  while 
Rodney,  who  belonged  to  the  old  school,  opposed  it  for  some  time.     The  sinking  of 
Kempenfelt's  ship,  the  Royal  George,  at  Spithead,  19  August,  1782,  is  the  subject 
of  a  famous  poem  by  Cowper. 


THE   AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  779 

many  of  the  policies  which  he  advocated.  He  supported  parlia- 
mentary and  economical  reform,  free  trade,  and  the  protection  of 
neutrals ;  he  sympathized  with  the  principles  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion ;  and  was  one  of  the  first  statesmen  to  appreciate  the  rising  impor- 
tance of  the  middle  class.  In  spite  of  his  great  abilities  and  broad 
outlook  —  possibly  to  some  degree  because  of  them  —  he  was  perhaps 
the  most  unpopular  and  distrusted  public  man  of  his  time.  The 
aversion  with  which  he  was  regarded  was,  aside  from  jealousy,  due 
largely  to  his  undisguised  contempt  for  parties,  his  plausible  and 
insinuating  manner,  coupled  with  his  suspicious  nature  and  cynical 
estimate  of  the  motives  of  other  men.1 

Charles  James  Fox  (1749-1806).  —  Charles  James  Fox  was  the 
son  of  Henry  Fox,  Lord  Holland.  He  entered  Parliament  at  the  age 
of  nineteen  as  a  member  from  the  deserted  borough  of  Midhurst,  where 
his  father  bought  him  a  seat.  At  first  he  was  chiefly  noted  for  his 
extravagance,2  his  dissipation,  and  for  his  reckless  but  brilliant  opposi- 
tion to  all  liberal  measures.  In  1774  he  left  the  Tory  party  and  passed 
the  remainder  of  his  life  mostly  in  opposition,  as  an  ardent  champion 
of  popular  liberty.  Curiously  enough,  his  breach  with  the  King's 
party  was  based  rather  on  personal  grounds  than  on  those  of  broad 
general  policy.  His  estrangement  began  with  the  passage  of  the 
Royal  Marriage  Act  of  1772,  which  he  opposed  because  he  was  born  of 
a  runaway  match.  His  final  secession  was  due  to  his  dismissal  from 
the  Treasury  because  he  had  embarrassed  North  by  advocating  stronger 
measures  against  the  printers  than  the  prime  minister  cared  to  take. 
Then  he  joined  the  Rockingham  Whigs,  came  under  the  influence  of 
Burke,  and  opposed  the  war  against  the  Colonies,  as  well  as  most  of  the 
other  policies  of  the  King.  Much  can  be  urged  against  him  besides 
the  irregularities  of  his  private  life.  He  was  violent  in  his  attacks  on 
the  Government,  sometimes  even  forgetting  loyalty  to  his  country  in 
the  zeal  with  which  he  defended,  first  the  American  and  later  the  French 
Revolution.  Also,  he  was  deficient  in  qualities  of  statesmanship  and 
was  a  bad  party  manager.3  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  unusually 
gifted  as  a  debater,  with  the  rare  power  of  stripping  away  all  super- 
fluities and  penetrating  directly  to  the  heart  of  a  question.  He  had 
a  love  for  the  best  in  literature  which  the  riotousness  of  his  life  never 
blunted.  Moreover,  in  spite  of  his  hot  partisanship,  he  harbored  no 
personal  rancors.  His  nature  was  simple,  generous,  lovable,  and 
noble:  he  was  the  chivalrous  defender  of  the  unfortunate  and 
waged  unselfish  war  against  religious  intolerance  and  political  op- 
pression. 

1  There  is  a  famous  eulogy  of  Shelburne  in  Disraeli's  Sybil.    Disraeli  was  one 
of  his  few  admirers. 

2  His  father  before  his  death  paid  £140,000  to  meet  debts  which  his  son  had  con- 
tracted mainly  in  gambling. 

3  His  blunders  in  1 783-1 784  and  in  1 788  proved  especially  disastrous  to  his 
party. 


780  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Opening  of  the  Peace  Negotiations.  —  Aside  from  other  differ- 
ences, Shelburne  and  Fox  represented  opposing  policies.  Fox  wanted  to 
acknowledge  the  independence  of  the  Americans  immediately  in  order 
to  detach  them  from  the  French  alliance,  while  Shelburne  wanted  to 
make  the  acknowledgment  of  independence  one  of  the  conditions  of 
a  joint  treaty  with  the  Allies  as  a  means  of  obtaining  better  terms. 
The  question  was  complicated  from  the  fact  that,  so  long  as  Shelburne's 
view  prevailed,  he  remained  in  charge  of  the  American  negotiations 
as  Colonial  Secretary,  while  as  soon  as  the  United  States  was  acknowl- 
edged as  an  independent  power,  all  diplomatic  dealings  with  them 
would  pass  to  Fox  as  Foreign  Secretary.  Thomas  Grenville,  whom 
Fox  named  as  his  agent  to  treat  with  the  French  Minister  Vergennes 
at  Paris,  complained  that  he  was  hampered  by  Oswald,  the  represent- 
ative whom  Shelburne  had  sent  to  treat  informally  with  Franklin, 
and  that  the  Colonial  Secretary  was  concealing  from  the  Cabinet  a 
proposition  from  Franklin  concerning  the  cession  of  Canada.  Fox, 
furiously  indignant,  proposed,  30  June,  the  recognition  of  American 
independence  forthwith.  When  he  was  outvoted  in  the  Cabinet,  he 
threatened  to  resign.  The  very  next  day  Rockingham  died,  and 
George  III,  seizing  the  chance  to  break  the  power  of  the  party,  ap- 
pointed Shelburne  head  of  the  Ministry. 

The  Shelburne  Ministry,  July,  1782-February,  1783,  and  the  Com- 
pletion of  the  Peace  Negotiations.  —  It  was  now  possible  to  continue 
the  peace  negotiations  without  friction  in  the  Cabinet.  Shelburne, 
however,  soon  came  round  to  Fox's  policy  of  detaching  the  Americans 
from  the  French  alliance,  and,  to  that  end,  acknowledged  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States,  27  September,  1782.  Less  than  two 
months  after,  the  American  commissioners,  30  November,  without 
consulting  the  French  Minister,  signed  preliminaries  of  peace,  on  con- 
dition that  a  final  treaty  should  be  concluded  after  terms  had  been 
arranged  between  Great  Britain  and  France.  Owing  to  the  condi- 
tional nature  of  the  arrangement,  the  commissioners  cannot  be  fairly 
charged  with  violating  the  terms  of  the  alliance  of  1778.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  had  not  observed  their  instructions  from  Congress  to 
negotiate  only  in  harmony  with  the  French  Government.  Their 
justification  rests  on  the  fact  that  they  suspected,  with  good  reason, 
that  France  was  backing  Spain  in  an  effort  to  restrict  American 
boundaries  to  the  narrowest  geographical  limits,  and,  on  her  own  ac- 
count, was  anxious  to  exclude  the  new  country  from  Newfoundland 
fisheries.  Franklin,  devoted  as  he  was  to  the  French,  might  of  him- 
self have  been  shrewd  and  patriotic  enough  to  resist  these  designs, 
but  much  credit  is  due  to  John  Jay  and  John  Adams  who  joined  him 
in  July  and  October,  respectively.1  The  definitive  treaty  of  peace 

1  Jay  had  been  Minister  to  Spain,  where  he  had  learned  something  of  the  Spanish 
designs  as  well  as  of  the  acquiescence  of  France,  and  suspected  much  more.  Adams 
had  been  negotiating  a  treaty  with  Holland.  He  was  naturally  suspicious  of  the 
French,  and,  as  a  New  Englander,  was  profoundly  interested  in  the  fisheries. 


THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION  781 

between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  was  signed  at  Paris,  3 
September,  1783.  France  and  Spain  signed  their  treaty  with  the 
British  at  Versailles  on  the  same  day. 

The  Terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris.  —  The  chief  terms  of  the  Treaty 
of  Paris  were  the  following :  (i)  The  independence  of  the  United  States 
was  formally  acknowledged  and  the  boundaries  of  the  new  country 
defined.  (2)  The  United  States  was  to  have  the  right  to  fish  off  the 
banks  of  Newfoundland  and  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  as  well  as 
the  right  to  cure  fish  on  certain  specified  shores.  (3)  The  navigation 
of  the  Mississippi  was  to  be  open  to  both  countries.  (4)  Debts  con- 
tracted before  the  war  were  to  be  binding.  (5)  The  restitution  of  the 
confiscated  estates  of  loyalists  was  to  be  recommended  by  Congress 
to  the  several  states.1 

The  Treaty  of  Versailles.  —  France  received  certain  of  the  West 
India  Islands  and  restored  some  that  she  had  conquered.  In  Africa 
she  got  both  Senegal  and  Goree,  which  had  changed  hands  during  the 
war.  Her  rights  in  the  Newfoundland  fisheries  were  defined;  she 
received  the  islands  of  St.  Pierre  and  Miquelon  in  full  sovereignty, 
and  her  commercial  establishments  in  India  were  restored.  Spain  re- 
tained Minorca  and  West  Florida,  which  she  had  recently  conquered, 
and  Great  Britain  ceded  East  Florida  back  to  her.  On  her  part,  she 
restored  the  Bahama  Islands  and  confirmed  the  British  claim  to  cut 
logwood  about  the  Bay  of  Honduras. 

The  Defeat  of  the  King.  —  America,  although  she  emerged  from  the 
contest  poor  and  exhausted,  had  gained  almost  everything  for  which 
she  had  striven.  Great  Britain  had  lost  the  most  valuable  of  her 
colonies.  It  was  years,  however,  before  any  change  was  manifest  in 
the  principles  or  practice  of  her  colonial  system,  either  administrative 
or  economic.  Nevertheless,  at  subsequent  crises  in  her  constantly 
increasing  Empire,  she  showed  that  she  had  not  forgotten  the  costly 
lesson  which  she  had  learned.  The  more  immediate  result  was  at 
once  evident.  George's  system  of  personal  government  had  broken 
down,  and,  though  he  soon  shook  himself  free  from  the  hateful  dom- 
ination of  the  Whigs,  he  never  succeeded  in  reviving  his  ascendancy. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  William  Hunt,  Political  History  of  England,  1760-1801  (1905),  from  the 
Tory  standpoint,  chs.  I-XII  (annotated  list  of  authorities,  pp.  459-469) .  Robertson, 
England  under  the  Hanoverians,  "The  Reign  of  George  III,"  chs.  I,  II.  Cambridge 
Modern  History,  VI,  ch.  XIII  (bibliography,  pp.  902-912).  Bright,  History  of  Eng- 

1  Shelburne  could  obtain  no  better  terms  on  this  point.  Of  the  thousands  who 
left  the  country,  some  settled  in  Great  Britain ;  but  the  greater  part  established 
themselves  in  the  present  province  of  New  Brunswick  and  along  the  valley  of  the 
St.  Lawrence.  The  states  made  no  restitution,  and  Great  Britain  provided  for 
them  as  far  as  she  was  able.  Besides  grants  of  land,  pensions,  and  half  pay  to  officers, 
she  distributed  over  £3,000,000. 


782  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

land,  III,  pp.  1035-1112.  Stanhope,  History  of  England,  IV- VII.  Lecky,  England 
in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  III-V,  chs.  IX-XVI. 

Constitutional.  T.  E.  May  (Lord  Farnborough),  Constitutional  History  of  Eng- 
land since  the  Accession  of  George  III  (3  vols.,  the  edition  of  1912,  ed.  by  Francis 
Holland,  continues  the  work  to  191 1) ;  the  best  work  on  the  period ;  the  arrangement 
is  topical  and  not  chronological.  Taylor,  Origin  and  Growth,  II,  bk.  VII,  ch.  2, 
sees.  1-6. 

Biography.  The  lives  of  Chatham  cited  in  ch.  XLI  above.  Sir  G.  O.  Trevel- 
yan,  The  Early  Life  of  Charles  James  Fox  (1880) ;  goes  to  1774;  an  admirable  pic- 
ture of  the  life  of  the  period.  J.  Morley  (Viscount),  Burke,  a  Historical  Study  (1867) ; 
"the  best  estimate  of  Burke's  political  position."  Morley,  Edmund  Burke  (1879) 
is  a  brilliant  and  valuable,  sketch.  Lord  Edmund  Fitzmaurice,  Life  of  the  Earl  of 
Shelburne  (Marquis  of  Lansdowne)  (3  vols.,  1875-1876 ;  new  ed.,  1913),  while  aiming 
to  place  Shelburne  in  a  favorable  light,  is  a  distinct  contribution. 

Contemporary.  Horace  Walpole,  Letters  ( 1 6  vols. ,  ed.  Mrs.  P.  Toynbee,  1 903-1 905) . 
Walpole  is  the  acknowledged  prince  of  English  letter  writers.  His  Memoirs  of  the 
Reign  of  George  III,  1760-7772  (4  vols.,ed.  G.  F.  R.  Barker,  1894),  and  Journals  of 
the  Reign  of  George  111,1771-1783  (2  vols.,  ed.  Doran,  2  vols.  1859)  are  gossipy  and 
Whig  in  sympathy,  but  are  the  records  of  a  keen  observer.  N.  W.  Wraxall,  Histori- 
cal and  Poslumous  Memoirs,  1772-1784  (89)  (ed.  H.  B.  Wheatley,  2  vols.,  1884); 
garrulous  and  amusing.  Correspondence  of  George  III  with  Lord  North,  1768-1783 
(2  vols.,  1867,  ed.  W.  B.  Donne) ;  excellent  for  illustrating  George  Ill's  system  of 
personal  government.  Mme.  D'Arblay,  Diary  (7  vols.,  1854,  new  ed.  A.  Dobson) ; 
a  graphic  but  adverse  picture  of  life  at  the  court  of  George  III.  The  Letters  of 
Junius  (2  vols.,  1904). 

The  American  Revolution.  For  bibliography  see  Hunt,  465-466 ;  Cambridge 
Modern  History,  VII,  780-788.  The  latter  work,  chs.  V-VII,  contains  a  good  brief 
account  of  the  causes  and  course  of  the  Revolution.  E.  Channing,  History  of  the 
United  States  (1912),  vol.  Ill;  the  best  general  work  on  the  period.  John  Fiske, 
American  Revolution  (2  vols.,  1891)  is  a  very  readable,  popular  treatment.  Sir  G.  O. 
Trevelyan,  The  American  Revolution  (4  vols.,  published  1899-1912)  is  a  brilliant 
piece  of  writing  marked  by  the  Whig  sympathy  for  the  American  cause,  which  may 
be  used  to  check  the  Tory  bias  of  Hunt.  For  special  phases  of  the  subject  see : 
G.  L.  Beer,  Commercial  Policy  of  Great  Britain  toward  the  United  States  (1893)  and 
British  Colonial  Policy  (1907) ;  H.  E.  Egerton,  British  Colonial  Policy  (1898) ;  A.  L. 
Cross,  The  Anglican  Episcopate  and  the  American  Colonies  (1902) ;  C.  H.  Van  Tyne, 
The  Loyalists  in  the  American  Revolution  (1902). 

Military  and  naval.  Fortescue,  British  Army,  III.  Clowes,  Royal  Navy,  IV. 
Mahan,  Sea  Power,  chs.  IX-XIV. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  250-254.  Robertson, 
pt.  I,  nos.  XXXIV-XXXVII,  pt.  II,  nos.  XIV-XXI. 


CHAPTER  XLIV 

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  TO  THE  EVE  OF  THE  INDUS- 
TRIAL REVOLUTION 

Characteristics  of  the  Period.  —  The  three  most  significant  features 
of  the  century  following  the  Revolution  of  1688  were:  the  develop- 
ment of  Cabinet  and  party  government ;  the  expansion  of  England ; 
and  the  beginnings  of  the  Industrial  Revolution.  Of  these,  the  two 
former  have  already  been  considered  in  connection  with  the  political 
narrative.  In  many  respects  the  period  between  1688  and  1784  may 
be  considered  as  a  unit.  While  the  development  of  the  party  system 
was  not  finally  completed  until  the  reform  of  Parliament  gave  the 
people  a  full  share  of  representation,  the  Cabinet  had,  by  1760,  taken 
practically  its  modern  shape,  and  the  advent  of  the  younger  Pitt  to 
power,  twenty-four  years  later,  marked  the  end  of  the  efforts  of  George 
III  to  stop  its  growth.  If  Great  Britain's  position  as  a  World  Power 
was  not  secure  until  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon,  she  had,  by  1763, 
driven  the  French  out  of  Canada  and  become  the  dominant  power  in 
India,  and,  within  twenty  years,  the  American  Revolution  and  the 
teachings  of  Adam  Smith  had  contributed  to  break  up  the  old  colonial 
system,  to  discredit  its  principles,  and  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  more 
liberal  commercial  policy.  Still  ^ a  third  factor,  making  for  the  new 
laissez-faire  policy,  was  the  Industrial  Revolution  which  introduced 
machine  production  and  factories,  and  which  was  even  more  momen- 
tous in  its  consequences  than  the  great  political  upheaval  in  France. 
The  series  of  inventions  by  which  the  transformation  was  brought 
about  culminated,  about  1785,  in  the  application  of  the  steam  engine 
as  a  motive  power.  The  effect  in  changing  the  attitude  of  the  manu- 
facturer and  the  merchant  toward  the  traditional  trading  policy  is 
obvious.  With  superior  methods  of  production  they  realized  that 
they  could  supply  better  and  cheaper  goods  than  any  other 
European  country,  and  that,  with  unrestricted  competition,  they 
could  command  the  markets  of  the  world. 

Industrial  Development  previous  to  the  Great  Inventions.  —  The 
interval  between  the  Revolution  of  1688  and  the  era  of  machinery 
and  steam  was  not  without  evidences  of  industrial  progress,  iftuch 
of  this  was  due  to  the  Huguenots,  who,  fleeing  from  France,  introduced 
new  industries  and  improved  methods.  But  industries  and  processes 
which  came  into  conflict  with  those  already  established  were  bitterly 
opposed.  Furthermore,  native  workmen  manifested  stubborn  hos- 
tility to  the  competition  of  the  refugees  and  the  introduction  of  labor- 

783 


784  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

saving  devices.  Also,  there  was  a  growing  friction  between  labor  and 
capital ;  for  even  before  the  age  of  machinery  and  factories,  there 
were  evidences  of  the  rise  of  capitalism.  In  a  few  towns,  manufac- 
tures on  a  large  scale  had  appeared,  while,  even  in  the  country,  capi- 
talists had  begun  to  supply  the  domestic  workers  with  materials  as 
well  as  with  looms  and  stocking  frames.  The  purer  form  of  the 
domestic  system  survived  longest  in  Yorkshire,  where,  as  a  rule,  the 
spinners  and  weavers  owned  their  instruments  of  production,  pro- 
vided their  own  wool,  and  sold  their  cloth  to  traders  in  neighboring 
towns  or  at  periodical  markets  and  fairs.  Elsewhere,  however,  even 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  troubles  in  the  cloth  trade  indicate  that 
differences  were  developing  between  the  worker  and  the  capitalist 
owner.  These  had  gone  so  far  by  1718  that  a  proclamation  was 
issued  against  "  lawless  clubs,"  a  forerunner  of  the  later  measures 
against  trade  unions.  This  was  followed  by  an  act  of  Parliament 
(12  Geo.  I,  c.  3)  against  combinations  of  workmen;  but  this  did  not 
prevent  occasional  strikes,  one  of  which  occurred  at  Norwich  in  1754. 
The  wool  manufacturers  steadily  fought  their  rivals,  the  linen  manu- 
facturers, chiefly  strong  in  Ireland,  as  well  as  the  importers  and 
manufacturers  of  cotton. 

The  Cotton  Industry.  —  Cotton  products  in  the  form  of  calicoes, 
cambrics,  and  chintzes  were  originally  brought  from  India,  and  became 
speedily  popular  because  of  their  lightness  and  cheapness.  It  is 
difficult  to  say  when  the  manufacture  began  in  England,  since  the 
name  was  originally  applied  to  a  certain  type  of  wool  fabric.  The  first 
unequivocal  mention  in  literature  occurs  in  1641.  Toward  the  close 
of  the  century  those  interested  in  the  woolen  business,  having  become 
seriously  alarmed,  succeeded  in  arousing  great  popular  opposition, 
and  persons  who  wore  cottons  were  attacked  in  the  streets.  In  re- 
sponse to  numerous  petitions,  a  law  was  passed,  in  1 700,  prohibiting  the 
importation  of  these  fabrics,  while  another,  in  1721,  practically  for- 
bade the  use  of,  for  dress  or  furniture,  printed  or  dyed  goods  con- 
taining any  cotton.  But  the  public  demand  proved  too  strong  to  be 
resisted;  the  law  was  evaded,  and  an  act  of  1736  allowed  the  manufac- 
ture of  goods,  with  a  weft l  of  cotton,  provided  that  the  warp  was  of  linen 
yarn.  The  prohibition  of  pure  cotton  fabrics  was  not  removed  till 
1774.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  linen  warp  was  essential,  since  the  art 
of  spinning  a  sufficiently  tough  cotton  thread  for  the  purpose  was  for 
a  long  time  unknown.  The  chief  center  of  the  industry  was  in  and 
about  Manchester.  This  Lancashire  district  was  peculiarly  adapted 
for  the  industry ;  Liverpool  furnished  a  convenient  port  for  the  im- 
portation of  raw  cotton  from  India,  and,  more  particularly,  from  the 
American  Colonies,  which  soon  came  to  be  the  chief  source  of  supply, 
while  in  the  moist  climate  of  the  west  midlands  the  threads  were  less 
likely  to  break  than  in  dryer  regions. 

1  The  weft  consists  of  the  threads  running  from  side  to  side,  the  warp  of  those 
running  up  and  down. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  785 

The  Flying  Shuttle  and  the  Spinning  Jenny.  —  Although  it-  re- 
quired several  spinners  to  keep  one  weaver  supplied,  the  first  of  the 
new  inventions  was  an  improvement  in  the  hand  loom.  Hitherto, 
the  shuttle  which  carried  the  weft  had  to  be  transferred  from  one  hand 
of  the  weaver  to  the  other  as  it  passed  through  the  warp.  Not  only 
was  the  process  slow  and  cumbersome,  but,  owing  to  the  shortness  of 
the  human  arm,  breadths  of  cloth  wider  than  three  quarters  of  a  yard 
had  to  be  woven  by  two  persons.  This  was  remedied  by  a  mechanical 
device,  known  as  the  "  flying  shuttle,"  patented  by  John  Kay  in  1733, 
by  which  the  shuttle  was  thrown  from  side  to  side  along  a  board.  As 
a  result,  the  inequality  between  the  weavers  and  the  spinners  was 
greater  than  ever.  Kay  and  others  busied  themselves  with  the 
problem  of  improving  the  process  of  spinning;  but  no  practical  re- 
sults were  achieved  until  James  Hargreaves,  about  1764,  invented  the 
spinning  jenny  with  which  eight  spindles  could  be  worked  in  a  row. 
Moreover,  the  machine  was  so  simple  that  a  child  could  run  it.  At 
his  death,  in  1778,  there  are  said  to  have  been  20,000  jennies  in  opera- 
tion with  eighty  spindles  each.  Both  Kay  and  Hargreaves  were  at- 
tacked by  angry  mobs  of  artisans,  who  furiously  insisted  that  bread 
was  being  snatched  from  their  mouths.  Kay  died  in  poverty  on  the 
Continent,  and  Hargreaves  got  only  an  inadequate  return  for  his 
invention. 

The  Water  Frame  and  the  Beginning  of  the  Factory  System.  —  The 
spinning  jenny  was  worked  by  hand.  It  had  scarcely  appeared  when 
Richard  Arkwright  (1732-1792)  put  into  practical  operation  a  spin- 
ning machine  which  came  to  be  known  as  the  "water  frame,"  though 
it  was  first  worked  by  horse  power.  Aside  from  the  more  effective 
motive  force,  it  had  a  further  advantage  of  spinning  a  harder  and 
firmer  thread  than  Hargreaves'  jenny.  Arkwright  began  as  a 
barber's  apprentice  and  later  became  a  hair  merchant.  During  the 
course  of  his  visits  to  rural  cottages  he  came  to  realize  the  need  of 
improved  processes  of  manufacture.  Since  he  was  absolutely  without 
mechanical  training,  he  sought  the  aid  of  a  clock  maker  who  showed 
him  the  model  of  one  Thomas  Highe,  which  he  proceeded  to  appropriate. 
Obtaining  his  first  patent  in  1769,  he  at  once  erected  a  spinning  mill, 
and,  in  1775,  "patented  a  series  of  adaptations  for  performing  on  one 
machine  the  whole  process  of  yarn  manufacture."  Unscrupulous  in 
making  use  of  the  inventions  of  others,  he  was  energetic  and  resource- 
ful in  developing  previous  processes,  as  well  as  in  enlisting  capital  for 
his  enterprises,  and  left  a  fortune  of  £600,000.  A  forerunner  of  the 
modern  captain  of  industry,  he  was,  more  than  any  other  single  man, 
the  founder  of  the  factory  system.  The  spinning  mule  of  Samuel 
Crompton  (1753-1827),  invented  1779,  combined  the  best  features 
of  the  jenny  and  the  water  frame,  and,  in  addition,  spun  a  thread 
finer  and  stronger  than  had  hitherto  been  possible.  The  art  of  spin- 
ning was  now  far  in  advance  of  the  art  of  weaving,  but  the  water  loom 
of  Edmund  Cartwright  (1743-1823)  —  a  machine  which  he  patented 


786  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  1 785  —  restored  the  balance.  Cartwright  was  a  clergyman,  and 
the  idea  of  undertaking  the  invention  was  suggested  to  him  by  a  chance 
conversation  with  a  group  of  Manchester  gentlemen  who  were  visiting 
some  cotton  mills  near  Matlock.  Having  no  mechanical  training 
himself,  he  got  a  cabinet  maker  and  a  smith  to  aid  him.  Unlike  Ark- 
wright,  however,  his  plans  were  his  own ;  he  was  also  unlike  Arkwright 
in  that  he  had  no  capacity  for  money  making.  Another  momentous 
invention  of  1785  was  that  of  cylinder  printing  which  multiplied  a 
hundred  fold  the  printing  of  calico,  formerly  done  by  hand.  The  im- 
proved processes  of  spinning  and  weaving  were  first  employed  in  the 
cotton  manufacture,  and  were  only  slowly  adapted  in  the  woolen 
industry. 

The  Pottery  and  Iron  Industries.  —  The  second  half  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  also  marks  an  era  in  the  pottery  industry.  Chelsea 
china  became  famous  in  the  first  half  of  the  century,  and  the  manu- 
facture of  earthenware  was  already  started  in  Staffordshire ;  but  the 
finest  work  was  done  abroad  till  Josiah  Wedgewood  (1730-1795)  be- 
gan to  produce  his  wares.  He  started  as  a  poor  boy  in  the  potteries 
of  Burslem.  In  1759,  he  opened  works  of  his  own,  and  ten  years  later 
he  established  his  famous  manufacturing  village  of  Etruria.  Relying 
upon  the  superiority  of  his  product,  he  only  took  out  one  patent  in 
his  lifetime.  Besides  pottery  for  practical  use  he  produced  works  of 
exquisite  art,  and  not  only  gained  the  English  market,  but  invaded 
the  Continent,  whither  he  exported  five  sixths  of  his  wares.  The  prog- 
ress of  the  iron  manufacture  was  for  a  long  time  seriously  hampered 
from  the  fact  that  charcoal  was  used  in  smelting,  and  there  was  a  great 
outcry  against  depleting  the  forests  for  this  purpose.  In  1735,  Abram 
Darby  began  to  use  coke.  The  next  stage  in  iron  manufacturing 
came  in  1760,  when  the  Carron  works  were  erected  in  Stirlingshire 
under  the  superintendence  of  John  Roebuck  (1718-1794),  who  intro- 
duced blast  furnaces  supplied  by  pit  coal.  In  less  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  the  processes  of  puddling  and  rolling  iron  had  been  put  into 
operation.  From  the  time  when  pit  coal  began  to  be  employed  the 
output  of  iron  steadily  increased,  though  it  was  only  after  the  employ- 
ment of  steam  engines  to  work  the  blast  furnaces  that  real  progress 
began. 

Canal  Transportation.  —  Improved  facilities  for  transportation,  due 
to  the  construction  of  canals,  contributed  vastly  to  the  increasing 
industrial  development.  Canals  with  locks  had  long  been  in  use  on 
the  Continent ;  but  it  was  not  till  1761  that  the  first  one  was  opened  in 
England.  It  connected  the  coal  mines  of  the  Duke  of  Bridgewater 
with  Manchester,  seven  miles  distant.  While  the  funds  were  provided 
by  the  Duke,1  the  actual  construction  was  due  to  the  genius  of  his 

1  The  story  of  the  Bridgewater  Canal  is  one  of  the  accidents  of  history.  On  his 
return  from  the  grand  tour,  he  became  engaged  to  a  famous  beauty,  the  widowed 
Duchess  of  Hamilton ;  but  they  quarreled,  the  engagement  was  broken,  and  the 
Duke  went  to  his  Worsley  estates  and  devoted  his  vast  wealth  and  exhaustless 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  787 

steward,  James  Brindley  (1716-1782),  a  man  without  any  advantages 
of  early  education.  Some  of  his  engineering  feats,  such  as  carrying 
the  canal  over  a  river  by  an  aqueduct  thirty-nine  feet  high,  made  him 
seem  a  magician  to  his  contemporaries.  From  Manchester  he  extended 
the  canal  to  the  Mersey,  thus  uniting  by  a  water  route  the  growing 
manufacturing  center  to  Liverpool,  destined  to  become  the  greatest 
of  Atlantic  ports.  Brindley,  before  his  death,  had  designed  nearly 
four  hundred  miles  of  canal,  the  Grand  Trunk  being  among  the  works 
which  he  projected  but  did  not  live  to  finish.  In  1790,  a  chain  of  water 
routes  was  completed  by  which  the  four  great  ports  of  London,  Hull, 
Bristol,  and  Liverpool  were  connected,  and  the  same  year  marked  the 
opening  of  the  canal  between  the  Forth  and  the  Clyde.  Before  the 
advent  of  the  railways  more  than  2600  miles  of  canals  had  been  con- 
structed in  England  alone.  In  view  of  the  miserable  condition  of  the 
roads,  the  effect  of  the  new  system  of  transportation,  which  decreased 
the  cost  of  carriage  about  seventy-five  per  cent,  was  incalculable. 
Markets  were  extended,  and  coal,  iron,  stone,  and  other  heavy  mate- 
rials, could,  for  the  first  time,  be  utilized  at  considerable  distances 
from  the  center  of  supply.  The  potteries  profited  greatly ;  for,  in  the 
case  of  this  brittle  ware,  safety  as  well  as  cheapness  had  to  be  consid- 
ered. 

James  Watt  and  the  Steam  Engine.  —  The  final  stage  in  the  Indus- 
trial Revolution  came  with  the  introduction  of  the  steam  engine  for 
running  machinery  in  mills  l  and  factories.  Although  Hero  of  Alex- 
andria is  reputed  to  have  devised,  in  the  third  century  B.C.,  a  steam 
engine,  it  was  not  till  the  very  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  the 
expansion  of  steam  was  practically  applied.  In  1698,  Thomas  Savery 
patented  a  steam  pump  for  raising  water  from  mines.  Seven  years 
later,  Thomas  Newcomen,  a  blacksmith,  put  into  operation  a  cheaper 
and  more  effective  engine.  For  three  quarters  of  a  century  steam 
power  was  used  only  for  pumping.  It  was  the  genius  of  James  Watt 
(1736-1819)  that  transformed  it  into  a  genuine  motive  force.  Watt 
was  the  son  of  a  Scotch  shipwright.  He  became  instrument  maker 
to  the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  developed  not  only  great  manual 
dexterity,  but  unusual  scientific  attainments  and  wide  culture.  With 
the  conscious  purpose  of  improving  upon  his  predecessors,2  he  mastered 
French,  Italian,  and  German,  in  order  to  familiarize  himself  with  the 
work  already  done  in  other  countries,  and  made  a  careful  study  of  the 
Newcomen  engine.  As  a  result,  he  developed  the  old  device  for  pump- 
ing up  and  down  into  an  impulse  for  circular  motion.  He  took  out 
his  earliest  patent  in  1769.  First  associated  with  Roebuck  in  the  con- 
struction of  improved  steam  engines,  he  joined  himself ,  after  Roebuck's 
failure  in  1773,  with  Matthew  Boulton,  who  had  a  great  manufacturing 

patience  to  the  canal  problem.  Had  he  married  and  settled  down  as  a  man  of 
fashion  in  London,  England  might  have  had  to  wait  for  years  for  her  canals. 

1  The  name  "mill"  is  a  curious  survival  from  the  days  of  water  power. 

2  The  old  story  about  the  tea  kettle  is  apparently  a  myth. 


788  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

works  at  Soho  near  Birmingham.  He  secured  his  second  patent  in 
1781,  but  he  and  Boulton  had  a  long  uphill  fight  in  the  face  of  mishaps, 
opposition  of  reactionaries  and  rivals,  and  infringements  on  patents. 
Success  finally  came,  and  Watt  opened  the  way  for  endless  possibilities 
in  production  and  distribution.  In  1785,  the  first  steam  spinning  ma- 
chine in  a  cotton  factory  was  set  up  at  Papplewick ;  the  example  was 
soon  followed  in  industries  of  all  sorts,  and  the  factory  system,  which 
was  destined  within  a  generation  to  make  England  the  workshop  of 
the  world,  had  entered  upon  its  modern  phase.1 

The  Effects  of  the  Factory  System.  —  The  effects  of  the  Industrial 
Revolution,2  for  good  or  ill,  were  tremendous.  One  of  the  most 
immediate  was  that  it  gave  the  country  resources  to  carry  on  another 
war  with  France  which  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon.  Then 
it  led  to  a  complete  transformation  of  the  condition  of  laborers.  Those 
who  had  hitherto  lived  in  the  country,  spinning  and  weaving  in  their 
own  cottages  and  generally  cultivating  a  little  farm  at  the  same  time, 
were  turned  into  factory  hands.  Another  result  was  the  shifting  of 
the  chief  area  of  population  from  the  south  and  east  to  the  midlands 
and  north.  Bare  moorlands,  dotted  with  small  villages,  began  to 
swarm  with  life,  crowded  towns  sprang  up,  and  the  air  was  blackened 
with  the  smoke  from  countless  chimneys.  The  moneyed  classes  had 
formerly  been  the  landowners,  the  merchants,  and  the  financiers  ;  now 
a  new  class  emerged  —  the  capitalist  manufacturer  —  destined  to  at- 
tain great  social  and  political  influence.  Some  were  cultivated  men 
like  Boulton  and  Wedgewood;  others  were  grinding  taskmasters. 
Much  good  came  from  multiplying  the  conveniences  of  life ;  moreover, 
the  cheapening  of  processes  of  production  stimulated  consumption, 
and,  in  the  long  run,  made  for  increased  employment;  but  at  first 
the  displacement  from  old  employments  resulted  in  bitter  suffering. 
Also,  the  overcrowding  of  towns  with  no  sanitary  provisions  for  in- 
creased numbers,  as  well  as  exacting  supervision  in  the  factories,  was 
grievous  to  operatives  brought  up  in  fresh  country  air,  who,  even  if 
they  worked  long  and  hard,  had  at  least  been  their  own  masters.  In 
one  sense,  the  riots  provoked  by  the  new  inventions  were  blind  and 
unreasoning ;  in  another,  they  were  justified ;  for  they  were  provoked 
by  real  misery.  The  middle  classes  generally  favored  the  laborers, 
partly  from  natural  conservatism  and  partly  for  fear  of  increased 
poor  rates ;  but  the  capitalists  had  the  balance  of  strength  on  their 
side  in  the  struggle  against  the  forces  of  discontent.  There  were  no 
laws  to  hinder  them  from  employing  child  labor  and  no  effective  regu- 

1  William  Murdock,  who  was  associated  with  Watt  and  Boulton,  in  1784  set 
up  the  first  traction  engine  in  England  and  one  of  the  first  in  Europe.     In  1798, 
he  introduced  gas  lighting  at  Soho,  sharing  with  Lebon  the  honor  of  first  utilizing 
this  form  of  illumination. 

2  The  new  industrial  system  was  greatly  fostered  by  two  developments  which 
preceded  it  —  the  expansion  of  commerce,  resulting  to  a  large  degree  from  the 
great  wars,  which  gave  Great  Britain  access  to  world  markets,  and  to  the  organi- 
zation of  credit  and  capital  which  began  with  the  foundation  of  the  Bank  of  England. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  789 

lations  against  lowering  wages,  while  increasingly  strict  measures  were 
passed  against  combinations  of  workmen.  The  domination  of  capital 
and  the  movements  to  resist  it  antedate  the  factory  system ;  but  the 
problem  now  became  more  acute.  The  cessation  of  trade  and  labor 
regulation,  of  protection  and  special  privileges,  made  for  expansion  of 
business,  and  developed  a  robust  self-reliance,  but,  with  the  absolute 
and  uncontrolled  power  which  the  great  masters  of  industry  enjoyed 
under  the  regime  of  laissez-faire  which  came  to  prevail  for  half  a  cen- 
tury and  more,  the  strong  throve  and  the  weak  were  crowded  to  the 
wall. 

Maritime  Enterprise.  —  During  the  eighteenth  century,  English 
seamen  were  sailing  in  distant  waters  and  exploring  far-off  lands. 
Many  of  them  were  chiefly  bent  on  seizing  the  treasure  and  crippling 
the  resources  of  Britain's  enemies,  some  even  were  buccaneers;  but 
they  contributed  much  to  foster  the  colonial  and  commercial  suprem- 
acy of  their  country  by  extending  her  oversea  possessions  and  open- 
ing new  markets.  In  the  early  part  of  the  period,  the  West  Indies  ajid 
the  African  coast  were  still  terrorized  by  the  pirates  who  made  war 
on  British  and  foreign  merchantmen  alike.  One  of  those  sent  out  to 
suppress  these  sea  rovers  was  the  notorious  Captain  Kidd,  who  turned 
buccaneer  himself,  and,  after  five  years  of  nefarious  activity,  was  cap- 
tured and  hanged  in  1701.  In  1722,  Roberts,  the  infamous  Madagas- 
car pirate,  was  disposed  of  by  Captain  Ogle  of  the  Royal  Navy.  The 
career  of  William  Dampier  (1652-1715),  who,  in  1708,  rescued  from 
Juan  Fernandez  the  sailor  Alexander  Selkirk  —  whose  narrative 
formed  the  basis  of  Robinson  Crusoe  —  had  an  adventurous  career 
directly  the  opposite  of  Kidd's.  Beginning  as  a  freebooter,  he  later 
entered  the  Government  service  and  published  valuable  records  of  his 
travels  and  observations  on  the  natural  features  of  the  places  he 
visited.  But  the  greatest  explorer  of  the  century  was  Captain  James 
Cook  (1728-1779),  who  finished  "  the  main  track  of  ocean  discovery  " 
and  prepared  the  way  for  British  dominion  in  Australia  and  New 
Zealand. 

The  New  Agricultural  Revolution.  —  There  was,  during  the  eight- 
eenth century,  a  revolution  in  agriculture  as  well  as  in  industry. 
While  it  was  greatly  stimulated  by  the  factory  system,  which  created  a 
growing  demand  for  food  for  the  operatives,  the  transformation  in 
farming  methods  began  before  the  new  industrial  organization  was 
fairly  established.  The  enclosures  made  during  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries  had  left  five  sixths  of  the  land  untouched.  The 
movement  which  was  now  resumed  had  an  object  different  from  the 
previous  one.  Instead  of  turning  the  common  lands  and  the  small 
holdings  into  sheep  pasture,  the  guiding  motive  was  to  redistribute  and 
consolidate  the  scattered  strips  of  arable  land  with  a  view  to  effecting 
improvements  in  tillage,  which  were  impossible  while  the  old  system  of 
common  cultivation  lasted.  Contrary  to  the  older  practice,  when  the 
villeins  were  simply  dispossessed,  the  work  was  authorized  by  statute 


790  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

or  by  "  deed  of  mutual  agreement,"  though  almost  in  variably  the  initia- 
tive came  from  the  landowners  and  manorial  lords,  and  the  small 
cultivators  seldom  dared  to  refuse.  The  defects  of  the  old  system  of 
intermingled  strips,  common  cultivation,  and  common  pasture  were 
many  and  serious.  An  enterprising  farmer  was  seriously  handicapped, 
because  he  could  do  nothing  without  the  consent  and  cooperation  of 
those  associated  with  him,  who  might  be  incompetent  and  backward. 
Again,  much  time  was  consumed  in  going  from  one  acre  strip  to  another, 
and  much  land  was  wasted  by  footpaths,  as  well  as  by  the  balks  or 
stretches  of  unplowed  land  which  separated  the  various  holdings. 
Then  the  absence  of  permanent  walls,  fences,  or  hedges  led  to  encroach- 
ment, to  disputes,  and  consequent  litigation.  Finally,  the  herding  of 
cattle,  belonging  to  all  sorts  of  men,  on  the  common  pastures  was  a 
fruitful  source  of  contagion.  The  new  system  was  attended  with 
many  inestimable  advantages ;  not  only  were  the  scattered  strips  con- 
solidated and  the  common  pastures  partitioned,  but  much  uncultivated 
land  was  enclosed,  waste  was  reclaimed,  and  more  scientific  farming 
was  introduced. 

Pioneers  in  the  Movement.  —  The  little  villages  with  large  stretches 
of  unused  acres  ceased  to  be  self-sufficing,  and,  aided  by  improved 
roads  and  canals  and  more  productive  methods,  began  to  seek  more 
distant  markets  ;  but  only  by  the  abandonment  of  the  old  routine  was 
it  possible  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  growing  industrial  population. 
The  chief  pioneers  of  improvement  were  Jethro  Tull,  Lord  Townshend, 
Robert  Bakewell,  and  the  famous  traveler  and  agricultural  expert, 
Arthur  Young.  Jethro  Tull  (1674-1740),  who  has  been  called  "  the 
greatest  individual  improver  of  the  century,"  was  more  significant  for 
the  principles  he  established  than  for  his  own  practical  achievements. 
More  effectively  than  any  one  before  him,  he  demonstrated  the  value 
of  clover  and  turnips  as  a  substitute  for  fallow.  The  increase  of  the 
turnip  crop,  he  argued,  made  it  possible  to  keep  more  stock ;  this 
meant  more  fertilizer  for  the  soil,  which,  thus  enriched,  would,  in  turn, 
yield  more  crops  for  man  and  beast.  Tull's  more  original  contribu- 
tions were  the  drill  for  planting  seed,  which  prevented  the  waste  from 
sowing  broadcast,  and  the  introduction  of  horse  hoeing,  which  facili- 
tated the  work  of  keeping  turnips  and  other  growing  crops  free  from 
weeds.  His  experiments  were  only  carried  to  practical  success  by  such 
great  landowners  as  Lord  Townshend,  in  this  period,  and  Coke  of 
Holkam,  chiefly  in  the  next.  Townshend  (1676-1738),  after  his  retire- 
ment from  politics  in  1730,  withdrew  to  his  estate  at  Rainham  in 
Norfolk,  where  he  introduced  rotation  of  crops,  cultivated  turnips, 
and  increased  his  yield  by  seed  drilling,  horse  hoeing,  and  the  revived 
practice  of  marling.  The  great  innovator  in  stock  breeding  was 
Robert  Bakewell  (1725-1795)  of  Dishley  in  Leicestershire.  Up  to 
his  time  sheep  had  been  raised  mainly  for  wool,  and  cattle  for  draught 
purposes  and  milking.  Thin  sheep  produced  the  finest  wool,  while 
long-legged,  raw-boned  cattle  were  best  for  drawing  heavy  burdens. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  791 

To  meet  the  growing  demand  for  food,  Bakewell  set  himself  to  breed 
fat  types  that  would  yield  more  mutton  and  beef.  His  efforts  were 
crowned  with  amazing  success,  though  more  especially  in  the  case  of 
sheep.  As  a  result  of  the  impulse  which  he  fostered,  the  average  size 
more  than  doubled.1 

Results  of  the  Agricultural  Revolution.  —  The  results,  however, 
were  not  effected  without  grave  disturbances  of  the  old  rural  order. 
In  spite  of  nominal  compensation,  the  small  freeholders  almost  invaria- 
bly lost  by  the  redistribution.  Indeed,  from  lack  of  capital  to  intro- 
duce the  improvements  required  under  the  new  system,  a  great  major- 
ity of  them,  and  of  the  lesser  tenants  as  well,  were  extinguished.  Much 
of  the  land  was  bought  up  by  the  great  landlords  or  by  wealthy  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers,  who  either  let  it  to  large  farmers  on  long 
leases  or  cultivated  it  themselves.  Between  1740  and  1788  it  is  esti- 
mated that  between  40,000  and  50,000  farms  were  absorbed  by  the 
great  proprietors.2  While  a  greater  portion  of  this  land  was  devoted 
to  tillage,  there  were  certain  districts  where  cattle  raising  prepon- 
derated. Coke,  when  he  was  complimented  on  the  building  of  his 
new  castle  at  Holkam,  replied :  "  It  is  a  sad  thing  to  be  alone  in  the 
country  in  which  one  dwells ;  I  look  about  me  and  see  no  other  house 
than  mine.  I  am  the  ogre  of  the  legend  and  have  eaten  all  my  neigh- 
bors." Some  of  the  dispossessed  yeomanry  sank  to  the  rank  of  laborers, 
others  flocked  to  the  growing  industrial  centers,  while  a  few  were 
fortunate  enough  to  rise  to  the  position  of  capitalist  tenant  farmers. 
The  typical  member  of  this  new  class  was  often  a  very  grand  person 
indeed.  He  kept  great  hospitality;  he  entertained  his  guests  with 
French  or  Portuguese  wines;  his  daughter  played  the  piano  and  dressed 
in  imitation  of  the  nobility.  In  short,  he  became  more  prosperous 
than  the  old  squire,  and  was  as  much  above  the  freeholder  as  the  man- 
ufacturer was  above  the  artisan.  The  agricultural  transformation, 
though  not  accomplished  without  petitions  and  even  riots,  was  inevi- 
table. The  domestic  system  with  its  adjunct  farming  was  on  the 
road  to  extinction  when  the  rise  of  the  factories  precipitated  it. 

Science  and  Scholarship.  —  While  no  discoveries  in  pure  science 
were  made  during  this  period  comparable  to  Newton's,  or  to  those 
which  the  future  had  in  store,  the  eighteenth  century  was  a  period  of 

1  At  the  Smithfield  market  in  London  the  average  weight  of  sheep  and  beeves 
in  1710  was  28  and  370  Ib. ;  in  1795  it  had  increased  to  80  and  800  respectively. 

2  As  the  century  advanced  enclosures  multiplied  amazingly,  as  may  be  gathered 
from  the  following  table  : 

Number  of  acts  Acres  inclosed 

Anne  2  i  ,439 

George    I       16  17,660 

George    II  226  318,778 

Under  George  III,  from  1760  to  1796,  the  number  of  acres  enclosed  had  swelled  to 
2,804,197. 


792  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

growing  enlightenment,  of  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  of  patient 
research  as  well.  John  Ray  (1627-1705),  who  worked  at  the  classi- 
fication of  plants  and  insects,  is  sometimes  described  as  "  the  father  of 
modern  zoology."  John  Woodward  (1625-1728)  did  pioneer  work  in 
recognizing  the  existence  of  various  strata  in  the  earth's  crust,  and  is 
recognized  as  one  of  the  founders  of  experimental  plant  physiology. 
Edmund  Halley  (1656-1742)  is  notable  for  making  the  first  calcula- 
tion of  the  orbit  of  a  comet,  and  for  originating  the  sciences  of  life 
statistics  and  physical  geography.  Joseph  Black  (1728-1799),  whose 
popular  lectures  at  Edinburgh  on  chemistry  were  famous,  laid  the 
foundations  of  quantitative  analysis  and  originated  the  theory  of 
specific  heat,  while  his  investigations  in  latent  heat  gave  the  first 
impulse  to  Watt's  improvement  of  the  steam  engine.  Joseph  Priestley 
(1733-1804)  discovered  oxygen  in  1774,  a  discovery  which  through  the 
work  of  Lavoisier  in  France  led  to  a  complete  reconstruction  of  chemi- 
cal science.  Benjamin  Franklin,  in  1754,  sent  to  England  an  account 
of  his  famous  experiment  with  the  kite  and  key  which  "  established 
the  identity  of  thunder  and  lightning  with  the  phenomena  of  elec- 
tricity," and  important  work  was  done  by  contemporary  Englishmen 
in  the  subject  destined  to  be  so  big  with  possibilities.1  Little  progress 
was  made,  especially  during  the  time  of  the  first  two  Georges,  either 
in  medicine  or  surgery.  Among  the  few  signs  of  advance  was  the 
introduction  of  inoculation,  which  became  a  general  practice  about 
1740.  In  spite  of  its  dangers,  it  contributed  much  to  stay  the  scourge 
of  smallpox  before  the  days  of  vaccination.  Another  significant  step 
was  the  breaking  down  of  the  monopoly  of  the  Barber-Surgeons  by 
independent  teaching  in  anatomy  and  surgery. 

Richard  Bentley  (1662-1742)  is  generally  regarded  as  the  greatest  of 
England's  classical  scholars.  His  most  famous  achievement  was  to  show 
that  the  Epistles  of  Phalaris  were  the  forgery  of  a  later  age.  More  im- 
portant than  his  conclusion  is  his  method,  which  marked  an  epoch  in 
the  science  of  critical  investigation.  He  also  showed  that  the  so-called 
^Esop's  Fables  were  not  the  work  of  their  reputed  author,  but  an  adapta- 
tion by  a  fourteenth-century  Byzantine  from  those  of  an  earlier  date. 
The  second  half  of  the  century  witnessed  the  rise  of  a  new  and  impor- 
tant school  of  historians  —  the  popular  and  literary.  Foremost  among 
them  was  the  celebrated  philosopher  David  Hume  (1711-1776),  whose 
History  of  England  (1754-1761),  though  manifestly  biased  against  the 
Puritans,  and  though  superseded,  to  a  large  degree,  by  the  work  of 
investigators  since  his  time,  is  distinctive  for  its  style  and  from  the 
fact  that  it  fashioned  the  views  of  the  rank  and  file  of  readers  for  a 
century.  But  the  greatest  of  all  English  historians  was  Edward 
Gibbon  (1737-1794),  whose  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
notwithstanding  its  unsympathetic  treatment  of  Christianity  and  its 

1  The  reputed  inventor  of  the  term  "electricity"  was  William  Gilbert  (154°- 
1603),  physician  to  Queen  Elizabeth  and  author  of  the  first  great  physical  work  in 
the  English  language,  a  work  in  which  he  showed  that  the  earth  was  a  magnet. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  793 

ponderous  style  with  monotonously  recurring  periods,  remains  among 
the  world's  classics.1 

Religion  and  Theology.  —  While  not  lacking  in  acrimonious  con- 
troversies, the  greater  part  of  the  century  was  marked  by  an  absence  of 
religious  enthusiasm,  by  a  tolerant,  rational,  and  materialistic  spirit. 
It  was  an  age  of  common  sense  in  thought  and  conduct.  The  mass 
of  the  rural  clergy  were  still  poor  and  often  ignorant.  Among  those 
with  better  incomes  the  sporting  parson,  keen  on  hunting  and  hard 
drinking,  was  becoming  a  familiar  figure,  while  many  of  the  incum- 
bents of  London  parishes  were  immersed  in  society  and  politics. 
Even  the  better  sort  preached  cold,  unimpassioned  sermons,  inculcat- 
ing industry  and  moderation  on  prudential  grounds,  advocating 
charity  and  benevolence,  to  be  sure,  but  shunning  any  approach  to 
mysticism  and  asceticism.  The  sacrifice  of  the  principle  of  Divine 
Right,  the  admission  of  latitudinarians  to  episcopal  office,  and  the 
suppression  of  Convocation  all  tended  to  shake  the  prestige  of  the  old 
orthodox  High  Church  party.  Another  evidence  of  religious  apathy 
was  the  decline  of  Nonconformity,  which  began  to  be  remarked  about 
the  beginning  of  the  second  quarter  of  the  century.  A  characteristic 
feature  of  the  age  was  the  rise  of  a  school  of  English  Deists,  who,  while 
believing  in  a  personal  God,  rejected  most  of  the  distinctive  features  of 
the  Christian  religion,  such  as  revelation  and  the  authority  of  the 
Church.2  John  Toland  (1670-1722),  one  of  the  best  known,  was  the 
inventor  of  the  term  "  pantheism."  Although  provocative  of  much 
controversy,  they  had  no  great  or  enduring  effect  on  English  religious 
thought.  On  the  other  hand,  they  exercised  a  strong  influence  on  the 
French  Encyclopedists  and  contributed  to  the  rise  of  Biblical  criticism 
in  Germany. 

Philosophical  Speculation.  —  The  third  Earl  of  Shaftesbury  (1671- 
1713),  whom  his  opponents  have  classed  among  the  Deists,  led  a 
reaction  against  the  ethical  doctrines  of  his  former  master  Locke. 
From  his  study  of  the  ancients  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
moral  sense  was  innate  and  that  morality  was  not  something  imposed 
by  external  authority.3  George  Berkeley  (1685-1753),  Bishop  of 
Cloyne,  who  made  war  on  the  Deists,  but  more  especially  on  mate- 
rialism, was  a  more  profound  thinker  than  Locke.  He  rejected  the 

1  An  important  step  in  the  progress  of  art,  learning,  and  science  was  the  founding, 
in  1753,  of  the  British  Museum,  one  of  the  world's  great  libraries.     It  consisted  of 
three  great  collections  —  the  Cottonian,  formed  by  Sir  Robert  Cotton  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  I  and  purchased  by  the  Crown  in  the  reign  of  Anne;    the  Sloane,  as- 
sembled by  the  physician  Sir  Hans  Sloane ;  and  the  Harleian,  brought  together  by 
Robert  Harley,  Earl  of  Oxford.     The  two  latter  were  secured  about  this  time  for 
a  sum  far  below  their  real  value.     They  were  housed  in  Montague  House,  the  resi- 
dence of  the  last  Duke,  who  had  died  in  1749.     The  money  for  its  purchase  was 
raised  by  lotteries  authorized  by  Parliament. 

2  Their  earliest  English  forerunner  was  Lord  Herbert  of  Cherbury  (1583-1648). 

3  Francis  Hutchinson  (1694-1746),  one  of  his  supporters,  is  the  reputed  orig- 
inator  of   the  phrase:    "the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number,"  which 
was  adopted  by  Jeremy  Bentham  and  became  the  watchword  of  the  Utilitarians. 


794  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

doctrine  of  the  reality  of  matter  and  taught  that  time  and  space  have 
no  existence  except  in  the  mind.  In  one  sense  his  teaching  led  to  skep- 
ticism ;  in  another,  by  making  mind  the  ultimate  reality,  he  was  the 
founder  of  modern  idealism.  The  most  acute  thinker  of  the  century, 
however,  was  David  Hume,  whose  History  has  already  been  noticed. 
In  1 739-1 740  he  published  his  Treatise  of  the  Human  Understanding,  with 
the  design  of  introducing  the  experimental  method  of  reasoning  into 
moral  subjects.  Most  of  his  subsequent  philosophical  writings  are 
developments  of  this  early  work.  While  his  attacks  on  the  prevailing 
systems  of  metaphysics  and  natural  religion  and  his  attempted  reduc- 
tion of  all  reasoning  to  a  product  of  experience  were  destructive  or 
skeptical,  he  prepared  the  way  for  constructive  work  in  many  fields. 
By  overthrowing  the  prevailing  fallacy  of  the  "  original  contract," 
he  broke  ground  for  a  truly  historical  study  of  institutions.  In  ethics 
he  was  the  intellectual  father  of  Bentham  and  the  Utilitarians,  and 
by  his  writings  on  political  economy  he  profoundly  influenced  Adam 
Smith.  He  was  the  forerunner  of  the  associationist  psychology l ; 
he  was  the  pioneer  of  modern  empiricists,2  and,  both  through  his  fol- 
lowers and  his  opponents,  has  left  an  enduring  impress  on  all  metaphys- 
ics since  his  time.  Though  he  owed  much  to  Locke  and  Berkeley,  he 
repaid  the  debt  with  usury.  Among  the  other  thinkers  of  the  century 
should  be  mentioned  Richard  Price  (1723-1791),  the  author  of  Pitt's 
Sinking  Fund,3  whose  system  of  ethics  anticipated  that  of  Kant,  as 
Hume  anticipated  the  epoch-making  German  in  some  of  his  metaphys- 
ical views. 

The  Wesleyan  Methodists.  —  Meantime,  earnest  men  had  come  to 
realize  that  a  revival  of  spiritual  life  could  not  be  brought  about  by  the 
prudential  ethics  and  rational  orthodoxy  inculcated  by  the  divines  of 
the  period,  that  it  was  essential  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  common 
people  by  means  of  the  supernatural  and  the  spiritual,  by  fervid, 
evangelical  exhortation.  This  was  achieved  through  the  efforts  of 
three  Oxford  men  —  John  Wesley  (1703-1791),  Charles  (1707-1788), 
his  brother,  and  George  Whitefield  (1714-1770)  —  who  brought  about 
a  tremendous  revival,  known  as  Wesleyanism  or  Methodism,  which 
ranks  as  one  of  the  great  movements  of  the  century.  Not  only  did  it 
create  a  great  sect,  one  of  the  greatest  in  the  present  English-speaking 
world,  but  it  left  an  enduring  influence  on  the  Church  of  England,  and 
modified  profoundly  the  social  and  political  consequences  of  the  Indus- 
trial Revolution  and  the  upheaval  in  France.  The  Wesleys  were  the 
sons  of  a  rector  of  Epworth  in  Lincolnshire.  In  1729  they  joined  a 
little  band  of  students  in  an  organization  for  mutual  improvement, 
nicknamed  the  "  Methodists."  John  Wesley  was  the  real  organizer 
of  the  subsequent  movement,  Charles  was  most  famous  for  his  hymns, 

1  The  theory  which  regards  the  association  of  ideas  as  the  fundamental  laws 
of  mental  action  and  development. 

2  One  who  bases  all  knowledge  on  direct  experience  and  observation  rather  than 
on  theory.  3  See  below,  p.  817. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  795 

many  of  which  are  in  general  use  to-day ;  while  Whitefield  was  the 
eloquent  popular  preacher.  The  truly  vital  moment  came  in  1739, 
when  John  Wesley  was  "  converted,"  when  he  first  felt  that  Christ 
had  taken  away  his  sin.  Then  followed  the  wonderful  course  of  field 
preaching  with  appeals  to  men  and  women  to  seek  salvation  by  throw- 
ing themselves  upon  the  mercy  of  the  Savior.  Unhappily,  a  difference 
grew  up  between  John  Wesley  and  Whitefield  over  the  question  of  free 
grace,  but  although,  in  1749,  the  two  men  became  hopelessly  estranged, 
each  continued  to  pursue  in  his  own  way  the  work  they  had  begun  in 
common.  John  Wesley  was,  curiously  enough,  a  High  Churchman, 
who  always  regarded  himself  and  his  Society  as  members  of  the  Estab- 
lishment. It  was  only  when  urged  by  others  that  he  adopted  such 
innovations  as  lay  preachers.  Although  he  took  to  field  preaching, 
partly  because  most  of  the  Anglican  clergymen  refused  him  the  use 
of  their  pulpits  and  partly  because  no  ordinary  church  would  hold  the 
enormous  crowds  who  flocked  to  hear  him,  he  always  insisted  that  such 
meetings  should  not  be  held  during  the  regular  hours  of  church  ser- 
vices and  that  the  sacrament  should  not  be  administered  by  ministers 
not  ordained  according  to  the  forms  of  the  Church  of  England.  Four 
years  after  his  death  these  restrictions  ceased  to  be  observed,  and,  in 
1795,  the  Wesleyans  or  Methodists  became  an  independent  sect.1 

There  is  much  to  criticize  about  Wesley  and  his  followers  —  they 
were  often  self-righteous,  extravagant,  and  superstitious  —  but  they  ac- 
complished a  great  mission.  They  sought  out  the  lowly  and  the  vicious 
and  "  revealed  to  them  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  "  ;  they  restored 
their  self-respect  and  kindled  hope  in  their  bosoms  by  assurance  of 
forgiveness  and  salvation  for  all  who  repented  of  their  sins.  They 
diverted  into  channels  of  religious  enthusiasm  much  of  the  discontent 
engendered  by  the  suffering  caused  by  the  industrial  changes  and 
stimulated  by  the  French  Revolution.  They  contributed  to  awaken 
the  Church  from  its  torpor ;  and  the  new  religious  enthusiasm  which 
they  aroused  led  many  to  join  the  old  Nonconformist  bodies  which 
took  a  fresh  start  toward  the  end  of  the  century.  Furthermore,  they 
quickened  the  development  of  Sunday  schools,  and,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, the  philanthropic  and  humanitarian  movements  which  led  to 
prison  reform  and  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  and  which  were  big 
with  results  in  coming  generations. 

Adam  Smith  and  the  Wealth  of  Nations.  —  In  1776  Adam  Smith 
(1723-1790)  published  his  Wealth  of  Nations,  which  marked  an  epoch 
in  political  economy.  Even  before  the  book  appeared,  advanced 
thinkers  had  attacked  the  most  cherished  of  the  mercantile  theories, 
arguing  that  money  was  not  wealth,  but  only  a  measure  of  value ;  that 
it  was  a  fallacious  principle  to  hamper  trade  by  prohibiting  the  export 

1  Already,  in  1784,  Wesley,  under  pressure  of  necessity,  had  ordained  two  pres- 
byters—  Coke  and  Asbury  —  as  "superintendents"  to  ordain  ministers  and  to 
perform  other  episcopal  functions  in  the  United  States,  thus  laying  the  foundation 
of  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


796  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  specie  by  fixing  legal  rates  of  interest,  and  by  forcing  foreign  mer- 
chants to  spend  the  proceeds  of  their  sales  in  buying  native  goods. 
Already,  too,  the  American  Colonies  had  repudiated  the  exclusive  trade 
policy  of  the  Mother  Country,  and  manufacturers  had  begun  to  strive 
against  the  old  restrictions  which  shackled  competition  in  the  produc- 
tion and  distribution  of  wares.  Moreover,  in  view  of  the  additional 
fact  that  Hume  and  Tucker,  as  well  as  the  French  minister  Turgot, 
furnished  Smith  with  a  goodly  stock  of  ideas,  his  admirers  have  gone 
too  far  in  hailing  him  as  the  creator  of  political  economy.  Neverthe- 
less, his  work  is  of  incalculable  significance  in  first  presenting  in  a 
luminous,  orderly,  and  convincing  form,  views  and  tendencies  that 
were  just  beginning  to  take  shape.  The  gist  of  his  argument,  which, 
within  a  generation,  came  to  meet  with  general  acceptance,  was: 
that  economics  must  be  divorced  from  politics ;  that  national  power, 
resting  on  the  balance  of  trade  and  the  accumulation  of  specie,  was 
distinct  from  the  well-being  of  the  people;  that,  under  the  mercan- 
tilist system,  the  interests  of  consumers  and,  indeed,  of  a  great  mass 
of  producers,  were  sacrificed  to  those  of  a  small  privileged  group ;  that 
the  individual  should  be  left  free  to  pursue  gain  in  his  own  way ;  and 
that  the  greater  the  sum  total  of  individuals  who  prospered,  the  greater 
would  be  the  national  wealth.  He  showed,  too,  that,  in  international 
trade,  every  nation  must  buy  as  well  as  sell,  and  that,  in  time  of  peace, 
such  reciprocal  trading  was  a  benefit  to  all  parties  concerned.  Some 
of  his  views  and  assumptions  were  erroneous ;  but,  in  the  main,  his 
teachings  were  adapted  to  the  stage  of  development  at  which  Great 
Britain  had  arrived. 

Prose  Writers  of  the  Age  of  Anne.  Addison  and  Steele.  —  Classi- 
cism, or  pseudo-classicism,  dominated  English  literature  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  century.  Many  eminent  writers  flourished  partic- 
ularly during  the  reign  of  Anne,  which  is  sometimes  called  the  "  Augus- 
tan Age  "  of  English  literature.  While  it  was  a  period  of  decided 
limitations,  there  was  perfection  within  certain  limits.  In  contrast  to 
the  Elizabethan  and  Stuart  periods,  there  was  little  sweep  of  imagina- 
tion, little  display  of  ornate  diction,  or  quaint  and  obscure  learning. 
Conventions  were  carefully  observed  and  clearness  and  finish  were 
sought  rather  than  originality.  Much  of  the  writing  reflected  the 
artificiality  of  existing  society  and  was  often  social  or  political  in  its  aim. 
In  prose,  the  miscellaneous  or  social  essay  was  highly  perfected  and  the 
novel  took  its  rise.  The  Weekly  Memorial,  1689,  containing  literary 
reviews  and  book  notices,  and  Defoe's  Review,  1704,  were  the  fore- 
runners of  the  more  famous  Tatler,  1709,  and  Spectator,  1711.  The 
Taller  aimed  to  combine  "  morality  with  wit,"  and  to  recover  its 
readers  out  of  "  that  desperate  state  of  vice  and  folly  into  which  the 
age  is  fallen."  Richard  Steele  (1672-1729),  the  founder,  was  soon 
joined  by  Joseph  Addison  (1672-1719).  First  in  the  Tatler,  then  in 
the  Spectator,  as  well  as  in  the  later  but  inferior  Guardian,  the  two 
accomplished  a  notable  work.  By  their  comments  on  current  events 


797 

they  have  left  a  valuable  record  of  the  political  and  social  conditions 
of  their  time ;  by  their  exhortations  and  by  their  example  they  made 
the  coarseness  and  cynicism  of  the  Restoration  drama  unfashionable ; 
by  gentle  irony  and  by  precept  they  inculcated  more  gracious  standards 
in  the  art  of  living ;  by  their  reviews  of  British  and  foreign  books  they 
fostered  knowledge  and  love  of  literature ;  and,  finally,  by  the  easy 
elegance  of  their  style  they  furnished  a  model  which  profoundly 
affected  the  development  of  English  prose  writing.  Addison,  the 
creator  of  the  immortal  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley,  though  he  achieved  his 
lasting  fame  as  an  essayist,  also  wrote  verses;  produced  Cato,  a 
tragedy  which  had  a  great  vogue  in  his  day;  and  was  active  as  a 
Whig  pamphleteer.  Furthermore,  he  sat  in  Parliament,  held  office 
under  the  Government,  and,  though  somewhat  reserved,  was,  by  his 
grace  and  serenity  of  manner,  a  popular  figure  in  society.  "  Dick  " 
Steele  was  his  schoolfellow,  both  at  Charterhouse  and  at  Oxford, 
and,  likewise,  supported  the  Whig  party  in  Parliament  and  in  his 
writings.  In  contrast  to  Addison's  placid,  prosperous  existence, 
Steele  led  a  chequered  career,  frequently  involved  in  financial  and 
other  difficulties ;  but  he  was  as  lovable  as  he  was  irresponsible,  and, 
in  spite  of  his  irregularities  of  conduct,  remained  through  life  a  genial 
apostle  of  decorum,  elegance,  and  good  taste.  He  generously  recog- 
nized the  superior  popularity  of  his  collaborator  and  prided  himself  on 
starting  him  as  an  essayist,  declaring  that  the  world  owed  Addison  to 
Steele.  Unhappily,  toward  the  end  of  Addison's  life  the  two  friends 
got  into  a  quarrel  that  was  never  healed. 

Jonathan  Swift  (1667-1745).  —  The  most  striking  literary  figure, 
however,  of  the  period  of  Anne  and  the  early  Georges  was  Jonathan 
Swift.  Born  in  Dublin  of  English  stock,  he  went,  after  a  reckless 
career  at  Trinity  College,  to  act  as  the  secretary  of  Sir  William  Temple 
in  England.  Subsequently,  he  took  holy  orders,  becoming  Dean  of 
St.  Patrick's,  Dublin,  in  1713.  His  life  was  a  series  of  disappoint- 
ments, which  embittered  a  nature,  not  without  noble,  generous  qualities, 
though  curiously  crossed  with  traits  of  meanness,  of  bullying,  and  self- 
seeking.  During  his  later  life  he  was  afflicted  by  a  mental  disorder, 
evidences  of  which  had  manifested  themselves  even  earlier,  and  which 
help  to  explain  his  peculiarities.  Most  of  his  writings  were  called 
forth  by  one  or  another  current  problem :  with  one  exception  they 
appeared  anonymously ;  and  Gulliver's  Travels  was  the  only  one  for 
which  he  received  any  pay.  The  Battle  of  the  Books  was  inspired  by 
the  famous  Bentley  controversy  regarding  the  Letters  of  Phalaris,  a 
controversy  in  which  Sir  William  Temple  was  engaged.  In  the  same 
year  appeared  the  Tale  of  a  Tub,  written  seven  years  earlier,  a 
remarkable  satire  on  the  theological  conflicts  between  the  Romanists, 
the  Anglicans,  and  the  Dissenters.  Swift  also  contributed  several 
notable  party  pamphlets  first  on  the  Whig  and  then  on  the  Tory  side, 
his  Conduct  of  the  Allies  ranking  as  his  greatest  achievement  in  this 
field.  His  mixed  nature  is  seen  in  his  break  with  the  Whigs  about  1 7 10. 


798  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

It  was  partly  due  to  lack  of  preferment;  but,  also,  he  resented  the 
fact  that  Queen  Anne's  Bounty  was  not  extended  to  the  Irish  clergy 
and  that  the  Whigs  were  inclined  to  favor  the  Dissenters,  whereas,  he 
wanted  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Church  of  England,  not  so 
much  on  spiritual  grounds,  but  as  a  political  bulwark  against  religious 
extremists.  Much  of  his  political  satire,  violent  as  it  is,  was  inspired 
by  hatred  of  sham,  injustice,  and  oppression,  rather  than  by  party  bias. 
His  attitude  toward  the  Irish  in  the  case  of  Wood's  Halfpence  best 
illustrates  his  peculiar  disposition.  He  always  professed  great  con- 
tempt for  the  people  and  the  country,  and  stayed  away  as  much  as  he 
could;  but  a  feeling  that  they  were  being  treated  unfairly  impelled 
him  to  write  the  Drapier  Letters,  which  made  him  a  popular  hero 
among  those  for  whom  he  had  so  little  regard.  His  pleasantest  work 
was  his  Journal  to  Stella,  a  daily  account  of  his  doings  during  the  brief 
period  that  he  was  a  foremost  figure  in  London  society  and  politics, 
written  to  Esther  Johnson,  whom  he  is  supposed  to  have  secretly 
married.  Gulliver's  Travels,  on  account  of  its  strange  and  diverting 
adventures,  has  always  been  a  favorite  children's  book,  though,  curi- 
ously enough,  it  is  fundamentally  a  scathing  satire  on  the  weaknesses, 
follies,  and  vices  of  mankind,  with  particular  reference  to  Swift's  own 
day.  For  biting  humor  and  unadorned  simplicity  and  clearness  — 
often  veiling,  however,  a  most  subtle  innuendo  —  his  style  has  never 
been  equaled.  Coarse  but  virile,  it  ranges  from  the  most  comical 
grotesqueness  to  the  sternest  tragedy. 

The  Age  of  Dr.  Johnson.  —  New  characteristics  are  manifest  in  the 
early  Georgian  period.  It  marks  the  beginning  of  the  Grub  Street 
author,1  who  had  to  fight  poverty  and  lived  in  a  literary  Bohemia. 
The  era  of  literary  patronage  had  practically  passed  and  men  of  letters 
had  to  rely  more  and  more  on  their  own  efforts.  It  has  been  argued 
that  the  Grub  Street  tradition  has  been  exaggerated,  and  that  much  of 
the  suffering  was  due  to  the  faults  and  peculiarities  of  individuals 
themselves ;  but  the  lot  of  struggling  authors  was  hard  enough  in  all 
conscience.  Another  distinctive  feature  of  this  period  was  the  rise  of 
the  modern  novel.  The  age,  too,  was  stamped  by  the  literary  domina- 
tion of  Dr.  Johnson,  though,  all-powerful  as  he  was,  he  strove  in  vain 
to  stem  the  tide  of  a  growing  romantic  revolt  against  the  prevailing 
classic  traditions.  Samuel  Johnson  (1709-1784)  was  the  son  of  a 
Lichfield  bookseller.  He  was  educated  at  Oxford,  spent  a  few  years 
as  a  provincial  journalist  and  schoolmaster,  and,  in  1737,  went  to 
London.  He  had  a  long,  hard  fight  to  attain  recognition  and  financial 
independence;  but  the  experiences  which  he  underwent  taught  him 
pity  for  the  struggling  members  of  his  craft.  His  famous  Dictionary, 
1755,  the  fruit  of  seven  years  of  toil,  marked  the  turn  in  his  fortunes. 
Undoubtedly  the  best  of  his  many  works  is  his  Lives  of  Poets,  which 
appeared  in  ten  volumes  between  1779  and  1781.  Meanwhile,  in 

1  So-called  from  a  poor  street  where  many  of  the  hack  writers  lived. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  799 

1763,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  James  Boswell,  who  later  immor- 
talized him  in  the  most  delightful  biography  in  the  English  language. 
It  is  a  mine  of  quotable  sayings,  and,  moreover,  since  nothing  was  too 
minute  for  his  biographer  to  record,  Johnson  is  made  to  stand  out  be- 
fore us  in  the  midst  of  his  circle  as  no'man  in  the  past.  He  was  a  unique 
personality.  A  talker  of  unusual  gifts,  though  somewhat  ponderous 
and  domineering,  he  shone  preeminently  at  the  Literary  Club,  founded, 
in  1764,  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and  frequented  by  Burke,  Goldsmith, 
Garrick,  and  Gibbon.  As  a  writer,  Johnson  was  a  critic  rather  than 
an  originator,  with  a  style  that  is  overelaborate,  heavy,  and  —  particu- 
larly in  his  early  days  —  wordy,  though  always  clear  and  correct.  In 
spite  of  strong  prejudices,  he  was  generally  sane  in  his  judgments,  an 
enemy  to  all  shams,  and  one  who  set  high  moral  standards  in  writing 
and  conduct.  Altogether,  he  was  a  man  greater  than  what  he  wrote. 

Defoe  and  the  Rise  of  the  Novel.  —  The  novel,  the  rise  of  which 
dates  from  this  period,  is  as  dominating  in  modern  English  literature 
as  was  the  drama  in  the  Elizabethan  and  early  Jacobean  ages.  The 
name  is  derived  from  novella,  the  Italian  word  for  a  short  prose  story. 
The  more  realistic  descend  from  the  Spanish  picaresque l  tales  which  re- 
late the  adventures  of  roving  scapegraces,  selected  as  heroes.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  knightly  epic  of  the  Middle  Ages  prepared  the  way  for 
the  later  novel  of  romance.  After  Bunyan,  Daniel  Defoe  (1661-1731) 
was  the  pioneer  among  modern  realistic  novelists.  While  he  made  no 
use  of  religious  allegory  and  chose  to  picture  sordid  phases  of  life  with 
the  coarsest  frankness,  the  edifying  and  moral  endings  of  his  books 
show  that,  like  the  author  of  Pilgrim's  Progress,  he  aimed  at  reaching 
the  Dissenters  of  the  lower  and  middle  classes.  He  spent  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  as  a  journalist  and  pamphleteer  and  was  nearly  sixty 
before  he  produced  his  first  famous  work  of  fiction,  Robinson  Crusoe, 
1719,  which  has  been  a  joy  to  succeeding  generations  of  youth.  In 
1722  appeared  the  Journal  of  the  Plague  Year,  a  fictitious  account  of 
the  visitation  of  1666  put  in  the  mouth  of  a  pretended  eye-witness. 
In  his  novels,  of  which  Moll  Flanders  and  Colonel  Jacque  are  the  best 
known,  the  incident  is  the  main  feature,  and  there  is  little  direct  attempt 
at  characterization.  Defoe  was  without  imitators  in  his  own  life- 
time. Samuel  Richardson  (1689-1761),  a  printer,  who  produced 
Pamela,  1730,  Clarissa  Harlowe,  1748,  and  Sir  Charles  Grandison, 
1753,  discarded  adventure  to  a  large  degree.  In  his  novels,  told  in 
the  form  of  letters,  love  appears  as  the  main  theme,  there  is  consider- 
able attempt  at  psychological  analysis  of  character,  and  contemporary 
life  is  minutely  pictured.  Richardson  was  the  first  of  the  sentimental- 
ists and  very  didactic  as  well,  aiming  in  his  writing  to  inculcate  virtue 
and  correctness  of  behavior. 

Fielding,  Smollett,  and  Sterne.  —  The  most  delightful  novelist 
of  the  century,  unquestionably,  was  Henry  Fielding  (1707-1754). 

1  From  picaro,  meaning  literally  "rogue." 


8oo  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

A  man  of  good  family,  he  went  to  Eton,  studied  law  at  Leyden,  and 
served  as  a  London  police  magistrate,  thus  seeing  many  aspects  of  life. 
He  began  his  literary  career  as  a  writer  of  plays.  His  first  novel, 
Joseph  Andrews,  1742,  was  a  parody  on  Pamela,  the  smug  sentimental- 
ism  of  which  aroused  his  disgust,  but,  instead  of  telling  his  story  in 
the  form  of  letters,  he  reverted  to  Defoe's  novel  of  incident,  and  devel- 
oped his  subject  into  a  vivid  picture  of  life  of  contemporary  England, 
of  its  innkeepers,  justices,  parsons,  its  people  of  fashion,  and  their 
footmen  and  ladies'  maids.  Tom  Jones,  1749,  and  Amelia,  1757, 
while  primarily  an  elaboration  of  the  same  general  type,  have  the 
added  element  of  more  involved  plots.  Fielding  was  intensely  realis- 
tic. "  I  have  writ  little  more  than  I  have  seen,"  he  tells  us :  his  charac- 
ters and  incidents  are  drawn  from  life,  "  and  not  intended  to  exceed 
it."  His  humor  is  broad ;  he  is  never  subtle  or  analytic ;  he  rails  at 
pretense  and  selfishness,  endowing  some  of  his  characters  with  a 
plentiful  supply  of  these  qualities;  but  by  nature  he  was  a  whole- 
some optimist,  without  a  touch  of  sourness  or  moroseness.  Not  the 
least  charming  parts  of  his  work  are  the  pages  where  he  stops  the  flow 
of  his  narrative  to  tell  us  his  view  of  things  in  general,  or  where  he  airs 
his  learning  through  the  mouth  of  one  of  his  characters,  usually  an 
indigent  scholar.  Tobias  Smollett  (1721-1771),  whose  best-known 
books  are  Roderick  Random,  1748,  Peregrine  Pickle,  1751,  and  Hum- 
phrey Clinker,  1771,  is  another  novelist  of  the  picaresque  type,  who, 
from  his  experience  as  a  ship's  surgeon,  adds  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
life  of  the  period  by  his  pictures  of  seafaring  people  and  conditions  on 
shipboard.  He  had  an  original  and  powerful  gift  for  character  draw- 
ing ;  but  his  work  is  marred  by  coarseness  and  his  savageness  in  satire. 
Laurence  Sterne  (1713-1768)  was  a  parson  of  a  very  unclerical  sort. 
In  1766  he  produced  Tristam  Shandy,  which  he  wrote  "  with  no  clear 
design  of  what  it  was  to  turn  out ;  only  a  design  of  shocking  people 
and  amusing  myself."  Two  volumes  of  his  Sentimental  Journey 
appeared  in  1768.  His  work  is  marked  not  only  by  the  absence  of 
plot,  but  by  a  conscious  disregard  of  it ;  his  humor  is  subtle,  allusive, 
and  insidious.  He  was  a  fantastic  sentimentalist  who  pictured  life, 
not  as  it  actually  existed,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  moods  it  aroused  in 
him.  His  real  achievement  was  the  creation  of  such  a  lovable,  whim- 
sical character  as  Uncle  Toby,  one  of  the  immortals  of  literature. 

Goldsmith,  Fanny  Burney,  and  Horace  Walpole.  —  Among  the 
notable  single  novels  of  this  period  is  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield  by  Oliver 
Goldsmith  (1728-1774),  which  Dr.  Johnson  sold  for  him  in  1766,  thus 
saving  him  from  a  debtor's  prison.  The  peculiar  charm  in  this  work 
is  due  to  the  sweet,  unworldly  figure  of  Dr.  Prunrose,  to  its  bits  of 
exquisite  nature  description  and  to  its  pervading  sentimentalism, 
which  vaguely  foreshadows  the  later  romantic  prose.  Fanny  Burney, 
or  Madame  D'Arblay  (1752-1840),  continued  the  realistic  tradition, 
notably  in  Evelina.  Like  Richardson,  she  wrote  with  a  moral  aim ; 
but  her  work  is  chiefly  interesting  for  the  light  which  it  throws  on  the 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  801 

fashionable  London  life  of  the  period.  Horace  Walpole  (1717-1797), 
fourth  Earl  of  Orford,  famous  as  a  collector,  as  a  virtuoso  in  art,  as 
the  author  of  spirited  memoirs,  and  as  the  most  fascinating  letter 
writer  in  the  English  language,  led  a  return  to  far-off,  unreal  things,  to 
medieval  romance,  in  his  Castle  of  Otranto,  1764.  This  gave  the 
impulse  to  a  type  of  "  Gothic  "  romance,  many  of  which  appeared 
during  the  half  century  following.  Philip,  Earl  of  Chesterfield  (1694- 
1773),  in  his  Letters  to  His  Son,  once  so  widely  read,  represents  the 
hollow,  superficial  standards  and  worldly  wisdom  characteristic  of 
the  men  of  rank  of  his  day. 

The  Poetry  of  Pope.  —  The  unquestioned  leader  among  the  poets 
of  the  days  of  Anne  and  the  first  two  Georges  was  Alexander  Pope 
(1688-1744),  a  man  who  attained  perfection  in  a  particular  form  of  art 
by  virtue  of  his  very  limitations.  As  a  Roman  Catholic  he  was  cut 
off  from  the  public  service,  and  by  deformity  and  weak  health  from 
various  other  forms  of  activity.  He  took  up  the  heroic  couplet  of 
Dryden  and  gave  to  it  an  exquisite  finish  that  surpassed  even  that  of 
his  master.  He  showed  the  first  real  taste  of  his  quality  in  the  Rape 
of  the  Lock,  1712.  His  translation  of  Homer,  which  occupied  him 
from  1715  to  1725,  brought  him  between  £8000  and  £10,000,  the 
highest  price  ever  obtained  for  a  piece  of  literary  work  up  to  that  time. 
His  Dunciad,  or  rhymed  essay  on  dullness,  which  appeared  in  successive 
parts,  was  a  venomous  attack  on  his  literary  enemies,  far  inferior  to 
the  satire  of  Dryden.  The  oft-quoted  Essay  on  Man,  a  subject  sug- 
gested to  him  by  Bolingbroke,  was  only  a  part  of  a  contemplated  series 
of  poems  intended  to  be  a  comprehensive  survey  of  human  nature. 
Toward  the  close  of  his  life  he  was  occupied  with  a  group  of  transla- 
tions from  Horace,  which  rank  as  his  most  finished  products.  Not 
only  was  he  unexcelled  as  a  deft  craftsman  in  versification,  but  he 
voiced  the  spirit  of  the  age,  its  love  of  polished  satire,  its  proneness 
for  moral  reflections,  and  its  regard  for  external  elegancies  and  artificial 
social  conventions,  together  with  its  lack  of  imagination  and  imperfect 
appreciation  of  nature.  His  mean  and  spiteful  nature  was  due  partly, 
no  doubt,  to  his  physical  infirmities. 

The  Signs  of  the  Romantic  Revolt. — Although  some  excellent  poems 
appeared  l  during  the  interval  between  the  passing  of  Pope  and  the 
wonderful  revival  which  began  toward  the  close  of  the  century,  these 
two  generations  can  scarcely  be  called  a  poetic  age.  The  most  signif- 
icant fact  was  the  growth  of  a  revolt  against  the  reigning  classicism 
—  against  the  heroic  couplet  of  Dryden  and  Pope,  and  against  the 
tendency  to  deal  with  man  chiefly  in  his  conventional  social  environ- 
ment. There  was  an  effort  to  sound  the  deeper  springs  of  the  human 

1  Among  the  minor  poets  were  hymn  writers  who  have  made  a  profound  appeal 
to  successive  generations  of  worshipers.  Isaac  Watts  (1674-1748)  and  Charles 
Wesley  both  wrote  numbers  of  famous  hymns,  though  it  is  doubtful  if  any  single 
hymn  of  either  of  them  attained  a  higher  degree  of  popularity  than  the  Rock  of 
Ages  of  Augustus  Toplady  (1740-1778). 


802  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

soul,  to  reawaken  reverence  for  the  past,  and  an  enthusiasm  for  the 
beauties  of  nature.  The  Seasons  of  James  Thomson  (1700-1748)  is  a 
manifestation  of  the  new  tendency,  both  in  the  subject  which  he  chose 
and  the  blank  verse  in  which  he  wrote  it.1  Then  the  Night  Thoughts 
of  Edward  Young  (1683-1765)  is  marked  by  an  introspective  gloom, 
a  communing  of  man  with  his  own  heart,  quite  foreign  to  the  school  of 
Pope.  Thomas  Gray  (1716-1771)  was  noted  for  his  wide  learning, 
and,  in  spite  of  his  sad,  secluded  life,  was  a  man  of  varied  interests, 
active  as  a  letter  writer  and  diarist.  He  also  had  an  enthusiasm  for 
natural  scenery  and  Gothic  architecture ;  yet,  for  all  his  romantic 
aspirations,  he  never  wholly  freed  himself  from  the  fetters  of  the 
times  in  which  he  lived.  However,  his  Elegy  Written  in  a  Country 
Churchyard  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  poems  in  the  English  language. 
A  curious  evidence  of  the  reviving  interest  in  the  past  was  James 
Macpherson's  publication  of  two  poems,  Fingal  and  Temora,  in  1762 
and  1763,  as  the  alleged  work  of  an  ancient  Gaelic  poet  Ossian.  They 
were  denounced  as  forgeries  by  Dr.  Johnson  and  others;  but  they 
were  really  based,  though  how  far  is  uncertain,  on  genuine  legends. 
More  remarkable,  though  less  regarded  at  the  time,  were  the  literary 
forgeries  of  the  precocious  poet  Thomas  Chatterton  (1752-1770),  who, 
as  a  boy  of  twelve,  attained  access  to  the  medieval  charters  of  St. 
Mary  Redcliffe  Church,  Bristol,  and  began  to  fabricate  verses,  and 
other  pieces,  which  he  tried  to  pass  off  as  genuine  works  of  antiquity. 
Unable  to  obtain  recognition,  he  was  reduced  to  despair  and  poverty, 
and  poisoned  himself  in  London  when  only  eighteen.  A  work  which 
had  the  profoundest  effect  in  reviving  an  interest  in  old  English  poetry, 
and  which  inspired  the  leaders  of  the  dawning  romantic  movement, 2 
was  the  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,  published  by  Bishop 
Percy  in  1765. 

Drama  and  Music.  —  Though  many  of  the  so-called  "  Restoration  " 
dramatists  were  writing  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  they  were 
survivals  of  a  past  age.  In  the  reign  of  Anne  the  theater  began  to  give 
way  to  opera.  This  was  due  partly  to  the  fashionable  craving  for 
novelty,  partly  to  a  real  reaction  of  morals  and  taste,  and  partly  to  the 
activity  of  the  Government  in  suppressing  as  "  licentious,"  plays  of  a 
dangerous  political  complexion.  In  1 73 7  a  Play  House  Bill  was  passed, 
prohibiting  the  production  of  plays  without  a  license  from  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  and  providing  that  all  unlicensed  actors  should  be  classed 
as  "  rogues  and  vagabonds."  For  a  time,  the  Italian  opera  had  a  great 
vogue.  To  be  sure  Colley  Gibber  (1671-1757)  had  considerable  suc- 
cess, both  as  a  playwright  and  as  an  actor,  but  the  stage  "only  came 
to  its  own  again  when  David  Garrick  (1717-1779)  began  his  won- 
derful career  with  the  revival  of  Shakespeare  in  1741.  In  1774 

1  Among  other  poems  he  was  also  the  author  of  the  famous  Rule  Britannia. 

2  Goldsmith,  though  he  wrote  some  charming  verses,  including  the  Traveller, 
1764,  and  the  Deserted  Village,  1770,  was  not  primarily  a  poet,  and  apparently  was 
uninfluenced  by  the  revolt. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  803 

Mrs.  Sarah  Siddons  (1755-1831)  was  the  first  of  the  famous 
Kemble  family  of  actors  to  achieve  recognition.  About  this  time, 
began  to  appear  those  comedies  of  Goldsmith  and  Sheridan,  which 
have  continued  to  be  a  source  of  delight  ever  since.  Goldsmith's 
Good-natured  Man  was  produced  in  1768,  his  She  stoops  to  Conquer  in 
1773,  while  Sheridan's  Rivals,  School  for  Scandal,  and  the  Critic  date 
from  1775, 1777,  and  1779,  respectively.  Meantime,  the  oratorio  had 
gained  an  enduring  hold  on  the  English  public.  This  was  due  to  the 
genius  of  Handel  (1685-1759),  who,  in  1712,  took  up  his  permanent 
residence  in  the  country.  At  the  age  of  fifty-four,  after  three  succes- 
sive failures  as  an  opera  manager,  and  after  he  had  written  no  less 
than  forty-two  operas,  he  turned  to  oratorio  —  a  form  of  composition 
in  which  he  had  made  two  ventures  before  he  came  to  England.  While 
he  made  no  advance  over  his  predecessors  on  the  instrumental  side, 
he  developed  choral  music  to  a  point  which  has  never  been  excelled. 
From  the  appearance  of  Saul,  in  1739,  his  success  was  permanent  and 
lasting.  Among  his  most  famous  productions  are  the  Messiah  (1741), 
Judas  Maccabeus  (1747),  and  Joshua  (1748). 

"The  Golden  Age  "  of  English  Painting.  —  In  painting  there  was, 
from  the  Revolution  to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  an  in- 
terval of  darkness  destined  to  be  followed  by  a  glorious  dawn.  The 
official  portrait  painters  were  mediocre  foreigners  and  natives  of  even 
less  talent.  Kneller  (1646-1743),  who  came  to  England  in  1675,  sup- 
planted Lely,  and  for  forty  years  was  so  deluged  with  commissions 
that  ordinarily  he  painted  only  the  head  and  hands  of  a  portrait, 
leaving  the  rest  to  be  filled  in  by  his  assistants.  The  Dilettanti 
Society,  1734,  and  the  Society  of  Arts,  1753,  did  much  for  the  encour- 
agement of  painting,  particularly  by  instituting  competitive  prizes 
and  by  lending  their  rooms  for  exhibitions.  Meanwhile,  in  the 
painter  and  engraver  William  Hogarth  (1697-1764)  an  artist  of  unique 
genius  had  arisen.  Knowing  his  London  as  few  have  known  it 
before  or  since,  he  portrayed  its  comedy  and  its  tragedy  with  a  rare 
gift  of  pictorial  satire  and  a  strong  didactic  sense.  His  chief  weakness 
was  as  a  colorist  and  his  absence  of  feeling  for  beauty  of  form.  Some 
of  his  pieces  were  simply  engraved,  others  were  engraved  first  and 
then  painted.  His  first  print,  The  Taste  of  the  Town,  appeared  in  1724. 
Among  his  best-known  works  are :  the  Harlot's  and  the  Rake's  Pro- 
gresses, 1732  and  1735  ;  the  Marriage  a  la  Mode,  1745,  and  the  portrait 
of  Simon  Eraser,  1746.  During  the  second  half  of  the  century  there 
flourished  a  wonderful  triumvirate  —  Reynolds,  Gainsborough,  and 
Romney.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  (1723-1792),  the  first  president  of  the 
Royal  Academy  (founded  1768),  created  a  new  epoch  in  portrait  paint- 
ing, and  is  generally  regarded  as  the  greatest  master  of  the  art  which 
England  has  ever  produced.  He  discarded  conventional  draperies 
and  excelled  in  reproducing  the  individuality  of  his  subjects  in  feature 
and  pose  as  well  as  in  dress.  On  the  other  hand,  he  suffered  from 
a  lack  of  early  training  in  drawing  and  anatomy,  which  he  himself 


8o4  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

lamented,  and  his  delicate  coloring  has  not  withstood  the  ravages  of 
time.  Thomas  Gainsborough  (1727-1788)  made  him  look  to  his 
laurels,  while  George  Romney  (1734-1802),  although  a  less  finished 
artist,  had  a  keener  sense  of  purely  physical  beauty,  and  painted  with 
more  warm  human  feeling  than  either  of  his  two  great  contemporaries. 
Richard  Wilson  (1714-1782)  was  the  pioneer  of  modern  English 
landscape  painters,  though  he  showed  strong  traces  of  the  influence 
of  Italian  scenery  and  of  the  classical  style  of  older  Frenchmen, 
Poussin  and  Claude  Lorrain.  Unhappily,  he  was  not  appreciated 
until  after  his  death,  and  spent  most  of  his  days  in  destitution.  Even 
Gainsborough,  who  went  far  beyond  him  in  the  fidelity  with  which  he 
reproduced  distinctively  English  scenes,  had  to  rely  on  his  portraits 
for  his  living. 

Population  and  Pauperism.  — The  population  of  England,  in  1750, 
has  been  estimated  at  six  and  one  half  millions.  In  1801,  the  date 
of  the  first  official  census,  it  had  increased  to  nearly  nine.  This  is 
very  striking  in  comparison  with  the  growth  since  the  Restoration, 
when  the  country  contained  about  five  million  inhabitants.  Equally 
striking  was  the  shifting  of  the  centers  of  density  from  the  south  and 
east  to  the  midlands  and  the  north.  Thanks  to  abundant  harvests 
and  steadily  increasing  trade,  the  laboring  classes  seem  to  have  been 
fairly  well  off  during  the  first  three  quarters  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
or  until  the  depression  due  to  the  Industrial  and  Agricultural  Revolu- 
tion. The  amount  expended  for  poor  relief  sank  from  £819,000  in  1698 
to  £600,000  in  1742,  and  then  rose  again,  first  slowly  and  then  rapidly, 
till  it  reached  £2,000,000  in  1784.  These  figures,  however,  are  some- 
what illusive,  since  a  workhouse  test  was  imposed  in  1723,  and  out- 
door relief  was  not  resumed  till  1782.  During  the  interval  many  pre- 
ferred to  suffer  rather  than  go  to  the  poorhouse.  Many  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  famous  Act  of  1834  were  suggested  far  back  in  this 
period,  as  were  the  measures  passed  in  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth 
century  for  old-age  pensions  and  for  the  compulsory  insurance  of 
laborers  to  provide  sick  benefits ;  and  it  was  argued  then,  as  now,  that 
such  provision  could  best  be  achieved  through  voluntary  friendly 
societies. 

Evidences  of  Reforming  Zeal.  —  Although  the  age,  particularly 
before  the  Wesleyan  revival,  was  a  material  one,  when  the  majority 
were  chiefly  intent  on  business  or  pleasure,  there  are  some  isolated 
instances  of  philanthropy  and  reforming  zeal.  In  1736  an  act  was 
passed  to  check  the  alarming  increase  of  gin  drinking  among  the  lower 
classes.  It  led  to  so  much  smuggling  and  evasion  that  its  principles 
•were  practically  abandoned  in  1743.  Regulation  of  the  traffic  in 
1751  and  1753  abated  the  evil  only  to  a  small  degree.  There  were  a 
few  private  philanthropists,  lonely  voices  crying  in  the  wilderness. 
Chief  among  them  was  James  Oglethorpe  (1696-1785),  who,  in  1729, 
succeeded  in  procuring  a  parliamentary  inquiry  into  prison -condi- 
tions. Horrible  abuses  were  exposed,  a  few  regulations  were 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  805 

made,  and  some  of  the  worst  offenders  were  removed  and 
punished ;  but  no  thoroughgoing  reform  was  undertaken  for  over  a 
century,  and  Oglethorpe  turned  his  attention  to  the  colony  of  Georgia, 
which  he  founded  in  1733  as  a  refuge  for  poor  debtors  and  oppressed 
foreign  Protestants.  Forty  years  later,  John  Howard  (1726-1790) 
took  up  the  work  which  Oglethorpe  had  abandoned  in  discouragement. 
He  was  a  Dissenter  of  independent  means,  who  became  High  Sheriff 
of  Bedfordshire  in  1773.  He  began  his  work  of  prison  reform  in  the 
same  year,  apparently  inspired  by  the  knowledge,  gained  from  his 
new  office,  that  persons  acquitted  of  guilt  were  kept  in  confinement  on 
account  of  fees  incurred  while  held  for  trial.  He  also  discovered 
appalling  conditions,  resulting  in  a  frightful  prevalence  of  jail  fever. 
As  a  result  of  his  evidence,  presented  before  the  House  of  Commons, 
two  bills  were  passed  in  1774:  one  providing  for  fixed  salaries  in 
place  of  jailers'  fees ;  the  other,  for  improving  the  prevailing  unsanitary 
conditions.  These  provisions  were  generally  evaded ;  but  he  kept  on 
unwearyingly,  publishing  his  findings  in  a  series  of  works  on  the  State 
of  Prisons,  the  first  of  which  appeared  in  1777.  He  made  inspection 
tours,  not  only  throughout  the  United  Kingdom,  but  in  most  of  the 
continental  countries  as  well,  spending  £3000  of  his  own  money  in 
the  work.  Reform  came  slowly,  but  his  ceaseless  efforts  bore  fruit 
in  the  following  century. 

Lawlessness  and  Crime.  —  Brutal  punishments  still  continued. 
Prisoners  hung  in  chains  all  over  the  land.  After  the  '45,  heads  were 
seen  rotting  on  Temple  Bar.  By  a  law  not  repealed  till  1790,  women 
guilty  of  murder  or  treason  were  to  be  publicly  burnt,  though  in 
practice  they  were  usually  strangled  first.  The  barbarous  law  of 
pressing  to  death  prisoners  who  refused  to  plead  before  a  jury  was  not 
repealed  till  1772,  though  the  practice  was  abandoned  in  1735.  The 
pillory  was  still  a  cruel  and  degrading  spectacle,  and  men  and  women 
were  still  publicly  whipped  at  the  cart's  tail.  All  that  can  be  said  is 
that  conditions  were  worse  on  the  Continent,  where  torture  and  arbi- 
trary imprisonment  were  still  legal.  Partly  owing  to  the  overseverity 
of  the  criminal  code,  more  especially  owing  to  the  inadequate  machin- 
ery for  its  enforcement,  lawlessness  prevailed  to  an  alarming  extent. 
The  high  duty  on  tea,  coffee,  French  wines  and  brandies,  muslins, 
and  cambrics  led  to  a  large  amount  of  smuggling,  though  Pitt's 
measures l  somewhat  decreased  the  amount.  Goods  were  landed  by 
night  at  secluded  inlets  and  bays,  and  loaded  by  armed  bands  on 
wagons  and  pack  horses.  Customhouse  officers  were  overawed,  or 
more  often  bribed,  and  we  even  hear  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  desperate 
men  doing  their  work  by  day  on  the  open  beach.  Highwaymen  con- 
tinued to  ply  their  calling.  The  mail  between  London  and  Bristol 
was  robbed  five  times  in  five  successive  weeks,  and  in  1757  a  mail 
robbery  took  place  within  two  miles  of  London.  George  II,  while 

1  See  below,  p.  816. 


806  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

walking  alone  in  the  gardens  of  Kensington  palace,  was  confronted 
by  a  thief,  who  jumped  over  the  wall,  pleaded  poverty  in  courteous 
language,  and  took  his  purse.  Thefts,  shoplifting,  pocket  picking, 
and  even  open  robbery  occurred  in  the  very  heart  of  the  city.  Hanging 
and  transportation  proved  of  little  avail.  Jack  Sheppard,  who  was 
hanged  in  1724,  and  Dick  Turpin,  who  followed  him  to  the  gallows  in 
1739,  were  regarded  as  heroes  by  many  youths  who  were  tempted  to 
emulate  their  stirring,  adventurous  careers.  The  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century  had  already  run  its  course  before  milder  laws  and 
the  beginnings  of  an  effective  police  system  prepared  the  way  for  a 
decrease  of  crime. 

Life  in  London.  —  In  London,  throughout  the  century,  there  was 
an  epidemic  of  card  playing  among  the  upper  and  middle  classes 
which  tended  to  displace  reading  and  intelligent  conversation.  Lot- 
teries and  raffles  were  extremely  popular.  Fashionable  folk  gambled 
for  stakes  that  were  appalling.  In  those  days,  before  art  galleries  or 
zoological  gardens,  the  lions  at  the  Tower  were  one  of  the  great  sights 
of  the  Town,  whence  the  term  "  social  lion."  The  fairs  —  Bartholo- 
mew Fair,  May  Fair,  and  Southwark  Fair  —  still  flourished,  and,  next 
to  the  theater,  were  regarded  as  the  "  chiefest  nurseries  of  vice." 
Ranelagh  (on  the  site  of  a  villa  of  Viscount  Ranelagh  in  Chelsea)  was 
opened  in  1742,  and  vied  with  Vauxhall  as  a  place  of  amusement. 
The  London  season  extended  from  October  to  May,  while,  during  the 
intervening  four  months,  the  theaters  were  closed  and  all  social  func- 
tions ceased.  The  standard  of  manners  and  conduct  set  by  the 
essays  of  Addison  and  Steele  declined  under  the  first  George,  largely 
owing  to  the  example  furnished  by  him  and  his  court,  but  developed 
toward  the  middle  of  the  century  into  the  formal  stilted  type  repre- 
sented in  Chesterfield's  Letters.  About  1750,  Mrs.  Montague, 
following  the  lead  of  the  late  Queen  Caroline,  made  an  heroic  effort 
to  improve  the  intellectual  status  of  women  by  giving  parties  at  which 
cards  were  excluded.  She  and  her  set  gained  the  name  of  "  blue 
stockings  "  from  the  fact  that  Benjamin  Stillingfleet  attended  some 
evening  assemblies  of  one  Mrs.  Vesey,  at  Bath,  in  gray-blue  worsted 
stockings,  instead  of  the  black  silk  required  for  evening  dress.  Mrs. 
Thrale  was  another  woman  of  literary  aspirations,  and  at  her  parties 
Burke  and  Dr.  Johnson  exercised  their  unequaled  gifts  in  conversa- 
tion. Great  extravagances  of  dress  continued  nearly  through  the 
century.  Men  were  resplendent  in  coats,  waistcoats,  and  breeches  of 
bright-hued  silks,  while  women  appeared  with  huge  hoopskirts  and 
amazing  headdresses  or  pompadours  a  foot  high.  But  the  new  in- 
ventions and  the  effects  of  the  American  and  French  wars  were  soon  to 
change  all  this.  In  dress,  as  in  agriculture,  in  industry,  and  in  so 
many  other  ways,  England  had  reached  the  threshold  of  the  modern 
world. 


EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY  ENGLAND  807 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

General  conditions.  Traill,  Social  England,  IV,  ch.  XVI;  V,  chs.  XVII,  XVIII 
(authorities,  pp.  225-226,  495-496).  Robertson,  England  under  the  Hanoverians, 
introduction,  pt.  I,  ch.  IV ;  pt.  II,  ch.  IV.  Leadam,  Political  History,  ch.  XXVIII. 
Hunt,  Political  History,  ch.  XIII.  Lecky,  Eighteenth  Century,  I,  chs.  I,  II ;  II,  ch. 
V;  VII,  ch.  XXI. 

Social  and  industrial.  J.  Ashton,  Social  Life  in  the  Reign  of  Anne  (2  vols.,  1882), 
and  Old  Times  (1885) ;  the  latter  made  up  of  newspaper  cuttings  and  caricatures. 
W.  C.  Sydney,  England  and  the  English  in' the  Eighteenth  Century  (2  vols.,  1891). 
E.  S.  Roscoe,  The  English  Scene  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (1912).  T.  Wright, 
England  wider  the  House  of  Hanover  (2  vols.,  3d  ed.,  1852,  reprinted  as  Caricature 
History  of  the  Georges).  Creighton,  History  of  Epidemics.  J.  Howard,  The  State 
of  the  Prisons  (4th  ed.,  1792).  Warner,  Landmarks  in  English  Industrial  History 
(1899).  E.  P.  Cheyney,  Industrial  and  Social  History  of  England  (1901).  Both  of 
these  are  good  brief  sketches.  Cunningham,  English  Industry  and  Commerce, 
(4th  ed.,  1907),  pp.  403-668.  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce  (4  vols.,  1805). 
J.  R.  Porter,  Progress  of  the  Nation  in  its  Various  Social  and  Industrial  Relations 
(1851,  new  ed.  F.  Q.  Hirst,  1911).  A.  Toynbee,  Lectures  on  the  Industrial  Revolu- 
tion of  the  XVIIIth  Century  in  England  (1896).  S.  Smiles,  Lives  of  Engineers 
(3  vols.,  1861-1862).  S.  and  B.  Webb,  English  Local  Government,  1688-1835  (3  vols., 
1906) ;  valuable  for  local  conditions.  A.  Young,  Tour  in  the  Southern  Counties  favols., 
1788);  Tour  through  the  North  (4  vols.,  1770);  and  The  Farmer's  Tour  through  the 
East  of  England  (4  vols.,  1771).  Rogers,  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages  and  Agri- 
culture and  Prices,  V,  VI.  Prothero-,  Pioneers  of  English  Farming,  chs.  VII,  VIII. 

Learning  and  literature.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  VI,  chs.  XXIII,  XXIV, 
(bibliography,  pp.  964-970).  Moody  and  Lovett,  chs.  X-XII.  .  Taine,  English  Liter- 
ature,III.  G.  Saintsbury,  Short  History  of  English  Literature  (1898).  Cambridge 
History  of  Literature,  IX,  X  (bibliographies  at  the  end  of  the  volumes).  T.  S.  Perry, 
History  of  English  Literature  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (1883).  E.  Gosse,  Eighteenth 
Century  Literature  (1898).  L.  Stephen,  English  Thought  in  the  Eighteenth  Century 
(2  vols.,  2d,  ed.,  1881),  and  English  Literature  and  Society  in  the  Eighteenth  Century 
(1909).  W.  Raleigh,  The  English  Novel  (1894). 

Religion.  Wakeman,  chs.  XVIII,  XIX.  Stoughton,  Religion  in  England,  VI. 
Lecky,  III,  ch.  VIII,  for  a  discriminating  account  of  Wesleyanism.  For  a  full 
bibliography  of  religion  in  the  eighteenth  century  see  Cambridge  Modern  History, 
VI,  pp.  851-857. 

Life  in  Scotland.  Lecky,  II,  ch.  VI.  H.  G.  Graham,  Social  Life  in  Scotland  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century  (2  vols.,  1900).  For  a  full  bibliography  see  P.  H.  Brown,  III, 
pp.  435-444.  W.  L.  Mathieson,  The  Awakening  of  Scotland,  1747-1797  (1911)  con- 
tinues his  Scotland  and  the  Union. 


CHAPTER  XLV 

THE    YOUNGER    PITT:     THE    NEW   TORYISM    AND    ADMINISTRA- 
TIVE REFORM    (1784-1793) 

The  Coalition  Ministry,  April-December,  1783.  —  Shelburne  re- 
signed, 24  February,  1783,  owing  to  a  vote  of  censure  on  the  terms  of 
the  peace.  The  terms  were  as  good  as  Great  Britain  could  expect, 
but  Fox  and  North  combined  against  their  common  political  enemy, 
and  the  Prime  Minister,  now  more  unpopular  than  ever,  could  not 
muster  followers  enough  to  meet  their  attack.  This  "  unnatural 
junction  "  with  the  man  to  whom  he  had  been  persistently  hostile  was 
defended  by  Fox  on  the  grounds  that  the  country  needed  a  "  broad 
and  stable  administration,"  and  that,  what  with  the  close  of  the  war 
and  the  end  of  George's  personal  rule,  his  chief  points  of  difference 
with  North  were  at  an  end.  But,  strong  party  man  as  he  was,  it  would 
have  been  more  consistent  to  have  attempted  to  unite  the  two  factions 
of  the  Whigs,  since  the  question  of  American  independence  no  longer 
kept  them  apart.  The  King  was  desperate,  for  he  had  always  hated 
Fox,  and  he  was  infuriated  at  North  for  deserting  his  cause.  After 
a  stubborn  fight,  during  which  he  again  threatened  to  retire  to  Han- 
over, he  was  obliged  to  accept  the  Coalition  Ministry.  The  Duke  of 
Portland  was  made  nominal  head,  but  the  real  leaders  were  North 
and  Fox,  who  became  Secretaries  of  State.  The  King's  hostility  to 
Fox  was  accentuated  because  of  his  intimacy  with  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
a  dissipated  spendthrift.  Fox  abetted  the  Prince  in  his  extravagance, 
who  reciprocated  by  warmly  supporting  the  Coalition,  which  George 
III  was  accustomed  to  designate  as  "  my  son's  Ministry."  He  was 
determined  to  get  them  out  as  speedily  as  possible.  When  they 
came  to  kiss  hands,1  it  is  said  that  he  put  back  his  ears  with  the  air 
of  a  vicious  horse  determined  to  overthrow  its  rider.  He  nearly  suc- 
ceeded on  the  question  of  providing  for  the  Prince's  establishment ; 
but  the  rock  on  which  the  coalition  foundered  was  a  bill  for  the  settle- 
ment of  the  government  of  India. 

The  State  of  India  at  the  Close  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  1763.  — 
Up  to  1763  the  English  in  India  had  been  mainly  occupied  in  over- 
coming European  competitors.  By  that  date  they  had  practically 
excluded  their  rivals.  Henceforth,  they  were  concerned  chiefly  with 

1  A  ceremony  performed  by  each  Ministry  on  its  introduction  to  office. 

808 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  809 

extending  their  sway  over  the  native  rulers  and  in  establishing  a 
satisfactory  system  of  government.  The  Company,  under  its  royal 
charter,  which  since  1 708  1  had  been  renewed  at  intervals  of  about 
twenty  years,  consisted  of  a  court  of  proprietors,  or  stockholders, 
and  a  board  of  directors.  It  was  represented  in  India  by  the  govern- 
ors, or  presidents,  and  their  councils,  at  Calcutta,  Madras,  and  Bom- 
bay. The  authority  of  the  Moguls  at  Delhi  had  faded  almost  to  a 
shadow.  Beside  the  viceroys  of  provinces  and  the  rulers  of  tributary 
states,  who  exercised  practically  independent  powers,  there  were  the 
Marathas,  a  group  of  tribes  of  Hindoo  stock  who,  under  the  Peshwa 
of  Poonah,  were  very  strong  in  the  western  and  central  districts, 
though  they,  too,  were  somewhat  on  the  decline.  The  affairs  of  the 
Company  were  sadly  mismanaged  during  the  period  following  its 
triumph  over  the  French.  In  1765  Clive,  who  had  been  in  England 
for  five  years,  was  sent  back  as  Governor  of  Bengal  with  full  powers 
to  set  matters  right.  He  deprived  the  officers  of  the  "  double  batta," 
or  extra  allowance,  which  they  had  been  collecting  from  the  native 
rulers,  and  put  down  a  mutiny  which  they  started  in  consequence; 
he  forbade  the  civilians  to  receive  presents ;  and  put  an  end  to  private 
trading.  Unfortunately,  ill  health  compelled  him  to  return  to  Eng- 
land, in  January,  1767,  before  he  had  completed  his  work. 

North's  Regulating  Act,  1773.  —  Suddenly,  Madras  was  exposed 
to  serious  danger  from  the  attacks  of  Haidar  Ali,  a  Mohammedan 
adventurer  of  rare  ability,  who  had  made  himself  master  of  Mysore, 
a  province  in  the  hill  country  on  the  border  of  the  Carnatic.  This 
danger,  together  with  the  departure  of  Clive,  dissensions  at  the  India 
House,  and  the  general  ineffectiveness  of  the  Company's  rule,  caused 
its  stock  to  drop  to  60  per  cent.  A  parliamentary  inquiry  followed, 
and  a  brief  immunity  from  governmental  intervention  was  secured 
only  by  a  promise  on  the  part  of  the  Company  to  pay  £400,000  a  year 
and  to  appoint  supervisors  to  order  its  affairs.  Then  came  a  famine 
in  Bengal,  in  1770,  which  so  reduced  its  resources  that  it  had  to  turn 
to  the  Government  for  help.  As  the  result  of  another  parliamentary 
investigation,  Lord  North,  in  1773,  passed  a  measure  known  as  the 
Regulating  Act.  It  provided  that  the  annual  payment  should  be 
remitted,  that  a  loan  of  £1,000,000  should  be  advanced,  and  that 
bonded  tea  might  be  shipped  to  America  free  from  English  duties. 
In  return,  the  dividends  of  the  Company  were  reduced  to  6  per  cent 
until  the  loan  should  be  repaid,  and  the  government  in  India  was 
extensively  reorganized.  A  supreme  court  was  sent  up,  the  Governor 
of  Bengal  was  made  Governor-General,  and  was  surrounded  by  a  coun- 
cil of  four  members  named  by  Parliament.  During  the  investigation 
leading  up  to  the  passage  of  this  act  a  fire  of  criticism  was  directed 
against  Clive,  and  a  vote  of  censure  was  passed  condemning  many 
of  his  acts.  Though  it  was  declared  that  he  "  did  at  the  same  time 

1  The  date  when  the  old  and  the  new  companies  were  united. 


8  io  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

render  great  and  meritorious  services  to  his  country,"  he  was  so  un- 
strung by  the  strain  of  the  conflict  that  he  died  by  his  own  hand 
November,  1774. 

Warren  Hastings  (1732-1818). — Warren  Hastings,  the  Governor 
of  Bengal,  was  appointed  the  first  Governor-General.  He  had  come  to 
India  as  a  youth  of  eighteen,  and  in  the  course  of  twenty  years  had 
worked  his  way  to  the  top  by  sheer  force  of  ability.  Frail  in  appear- 
ance, he  was  a  masterful  and  even  ruthless  man.  The  situation  which 
he  had  to  face  was  one  of  enormous  difficulty.  The  people  were  in 
the  depths  of  distress,  affairs  had  been  grossly  mismanaged,  the 
English  in  India  were  intent  on  private  gain,  and  the  directors  in 
London  were  at  odds  among  themselves  in  everything  except  a  con- 
suming desire  for  dividends.  Already  as  Governor  of  Bengal,  Hastings 
had  proved  an  effective  administrator  and  had  introduced  excellent 
reforms.  He  now  brought  order  out  of  chaos ;  he  replaced  the  native 
ministers,  whom  Clive  had  employed,  by  Englishmen ;  moreover,  by 
improved  methods  of  taxation  and  by  careful  economies,  he  increased 
the  revenue,  while  at  the  same  time  he  protected  the  people  against 
plunderers.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  pressure  of  war  and  the 
financial  demands  of  the  Company  led  him  to  adopt  too  many  high- 
handed and  cruel  measures.  One  of  the  earliest  was  to  let  to  the 
Wazir  of  Oudh,  for  forty  lacs  of  rupees,1  a  body  of  English  troops 
to  destroy  his  enemies,  the  Afghans,  who  had  conquered  Rohilcund 
on  the  northern  border.  Confronted,  after  he  became  Governor- 
General,  first  with  a  war  against  the  Marathas  and  then  with  another 
against  Haidar  Ali,  he  resorted  to  acts  of  pitiless  extortion.  He  re- 
quired from  Chait  Singh,  the  Raja  of  Benares,  in  addition  to  his 
annual  tribute  of  £50,000,  a  contingent  of  troops.  When  the  Raja, 
already  suspected  of  disaffection,  refused,  Hastings  promptly  increased 
his  tribute  tenfold  —  a  penalty  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  offense. 
To  enforce  his  demands  Hastings  went  to  Benares  with  a  small  force, 
and  in  the  teeth  of  a  popular  insurrection,  in  which  he  showed  him- 
self magnificently  indifferent  to  personal  danger,  he  drove  out  Chait 
Singh  and  set  up  a  successor  pledged  to  obey  him.  Then  he  made  a 
bargain  with  the  young  ruler  of  Oudh  to  deprive  his  mother  and  grand- 
mother, the  Begums  or  Princesses,  of  the  lands  and  treasure  of  the 
late  Nawab.  In  order  to  accomplish  his  purpose  he  subjected  them 
to  a  siege,  wasted  their  territories,  and  tortured  and  starved  their 
chief  ministers.  The  landed  property  was  given  to  the  reigning 
Prince,  the  treasure  was  appropriated  for  the  Company.  While 
it  does  not  excuse  the  inhumanity  and  injustice  of  the  acts  for  which 
he  was  responsible,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Hastings  took  noth- 
ing for  himself,2  that  his  sole  aim  was  to  secure  resources  to  save  the 
British  dominion  in  India. 

1  A  rupee  is  worth  about  fifty  cents,  and  there  are  a  hundred  thousand  in  a  lac. 

2  Moreover  the  treasure  belonged  not  to  the  Begums,  but  to  the  Nawab,  and  the 
Begums  were  engaged  in  a  conspiracy  to  root  out  the  British  power  in  India. 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  8n 

Fox's  India  Bill,  1783.  —  Rumors  of  what  was  going  on,  the  fact 
that  the  Company's  loan  was  still  unpaid,  and  the  hostility  of  the 
Rockingham  Whigs  to  an  official  who  was  a  product  of  North's  Regu- 
lating Act  led  to  a  parliamentary  investigation  in  1781.  In  the  report 
which  followed,  the  administration  of  the  Company  was  condemned, 
and  the  removal  of  Hastings  recommended.  The  Directors  refused. 
Since  they  had  the  legal  right  so  to  do,  the  only  way  of  effecting  any 
reforms  was  by  a  complete  reorganization.  The  logic  of  events 
had  made  a  trading  company  the  ruler  of  vast  territories.  Necessity 
of  wars  for  extension  and  defense,  coupled  with  a  desire  for  constant 
dividends,  had  led  to  inevitable  results.  The  struggle  became  acute 
in  the  autumn  of  1782  when  Fox  introduced  the  famous  measure1 
to  deprive  the  Company  of  its  exclusive  powers  of  government  and  to 
remedy  the  crying  abuses  in  the  existing  system.  There  were  two 
bills.  The  first  transferred  the  government  of  India  to  a  body  of 
seven  commissioners  nominated  by  Parliament  and  holding  office 
for  four  years.  Vacancies  were  to  be  filled  by  the  sovereign.  These 
commissioners  were  to  act  as  trustees  for  the  Company's  property, 
though  its  management  was  to  be  in  the  hands  of  a  council  of  directors 
acting  under  the  orders  of  the  commissioners.  They  were  also  named 
in  the  Bill,  but  vacancies  were  to  be  filled  by  the  court  of  directors. 
The  second  bill  dealt  with  administrative  reforms ;  for  example,  the 
curtailing  of  monopolies  and  the  extortion  of  presents,  the  regulation 
of  the  hiring  out  of  British  troops,  and  turning  the  holdings  of  native 
landholders  into  hereditary  estates.  The  arrangement  was  attacked 
furiously  both  as  a  party  measure  and  as  a  violation  of  vested  rights. 
It  was  pointed  out  that  the  commissioners  named  in  the  act  were  all 
supporters  of  Fox2  and  that  they  would  have  control  of  patronage 
worth  £300,000  a  year,  which  would  give  them  an  enormous  political 
influence.  The  answer  to  these  objections  was  that  the  appointments 
were  limited  to  four  years,  that  tne  commission  was  bound  to  lay  its 
proceedings  before  Parliament,  and  that  the  King,  on  the  address  of 
both  Houses,  had  the  power  to  remove  any  or  all  the  members.  The 
measure,  however,  was  defeated,  not  on  the  ground  of  any  of  the 
objections  which  were  raised,  but  by  the  King's  hatred  of  the  ministers 
who  framed  it. 

The  Defeat  of  Fox's  India  Bill  and  the  Overthrow  of  the  Coalition, 
December,  1783.  —  After  it  had  passed  in  the  Commons,  King  George 
eagerly  adopted  a  plan  suggested  by  Lords  Temple  and  Thurlow  to 
block  it  in  the  Upper  House.  Temple  was  given  a  paper  to  circulate 
among  the  peers,  stating  that  His  Majesty  would  "  consider  as  an 
enemy  "  whoever  voted  for  the  India  Bill,  and  was  empowered  to  use 
stronger  words  if  he  thought  necessary.  By  this  underhand  means 

1  Though  popularly  known  as  "Fox's  India  Bill,"  the  details  were  largely  the 
work  of  Burke. 

2  Lord  Thurlow  declared :  "The  King  will  in  fact  take  the  diadem  with  his  own 
hands  and  place  it  on  the  head  of  Mr.  Fox." 


812  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

it  was  lost  by  nineteen  votes.  The  Commons  vainly  protested  in  a 
resolution,  declaring  that  "  to  report  any  opinion  or  pretended  opin- 
ion of  his  Majesty  upon  any  bill  "  pending  in  Parliament  in  order  to 
influence  votes  was  "  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanor."  A  resort 
even  to  the  long-discarded  right  to  veto  which  the  King  originally 
contemplated  —  though  contrary  to  the  principle  of  government  by 
a  responsible  ministry  —  would  at  least  have  enabled  him  to  accom- 
plish his  purpose  in  a  straightforward  manner. 

Pitt's  Struggle  with  the  Coalition,  1783-1784.  —  On  18  December 
George  dismissed  the  Ministry  and  in  his  perplexity  he  turned  to 
William  Pitt  to  form  a  new  one.  Pitt  was  the  second  son  of  the  Earl 
of  Chatham ;  he  had  entered  Parliament  in  1780  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  and  with  all  the  vehemence  of  his  father  had  opened  his  career 
by  denouncing  the  war  with  the  American  Colonies,  as  "  most  accursed, 
wicked,  barbarous,  cruel,  unnatural,  unjust,  and  diabolical."  He 
had  haughtily  refused  a  subordinate  office  in  the  Rockingham  Ministry, 
but  Shelburne  had  paid  a  tribute  to  his  name  and  talents  by  making 
him  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Now,  when  not  yet  twenty-five,  with  a  remnant  of  the  Chatham  Whigs 
and  a  few  Tories  at  his  back,  with  a  Ministry,  save  for  himself,  drawn 
exclusively  from  the  Upper  House,  and  discredited  by  the  fact  that 
he  was  the  appointee  of  a  sovereign  who  had  been  guilty  of  a  piece  of 
unscrupulous  tyranny,  he  had  to  face  a  hostile  majority  led  by  two 
veterans,  one  the  most  skillful  party  manager  and  the  other  the  most 
adroit  debater  of  the  period.  It  was  an  audacious  but  heroic  under- 
taking, which  to  the  Opposition  appeared  to  be  a  "  boyish  freak."  l 
The  battle  which  followed  is  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  in  parlia- 
mentary history.  At  first  it  was  an  uphill  fight :  motion  after  motion 
was  carried  against  him,  and  an  India  bill  which  he  framed  was  de- 
feated both  in  the  first  and  second  readings.  Nevertheless,  he  re- 
fused to  resign,  nor  was  he  keen  on  dissolving  Parliament  until  he  was 
sure  of  a  majority  in  the  elections.  Fox,  who  led  the  Opposition, 
played  into  his  hands  by  his  violence  and  his  blunders.  His  most  fatal 
error  was  in  insisting  that  the  present  Parliament  should  continue. 
His  aim  was  to  hold  on  to  his  majority  till  25  March,  1784  when  the 
Mutiny  Bill  expired,  and  then  to  paralyze  the  administration  by  re- 
fusing to  renew  it.  Pitt's  patience,  courage,  calmness,  and  dis- 
interestedness gradually  won  him^  supporters  until,  when  the  Mutiny 
Bill  came  up  for  vote,  it  easily  passed.  Multitudes  of  addresses  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  convinced  Pitt  that  he  could  now  safely  try  the 
issue  of  a  general  election.  He  secured  an  overwhelming  majority.2 

1  It  was  described  as  a  "mince  pie  administration  which  would  end  with  the 
Christmas  holidays." 

2  It  has  been  suggested  that  Pitt's  victory  was  due  to  influence  and  to  adroit 
electioneering  rather  than  to  real  popularity ;   but  though  those  factors  played  a 
part  they  always  played  a  part  then,  and  in  this  instance  it  is  a  part  that  can  be 
easily  exaggerated. 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  813 

Fox  had  offended  the  Whigs  by  his  outspoken  opposition  to  an  appeal 
to  the  people  during  the  preceding  winter  and  had  alienated  the  Tories 
by  his  attacks  on  the  royal  prerogative.  One  hundred  and  sixty 
of  his  supporters,  "  Fox's  Martyrs  "  as  they  came  to  be  called,  lost 
their  seats.  Although  the  Whigs  had  been  routed,  it  was  a  triumph 
not  for  the  King  but  for  Pitt.  Henceforth,  the  Prime  Minister  con- 
trolled the  Government.  While  he  came  to  call  himself  a  Tory,  he 
represented  a  new,  liberal  form  of  Toryism  resting  on  popular  more 
than  on  royal  support. 

The  Westminster  Scrutiny,  1784-1785.  —  Pitt's  triumph  was 
marred  by  one  ungenerous  action  —  his  treatment  of  his  rival  in  the 
so-called  "  Westminster  Scrutiny."  The  election  was  hotly  con- 
tested, and  all  eyes  had  been  centered  upon  it  because  of  the  candidacy  of 
Fox.  He  was  supported  by  numerous  powerful  friends,  among  them 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  Duke  of  Portland,  and  the  charming  Georgiana, 
Duchess  of  Devonshire,  who  was  accused  of  dispensing  kisses  in  return 
for  _votes.  Westminster  returned  two  members,  for  which  there 
were  three  candidates,  including  Fox.  The  two  others  were  Pitt  men. 
One  of  them,  Admiral  Lord  Hood,  easily  won  first  place.  Fox,  who 
started  at  the  bottom  of  the  list,  had  finally  reached  second  place 
when  the  polls  were  closed  at  the  end  of  forty  days.  The  rejoicing  of 
the  Whigs  was  cut  short  when  Wray,  the  defeated  candidate,  demanded 
a  scrutiny  on  the  ground  of  fraudulent  voting.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
there  had  been  more  votes  cast  than  there  were  electors,  so  the  High 
Bailiff  was  quite  within  his  rights  in  granting  the  request ;  but  he 
should  have  returned  Fox's  name  on  the  day  the  writ  was  returnable, 
and  left  the  final  settlement  to  the  committee  of  the  Commons  ap- 
pointed under  the  Grenville  Act.  This  he  refused  to  do  and  was 
supported  by  Pitt.  Although  the  Bailiff  was  ordered  to  proceed  with 
"  all  possible  dispatch,"  eight  months  were  wasted  on  a  single  parish. 
It  was  only  after  a  vote  had  passed  the  Commons  ordering  an  im- 
mediate return  that  Pitt  gave  way.  Fox,  who  in  the  meantime 
had  been  sitting  for  a  small  Scotch  borough,  finally  took  his  seat  as  a 
member  from  Westminster  and  ultimately  secured  £2000  damages. 
Parliament  sought  to  prevent  such  injustice  for  the  future  by  a  law 
providing  that,  henceforth,  the  polls  were  to  be  closed  at  the  end  of 
fifteen  days,  and  that,  though  scrutinies  might  still  be  granted  on 
demand,  they  must  be  stopped  six  days  before  the  day  on  which  the 
writs  were  returnable. 

William  Pitt.  —  For  an  unbroken  period  of  seventeen  years  Pitt 
was  Chief  Minister.  After  an  interval  of  three  years  he  came  to  power 
again,  and  died  in  office  in  his  forty-seventh  year.  At  an  age  when 
most  Cabinet  ministers  have  only  begun  their  career,  his  was  ended 
after  he  had  held  the  chief  position  in  the  State  for  twenty  years. 
He  had  many  qualities  peculiarly  fitting  him  for  his  great  opportuni- 
ties and  responsibilities.  He  had  uncommon  talents  as  a  parliamen- 
tary speaker  which  had  been  carefully  developed  by  his  father  and  by 


814  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

his  own  efforts  in  the  University  and  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He 
had  a  rich  sonorous  voice ;  he  spoke  with  exquisite  finish,  convincing 
logic,  and,  when  he  chose,  with  extreme  clearness.  In  addition,  he 
was  fluent  and  ready,  dignified,  courageous,  and  resourceful.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  was  not  original  or  profound,  he  lacked  imagination 
and  fervid  enthusiasm.  Burke  referred  to  him  as  the  "  sublime  of 
mediocrity."  His  printed  speeches  are  often  verbose  and  repetitious, 
hardly  bearing  out  the  great  reputation  which  he  enjoyed  in  his  time ; 
but  he  doubtless  suffered  from  the  faulty  system  of  reporting ;  more- 
over, as  the  defender  of  the  Government  policy,  he  had  often  to  use 
words  to  conceal  thought  and  to  parry  the  searching  questions  of  the 
opposition.  In  a  word,  he  spoke  as  a  party  manager  rather  than  as  an 
impassioned  orator.  In  public  he  was  awkward,  stiff,  cold,  and  formal, 
with  a  "  good  deal  of  marble  "  in  "  his  composition."  Even  as  a 
young  man  he  bore  himself  "  with  all  the  sour  and  severe  insolence  of 
sixty."  1  Yet  he  could  be  merry  and  simple  enough  with  his  relatives 
and  his  few  chosen  friends,  and  he  had  a  rare  power  of  sensing,  the 
temper  of  the  nation.  While  he  did  not  attract,  he  dominated  his 
political  associates  and  commanded  their  respect.  His  private  life 
was  pure ;  he  was  absolutely  indifferent  to  financial  gain.2  His  only 
vice  was  one  all  too  common  in  those  days  —  intemperate  drinking  of 
port  which  contributed  to  his  early  death.3  He  was  avaricious  of 
power,  more  than  once  dropping  a  measure  of  which  he  approved 
for  fear  of  weakening  his  position,  though  he  had  this  excuse  that  he 
ruled  in  a  critical  time,  and  may  have  honestly  felt  that  the  security 
of  the  State  depended  upon  his  tenure  of  office. 

His  Position  and  Problems.  —  His  position  in  the  spring  of  1784  was 
one  of  unusual  strength.  He  had  the  prestige  of  his  father's  great 
name ;  he  had  won  a  dramatic  fight  against  a  combination  which 
seemed  well-nigh  irresistible;  the  Whigs  were  hopelessly  eclipsed 
and  the  extreme  Tories  were  still  discredited  by  the  failure  of  the 
American  war.  He  was  pledged  to  no  particular  policy,  he  was  sup- 
ported by  the  moderate  men  of  both  parties,  while  the  King,  bound 
to  him  by  gratitude,  and  realizing  that  the  strength  of  the  Govern- 
ment depended  upon  his  popularity,  was  obliged  to  recognize  him  as 
Prime  Minister  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  Pitt  not  only  restored 
and  firmly  established  the  rule  of  the  responsible  minister,  but  during 
his  ascendancy  practically  did  away  with  parliamentary  corruption. 
To  be  sure,  he  was  only  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  second  Rockingham 
Ministry,  and  he  had  little  temptation  to  resort  to  illicit  methods ; 

1  The  phrases    are  Burke's.     The    French    contemporary   Chateaubriand  de- 
scribes him  dressed  in  black,  pale  of  face,  his  nose  in  the  air,  irregular  in  his  meals 
and  in  his  sleep,  negligent  in  attire,  devoid  of  pleasure  or  passion,  greedy  of  power, 
scorning  honors,  and  wishing  to  be  only  William  Pitt. 

2  He  was  usually  financially  embarrassed,  a  prey  of  dishonest  tradesmen  and 
servants.     In  the  winter  of  1783-1784  he  refused  the  Clerkship  of  the  Pells,  a  sine- 
cure which  yielded  £3200  annually  when  his  private  income  was  only  £300  a  year. 

3  He  once  came  to  the  House  so  drunk  that  he  saw  two  Speakers  instead  of  one. 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  815 

nevertheless,  his  high  ideals  and  his  achievements  in  this  regard  de- 
serve recognition.  For  example,  he  did  away  with  the  abuse  of  dis- 
tributing contracts  for  loans  and  lotteries  to  favored  supporters  of  the 
Government  and  awarded  them  to  the  lowest  bidder.  To  prevent 
fraud  the  proposals  were  sent  sealed  to  the  Bank  of  England.  Almost 
the  only  questionable  step  to  which  Pitt  resorted  for  strengthening 
his  power  was  the  lavish  creation  of  peers.1  At  the  Revolution  of  088 
the  number  of  temporal  peers  was  one  hundred  and  fifty,  at  the  acces- 
sion of  George  III  there  were  only  one  hundred  and  seventy-five. 
Previous  to  1783  the  creations  and  promotions  under  George  III 
aggregated  seventy-two,  while  Pitt  in  nineteen  years  added  one 
hundred  and  forty.  The  result  was  to  make  the  House  of  Lords  a 
Tory  stronghold  and  to  greatly  lower  the  average  intelligence  of  that 
body.  This  was  the  price  paid  for  breaking  up  the  Whig  oligarchy. 

Pitt's  India  Bill,  1784.  —  In  the  session  of  1784,  Pitt  succeeded 
in  carrying  an  India  Bill  which  differed  in  some  particulars  from  that 
which  had  wrecked  the  Coalition.  It  provided  for  a  Board  of  Control 
consisting  of  six  members  appointed  by  the  King.  While  the  Com- 
pany was  left  in  the  control  of  patronage,  its  civil  and  military  ad- 
ministration was  put  under  the  superintendence  of  the  new  board. 
That  body  could  transmit  orders  to  India  without  informing  any  but  a 
secret  committee  of  three  of  the  directors.  The  Cover  nor- General, 
together  with  the  presidents  and  councils  in  India,  were  chosen  by 
the  Company  subject  to  the  royal  approval,  and  the  King  had  the 
power  of  removal  at  any  time.  A  court  was  set  up  in  England  for 
the  trial  of  abuses  committed  in  India.  In  addition,  there  were  many 
provisions  for  internal  regulation  adopted  substantially  from  Fox's 
bill.  With  the  exception  of  a  few  amendments,  Pitt's  arrangement, 
with  its  system  of  dual  control,  continued  in  force  until  1858. 

The  State  of  the  Finances.  —  Pitt's  greatest  services  were  in 
the  field  of  financial  reform,  where  the  situation  which  he  had  to  face 
demanded  uncommon  courage  and  ability.  The  Public  Debt  had 
increased  from  £126,000,000  to  £240,000,000  since  1775,  and  the 
deficit  for  the  year  1783  was  not  far  from  £3,000,000.  The  public 
credit  was  at  a  low  ebb.  Three  per  cents  '2  stood  56  or  57.  About 
£14,000,000  of  the  debt  was  unfunded,  while  outstanding  bills 
circulated  at  a  discount  of  from  15  to  20  per  cent.  Commerce  had 
suffered  from  the  loss  of  colonial  trade.  The  customs  revenues  were 
greatly  diminished,  owing  to  wholesale  and  shameless  smuggling.  It 
was  estimated  that  £2,000,000  was  lost  in  this  way;  for  example, 
out  of  13,000,000  pounds  of  tea  imported  annually,  less  than  one  half 

1  In  the  graphic  words  of  Disraeli :  "  He  made  peers  of  second-rate  squires  and 
fat  graziers.     He  caught  them  in  the  alleys  of  Lombard  Street,  and  clutched  them 
froni  the  counting  houses  of  Cornhill." 

2  Government  stocks  paying  3  per  cent  interest.     They  were  called  "consols" 
because  the  interest  was  paid  from  the  Consolidated  Fund.     Three  of  the  great 
funds,  the  South  Sea,  the  Aggregate,  and  the  General  Funds,  had  been  consolidated 
in  1751. 


8i6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

paid  duty.  The  abuse  of  franking 1  deprived  the  Government  of  at 
least  £170,000  a  year.  Since  postage  was  very  high,  "  franks  "  were 
much  sought  after  by  the  friends  and  supporters  of  members,  and  were 
frequently  bought  or  even  forged.  Grave  abuses  existed  in  the 
department  of  public  accounts.  There  were  £40,000,000  to  be  ac- 
counted for.  In  1785  there  were  four  Treasurers  of  the  Navy  and 
three  Paymasters  of  the  Forces  whose  accounts  had  never  been  settled 
since  they  left  office.  One  Treasurer  had  retained  public  moneys 
in  his  hands  for  forty  years.  The  auditors  left  all  business  to  clerks 
who  were  powerless,  even  if  they  tried,  to  enforce  any  regulations. 
The  customs  were  in  a  most  confused  and  complicated  state.  Even 
after  Burke's  economical  reform,  one  hundred  and  ninety-six  sinecures 
existed  in  this  department  alone.  There  were  sixty-eight  separate 
groups  of  duties.  Many  different  duties  were  imposed  on  the  same 
article  — -  in  one  case  fourteen  —  appropriated  at  various  times  to 
pay  interest  on  different  branches  of  the  National  Debt. 

Pitt's  Reforms.  — •  Pitt  set  himself  to  simplify  and  purify  this  chaos 
of  confusion  and  corruption,  to  increase  the  revenue,  and  to  put  the 
finances  on  a  sound  basis.  He  began,  in  1784  and  1785,  by  funding 
the  unfunded  debt.  Also  he  framed  effective  measures  against 
smuggling.  By  the  "  Hovering  Act  "  he  provided  for  the  confisca- 
tion of  suspected  vessels  found  hovering  within  four  leagues  of  the 
coast.  Furthermore,  he  lessened  the  temptation  to  smuggle  by  re- 
ducing many  duties  that  were  too  high,  making  good  the  loss  by  im- 
posing other  taxes  more  equally  distributed  and  less  liable  to  evasion. 
For  example,  he  reduced  the  duty  on  tea  from  119  to  12^  per  cent,  and 
made  up  the  difference  by  a  window  tax.  Following  the  excellent 
plan  which  Walpole  had  failed  to  carry  through,  he  transferred  the 
customs  duty  on  wine  to  the  excise.  The  revenue  was  slightly  in- 
creased by  checking  the  abuse  of  the  franking  system.  To  guard 
against  further  misuse  of  public  moneys,  he  provided  that  the  Treasurers 
of  the  Navy  should  close  their  accounts  every  year.  In  place  of 
the  old  inefficient  auditors  he  set  up  a  new  commission,  and  appointed 
another  body  to  inquire  into  fees  and  perquisites  of  public  officers. 
Burke,  who  should  have  stanchly  supported  the  measures,  opposed 
them  solely  on  party  grounds,  describing  the  plan  for  a  commission 
of  inquiry  as  a  "  rat-catching  bill  instituted  for  the  purpose  of  pry- 
ing into  vermin  abuses."  Pitt,  however,  went  on  undeterred.  As 
sinecures  in  the  customs  department  became  vacant  he  ceased  to 
fill  them  up,  and  abolished  fifty  vacancies  which  had  accumulated  in 
1798.  Before  the  close  of  his  Ministry  the  revenue  had  increased 
from  £14,000,000  to  £22,000,000,  and  cost  only  £3000  a  year  more  to 
collect.  Doubtless  his  greatest  reform  in  financial  administration, 
and  one  of  the  most  important  in  English  commercial  history,  was  his 
consolidation  of  the  different  branches  of  the  customs  and  excise  in 

1  Franking  was  the  privilege  which  members  of  Parliament  enjoyed  of  writing 
"free"  across  the  cover  of  letters. 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  817 

1787.  He  abolished  the  existing  duties  on  different  articles,  substitut- 
ing in  each  case  a  single  duty,  usually  equal  to  the  former  total.  Then 
he  brought  the  whole  into  a  single  Consolidated  Fund  on  which  the 
Public  Debt  was  secured.  This  measure,  so  simple  in  theory,  proved 
so  complicated  in  practice  that  it  required  no  less  than  three  thousand 
resolutions  to  carry  it  into  effect.1  Burke  gave  it  his  enthusiastic 
support. 

The  Commercial  Union  with  France,  1786-1787.  —  In  common  with 
a  few  advanced  thinkers  of  the  time  Pitt  saw  the  inestimable  advan- 
tages of  unrestricted  commercial  intercourse  between  Great  Britain 
and  her  neighbors.  His  attempt  to  establish  freedom  of  trade  with 
Ireland  in  1785  failed,  but  he  succeeded  the  following  year  in  carrying 
through  a  commercial  union  with  France.  The  idea  was  not  new. 
At  the  close  of  the  late  war  Shelburne  had  made  a  vain  effort  to  es- 
tablish such  a  union.2  The  opposition  was  strong  and  persistent. 
Narrow  views  as  to  the  advantage  of  trade  exclusiveness  still  pre- 
vailed, and  any  association  with  France,  generally  regarded  as  the  nat- 
ural enemy  of  England,  was  particularly  repugnant  to  a  great  ma- 
jority. The  agreement  provided  for  complete  freedom  of  trade  except 
in  certain  specified  articles.  The  duties  on  all  commodities  not  speci- 
fied were  reduced  or  placed  on  the  footing  of  the  most  favored  nation-3 
Fox  and  Burke  led  in  assailing  the  project,  mainly  on  the  political 
ground  that  it  was  essential  to  the  balance  of  power  for  England  to 
hold  France  in  check  instead  of  aiding  her  to  expand  her  resources. 
Others,  arguing  more  from  the  economic  standpoint,  contended  that 
France  would  flood  England  with  luxuries  and  drain  away  all  her 
specie.  In  spite  of  the  gloomy  prophecies  of  the  Opposition,  the  treaty, 
which  remained  in  force  for  six  years,4  proved  very  beneficial  to  both 
countries. 

Pitt's  Sinking  Fund,  1787.  —  Of  all  Pitt's  financial  measures  his 
Sinking  Fund  probably  made  the  greatest  impression  upon  contem- 
poraries. His  motive  was  most  praiseworthy.  With  the  return  of 
peace  he  felt  that  steps  should  be  taken  to  redeem  at  least  a  portion  of 
the  Public  Debt  in  order  that  posterity  might  be  less  heavily  burdened. 
Owing  to  his  wise  administration  and  to  the  growth  of  commerce 
and  manufactures,  he  found  himself  with  a  surplus  of  £900,000  at  the 
end  of  1786.  By  a  slight  increase  of  taxation  he  determined  to  bring 
this  amount  up  to  £1,000,000,  and  to  raise  a  like  sum  every  year  for 
the  reduction  of  the  debt.  Instead  of  being  paid  out  at  once,  this 
annual  surplus  was  to  form  a  Sinking  Fund.  Once  before  England 
had  had  such  a  Sinking  Fund ;  but  Walpole  gradually  began  to  draw 


1  A  beginning  in  this  direction  had  already  been  made  in  1751. 

2  A  twenty -year  agreement  with  Russia  expired  in  1766. 

^This,  however,  was  without  prejudice  to  the  Family  Compact  of  1761  or  the 
Methuen  Treaty. *  While  the  duty  on  French  wines  was  reduced,  that  on  Portu- 
guese wines  was  proportionately  lowered. 

4  It  was  broken  off  on  the  eve  of  a  new  war  with  France. 
3G 


8i8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

on  it  for  current  needs,  and  by  1735  it  was  practically  exhausted.  The 
plan  adopted  by  Pitt  was  somewhat  more  elaborate.  It  was  due  to 
Dr.  Price,  a  Nonconformist  minister  who  attained  a  considerable 
reputation  from  his  writings  on  public  questions.  His  scheme  was  in 
substance  to  set  aside  an  annual  sum  for  the  purchase  of  stock,  the  inter- 
est of  which  was  to  be  employed  in  buying  more  stock.  Thus  the  fund 
was  to  go  on  accumulating  at  compound  interest  and  was  ultimately 
to  be  applied  toward  the  extinguishing  of  the  debt.  The  principle 
worked  admirably  so  long  as  there  was  a  surplus ;  but  the  difficulty  arose 
when  money  was  borrowed  to  maintain  and  increase  the  Sinking  Fund. 
This  happened  in  1792  when  it  was  provided  that  one  per  cent  of 
every  loan  contracted  should  be  applied  to  this  object.  Sometimes 
money  was  borrowed  at  a  higher  rate  of  interest  than  the  old  debt 
bore  or  the  Sinking  Fund  earned.  Even  if  the  rate  was  the  same,  there 
was  a  loss  due  to  the  expense  of  the  transaction.  It  was  estimated 
that  before  the  Sinking  Fund  was  done  away  with  in  1823  it  had  cost 
the  country  about  £ 20,000,000. 1  Thus  the  measure  of  which  Pitt 
was  most  proud  proved  to  be  the  most  indefensible,  at  least  from  the 
standpoint  of  pure  finance.  Politically,  his  action  may  be  justified 
on  the  grounds  that  he  believed  that  the  war  which  began  in  1793 
would  prove  a  short  one,  and  that  the  popular  veneration  of  the  Sinking 
Fund  kept  up  a  martial  enthusiasm  which  would  speedily  have  damp- 
ened if  he  had  begun  by  laying  heavy  taxes. 

His  Attempts  at  Parliamentary  Reform,  1782,  1783,  and  1785.  —  In 
1785  he  brought  forward  a  scheme  of  parliamentary  reform.  It  was 
a  subject  in  which  his  father  had  been  much  interested,  and  he  him- 
self had  already  introduced  two  measures,  one  in  1782,  the  other  in 
1783.  His  plan  of  1785  contemplated  disfranchisement  of  the  de- 
cayed boroughs,  but  only  with  the  consent  of  those  who  controlled 
them  and  in  return  for  a  money  compensation.  The  members  were 
to  be  transferred  in  the  first  instance  to  the  counties,  in  subsequent 
cases  to  the  populous  towns.  The  right  of  voting  was  also  to  be  ex- 
tended. The  Bill  was  defeated,  and  Pitt  never  brought  up  the  ques- 
tion again.  It  must  be  said  in  his  defense  that,  so  late  as  1788,  he 
did  not  have  a  party  on  which  he  could  depend  for  all  purposes.  His 
personal  following  has  been  estimated  at  52.  The  "  Crown  party," 
which  supported  him  only  so  long  as  the  King  willed  it,  numbered 
185.  The  Opposition  amounted  to  138,  and  the  balance  of  the  558 
members  were  independent  voters.  Hence,  his  apparent  timidity 
or  even  hostility  toward  many  meritorious  measures. 

The  African  Slave  Trade.  —  His  attftude  on  the  abolition  of  the 
African  slave  trade,  while  not  above  criticism,  was  more  praiseworthy 
than  in  the  case  of  many  other  reforms.  In  1787  a  Society  was 
formed  for  the  suppression  of  this  horrible  traffic.  It  was  composed 
mainly  of  Quakers,  though  many  of  the  leaders  were  not  of  that  sect, 

1  A  new  Sinking  Fund  was  started  in  1875,  but  it  is  constituted  solely  from  surplus 
revenues,  and  depends  for  its  continuance  on  the  annual  vote  of  the  Commons. 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  819 

notably  William  Wilberforce,  Thomas  Clarkson,  and  Zachary  Macau- 
lay,  father  of  the  historian.  Pitt  appointed  a  committee  to  investigate 
the  charges  of  cruelty  alleged  against  those  engaged  in  the  transpor- 
tation of  slaves.  Shocking  disclosures  resulted.  It  was  found  that 
the  unfortunates  were  packed  tightly  on  the  lower  decks  and  in  dark, 
stuffy  holds ;  that  they  were  supplied  only  with  bread  and  water  and 
very  scantily  at  that,  and  were  flogged  at  frequent  intervals  to  give 
them  sufficient  exercise  to  keep  them  alive.  Pitt  introduced  a  bill 
to  suppress  the  trade  in  1788;  in  the  following  year  he  joined  Fox 
and  Burke  in  supporting  another  introduced  by  Wilberforce ;  and  in 
1792  he  made  a  speech  on  the  subject  which  was  perhaps  the  greatest 
he  ever  delivered.  Powerful  interests,  however,  with  which  the  King 
was  allied,  stood  in  the  way,  and  though  Pitt  alienated  many  sup- 
porters by  his  outspoken  attitude,  and  though  Wilberforce  and 
Clarkson  retained  their  confidence  in  him  to  the  last,  it  remained 
for  Fox,  confronted  by  the  same  obstacles,  and  as  a  member  of 
one  of  the  weakest  ministries  in  English  history,  to  prepare  a 
measure  of  suppression  which  carried  easily  in  1807,  shortly  after  his 
death. 

Pitt's  Strength  and  Achievements.  His  Limitations.  —  A  survey 
of  Pitt's  activity  as  Prime  Minister  during  these  years  will  go  to  show 
that  he  did  his  greatest  work  as  a  reformer  of  administrative  detail, 
especially  in  finance.  It  is  true  that  he  made  use  of  the  ideas  of  others ; 
but  he  showed  the  capacity  of  the  statesman  in  carrying  them  into 
effect.  In  matters  of  larger  policy  he  was  less  successful,  as  his  later 
management  of  the  Sinking  Fund  indicated.  In  other  fields  of  domes- 
tic policy,  for  example,  parliamentary  reform,  abolition  of  the  slave 
trade,  religious  toleration,  and  concessions  to  Ireland,  his  views  were 
generally  wise  and  liberal.  Nevertheless,  he  accomplished  almost 
nothing  to  carry  them  into  effect.  He  had  ideals  which  his  great 
predecessor  Walpole  had  apparently  scorned ;  but,  like  him,  he  was 
overready  to  drop  measures  which  threatened  such  opposition  as  to 
endanger  his  ascendancy.  During  the  last  part  of  his  first  and  during 
all  of  his  second  Ministry  he  was  secure  in  a  substantial  majority,  but 
by  that  time  the  country  was  involved  in  a  war  with  France  which 
absorbed  all  the  energy  of  the  Government.  Moreover,  the  French 
Revolution  had  provoked  among  the  rank  and  file  of  Englishmen  a 
horror  of  progressive  measures  which  lasted  for  a  generation.  In 
one  sense  Pitt  did  not  show  himself  to  be  a  great  war  minister :  he 
frittered  away  the  resources  of  the  country  in  subsidies  to  foreign 
powers  and  in  scattered,  futile  expeditions.  On  the  other  hand,  his 
popularity,  his  persistence  and  courage  kept  alive  the  national  en- 
thusiasm and  thus  tided  the  war  over  a  critical  period.  If  he  was  not 
a  great  constructive  statesman  or  war  minister,  few  have  done  more 
to  reform  and  purify  the  English  financial  administration,  few  have  ex- 
celled him  as  a  parliamentary  debater,  and  none  as  parliamentary 
leader. 


820  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings,  1786-1795.  —  In  February,  1785, 
Warren  Hastings  returned  from  India.  Already  inclined  to  throw 
up  his  office  on  account  of  the  opposition  and  criticism  he  had  met  with, 
he  finally  made  up  his  mind  when  he  found  that  Pitt  would  give  him 
no  hope  of  support.  While  the  King  and  the  Court  party  received 
him  with  great  favor,  the  Opposition  straightway  proceeded  to  attack 
him  as  a  means  of  dealing  a  blow  at  the  Government.  Their  hostility 
was  whetted  by  the  opportunity  of  putting  Pitt  in  a  dilemma.  If  he 
supported  their  charges,  he  ran  the  chance  of  breaking  with  the  King 
and  his  following ;  if  he  refused,  he  might  properly  be  accused  of  seeking 
to  cover  up  grave  scandals.  Nevertheless,  Hastings  might  never  have 
been  brought  to  trial  but  for  the  indiscretion  of  his  parliamentary 
agent,  Major  Scott,  who  challenged  Burke  to  produce  evidence  for 
the  accusations  made  by  the  Whig  party.  As  a  result,  charges  pre- 
paratory to  an  impeachment  were  framed  and  put  to  vote  in  the  Com- 
mons. The  first,  relating  to  the  Rohilla  War,  was  dismissed.  The 
second,  dealing  with  the  fine  imposed  on  the  Raja  of  Benares,  carried. 
The  result  was  largely  due  to  Pitt,  who  declared,  that  while  the  Raja 
was  bound  to  furnish  money  and  men,  the  fine  imposed  upon  him  was 
"  exorbitant,  unjust,  and  tyrannical."  The  Prime  Minister's  sense 
of  justice  in  this  case  rose  superior  to  party  considerations,  and  the 
King  sustained  him,  though  he  declared  that  it  was  not  possible  to 
"  carry  on  public  business  "  in  India  "  with  the  same  moderation 
that  is  suitable  to  an  European  civilized  nation."  The  third  charge, 
based  on  the  treatment  of  the  Begums  of  Oudh,  was  then  easily  carried. 
Burke  presented  the  impeachment  before  the  Lords,  n  May,  1786,  but 
the  trial  did  not  begin  till  13  February,  1788,  and  dragged  on  for 
seven  years.  The  accusers,  especially  Burke  and  Sheridan,1 '  spoke 
with  wondrous  eloquence,  but  marred  theircase  by  violence  and  abuse. 
It  was  established  that  Hastings  had  been  confronted  by  unusual 
problems ;  that,  while  he  had  been  guilty  of  acts  of  cruelty  and 
extortion,  he  had  done  nothing  for  his  own  enrichment;  and  that 
he  had  ruled  with  effectiveness  and  success.  Finally,  in  1795,  he  was 
acquitted  on  every  count.  The  trial  cost  him  £70,000,  which  was 
subsequently  repaid  to  him. 

The  Misconduct  of  the  Prince  of  Wales.  —  Meantime,  a  crisis  had 
occurred  in  which  Pitt  once  more  proved  his  superiority  over  Fox  as 
a  parliamentary  tactician.  It  was  bound  up  with  the  latter's  intimacy 
with  the  Prince  of  Wales,  whose  relations  with  his  father  had  grown 
steadily  worse.  King  George  was  stern  and  unsympathetic ;  but  the 
character  and  conduct  of  the  Prince  would  have  been  the  despair  of 
the  most  indulgent  parent.  He  was  mean  and  false,  as  well  as  ex- 
travagant and  dissipated.  In  December,  1785,  he  committed  an 
act  of  incredible  folly  by  marrying  secretly  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  a 
widow  of  Roman  Catholic  faith,  who  was  five  years  his  senior.  She 

1  The  famous  dramatist,  who  had  been  in  Parliament  since  1780, 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  821 

was  a  woman  of  excellent  reputation,  who  yielded  to  his  proposal 
only  after  he  had  threatened  to  kill  himself  if  he  were  refused.  By  a 
provision  in  the  Bill  of  Rights  he  was  thus  disqualified  from  the  throne, 
except  for  the  fact  that  the  Royal  Marriage  Act  rendered  secret  mar- 
riages of  the  royal  family  null  and  void.  The  marriage  was  first 
mentioned  in  Parliament  in  1787,  when  the  payment  of  the  Prince's 
debts  came  up  for  discussion.  Fox,  declaring  that  he  spoke  from 
"  direct  authority,"  emphatically  denied  the  rumor.  When  he 
learned  that  the  Prince  had  deceived  him,  he  refused  to  speak  to  him 
for  a  year.  The  denial  proved  so  effective  that  the  Commons  granted 
£180,000  toward  the  payment  of  the  Prince's  debts,  though  that  by 
no  means  covered  all  that  he  owed.  Pitt  brought  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion with  his  father,  and  procured  for  him  an  additional  £10,000  a 
year  from  the  Civil  List  upon  his  promise  never  to  run  into  debt  again. 
It  was  not  long,  however,  before  he  resumed  his  old  courses. 

The  King's  Insanity  and  the  Regency  Question,  1788.  —  On  5 
November,  1788,  the  King  was  attacked  by  a  fit  of  insanity  which  for 
a  time  was  regarded  as  incurable.  A  Regency  seemed  inevitable. 
Though  the  Prince  was  far  from  fit  to  rule  the  country,  every  one 
agreed  that  the  office  of  Regent  belonged  to  him.  That  meant  the 
return  of  the  Opposition  to  power  under  Fox,  who  had  again  resumed 
friendly  relations  with  his  former  boon  companion.  Regarding  the 
position  of  the  existing  Government  as  hopeless,  Lord  Chancellor  Thur- 
low  "  ratted  "  to  the  other  side.  On  a  chance  that  the  King  might 
recover,  Pitt  postponed  the  meeting  of  Parliament  by  successive  ad- 
journments, though  only  for  a  time :  much  as  he  loved  power,  and 
although  he  was  a  poor  man,  he  was  prepared  to  lay  down  office ; 
but  he  was  determined  that  the  Prince  should  only  be  appointed 
Regent  with  limited  authority  defined  by  Parliament.  Fox  and  his 
party,  anxious  for  a  free  hand,  especially  in  patronage,  insisted  that 
Parliament  had  no  right  to  impose  limitations.  This  was  absolutely 
inconsistent  with  all  of  Fox's  political  principles  and  a  great  tactical 
error.  Pitt,  when  he  heard  him  declare  his  position,  slapped  his  leg 
and  cried:  "  I'll  unwhig  the  gentleman  for  the  rest  of  his  life."  Plac- 
ards were  posted  in  the  streets  with  the  legend :  "  Fox  for  the  Prince's 
prerogative,  and  Pitt -for  the  privileges  of  Parliament  and  the  liberties 
of  the  nation." 

The  Regency  Bill,  1788-1789.  The  King's  Recovery.  —  Finally,  a 
bill  was  drawn  up  conferring  the  Regency  upon  the  Prince  of  Wales 
and  defining  the  limitations  to  be  imposed  upon  him.  A  curious 
device  was  adopted  by  Pitt  to  give  it  the  legal  character  ordinarily 
secured  by  the  royal  assent.  The  Great  Seal  was  to  be  put  in  com- 
mission and  the  commission  was  to  affix  the  seal  to  the  Bill.  This 
attempt  to  create  a  "  phantom  king  "  was  sharply  criticized,  espe- 
cially by  Burke,  who  declared  that  it  was  an  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  two  Houses  to  legislate  contrary  to  a  statute  of  Charles  II.1 

1  Passed  in  May,  1661,  the  i3th  year  of  Charles  II. 


822  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

This  was  sound  criticism ;  but,  as  usual,  he  damaged  his  cause  by  the 
violence  of  his  denunciations.  Redeemed  "  folly  personified,  shaking 
his  cap  and  bells  under  the  name  of  genius."  Pitt,  with  rare  dis- 
interestedness, agreed  that  the  Regent  should  have  full  power  of 
dismissing  his  ministers  and  dissolving  Parliament ;  but,  by  the  Bill, 
he  was  bound  by  other  rigid  restrictions.  He  could  confer  no  peer- 
ages save  on  members  of  the  royal  family ;  he  could  grant  no  offices 
or  pensions  not  terminable  at  the  King's  pleasure,  except  in  unavoid- 
able cases,  such  as  judgeships ;  he  could  not  give  away  any  part  of 
the  King's  estate,  real  or  personal ;  and  he  was  to  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  care  of  the  King's  person  or  the  management  of  the  royal 
household,  which  was  entrusted  to  the  Queen.  The  Prince,  with  the 
greatest  reluctance,  accepted  the  terms,  or*  condition  that  they  should 
not  be  binding  for  more  than  three  years.  They  were  carried  through 
the  Parliament  in  the  form  of  resolutions.  In  order  to  give  that 
body  a  legal  status,  it  was  formally  opened  by  commission  under  the 
Great  Seal,  3  February,  1789,  and  the  resolutions  were  turned  into  a 
bill.  It  had  passed  the  Commons  in  this  form  and  had  already 
reached  the  committee  stage  in  the  Lords,  when  it  was  stopped  by  the 
news  that  the  King  was  on  the  road  to  recovery.  On  10  March,  it 
was  announced  that  he  was  completely  restored  to  health.  The  result 
was  due  largely  to  intelligent  treatment  by  Dr.  Willis.1  Pitt,  by  the 
tact  and  good  judgment  which  he  had  shown  throughout  the  crisis, 
strengthened  his  position  with  King,  Parliament  and  people,  while 
Fox,  by  his  woeful  blunders  in  striking  at  the  authority  of  Parliament 
and  in  attempting  to  overthrow  a  Ministry  possessing  the  popular 
confidence,  greatly  diminished  the  already  waning  influence  of  his 
party. 

The  French  Revolution  and  its  Effect  on  England. — Not  long  after, 
a  tremendous  upheaval  began  in  France  which  was  destined  to  exercise 
a  profound  influence  upon  the  history  of  England.  The  spirit  of 
liberty,  of  equality,  of  opposition  to  established  institutions,  and  hos- 
tility to  class  privileges  which  underlay  all  its  excesses,  proved  ulti- 
mately a  potent  factor  in  helping  to  create  the  modern  English  demo- 
cratic State ;  but  its  immediate  effect  was  to  check  the  progress  of 
reform  for  more  than  a  generation.  It  produced  a  terror  of  innova- 
tion not  only  in  the  minds  of  conservatives,  but  even  of  moderate  men, 
and  it  plunged  the  country  into  a  war  which  absorbed  its  chief  wealth 
and  energy  from  1793  to  1815.  The  Tory  party  which  carried  this 
war  to  a  triumphant  conclusion  was  securely  intrenched  in  power  for 
more  than  a  decade  after  its  close.  Meantime,  England  was  going 
through  the  great  Industrial  Revolution,  due  to  the  introduction  of  the 

1  Directly  the  King  began  to  mend,  Thurlow  changed  sides  again,  much  to  the 
disgust  of  the  leaders  of  both  sides.  In  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords  he  recalled 
the  favors  he  had  received  from  the  King.  "When  I  forget  them,"  he  said,  "may 
God  forget  me  !"  "The  best  thing  that  can  happen  to  you,"  was  Burke's  com- 
ment, while  Pitt  cried :  "Oh,  the  rascal !" 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  823 

factory  system.  Acute  social  problems  were  pressing  for  solution, 
problems  resulting  from  overpopulation,  and  from  poverty  caused 
by  the  war  and  by  the  readjustment  of  economic  conditions.  With 
these  problems  the  dominant  party,  primarily  concerned  with  pre- 
serving its  class  privileges,  had  little  understanding  or  sympathy. 
The  Whigs,  who,  since  the  break-up  of  its  aristocratic  cliques,  had 
again  become  the  party  of  progress,  were  weakened  by  the  secession 
of  their  more  moderate  members,  and  discredited  by  the  revolutionary 
principles  of  the  extremists  and  by  the  critical  and  anti-national  atti- 
tude which  they  assumed  toward  the  French  war. 

The  Causes  of  the  French  Revolution.  —  The  causes  of  the  French 
Revolution  may  be  traced  partly  to  philosophical  speculations.  The 
writings  of  Montesquieu,  of  Voltaire  and  the  Encyclopedists1  led 
to  a  spirit  of  unrest,  to  a  questioning  of  existing  institutions  in  Church 
and  State.  More  important  still,  were  the  works  of  Rousseau  advocat- 
ing views  on  the  popular  origin  of  government  and  the  natural  equality 
of  man,  which  were  largely  colored  by  the  theories  of  the  English 
philosophers  of  the  seventeenth  century,  notably  Hobbes  and  Locke. 
These  speculations,  and  England's  example  in  the  Puritan  Revolution 
and  in  the  Revolution  of  1688,  all  played  a  part  in  weakening,  among 
thinking  Frenchmen,  respect  for  tradition  and  established  authority. 
Yet  these  influences,  solely  of  themselves,  would  not  have  brought  about 
a  revolution  in  France.  The  French  philosophers  contemplated 
peaceful  reform  by  the  spread  of  education  and  the  properly  directed 
efforts  of  a  strong,  enlightened  monarch.  But  the  logic  of  events 
proved  too  powerful.  The  reverses  in  the  struggles  against  the  Eng- 
lish, especially  in  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  had  broken  the 
spell  which  attached  to  the  Old  Regime.  Then  came  the  American 
Revolution  to  serve  as  a  further  stimulus  to  the  discontented  and  the 
oppressed.  These  speculations  and  these  events  were  the  sparks 
which  lit  the  flame.  The  inflammable  material  was  to  be  found  in  the 
deplorable  conditions  existing  in  France  —  the  wretchedness  of  the 
lower  classes,  all  the  more  striking  from  the  splendor  and  extravagance 
prevailing  at  Court,  and  accentuated  by  the  special  privileges  of  the 
noblemen  and  the  clergy  who  owned  two  thirds  of  the  lands,  who  were 
largely  exempt  from  taxation  which  bore  so  heavily  upon  the  poor, 
and  who  enjoyed  seigniorial  rights  oppressive  to  the  unfortunate  peas- 
ants who  cultivated  their  estates.  The  arbitrary  power  of  the  sovereign, 
the  expensive  and  wasteful  administration,  and  the  injustice  of  the 
laws  completed  the  burden  of  grievances.  England  was  happy  by 
comparison.  To  be  sure,  the  governing  classes  were  selfish,  extrava- 
gant, and,  even  yet,  not  free  from  the  taint  of  political  corruption ; 
moreover,  there  was  much  poverty  and  distress  among  the  lesser  folk. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  were  few  recognized  class  privileges ;  there 
was  nothing  corresponding  to  the  French  noblesse,  which  was  a  closed 

1  The  Encyclopedia  was  produced  by  many  collaborators  under  the  supervision 
of  Diderot  and  D'Alembert,  1751-1765. 


824  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

hereditary  feudal  caste 1 ;  the  English  laws  were  in  theory  the  same  for 
all ;  and  Parliament,  in  spite  of  its  imperfections,  was  virtually  a 
representative  body.  The  smaller  gentry  sat  side  by  side  with  trades- 
men and  merchants  in  the  Commons.  The  majority  of  the  landlords 
lived  on  their  estates  and  were  closely  identified  with  the  interests  of 
their  tenantry.  Furthermore,  owing  to  over  a  century  of  almost 
continuous  wars,  to  the  wasteful  administration,  and  the  extrava- 
gance of  Louis  XIV,  France  was  bankrupt. 

The  Outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  1789.  —  In  the  autumn  of 
1787  Arthur  Young,  the  famous  authority  on  agriculture,  reported 
"  a  great  ferment  among  all  ranks  of  men  who  are  eager  for  some 
change  without  knowing  what  to  look  to  or  to  hope  for."  The  situa- 
tion was  rendered  more  acute  by  a  famine  in  the  following  year,  caused 
by  a  drought  and  a  destructive  hail  storm.  A  bitterly  severe  winter 
intensified  the  suffering  and  discontent.  For  a  number  of  years 
the  King's  Ministers  had  labored  in  vain  to  bring  about  a  better  con- 
dition of  things.  At  length,  Louis  XVI,  acting  upon  the  advice  of  his 
Minister,  Necker,  summoned  the  Estates  General  to  meet  at  Versailles, 
5  May,  1789.  This  body  had  not  met  since  1614.  The  commons  or 
third  estate,  who  equaled  the  number  of  clergy  and  nobles  put  together, 
soon  formed  themselves  into  a  National  Constituent  Assembly.2  On  20 
June  they  assembled  in  a  tennis  court  adjacent  to  the  palace,  where 
they  took  an  oath  not  to  separate  until  they,  had  given  their  country 
a  constitution.  On  a  rumor  that  Necker  was  to  be  dismissed  and  the 
Assembly  dissolved,  a  mob  arose  in  Paris,  14  July,  and  stormed  the 
celebrated  state  prison  known  as  the  Bastille.  Following  the  disturb- 
ances in  Paris  came  risings  of  the  peasants  against  their  seigniorial 
lords  in  various  provinces.  In  the  confusion  which  ensued,  many  of 
the  more  uncompromising  nobles  began  to  emigrate.  The  4th  of  Aug- 
ust was  marked  by  the  surrender  of  seigniorial  rights,  the  abolition  of 
titles,  and  the  sweeping  away  of  various  other  privileges  and  abuses. 
The  Declaration  of  the  Rights  of  Man  appeared  on  the  27th.  Early  in 
October,  the  King  was  forced  to  move  from  Versailles  to  Paris,  whither 
the  Assembly  accompanied  him.  A  democratic,  monarchical  constitu- 
tion was  then  drawn  up,  to  which  he  gave  his  assent,  14  July,  1790. 

The  Reception  of  the  Revolution  in  England.  —  The  news  of  the 
events  in  France  during  the  first  few  months  following  the  outbreak 
of  the  Revolution  was  received  in  England  with  general  satisfaction. 
Pitt  thought  with  the  majority  that  the  overthrow  of  the  Old  Regime 
would  be  followed  by  the  establishment  of  orderly,  constitutional 
government.  Moreover,  with  Britain's  old  enemy  thus  occupied,  he 

1  All  but  the  eldest  sons  of  English  peers  ranked  as  commoners,  and  the  ranks 
of  the  nobility  were  not  infrequently  recruited  from  men  who  had  succeeded  in 
the  professions  and  trade. 

2  The  various  Revolutionary  Governments  were :  the  National  or  Constituent 
Assembly   (1789-1791);    the  Legislative   Assembly   (1791-1792);    the   National 
Convention  (1792-1795) ;  the  Directory  (1795-1799) ;  the  Consulate  (1799-1804) ; 
and  the  Empire  under  Napoleon  (1804-1815). 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  825 

hoped  for  a  period  of  peace  and  light  taxes.  Burke,  however,  took 
an  opposite  view  from  the  start.  He  foresaw  that  the  frenzy  which 
had  manifested  itself  in  mob  violence  would  never  stop  with  moderate 
reforms,  that  the  French  example  might  be  so  contagious  as  to  endanger 
the  stability  of  existing  institutions  in  England  and  other  European 
countries.  The  attitude  of  Fox  was  quite  different  from  that  of 
either  Pitt  or  Burke.  On  the  news  of  the  taking  of  the  Bastille  he 
wrote :  "  How  much  it  is  the  greatest  event  that  has  happened  in  the 
world  and  how  much  the  best."  While  regretting  the  attending 
bloodshed,  he  rejoiced  at  every  step  in  the  progress  of  the  Revolution. 
Events  proved  that  Burke's  fears  were  only  too  well  founded.  The 
upheaval  in  France  resulted  not  in  constitutional  government,  but  in 
anarchy,  followed  by  a  military  despotism  and  a  series  of  aggressive 
wars  in  which  almost  every  state  in  Europe  was  shorn  of  territory 
or  had  its  government  overthrown.  The  ultimate  results  of  the  Rev- 
olutionary movement,  however,  went  far  to  justify  Fox's  admiration 
of  its  fundamental  principles.  The  democratic  spirit,  if  not  wide- 
spread, was  at  first  very  active  in  England.  Dr.  Priestley,  a  famous 
Unitarian  divine  and  man  of  science  as  well,  wrote  in  October :  "  There 
is  a  glorious  prospect  for  mankind  before  us."  He  hoped  that  the 
movement  would  spread  to  other  countries,  putting  an  end  to  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  tyranny.  Dr.  Price  and  Shelburne,  now  Marquis 
of  Landsdowne,  were  equally  hopeful.  "  The  Society  for  Com- 
memorating the  Principles  of  the  French  Revolution,"  generally 
known  as  the  Revolution  Society,  met  on  9  November,  1789,  under 
the  presidency  of  Lord  Stanhope  and  sent  a  congratulatory  address 
to  the  National  Assembly,  a  proceeding  which  called  forth  Burke's 
celebrated  Reflections  on  the  French  Revolution.1  Other  clubs  sprang 
up  in  many  of  the  larger  towns,  and  the  press  was  busy  turning 
out  pamphlets  and  libels  expressing  advanced  views.  Nevertheless, 
the  spirit  of  disaffection  made  little  progress.  The  King  had  recovered 
the  popularity  lost  by  the  failure  of  the  American  war,  his  illness  had 
called  forth  increased  loyalty,  and  the  control  of  affairs  was  in  the 
hands  of  a  Prime  Minister  secure  in  the  public  confidence. 

The  Split  in  the  Whig  Ranks,  1791.  —  Burke's  Reflections  was  an- 
swered by  Thomas  Paine  in  his  Rights  of  Man,  a  rough,  stirring  appeal 
to  the  masses,  and  by  James  Mackintosh  in  his  more  polished  Vin- 
dici&  Gallicce;  but  they  failed  to  check  the  steadily  increasing  con- 
servatism of  the  majority.  Fox  and  Burke  were  growing  more 
estranged,  owing  to  their  opposing  views  on  the  French  Revolution. 
The  final  break  came  in  the  debates  on  a  Bill  for  the  Government 
of  Canada  in  the  spring  of  1791.  Fox,  who  objected  to  some  of  its 
provisions  —  among  them  one  authorizing  the  sovereign  to  grant 
hereditary  titles  —  taunted  Burke  at  every  opportunity  with  the  re- 
actionary attitude  which  he  had  adopted  toward  the  French  Revolu- 

1  Burke  took  as  a  text  for  his  Reflections  a  sermon  which  Price  preached  on  that 
occasion. 


826  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tion,  although  that  was  a  matter  which  had  no  bearing  on  the  question 
at  issue.  Burke's  final  speech,  6  May,  was  one  of  the  noblest  and  most 
pathetic  efforts  of  his  whole  life.  Previous  differences  of  opinion  had 
never  interrupted  his  long  and  intimate  friendship  with  his  old  polit- 
ical disciple.  That  friendship  he  now  declared  he  was  prepared  to 
sacrifice.  Fox,  moved  even  to  tears,  protested  without  avail.  The 
debate  resulted  in  more  than  a  personal  break  between  Fox  and  Burke, 
it  marked  another  split  in  the  ranks  of  the  Whig  party.  At  first 
Burke,  denounced  as  a  deserter,  stood  almost  alone.  Within  a  year, 
however,  the  majority  came  round  to  his  side,  while  the  following  of 
Fox  shrank  to  the  "  weakest  and  most  discredited  Opposition  "  Eng- 
land has  ever  known.  In  his  Appeal  from  the  Old  to  the  New  Whigs 
and  in  his  private  correspondence  Burke  defended  the  consistency  of 
his  attitude,  distinguishing,  with  great  effect,  the  Revolution  of  1688 
and  the  American  Revolution  from  the  movement  in  France.  He 
made  a  powerful  plea  for  the  party  "  attached  to  the  ancient  tried 
usages  of  the  Kingdom  "  and  to  security  of  property.  "  It  was  now 
absolutely  necessary,"  he  insisted,  "  to  separate  those  who  cultivated 
a  rational  and  sober  liberty  upon  the  plan  of  our  existing  Constitution, 
from  those  who  think  they  have  no  liberty,  if  it  does  not  comprehend 
a  right  in  them  of  making  to  themselves  new  Constitutions  at  their 
pleasure."  He  was  hot  for  intervention,  on  the  express  condition, 
however,  that  such  intervention  should  be  solely  for  the  purpose  of 
restoring  order  in  France,  and  with  no  idea  of  territorial  aggrandize- 
ment or  setting  up  despotism  anew.  But  he  failed  to  realize  the 
futility  of  attempting  to  suppress  permanently  the  new  ideas  to  which 
the  French  Revolution  had  given  birth,  or  to  gage  accurately  the 
selfish  conflicting  aims  of  the  European  powers. 

Pitt's  Foreign  Policy,  1783-1788.  The  Triple  Alliance,  1788.  - 
Pitt  was  more  cautious,  and  his  policy,  though  the  logic  of  events 
forced  him  later  to  depart  from  it,  was  simple  and  consistent  —  to 
avoid  interfering  directly  or  indirectly  in  the  affairs  of  France.  Dur- 
ing the  decade  which  had  elapsed  since  he  came  to  power,  England  had 
managed  to  keep  clear  of  European  wars,  and  in  his  foreign  relations 
Pitt  had  met  with  only  one  serious  setback.  England  had  emerged 
from  the  American  war  without  a  friend  on  the  Continent.  Prussia, 
who  was  equally  isolated,  seemed  to  offer  the  only  prospect  of  alliance ; 
but  Frederick  was  still  unfriendly.  Joseph  II,  who  became  Emperor 
on  the  death  of  his  mother,  Maria  Theresa,  in  1780,  was  full  of  restless 
plans,  big  with  possibilities  of  disturbance.  One  of  his  feats  was  to 
annul  the  Barrier  Treaty  of  1715  and  force  the  Dutch  to  withdraw 
their  garrisons  from  the  barrier  fortresses.  This  facilitated  the  French 
conquest  of  the  Netherlands,  three  years  after  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution,  a  step  which  furnished  one  of  the  principal  causes  for 
drawing  England  into  the  great  French  war  in  1793.  The  death 
of  Frederick  the  Great,  17  November,  1786,  paved  the  way  for  the 
closer  relations  between  Prussia  and  England.  Shortly  after,  an 


THE  YOUNGER  PITT  827 

occasion  arose  which  led  to  a  close  alliance.  France  allied  with  the 
Dutch  republicans  and  drove  the  Stadtholder  from  power.  When 
the  dominant  party  went  so  far  as  to  arrest  the  Princess  of  Orange 
and  refused  to  grant  satisfaction  for  the  insult,  Frederick  William  II, 
who  was  her  uncle,  determined  to  take  action.  He  sent  an  army  into 
Holland,  England  made  active  preparations  to  assist  him  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Orange  party,  France  backed  out,  and  a  Triple  Alliance  was 
formed,  in  1788,  between  Great  Britain,  Prussia,  and  the  Dutch  Orange 
party  for  mutual  defense  and  the  maintenance  of  peace  in  Europe. 
The  British  had  succeeded  in  withdrawing  from  their  isolation. 

Nootka  Sound,  1789-1790.  —  The  outbreak  of  the  Revolution, 
which  in  its  first  stages  absorbed  the  whole  energies  of  France,  enabled 
Pitt  to  secure  a  great  advantage  in  a  quarrel  with  Spain.  The  antag- 
onism between  the  two  countries  still  continued.  England  persisted 
in  her  efforts  to  break  through  the  Spanish  colonial  monopoly,  while  an 
added  cause  of  friction  had  arisen  from  the  suspicion  that  the  British 
were  encouraging  disaffection  in  the  South  American  colonies.  In 
order  to  strike  a  counterblow,  the  Spanish  attacked  an  English 
trading  settlement  on  an  island  in  Nootka  Sound,  off  Vancouver. 
They  refused  satisfaction  on  two  grounds :  that  they  had  an  exclusive 
claim  to  the  west  coast  of  America  as  far  north  as  60°,  and  that  they 
had  been  the  first  to  explore  and  occupy  this  particular  district. 
Great  Britain  retorted  that  the  Spanish  occupation  had ,  not  been 
effective  and  so  could  not  preclude  British  rights  of  trading,  fishing, 
and  settlement.  Her  position  was  supported  by  the  other  members 
of  the  Triple  Alliance,  while  Spain  was  disappointed  in  her  hopes  of 
aid  from  Austria,  Russia,  or  the  United  States.  The  National  As- 
sembly offered  help  only  upon  terms  impossible  to  accept.  So  Spain, 
in  spite  of  imposing  warlike  preparations,  was  obliged  to  sign  a  treaty, 
28  October,  1790,  yielding  the  territory  in  dispute.  Thus  Pitt  was 
able  to  gain  a  great  diplomatic  triumph,  not  the  least  important 
feature  of  which  was  the  fact  that  he  detached  Spain  from  France. 

Pitt's  Failure  to  check  the  Expansion  of  Russia,  1791.  —  The 
general  aim  of  Pitt's  foreign  policy  was  to  secure  peace  and  maintain 
the  balance  of  power  by  means  of  the  Triple  Alliance.  Catherine  of 
Russia  was  determined  to  extend  her  power  north  and  south,  and,  to 
this  end,  sought  to  encroach  upon  the  dominion  of  the  Turks  and  to 
get  a  tighter  grip  on  Poland.  So,  in  1787,  she  forced  the  Turks  into  a 
war.  Pitt  managed  to  obtain  a  favorable  peace  for  Gustavus  III  of 
Sweden  who  had  been  contending  against  Russia  in  the  Baltic  region ; 
but  he  was  unable  to  force  Catherine  to  come  to  terms  with  the  Turks 
on  the  basis  of  the  status  quo.  She  insisted  on  retaining  her  conquest 
of  Ochakov  and  the  territory  to  the  river  Dniester.  He  was  greatly 
hampered  by  the  fact  that  the  Prussians  were  anxious  to  share  in 
another  partition  of  Poland.1  Austria,  of  course,  inclined  to  Russia. 

1  There  were  three  partitions  of  Poland  between  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia, 
which  took  place  in  1772,  1793,  and  1795,  respectively. 


828  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

His  chief  difficulty,  however,  came  from  the  opposition  in  Parlia- 
ment, which  refused  to  back  him  in  a  war  because  of  the  damage 
to  English  trade  and  manufactures  which  it  might  involve,  and 
because  of  the  view  always  held  by  Pitt's  own  father  that  friend- 
ship with  Russia  offered  an  effective  check  against  France  and  Spain. 
Burke  denounced  the  new  policy  as  an  "  anti-crusade  "  for  assisting 
"  destructive  savages  "  against  a  Christian  power.  Consequently, 
Russia  was  able  to  arrange  a  peace  on  her  own  terms,  August,  1791, 
and  was  left  free  to  continue'her  aggressions  against  Poland  as  well. 

Pitt's  Effort  to  avoid  Intervention  in  French  Affairs.  —  For  a  time 
Pitt  held  aloof  from  any  attempt  to  intervene  in  France.  In  spite  of 
his  belligerent  attitude  toward  Russia  he  was  really  anxious  for  peace, 
to  develop  his  commercial  and  financial  reforms,  to  keep  down  taxes, 
and  to  reduce  the  debt.  Moreover,  he  thought  that  Burke  exaggerated 
the  danger  and  even  the  importance  of  the  French  Revolution.  It 
was  clear  that  the  majority  of  Englishmen  were  opposed  to  Revolu- 
tionary doctrines.  However,  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the 
French  Revolutionists,  far  from  confining  themselves  to  their  own 
country,  were  determined  to  spread  their  gospel  of  freedom  through- 
out Europe.  In  England,  in  spite  of  the  prevailing  hostility  to  Rev- 
olutionary ideas,  various  societies  were  formed  to  promulgate  them. 
In  addition  to  the  Revolutionary  Society  there  were  the  Society  for 
Constitutional  Information  and  the  London  Corresponding  Society, 
all  of  which  were  in  communication  with  the  Jacobins  in  Paris.1 
The  London  Society  was  the  most  violent  of  all.  Inflammatory 
speeches  were  made  at  its  meetings,  and  under  its  auspices  the  most 
violent  pamphlets  and  broadsides  were  circulated.  Notwithstanding 
the  opposition  of  Fox  and  the  other  extreme  Whigs,  a  royal  proclama- 
tion against  seditious  writings  was  issued,  21  May,  1792,  and  proved 
effective  in  checking  the  Revolutionary  propaganda.  Thomas  Paine 
fled  to  France  to  avoid  proceedings  against  him.  The  French  am- 
bassador, Chauvelin,  who  protested  against  the  Proclamation,  re- 
ceived a  just  rebuke. 

French  Aggressions  in  the  Netherlands,  1792. — Meantime,  although 
Pitt  felt  so  secure  that  he  divided  the  surplus  of  the  past  year  between 
the  Sinking  Fund  and  a  remission  of  taxes,  events  were  moving  rapidly 
on  the  Continent.  Marie  Antoinette,  the  Queen  of  Louis  XVI,  had 
applied  for  aid  to  her  brother,  the  Emperor.  Before  steps  were 
actually  taken  in  response  to  her  request  France  declared  war  on 
Austria,  20  April,  1792.  In  August  Louis  XVI  was  deposed  and  he 
and  his  Queen  imprisoned.  The  English  ambassador  was  recalled 
forthwith,  on  the  ground  that  the  sovereign  to  whom  he  was  accredited 
reigned  no  more.  Chauvelin  remained  in  London  without  official 
status.  Then  came  the  September  massacres  in  Paris,  which  filled 
even  Fox  with  horror.  Meantime,  the  Austrians,  and  the  Prussians 
who  had  allied  with  them,  crossed  the  frontier,  31  August.  Fred- 

1  The  Society  of  Friends  of  the  People  was  chiefly  interested  in  parliamentary 
reform  and  held  aloof  from  the  French  Revolutionary  party. 


THE   YOUNGER   PITT  829 

erick  William  II  had  declared :  "  The  comedy  will  not  last  long 
.  .  .  the  army  of  advocates  will  soon  be  annihilated ;  we  shall  be 
home  before  autumn ;  "  but  the  invaders  were  repulsed  at  Valmy,1  21 
September,  and  before  the  end  of  October  were  forced  to  withdraw 
from  France.  The  French  commander  Dumouriez  next  turned  to  the 
Netherlands ;  he  defeated  the  Austrians  at  Jemappes,  6  November, 
after  which  he  overran  the  whole  country.  Territorial  aggression 
and  the  spread  of  Republican  ideas  went  hand  in  hand.  In  Holland  the 
old  Republican  party  raised  its  head  again,  whereupon  the  States 
General  appealed  to  Great  Britain  and  received  assurances  that  in 
case  of  need  they  would  be  protected. 

The  Opening  of  the  Scheldt,  and  the  Decrees  of  19  November  and 
15  December,  1792. — On  16  November,  the  French  declared  the 
river  Scheldt  open  to  navigation.  This  was  at  once  a  violation  of 
the  treaty  rights 2  of  the  Dutch  and  a  defiance  of  Great  Britain,  who 
was  bound  to  protect  them.  The  triumphant  Revolutionists,  who  had 
also  annexed  Savoy  and  Nice,  declared  in  their  exultation  that  they 
would  "  break  all  the  Cabinets  of  Europe."  They  held  out  hopes  to 
the  English  societies  with  whom  they  corresponded  that  a  republic 
would  soon  be  set  up  in  Great  Britain,  and  sent  emissaries  to  stir 
up  disaffection  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  It  was  an  especially 
favorable  time.  Owing  to  a  bad  harvest,  the  price  of  wheat  was  high, 
and  the  poor,  particularly  among  the  manufacturing  classes,  were 
suffering  for  food.  Riots  broke  out,  accompanied  by  frequent  cries 
of  "No  excise!  "  "  No  King!  "  On  19  November,  the  National 
Convention  issued  a  decree  offering  to  assist,  even  by  force  of  arms, 
all  nations  aspiring  to  liberty.  In  view  of  the  aggressions  in  the  Nether- 
lands and  of  this  open  invitation  to  revolt,  the  English  Government 
began  to  prepare  for  a  possible  conflict,  though  Pitt  still  hoped  to 
maintain  peace.  A  proclamation  was  issued,  i  December,  calling 
out  the  militia,  and  Parliament  was  summoned  to  meet  on  the  i3th. 
When  it  had  assembled,  the  Government,  which  "had  already  taken 
steps  to  increase  the  army  and  navy,  introduced  an  Alien  Bill  which 
became  law  in  January,  1793.  It  placed  all  foreigners  under  sur- 
veillance; prohibited  them  from  bringing  arms  or  ammunition  into 
the  country;  and  authorized  the  Government,  if  necessary,  to  expel 
them.  Fox  declared  that  the  danger  was  exaggerated,  resisted  all 
restrictive  measures,  and  advised  the  recognition  of  the  French  Re- 
public, which  had  been  declared,  22  September.  But  he  was  little 
heeded ;  for  the  designs  of  the  dominant  Revolutionary  party  grew 
steadily  more  menacing.  They  began  to  treat  the  Austrian  Nether- 
lands as  a  part  of  France  and  to  introduce  democracy.  On  15  Decem- 
ber, 1792,  the  National  Assembly  issued  another  decree,  declaring  that 
in  every  country  occupied  by  French  armies  the  commander  should 
proclaim  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  and  suppress  the  existing 

1  Goethe,  who  was  in  the  Prussian  camp, declared :   "On  that  day  a  new  era  of 
history  began." 

2  It  had  been  closed  to  all  except  the  Dutch  by  the  Peace  of  Munster  in  1648. 


830  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

system  of  government.  "  The  French  Nation,"  so  ran  the  decree, 
"  will  treat  as  enemies  the  people  who,  refusing  or  renouncing  liberty 
and  equality,  are  clesirous  of  preserving  their  prince  and  privileged 
castes,  or  of  entering  into  accommodation  with  them." 

The  Outbreak  of  War  with  France,  1793.  —  As  late  as  31  December, 
1792,  Grenville,  the  British  Foreign  Secretary,  declared  that  his 
Majesty  still  desired  peace,  but  a  peace  "  consistent  with  the 
interests  and  dignity  of  his  own  dominions,  and  with  the  general 
security  of  Europe."  All  the  while,  the  French  were  preparing  to 
invade  Holland,  though  they  were  full  of  soothing  assurances  to  the 
English  that  they  did  not  mean  to  hold  the  Netherlands  in  permanent 
subjection,  and  that  their  decree  of  19  November  was  meant  to  apply 
only  to  countries  where  the  desire  of  the  people  for  a  Republican 
Government  was  manifestly  expressed.  However,  in  a  vote  of  13 
January,  which  was  really  an  ultimatum,  they  refused  to  reverse  their 
action  in  opening  the  Scheldt ;  they  insisted  that  they  should  judge 
when  to  interfere  in  behalf  of  insurgents  in  other  countries ;  and  de- 
clined to  set  a  definite  time  for  their  withdrawal  from  the  Nether- 
lands. Grenville  sent  a  haughty  reply;  but  negotiations  were  still 
dragging  on  when  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI,  21  January,  sent  a 
shudder  of  horror  through  England,  and  the  very  people  in  the  streets 
cried:  "  War  with  France!  "  l  Chauvelin,  who  had  been  informally 
representing  the  Republic,  though  Grenville  refused  to  accept  his 
credentials,  was  ordered  to  leave  the  country,  and,  i  February,  France 
declared  war  on  Great  Britain  and  Holland.  Though  the  declaration 
came  from  France,  Pitt  and  Grenville  had  come  to  realize  that  the 
conflict  was  inevitable,  and  had  virtually  closed  the  negotiations  by 
refusing  to  listen  to  more  assurances  and  by  their  abrupt  dismissal  of 
Chauvelin.  The  active  promulgation  of  Revolutionary  doctrines 
taken  alone  would  not  have  dragged  Pitt  from  his  neutral  attitude ; 
and,  unlike  Burke,  Frederick  William  II,  and  the  Emperor,  he  had  no 
desire  to  undertake  a  crusade  for  the  restoration  of  monarchy  in 
France.  It  was  the  violation  of  the  treaties  relating  to  the  Scheldt, 
which  threatened  the  security  of  the  public  law  of  Europe,  the  occupa- 
tion and  threatened  annexation  of  the  Austrian  Netherlands ;  and  the 
danger  of  an  invasion  of  Holland,  that  finally  determined  his  attitude.2 
In  his  opinion  it  would  be  a  "  very  short  war  and  certainly  ended  in 
one  or  two  campaigns."  Burke  predicted  that  it  would  be  a  "  long 
war  and  a  dangerous  war."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  with  one  brief  lull, 
it  lasted  for  over  twenty  years. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 
See  ch.  XL VII  below. 

1  The  Prince  of  Wales  declared :  "If  God  Almighty  came  over  as  an  envoy,  He 
could  not  now  prevent  a  War." 

2  France  in  possession  of  the  Low  Countries  with  Antwerp  as  a  port  would 
have  been  a  grave  menace  to  British  maritime  supremacy. 


CHAPTER  XLVI 

THE    GREAT   WAR   WITH    FRANCE   TO   THE   PEACE    OF   AMIENS 

(1793-1802) 

General  Features  of  the  War.  — The  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1793 
found  England  unprepared  to  undertake  military  operations  on  a  large 
scale.  In  the  year  1792  the  British  army  numbered  only  17,300  men, 
while  at  the  time  of  the  French  declaration  it  had  only  been  increased 
by  10,000.  Instead  of  strengthening  it  at  once,  Pitt  relied  on  small 
expeditions  sent  out  to  cooperate  with  the  French  royalists.  This 
plan  proved  futile  as  well  as  costly,  and  Pitt  might  have  foreseen  it ; 
for  English  experience  had  proved  that  a  people,  however  disaffected, 
seldom  cooperate  cordially  with  a  foreign  invader.  It  was  not  till 
new  methods  were  employed  after  Pitt's  death  that  the  British  army 
achieved  effective  results.  Another  source  of  weakness  in  the  begin- 
ning arose  from  the  fact  that  the  first  generals  were  chosen  because 
of  their  family  connections  rather  than  for  their  military  ability. 
In  striking  contrast,  the  British  navy  showed  from  the  start  the  su- 
periority for  which  it  had  been  famed.  In  February,  1793,  the  sea 
force  was  raised  to  45,000;  from  that  time  on  the  number  of  ships 
and  men  was  constantly  increased,  and  under  skilled  and  heroic  com- 
manders a  steady  succession  of  victories  resulted.  Nevertheless, 
while  the  British  navy  effected  much  by  blockading  French  ports, 
sweeping  her  fleets  from  the  sea,  and  capturing  her  colonies,  the  final 
issue  had  to  be  fought  out  on  land.  A  significant  factor  was  the  ulti- 
mate transformation  in  the  character  of  the  war.  Great  Britain's 
continental  allies  in  the  beginning  were  not  peoples,  but  absolute 
monarchs  concerned  in  maintaining  their  power  and  preserving  or 
extending  their  boundaries.  Then  the  French  Government  changed 
from  a  Republic  bent  on  a  general  crusade  for  liberty  to  a  military 
despotism  aiming  primarily  at  territorial  aggrandizement.  The  re- 
sult was  to  produce  a  great  national  reawakening  in  Spain,  Russia, 
and  Prussia.  Only  after  that  happened  was  France  struck  down  in 
her  victorious  career.  Great  Britain  alone  had  from  the  very  begin- 
ning been  animated  by  an  intense  and  persistent  national  opposition 
against  the  Republic  and  the  Napoleonic  Empire  alike.  Meantime, 
with  her  fleets  and  her  subsidies,  she  had  saved  Europe  by  sustaining 
her  allies  until  they  were  able  to  turn  and  overthrow  their  aggressor. 
Great  Britain  emerged  from  the  war  with  an  enormous  debt  of 
£840,000,000.  Although  the  favored  classes  gained  huge  profits 

831 


832  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

from  the  expansion  of  commerce  and  manufactures  and  the  high  prices 
of  foodstuffs,  the  poor  suffered  intensely  and  the  country  had  to  face 
more  than  one  sharp  financial  crisis. 

The  First  Coalition,  1793-1797.  The  Campaign  of  1793. — The 
war  opened  with  a  period  of  hard  times  and  a  money  stringency.  The 
bad  harvest  of  1792  had  produced  widespread  distress.  On  top  of 
that  came  a  sudden  shrinkage  of  credit  and  withdrawal  of  deposits, 
due  to  the  prospect  of  a  general  European  conflict.  The  banks, 
having  greatly  extended  their  circulation  since  the  recent  industrial 
development,  were  hard  put  to  it,  and  many  failures  resulted,  partic- 
ularly in  the  country  and  the  smaller  towns.  The  Prime  Minister 
only  checked  the  crisis  by  getting  the  assent  of  Parliament  to  issue 
£5,000,000  in  exchequer  bills  l  to  be  advanced  at  reasonable  interest 
on  good  security.  In  spite  of  this  unpromising  state  of  affairs,  the 
Government  went  on  with  its  preparations  for  war.  Alliances  were 
formed  with  Prussia  and  Austria  2 ;  Russia,  whose  troops  were  occupied 
in  Poland,  agreed  to  lend  her  fleet  to  assist  the  British  in  preventing 
neutrals  from  supplying  the  French  with  food ;  Portugal  promised 
to  send  ships  to  the  Mediterranean ;  British  subsidies  were  advanced 
to  the  King  of  Sardinia ;  treaties  were  made  with  the  King  of  the 
Two  Sicilies ;  and  troops  were  hired  from  Hanover  and  Hesse  Cassel. 
This  First  Coalition,  as  it  came  to  be  called,  began  with  a  series  of 
decided  successes.  The  French  were  driven  out  of  the  Netherlands 
and  defeated  in  the  Rhine  country,  while  a  British  fleet,  assisted  by 
Spain,  which  joined  the  Coalition  in  May,  captured  the  important 
naval  station  of  Toulon.  The  prospect  looked  dark  enough  for  France. 
On  the  borders  her  troops  were  .unruly,  her  generals  were  inefficient, 
her  ablest  commander,  Dumouriez,  fled  to  the  Austrians,  and  her  war 
ministers  proved  incompetent.  Most  of  the  leading  cities  outside 
Paris  were  in  revolt,  while  a  formidable  insurrection  had  broken  out 
in  the  Vendee.  The  Allies,  with  300,000  men  posted  along  the  frontier 
from  the  Alps  to  the  Netherland  sea  coast,  might  by  a  sudden  con- 
certed movement  have  taken  the  French  capital,  but  their  troops  were 
kept  inactive  while  they  quarreled  about  the  partition  of  territory, 
much  of  which  was  not  yet  in  their  possession.  The  crisis  inspired 
the  French  to  heroic  efforts.  In  August  they  ordered  a  universal  con- 
scription, and  under  a  new  War  Minister,  Carnot,  who  proved  a  genius 
in  the  work,  the  raw  recruits  were  amalgamated  with  the  regulars  into 
an  effective  army.  They  recovered  ground  in  the  Netherlands  as 
well  as  in  the  Rhine  country,  whence  Frederick  William  II  had  with- 
drawn to  look  after  his  Polish  interests.  The  Vendeans  were  crushed 
and  scattered,  while  a  British  force  sent  to  aid  them  returned  home 
without  even  landing.  Toulon  also  was  recovered,  in  which  achieve- 

1  These  are  negotiable,  interest-bearing  bills  of  credit  issued  by  the  Exchequer 
under  authority  of  acts  of  Parliament.     They  are  issued  for  five  years  at  most  and 
in  sums  of  £100,  or  in  multiples  of  that  amount. 

2  Great  Britain  and  Holland  were  already  allied. 


833 

ment  a  young  Corsican  artillery  officer,  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  first 
came  into  military  prominence.  All  this  was  only  slightly  offset  by 
British  successes  in  the  West  Indies  and  in  India,  and  by  their  cap- 
ture of  St.  Pierre  and  Miquelon. 

Measures  of  Repression,  1793-1795.  —  The  turn  of  the  tide,  due  to 
the  patriotic  enthusiasm  of  the  French  and  the  selfish  division  of 
the  Allies,  was  accompanied  by  the  "  Reign  of  Terror  "  in  France  —  a 
carnival  of  bloodshed  lasting  from  early  in  1793  to  the  summer  of  1794, 
when  the  extremists,  who  had  got  control  of  the  Convention,  acting 
through  Revolutionary  committees  sent  hundreds  to  the  guillotine, 
either  because  they  would  not  go  far  enough  in  support  of  the  Revolu- 
tion or  because  their  condemnation  offered  a  chance  to  confiscate  their 
goods.  The  result  was  to  convince  Pitt  of  the  necessity  of  over- 
throwing the  existing  Government.1  At  length  he  had  come  round  to 
adopt  the  attitude  of  Burke.  Fear  that  the  French  victories  and  the 
ascendancy  of  the  violent  party  might  encourage  the  Republican 
sympathizers  in  England,  although  there  is  little  evidence  that  they 
were  gaining  ground,  led  to  further  repressive  measures.  Late  in  1793 
a  Traitorous  Correspondence  Bill  was  carried  which  made  it  treason 
even  to  purchase  French  stocks.  Printers  and  preachers  of  sedition, 
or  what  was  interpreted  as  such,  were  prosecuted,  and  spies  were 
employed  to  report  every  sign  of  disaffection.  A  few  were  rigorously 
punished.  One  poor  bilisticker  was  imprisoned  for  six  months  for 
posting  an  address  asking  for  parliamentary  reform,  and  an  attorney, 
who  remarked  in  a  coffeehouse  that  he  was  "  for  equality  and  the 
rights  of  man,"  had  to  go  to  prison  and  stand  in  the  pillory.  The 
courts,  however,  showed  their  fairness  in  the  acquittal  of  others, 
notably  in  the  case  of  Home  Tooke,  a  sturdy  agitator  and  former  sup- 
porter of  Wilkes,  who  was  tried  for  treason  in  1794.  Yet  in  the  same 
year  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  suspended  for  the  first  time  since 
1745.  In  the  teeth  of  a  small  but  vociferous  opposition  in  Parliament, 
60,000  men  were  enrolled  in  the  army  and  85,000  in  the  navy.  Volun- 
teers were  added  and  letters  were  sent  to  lords  lieutenants  to  collect 
subscriptions  from  the  counties.  These  were  denounced  by  Fox 
and  Sheridan  as  revivals  of  the  old  benevolences,  but  there  was  this 
important  difference,  that,  irregular  as  was  the  proceeding,  it  was 
sanctioned  by  Parliament. 

The  Campaigns  of  1794-1795.  — In  July,  1794,  Pitt's  Government 
was  greatly  strengthened  when  the  Duke  of  Portland  and  other  leading 
Whigs,  who  had  seceded  from  the  portion  dominated  by  Fox,  took 
office  in  the  Cabinet.  The  Reign  of  Terror  in  France  came  to  an 
end  on  the  27th  of  the  same  month,2  when  Robespierre  was  arrested, 
together  with  a  number  of  his  violent  associates.  With  the  return  of 
the  moderates  to  power  the  English  peace  party  raised  its  voice. 

1  "Any  alternative,"  he  declared  early  in  1794,  "was  preferable  to  making  peace 
with  France  upon  the  basis  of  its  present  rulers." 

2  9  Thermidor,  according  to  the  new  Revolutionary  calendar. 

3H 


834  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

Pitt,  however,  realized  that  it  was  not  a  time  to  secure  favorable 
terms.  To  be  sure,  the  British  successes  continued  at  sea.  -They 
gained  in  the  Mediterranean  and  in  the  West  Indies  and,  in  a  notable 
fight  lasting  from  28  May  to  i  June,  known  as  the  "  Glorious  First 
of  June,"  Hood  won  a  decisive  victory  over  the  Brest  fleet  off  Ushant, 
though  he  failed  to  intercept  a  provision  fleet  from  America  for  which 
the  French  were  anxiously  waiting.  It  was  in  this  battle  that  "  break- 
ing the  line  "  was  first  employed  as  a  deliberate  policy  by  the  British 
commander.  But  the  campaign  in  the  Netherlands,  whence  the 
British  designed,  in  company  with  the  Dutch,  the  Prussians,  and  the 
Austrians,  to  march  on  Paris,  resulted  disastrously  for  the  Allies.  On 
26  June  they  were  defeated  at  Fleurus  and  forced  to  evacuate  the  Aus- 
trian Netherlands.  In  September  the  Prussians  retired  across  the 
Rhine  and  were  followed  by  the  Austrians  in  the  spring.  The  French 
invaded  Holland  in  the  winter  of  1794-1795,  whence  the  British,  left 
unsupported,  were  obliged  to  withdraw.  The  Stadholder  fled  to 
England,  the  Franco-Dutch  party  set  up  the  Batavian  Republic, 
and,  10  May,  1795,  entered  into  a  dependent  alliance  with  France. 
Prussia,  who  was  mainly  interested  in  the  final  partition  of  Poland 
which  took  place  in  this  year,  concluded  with  the  Convention  the 
Peace  of  Basle,  5  April,  and,  22  July,  Spain  followed  suit.  Pitt,  who 
had  got  authority  from  Parliament  to  levy  new  taxes  and  to  raise  new 
loans,  guaranteed  a  monthly  subsidy  to  Austria.  Russia,  too,  gave 
her  financial  aid ;  but,  even  thus  fortified,  Austria  was  unable  to  hold 
her  ground  against  the  French,  either  in  Germany  or  northern  Italy. 
In  June  two  successive  bodies  of  emigres,  who,  assisted  by  the  British, 
landed  at  Quiberon  Bay  to  support  another  rising  of  the  Breton  royal- 
ists, were  decisively  defeated  by  the  Republican  general,  Hoche,  while 
a  third  expedition,  under  the  Count  of  Artois,  younger  brother  of 
Louis  XVI,  which  came  to  the  aid  of  the  Vendeans,  was  no  more 
successful.  The  royalist  cause  in  the  west  of  France  was  ruined. 

Suffering  and  Discontent  in  England.  The  Repressive  Acts  of 
!795-  —  The  year  1795,  so  disastrous  to  the  Allies  on  the  Continent, 
was  also  marked  by  great  suffering  among  the  English  poor.  Two 
more  bad  harvests  in  succession  brought  the  price  of  wheat,  which  had 
been  43  shillings  the  quarter1  in  1792,  to  75.  Bread  riots  broke  out 
in  many  places,  and  the  Government,  in  spite  of  its  efforts  to  meet  the 
situation,  was  blamed  for  the  prevailing  distress.  Demands  were 
made  for  annual  parliaments,  for  universal  suffrage,  and  a  speedy 
peace.  When  the  King  rode  to  and  from  the  opening  of  Parliament, 
29  October,  1795,  he  was  hailed  with  hisses  and  cries  of:  "  Bread  ! 
Bread !  No  Pitt !  "  His  carriage  wras  pelted  and  the  windows  were 
broken.  Two  more  repressive  measures  resulted.  The  Treasonable 
Practices  Bill  declared  the  mere  speaking  or  writing  against  the  King 
or  the  established  Government  to  be  treason,  and  made  it  a  misde- 

1 A  quarter  was  eight  bushels  or  a  quarter  of  a  long  ton  by  weight. 


THE   GREAT  WAR  WITH  FRANCE  835 

meaner  to  incite  another  to  such  speaking  or  writing.  The  Seditious 
Meetings  Bill  forbade  any  political  meeting  except  upon  previous 
notice  by  a  resident  householder,  and  even  authorized  any  two  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  to  dissolve  a  meeting  called  in  a  legal  way.  These 
drastic  acts  were  fortunately  limited  in  duration,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  were  never  enforced. 

Pitt's  Failure  to  make  Peace,  1796. — The  power  of  France  was 
greatly  strengthened  by  a  new  constitution,  October,  1795,  vesting  the 
executive  in  a  directory  of  five.  Carnot,  who  was  a  leading  member, 
planned  a  comprehensive  campaign  against  Austria  in  which  three 
armies  were  to  converge  against  Vienna  by  way  of  the  Main,  the 
Danube,  and  the  Po.  While  the  two  northern  armies  were  unsuccess- 
ful, the  third,  under  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  managed  to  push  its  way 
to  within  eighty  miles  of  Vienna.  In  consequence,  the  Austrians  were 
forced  to  sue  for  peace  in  April,  1797.  Meantime,  Pitt  had  shown  his 
readiness  to  end  the  war,  particularly  since  the  Republican  excesses 
had  apparently  run  their  course  and  the  French  Government  seemed 
to  have  been  established  on  a  stable  basis.  Preliminary  negotiations, 
opened  in  March,  1796,  were  rejected  by  the  Directory,  and  the  British 
Government  again  offered  terms  in  the  summer  only  to  meet  with 
another  rebuff.  The  Directory  alleged  as  an  excuse  Great  Britain's 
insistence  on  the  surrender  of  the  Austrian  Netherlands ;  but  really, 
although  there  was  a  strong  party  opposed  to  continuing  the  war, 
they  had  no  desire  to  make  peace,  particularly  since  Catherine  of 
Russia,  who  died  in  November,  1796,  was  succeeded  by  her  son  Paul, 
who  declared  himself  neutral.  Moreover,  owing  to  a  defensive  al- 
liance concluded  with  Spain,  19  August,  1796,  British  fleets  and  com- 
merce were  excluded  from  the  Mediterranean,  and  Napoleon  was  free 
to  pursue  his  designs  against  the  Austrians  without  fear  of  his  com- 
munications by  way  of  Italy  being  broken.  Such  being  the  situation, 
the  French  Government  dreamed  of  ruining  British  trade  by  closing 
the  continental  ports  against  her,  of  isolating  her  from  her  European 
allies,  of  stirring  up  rebellion  in  Ireland,  of  invading  her  shores,  and 
of  overthrowing  Pitt  and  the  Monarchy. 

The  Critical  Years,  1796-1797.  —  In  December,  1796,  an  expedi- 
tion from  Brest  sailed  for  Ireland.  Owing,  however,  to  stress  of 
weather  and  the  incapacity  of  French  naval  officers,  the  fleet  was 
scattered,  the  commander,  Hoche,  did  not  arrive  at  all,  and,  though  a 
portion  of  the  fleet  managed  to  reach  Bantry  Bay,  it  turned  back 
without  even  attempting  to  land.  The  invaders  thus  missed  the 
chance  of  an  easy  conquest ;  for  there  were  scarcely  any  regular  troops 
to  defend  the  country.  Another  French  expedition  landed  at  Fish- 
guard  Bay ;  but  the  French  soldiers,  disconcerted,  it  is  said,  by  some 
old  Welsh  women  in  red  cloaks  and  beaver  hats,  whom  they  took  for 
regular  troops,  were  easily  captured  by  hastily  mustered  forces  of  local 
levies.  Nevertheless,  the  condition  of  England  was  critical :  indeed, 
the  years  1796  and  1797  were  the  darkest  in  the  whole  war.  The 


836  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

debt  had  increased  £80,000,000  since  the  opening  of  the  conflict, 
while  every  variety  of  taxation  had  been  tried  as  well.  Her  allies 
had  met  with  an  almost  constant  succession  of  defeats.  Threatened 
at  any  moment  with  an  invasion,  though  Fox  declared  that  there  was 
more  danger  to  the  people  of  England  from  the  encroachment  of  the 
magistrates,  strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  strengthen  the  army  and 
navy  and  to  raise  more  money.  The  response  was  warm  and  enthu- 
siastic. A  loan  of  £  1 8,000,000  was  subscribed  so  quickly  that  hundreds 
were  turned  away.  Thus  it  came  to  be  known  as  the  "  loyalty  loan."1 
Then  came  an  acute  monetary  crisis.  It  was  due,  not  to  lack  of 
credit  or  of  substantial  wealth,  but  to  a  dearth  of  currency  to  carry  on 
the  business  of  the  country.  The  payment  of  subsidies,  the  necessity 
of  purchasing  food  supplies  abroad,  and  the  closing  of  the  markets  in 
France,  Spain,  Holland,  and  Italy  had  all  contributed  to  the  scarcity 
of  specie.  Then  the  fear  of  invasion  caused  many  to  draw  their 
desposits  from  the  local  banks  which  in  their  turn  drew  on  the  Bank 
of  England.  To  meet  the  threatened  run,  the  Bank,  after  consulting 
with  the  Government,  suspended  cash  payments  in  February,  1797. 
This  measure,  intended  to  be  temporary,  lasted  till  1819.  It  is  a 
tribute  to  the  soundness  of  English  business  and  financial  conditions 
and  to  the  public  confidence  that  there  was  never  more  than  a  slight 
depreciation  of  paper. 

The  Battle  off  Cape  St.  Vincent,  14  February,  1797.  —  Notwith- 
standing the  fiascos  at  Bantry  Bay  and  Fishguard  Bay,  the  French 
proceeded  with  their  plans  of  invasion.  A  Spanish  fleet  sailing  from 
Carthagena  was  to  join  the  French  at  Brest,  and,  together  with  a 
Dutch  squadron  gathered  off  the  Texel,  the  combined  forces  were  to 
make  a  simultaneous  descent  on  the  English  coast.  On  St.  Valen- 
tine's Day,  14  February,  1797,  Sir  John  Jervis  attacked  the  Spanish, 
who  greatly  outnumbered  him,  off  Cape  St.  Vincent.  After  a  hard 
day's  fighting,  in  which  Commodore  Nelson  distinguished  himself 
by  his  audacious  courage,  the  British  fleet  won  a  notable  victory.2  The 
result  was  to  cheer  greatly  the  English  in  the  midst  of  their  financial 
crisis  and  to  lessen  materially  the  danger  of  the  dreaded  French  in- 
vasion, though  the  Brest  and  Texel  fleets,  each  guarded  by  a  British 
squadron,  were  still  intact. 

The  -Mutinies  at  Spithead  and  the  Nore,  1797.  — At  this  juncture, 
when  all  depended  upon  the  navy,  a  widespread  mutiny  broke  out. 
While  the  sailors  were  worked  upon  by  pamphlets  distributed  by  the 
democratic  societies,  they  had  many  real  grievances.  Their  pay  had 
not  been  increased  since  the  reign  of  Charles  II,  though  the  cos,t  of 
living  had  risen  30  to  40  per  cent 3 ;  owing  to  the  dishonesty  of  con- 
tractors, their  food  and  clothing  were  both  bad  and  insufficient,  their 

1  The  Government  offered  £112  of  stock  at  5  per  cent  for  every  £100  subscribed. 

2  Jervis  was  created  Earl  St.  Vincent.     Nelson  became  a  rear-admiral,  20  Febru- 
ary, although  his  promotion  was  already  decided  upon  before  the  battle. 

*  The  pay  of  the  army  had,  to  some  degree,  kept  pace  with  changing  conditions. 


THE   GREAT   WAR  WITH  FRANCE  837 

quarters  were  frightfully  unhealthy,  and  they  were  subject  to  arbitrary 
and  barbarous  punishments.  Most  of  the  men  were  pressed  and 
many  of  them  were  recruited  from  the  lowest  criminal  class,  who  were 
ripe  for  anything.  In  the  winter  of  1796-1797  the  able  seamen,  who 
had  an  especial  grievance  in  being  withdrawn  from  the  more  prof- 
itable merchant  service,  sent  a  petition  to  Lord  Howe.  When  the 
Admiralty  hesitated  to  grant  their  demands,  they  raised  the  red  flag 
of  mutiny  at  Spithead  on  15  April,  just  as  the  fleet  for  Brest  was  about 
to  put  to  sea.  Then  the  authorities  agreed  to  all  their  demands. 
It  required  another  armed  demonstration,  however,  before  the  bill 
to  raise  their  pay  was  pushed  through  Parliament,  whereupon  Howe, 
whom  the  sailors  knew  affectionately  as  "  Black  Dick,"  went  down 
from  London  with  the  news  of  the  vote,  together  with  a  royal  pardon, 
and  quelled  the  mutiny.  The  result  encouraged  an  outbreak  1 2  May, 
in  the  fleet  off  the  Nore,1  which  was  destined  to  reenforce  the  North  Sea 
squadron.  The  movement  here  was  in  the  hands  of  a  much  more 
desperate  class,  who  blockaded  the  mouth  of  the  Thames  and  pre- 
vented trading  vessels  from  going  in  and  out.  However,  the  vigorous 
efforts  of  the  authorities,  assisted  by  the  better-minded  men,  soon 
forced  the  mutineers  to  give  in  and  surrender  Parker,  their  leader, 
who  was  hanged  at  the  yardarm.  The  Government,  recognizing  the 
gravity  of  the  crisis  and  the  justice  of  the  complaints,  was  wisely 
lenient.  Less  than  a  score  were  put  to  death.  Although  impress- 
ment and  flogging  continued  for  a  long  time  to  come,  the  condition 
of  the  crews  was  steadily  improved.2 

The  End  of  the  First  Coalition,  1797.  The  British  Victory  off  Cam- 
perdown,  n  October.  —  While  Great  Britain  was  struggling  with  a 
financial  crisis  and  a  mutinous  fleet,  France,  too,  was  in  difficulties. 
Public  spirit  was  at  a  low  ebb,  loans  could  only  be  procured  at  exorbi- 
tant rates  of  interest,  and  taxes  were  arbitrary  and  crushing.  Carnot 
was  opposed  to  the  extreme  Republicans,  while  another  member  of 
the  Directory  was  a  royalist.  Pitt  seized  the  occasion  to  reopen 
negotiations  for  peace  in  the  summer  of  1797,  but  while  the  terms 
were  being  discussed,  a  coup  d'etat,  4  September,3  resulted  in  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  two  moderates  from  the  Directory.  The  two  Jacobins 
who  replaced  them  were  hot  for  war  and  demanded  impossible  con- 
cessions. Austria,  17  October,  concluded  with  France  the  treaty  of 
Campo  Formio.  Great  Britain  was  isolated,  and  the  First  Coalition 
had  been  broken  into  pieces.  England  was  saved  from  invasion, 
ho\vever,  by  another  great  naval  victory.  The  mutiny  had  spread 
even  to  the  fleet  of  Admiral  Duncan  who  was  blockading  the  Dutch 
off  the  Texel.  At  one  time  he  had  only  one  ship  besides  his  own, 
but  he  managed  to  keep  the  enemy  in  port  by  constantly  running  up 
flags  to  make  them  believe  that  he  was  signaling  to  parts  of  his  fleet 

1  The  name  is  applied  to  the  estuary  of  the  Thames. 

2  Nelson's  care  for  his  men  was  particularly  noteworthy. 

3  18  Fructidor,  according  to  the  new  calendar. 


838  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

which  were  not  in  sight.  When  they  at  length  weighed  anchor,  he 
was  strong  enough  to- engage,  and  won  a  decisive  victory  off  Camper- 
down,  ii  October,  lygy.1  The  French  were  still  reluctant  to  give 
up  their  cherished  project.  In  the  following  spring  they  collected  an 
invading  force  along  the  coast  prepared  for  transport ;  but  Napoleon, 
who  was  placed  in  command  of  this  "  Army  of  England,"  felt  that  it 
was  hopeless  to  attempt  an  invasion  while  Great  Britain  retained  her 
mastery  of  the  seas.  Consequently,  he  turned  to  another  plan  which  he 
had  formed,  of  striking  India  by  way  of  Egypt.  This  left  England  free 
to  deal  with  a  dangerous  rebellion  which  had  come  to  a  head  in  Ireland. 
The  Situation  in  Ireland,  1782-1789.  —  In  Ireland  the  grant  of 
legislative  independence  in  1782  had  done  little  or  nothing  to  relieve 
the  situation.  The  interests  of  the  Roman  Catholics,  the  Protestant 
Dissenters,  the  Episcopalians,  the  native  Irish,  the  Anglo-Irish,  the 
English,  the  landowners,  and  the  peasantry  conflicted  and  inter- 
mingled in  a  most  bewildering  fashion.  The  Irish  Parliament,  while 
nominally  free,  was  composed  of  Protestants  —  nobles,  gentry,  and 
placemen  —  over  whom  the  English  government  officials  exercised  great 
control  by  means  of  patronage,  bribery,  and  influence.  The  Roman 
Catholics  not  only  had  no  representation,  but  no  vote,  and  were  ex- 
cluded from  office  as  well  as  from  all  the  professions  except  that  of 
medicine.  The  Protestants  were  divided  among  themselves.  There 
were  two  main  groups.  One  consisted  largely  of  those  in  the  English 
interest,  mostly  officeholders  and  pensioners,  chief  among  them 
Fitzgibbon,  the  Chancellor,  and  the  Beresfords,  a  family  who  con- 
trolled a  vast  number  of  appointments.  The  opposition,  in  which 
Grattan  was  the  leading  figure,  was  made  up  partly  of  men  of  wealth 
and  family  who  chafed  under  English  control ;  but  there  were  many 
attached  to  this  party  who  desired  a  genuine  reform  of  Parliament. 
Within  this  group  there  were  some,  headed  by  Grattan,  who  desired  to 
include  the  admission  of  Roman  Catholics  in  their  scheme  of  reform ; 
others  wanted  merely  to  break  up  the  government  control  of  boroughs, 
which  was  even  more  shameless  than  in,  England.  Below  those  who 
were  working  mainly  for  political  equality  were  the  peasantry,  whose 
chief  grievances  were  financial  and  economic.  The  exorbitant  rents 
squeezed  from  them  by  the  middlemen,  who  hired  the  lands  from  the 
great  landlords  —  often  absentees  —  and  the  tithes  for  the  support  of 
the  Established  Church  were  burdens  which  bore  heavily  on  the  lesser 
folk,  whether  Protestant  or  Catholic.  In  their  wretchedness  they  saw 
no  hope  but  in  force.  The  Whiteboys,  who  resumed  their  nightly 
raids  in  Munster  and  parts  of  Leinster,  were  of  the  Catholic  faith,  but 
they  directed  their  efforts  mainly  against  the  rent  collectors  and  the 
tithe  proctors.  In  spite  of  the  common  grievances  Ulster  was  torn 
by  acute  religious  animosity.  Protestant  "Peep  of  Day  Boys" 
combined  to  protect  themselves,  and  sought  to  deprive  their  Catholic 

1  Duncan  was  created  Earl  of  Camperdown  as  a  reward  for  his  achievement. 


THE   GREAT  WAR  WITH   FRANCE  839 

neighbors  of  arms  which  by  law  they  were  forbidden  to  carry.  The 
latter  formed  themselves  into  societies  of  "  Defenders."  New  Prot- 
estant organizations  followed  which  took  the  name  of  Orange  Lodges. 
Thus  lawless  violence  was  met  by  lawless  violence. 

The  French  Revolution.  Wolfe  Tone  and  the  United  Irishmen.  — 
In  the  midst  of  this  wild  disorder  came  the  news  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion and  the  visits  of  Revolutionary  agents  promising  the  overthrow 
of  tyranny,  religious  and  secular,  and  a  millennium  for  the  downtrodden. 
The  Roman  Catholics  at  first  had  little  sympathy  with  the  movement 
which  included  in  its  propaganda  the  overthrow  of  their  Church; 
but  the  northern  Protestants  of  the  lesser  sort,  many  of  whom  were 
Republicans  at  heart,  eagerly  welcomed  the  new  teachings.  They 
hated  the  exclusive  knot  which  governed  the  Irish  Parliament  as  much 
as  they  hated  those  of  the  opposite  faith,  and  they  longed  to  be  rid 
of  middlemen  and  tithes.  There  was  an  opportunity  for  the  ruling 
classes  to  maintain  their  ascendancy  by  playing  the  opposing  religious 
parties  against  each  other.  Foreseeing  this,  Wolfe  Tone,  a  Dublin 
barrister,  nominally  a  Presbyterian,  but  really  a  free  thinker,  formed 
in  1791,  the  Society  of  United  Irishmen,  in  which  he  sought  to  make 
the  hostile  elements  set  aside  their  religious  animosity  in  pursuit  of  a 
common  object  —  the  breakdown  of  the  English  power  through  reform 
of  Parliament.  Tone's  activity  caused  a  split  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Roman  Catholics.  The  minority,  composed  of  the  bishops  and  the 
educated  classes  who  looked  to  Pitt  for  further  measures  of  relief, 
broke  off  all  connection  with  the  more  violent  majority,  who  threw 
in  their  lot  with  the  United  Irishmen.  Instead  of  wisely  granting 
sufficient  concessions  to  satisfy  the  moderates,  those  in  authority, 
after  holding  out  great  hopes,  only  conceded  grudgingly  just  enough 
half  measures  to  anger  the  Protestant  clique  and  to  stir  up  the  Roman 
Catholics  to  increasing  agitation.  In  1792,  a  bill  was  forced  through 
the  Irish  Parliament  admitting  them  to  the  practice  of  law  and  re- 
pealing restrictions  on  education  and  intermarriage.  In  1793,  they 
were  admitted  to  the  grand  juries  and  to  the  magistracies ;  the 
prohibition  to  bear  arms  was  repealed;  and  they  were  given  the 
right  to  vote  for  members  of  the  Lower  House.  This  last  conces- 
sion was  far  from  satisfactory;  for  the  poor  and  ignorant  tenantry 
who  received  the  franchise  were  completely  under  the  control  of  the 
landlords  and  borough  owners,  while  the  wealthy  and  intelligent 
Catholics  were  still  excluded  from  sitting  in  Parliament  and  from  the 
higher  offices  of  State.1  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  dominant 
Protestants  would  fight  to  the  last  ditch  the  admission  of  the  Roman 
Catholics,  who  from  their  vastly  superior  numbers  would  speedily  get 
control  of  the  country. 

Fitzwilliam  made  Lord  Lieutenant.  His  Recall  and  its  Conse- 
quences, 1795.  — The  reformers,  however,  were  filled  with  new  hope 

1  Parsons,  in  a  debate,  declared :  "It  courts  the  rabble  and  insults  the  Catholic 
gentry." 


84o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

when  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  one  of  the  Portland  Whigs  who  had  joined 
Pitt's  Cabinet  in  1794,  came  out  as  Lord  Lieutenant  early  in  1795.  He 
understood  that  he  was  to  have  a  free  hand.  Pitt,  however,  though  he 
favored  further  measures  for  the  relief  of  Catholics,  was  disinclined  to 
concede  any  more  than  was  absolutely  necessary  while  the  war  lasted. 
Consequently,  he  gave  the  Lord  Lieutenant  instructions  to  yield  only 
so  far  as  he  was  obliged  to.  In  view  of  the  sentiment  which  he  found 
prevailing,  Fitzwilliam  felt  justified  in  taking  decided  steps  directly 
on  his  arrival.  He  at  once  arranged  with  Grattan  to  introduce  a  bill 
to  admit  Roman  Catholics  to  Parliament,  and  dismissed  from  office 
the  chief  of  the  powerful  Beresford  connection.  The  pensioners  and 
placemen  set  up  a  furious  howl ;  Beresford  appealed  to  London  ;  Pitt 
bowed  to  the  storm,  recalled  Fitzwilliam,  and  the  bill  was  defeated. 
Fitzgibbon,  now  created  Earl  of  Clare,  managed  by  indirect  means 
to  persuade  King  George  that  he  could  not,  without  a  breach  of  his 
coronation  oath,  consent  to  any  further  Catholic  relief.1  The  events 
of  1798  defeated  the  only  possible  chance  of  a  peaceful  settlement  of 
the  Irish  question.  Many  of  the  disappointed  threw  themselves  into 
the  arms  of  Tone,  who,  however,  was  obliged  to  leave  the  country, 
and  sailed  for  America.  On  the  other  hand,  the  violence  of  the  em- 
bittered Catholics  forced  numbers  of  the  northern  Protestants  over  to 
the  Government  side,  and  the  Orange  Society  was  founded.  A  rev- 
olution was  rapidly  approaching. 

The  Government  averts  a  Rising  in  Ulster.  —  The  United  Irishmen, 
who  had  been  forcibly  suppressed  in  1794,  were  now  reconstituted  on  a 
basis  distinctly  republican  and  treasonable.  Instead  of  trying  any 
longer  to  hold  the  two  religious  parties  together,  the  leaders  sought  to 
influence  the  Catholics  by  persuading  them  that  the  Protestants  were 
plotting  their  extermination.  They  also  emphasized  their  agrarian 
grievances,  and  sought  to  lessen  their  distrust  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion by  pointing  out  that  it  had  led  to  the  abolition  of  tithes.  In 
consequence,  the  "  Defenders  "  combined  with  the  United  Irishmen, 
adopted  a  military  organization,  and  appealed  to  France,  whither  Tone, 
from  his  exile  in  America,  went  for  aid  in  1796.  The  French  reply 
was  to  send  the  two  expeditions  which  came  to  such  a  futile  end. 
Meanwhile,  the  Government  acted  with  prompt  decision.  In  the 
autumn  of  1796  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  suspended,  and  bodies  of 
yeomanry  and  infantry  were  organized  from  the  gentry.  Shortly 
before  the  sailing  of  the  French  fleet  several  leaders  of  the  United 
Irishmen  were  arrested  in  Belfast.  Early  in  1797  martial  law  was 
proclaimed.  Arms  were  searched  out  and  seized,  houses  were  burned, 
and  Catholics  were  barbarously  tortured  and  put  to  death.  There 
were  few  regular  troops  in  the  country,  and  the  volunteers  who  sup- 
plied their  place  were  goaded  to  excess  by  long-existing  feuds.  Aber- 
crombie,  the  Commander-in-Chief ,  sought  to  mitigate  their  harshness, 

1  One  further  concession  was  granted :  the  foundation  at  Maynooth  of  a  col- 
lege for  the  training  of  priests.  The  endowment,  however,  was  most  scanty. 


THE   GREAT  WAR  WITH  FRANCE  841 

but  he  was  overruled  and  resigned.  The  work  of  suppression  was  car- 
ried on  by  General  Lake.  Informers  assisted,  by  constant  reports  of 
the  movements  of  the  conspirators.  The  Irish  authorities  were  given 
free  hand,  and  the  English  Ministers  declined  all  requests  to  interfere 
on  the  side  of  mercy. 

The  Rebellion  of  1798.  —  A  general  rising  was  planned  for  23  May, 
but  owing  to  the  prompt  arrest  of  many  leaders,  to  the  loyalty  of  the 
moderate  Catholics,  and  the  energy  of  the  authorities,  the  designs  of 
the  rebels  were  in  a  large  measure  frustrated.  An  attempt  on  Dublin 
failed,  and  a  rising  in  Kildare,  marked  by  destruction  and  cruelty  on 
the  part  of  the  insurgents,  was  speedily  put  down.  In  Carlow  they 
were  suppressed  with  a  savagery  that  surpassed  their  own.  Houses 
in  which  arms  were  found  were  burned ;  suspected  persons  were  shot 
or  barbarously  tortured.  The  most  gruesome  instrument  of  torture 
was  the  "  pitch-cap  "  ;  a  cap  lined  with  burning  pitch  was  forced  on  the 
head  of  the  unhappy  victim,  and  he  could  only  remove  it  by  tearing  off 
his  scalp.  One  man,  at  least,  drowned  himself  to  end  his  misery. 
William  Judkin  Fitzgerald,  the  High  Sheriff  of  Tipperary,  stamped  out 
the  rebellion  in  his  country  with  a  courage  only  exceeded  by  his 
ferocity.  After  the  revolts  in  the  north  and  west  had  been  practically 
suppressed,  the  civil  war  came  to  a  head  in  Wexford  and  Wicklow, 
where  little  resistance  had  been  anticipated.  The  outbreak,  partic- 
ularly in  Wexford.  where  strife  raged  for  some  weeks,  was  precipitated 
by  the  Protestant  yeomanry  and  militia.  The  real  though  not  the 
nominal  leader  of  the  rebel  army,  which  rapidly  swelled  to  a  force  of 
15,000  men,  was  a  priest,  Father  John  Murphy.  After  taking  the  city 
of  Wexford,  where  they  left  a  garrison,  they  marched  to  a  place  called 
Vinegar  Hill.  There  they  set  up  a  camp,  there  they  heard  mass,  there 
their  anti-Protestant  hatred  was  inflamed  by  fiery  sermons,  but, 
frenzied  and  undisciplined,  they  failed  to  make  the  most  of  their 
opportunities  except  for  violence  and  revenge.1  The  loyalist  forces 
struggled  bravely  until  the  arrival  of  General  Lake  with  regular  troops. 
By  the  capture  of  Vinegar  Hill  he  broke  the  back  of  the  rebellion,  21 
June.  It  had  been  practically  confined  to  the  province  of  Leinster ; 
for  only  two  outbreaks  had  occurred  in  ah1  Ulster,  while  Munster 
and  Connaught  remained  quiet. 

The  Aftermath  of  '98.  —  The  French,  hampered  by  the  fact  that 
the  British  fleets  controlled  the  Channel,  sent  two  small  expeditions 
to  Ireland,  which  arrived  after  the  Rebellion  was  over,  only  to  be 
finally  overcome  and  taken.  Among  the  prisoners  was  Wolfe  Tone 
who  was  condemned  to  death,  but  committed  suicide  in  prison.  Lord 
Cornwallis  who  had  succeeded  as  Lord  Lieutenant  and  Commander- 
in-Chief,  20  June,  managed  to  check  the  bloodthirsty  execution  which 
followed  the  Wexford  war  by  an  act  of  indemnity  containing  only  a 
few  exceptions.  Unhappily,  the  burning  and  wasting,  the  ruthless 

1  Many  of  the  better  sort,  however,  including  the  priests,  did  their  best  to  pre- 
serve order. 


842  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

destruction  of  life  and  property  committed  by  both  parties  impover- 
ished the  country,  led  to  a  stagnation  of  industry  and  credit,  revised 
and  accentuated  the  old  religious  and  racial  animosities,  and  undid  the 
effect  of  such  slight  conciliation  as  had  been  attempted  during  the  past 
two  decades.  The  most  direct  result  of  the  Rebellion  was  to  determine 
Pitt  and  his  Cabinet  to  bring  about  a  union  between  the  Irish  and  the 
English  Parliaments.  As  early  as  1782,  he  had  thought  of  this  possi- 
bility as  the  only  solution  of  the  vexed  question  of  Catholic  relief. 
Catholic  members  absorbed  in  the  English  Protestant  Parliament 
would  count  for  little,  while  they  would  inevitably  dominate  the  Irish 
once  they  were  admitted  within  its  walls.  Moreover,  a  union  offered 
a  means  of  breaking  up  the  corrupt  rule  of  the  Protestant  minority 
and  of  checking  the  revengeful  fury  of  the  Orangemen.  The  charge 
that  Pitt  fostered  the  Rebellion  in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  his  project 
is  absurd,  though  there  is  little  doubt  that  he  eagerly  welcomed  the 
opportunity. 

The  Ijrish  Union,  1799-1800.  —  The  two  Parliaments  had  been 
united  for  a  brief  period  under  Cromwell,  but  the  arrangement  had 
come  to  an  end  at  his  death.  At  the  time  of  the  union  with  Scotland, 
and  occasionally  in  the  years  which  followed,  the  Irish  Parliament  sug- 
gested such  an  arrangement  in  the  interest  of  their  trade.  After  the 
commercial  concessions  of  lyyS-iySo1  and  the  repeal  of  Poyning's 
law  in  1782  the  prevailing  sentiment  came  to  be  that  such  a  step  would 
be  a  sacrifice  of  Irish  nationality.  After  the  Rebellion  the  matter  was 
brought  forward  by  a  recommendation  in  the  royal  address  opening 
the  Irish  Parliament  in  1799.  It  was  bitterly,  and,  for  the  moment, 
successfully  opposed  by  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  opposition,  headed  by 
Grattan.  The  Roman  Catholic  bishops  supported  the  Government 
in  the  hope  of  securing  provision  for  their  priests,  commutation  of 
tithes  in  money  payments,  and  Catholic  emancipation.  The  main 
energies  of  Cornwallis  and  his  Secretary,  Castlereagh,  who,  with  the 
Earl  of  Clare,  had  the  measure  in  charge,  were  directed  toward  the 
manipulation  of  the  members  of  Parliament  and  the  powerful  interests 
which  controlled  the  seats.  They  justified  the  means  which  they 
employed  on  the  ground  .of  disagreeable  necessity.  To  Cornwallis 
it  was  particularly  "  dirty  work  "  for  which  he  despised  himself,  and 
he  often  longed  to  kick  those  whom  he  was  obliged  to  court.  Not 
daring  to  hazard  a  general  election,  sixty-three  members  of  the  exist- 
ing House  of  Commons  were  replaced  by  supporters  of  the  Govern- 
ment ;  some  exchanged  their  seats  for  office,  some  sold  them  outright, 
some  resigned  to  avoid  taking  sides.  Borough  owners,  who  would 

1  In  1785,  just  previous  to  the  commercial  treaty  with  France,  Pitt  framed  a 
measure  of  free  trade  with  Ireland.  His  scheme  was  accepted  by  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, who  agreed  in  return  to  pay  a  fixed  contribution  to  the  support  of  the  Brit- 
ish navy.  Unfortunately,  the  jealousy  of  English  merchants  compelled  the  Prime 
Minister  to  modify  his  original  proposition.  The  Irish  rejected  the  plan  in  its 
amended  form,  and  one  more  cause  of  estrangement  was  the  result. 


THE   GREAT  WAR  WITH  FRANCE  843 

lose  profit  and  influence  by  the  destruction  of  the  Irish  Parliament, 
were  bought  with  £15,000  apiece.  Twenty  new  Irish  peers  were 
created,  sixteen  were  promoted,  and  five  were  rewarded  with  English 
peerages.  Some  votes  were  bought  with  places  and  pensions,  some  by 
direct  bribes,  but  the  amount  employed  for  the  latter  purpose  has 
doubtless  been  greatly  exaggerated,  and  Cornwallis  seems  not  to  have 
had  anything  to  do  with  it.  In  one  way  and  another,  however,  the 
Government  spent  £  i  ,000,000.  In  spite  of  the  preponderating  strength 
of  the  Government  supporters,  the  anti-unionists  fought  stubbornly, 
even  raising  £100,000  to  outbid  their  opponents.  The  Articles  of 
Union  were  carried  in  the  new  session  which  opened  15  January,  1800. 
The  bill  based  upon  them,  after  passing  both  the  Irish  and  English 
Parliaments,  received  the  royal  assent  i  August. 

The  Terms  of  Union.  —  In  the  change  in  the  royal  title  and  arms 
the  now  long  meaningless  "  King  of  France,"  which  Edward  III  had 
adopted  in  1339,  was  dropped.  By  the  terms  of  the  Act  of  Union, 
four  spiritual  peers  sitting  in  rotation  in  successive  sessions,  and 
twenty-eight  temporal  peers  elected  for  life,  represented  Ireland  in  the 
House  of  Lords,1  and  one  hundred  members  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Free  trade  was  established  between  the  two  countries ;  Great  Britain 
was  to  contribute  fifteen  parts,  and  Ireland  two,  toward  the  revenue 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  the  debts  of  the  two  countries  were  to  be 
kept  distinct  for  twenty  years,  or  until  they  reached  the  same  propor- 
tion as  their  respective  contributions  to  taxes.  The  preservation  of 
the  United  Church  of  England  and  Ireland  was  to  be  an  "  essential 
and  fundamental  part  of  the  Union."  The  first  session  of  the  united 
Parliaments  was  held  22  January,  1801. 

Pitt  and  the  Union.  His  Resignation,  1801.  — The  Union  seemed 
to  offer  a  way  out  of  pressing  difficulties,  and  certainly  the  old  arrange- 
ment —  with  a  separate  and  independent  Irish  Parliament  and  an 
executive  appointed  and  instructed  by  an  English  Ministry  dependent 
on  English  party  changes  —  was  far  from  satisfactory.  Nevertheless, 
the  measure  was  carried  by  methods  that  cannot  be  justified  and  was 
forced  down  the  throats  of  the  Irish,  five  sixths  of  whom  are  said  to 
have  been  against  it.  Furthermore,  the  most  influential  Roman 
Catholics,  who  might  have  seriously  hampered  the  efforts  of  the 
Government,  were  won  over  by  the  assurance  circulated  by  Castle- 
reagh  that  as  soon  as  the  Parliaments  were  united  they  would  be  re- 
warded by  the  three  concessions  which  they  desired  —  State  payment 
of  their  priests,  commutation  of  tithes,  and,  above  all,  Catholic  eman- 
cipation. While  Pitt  gave  no  formal  pledges,  he  was  sincerely  anxious 
to  realize  their  hopes,  but  he  had  to  contend  against  the  monumental 
obstinacy  of  King  George.  Very  likely  it  would  have  been  wiser  for 
Pitt  to  have  insisted  upon  a  preliminary  pledge  from  the  sovereign 

1  The  creation  of  new  peerages  was  limited  to  one  for  every  three  that  lapsed 
until  the  number  was  reduced  to  one  hundred.  Contrary  to  the  Scotch  practice, 
Irish  peers  were  entitled  to  sit  for  English  constituencies. 


844  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  the  Cabinet  that  the  Union  would  be  accompanied  by  the  con- 
cessions desired,  and  that  otherwise  he  would  resign  and  oppose  the 
whole  project.  George  might  thus  have  been  obliged  to  yield,  as  he 
had  more  than  once  before.1  Once  the  Act  had  been  carried  he  was  in 
a  better  position  to  resist.  In  September,  1800,  Pitt  brought  a  meas- 
ure of  Catholic  relief  before  the  Cabinet  for  discussion.  Wedderburn, 
now  Lord  Loughborough  and  Chancellor,  betrayed  the  secret  to  the 
King,  so  that  Pitt  had  no  opportunity  either  of  preparing  the  mind  of 
his  sovereign  gradually  or  of  pushing  through  his  project  with  a  rush. 
When  he  formally  opened  the  question  in  January,  George  declared : 
"  I  shall  reckon  any  man  my  personal  enemy  who  proposes  such  a 
measure."  His  scruples  about  his  coronation  oa-th  were  groundless, 
since  Pitt  was  devising  a  new  political  test  binding  the  Catholics 
to  support  the  existing  Constitution  in  Church  and  State.  Yet,  rather 
than  oppose  the  royal  will,  he  resigned,  5  February,  1801.  In  March, 
after  the  King  had  been  threatened  with  another  attack  of  his  old 
malady,  he  agreed,  whether  in  or  out  of  office,  never  again  to  open  the 
question  during  the  reign.  Once  more  the  hopes  of  the  Catholics  had 
been  raised  only  to  be  dashed.  They  were  not  admitted  to  Parlia- 
ment till  1829,  commutation  of  tithes  was  not  conceded  till  1838,  and 
payment  of  priests  has  never  been  granted.  The  failure  to  carry  these 
concessions,  to  which  the  Government  was  morally  if  not  literally 
bound,  was  responsible  for  much  of  the  trouble  with  Ireland  which 
followed.2 

Napoleon  in  Egypt.  Failure  of  his  Designs  against  the  British  Power 
in  India,  1798-1799.  —  A  few  days  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion 
of  1798,  Napoleon  started  for  the  Mediterranean  with  the  design  of  de- 
stroying the  British  power  in  India.  Many  years  later,  while  in  exile  at 
St.  Helena,  he  lamented  his  change  of  plan.  "  On  what  do  the  destinies 
of  Empires  hang  !  "  he  declared.  "  If,  instead  of  the  expedition  of 
Egypt,  I  had  made  that  of  Ireland,  .  .  .  what  would  England  have  been 
to-day,  and  the  Continent,  and  the  whole  political  world  ?  "  He  was 
able  to  carry  out  the  first  steps  in  his  new  project  without  a  setback. 
He  captured  Malta,  passed  on  to  Egypt,  took  Alexandria,  July,  1798, 
and  defeated  the  Mamelukes  3  in  the  Battle  of  the  Pyramids  on  the 
2 1 st.  Nelson,  however,  in  hot  pursuit  attacked  him  at  Aboukir  Bay, 
and  in  the  famous  Battle  of  the  Nile,  i  August,  destroyed  his  fleet, 
and  with  it  his  hopes  of  establishing  a  French  empire  in  the  East. 
Nelson,  wounded  in  the  engagement,  refused  the  eager  surgeon  who 

1  Though  this  was  the  first  time  his  religious  convictions  had  ever  been  at  stake, 
and  it  is  doubtful  if  he  could  have  been  induced  under  any  circumstances  to  sacrifice 
them. 

2  An  abortive  rebellion  instigated  by  the  French,  which  broke  out  in  1803,  re- 
sulted in  the  execution  of  the  leader,  Robert  Emmet,  and  in  coercive  measures  which 
only  accentuated  the  bitterness  of  the  Irish. 

3  Formerly  slaves,  they  were  now  an  effective  body  of  cavalry  who,  under  their 
beys  or  chiefs,  ruled  the  country  of  which  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  was  the  nominal 
overlord. 


THE   GREAT  WAR  WITH  FRANCE  845 

hastened  to  his  side,  saying :  "  I  will  take  my  turn  with  my  brave 
fellows."  Learning  that  the  French  admiral's  ship  was  on  fire,1  he 
generously  sent  boats  to  rescue  the  sailors  who  had  flung  themselves 
into  the  sea.  Napoleon,  after  his  defeat,  started  for  Syria  with  the 
design  of  capturing  Constantinople  and  attacking  Europe  from  the 
East.  Failing  in  an  attempt  to  take  Acre,  the  key  to  the  control  of  the 
Syrian  coast,  May,  1799,  he  returned  to  Egypt,  where  he  received  news 
which  caused  him  to  leave  his  army  and  hasten  to  France.  In  India 
Tipii  —  the  successor  of  his  father  Haider  Ali  as  ruler  of  Mysore  — 
who  had  been  in  communication  with  Napoleon,  was  awaiting  aid 
from  him  to  start  a  revolt.  To  anticipate  the  threatened  danger  the 
Governor-General,  Lord  Mornington,  sent  an  army  against  him. 
Tipii  was  defeated  and  slain,  while  Mysore  was  divided  and  placed 
under  British  protection.  Mornington  was  created  Marquis  of 
Wellesley.  His  brother,  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  who  commanded  a 
division  of  the  invading  army  was  destined  later,  as  the  Duke  of  Well- 
ington, to  become  the  conqueror  of  Napoleon.  The  failure  of  the 
Eastern  expedition  was  attended  by  two  important  results :  it  averted 
a  serious  danger  to  the  British  ascendancy  in  India  as  well  as  to  the 
supremacy  of  British  commerce  in  the  East,  and  it  led  to  the  formation 
of  the  Second  Coalition. 

The  Second  Coalition,  1799-1801.  —  The  first  step  toward  the  new 
Coalition  was  taken  by  the  half-crazy  Paul  of  Russia.  Encourage- 
ment at  Napoleon's  defeat,  resentment  at  the  seizure  of  Malta  which 
belonged  to  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  of  whom  he  was  protector,  and 
fear  of  the  spread  of  Republicanism  were  the  motives  which  prompted 
him.  The  actual  organization  was  the  work  of  Pitt.  The  Coalition, 
consisting  of  Great  Britain,  Russia,  Austria,  Portugal,  Naples,  and 
Turkey,  was  completed  in  the  early  months  of  1799.  At  the  start, 
the  Allies  were  successful  in  forcing  the  French  across  the  Rhine  and 
in  driving  them  out  of  northern  Italy.  Moreover,  in  Naples  a  republic, 
set  up  in  1798  with  the  aid  of  the  French,  was  overthrown  in  June, 
1799,  by  a  counter-revolution.  In  the  autumn  the  tide  began  to  turn. 
On  26  September,  the  Russian  general  Korsakov,  with  a  body  of  Aus- 
trian allies,  was  defeated  at  Zurich.  Thereupon,  Suvorov,  the  vic- 
torious commander  in  northern  Italy,  who  had  crossed  the  Alps  with 
the  design  of  invading  France,  gave  up  the  campaign  and  retired  with 
the  Russian  troops  to  Germany.  Moreover,  a  joint  invasion  of  Hol- 
land by  the  English  and  Russians,  assisted  by  the  Orange  party,  ended 
at  a  great  cost  of  men  and  money  in  the  capitulation  in  October  of 
the  Duke  of  York,2  the  nominal  commander,  and  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Allies.  During  the  winter  Paul,  disgusted  at  the  failure  of  his 
arms  and  convinced  that  Austria  and  Great  Britain  had  not  cooperated 
cordially  with  him,  withdrew  from  the  Coalition. 

1  The  heroism  of  Casabianca  has  been  celebrated  by  Mrs.  Hemans  in  a  familiar 
poem.  2  Second  son  of  George  III. 


846  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

% 

The  Break-up  of  the  Second  Coalition,  1799.  —  Meantime,  Napoleon, 
hurrying  from  Egypt,  had  reached  France  in  October.  With  the  aid 
of  his  grenadiers  the  Directory,  which  had  grown  very  unpopular, 
was  overthrown  by  the  coup  d'etat  of  18  and  19  Brumaire  (9  and  10 
November).  By  a  new  constitution  proclaimed  in  December,  the 
fourth  since  1789,  Napoleon  was  made  First  Consul  for  ten  years  with 
virtually  supreme  powers.  While  he  was  able  to  forestall  another 
expedition  planned  by  Pitt  to  assist  the  royalists  in  La  Vendee  and 
Brittany,  he  sent  a  personal  letter  to  George  III,  expressing  a  desire  for 
peace.  He  later  declared  that  his  motive  was  to  strengthen  himself 
with  the  French  party,  now  in  the  majority,  which  desired  to  end  the 
war.  The  British  Government,  thinking  that  France  was  too  ex- 
hausted to  hold  out  much  longer,  played  into  his  hands  by  insisting 
upon  impossible  terms.  In  England  the  burden  of  the  war  was  growing 
heavier  and  heavier.  An  income  tax  went  into  effect  in  April,  1799, 
and  new  loans  were  contracted.  The  commercial  classes  were  thriving, 
and  so  were  the  farmers ;  but  the  poor  suffered  more  and  more  from 
soaring  prices,  especially  of  food.  Wheat  rose  to  106  shillings  the 
quarter.  A  meeting  was  held  in  London  which  petitioned  for  peace ; 
but  the  great  majority  still  supported  the  war  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  frowned  on  the  expression  of  Revolutionary  opinion.  Bills 
were  passed  toward  the  end  of  the  year  1800  suppressing  corresponding 
societies,  restricting  debating  societies  and  combinations  of  workmen, 
and  obliging  printers  to  obtain  certificates  and  to  affix  their  signatures 
to  all  they  printed.  The  repressive  measures  were  now  so  complete 
in  theory  that  "  the  popular  constitution  .  .  .  was  practically  sus- 
pended." Austria,  which  was  supporting  the  allied  cause  in  northern 
Italy,  was  defeated  by  Napoleon  at  Marengo,  14  June,  1800,  largely 
owing  to  the  failure  of  the  British  to  send  troops  in  season.  Great 
Britain  recovered  Malta,  but  the  Austrians,  defeated  at  Hohenlinden, 
3  December,  were  unable  to  hold  out  any  longer,  and,  9  February,  1801, 
signed  the  Peace  of  Luneville.  Among  other  things  they  ceded 
Belgium  (the  Austrian  Netherlands)  and  recognized  the  Batavian, 
Helvetian,  Cisalpine,  and  Ligurian  Republics,  all  of  which  were  under 
French  domination.  The  Second  Coalition  had  gone  the  way  of  the 
first. 

The  Bombardment  of  Copenhagen,  1801.  —  Paul,  won  over  by  the 
blandishments  of  Napoleon,  who,  he  hoped,  would  crush  out  repub- 
licanism and  establish  a  dynasty,  had,  in  the  meantime,  planned  an 
armed  neutrality  similar  to  that  organized  by  his  mother  nearly  twenty 
years  earlier.  By  the  terms  of  this  new  agreement  —  signed  by  Russia, 
Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Prussia  in  December,  1800  —  it  was  provided 
that :  (i)  the  neutral  flag  should  cover  an  enemy's  goods,  not  contra- 
band of  war ;  (2)  blockades  to  be  binding  must  be  effective ;  (3)  ships 
convoyed  by  a  man-of-war  belonging  to  the  sovereign  of  any  of  the 
signatories  should  be  exempt  from  search  on  a  declaration  from  the 
captains  that  they  contained  no  contraband.  The  situation  had 


THE  GREAT  WAR  WITH  FRANCE       847 

again  become  critical  for  Great  Britain.  She  was  bereft  of  her  strong- 
est allies,  while  the  action  of  the  Northern  Powers  threatened  not  only 
to  exclude  her  from  profitable  markets,  but  to  cut  off  her  main  source 
of  supply  for  naval  stores  and  for  much  of  her  wheat.  This  fact,  com- 
bined with  another  bad  harvest,  sent  the  price  of  the  latter  commodity 
up  to  156  shillings  the  quarter.  However,  the  British  fleet  was  still 
the  strongest  on  the  seas,  and  was  successfully  blockading  the  French 
and  Spanish  in  all  their  principal  ports.  On  14  January,  1801,  the 
Government  placed  an  embargo  on  the  ships  of  Russia,  Sweden,  and 
Denmark,  and  prepared  to  send  a  fleet  to  the  Baltic.  It  sailed  for 
Copenhagen,  12  March,  under  Sir  Hyde  Parker,  with  Nelson  second 
in  command.  When  the  Danes  refused  to  accede  to  the  British  de- 
mands, the  fleet  attacked  their  capital.1  Exposed  to  a  fierce  bombard- 
ment, the  city  must  soon  have  surrendered.  Suddenly,  however,  the 
news  arrived  that  Paul  had  been  murdered  in  the  night  of  23  March. 
His  successor,  Alexander  I,  was  willing  to  compromise.  It  was 
agreed  that  blockades  by  proclamation  should  be  given  up,  and  the 
right  of  search  was  more  accurately  defined,  but  the  League  broke  up 
without  gaining  its  other  demands.  The  French  forces  left  behind  in 
Egypt  after  a  series  of  defeats  were  forced  to  abandon  the  country  in 
September.  As  an  offset  to  these  triumphs,  the  French  scored  several 
diplomatic  gains,  following  the  Peace  of  Luneville.  Spain  ceded  back 
Louisiana,  21  March,  1801,  and  agreed  to  make  war  on  Portugal, 
which  was  obliged  to  contract  alliances  with  both  France  and  Spain 
and  to  close  her  ports  against  Great  Britain.  The  King  of  the  Two 
Sicilies  was  forced,  28  March,  to  agree  to  the  same  conditions,  while, 
in  July,  the  Pope  consented  to  a  concordat  regulating  the  status  of 
the  Church  in  France.  Both  Great  Britain  and  France  were  ready 
for  peace ;  indeed  negotiations  were  opened  in  March,  though  since 
each  side  hoped  to  gain  better  terms  by  further  conquests,  the  fight- 
ing continued  till  autumn. 

The  Addington  Ministry,  1801-1804.  The  Peace  of  Amiens,  25 
March,  1802.  —  Pitt  on  his  resignation  in  the  previous  February  was 
succeeded  by  Addington,  a  dull  though  well-meaning  man,  in  such  close 
agreement  with  the  King  that  George  regarded  conversation  with  him 
as  "  thinking  aloud."  Pitt,  according  to  a  promise  which  he  had 
made,  began  by  supporting  the  new  Administration.  Grenville  and 
Canning  were  in  opposition  from  the  start.  The  latter,  destined  to 
become  one  of  England's  most  brilliant  Prime  Ministers,  was  unweary- 
ing in  his  attacks  on  the  new  Premier.  In  a  famous  couplet  he  de- 
clared : 

Pitt  is  to  Addington 

As  London  is  to  Paddington.2 

1  There  is  a  familiar  story  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  attack  Parker,  finding  the 
defense  stronger  than  he  had  expected,  gave  the  order  to  cease  firing,  whereupon 
Nelson  placed  his  telescope  to  his  blind  eye  and  declared  that  he  could  not  see  the 
signal.  Recent  authorities  have  cast  doubt  on  this  story.  2  Then  a  rural  suburb. 


848  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Only  the  least  able  of  the  old  Cabinet  stayed  on.  Pitt's  friends  urged 
him  to  return  to  office,  and  he  himself  wanted  to  do  this,  both  because 
he  loved  power  and  because  he  felt  that  the  country  needed  him. 
After  he  had  given  his  promise,  not  to  raise  the  Catholic  question  again 
the  way  seemed  clear ;  but  Addingtpn  refused  to  resign,  and  Pitt, 
who  had  been  his  friend  since  childhood,  would  take  no  steps  to  force 
him  out.  The  peace  negotiations  were  finally  concluded  at  Amiens, 
25  March,  1802.  The  treaty  was  signed  by  Great  Britain,  France, 
Spain,  and  the  Batavian  Republic.1  Great  Britain  gave  up  all  her 
conquests  from  France,  together  with  all  those  from  French  allies 
except  Trinidad  and  Ceylon,  which  had  been  taken  from  the  Spanish 
and  the  Dutch,  respectively.  The  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  also  a  conquest 
from  the  Dutch,  was  to  be  a  free  port,  Egypt  was  to  be  handed  back 
to  Turkey,  while  Malta  was  to  be  restored  to  the  Knights  of  St.  John. 
Its  independence  was  to  be  guaranteed  by  Great  Britain,  France, 
Spain,  Austria,  Russia,  and  Prussia,  and  was  to  be  defended  by  a 
Neapolitan  garrison  until  the  Order  was  strong  enough  to  undertake 
the  task.  Such  were  the  main  terms  of  the  peace  of  which  Sheridan 
said:  "  All  men  are  glad  of,  but  no  man  can  be  proud  of."  Yet  it 
was  carried  in  the  English  Parliament  by  a  large  majority,  and  though 
a  few  foresaw  that  Napoleon  could  not  be  trusted,  there  was  general 
rejoicing  throughout  the  country. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 
See  ch.  XLVII  below. 

1  The  Sultan  of  Turkey  was  admitted  as  an  accessory. 


CHAPTER  XLVII 

THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON:     FROM  AMIENS  TO 
WATERLOO   (1802-1815) 

The  Resumption  of  War,  1803.  — The  Peace  of  Amiens  proved  to 
be  a  mere  breathing  time.  Indeed,  Napoleon  admitted  frankly  that : 
"  A  renewal  of  war  was  necessary  for  his  existence."  Even  while 
negotiations  were  pending,  he  had  made  himself  President  of  the 
Cisalpine,  now  called  the  Italian  Republic ;  and  before  many  months 
it  was  evident  that  he  was  bent  on  destroying  utterly  the  European 
balance  of  power.  He  annexed  Piedmont ;  he  formed  a  new  constitu- 
tion for  Switzerland ;  he  kept  an  army  in  Holland ;  and  he  sent  spies 
to  Ireland.  His  colonial  projects  were  equally  disquieting  ;  he  planned 
to  recover  Egypt  and  stirred  up  disaffection  in  India.  In  one  direc- 
tion his  designs  miscarried.  He  had  aimed  to  establish  a  great  empire 
in  North  America ;  but  a  revolt  in  San  Domingo,  started  by  the  negro 
leader  Toussaint  L'Ouverture,  cost  him  so  many  troops  that  he  gave 
up  his  project  in  disgust  and  sold  Louisiana  to  the  United  States  in 
the  spring  of  1803.  Yet,  in  spite  of  all  that  he  did  and  all  that  he 
schemed,  he  had  in  no  way  violated  the  letter  of  the  Treaty  of  Amiens. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  had  long  resented  the  attacks  made  upon  him 
in  papers  conducted  by  French  exiles  in  London.  Jean  Peltier,  editor 
of  L'Ambigu,  who  was  particularly  ferocious,  was  convicted  of  libel, 
though  numbers  of  Englishmen  were  outspoken  against  the  sentence, 
and  the  Government  declined  either  to  expel  the  emigres  or  to  suppress 
their  papers.  Moreover,  Great  Britain  would  not  evacuate  Malta, 
on  the  ground  of  Russia's  refusal  to  guarantee  the  independence  of 
the  Island,1  and  she  persisted  in  holding  on  to  the  French  towns  in 
India.  On  13  March,  1803,  Napoleon,  in  a  burst  of  petulance,  accused 
the  English  ambassador  of  representing  a  nation  which  was  bent  on 
war  and  which  did  not  respect  treaties.  While  his  manner  was  almost 
insulting,  he  was  technically  correct  in  asserting  that  Great  Britain 
had  not  carried  out  the  terms  agreed  upon  at  Amiens,  although  he  was 
the  real  disturber  of  Europe.  His  anger  soon  subsided,  and  negotia- 
tions for  settling  the  points  at  issue  were  resumed ;  but  it  was  evident 
that  Great  Britain  could  not  keep  peace  with  safety  and  honor,  so, 
1 8  May,  she  declared  war.  The  situation  was  absolutely  changed 
since  the  beginning  of  the  conflict  ten  years  before.  It  was  no  longer 

1  In  view  of  the  resumption  of  Napoleon's  designs  against  Egypt,  Turkey,  and 
India,  it  was  felt  to  be  unsafe  to  allow  the  Island  to  fall  again  into  his  hands. 
31  849 


850  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

a  question  of  the  preservation  of  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and  property 
against  the  spread  of  Republicanism,  now  it  was  a  struggle  for  existence 
on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  and  the  continental  countries  against 
Napoleonic  aggrandizement. 

Pitt's  Second  Ministry,  May,  1804,  to  January,  1806.  The  Third 
Coalition.  —  Pitt,  in  view  of  the  crisis,  made  up  his  mind  to  resume 
office  as  Prime  Minister.  He  was  able  to  make  Addington  yield  the 
Premiership ;  but  great  difficulties  arose  in  getting  him  and  his  fol- 
lowers to  resign  from  the  Cabinet.  Finally,  Addington  lost  his  major- 
ity in  a  discussion  raised  by  Pitt  on  the  question  of  the  state  of  the 
army  and  navy,  and  resigned,  29  April,  1804.  The  wits  remarked 
that  the  new  Ministry  consisted  of  "William  and  Pitt."  It  was 
greatly  weakened  from  the  fact  that  Grenville  refused  to  come  in 
without  Fox  —  for  the  two  sections  of  the  Whig  party  had  again 
united  —  whom  George  III  declared  that  he  would  never  admit  even 
if  civil  war  resulted.  Also,  Pitt  was  greatly  broken  in  health.  On 
1 8  May,  Napoleon  was  proclaimed  Emperor  of  the  French  and  was 
crowned,  2  December,  or  rather  crowned  himself,  though  the  Pope 
had  been  brought  from  Rome  to  Paris  to  perform  the  act.  In  May 
of  the  following  year,  he  was  crowned  King  of  Italy  in  the  Milan  cathe- 
dral. Before  the  close  of  1805,  Pitt  managed  to  complete  a  Third 
Coalition,  consisting  of  Russia  and  Austria,  in  addition  to  Great 
Britain. 

Trafalgar,  21  October,  1805,  Austerlitz,  2  December.  End  of  the 
Third  Coalition.  —  Napoleon  desired  to  undertake  again  the  invasion 
of  England  which  he  had  been  once  obliged  to  give  up.  To  this  end 
he  gathered  an  army  at  Boulogne  which  was  to  be  conveyed  across 
the  Channel  in  flatbottom  boats  under  cover  of  the  Brest  and  Toulon 
fleets.  In  order  to  shake  off  Nelson,  who  had  been  watching  the 
Mediterranean  for  two  years,  Villeneuve  sailed  with  the  Toulon 
squadron  to  the  West  Indies.  Nelson,  however,  followed  him  over 
and  back,  and  finally  engaged  him,  off  Cape  Trafalgar,  21  October, 
1805.  The  French  admiral,  who  had  picked  up  the  Spanish  fleet,  had 
thirty-three  ships  of  the  line,  while  Nelson  had  only  twenty-seven.  But 
the  British  were  superior  in  equipment  and  discipline  and  infused  with 
the  spirit  of  their  commander,  who,  as  he  went  into  action,  flew  from 
his  flagship  the  signal :  "  England  expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty." 
Nelson,  mortally  wounded  in  the  action,  lived  long  enough  to  learn 
that  he  had  won  a  great  triumph.1  Again,  as  in  1797,  England  had 
been  saved  by  her  navy.  Already  some  weeks  before,  Napoleon, 
despairing  of  any  help  from  Villeneuve,  had  marched  across  the  Rhine 
with  his  "  Army  of  England."  He  entered  Vienna,  13  November, 
whence  he  marched  forth,  and  at  Austerlitz  gained  a  decisive  victory, 
2  December,  over  the  Austrians  and  a  contingent  of  Russians.  By  the 
Peace  of  Pressburg,  concluded  on  the  26th,  the  Austrian  Emperor  was 

*At  Trafalgar  was  exhibited  in  its  perfection  the  famous  "Nelson  touch,"  i.e. 
his  method  of  breaking  the  line. 


THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  851 

obliged  once  more  to  withdraw  from  the  war.  The  break-up  of  the 
Coalition  was  too  much  for  Pitt,  whose  constitution  was  already  under- 
mined by  drink  and  overwork ;  though  in  his  last  speech  he  showed 
that  invincible  faith  which  had  animated  him  from  the  beginning  of  the 
struggle  by  the  memorable  words :  "  England  has  saved  herself  by  her 
exertions,  and  will,  as  I  trust,  save  Europe  by  her  example."  He 
died  23  January,  1806. l 

The  Ministry  of  "  All  the  Talents,"  February,  i8o6-March,  1807. 
-  Unable  to  get  anybody  else  of  note  to  carry  on  the  Administration, 
George  III  finally  turned  to  Grenville,  and  with  a  sour  grace  agreed  to 
admit  Fox  as  Foreign  Secretary.  Thus  was  formed  the  Ministry  of 
"  All  the  Talents,"  which  survived  scarcely  more  than  a  year.  Though 
the  combined  Whigs  were  in  the  majority,  there  were  two  Tories, 
Addington,  now  Lord  Sidmouth2  and  the  Chief  Justice,  Lord  Ellen- 
borough.3  Fox,  only  surviving  his  great  rival  by  a  few  months,  died 
13  September.  Though  he  failed  in  his  dearest  hope  of  bringing  about 
a  peace,  he  crowned  his  career  of  single-hearted  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  the  oppressed  humanity  by  preparing  the  measure  which  led  to  the 
abolition  of  the  African  slave  trade.4  The  break-up  of  the  Third 
Coalition  marked  the  end  of  attempts  on  the  part  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment to  wage  war  against  Napoleon  by  means  of  such  dynastic  com- 
binations. Fox  had  long  declaimed  against  them,  and  Pitt  before  his 
death  had  come  to  recognize  their  futility.  Under  Castlereagh, 
Canning,  and  Wellington  a  new  policy  was  soon  developed  of  aiding 
national  risings  against  Napoleonic  aggression  —  a  policy  which  led 
ultimately  to  glorious  results.  Meantime,  Napoleon  was  remaking 
Germany  and  the  neighboring  states.  By  the  Peace  of  Pressburg 
he  forced  Austria  to  recognize  Bavaria  and  Wiirtemburg  as  kingdoms. 
In  June,  1806,  he  transformed  the  Batavian  Republic  into  the  kingdom 
of  Holland  under  the  rule  of  his  brother  Louis.  In  July,  he  set  up  the 
Confederation  of  the  Rhine,  and,  6  August,  Francis  II,  who  had  as- 
sumed the  style  of  Emperor  of  Austria,  renounced  his  old  title,  and 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire 5  ceased  to  exist.  Frederick  William  III 
had  been  bribed  by  the  gift  of  the  Kingdom  of  Hanover  to  join  the 
French  side  and  to  close  her  ports  to  British  ships.  Unable,  however, 
to  endure  the  constant  humiliation  which  Napoleon  heaped  upon 
him  —  for  example,  regardless  of  his  recent  concession,  the  Dictator 
offered  to  restore  Hanover  to  Great  Britain  —  the  Prussian  King  was 

1  It  was  not  on  his  deathbed,  but   shortly  after  Austerlitz  that  he  uttered  the 
remarkable  prophecy  :  "Roll  up  that  map  (of  Europe),  it  will  not  be  wanted  these 
ten  years." 

2  Canning  once  said  that  Sidmouth  was  very  like  the  measles,  everybody  had 
him  once. 

3  His  was  the  last  case  when  the  holder  of  that  office  ever  sat  in  the  Cabinet. 

4  It  passed,  25  March,  1807. 

6  It  had  begun  with  Charlemagne  a  thousand  years  before.  Since  1438  members 
of  the  Hapsburg  House  had  been  elected  without  a  break.  Voltaire  once  said 
that  it  was  neither  "holy,"  nor  "Roman,"  nor  an  "Empire." 


852  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

obliged  to  declare  war.  Without  a  single  ally  to  help  him,  his  armies 
were  crushed  at  the  twin  battles  of  Jena  and  Auerstadt,  14  October, 
1806.  The  Grenville  Ministry  fell  in  March,  1807,  in  a  vain  attempt 
to  extend  to  Roman  Catholics  the  right  to  hold  commissions  in  the 
army  and  navy. 

The  Treaty  of  Tilsit,  7  July,  1807,  and  the  British  Seizure  of  the 
Danish  Fleet.  —  The  Duke  of  Portland  was  selected  to  be  the  figure- 
head of  the  new  Administration,  but  its  real  leader  was  Spencer  Per- 
ceval. Russia,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  managed,  8  February,  1807,  to 
administer  the  first  check  to  Napoleon's  victorious  career  in  the  drawn 
battle  of  Eylau.  The  British  Government  failed  to  profit  by  the  oppor- 
tunity to  send  troops  or  even  adequate  subsidies,  and,  assisted  only  by 
the  feeble  support  of  Prussia,  the  Russians  •  were  overwhelmed  at 
Friedland,  14  June,  1807.  The  Tsar  Alexander,  incensed  at  Great 
Britain's  neglect,  desirous  of  conquering  the  Turks  who  had  declared 
war  on  him,  and  full  of  vague  dreams  for  the  reconstruction  of  Europe, 
thereupon  gave  ear  to  Napoleon's  enticing  proposal  for  dividing  be- 
tween them  the  empire  of  the  East  and  West.  The  two  held  an  in- 
terview on  a  raft  in  the  river  Niemen,  which  resulted  in  the  Treaty  of 
Tilsit,  7  July,  1807,  to  which  Prussia  was  forced  to  accede.  She  was 
shorn  of  her  territories  between  the  Rhine  and  the  Elbe,  which  Napo- 
leon proceeded  to  incorporate  into  his  new  Kingdom  of  Westphalia,1 
over  which  he  placed  his  brother  Jerome.  Russia  agreed  to  join 
France  in  coercing  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Portugal  into  adopting 
Napoleon's  "Continental  System,"  by  which  the  European  markets 
were  to  be  closed  to  British  trade.  By  a  secret  article,  the  Tsar  even 
agreed  to  join  in  a  war  against  Great  Britain  in  case  she  did  not  make 
peace  before  i  November,  while  the  French  Emperor  agreed  to  render 
like  assistance  to  Alexander  against  the  Turks  and  the  Poles.  To 
forestall  the  danger  in  the  north,  Great  Britain  promptly  sent  a  naval 
armament  to  Denmark,  offering  an  alliance  to  which  the  condition  was 
attached  that  the  Danes  lend  their  navy  to  the  British  Government. 
On  their  refusal,  Copenhagen  was  bombarded  and  the  Danish  fleet 
taken  to  England  as  a  prize  of  war.  This  high-handed  act,  which 
caused  a  great  outcry  even  among  the  English,  was  justified  on  the 
ground  of  military  necessity. 

The  "  Continental  System."  The  Imperial  Decrees  and  the  Orders 
in  Council.  —  The  Prussian  proclamation  closing  her  ports  to  the 
British  had  been  issued,  28  March,  1806.  The  British  had  replied 
by  laying  an  embargo  on  all  Prussian  vessels  in  the  harbors  of  Great 
Britain,  and  declaring  a  blockade  of  the  coast  of  Europe  from  Brest 
to  the  Elbe.  This  was  followed  by  an  Order  in  Council,2  declaring  the 
seizure  of  all  vessels  sailing  under  Prussian  colors.  On  2 1  November, 

1  Her  Polish  possessions  were  incorporated  into  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Warsaw. 

2  Orders  issued  usually  in  emergencies  by  the  sovereign  nominally,  with  the 
advice  of  his  Privy  Council ;  but  really  of  selected  Cabinet  ministers  who  happen 
to  be  members. 


THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  853 

Napoleon  issued  his  celebrated  Berlin  Decree,  which  proclaimed  a 
blockade  of  the  British  Isles ;  prohibited  all  commerce  between  them 
and  France,  including  the  states  dependent  on  her;  and  announced 
the  confiscation  of  British  merchandise  in  the  harbors  of  such  countries. 
On  7  January,  1807,  new  Orders  in  Council  forbade  neutrals,  under 
penalty  of  forfeiting  ships  and  cargo,  to  trade  between  the  ports  of 
France  and  her  allies,  or  between  ports  of  nations  which  should 
observe  the  Berlin  Decree.  Thus  the  trade  war  was  well  under  way 
before  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit.  Napoleon's  Milan  Decree  of  December, 
1807,  and  other  restrictive  measures,  were  followed  by  more  Orders  in 
Council,  till  neutral  trade  was  in  theory  absolutely  destroyed.  By  the 
close  of  1808  every  country  of  Europe,  except  Sweden  and  Turkey, 
had  been  brought  into  the  System.  Neither  side,  however,  could  en- 
force completely  its  policy  of  commercial  exclusiveness.  Not  only 
was  there  much  smuggling,  but  both  the  Emperor  and  the  British 
Government  were  obliged  to  issue  licenses  authorizing  evasion  in  speci- 
fied cases.  Napoleon's  plan  was  to  reduce  Great  Britain  to  subjec- 
tion by  a  policy  of  absolute  isolation;  but  the  English  had  an  over- 
whelming advantage  in  their  method  of  Warfare.  England  controlled 
the  seas,  she  was  able  to  exercise  a  far  more  effective  right  of  search 
than  the  French,  and,  with  her  powerful  navy,  she  was  able  to  inflict 
irreparable  damage  on  the  merchant  marine  of  those  whom  Napoleon 
sought  to  combine  against  her.  Moreover,  he  needed  commodities 
which  she  alone  could  supply,  such  as  cloth,  machinery,  and  certain 
raw  materials;  indeed,  on  one  occasion,  he  procured  50,000  British 
overcoats  for  his  troops.  Finally,  inadequately  as  it  was  enforced, 
his  Continental  System  caused  serious  hardship  and  suffering  to  the 
countries  involved,  and  contributed  perhaps  as  much  as  his  territorial 
aggressions  toward  the  growth  of  that  combined  national  opposition 
which  subsequently  overthrew  him. 

The  Beginning  of  the  National  Revolt  in  Spain  and  the  Opening  of 
the  Peninsula  War,  1808.  —  Spain  set  the  example.  As  a  step  in 
enforcing  his  Continental  System,  Napoleon  determined  to  secure 
control  of  the  Peninsula ;  to  close  its  vast  stretch  of  sea  coast  to  British 
shipping ;  to  break  up  the  alliance  which  had  connected  England  and 
Portugal  for  over  a  century,  and  to  possess  himself  of  Portugal's  rich 
and  extensive  colonies.  To  that  end  he  deluded  the  Spanish  Minister 
Godoy  into  making  a  treaty  whereby  the  House  of  Braganza  l  was  to 
be  driven  from  the  throne,  and  the  Kingdom  partitioned  between 
Spain  and  France.  Having  established  an  army  for  the  ostensible 
purpose  of  conquering  Portugal,  he  took  advantage  of  a  revolt  against 
the  worthless  Charles  IV  —  during  which  his  still  more  worthless  son 
Ferdinand  was  proclaimed  in  his  stead  —  to  force  both  of  them  to 
retire  on  a  pension  and  to  set  up  his  brother  Joseph 2  as  King  of  Spain. 
This  was  in  May,  1808.  The  original  rising  of  the  Spanish  had  been 

1  The  Royal  House  of  Portugal. 

2  He  was  transferred  from  Naples,  where  he  had  been  King  since  February,  1806. 


854  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

prompted  by  fear  of  French   subjugation,  and   the  movement  now 
spread  swiftly  throughout  the  land.    Already  in  the  latter  part  of 

1807,  the  royal  family  of  Braganza  had  fled  to  Brazil ;  but  the  Por- 
tuguese, counting  on  British  support,  also  rose  in  rebellion,  and  forced 
Junot,  the  commander  of  the  French  invading  army,  to  shut  himself 
up  in  Lisbon.     On  13  August,  1808,  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  landed  near 
Oporto   with  a  force  of    12,000  men.     He  was  instructed  to  afford 
"  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  nations  every  possible  aid  in  throwing 
off  the  yoke  of  France."     Thus  began  the  Peninsular  War.     After  a 
terrific  struggle  lasting  six  years,  the  British  army,  which  —  largely 
through  the  efforts  of  Castlereagh l  —  had  been  reorganized  into  an 
effective  fighting  force,  finally  succeeded  in  driving  the  French  across 
the  Pyrenees. 

Vimeiro  and  the  Convention  of  Cintra,  1808.  The  Retreat  and 
Death  of  Sir  John  Moore,  1808-1809.  —  Castlereagh  had  designed 
Wellesley  for  the  supreme  command  in  Portugal;  but  the  latter's 
efforts  were  hampered  for  a  time  by  the  fact  that  two  ineffective  seniors 
were  placed  over  him  in  succession.  He  routed  the  French,  21  August, 

1808,  at  Vimeiro,  and  had  he"  been  allowed  to  follow  up  his  victory  he 
might  have  cut  them  off  from  Lisbon.     By  the  "  Convention  of 
Cintra,"  condemned  alike  by  the  British  public  and  by  Napoleon, 
Junot's  army  was  allowed  to  evacuate  Portugal.     Wellesley,  who  was 
summoned  home,  with  his  Commander-in-Chief,  to  stand  trial,  was 
later  exonerated.     In  October,  Sir  John  Moore  was  given  the  command 
with  orders  to  cooperate  with  the  Spanish  against  the  French  forces  in 
Spain,  south  of  the  Ebro.     Owing  to  delays,  to  inadequate  equip- 
ment, and  the  ineffective  support  of  the  native  levies,  he  was  obliged 
to  turn  and  flee  before  Napoleon,  who  had  recently  come  to  the  coun- 
try and  occupied  Madrid.     Receiving  news  of  approaching  trouble 
with  Austria,  Napoleon  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  pursuit  to  Soult. 
In  the  teeth  of  all  manner  of  obstacles  Moore  conducted  a  masterly 
retreat.     He  reached  Corufia,  16  January,  1809,  where  he  made  a  deter- 
mined stand;   he  managed  to  repulse  his  pursuers  and  to  cover  the 
embarkation  of  his  troops,  though  he  himself  was  mortally  wounded.2 
His  allies  had  lured  him  on  to  a  hopeless  enterprise  by  willfully  mis- 
representing the  true  state  of  affairs.     Yet  the  campaign  was  not 
wholly  without  result ;  for  by  keeping  the  French  occupied  in  the  north 
and  west  it  enabled  the  Spanish  to  gain  ground  in  the  south.     Napo- 
leon had  recently  declared  in  a  speech  to  the  citizens  of  Madrid  that : 
"  The  Bourbons  can  no  longer  reign  in  Europe," 3  and  "  No  power  under 
the  influence  of  England  can  exist  on  the  Continent."     He  failed  to 
realize  the  power  of  a  people,  however  incapable  and  undisciplined, 
once  roused  to  defend  their  native  land  against  foreign  aggression. 

1  As  Secretary  for  War,  1807-1809. 

2  The  incident  inspired  Wolfe's  famous  poem,  "The  Burial  of  Sir  John  Moore." 

3  They  had  been  driven  from  three  thrones  in  succession  —  from  those  of  France, 
the  Two  Sicilies,  and  Spain. 


THE   STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  855 

The  boastfulness  of  the  Spanish  far  exceeded  their  achievements; 
often  they  embarrassed  the  British  by  their  untrustworthiness  and 
insubordination ;  but  by  their  relentless  hostility  to  the  invader  and 
their  persistent  guerilla  warfare  they  contributed,  in  no  small  degree, 
toward  the  final  success  of  their  ally  in  liberating  their  country. 

Wagram,  Walcheren,  and  Talavera,  1809.  — The  Spanish  example 
encouraged  Austria  once  more  to  enter  the  lists ;  but  Napoleon  hurried 
an  army  across  Europe,  and,  by  a  series  of  victories  culminating  in 
the  bloody  battle  of  Wagram,  6  July,  1809,  forced  her  to  sign  a  peace 
at  Vienna  which  put  her  out  of  the  fighting  for  four  years.  The 
British,  28  July,  sent  a  tremendous  armament  to  attack  Antwerp,  to 
close  the  Scheldt,  and  to  reduce  the  island  of  Walcheren.  The  admiral, 
Sir  Richard  Strachan,  was  a  capable  commander ;  but  he  was  hope- 
lessly hampered  by  the  leader  of  the  land  forces,  the  Earl  of  Chatham, 
who  had  inherited  his  father's  title  without  any  of  his  talents.  The 
expedition  returned  ingloriously  home,  27  December,  having  accom- 
plished almost  nothing.  The  men  and  money  thus  wasted  could  have 
been  employed  to  advantage  by  Wellesley,  who,  2  April,  1809,  had 
finally  been  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  British  armies 
in  the  Peninsula.  Before  leaving  England  he  submitted  to  the  Govern- 
ment a  plan  for  the  conduct  of  the  war,  to  which  he  adhered  stead- 
fastly in  his  subsequent  campaigns.  This  was  to  make  Portugal  the 
center  of  his  operations.  With  the  sea  on  the  west  and  the  mountains 
on  the  east,  he  had  a  base  which  could  be  readily  supplied  by  the 
British  navy  and  which  could  be  easily  defended  against  the  French. 
Shortly  after  his  arrival  he  advanced  into  Spain  in  the  direction  of 
Madrid  with  a  combined  force  of  British  and  Spanish.  On  27  and  28 
July,  in  a  stubborn  contest  in  which  his  own  troops  bore  the  brunt 
of  the  fighting,  he  defeated  the  French  who  had  rashly  ventured  out 
from  a  strong  position  at  Talavera,  where  they  had  collected  to  bar  his 
progress.  The  battle  brought  Wellington  the  title  of  Viscount  Well- 
ington, it  restored  the  prestige  of  British  arms,  and  it  taught  Welling- 
ton the  valuable  lesson,  which  he  might  have  learned  from  Moore's 
experience,  that  it  was  hopeless  to  attempt  to  act  in  conjunction  with 
the  Spanish  contingents.  Otherwise  the  victory  was  a  barren  one. 
The  diverting  of  men  and  supplies  for  the  fruitless  Walcheren  expedi- 
tion threw  him  on  his  own  resources  and  exposed  him  to  great  depriva- 
tion, just  when  Napoleon's  victorious  Austrian  campaign  freed 
thousands  of  French  troops  who  overran  Spain.  So  Wellington  retired 
to  Portugal  to  wait  for  better  times. 

The  Beginning  of  the  Regency,  1811.  —  Toward  the  close  of  this 
discouraging  year,  1809,  Portland  resigned  on  the  pretext  of  ill  health, 
though  his  retirement  was  doubtless  hastened  by  a  quarrel  between 
Canning  and  Castlereagh,1  culminating  in  a  duel.  Spencer  Perceval 
became  Prime  Minister.  The  only  gleams  of  light  in  the  prevailing 

1  The  former  was  Foreign  Secretary,  the  latter  War  Secretary. 


856  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

gloom  were  the  continued  successes  of  the  British  navy  in  the  West 
Indies,  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the  Mediterranean.  In  November, 
1810,  George  III,  after  six  years  of  failing  eyesight,  became  blind,  his 
insanity  came  on  again  as  well,  and  he  passed  the  last  ten  years  of  his 
life  in  complete  mental  and  physical  darkness.  In  1811  the  Prince 
of  Wales  was  made  permanent  Regent.  Contrary  to  the  hopes  of 
the  Whigs,  his  advent  brought  no  change  in  the  party  situation ;  for 
the  overtures  which  he  chose  to  make  were  not  such  as  they  could  ac- 
cept. On  ii  May,  1812,  Perceval  was  assassinated  in  the  lobby  of  the 
House  of  Commons  by  one  Bellingham,  a  demented  creature  who  had 
a  fancied  grievance  against  the  Government.  Lord  Liverpool  was 
chosen  to  head  the  Cabinet,  most  of  the  ministers  were  retained,  and 
the  Tory  ascendancy  continued  unbroken  for  fifteen  years. 

Industrial  Disturbances  in  England,  1811-1812.  The  Luddites. — 
While  the  country  was  straining  all  its  resources  to  carry  on  the  struggle 
with  Napoleon,  the  industrial  disturbances  were  so  acute  as  to  produce 
risings  among  the  people.  The  trouble  was  due  to  a  complication  of 
causes.  One  was  the  Continental  System,  which  restricted  the  Euro- 
pean markets  and  led  to  a  trade  war  with  the  United  States.  Another 
resulted  from  the  invention  of  spinning  and  weaving  machinery, 
which  the  lower  classes  regarded  as  the  chief  cause  of  their  misery. 
During  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1811  they  started  on  a  career  of 
machine  breaking,1  accompanied  by  violence  and  even  murder. 
The  Government,  which  feared  that  revolutionary  designs  were  back  of 
this  unrest,  passed  an  act,  in  1812,  making  machine  breaking  a  capital 
offense ;  troops  were  called  out ;  magistrates  were  intrusted  with  new 
powers  to  search  for  arms  to.  suppress  tumultuous  assemblies ;  and 
several  Luddites  were  convicted  and  put  to  death.  By  such  means 
disaffection  in  the  manufacturing  districts  was  held  in  check  till  the 
close  of  the  war.  The  condition  of  the  agricultural  laborers  was  al- 
most as  bad,  though  discontent  was  less  openly  manifested.  In  1812 
wheat  was  130  shillings  the  quarter,  in  1813  it  fell  to  75.  Fluctuations 
in  other  commodities  were  equally  violent.  It  was  thus  impossible 
to  adjust  wages  on  any  stable  basis,  while  poverty  was  fostered  rather 
than  diminished  by  the  baneful  system  of  indiscriminate  outdoor  poor 
relief.  Finally,  after  much  discussion,  a  bill  was  passed  admitting 
foreign  corn  free  of  duty  when  the  price  reached  80  shillings.2 

The  Peninsular  Campaign,  1810-1812.  The  Turn  of  the  Tide,  1812. 
—  For  months  Wellington  was  occupied  in  constructing  the  famous 
lines  of  Torres  Vedras.  There  were  three  in  all,  running  in  parallel 
direction  from  the  river  Tagus  to  the  sea,  and  were  about  twenty-five 
miles  north  of  Lisbon.  The  French,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  penetrate 
these  impregnable  defenses,  retired,  much  spent  by  the  campaign 

1  They  were  known  as  "Luddites,"  from  a  half-witted  man  named  Ludd,  who 
had  destroyed  two  stocking  frames  years  before. 

2  It  was   admitted  from   British   North  America  when    the  price  reached  67. 
Until  these  prices  were  reached  no  foreign  wheat  could  he  admitted. 


THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  857 

(November,  i8io-March,  1811).  The  following  year  was  marked  by 
bloody  battles  along  the  Spanish  border  and  by  harassing  guerrilla 
warfare  conducted  by  the  natives.  Owing  to  Napoleon's  withdrawal 
of  60,000  of  his  best  troops  to  assist  in  the  invasion  of  Russia,  Welling- 
ton made  notable  gains  early  in  1812.  In  January  he  captured 
Ciudad  Rodrigo  and,  in  April,  Badajoz,  the  respective  keys  of  the 
northern  and  southern  roads  between  Spain  and  Portugal.  Leaving 
Soult  in  undisturbed  occupation  of  Estramadura  and  Andalusia,  he 
marched  north  against  Marmont,  whom  he  defeated  at  Salamanca, 
22  July.  This  battle  was  the  most  decisive  yet  fought  in  the  Penin- 
sular War:  it  forced  Joseph  to  abandon  Madrid  and  established 
Wellington's  reputation  as  a  general.  With  inadequate  supplies  and 
equipment  he  pressed  on  after  the  remnant  of  the  beaten  army,  to  the 
great  peril  of  his  recently  acquired  strongholds  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo  and 
Badajoz.  Thus  endangered,  and  suffering  from  lack  of  food,  his 
troops,  becoming  utterly  demoralized,  broke  loose  from  all  restraints. 
It  required  all  his  iron  will  to  restore  discipline ;  but  it  proved  to  be 
the  last  crisis  he  had  to  weather.  The  Liverpool  Ministry,  backed  by 
popular  sentiment,  had  come  to  appreciate  his  achievements  and  from 
now  on  gave  him  enthusiastic  support,  while  the  French,  weakened 
by  the  loss  of  their  best  troops  and  worn  down  by  the  incessant  at- 
tacks of  the  natives,  steadily  lost  ground.  Moreover,  Wellington, 
who  was  at  this  time  made  Commander-in- Chief  of  the  Spanish  forces, 
was  able  by  thoroughgoing  reforms  to  organize  them  into  more 
effective  allies. 

Wellington  brings  the  Peninsular  Campaign  to  a  Victorious  Close, 
April,  1814.  —  He  opened  the  campaign  of  1813  with  the  fixed  inten- 
tion of  driving  the  French  out  of  Spain.  His  army,  recruited  and 
supplied  in  Portugal,1  advanced  northeast,  driving  the  enemy  before 
them.  At  Vitoria  he  fought,  21  June,  the  greatest  battle  of  the  war. 
The  French  had  with  them  the  spoils  of  their  five  years'  occupation 
of  Spain  —  art  treasures,  and  other  valuables,  including  $5,500,000 
in  specie,  besides  arrears  of  pay  for  two  years  and  a  half  which  Napo- 
leon had  recently  sent.  The  long  line  of  baggage  trains  choked  the 
only  roads  by  which  they  could  retreat  with  their  possessions.  They 
were  nearly  surrounded  by  Wellington's  army,  and  only  finally  saved 
themselves  by  headlong  flight.  The  victors  were  almost  demoralized 
by  the  temptation  to  plunder ;  indeed,  the  camp  followers  and  soldiers 
secured  most  of  what  was  left  behind  except  munitions  of  war.  Napo- 
leon, directly  he  heard  the  news,  sent  Soult  to  take  command.  In 
spite  of  his  efforts,  Wellington  forced  the  passage  of  the.  Pyrenees  in 
October.  Soult  next  made  a  manful  but  vain  attempt  to  hold  Bayonne, 
whence  he  retreated  to  Bordeaux ;  but  the  news  that  Napoleon  was  on 
the  verge  of  being  overthrown  led  to  a  strong  royalist  reaction,  and 
that  city  declared  for  the  old  Bourbon  line.  With  such  troops  as 

1  It  is  said  that  when  he  crossed  the  frontier  22  May,  he  waved  his  hand  and 
said:  "Good-by,  Portugal." 


858  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

stood  by  him  Soult  finally  took  refuge  in  Toulouse.  There,  12  April, 
1814,  Wellington  forced  him  to  surrender,  though  the  capture  of  the 
city  cost  the  British  more  troops  than  the  French.  The  Peninsular 
War  was  over.  Wellington,  while  he  made  many  mistakes  in  tactics 
and  strategy,  deserves  the  utmost  credit  for  realizing  the  significance 
of  the  liberation  of  Portugal  and  Spain  as  a  decisive  factor  in  the 
struggle  against  Napoleon,  and  for  sticking  to  his  work  in  the  teeth 
of  all  manner  of  discouragements  and  hardships  until  he  brought  it 
to  a  glorious  conclusion. 

The  Russian  Campaign,  1812.  —  Meantime,  Napoleon's  annexations 
and  his  rigid  enforcement  of  the  Continental  System  had  prepared  the 
way  for  a  breach  with  Russia.  In  January,  1811,  the  Tsar  asserted 
himself  by  opening  his  ports  to  neutrals  and  imposing  a  duty  upon 
French  commodities.  Napoleon,  for  a  second  time  disregarding  the 
irresistible  power  of  popular  national  hostility,  took  the  fatal  step  of 
invading  Russia.  Since  the  Tsar  did  not  feel  strong  enough  to  fight 
beyond  his  frontiers,  the  King  of  Prussia  was  forced  to  make  a  treaty, 
24  February,  1812,  by  which  he  allowed  the  French  free  passage  through 
his  territory  and  supplied  his  mortal  enemy  with  20,000  troops. 
Austria  agreed,  16  March,  in  return  for  a  promise  of  grants  of  territory, 
to  provide  30,000  men  to  guard  the  flanks  of  the  invading  army  on  the 
southwest  frontier.  Both  monarchs  were  unwilling  allies,  prepared  to 
change  sides  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  The  Tsar,  on  his  part,  at 
the  price  of  some  concessions,  made  peace  with  Turkey  and  allied 
himself  with  Sweden  and  Great  Britain.  On  24  June,  Napoleon 
entered  Russia  with  a  vast  army  of  over  300,000  men,  exclusive  of  the 
Prussian  and  Austrian  contingents.  He  marched  to  certain  destruc- 
tion, through  a  barren  country,  vast  in  extent,  teeming  with  a  popula- 
tion who  viewed  him  with  sullen  hatred,  and  driving  before  him  an 
army  ready  to  turn  and  pounce  upon  him  when  his  forces  were  suffi- 
ciently exhausted.  The  bloody  but  indecisive  battle  of  Borodino, 
7  September,  cost  the  French  30,000  men  and  the  Russians  40,000. 
Kutuzov,  the  Russian  commander,  retreated  to  Moscow,  but  departed 
with  all  the  military  stores  and  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants  on  the 
approach  of  Napoleon.  On  the  i4th,  when  the  French  entered  the 
city,  a  destructive  fire  broke  out  which  raged  for  six  days.  Failing  to 
bring  Alexander  to  terms,  Napoleon  was  obliged  to  evacuate  Moscow 
and  retrace  his  steps  with  Kutuzov  hanging  on  his  rear.  Worn  down 
by  the  frequent  attacks  of  his  pursuers,  and  by  the  hardships  of  a 
terrible  winter,  a  miserable  remnant  of  not  more  than  60,000  dragged 
themselves  out  of  the  country.  The  Russians  were  too  exhausted  to 
deal  a  crushing  blow,  and  the  other  Powers  did  not  at  once  realize  the 
magnitude  of  the  disaster  which  had  befallen  the  hitherto  victorious 
despot. 

The  War  of  Liberation,  1813-1814.  Napoleon's  Abdication. — Napo- 
leon, with  unquenchable  energy  and  resource,  was  able  by  a  drastic 
conscription  to  gather  a  new  army  and  resume  the  offensive  in  the  fol- 


THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  859 

lowing  year.  But  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Sweden  had  at  length  roused 
themselves  and  combined  forces  with  Russia.  Although  Great  Britain 
sent  no  troops  to  Germany,  where  the  conflict  centered,  she  supported 
Austria  with  subsidies.  This  was  all  and  more  than  could  be  expected 
of  her,  since  she  was  bearing  the  burden  of  the  Peninsula  Campaign 
and  had  a  war  with  the  United  States  as  well.  The  Russians  opened 
the  memorable  campaign  of  1813  by  resuming  their  pursuit  of  the 
retreating  French  through  northern  Germany.  Frederick  William, 
in  spite  of  his  alliance  with  Napoleon,  had  issued  stirring  appeals  to 
his  people  to  join  the  War  of  Liberation,  and  declared  war  against 
France,  17  March.  In  April,  Napoleon  brought  an  army  of  200,000 
into  the  field ;  but  they  were  young  and  raw  recruits,  for  he  had  lost 
the  bulk  of  his  seasoned  veterans  in  Russia.  His  plan  was  to  crush 
Russia  and  Prussia,  and  then  to  concentrate  his  whole  strength  on 
Austria,  who  clung  for  a  time  to  a  policy  of  mediation.  His  plans 
came  to  naught,  for  Austria  declared  war,  12  August.  On  the  26th 
and  27th  of  the  same  month  Napoleon  won  at  Dresden  his  last  decisive 
victory.  In  the  "  Battle  of  the  Nations  "  at  Leipzig,  16,  18,  19 
October,  he  received  a  crushing  defeat,  losing  50,000  of  a  force  which 
he  had  at  length  raised  to  250,000.  In  those  three  bloody  days 
Prussia  showed  the  fruits  of  a  wonderful  administrative  and  military 
reorganization  which  her  patriotic  statesmen  and  generals  had  been 
slowly  perfecting  during  the  recent  years  of  her  humiliation,  and  her 
Landwehr,  or  national  levy,  aided  by  Russian  and  Austrian  allies, 
gloriously  revenged  the  past.  National  risings  against  the  French 
domination  spread  throughout  Europe.  Holland  rose  in  revolt  in 
November  and  Switzerland  in  December.  Napoleon's  troops  were 
forced  to  abandon  everything  beyond  the  Rhine,  the  Alps,  and  the 
Pyrenees,  and  to  take  refuge  behind  their  own  borders.  The  Allies 
moved  on  France  with  three  great  armies,  and,  31  March,  1814, 
occupied  Paris  and  proclaimed  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbon  line  in 
the  person  of  Louis  XVIII.1  Napoleon,  after  a  vain  attempt  to 
recover  the  capital,  was  forced  to  consent  to  an  unconditional  abdica- 
tion, ii  April,  1814.  The  Allies,  however,  allowed  him  the  island  of 
Elba  as  an  independent  principality,  where  he  arrived  4  May. 

The  War  of  1812  with  the  United  States :  its  Causes.  —  Great 
Britain  was  now  free  to  devote  her  energies  to  the  war  with  the  United 
States  which  had  broken  out  nearly  two  years  before.  It  was  a  direct 
result  of  the  Continental  System.  During  the  first  years  of  the  French 
war  the  United  States  drove  a  thriving  neutral  trade.  All  was  changed 
when  Napoleon  and  the  British  Government,  by  Imperial  Decrees 
and  Orders  in  Council,  proclaimed  a  state  of  blockade,  and,  particu- 
larly, when  the  two  contending  Powers,  in  order  to  force  the  United 

1  He  was  a  younger  brother  of  Louis  XVI,  whose  son,  nominally  Louis  XVII, 
died  a  prisoner  of  the  Revolutionary  Government,  8  June,  1795.  There  is  appar- 
ently little  doubt  that  the  little  Dauphin  died,  though  many  pretenders  appeared 
later  to  impersonate  him. 


860  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

States  into  an  alliance,  began  to  seize  her  ships  accused  of  trading  with 
the  prohibited  ports.  President  Jefferson  and  the  Republican  party 
sought  to  avoid  war,  but  the  Federalists,  hoping  to  secure  greater 
commercial  privileges  from  the  mistress  of  the  seas,  favored  Great 
Britain.  The  British,  however,  aroused  increasing  animosity  by  the 
rigid  exercise  of  the  right  which  they  claimed  of  searching  American 
vessels  and  impressing  such  of  the  crews  as  were  British  born.  Ac- 
cording to  the  British  law  no  subject  could  forsake  his  allegiance  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  Government,1  while,  according  to  the  United 
States,  any  foreigner  could  become  an  American  citizen  after  residing 
in  the  country  for  a  specified  term  of  years,  and  fulfilling  certain  legal 
requirements.  The  friction  was  accentuated  by  the  British  contention 
that  the  Americans  encouraged  desertion  by  offers  of  higher  pay. 
Jefferson,  in  1806,  caused  an  act  to  be  passed  prohibiting  the  import 
of  a  number  of  British  commodities.  This  measure,  which  remained 
in  force  only  six  weeks,  was  followed  by  another,  22  December,  1807, 
laying  an  embargo  on  all  foreign  vessels  in  American  ports  and  pro- 
hibiting all  trade  with  European  countries.  Owing  to  the  fact  that 
this  restriction  hurt  the  Americans  as  much  as  those  against  whom  it 
was  aimed,  a  Non-intercourse  Act  was  substituted,  i  March,  1809, 
which  applied  only  to  Great  Britain,  France,  and  their  dependencies. 
It  expired  in  May,  1810,  with  the  provision  that  it  might  be  revived 
against  either  Power  which  repealed  its  Orders  or  Decrees.  Madison, 
who  became  President  in  1809,  having  been  led  to  believe  that  Napo- 
leon had  canceled  his  Decrees,  revived  the  Non-intercourse  Act  against 
Great  Britain,  in  February,  1811.  Directly  the  Liverpool  Ministry 
took  office  it  withdrew  the  Orders  in  Council ;  but  it  was  too  late,  for 
the  United  States  declared  war  18  June,  1812. 

The  Course  of  the  War,  1812-1814.  The  Treaty  of  Ghent,  24 
December,  1814.  —  Neither  side  was  in  a  position  to  be  very  effective. 
While  Great  Britain  was  involved  in  the  Peninsular  War,  the  United 
States  was  ill-prepared  with  money,  supplies,  and  troops.  It  was  a 
great  disappointment  to  the  Americans  that  the  Canadians  remained 
loyal ;  the  Indians,  too,  were  on  the  British  side,  and  the  campaigns 
on  the  Canadian  border  proved  generally  ineffective.  The  failures 
in  that  direction,  however,  were  redeemed  by  a  series  of  brilliant 
victories  at  sea.  Contrary  to  the  prevailing  traditions  of  the  past 
two  centuries,  the  fighting  consisted  of  engagements  between  individ- 
ual ships  instead  of  fleets.  The  British  had  a  number  of  small,  swift 
cruisers  in  American  waters  to  watch  for  deserters  and  contraband 
of  war  and  to  protect  their  West  India  commerce.  The  American 
ships,  though  fewer  in  number,  were  superior  in  every  way  to  those  of 
the  enemy :  they  were  larger  and  better  built 2 ;  they  carried  more 
and  heavier  guns ;  their  crews  were  larger ;  they  included  a  greater 

1  This  remained  the  case  till  1870. 

2  Though  they  were  referred  to  in  the  British  Press  as  "bundles  of  pine  boards 
sailing  under  a  bit  of  striped  bunting." 


THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  861 

proportion  of  able  seamen,  and  their  gunners  were  more  accurate 
marksmen.  For  reasons  of  economy  the  British  Government  had 
made  the  fatal  mistake  of  neglecting  gun  practice.  While  defeats  in 
single  engagements  were  far  less  disastrous  than  those  in  which  whole 
squadrons  were  involved,  they  had  the  effect  of  lowering  the  maritime 
prestige  which  the  British  had  so  long  enjoyed.  The  success  of 
Commodore  Perry  on  Lake  Erie,  in  1813,  was  another  asset  on  the 
American  side.  As  the  war  progressed  they  gained  fewer  victories  at 
sea.  Profiting  by  experience,  the  British  avoided  ships  likely  to  out- 
class them,  and  improved  their  gunnery.  Moreover,  they  maintained 
a  more  effective  blockade  in  American  waters.  While  the  Americans 
were  the  more  destructive  of  commerce,  they  suffered  severely  from 
the  cutting  off  of  their  own  trade.  After  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon, 
14,000  British  regulars  were  sent  over ;  but,  owing  to  ineffective  gen- 
eralship, they  accomplished  far  less  than  had  been  expected.  One 
force,  however,  succeeded  in  capturing  Washington,  in  1814,  and 
during  an  occupation  of  less  than  a  week  they  burned  all  the  public 
buildings.  This  regrettable  action  has  been  defended  on  the  ground 
that  the  Americans  had  set  the  example  in  two  small  towns  on  the 
Canadian  border.  Toward  the  close  of  the  year  another  army  of 
Peninsular  veterans  was '  dispatched  across  the  Atlantic,  but  was 
defeated  at  New  Orleans  by  General  Andrew  Jackson,  8  January,  1815. 
It  was  a  needless  sacrifice  of  life ;  for  peace  had  already  been  signed  at 
Ghent,  24  December.  The  Treaty  provided  for  a  mutual  restoration 
of  conquests  and  for  the  appointment  of  commissioners  to  settle  out- 
standing differences,  notably  those  relating  to  boundaries.  Strangely 
enough,  the  issues  which  led  to  the  conflict  were  not  mentioned.  The 
Orders  in  Council  had  been  withdrawn  before  the  opening  of  hostilities. 
With  the  fall  of  Napoleon  the  encroachments  on  neutral  trade  ceased. 
Yet,  as  a  result  of  this  otherwise  futile  war,  Great  Britain  tacitly 
dropped  her  claim  to  the  right  of  search. 

The  First  Treaty  of  Paris,  30  May,  1814,  and  the  Opening  of  the 
Congress  of  Vienna.  —  After  the  entry  of  the  Allies  into  Paris  the 
Tsar  and  the  King  of  Prussia  accepted  an  invitation  to  visit  England. 
The  Emperor  of  Austria  declined.  Less  than  seven  years  before,  one 
of  the  august  guests,  now  so  enthusiastically  welcomed,  had  entered  into 
an  agreement  to  divide  Europe  with  the  exile  at  Elba,  while  the  other, 
partly  by  force  and  partly  by  the  grant  of  George's  Hanoverian  posses- 
sions, had  closed  Prussian  ports  to  British  trade.  By  a  treaty,  signed 
at  Paris,  30  May,  1814,  between  the  new  French  monarch  and  the  four 
allied  Powers  of  Great  Britain,  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  the  bound- 
aries of  France  were  reduced  to  those  of  1792,  and  the  independence  of 
various  states  subjugated  by  Napoleon  was  recognized.  In  order  to 
readjust  the  disturbed  European  situation  and  to  make  the  necessary 
arrangements  for  carrying  out  the  terms  of  the  Treaty,  a  Congress  was 
appointed  to  meet  at  Vienna.  It  assembled  in  September  and  contin- 
ued till  June,  1815.  The  four  leading  Powers  intended  to  dominate 


862  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  Congress,  but  owing  to  the  supreme  diplomatic  skill  of  Talley- 
rand l  France  secured  a  voice.  He  insisted  that  the  existing  Bourbon 
Government  had  opposed  the  Republic  and  Napoleon  as  decidedly  as 
any  of  the  other  dynasties  concerned.  Castlereagh  represented  Great 
Britain  till  February  when  Wellington  came  to  take  his  place.  The 
Duke,2  however,  was  soon  called  away  by  the  startling  news  that 
Napoleon  had  escaped  from  Elba,  and  had  landed  at  Cannes,  i  March. 

The  Return  of  Napoleon  from  Elba,  i  March. — Although  Napoleon's 
return  had  not  been  wholly  unexpected,  no  proper  precautions  had  been 
taken  to  meet  it.  He  came  with  only  four  hundred  of  his  guards,  but 
thousands  flocked  to  join  him  as  he  passed  through  France.  The  bulk 
of  the  soldiers  and  the  lower  classes  had  been  sorely  disappointed  by 
the  reactionary  measures  of  the  Bourbons,  who,  it  is  said,  had  learned 
nothing  and  forgotten  nothing.  Many,  too,  were  drawn  to  his  side 
by  the  sole  magnetism  of  his  presence.  Ney,  one  of  his  old  marshals, 
who  had  sworn  to  bring  him  back  in  an  iron  cage,  deserted  to  him  with 
his  whole  army.  Thereupon,  Louis  XVIII,  who  had  made  strenuous 
efforts  to  defend  the  Kingdom,  fled  to  Ghent.  On  20  March,  Napoleon 
was  once  more  in  possession  of  Paris.  The  brief  period  of  his  suprem- 
acy is  known  as  the  "  Hundred  Days."  United  by  pressing  danger, 
the  Powers  who  had  been  wrangling  at  Vienna  acted  with  energy. 
The  four  great  Powers  voted  to  bring  more  than  700,000  men  into  the 
field.3  With  all  possible  speed  the  allied  troops  were  massed  on  the 
frontier  from  the  Low  Countries  to  the  Upper  Rhine.  To  Wellington 
was  assigned  the  command  of  the  British,  Hanoverian,  and  Netherland 
contingents,  amounting  all  together  to  about  80,000  men,  while  the 
forces  on  the  Lower  Rhine,  numbering  not  far  from  120,000,  were 
placed  under  the  Prussian  general  Blucher.  Wellington  took  up  his 
headquarters  at  Brussels.  Blucher  posted  his  main  force  at  Namur 
with  a  line  of  defense  stretching  eastward  almost  to  the  town  of 
Ligny.  Napoleon  started  from  Paris,  7  June.  His  plan  was  to  make 
a  rapid  dash  into  the  Netherlands,  to  push  between  two  forces  opposed 
to  him,  to  crush  Blucher,  and  then  to  fall  upon  Wellington  before 
reinforcements  could  reach  him.  Partly  through  his  own  fault,  but 
more  especially  owing  to  the  mistakes  of  his  marshals,  his  plan  mis- 
carried. His  total  force  amounted  to  125,000  men,  including  20,000 
veterans  of  the  Imperial  Guard. 

The  Waterloo  Campaign,  Ligny,  and  Quatre  Bras,  16  June,  1815.  — 
The  Waterloo  campaign,  extending  from  16  to  18  June  inclusive,  con- 
sisted of  the  double  battle  of  Ligny  and  Quatre  Bras,  fought  on  the 
1 6th,  and  of  the  main  battle  of  Waterloo  and  a  skirmish  at  Wavre  on  the 

1  Formerly  Bishop  of  Autun.     He  had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  the  various 
Revolutionary  Governments ;  but  quarreled  with  Napoleon.     He  played  a  leading 
r61e  in  the  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  and  was  made  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
by  Louis  XVIII. 

2  Wellington  had  been  created  a  duke  at  the  close  of  the  Peninsular  War. 

3  With  contingents  of  the  smaller  states  a  grand  total  of  over  a  million  was 
promised. 


THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  863 

i8th.  Wellington,  who  had  expected  Napoleon  to  advance  on  Brus- 
sels, remained  there  until  well  into  the  night  of  the  i5th  with  the  bulk 
of  his  army.  He  had  a  smaller  force  at  Quatre  Bras,  sixteen  miles 
to  the  south.  At  half-past  two  on  the  afternoon  of  the  i6th,  Napoleon 
attacked  Bliicher,  who  had  advanced  the  main  body  of  his  army  to 
meet  him  at  Ligny,  situated  six  miles  to  the  southeast  of  Quatre  Bras. 
In  a  hot  fight,  which  raged  till  evening,  the  Prussians  were  over- 
whelmed, but  retreated  in  good  order  to  Wavre,  some  miles  north- 
ward. On  the  same  day,  Ney  was  engaged  in  a  furious  battle  with  the 
Allies  at  Quatre  Bras.  He  made  two  mistakes  which  had  an  important 
effect  on  the  ultimate  issue.  For  one  thing,  he  did  not  observe  Napo- 
leon's orders  to  hold  himself  merely  on  the  defensive.  He  could 
safely  have  done  this,  since,  early  in  the  day,  he  was  opposed  only  by 
an  inferior  force  of  Dutch  and  Belgians  under  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
Following  such  tactics  he  would  have  been  in  a  position  to  send  a  corps 
against  the  right  and  rear  of  the  Prussians  at  Ligny.  Thus  he  might 
have  blocked  Bliicher 's  retreat,  destroyed  his  army,  and  prevented  him 
from  reenforcing  Wellington  on  the  i8th.  Failing  to  furnish  the  sup- 
port on  which  Napoleon  counted,  Ney's  other  mistake  was  in  delaying 
his  attack  until  Wellington  had  time  to  hurry  sufficient  troops  from 
Brussels  to  repulse  him.1  With  all  day  before  him  —  for  the  British 
reinforcements  did  not  arrive  till  the  evening  of  the  i6th  —  Ney  lost  a 
golden  opportunity  of  destroying  the  Prince  of  Orange's  weak  con- 
tingent. One  corps  of  the  French  army,  that  of  D'Erlon,  confused 
by  contradictory  orders  from  Ney  and  Napoleon,  rendered  no  service 
at  either  battle,  when  they  might  have  turned  the  tide  for  the  French 
at  Quatre  Bras  or  have  struck  a  decisive  blow  at  Bliicher.  Wellington, 
who,  after  repulsing  Ney,  learned  of  the  Prussian  retreat  from  Ligny, 
drew  off  his  own  troops  toward  Brussels.  Napoleon  himself  was  re- 
sponsible for  two  costly  blunders.  He  should  have  hastened  on  the 
1 7th  to  join  Ney  and  overwhelm  Wellington  before  Bliicher  could 
recover  sufficiently  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  the  British  commander. 
He  not  only  failed  to  do  so,  but  he  also  allowed  himself  to  be  deceived 
as  to  Bliicher's  line  of  retreat.  Calculating  that  he  would  retire  to 
his  base  of  supplies  at  Namur,  he  sent  Marshal  Grouchy  eastward, 
while  the  Prussians  were  hurrying  straight  north.  With  the  comfort- 
able but  erroneous  hope  that  he  had  checkmated  Bliicher,  Napoleon 
rested  a  whole  day  before  attacking  Wellington,  who  had  taken  a 
position  just  to  the  south  of  Waterloo. 

The  Battle  of  Waterloo,  18  June,  1815.  —  Having  detached  a 
force  of  17,000  to  guard  the  approach  to  Brussels,  Wellington  was  left 

1  Wellington  only  heard  of  Ney's  advance  toward  Quatre  Bras  on  the  night  of 
the  1 5th,  just  before  the  opening  of  a  famous  ball  given  by  the  Duchess  of  Rich- 
mond, where  he  put  in  an  appearance  before  starting  for  the  front.  This  ball 
has  been  a  notable  theme  for  poets  and  novelists.  It  inspired  Byron's  oft-quoted 
lines  in  ChUde  Harold,  beginning  "On  with  the  dance,  let  joy  be  unconfined." 
There  are  famous  accounts  in  Thackeray's  Vanity  Fair  and  Charles  Lever's  Charles 
O'Malley. 


864  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

with  only  67,000,  of  whom  less  than  24,000  were  British,  to  face 
71,000  Frenchmen,  most  of  them  veterans  of  the  Grand  Army.  His 
opponents  were  superior  in  cavalry  and  artillery  as  well,  though 
their  advantages  were  offset  by  the  fact  that  they  were  scantily  sup- 
plied with  food.  Napoleon  opened  the  battle :  at  half  past  eleven 
on  the  morning  of  the  i8th  with  an  attack  on  the  allied  right,  which 
was  strongly  posted  in  the  chateau  and  enclosures  of  Hougomont. 
While  the  French  were  wasting  their  left  in  this  way,  their  right  was, 
under  cover  of  a  tremendous  artillery  fire,  thrown  against  the  allied 
left  distributed  in  the  farms  of  Papelotte  and  La  Haye  and  in  an  ad- 
joining hamlet.  The  Dutch  and  Belgians  had  to  give  way;  but  a 
furious  charge  of  British  horsemen,  though  routed  in  the  end,  saved  a 
disaster  in  this  quarter.  Meantime,  the  French  center  had  gone  into 
action.  At  one  o'clock,  in  the  thick  of  the  fight,  a  force  of  Prussians 
appeared  on  the  French  right.  Napoleon,  believing  that  Grouchy 
was  close  behind  them,  ordered  him  to  attack  them  in  the  rear. 
At  the  same  time,  feeling  that  his  best  chance  lay  in  breaking 
Wellington's  line  before  the  arrival  of  the  main  body  of  Prus- 
sian reinforcements,  he  hurled  his  cavalry  in  charge  after  charge 
against  the  immovable  squares  composed  mainly  of  the  British 
infantry.  At  length  Ney  succeeded  in  carrying  the  farm  of  La 
Haye  Sainte2  where  the  British  center  was  posted.  With  the  key 
to  the  allied  position  in  his  hands,  Napoleon  nerved  himself  for  a  su- 
preme effort.  Leading  the  Imperial  Guard  to  the  front,  he  gave  them 
over  to  the  command  of  Ney.  They  made  a  glorious  but  unsuccessful 
charge,  and  were  thrown  back  and  scattered.  Meanwhile,  Bliicher 
arrived.  Grouchy,  on  finding  that  he  had  not  gone  to  Namur,  had 
made  a  long  detour  to  Wavre,  which  he  reached  to  find  only  a  remnant 
of  the  Prussians  still  there.  He  proceeded  to  engage  them ;  but  on 
learning  of  Napoleon's  defeat,  he  withdrew  and  later  fled  to  France. 
Aided  by  Bliicher's  reinforcements,  the  Allies,  charging  against  the 
broken  columns  of  the  French,  drove  them  from  the  field.  The  retreat 
became  a  rout,  but  the  troops  who  had  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of 
the  day  left  the  pursuit  to  the  Prussians,  who  never  stopped  until 
they  had  chased  the  fleeing  Frenchmen  across  the  Sambre.  The 
battle  cost  the  Allies  20,000  lives,  and  the  French  37,000.  With  all 
Europe  arming  against  him,  the  ultimate  triumph  of  Napoleon  would 
doubtless  have  been  impossible,  even  had  he  won  at  Waterloo ;  but 
he  might  have  prolonged  the  contest  for  some  time  longer.  His  defeat 
rendered  immediate  overthrow  certain  and  was  followed  by  forty 
years  of  peace.  He  abdicated  for  a  second  time,  22  June,  while,  in 
July,  the  Allies  once  more  occupied  Paris.  Napoleon,  after  a  vain 
effort  to  escape,  surrendered  on  board  the  British  ship  Bellerophon. 
In  agreement  with  the  other  allied  Powers  the  British  Government 

1  There  is  a  stirring  account  of  the  battle  in  Victor  Hugo's  remarkable  novel, 
Les  Miserables. 

2  Not  to  be  confused  with  La  Haye  which  lay  farther  eastward. 


THE  STRUGGLE  AGAINST  NAPOLEON  865 

sent  him  to  the  island  of  St.  Helena,  where  he  remained  a  prisoner  till 
his  death  in  1821. 

The  British  and  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  The  Quadruple  Alliance 
zo  November,  1815.  —  The  work  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna  in  settling 
the  general  European  situation  was  completed  in  June,  but  the  bound- 
daries  of  France  were  not  definitely  defined  till  the  second  treaty  of 
Paris,  20  November,  1815.*  Great  Britain's  territorial  gains,  though 
they  excited  the  contempt  of  Napoleon,  were  considerable.  They  in- 
cluded Malta,  Ceylon,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Mauritius,  Trinidad, 
St.  Lucia,  Tobago,  and  Heligoland.  The  latter  was  ceded  to  Germany 
in  1890.  Great  Britain  also  obtained  the  protectorate  over  the  Ionian 
Islands,  which  she  exercised  till  they  were  handed  on  to  the  Greeks  in 
1864.  She  labored  to  secure  from  the  Congress  some  regulation  of 
the  slave  trade.  All  she  gained  on  this  point,  however,  was  a  decla- 
ration that  it  was  "  repugnant  to  the  principles,  of  civilization  and  of 
universal  morality."  The  Tsar  got  Austria  and  Prussia  to  sign,  26  Sep- 
tember, a  so-called  Holy  Alliance,  which  was  a  fantastic  scheme  for 
uniting  all  European  rulers  in  bonds  of  Christian  brotherhood  and 
pledging  them  to  mutual  service  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace. 
All  the  continental  rulers,  except  the  Pope  and  the  Sultan,  either  joined 
or  gave  their  approval  to  this  "  sonorous  nothing,"  as  Metternich, 
the  Austrian  minister,  described  it.  Since  the  leading  British  states- 
men either  had  no  sympathy  with  it 2  or  positively  distrusted  it,  Great 
Britain  refused  to  become  a  party.  It  has  sometimes  been  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  policy  of  repression  which,  under  the  guidance  of 
Metternich,  stifled  all  attempts  at  liberalism  and  nationalism  in  Europe 
for  a  number  of  years  to  come.  That  policy,  however,  was  due  really 
to  the  Quadruple  Alliance,  signed  by  Great  Britain,  Russia,  Austria, 
and  Prussia,  20  November,  1815,  by  which  they  pledged  themselves 
to  intervene  in  case  another  revolution  or  usurpation  threatened  the 
tranquillity  of  any  of  the  States.  They  also  arranged  for  frequent 
congresses  which  should  consider  such  measures  as  might  be  neces- 
sary "  for  the  maintenance  of  the  peace  of  Europe." 

ADDITIONAL  READING  FOR  CHAPTERS  XLV,  XLVI,  XLVII 

Narrative.  Hunt,  Political  History,  chs.  XIV-XX.  Brodrick  and  Fothering- 
ham,  Political  History  of  England,  1801-1837  (JQ0^),  chs.  I-VII.  Robertson,  Eng- 
land under  the  Hanoverians,  pt.  II,  chs.  Ill,  V,  VI.  Sir  H.  Maxwell,  A  Century  of  Em- 
pire (vol.  1, 1909) ;  a  Conservative  history  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  vol.  I  covers  the 
period  1801-1832.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  VI,  ch.  XIII;  VIII,  ch.  X.  Lecky, 

1  The  boundaries  of  France,  which  by  the  treaty  of  1814  were  reduced  to  those  of 
1792,  were  now  still  further  reduced  to  the  limits  of  1790.     France  was  also  forced 
to  pay  the  Allies  an  indemnity  of  700,000,000  francs. 

2  Castlereagh  pronounced  it  a  "piece  of  sublime  mysticism  and  nonsense." 

3  One  commendable  provision  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna  was  carried  out  in  1816 
by  Great  Britain.     Lord  Exmouth  was  sent  to  the  Mediterranean  against  the  Bar- 
bary  States,  and  forced  them  to  put  an  end  to  piracy  and  the  enslaving  of  Christians. 

3K 


866  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Eighteenth  Century,  V,  chs.  XV,  XVI ;  VI ;  VII,  ch.  XX,  to  1793.  Bright,  History 
of  England,  III,  1132-1346.  J.  H.  Rose,  William  Pitt  and  the  Great  War  (191 1) ;  the 
standard  work  on  the  younger  Pitt  and  a  notable  contribution  to  the  general  history 
of  the  period;  very  favorable  to  Pitt.  For  further  authorities  dealing  with  the 
years  1784-1815  see  Hunt,  459-469;  Brodrick  and  Fotheringham,  443-450; 
Robertson,  $i7-$i,2,a.n.dCambridge  Modern  History,  VI,  902-912,  and  VIII,  791  ff., 
dealing  with  the  French  Revolution  in  general,  and  IX,  773  ff.,  dealing  primarily 
with  the  Napoleonic  wars. 

India.  Bright,  III,  1 1 13-1 134,  contains  a  good  survey  of  India  from  1600  to  1 784. 
See  also  Seeley,  Expansion  of  England,  pt.  II.  A.  D.  Innes,  A  Short  History  of  the 
British  in  India  (1902).  A.  C.  Lyall,  The  Rise  and  Expansion  of  the  British  Dominion 
in  India  (5th  ed.,  1910).  The  best  apology  for  Warren  Hastings  is  to  be  found  in 
G.  W.  Hastings,  Vindication  of  Warren  Hastings  (1909),  and  should  be  contrasted 
with  Macaulay's  famous  essay  on  Hastings.  For  further  references  on  India  see 
Cambridge  Modern  History,  VI,  925-932;  Robertson,  523,  530;  Hunt,  468;  Brod- 
rick and  Fotheringham,  449. 

Ireland.  O'Connor  Morris,  Ireland,  1494-1905  (26.  ed.,  R.  Dunlap,  1909). 
Lecky,  Ireland  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  I-V.  Froude,  The  English  in  Ireland. 
T.  D.  Ingram,  Critical  Examination  of  Irish  History  (2  vols.,  1900),  and  History  of  the 
Irish  Union  (1887) ;  an  attempt  to  justify  the  English  methods.  For  further  refer- 
ences see  Cambridge  Modern  History,  VI,  913-924;  VIII,  878-882;  Hunt,  468; 
Robertson,  521-522. 

French  Revolution.  Lecky,  VI,  ch.  XVIII.  J.  H.  Rose,  The  Revolutionary  and 
Napoleonic  Era  (1901).  H.  M.  Stephens,  European  History,  1789-1815  (1900). 
For  further  references  see  Cambridge  Modern  History,  VIII,  791  ff.,  especially  791- 
793.  For  the  Napoleonic  Era.  J.  R.  Rose,  Napoleon  (2  vols.,  1902,  i  vol.,  ed.  1907). 
Lanfrey,  History  of  Napoleon,  I  (Eng.  tr.,  4  vols.,  1871-1879) ;  incomplete,  very  hos- 
tile to  Napoleon.  H.  A.  L.  Fisher,  Napoleon  (1912);  an  admirable  sketch.  For  fur- 
ther references  see  Cambridge  Modern  History,  IX,  773  ff.,  especially  773-786. 

Military  and  naval.  Fortescue,  British  Army,  III-VI,  to  1809.  Sir  W.  Napier, 
History  of  the  War  in  the  Peninsula  (6  vols.,  1834-1840).  C.  Oman,  History  of  the 
Peninsular  War  (vols.  I-IV,  to  1811, 1902-1911),  and  Wellington's  Army,  1809-1814 
(1913).  J.  C.  Ropes,  The  Campaign  of  Waterloo  (1892-1893).  Mahan,  Influence 
of  Sea  Power  upon  the  French  Revolution  (2  vols.,  1893) ;  Life  of  Nelson  (2  vols., 
1897) ;  and  Sea  Power  in  its  Relation  to  the  War  of  1812  (2  vols.,  1905). 

Biographies  and  special  works.  G.  Pellew,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Lord 
Sidmouth  (Addington)  (3  vols.,  1847).  Rosebery,  William  Pitt  (1891).  W.  Sichel, 
Sheridan  (2  vols.,  1909).  R.  and  S.  Wilberforce,  Life  of  William  Wilberforce  (5  vols., 
1839).  A.  G.  Stapleton,  The  Political  Life  of  George  Canning  (3  vols.,  1831);  George 
Canning  and  His  Friends  (ed.  J.  F.  Bagot,  2  vols.,  1909).  Good  short  Lives  are  those 
by  H.  W.  V.  Temperley  (1905)  and  J.  A.  R.  Marriott  (1903).  Sir  H.  Maxwell, 
The  Life  of  Wellington  (2  vols.,  1899).  W.  T.  Laprade,  England  and  the  French 
Revolution^  1909) .  Fortescue,  British  Statesmen  of  the  Great  War,  1793-1814  (1911); 
marked  by  strong  prejudices. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  256-259.  Robertson, 
Select  Statutes,  pt.  I,  nos.  XXXVIII-XLIII ;  pt.  II,  nos.  XXII-XXIV. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII 

FROM  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON  TO  THE  EVE  OF  THE 
GREAT  REFORM  BILL.  THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  GEORGE  III, 
AND  THE  REIGN  OF  GEORGE  IV  (181&-1830) 

Characteristics  of  the  Period  from  1815  to  1830.  —  The  close  of  the 
war  was  hailed  in  England  with  general  rejoicing.  The  dominant  Tory 
party  nourished  the  comfortable  assurance  that  their  aristocratic 
privileges,  which  the  French  had  threatened  to  subvert,  were  now  secure. 
With  the  cessation  of  the  drain  of  heavy  war  taxes  and  the  end  of  the 
Continental  System,  which  had  disturbed  trade  and  manufactures 
and  checked  the  import  of  foreign  corn,  the  masses  hoped  for  a  return 
of  prosperity  and  contentment.  Instead,  the  peace,  which  only  the 
farmers  had  dreaded,  was  marked,  during  its  first  few  years,  by  dis- 
content, agitation,  violence,  and  repression.  Happily,  this  grievous 
state  of  affairs  did  not  last  very  long ;  for  economic  conditions  began 
to  improve,  manifestations  of  popular  unrest  ceased  for  a  time,  and 
far-reaching  reforms  were  undertaken  which  changed  profoundly  the 
industrial,  social,  religious,  and  political  system.  While  the  humbler 
folk  gained  something  by  these  changes  which  tended  to  break  down 
the  exclusive  privileges  and  power  of  the  land-owning  aristocracy,  they 
represented,  in  a  large  degree,  a  triumph  of  the  middle  classes.  The 
Industrial  Revolution,  beginning  in  the  previous  century,  had  produced 
a  great  body  of  wealthy  merchants,  manufacturers,  and  traders  who 
were  bound  to  demand  an  increasing  share  in  the  control  of  public 
affairs.  Moreover,  the  principle  of  equality  promulgated  by  the 
French  Revolution  acted  as  an  inevitable  stimulus,  so  soon  as  the 
danger  from  France  had  been  overcome  and  the  unrest  in  England 
had  been  quieted.  The  period  from  the  close  of  the  Great  War  to 
the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  which  resulted  in  a  sweeping 
change  in  the  balance  of  political  power,  has  been  divided  into  four 
well-marked  stages,  (i)  During  the  years  from  1815  to  1822  the 
middle  class,  fearing  the  violence  produced  by  the  widespread  distress, 
united  with  the  governing  aristocracy  to  preserve  the  existing  order.- 
(2)  From  1822  to  1827  a  group  of  Liberal  Tories,  representing  the 
interests  of  the  middle  class  to  which  they  belonged,  was  in  control 
and  passed  a  number  of  progressive  measures.  (3)  The  years  from 
1828  to  1830  witnessed  a  vain  attempt  upon  the  part  of  reactionary 
leaders  of  the  party  to  resist  inevitable  changes;  but  they  were 
obliged  to  consent  to  the  repeal  of  the  acts  excluding  Dissenters 

867 


868  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

from  office  and  to  carry  a  liberal  measure  for  Roman  Catholic  relief. 
(4)  Finally,  the  years  from  1830  to  1832  were  occupied  in  an  exciting 
struggle  which  led  to  a  notable  extension  of  the  franchise. 

The  Political  Situation  at  the  Close  of  the  War.  —  Lord  Liverpool, 
who  had  been  Prime  Minister  since  1812  and  who  continued  in  office 
until  1827,  was  only  nominal  head  of  the  Government,  occupied 
chiefly  in  trying  to  induce  his  ministers  to  work  in  harmony.  The 
real  directors  of  the  Cabinet  policy  during  the  half  dozen  years  following 
the  close  of  the  Great  War  were  Viscount  Castlereagh,  Foreign  Secre- 
tary and  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Lord  Chancellor  Eldon.1 
In  accordance  with  their  aim  of  resisting  all  innovation,  the  term  of 
their  regime  was  marked  by  a  legislative  stagnation  and  the  repression 
of  all  popular  demands.  The  Whig  Opposition  was  torn  by  internal 
divisions  between  the  conservatives  and  the  Radicals 2  and  discredited  by 
the  hot  zeal  of  the  latter.  Nevertheless,  they  manfully  raised  their 
voice  against  the  dominant  oligarchy,  and  cried  for  "  peace,  retrench- 
ment, and  reform."  They  accused  the  Government  of  designing  to 
maintain  an  expensive  establishment  in  order  to  aid  continental  sover- 
eigns in  the  suppression  of  popular  rights,  and  of  reckless  extravagance 
in  other  respects.  The  first  charge  was,  to  some  degree,  justified  by 
the  aims  of  the  Quadruple  Alliance  to  which  Great  Britain  was  a  party ; 
the  second  was  even  more  well-founded.  The  war  had  fostered  a 
spirit  of  wastefulness  which  the  example  of  the  Regent,  who  regarded 
himself  as  the  "  first  gentleman  in  Europe,"  further  encouraged. 
The  public  debt  had  climbed  to  over  £840,000,000,  bearing  an  annual 
interest  of  more  than  £32,000,000,  while  George  every  year  spent  more 
than  twice  the  £800,000  allotted  to  him  in  the  Civil  List.  In  Henry 
Brougham  the  Whigs  possessed  a  tower  of  strength.  Vain  and  erratic 
almost  to  the  point  of  madness,  his  knowledge,  his  industry,  and  zeal 
seemed  boundless.  When  he  succeeded  in  defeating  the  Government 
project  of  retaining  half  the  10  per  cent  income  tax  which  had  been 
imposed  as  a  war  measure,  the  Cabinet,  instead  of  resigning,  went 
further,  and,  as  a  concession  to  the  country  gentry,  abolished  the  war 
duty  of  two  shillings  a  bushel  on  malt.  Castlereagh  declared  that 
these  reductions  of  the  revenue  made  no  difference,  since  a  large  loan 
would  have  to  be  raised  anyway. 

Industrial  Depression  and  Distress  among  the  People.  —  The 
thriftlessness  of  the  Government  and  the  upper  classes  was  all  the  more 
indefensible  since,  in  the  place  of  the  expected  prosperity,  the  country 
had  to  face  a  period  of  acute  distress.  During  the  war,  British  manu- 
factures and  commerce  had  thriven,  owing  to  the  successful  evasion 
of  trade  restrictions,  and  to  the  effective  protection  rendered  by  the 
British  navy  and  to  the  enormous  demand  for  clothes,  food,  and  muni- 
tions of  war  to  support  the  armies  and  the  fleets.  The  pressure  of 

1  A  wit  of  the  period  remarked  that  he  wished  he  had  done  as  much  good  as  El- 
don had  prevented. 

2  This  group  got  its  name  from  its  advocacy  of  "radical  reform." 


AFTER   THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON         869 

military  necessity  and  the  dangers  involved  in  the.  traffic  had  forced 
prices  up  to  dizzy  heights.  With  the  advent  of  peace,  inflated  prices 
dropped  to  their  normal  level.  Continental  countries,  so  long  de- 
vastated by  war,  bought  as  little  as  possible  and  sought  to  build  up 
their  own  shattered  industries.  Moreover,  the  reduction  of  the  army 
and  navy  to  a  peace  footing  flooded  the  country  with  men  seeking 
employment.  Owing  to  the  increasing  use  of  labor-saving  machinery 
there  was  little  or  no  opportunity  in  the  industries,  while  a  bad  har- 
vest in  1816  threw  numbers  of  agricultural  laborers  out  of  work.  The 
universal  distress  led  to  alarming  outbursts  of  violence  —  to  renewed 
rick  burning  and  machine  breaking.  The  authorities,  who  attributed 
all  this  to  revolutionary  spirit  rather  than  to  misery,  resorted  to  coer- 
cive legislation  and  repression  instead  of  seeking  remedies  to  alleviate 
the  causes  of  discontent.  The  only  excuse  for  their  attitude  was  the 
fact  that  political  agitators  were  busy  inflaming  the  mob  in  addresses 
and  pamphlets.  The  Radicals  were  of  all  grades :  some  were  "  visionary 
and  sincere,"  some  were  "  unprincipled  and  self-seeking,"  some  were 
socialists,  others  looked  merely  toward  political  reform.  The  man 
who  exercised  perhaps  the  greatest  influence  was  William  Cobbett 
(1762^1835)  through  the  medium  of  his  Weekly  Political  Register, 
and  he  was  not  in  favor  of  violence  at  all.  One  of  his  demands  — 
universal  suffrage  —  has  since  been  practically  conceded ;  another  — 
annually  elected  parliaments  —  has  generally  been  regarded  as  im- 
practicable, while  most  of  the  rest  —  such  as  the  withdrawal  of  paper 
money  from  circulation,  the  canceling  of  interest  on  the  National 
Debt,  and  the  destruction  of  British  commerce  in  order  to  bring  labor 
back  to  the  land  —  were  wild  in  the  extreme.  The  hidebound  Tories 
in  the  Ministry  lumped  the  Radicals,  violent  and  peaceful,  frenzied 
and  sensible,  without  discrimination,  as  revolutionists.  Many, 
even  of  the  Whigs,  sought  to  clear  their  skirts  of  contamination  by 
violent  denunciation  of  those  who  held  more  advanced  views  than 
themselves.1  Pitt  had  at  least  this  justification  for  repression,  that 
he  had  to  deal  with  revolutionary  agitators  looking  for  aid  to  the  men 
and  arms  of  France.  Now  there  was  no  such  danger;  not  Jacobin 
theories,  but  economic  and  social  facts  were  the  real  causes  of  the  dis- 
turbances which  filled  the  winter  of  1816-1817. 

The  Disturbances  of  1816-1817.  The  Repressive  Policy  of  the 
Government.  —  Plans  were  made  for  a  great  demonstration,  2  Decem- 
ber, 1816,  in  Spa  Fields,  with  an  address  by  "  Orator  "  Hunt,  a  windy 
demagogue  who  was  the  tool  of  bolder  spirits.  Hunt  did  not  appear, 
while  the  mob,  after  doing  some  damage  and  causing  some  bloodshed, 
was  easily  dispersed.  In  February,  1817,  the  Regent's  carriage  was 
attacked  on  his  return  from  the  opening  of  Parliament.  As  a  result,  a 
secret  parliamentary  committee  was  appointed,  who  reported  that  a 

1"The  Radicals,"  wrote  Brougham,  "have  made  themselves  so  odious  that  a 
number,  even  of  our  own  way  of  thinking,  would  be  well  pleased  to  see  them  and 
their  vile  press  put  down  at  all  hazards." 


870  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

design  existed  on  the  part  of  the  Radicals  to  subvert  existing  institu- 
tions and  to  distribute  or  destroy  all  private  property.  Thereupon, 
a  series  of  repressive  measures  were  devised.  A  new  Seditious  Meet- 
ings Bill  was  passed l ;  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  was  again  suspended, 
for  the  first  time  since  1801 2 ;  and  Lord  Sidmouth,  the  Home  Secre- 
tary, sent  a  circular  letter  to  the  Lords  Lieutenants  directing  them  to 
order  the  magistrates  to  seize  all  persons  charged  with  publishing 
or  writing  seditious  or  blasphemous  literature.  Early  in  March,  a 
body  of  men  started  from  Manchester  to  lay  their  grievances  before 
the  Prince  Regent  in  person.  This  is  known  as  the  "  March  of  the 
Blanketeers  "  because  every  man  carried  a  blanket  to  keep  himself 
warm  on  the  road.  The  Blanketeers  never  reached  their  destination. 
Far  more  serious  was  the  "  Derbyshire  Insurrection,"  in  which  armed 
rioters,  forcing  the  more  peacefully  inclined  to  join  their  ranks,  terror- 
ized the  neighborhood.  The  magnitude  and  danger  of  this  and  other 
outbreaks  was  greatly  exaggerated  by  a  Government  agent,  known  as 
"  Oliver  the  Spy."  Doubtless,  too,  he  helped  to  stir  up  risings  for 
his  own  purposes,  though  it  is  not  true,  as  some  believed  at  the  time, 
that  the  Government  encouraged  him  in  this  sort  of  thing.  Sidmouth, 
however,  was  all  too  ready  to  see  evidences  of  organized  conspiracy 
in  isolated  outbreaks.  Furthermore,  the  Government  went  alto- 
gether too  far,  in  most  instances,  in  charging  the  accused  with  treason. 
The  juries  were  with  the  people ;  so  that,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Der- 
byshire rioters,  three  of  whom  were  sentenced  to  death  and  several  to 
transportation,  no  convictions  were  secured.  Even  the  ringleaders 
in  the  Spa  Fields  demonstration  escaped.  All  this  tended  to  bring 
the  authorities  into  contempt,  though  Cobbett  found  it  advisable  to 
withdraw  to  America  for  a  time.  On  the  other  hand,  the  manifesta- 
tions of  1816-1817  proved  very  disastrous  to  the  Whig  party.  Those 
who  sided  with  the  repressive  policy  lost  their  influence  with  the  masses, 
while  those  who  showed  popular  sympathy  were  shunned  by  moderate 
men  as  dangerous  radicals.  The  only  remedial  measure  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  to  vote  £1,000,000  for  new  churches,  on  the  ground  that  the 
prevailing  disquiet  was  due  to  inadequate  religious  instruction. 

The  "  Peterloo,"  or  Manchester  Massacre,  1819.  —  Owing  to  a 
temporary  return  of  better  times,  comparative  quiet  prevailed  in  1818  ; 
but  in  1819  another  bad  harvest,  together  with  renewed  industrial 
depression,  brought  fresh  trouble.  The  agitation  for  parliamentary 
reform  reached  a  fever  heat.  In  Manchester,  which  did  not  enjoy  the 
privilege  of  sending  members  to  Parliament,  an  enormous  meeting 
was  planned  for  16  August  to  choose  a  "  legislative  representative." 
Although  the  magistrates  declined  to  authorize  the  proposed  meeting, 
50,000  people  assembled  in  St.  Peter's  Fields,  bearing  banners  with : 
"  Equal  representation  or  death,"  and  similar  inscriptions.  In  an 

1  The  measure  of  1 795  had  been  limited  in  duration. 

2  The  suspension  lasted  till  1818.     Since  that  date  the  suspension  has  never  been 
repeated  in  England. 


AFTER   THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON         871 

attempt  to  arrest  "  Orator  "  Hunt,  who  was  to  address  the  meeting, 
the  magistrates,  losing  their  heads,  ordered  the  mounted  soldiery  to 
charge  the  crowd.  Five  or  six  were  killed  and  about  fifty  wounded. 
Rumor,  however,  greatly  exaggerated  the  number,  and  popular  senti- 
ment was  bitter.  The  slaughter  was  quite  unnecessary ;  for  the  meet- 
ing might  have  been  prevented,  or  Hunt  might  have  been  arrested 
beforehand.  The  affair  is  known  to  history  as  the  "  Manchester  "  or 
"  Peterloo  Massacre."  The  Ministry,  without  waiting  to  learn  where 
the  real  blame  lay,  very  unwisely  sent  a  letter,  signed  by  the  Prince 
Regent,  approving  the  action  of  the  magistrates. 

The  Six  Acts.  —  Parliament,  directly  it  met,  passed  a  series  of 
measures,  known  as  the  "  Six  Acts,"  reviving  and  extending  the  tem- 
porary legislation  of  1817.  The  first  two,  empowering  the  magistrates 
to  seize  arms  and  to  prevent  military  training  for  unlawful  purposes, 
as  well  as  the  third,  designed  to  secure  speedy  trials,  were  justifiable. 
The  fourth,  providing  for  the  punishment  of  publishers  of  seditious 
libels  and  the  seizure  of  their  works,  was  not  long  enforced  and  was 
repealed  in  1830.  The  fifth,  aimed  at  publications  like  Cobbett's 
"  Two-penny  Trash,"  r  imposed  a  stamp  duty  on  small  pamphlets.2 
The  sixth  act  was  the  most  burdensome  of  all.  It  prohibited  meet- 
ings in  corporate  towns  and  counties  unless  summoned  by  the  Mayor 
and  the  Lord  Lieutenant  respectively.  It  fell  with  peculiar  heaviness 
on  towns  like  Manchester,  which,  since  they  were  unrepresented  in 
Parliament,  were  thus  practically  deprived  of  their  only  means  of 
voicing  grievances.  Happily,  the  duration  of  the  Acts  was  limited  to 
five  years.  Once  more  economic  conditions  improved,  and  there  was 
little  manifestation  of  popular  discontent  for  some  time  to  come. 

The  End  of  the  Regency,  1820.  The  Accession  of  George  IV.  —  It 
was  regarded  as  a  national  calamity  when  the  Princess  Charlotte, 
the  only  child  of  the  Prince  Regent,  died  in  1817.  She  was  very 
popular,  and  her  marriage  to  Prince  Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg  had  been 
hailed  with  joy,  since  it  seemed  to  insure  the  prospect  of  a  happy 
succession.  In  1818  three  of  the  Regent's  brothers  married.  The 
following  year  a  daughter  was  born  to  the  Duke  of  Kent,  the  most 
highly  respected  of  them  all.  The  child  was  destined  to  become  Queen 
Victoria,  and  to  enjoy  the  longest  and  one  of  the  most  wonderful  reigns 
in  English  history.  George  III  died,  29  January,  1820,  after  lingering 
on  for  a  decade  as  a  blind  and  imbecile  wreck.  George  IV,  as  his  suc- 
cessor now  came  to  be  called,  had  reached  his  fifty-eighth  year.  Ex- 
cept that  he  had  broken  with  the  Whig  connections  of  his  youth,  he 
was  much  the  same  as  Regent  and  King  as  he  had  been  as  Prince. 
Though  lazy,  he  was  clever  and  versatile,  with  a  taste  for  finery,  music, 
and  building.  When  he  chose,  he  could  be  gracious  and  winning, 
and  was  a  master  of  that  artificial  code  of  politeness  known  as  "  de- 

1  His  Register,  which  sold  for  2  d. 

2  A  similar  tax  on  newspapers  had  been  in  force  since  Queen  Anne's  time. 


872  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

portment."  l  But  he  never  acquired  any  stability  of  character,  and 
he  never  shook  off  those  vices  for  which  he  was  so  notorious  in  his  youth. 
He  remained  to  the  end  "  a  dissolute  and  drunken  fop,  a  spendthrift 
and  a  gamester."  His  word  could  never  be  trusted;  he  was  mean 
and  treacherous  to  his  father,  to  his  wife,  to  his  daughter,  and  to  his 
subjects.  More  wicked  kings  have  reigned  over  England,  but  none 
who  was  more  contemptible.  One  service  only  the  country  owes  him, 
just  because  he  was  despicable,  the  growth  of  the  personal  power  of 
the  sovereign,  which  his  father  had  done  so  much  to  revive,  received  a 
decided  check. 

The  Cato  Street  Conspiracy,  February,  1820.  —  On  23  February, 
1820,  less  than  a  month  after  the  reign  began,  one  of  the  Government 
agents  exposed  a  horrid  plot  for  destroying  the  whole  Ministry  at  a 
Cabinet  dinner.  It  was  devised  by  Thistlewood,  the  wildest  of  the 
Radicals,  with  the  help  of  a  band  of  desperate  followers.  The  Cato 
Street  Conspiracy,  as  it  was  called,  got  its  name  from  the  fact  that  the 
plotters  held  their  meetings  in  a  stable-loft  on  that  street.  Lord 
Holland,  nephew  of  Charles  James  Fox,  whose  house  was  the  social 
center  of  the  leading  Whigs,  voiced  the  sentiments  of  the  Opposition 
party  when  he  declared  that  such  conspiracies  were  the  natural  re- 
sult of  the  suppression  of  public  discussion.  Nevertheless,  the  re- 
pressive policy  of  the  Government  did  something  to  quell  popular 
agitation. 

Queen  Caroline  and  her  History,  1795-1820.  — In  this  same  year 
George  and  his  ministers  had  to  face  a  crisis  growing  out  of  the  King's 
relations  with  his  unfortunate  Queen,  Caroline.  Caroline,  daughter  of 
the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  had  been  forced  into  this  ill-starred  marriage 
against  her  will,  8  April,  1795,  while  the  Prince  had  consented2  solely 
because  it  was  the  only  condition  on  which  Parliament  would  vote  to 
pay  his  debts.  He  disliked  her  from  the  first  day  he  saw  her.  Her 
good  qualities  he  could  not  appreciate,  and  her  frivolity,  her  indiscre- 
tions, and  lack  of  breeding  shocked  his  fastidious  nature.  They  sepa- 
rated in  1796,  though  she  continued  to  live  in  the  neighborhood  of  Lon- 
don, receiving  as  guests  some  of  the  leading  men  of  the  time.  She 
was  carefully  watched,  and  an  investigation  into  her  conduct  was  made 
in  1806;  but  no  evidence  of  real  immorality  was  discovered.  In  1814 
she  went  abroad,  where  she  spent  some  years  traveling,  chiefly  in  Italy 
and  about  the  Mediterranean.  Her  manner  of  life  was  at  least  ques- 
tionable, and,  in  1818,  the  Regent  sent  over  a  secret  committee  to 
secure  evidence  for  a  divorce.  It  was  the  Queen  herself,  however,  who 
finally  forced  the  issue.  Already  smarting  from  the  humiliation  of 
receiving  no  official  recognition  at  foreign  courts,  she  was  stung  to  fury 
when  her  name  was  omitted  from  the  new  Prayer  Book  issued  at 

1  Dickens  caricatured  him  as  "Mr.  Turveydrop "  in  Bleak  House. 

2  His  alliance  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert  was  regarded  as  illegal  because  contrary  to 
the  provisions  of  the  Royal  Marriage  Act.     She  was  ultimately  awarded  a  pension 
and  lived  till  1837. 


AFTER   THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON         873 

the  accession  of  her  royal  consort.1  So  she  started  for  England  to 
appeal  to  the  people  and  to  plead  her  cause  in  person.  Landing  at 
Dover,  in  June,  1820,  she  journeyed  to  London  amid  a  storm  of  en- 
thusiasm. Public  chivalry  was  aroused  in  the  cause  of  a  woman  who, 
whatever  her  faults,  had  been  despitefully  treated  by  one  who  was  a 
notorious  evil  liver.  The  Whig  politicians  rallied  to  her  support  as  a 
means  of  striking  both  at  the  King  who  had  deserted  them  and  the 
Ministry  in  power. 

The  Struggle  over  her  Divorce,  1820.  —  The  royal  advisers,  though 
they  agreed  to  an  investigation  in  the  House  of  Lords,  sought  to  ar- 
range terms  with  the  Queen  through  her  counsel,  of  whom  Brougham 
was  the  chief.  After  Caroline  had  refused  any  concession  on  the  two 
essential  points  —  her  formal  recognition  at  foreign  courts  and  the 
insertion  of  her  name  in  the  Prayer  Book  —  Lord  Liverpool  introduced 
a  bill  of  pains  and  penalties,  8  July,  to  deprive  her  of  her  title  and  to 
divorce  her  from  King  George.  In  the  face  of  a  steadily  dwindling 
majority,  which  amounted  only  to  nine  at  the  third  reading,  12  Novem- 
ber, the  Prime  Minister  withdrew  the  measure.  To  have  pushed  it 
further  might  have  jeopardized  the  throne.  The  news  was  hailed 
with  tumults  of  joy,  and  London  was  illuminated  for  three  nights. 
Thus  encouraged,  Caroline  continued  the  fight.  She  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  parliamentary  grant  of  £  50,000  a  year,  though  she  failed 
to  get  her  name  in  the  Prayer  Book.  Further,  she  failed  in  a  frantic 
effort  to  have  herself  crowned  with  the  King,  and  committed  the  fatal 
blunder  of  making  an  undignified  attempt  to  force  her  way  into  West- 
minster Abbey  on  coronation  day,  19  July,  1821.  This  alienated  the 
people,  who  showed  no  resentment  at  her  being  turned  away.  She 
did  not  long  survive  her  disappointment ;  for  she  died,  7  August,  much 
to  the  relief  of  King  George.  After  brief  visits  to  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land, in  1821  and  1822,  respectively,  he  withdrew  more  and  more  from 
the  public  view,  only  emerging  once  or  twice  toward  the  close  of  his 
reign  in  futile  efforts  to  block  the  cause  of  progress. 

The  Advent  of  the  Liberal  Tories,  1822.  —  While  Liverpool's  Tory 
Ministry  hung  on  till  1827,  its  character  was  profoundly  modified 
in  1822.  Napoleon,  disturber  of  the  peace  of  Europe,  was  dead, 
popular  outbreaks  had  ceased,  and  the  middle  class,  relieved  from 
fear  of  invasion  or  revolution,  were  prepared  to  demand  more 
freedom  of  commerce,  a  greater  voice  in  public  affairs,  and,  in 
general,  a  resumption  of  the  work  of  reform  in  which  Pitt  had  been  so 
rudely  interrupted.  The  Queen's  cause  had  served  as  a  means  of 
focusing  and  manifesting  their  strength,  and  had  made  it  clear  to  the 
tyrannical  clique  who  had  thus  far  clung  so  stoutly  to  the  existing 
system,  that  at  least  some  degree  of  concession  was  necessary.  In 
consequence  they  took  the  momentous  step  of  admitting  into  the 
Cabinet  four  liberal  Tories.  The  new  Ministers  —  all  sprung  from 

1  It  is  customary  to  insert  a  prayer  for  the  King  and  Queen  by  name. 


874  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  middle  class  and  voicing  its  aspirations  —  while  they  were  not  in 
favor  of  parliamentary  reform,  nor,  at  the  outset,  of  Catholic  relief, 
at  once  set  on  foot  a  series  of  legislative  and  administrative  changes 
which  opened  a  new  era. 

Robert  Peel.  —  In  January,  1822,  Robert  Peel  (1788-1850)  re- 
placed Sidmouth  as  Home  Secretary.  Peel,  who  was  the  son  of  a  rich 
manufacturer,  had  already  been  a  member  of  Parliament  for  more 
than  ten  years.  He  was  destined  to  be  twice  Prime  Minister,  to  form 
a  new  Conservative  party,  and  to  be  the  author  of  epoch-making 
liberal  measures.  On  12  August  Castlereagh1  committed  suicide. 
Masterful,  courageous,  and  absolutely  indifferent  to  public  opinion 
he  was  intensely  unpopular,  except  with  the  reactionaries  who  fol- 
lowed his  leadership.  His  energetic  part  in  putting  down  the  Rebel- 
lion of  1798  and  his  share  in  the  questionable  methods  by  which  the 
subsequent  Union  was  brought  about  had  embittered  the  majority 
of  his  own  countrymen  against  him.  On  the  other  hand,  he  had 
rendered  signal  service  to  Great  Britain  and  to  Europe.  Largely 
owing  to  his  efforts,  the  British  army  was  effectively  reorganized  and 
the  Peninsular  War  undertaken,  he  selected  and  supported  Wellington, 
and  led  the  combination  of  the  Powers  that  finally  overcame  Napoleon. 
Moreover,  he  played  a  leading  r61e  in  the  subsequent  settlement  of 
the  European  situation.  While  that  settlement  and  his  share  in  it  is 
open  to  the  serious  criticism  of  disregarding  liberty  and  nationality, 
it  had,  at  least,  the  merit  of  averting  another  European  conflict  for 
forty  years. 

Canning  and  Huskisson.  —  George  Canning  (1770-1827)  suc- 
ceeded Castlereagh  as  Foreign  Secretary  and  leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  Since  his  quarrel  with  his'  predecessor  in  1809  he  had  held 
no  important  Cabinet  office.  George  IV,  who  hated  him  because  of 
his  sympathy  with  the  late  Queen  Caroline,  had  only  sanctioned  his 
appointment  with  the  greatest  reluctance.  Brilliant  and  versatile 2  and 
possessed  of  unusual  literary  power,  Canning  was  doubtless  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  orators  and  one  of  the  most  skillful  debaters  and  parlia- 
mentary managers  of  the  century.  Many,  however,  distrusted  his 
sincerity  and  his  judgment.  Directly  on  entering  office  he  assumed 
"  even  in  the  presence  of  Lord  Liverpool  the  tone  and  authority  of 
Premier."  He  proceeded  to  surround  himself  with  men  after  his 
own  heart.  Robinson,  "  prosperity  Robinson,"  as  he  came  to  be 
known,  was  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  but  the  most  notable 
appointment  was  that  of  William  Huskisson  (1770-1830)  as  President 
of  the  Board  of  Trade.  Huskisson  was  the  greatest  authority  of  his 
time  in  finance,  trade,  and  commerce,  though  his  abilities  were  only 
slowly  recognized,  partly  because  of  his  reserved,  awkward  manner 

1  He  had  succeeded  his  father  as  Marquis  of  Londonderry  in  1821. 

2  It  was  said  that  he  could  dictate  to  two  amanuenses  at  the  same  time,  on  such 
complicated  and  totally  different  questions  as  in  relations  with  Greece  and  South 
America. 


AFTER   THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON         875 

and  partly  because  he  was  distrusted  as  a  free  trader.  Canning, 
burdened  with  the  double  weight  of  the  home  and  foreign,  policy  of 
his  country,  depended  much  upon  his  new  colleagues  for  initial  sug- 
gestions and  the  working  out  of  details  in  domestic  reforms. 

The  New  Era  of  Remedial  Legislation.  Peel  as  a  Law  Reformer.  — 
The  remedial  legislation  which  they  undertook  covered  all  sorts  of 
fields  —  legal,  judicial,  social,  colonial,  commercial,  and  industrial. 
While  great  strides  were  made  during  the  next  few  years,  much  re- 
mained for  later  generations  to  perfect  and  complete.  Already,  in 
1819,  Peel  had,  as  chairman  of  a  committee  of  finance,  introduced  bills 
providing  that,  by  May,  1823,  the  Bank  of  England  should,  on  demand, 
redeem  all  notes  in  legal  coin.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  i  May,  1821, 
marked  the  complete  resumption  of  the  specie  payments.  The  meas- 
ure, based  on  the  ideas  of  the  famous  economist  Ricardo,  caused 
some  temporary  difficulty  by  raising  prices,  but  was  an  honest  return 
to  a  sound  policy.  As  Home  Secretary,  Peel,  in  consultation 
with  Brougham,  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  and  Jeremy  Bentham,  was 
particularly  active  in  law  reforms. 

The  Beginning  of  Huskisson's  Reforms.  His  Colonial  Policy.  —  In 
1823,  Huskisson  substantially  modified  the  operation  of  the  Naviga- 
tion Laws,  though  they  were  not  actually  repealed  till  1849.  By-  a 
Reciprocity  of  Duties  Bill,  European  countries  were  allowed  a  share 
in  the  British  colonial  trade,  subject  to  certain  restrictions,  provided 
they  would  extend  equal  privileges  to  Great  Britain.1  Contrary  to 
the  prevailing  notion  that  the  British  colonial  system  was  a  monop- 
oly belonging  to  the  Mother  Country  because  of  the  protection  and 
defense  which  she  rendered,  Huskisson  declared  that  the  trade  interests 
of  the  Colonies  deserved  consideration  and  that  they  were  insepa- 
rably bound  up  with  those  of  England.  The  home  trader  continued 
to  receive  a  certain  preference  in  tariffs ;  but  colonial  commerce  and 
immigration  were  systematically  fostered.  One  abuse  persisted. 
Colonial  patronage  was  still  lavishly  bestowed  upon  those  who  were 
often  as  incompetent  as  they  were  importunate.  A  deaf  and  dumb 
peer  received  a  large  salary  as  Governor  of  the  Barbadoes ;  the  clerk 
of  the  Privy  Council  drew  £3000  a  year  as  nominal  Governor  of  Jamaica, 
though  he  never  visited  the  island ;  while  a  peeress  received  £1000  for 
an  equally  glaring  sinecure  in  Trinidad.  Nevertheless,  Huskisson's 
wise  and  generous  policy  aroused  a  sentiment  of  loyalty  in  the  Colonies 
hitherto  unequaled.  In  this  same  year,  1823,  Great  Britain  was  finally 
relieved  of  that  old  incubus,  the  Sinking  Fund.  The  measure,  carried 
out  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  was  doubtless  suggested  by 
Huskisson.  Henceforth,  it  was  provided  that  no  additions  were  to 
be  made  to  the  Sinking  Fund  except  from  the  surplus  for  the  year. 

His  Tariff  and  Taxation  Reforms.  —  Huskisson  proceeded,  in  1824, 
to  grapple  with  the  whole  existing  system  of  tariffs  and  taxation. 

1  The  United  States  had  secured  similar  concessions  in  1814. 


876  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Much  as  Pitt  had  done  to  unravel  the  tangle,  hosts  of  anomalies  re- 
mained. Furthermore,  many  new  taxes  had  been  imposed  in  a  more 
or  less  random  fashion  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  war  revenue.  There 
were  bounties  to  assist  old  and  decrepit  industries,  while  those  that 
were  young  and  growing  received  no  support.  Many  of  the  productions 
propped  up  by  bounties  were  in  turn  weighed  down  by  a  heavy  excise. 
Trade  and  manufactures  were  hampered  by  vexatious  duties,  chief 
among  them  those  on  the  import  of  raw  and  spun  silk  and  on  both  the 
import  and  export  of  raw  wool.  Finished  silks  were  excluded  alto- 
gether. Huskisson  was  in  principle  a  free  trader;  he  thought  that 
bounties  and  prohibitive  restrictions  fostered  unprofitable  industries 
and  discouraged  invention  and  progress.  So  he  abolished  as  many 
as  he  could,  and  provided  for  the  gradual  doing  away  with  many 
more.  At  the  same  time,  he  swept  away  various  unproductive  taxes, 
revising  others  or  distributing  them  more  equally.  In  remodeling 
the  tariff  he  followed  the  plan  of  leaving  a  slight  duty  to  protect  the 
manufacturer,  as  well  as  further  to  assist  him  by  making  raw  materials 
as  free  as  possible.  The  old  duties  ranged  from  1 8  to  40  per  cent,  those 
which  Huskisson  substituted,  from  15  to  30.  Among  the  commodi- 
ties affected  were  silk,  cotton,  woolens,  sugar,  paper,  and  glass.  The 
development  which  followed  was  striking.  Shipping,  which  had 
increased  10  per  cent  in  the  nineteen  years  preceding,  increased 
45  in  the  twenty-one  following.  Exports,  which,  so  near  as  can 
be  estimated,  had  fallen  from  £45,000,000  in  1814  to  £38,000,000 
in  1820,  had  risen  again  in  1824  to  £49,000,000.  The  loss  of  revenue 
due  to  reduction  in  taxes  was,  to  a  large  degree,  offset  by  this  increase 
of  trade,  as  well  as  by  the  future  suppression  of  smuggling  which  the 
old  duties  had  encouraged.  Much,  however,  as  Huskisson's  measures 
contributed  to  this  increased  prosperity,  other  causes  were,  to  a  still 
greater  degree,  operative.  The  Spanish-American  colonies  threw  off 
the  yoke  of  Spain  and  opened  their  trade  freely  to  the  world.  The 
Portuguese  possession  of  Brazil,  which  became  an  independent  empire 
in  1822,  did  the  like.  Moreover,  commercial  relations  with  the  United 
States  steadily  improved  after  the  War  of  1812.  And,  finally,  the 
recovery  of  the  European  Continent  from  its  exhaustion  affected  Eng- 
land as  a  buyer,  seller,  and  as  a  distributing  agent. 

His  Combination  Laws,  1824-1825.  —  Huskisson  was  also  respon- 
sible for  various  measures  regulating  and  improving  the  condition 
of  the  working  classes  and  their  relations  with  the  capitalists.  Laws 
forbidding  the  exportation  of  machinery  and  the  emigration  of  laborers, 
which  it  had  always  been  difficult  to  enforce,  were  abolished.  In 
1824  he  passed  an  act  allowing  peaceful  workingmen  to  meet  without 
penalty,  and,  indeed,  legalizing  every  sort  of  a  combination.  This 
step,  however,  had  to  be  partially  retraced  the.  following  year ;  for, 
owing  to  a  temporary  return  of  hard  times,  a  number  of  disturbances 
and  riots  broke  out.  In  consequence,  a  new  act  was  passed  in  1825 
forbidding  certain  kinds  of  meetings,  and  empowering  the  magistrates 


AFTER  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON         877 

to  deal  in  a  summary  fashion  with  both  employers  or  workmen  who 
resorted  to  threats  or  intimidation. 

The  Financial  Crisis  of  1825.  —  The  year  1825  was  marked  by  a 
sharp  but  temporary  financial  crisis.  The  recent  prosperity  had 
resulted  in  a  considerable  increase  of  capital,  which  tempted  many  to 
seek  for  promising  fields  of  investment.  The  new  South  American 
republics  seemed  to  offer  the  chief  attractions,  and  a  frenzy  of  specula- 
tive fever  set  in  which  recalled  the  days  of  the  South  Sea  Bubble. 
All  kinds  of  visionary  and  fantastic  schemes  were  afloat.  One  for 
the  shipment  of  warming  pans  and  skates  to  the  tropics  is  doubtless 
an  invention ;  but  it  is  stated  as  a  fact  that  "  Scotch  dairy  maids 
emigrated  to  Buenos  Ayres  for  the  purpose  of  milking  wild  cows  and 
churning  butter  for  a  people  who  preferred  oil."  Speculation  was 
stimulated  by  excessive  note  issues,  chiefly  by  the  country  banks. 
By  the  spring  of  1825  prices  had  reached  a  height  whence  they  were 
bound  to  topple.  Then  came  a  rumor  that  the  South  American 
republics  were  going  to  repudiate  their  debts.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Bank  of  England,  which  had  been  drained  of  specie  on  account  of 
heavy  loans  to  .France,  contracted  its  note  issue.  Money  became 
tight  at  once.  Many,  either  from  fright  or  because  of  the  necessity 
of  meeting  outstanding  obligations,  began  to  sell  their  stocks  at 
tremendous  sacrifices.  Numbers  of  the  leading  banks  in  London 
suspended  payment,  causing  the  failure  of  still  greater  numbers  of 
country  banks  dependent  on  them.  By  the  opening  of  1826  over 
seventy  had  fallen  with  a  crash.  Only  the  wise  measures  of  the  min- 
isters in  power,  backed  by  the  more  solid  element  of  the  mercantile 
community,  averted  complete  disaster.  The  Government  prohibited 
the  Bank  pf  England  from  suspending  cash  payments.  At  the  same 
time,  the  supply  of  small  notes  was  increased  and  more  coin  was  hurried 
from  the  mint.  One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  sovereigns  a  day  were 
struck  off,  and  the  accidental  discovery  in  the  vaults  of  the  Bank  of 
a  chest  containing  seven  hundred  thousand  one-pound  notes  proved  a 
godsend.  Furthermore,  the  Bank  of  England  was  allowed  to  es- 
tablish branches  in  certain  provincial  towns,  and  to  make  advances 
up  to  £3,000,000  on  merchants'  goods.  Further  issues  of  smaller 
notes  by  the  country  banks  were  forbidden.  Confidence  slowly  re- 
turned, and  the  country  at  length  weathered  the  crisis. 

The  Question  of  the  Corn  Laws,  1826.  — In  1826  a  sharp  struggle 
arose  between  the  commercial  and  the  landed  interests  over  the 
Corn  Laws.  The  Act  of  1815  had  been  passed,  partly  to  encourage 
the  farmers  to  retain  a  large  area  of  corn  land  in  order  that  the  country 
might  be  more  self-sufficing  in  the  event  of  another  war,  and  partly 
for  the  purpose  of  protecting  them  from  the  fall  in  prices  which  would 
come  from  the  free  admission  of  foreign-grown  wheat.  However, 
the  steadily  increasing  body  of  artisans,  and  the  agricultural  laborers 
who  owned  no  land  and  worked  for  hire,  clamored  for  cheaper  food. 
The  influential  merchants  and  manufacturers  naturally  supported 


878  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

them  because  low  prices  for  bread  meant  keeping  wages  down.  In 
1826  an  insufficient  harvest,  and  the  misery  which  it  involved, 
prompted  the  Government  to  place  on  sale  a  large  supply  of  foreign 
corn  which  was  being  held  in  bond  until  the  price  should  reach  the 
rate  of  80  shillings.  Not  only  was  the  action  sustained  in  Parliament, 
but  a  motion  was  introduced  to  import  a  further  supply  to  relieve 
the  existing  distress.  Although  the  landed  interests  were  in  the 
majority  and  although  their  profits  had  shrunk  since  the  peace,  they 
did  not  defeat  the  motion,  partly  because  on  the  eve  of  a  general  elec- 
tion they  were  reluctant  to  defy  public  opinion,  and  partly  because 
the  measure  was  designed  to  meet  a  temporary  emergency.  Their 
opponents,  however,  interpreted  their  action  to  be  a  virtual  admission 
that  the  protection  which  they  enjoyed  was  at  the  cost  of  the  consumer. 
Indeed,  Canning  and  Huskisson  were  on  the  point  of  introducing  an 
amendment  to  the  existing  Corn  Laws  when,  17  February,  1827,  Lord 
Liverpool  was  suddenly  striken  with  paralysis. 

Canning's  Ministry,  April-August,  1827.  —  The  two  factions  in  the 
Cabinet  had  nothing  in  common  except  opposition  to  parliamentary 
reform,  and  nothing  but  the  tact  of  the  Prime  Minister  had  held  them 
together.  Now  a  split  was  inevitable.  The  progressive  section  led  by 
Canning,  which  stood  for  national  independence  abroad,  and  for  the 
extension  of  free  trade  and  for  Catholic  emancipation  at  home,  had  a 
majority  in  the  Commons.  The  chief  strength  of  the  old  Eldonian 
Tories  was  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Canning  was  the  logical  successor 
as  Premier ;  but  he  was  broken  in  health,  and  bitterly  opposed  by  the 
King.  Wellington,  who  was  offered  the  post,  declared  that  he  would 
be  worse  than  mad  to  accept  it.  After  the  Government  had  been  six 
weeks  without  a  head,  George  finally  gave  in.  Canning,  during  the 
few  months  that  he  survived,  had  to  fight  against  tremendous  odds. 
Six  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Liverpool  Cabinet,  chief  among 
them  Wellington,  Peel,  and  Eldon,  refused  to  serve.  Indeed,  Huskis- 
son was  the  only  man  of  parts  who  remained.  Most  of  the  new  men, 
however,  were  destined  to  make  their  mark  in  later  times.  Lord 
Palmerston1  and  William  Lamb  (afterwards  Lord  Melbourne)  subse- 
quently became  Prime  Ministers,  while  Lord  Lyndhurst,  the  Chan- 
cellor, was  destined  to  hold  that  office  in  two  more  cabinets  and  to 
decline  a  fourth  term.  Owing  to  a  dearth  of  liberal  Tories,  Canning 
was  obliged  to  admit  several  Whigs  to  minor  positions.  The  chief 
event  in  his  short-lived  administration  was  the  struggle  over  the  new 
Corn  Law  which  he  had  already  introduced,  i  March,  1827,  and  which 
he  carried  easily  through  the  Commons.  It  provided  for  the  admission 
of  foreign  corn,  after  the  price  reached  60  shillings,  on  a  sliding  scale 
of  duties  which  went  down  as  the  price  went  up,  and  vice  versa. 
Wellington  blocked  it  in  the  Lords  by  an  amendment  which,  the  Prime 
Minister  declared,  wrecked  the  whole  principle.  Though  it  was  not 

1  In  the  Irish  peerage. 


AFTER  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON         879 

commented  on  at  the  time,  the  action  of  the  Lords  was  unconstitu- 
tional ;  for  it  had  long  been  recognized  that  they  could  not  amend 
a  money  bill.  Canning  died,  8  August,  1827,  in  the  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire's villa  at  Chiswick  in  the  very  room  where  Charles  James  Fox 
had  died  twenty  years  before. 

The  Goderich  Ministry,  August,  1827,  to  January,  1828.  —  Robin- 
son, recently  created  Viscount  Goderich,  who  was  chosen  to  succeed 
Canning,  was  a  kindly  man  who  had  shown  some  ability  as  a  financier ; 
but  he  was  too  weak  and.  irresolute  to  manage  a  Cabinet.  When  a 
dispute  arose  over  a  chairmanship  of  a  finance  committee,  all  he  could 
do  was  to  burst  into  tears  and  resign.  This  "  transient  and  em- 
barrassed phantom,"  or  "  Goody  Goderich,"  as  Cobbett  named  him, 
was  the  only  Prime  Minister  who  never  faced  a  Parliament. 

Wellington  becomes  Prime  Minister,  1828.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Question.  —  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  backed  by  the  landed  interest 
and  the  rigid  Protestants,  next  became  Prime  Minister  on  the  under- 
standing that  Roman  Catholic  relief  was  not  to  be  made  a  Cabinet 
question.  Nevertheless,  before  another  year  was  over  he  had  carried 
a  Catholic  Emancipation  Bill,  with  the  consequence  that  he  sharply 
divided  and  ultimately  wrecked  his  Government.  Roman  Catholics 
labored  under  serious  political  disabilities.  By  the  acts  of  1562  and 
1678  they  were  excluded  from  both  Houses  of  Parliament ;  by  the  Test 
Act  all  public  offices,  civil  and  military,  were  closed  to  them,  and  by  an 
act  of  William  and  Mary  they  were  even  deprived  of  the  right  to  vote. 
In  addition,  they  were  subject  to  penal  laws  so  harsh,  oppressive,  and 
ingeniously  cruel  that  they  can  hardly  be  justified  by  the  circum- 
stances that  called  them  forth,  and  which,  if  enforced,  would  have 
rendered  their  position  wellnigh  intolerable.  It  should  be  said, 
however,  that  as  the  danger  from  papal  aggression  and  Jacobitism 
disappeared  and  as  rationalism  and  religious  indifference  began  to 
spread,  they  became  practically  a  dead  letter  even  before  any  of  them 
were  removed  from  the  statute  book.  The  act  of  1778,  and  a  subse- 
quent act  of  1791,  put  an  end  to  these  "  ferocious  threats  "  ;  but  the 
political  disabilities  remained.  The  situation  was  much  the  same  in 
Ireland,1  although,  there,  five  sevenths  of  the  population  were  affected, 
whereas  the  English  Roman  Catholics  did  not  number  more  than 
70,000. 

The  Struggle  for  Catholic  Emancipation.  Daniel  O'Connell.  — • 
Pitt,  as  has  been  seen,  failed  to  secure  further  measures  of  Catholic 
relief  in  fulfillment  of  the  pledges  given  to  carry  the  Union.  Grenville 
and  Fox  were  equally  unsuccessful  in  the  measures  which  they  advo- 
cated. Grattan,  the  Irish  patriot,2  led  a  vain  struggle,  year  after  year, 
in  the  English  Parliament.  On  his  death,  in  1820,  Plunket  took 

1  The  Irish,  however,  could  vote  after  1793. 

2  As  a  Protestant  he  was  entitled  to  sit.     Many  of  the  Irish  leaders,  beginning 
with  Burke,  who  was  the  pioneer  in  the  Catholic  cause  from  1760  to  1793,  were 
Protestants. 


88o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

his  place  as  champion  of  the  Catholic  claims.  Although  Canning, 
together  with  a  number  of  Whigs  and  liberal  Tories,  lent  their  support 
to  the  cause,  the  only  fruit  of  years  of  struggle  was  the  Military  and 
Naval  Officers'  Oath  Bill  of  1817,  opening  all  ranks  in  the  service 
to  Roman  Catholics.1  At  the  same  time,  the  agitation  was  being 
actively  carried  on  in  Ireland.  ,The  old  agrarian  difficulties  —  ab- 
senteeism, rack-renting,2  and  tithes  —  still  lay  at  the  root  of  the  dis- 
content of  the  lesser  folk ;  but  their  leaders  pushed  to  the  front  the 
question  of  the  political  disabilities  —  exclusion  from  office  and 
Parliament.  Their  most  skilful  organizer  and  agitator  was  Daniel 
O'Connell  (1775-1847),  a  Roman  Catholic  barrister  who  had  entered 
actively  into  politics  in  1805.  His  gay  and  boisterous  temperament, 
his  wit,  his  eloquence,  his  knowledge  of  his  countrymen,  and  his  fervid 
enthusiasm  made  him  a  popular  idol.  Organized  societies  and  mass 
meetings  were  molded  by  his  masterly  hand  into  perfect  and  respon- 
sive instruments,  and  no  one  did  more  than  he  to  arouse  a  truly  na- 
tional feeling.  Although  often  coarse,  unguarded,  and  violent  in  his 
language,  he  always  opposed  the  use  of  force,  declaring  on  one  occa- 
sion that  "  no  political  change  is  worth  a  drop  of  human  blood." 
In  1823,  he  founded  the  Catholic  Association  for  peaceful  and  public 
agitation  of  grievances.  In  order  to  include  even  the  poorest,  the 
contribution  was  fixed  at  a  penny  a  week  or  a  shilling  a  year.  The 
success  of  the  Association  was  so  great  that  the  Government  in  alarm 
passed  a  bill  aiming  to  declare  illegal  not  only  this,  but  all  societies 
for  similar  objects.  The  resourceful  O'Connell  founded  forthwith  a 
new  association  which  evaded  the  terms  of  the  act.  Indeed,  more 
than  once  he  was  able  to  circumvent  the  English  authorities  by  such 
ingenuity. 

The  Repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts.  The  Clare  Election, 
1828.  —  In  1828,  Lord  John  Russell,  a  younger  son  of  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,  destined  to  become  one  of  the  Whig  leaders,  carried  through 
Parliament  a  measure  for  repealing  the  provisions  in  the  Test  and  Cor- 
poration Acts,  requiring  the  taking  of  the  sacrament  according  to  the 
Anglican  form,  as  a  qualification  for  office.  Thus  the  Protestant 
Dissenters  were  admitted  to  privileges  which  they  had  enjoyed  hitherto 
only  by  an  ungracious  indemnity.  Catholics  were  still  excluded  by 
the  necessity  of  taking  the  Oaths  of  Allegiance  and  Supremacy  and  a 
declaration  against  transubstantiation,3  but  their  victory  was  not  far  off . 
Owing  to  disagreements  which  culminated  in  a  quarrel  over  the  dis- 

1  In  England  military  and  naval  officers  who  did  not  take  the  statutory  oaths 
had  been  protected  by  an  annual  indemnity  since  1745. 

2  The  practice  of  setting  tenants  to  bid  against  one  another.     Since  land  was 
scarce,  a  man,  in  order  to  win  in  the  competition,  often  had  to  agree  to  a  sum  which 
it  was  beyond  his  power  to  pay. 

3  By  the  act  of  1828  a  new  declaration  for  the  protection  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land was  required  from  all  holders  of  any  office,  employment,  or  place  of  trust. 
Since  it  had  to  be  affirmed  "upon  the  true  faith  of  a  Christian,"  Jews  were  excluded, 
not  only  from  office  but  from  Parliament. 


AFTER   THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON         88 1 

posal  of  the  seats  of  two  rotten  boroughs  disfranchised  at  this  time, 
the  Duke  got  rid  of  Huskisson.  Palmerston,  Lamb,  and  others  resigned 
in  quick  succession  until  there  was  not  a  Canningite  left  in  the  Well- 
ington ministry.  Vesey  Fitzgerald,  a  popular  landowner  in  the  county 
of  Clare,  was  chosen  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and,  in  accordance 
with  the  Act  of  1705,  stood  for  reelection.  O'Connell  ran  against  him 
to  the  amazement  of  everybody;  for,  even  if  elected,  he  was  dis- 
qualified from  sitting.  In  a  five  days'  contest,  in  which  he  and  the 
priests  took  care  that  the  proceedings  should  be  absolutely  peaceful, 
he  won  a  complete  triumph.  It  was  clear  that  the  forty-shilling 
freeholder  could  not  longer  be  trusted  to  obey  blindly  the  Govern- 
ment agents.  The  most  significant  result  of  the  Clare  election, 
however,  was  to  convince  Wellington  that  political  equality  could 
no  longer  be  withheld  from  the  Roman  Catholics  except  at  the  risk 
of  civil  war.  Ever  since  1827  the  majority  of  the  Commons  had 
favored  the  desired  concessions ;  but  they  could  make  no  head  against 
the  Lords 1  and  the  King.  The  press  and  the  mass  of  the  English 
people  were  also  stoutly  opposed  to  any  change. 

The  Passage  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Emancipation  Bill,  1829.  —  Any 
other  Prime  Minister  but  Wellington  would  have  resigned.  By  re- 
maining in  office  and  bending  all  his  energies  to  carry  the  measure  he 
was  pledged  to  oppose,  he  was  furiously  denounced  by  the  old-line 
Tories  as  a  betrayer  of  their  principles.  He  was,  no  doubt,  the  fore- 
most man  in  England,  and  his  courage  and  honesty  were  above  ques- 
tion. However,  he  failed  to  understand  the  English  party  system. 
His  political  tactics  were  those  of  the  general  —  to  hold  a  position  as 
long  as  possible  and  then  to  yield.  Moreover,  he  had  a  sense  of  public 
duty  that  was  superior  to  party  allegiance.  Convinced  that  delay 
was  fatal,  he  realized  that  no  one  in  the  country  was  as  likely  as  him- 
self to  overcome  the  obstinacy  of  the  King.  Peel,  who  shared  in 
the  denunciation  heaped  upon  his  chief,  hesitated  for  a  time  as  to  what 
course  to  pursue.  He  finally  concluded  to  support  the  Duke.  He 
did,  however,  feel  it  his  duty  to  resign  his  seat  as  a  member  from 
Oxford.  When  that  citadel  of  conservatism  refused  to  reelect  him, 
he  was  returned  from  Westbury.  After  notice  had  already  been 
given  that  the  Bill  would  be  introduced,  George  sought  to  interpose 
an  obstacle  by  declaring  that  he  would  consent  to  no  alteration  in 
the  Oath  of  Supremacy.  Wellington,  Peel,  and  Lyndhurst  at  once  re- 
signed ;  and,  finding  it  impossible  to  form  another  Ministry,  he  was 
obliged  to  give  way.  Poor  old  Eldon,  though  he  shed  tears  and  fore- 
told the  ruin  of  the  British  Empire,  failed  to  induce  the  majority  of 
the  Tory  peers  to  vote  against  the  Duke.  As  a  last  resource,  he  tried  to 
induce  the  King  to  refuse  his  assent.  George,  who  had  once  declared 
"  that  there  was  no  person  in  the  whole  world  that  he  hated  so  much," 
was  so  affected  that  he  threw  his  arms  around  the  neck  of  the 

1  George's  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  who  died  in  January,  1827,  had  (according 
to  Eldon)  done  "more  to  quiet  this  matter  than  everything  else  put  together." 

31 


882  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

aged  ex-Chancellor.  Indeed,  the  King's  whole  behavior  was  petty 
and  childish.  He  threatened  even  to  return  to  Hanover.  While  he 
eventually  signed  the  measure,  he  vented  his  spite  by  treating  its 
supporters  with  premeditated  rudeness  and  by  showering  favors  upon 
those  who  had  opposed  it. 

The  Terms  of  the  Act.  —  The  Act,  in  its  final  form,  conceded  full 
political  and  civil  rights  to  Roman  Catholics,  with  specified  exceptions 
and  under  certain  conditions  devised  as  safeguards.  The  Oaths  of 
Allegiance,  Supremacy,  and  Abjuration  were  done  away  with,  as  well  as 
the  renunciation  of  belief  in  transubstantiation,  invocation  of  saints, 
and  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass.  Instead,  members  of  Parliament  and 
officeholders  had  to  take  a  new  oath  swearing  allegiance  to  the  Sover- 
eign, renouncing  the  temporal  supremacy  of  the  Pope  within  the  realm 
and  pledging  support  to  the  Protestant  settlement  of  Church  and 
State.  Roman  Catholics  were  excluded  from  the  offices  of  Sovereign, 
Lord  Chancellor  of  England  or  Ireland,  and  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ire- 
land. Further,  they  could  hold  no  positions  in  the  ecclesiastical  courts 
nor  in  the  universities,  and  their  priests  could  not  sit  in  Parliament.1 
Their  bishops  could  not  assume  diocesan  titles  already  held  by  bishops 
of  the  Church  of  England,  a  provision  which  was  destined,  a  few  years 
later,  to  cause  serious  trouble.  A  few  disabilities  still  remained; 
for  example,  marriages  celebrated  by  Catholic  priests  were  not  recog- 
nized by  law  till  1838.  The  Act  of  1829,  a  tardy  measure  of  justice 
—  carried,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  by  the  unreformed  Parliament 
against  the  prevailing  popular  sentiment  —  did  not  have  the  hoped- 
for  effect  in  quieting  the  Irish  discontent;  indeed,  the  opinion  has 
been  advanced  that,  had  the  consequences  been  foreseen,  the  majority 
of  those  who  helped  carry  the  Bill  would  have  voted  for  its  rejection. 
Wellington's  frank  admission  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  he  had  only 
acted  from  dread  of  civil  war,  encouraged  the  use  of  force  in  time  to 
come.  Two  reasons  help  to  explain  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  Irish. 
In  the  first  place,  the  forty-shilling  freeholders  were  disfranchised, 
and  the  qualification  for  voting  raised  to  ten  pounds.  O'Connell, 
who  had  "  solemnly  vowed  to  perish  on  the  field  or  on  the  scaffold 
rather  than  submit,"  yielded  without  a  protest.  Far  different  was  his 
attitude  with  regard  to  the  other  question.  Apparently  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  excluding  him  from  taking  the  seat  which  he  had 
recently  secured  from  the  county  Clare,  the  Government  had  unwisely 
inserted  a  clause  in  the  Relief  Bill  that  its  provisions  should  not  be 
retroactive.  O'Connell  appeared  at  the  bar  of  the  House  prepared  to 
take  the  new  oath ;  but,  though  he  argued  his  case  with  moderation 
and  skill,  was  turned  away.  He  was  easily  reflected ;  but  the  sense- 
less and  ungracious  trick  which  had  been  practiced  on  him  turned  him 
into  a  fiery  advocate  of  the  repeal  of  the  Union. 

1  Church  of  England  clergymen  had  been  excluded  from  the  House  of  Commons 
since  1801. 


AFTER  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON         883 

The  Last  Months  of  the  Wellington  Ministry,  and  the  Death  of 
George  IV.  — The  last  months  of  the  Wellington  Ministry  were  gloomy 
enough.  Ireland  was  seething  with  disorder,  while  in  England  a  bad 
harvest  and  a  severe  winter  resulted  in  distress  and  disquiet.  Indus- 
trial conditions  were  also  affected  and  led  to  new  outbursts  of  violence. 
Although  they  managed  to  cut  down  expenses  and  remit  various  taxes, 
the  Duke  and  his  supporters  never  recovered  their  popularity.  The 
Tories  regarded  them  as  traitors,  the  King  never  forgave  them  for 
forcing  his  hand,  while  the  Canningites  were  hopelessly  alienated. 
Most  of  them,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  had  gone  over  to  the  Whigs,  who 
were  strongly  organized  under  a  trusted  leader,  John  Charles  Spencer, 
Viscount  Althorpe1  (1782-1845).  Another  factor  which  told  against 
Wellington  was  that  parliamentary  reform,  to  which  he  was  stoutly 
opposed,  had  now  become  an  issue  bound  to  prevail.  George  IV  died, 
26  June,  1830,  unloved  and  unregretted.  With  the  accession  of  his 
brother  William,  who  was  friendly  to  the  Whigs  and  reform,  the  Duke's 
Ministry  was  doomed.  Events  abroad,  which  reached  a  crisis  in  1830, 
gave  great  impetus  to  the  popular  movement  in  England. 

Great  Britain  and  the  European  Situation  at  the  Close  of  the  Great 
War.  —  The  effect  of  the  French  Revolution  and  of  the  Napoleonic  wars 
had  been,  on  the  one  hand,  to  arouse  a  spirit  of  liberty  and  national 
independence  among  the  peoples  of  many  continental  states ;  on  the 
other,  to  unite  most  of  the  European  sovereigns  in  a  policy  of  reaction 
and  repression.  The  aim  of  the  ruling  powers  was  to  maintain  peace 
in  accordance  with  the  Congress  of  Vienna  and  the  second  Treaty  of 
Paris.  The  chief  engine  for  carrying  through  this  work  was  the 
Quadruple  Alliance  which  provided  for  frequent  Congresses  where  all 
movements  which  threatened  the  tranquillity  of  Europe  were  dis- 
cussed and  concerted  action  determined.  Prince  Metternich,  the 
Austrian  Minister,  was  the  leading  spirit  of  the  despotic  regime.  The 
tenor  of  the  Metternich  system  is  admirably  expressed  in  a  circular  of 
the  Congress  of  Laibach,  meeting  in  October,  1821,  which  declared 
that :  "  Useful  or  necessary  changes  in  legislation  and  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  States  ought  only  to  emanate  from  the  free  will  and  intelli- 
gent and  well-weighed  conviction  of  those  whom  God  has  rendered 
responsible  for  power."  While  the  Austrian  Minister  was  opposed 
to  any  intervention  which  might  disturb  the  balance  of  power,  he 
induced  the  larger  states  of  Germany  to  combine  under  Prussian 
leadership  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  lesser  to  stifle  the  least  signs  of 
revolution ;  he  stood  ready  to  crush  out  all  evidences  of  unrest  in 
Italy,  where,  through  the  possession  of  Lombardy  and  Venice,  Aus- 

1  "  Honest  Jack,"  as  he  was  fondly  called,  had  in  his  youth  been  chiefly  noted  for 
his  interest  in  sports,  his  debts,  and.  his  awkward  manners.  He  was  drawn  into 
politics  by  his  admiration  for  Charles  James  Fox.  He  had  no  political  ambition 
and  spoke  unwillingly  and  badly ;  but  by  devotion  to  duty,  by  his  industry  in  the 
mastery  of  public  questions,  and  by  sheer  force  of  character  he  came,  in  spite  of 
himself,  to  lead  his  party  in  the  Commons. 


884  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

trian  interests  were  predominant;  and  he  was  pledged  to  maintain 
the  Bourbons  of  France.  Castlereagh,  who  guided  British  foreign 
policy,  was  a  far  more  decided  advocate  of  non-intervention,  while 
Alexander  of  Russia  represented  the  opposite  policy. 

The  Revolutions  of  1820. — The  year  1820  witnessed  a  series  of 
revolutions.  The  first  occurred  in  Spain.  Though  Alexander  was 
hot  for  joint  intervention,  Castlereagh,  backed  by  Metternich,  suc- 
ceeded in  frustrating  his  designs.  In  the  summer,  revolts  followed  in 
Naples,  Sicily,  and  Portugal.  Castlereagh  was  quite  willing  to  allow 
Austria  to  interfere  in  Italy  on  the  ground  that  her  possessions  were 
endangered ;  but  he  declared  against  proposals  of  joint  intervention. 
For  that  reason,  he  protested  against  the  Congresses  summoned  to  con- 
sider the  Spanish  question  and  refused  to  send  any  official  representa- 
tives when  they  met.  He  was  really  in  sympathy  with  crushing  revo- 
lutionary movements,  and  seems  to  have  given  the  European  Powers 
private  assurances  of  support,  though,  to  satisfy  British  public  opinion, 
he  played  a  double  game  by  openly  opposing  their  efforts.  The 
upshot  was  that  Austria  sent  an  army  to  Naples  which  restored  the 
Bourbon  Ferdinand  and  likewise  suppressed  a  revolt  in  Piedmont. 
Thus,  with  the  help  of  Castlereagh,  she  carried  out  a  policy  of  inter- 
vention when  it  suited  her  interests,  and  defeated  the  Russian  projects 
for  joint  action,  which  she  regarded  with  disfavor. 

The  Spanish  Situation,  1820-1823. — The  Spanish  revolutionists 
had  forced  their  worthless  King,  Ferdinand  VII,  to  restore  a  constitu- 
tion which  he  had  accepted  at  his  restoration  in  1812,  and  which  he 
had  afterwards  ignored.  The  situation  was  complicated  from  the  fact 
that  the  ultraroyalists,  who  had  secured  control  in  France,  fearing 
the  contagion  of  the  Spanish  revolutionary  principles,  insisted  upon 
intervention.  Their  alarm  was  accentuated  from  the  fact  that  the 
Portuguese  King,  John  VI,  on  his  return,  in  June,  1821,  from  a  fourteen 
years'  absence  in  Brazil  signed  a  liberal  constitution  which  his  subjects 
had  recently  adopted.  It  was  understood  that  the  Spanish  question 
would  come  up  for  discussion  in  a  Congress  summoned  to  meet  at 
Verona.  A  preliminary  conference  was  arranged  at  Vienna.  Cas- 
tlereagh, who  was  to  represent  Great  Britain,  shot  himself  12  August, 
1822.  However,  he  had  already  made  up  his  mind  to  resist  the  French 
as  he  had  previously  resisted  the  Russian  proposals  of  intervention ; 
and  Canning,  his  successor  as  Foreign  Secretary,  adopted  the  same 
attitude.  Furthermore,  he  continued  Castlereagh's  policy  of  opposi- 
tion to  governing  European  affairs  by  Congresses.  Where  he  dif- 
fered from  his  predecessor  was  in  his  sincere  belief  that  each  nation 
should  be  left  free  to  choose  its  own  form  of  government.  "  Castle- 
reagh had  been  suspected  of  holding  the  continental  doctrine  that 
people  exist  only  for  their  kings,"  whereas  Canning  "  based  his  policy 
on  the  modern  notion  that  kings  exist  only  for  their  people."  In 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  Wellington,  who  was  sent  as  plenipotentiary 
to  Verona,  the  Congress  adopted  the  project  of  French  intervention 


AFTER   THE  OVERTHROW  OF   NAPOLEON         885 

Canning  finally  agreed  not  to  interfere  with  the  invaders  so  long  as 
they  observed  certain  conditions:  that  they  should  not  destroy  the 
independence  of  Spain ;  that  France  should  not  possess  herself  of  any 
Spanish  colonies;  and  that  the  occupation  should  not  be  permanent. 
A  French  army  entered  Spain  in  April,  1823.  Before  the  close  of  the 
year,  Ferdinand  was  restored  and  absolutism  was  again  triumphant. 
Canning  and  the  Recognition  of  the  South  American  Republics, 
1823-1825.  —  In  three  directions,  however,  Canning  contributed  to 
check  the  designs  of  the  reactionaries  —  in  Portugal,  in  the  Spanish 
colonies  in  South  America,  and  in  Greece.  The  Portuguese  ultra- 
royalists,  led  by  the  army  and  joined  by  Miguel,  second  son  of  John  VI, 
succeeded  in  overthrowing  the  constitution  which  the  King  had  re- 
cently granted.  By  sending  a  British  fleet  to  the  Tagus,  Canning 
managed  to  prevent  the  complete  triumph  of  the  reactionary  party, 
although  the  constitution  was  not  restored.  Meantime,  Pedro,  eldest 
son  of  John  VI,  whom  his  father  had  left  as  ruler  in  Brazil,  had,  in 
October,  1822,  proclaimed  the  independence  of  that  country  and  as- 
sumed the  title  of  Emperor.  His  father  had  authorized  him  to  take 
this  step  in  case  of  necessity,  and  Portugal,  in  July,  1825,  recognized 
the  independence  of  the  new  Empire.  This  was  in  accordance  with 
the  recommendation  of  a  conference  in  London,  composed  of  British, 
Austrian,  Portuguese  and  Brazilian  representatives.  Already,  in  1824, 
Great  Britain,  following  the  lead  of  the  United  States,  had  recog- 
nized the  independence  of  Mexico  and  of  two  of  the  republics  in  South 
America,  where  revolutions  against  Spain  had  been  going  on  since  1810. 
Recognition  of  others  was  not  long  delayed.  The  possibility  of  Eu- 
ropean intervention  was  deterred  by  the  efforts  of  Canning  and  the 
United  States.  While  the  American  Secretary  of  State,  John  Quincy 
Adams,  declined  the  proposals  of  the  British  Foreign  Minister  for 
joint  action,  Monroe,  in  his  famous  presidential  message  of  Decem- 
ber, 1823,  declared,  in  substance,  that  interference  on  the  part  of  any 
European  power,  with  American  governments,  whose  independence 
had  been  maintained  and  recognized  by  the  United  States,  would  be 
regarded  in  the  light  of  an  unfriendly  act.r  Thus  supported,  Canning 
was  able  to  prevent  France  from  calling  in  the  other  Powers  to  under- 
take the  reconquest  of  the  Spanish  colonies.  In  phrases  which  have 
become  famous,  Canning  declared  in  Parliament :  "  Contemplating 
Spain  such  as  our  ancesters  had  known  her,  I  resolved  that  if  France 
had  Spain,  it  should  not  be  Spain  with  the  Indies.  I  called  the  New 
World  into  existence  to  redress  the  balance  of  the  old."  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  he  called  nothing  into  existence ;  he  merely  recognized  states 

1  The  sentences  in  which  this  view  was  expressed,  as  well  as  those  aimed  against 
the  designs  of  Russia  on  the  northwest  coast,  which  announced  that :  "  The  American 
continents  .  .  .  are  henceforth  not  to  be  considered  as  subjects  for  future  coloni- 
zation by  any  European  power,"  were  written  by  Adams.  The  doctrine  which  they 
embody  has  been  rightly  called  the  "Monroe  Doctrine,"  in  that  Monroe  assumed 
the  responsibility.  It  was  really  the  enunciation  of  a  principle  as  old  as  Wash- 
ington. 


886  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

that  had  already  accomplished  their  independence  and  took  the  step 
after  the  United  States  had  led  the  way.  Moreover,  he  was  deter- 
mined rather  by  interests  of  trade  than  political  equity.  Nevertheless, 
in  spite  of  his  boastful  exaggeration,  the  significance  of  his  achievement 
must  not  be  forgotten.  In  the  face  of  a  great  European  combination, 
and  of  the  opposition  of  King  George,  backed  by  a  strong  party  in  the 
Cabinet,  he  had  arrayed  his  country  on  the  side  of  revolutionary 
governments  against  the  forces  of  reaction. 

Canning  and  the  Greek  Revolution,  1823-1827.  —  In  eastern  Europe 
also,  where  a  different  problem  had  to  be  faced,  Canning  adopted 
the  cause  of  an  insurgent  people.  In  1821,  the  Greeks  had  risen  in 
revolt  against  the  Turks,  to  whom  they  had  long  been  subject.  Here, 
too,  Russia  was  keen  for  intervention,  but  this  time  on  the  side  of  the 
oppressed  nationality.  Popular  sentiment  in  Great  Britain  was 
naturally  inclined  to  favor  the  Greeks,  while  Castlereagh  opposed  the 
Russian  projects  on  two  grounds.  He  feared  the  encouragement  it 
might  lend  to  the  revolutionary  spirit  which  was  spreading  through 
Europe,  and  he  feared  still  more  that  defeat  of  the  Turks  by  Russian 
arms  would  lead  to  Russian  supremacy  in  the  Black  Sea  and  in  Asia 
Minor,  and  to  a  consequent  menace  of  the  British  power  in  the  Medi- 
terranean and  in  India.  While  Canning  had  no  sympathy  with  the 
first  consideration,  the  question  of  Russian  aggrandizement  presented 
a  serious  problem  in  his  eyes.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  recognize  the 
Greeks  as  belligerents,  25  March,  1823 ;  but,  for  some  time,  he  stood 
out  against  acknowledging  their  independence  or  intervening  by  force 
of  arms  in  their  behalf,  and  sought  to  secure  concessions  from  the  Turks 
by  mediation.  He  was  only  forced  to  decided  action  by  the  furious 
devastation  and  bloodshed  of  Ibrahim  Pasha,  son  of  Mehemet  AH,1 
ruler  of  Egypt,  whom  the  Porte 2  called  in  to  reduce  the  Morea.3  Even 
yet  Canning  was  opposed  to  coercing  the  Turks.  Early  in  1826,  how- 
ever, he  concluded  a  treaty  with  the  new  Tsar  Nicholas  I,4  to  which 
France  became  a  party  before  the  close  of  the  year,  providing  for 
possible  intervention.  Popular  enthusiasm  for  the  Greek  cause  in 
England  and  elsewhere  was  tremendous.  Volunteers 5  flocked  to  the 
scene  of  action,  and  money  and  supplies  were  joyfully  contributed. 
Canning,  who  continued  his  policy  of  cautious  restraint,  signed,  6  July, 
1827,  just  before  his  final  illness,  the  Treaty  of  London  which  aimed  to 
secure  autonomy  for  the  Greeks,  coupled  with  the  payment  of  tribute 
to  the  Sultan.  In  the  event  of  Turkey's  refusal,  the  allied  fleets  were 
to  combine  in  enforcing  the  terms. 

1  He  was  tributary  to  the  Sultan. 

2  Abbreviated  from  "Sublime  Porte,"  literally  "high  gate,"  from  the  entrance 
to  the  palace  where  justice  was  administered.    The  name  thus  came  to  be  applied 
to  the  Turkish  Government. 

3  The  southern  part  of  the  Greek  peninsula,  the  ancient  Peloponnesus. 

4  Alexander  I  died  suddenly  during  the  negotiations,  i  December,  1825. 

5  The  most  distinguished  of  them  was  Lord  Byron,  who  died  of  fever  at  Misso- 
longhi,  19  April,  1824. 


AFTER  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  NAPOLEON        887 

The  Course  of  the  Struggle,  1827-1829.  —  The  reply  of  the  Porte 
was  to  order  a  fleet  from  Egypt  which  took  its  station  in  the  harbor  of 
Navarino  under  the  command  of  Ibrahim.  Thence  he  landed  troops, 
harried  the  land,  and  massacred  the  inhabitants  at  will.  This  was  too 
much  for  Admiral  Codrington,  the  commander  of  the  allied  squadron, 
who  entered  the  harbor,  20  October,  1827,  and  inflicted  a  crushing 
defeat  upon  his  adversaries.  Canning,  who  might  have  supported 
him,  was  no  more ;  the  feeble  Goderich  did  nothing ;  while  Wellington, 
who  soon  succeeded  him,  was  disinclined  to  break  with  Turkey  in  the 
interests  of  the  Greeks.  Hence  Codrington's  noble  victory  was  de- 
scribed in  the  King's  speech  of  29  January,  1828,  as  "  a  collision  wholly 
unexpected  by  his  Majesty,"  and  "  an  untoward  event,"  which  "  his 
Majesty  hoped  would  not  be  followed  by  further  hostilities."  This 
declaration,  which  raised  a  storm  of  protest  on  the  part  of  the  friends 
of  Greek  freedom,  encouraged  Turkey  to  demand  satisfaction  for  the 
destruction  of  her  fleet.  When  this  insolent  demand  was  refused,  she 
proceeded  to  defy  all  Europe,  and  Russia,  in  particular,  whom  she 
denounced  as  the  prime  mover  in  the  revolt  of  the  Greeks.  Russia, 
thereupon,  declared  war  and  moved  her  troops  into  the  Danubian 
provinces.  In  vain  she  urged  Great  Britain  and  France  to  send  their 
fleets  through  the  Dardanelles.  Wellington,  instead,  proposed  to 
France  that  they  should  keep  their  hands  off  Turkey  and  confine  their 
energies  to  preserving  order  and  checking  excesses  in  the  area  where 
the  Greeks  and  the  Egyptians  were  actually  fighting.  Lack  of  con- 
cert between  the  Powers  enabled  Ibrahim  to  hold  the  ports  of  the 
Morea  for  a  time,  but,  at  length,  the  Conference  of  London,  which  had 
resumed  its  sittings,  agreed  that  the  French  should  undertake  his 
expulsion.  Meanwhile,  Codrington,  who  had  been  recalled,  sailed  to 
Alexandria  before  the  order  went  into  effect,  and  extorted  an  agree- 
ment from  Mehemet  Ali  to  withdraw  the  greater  part  of  the  Egyptian 
fleet.  This  greatly  simplified  the  work  of  the  French,  who,  by  Novem- 
ber, 1828,  succeeded  in  driving  the  invaders  from  the  Morean  coast. 
Capodistrias,  whom  the  Greeks  had  elected  President,  14  April,  1827, 
carried  on  the  war  with  the  greatest  vigor,  while  the  Russian  General 
Diebitsch  pressed  down  over  the  Balkans.  It  soon  became  clear,  how- 
ever, that  he  had  got  himself  into  a  dangerous  position,  whereupon  the 
Tsar  hastened  to  make  terms. 

Greek  Independence,  1829.  —  Peace  was  signed  at  Adrianople, 
14  September,  1829.  The  virtual  independence  of  the  two  Danubian 
provinces  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  was  acknowledged,  and  the 
powers  friendly  to  Turkey  were  allowed  to  send  ships  through  the 
Dardanelles  and  the  Bosphorus.  Turkey  consented  to  submit  to 
the  terms  of  the  Conference  of  London  in  the  settlement  of  the  Greek 
question.  As  a  result,  it  was  provided  that  Greece  should  be  erected 
into  an  hereditary  principality,  independent  of  the  Porte.  Wellington, 
who  had  favored  the  restriction  of  the  new  state  to  the  Morea  as  well 
as  the  payment  of  tribute,  gave  in  on  both  points.  The  crown  was 


888  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

first  offered  to  Prince  Leopold,  husband  of  the  late  Princess  Charlotte, 
who  accepted,  February,  1830 ;  but  Capodistrias,  desiring  to  retain  his 
presidency,  suggested  so  many  difficulties  that  he  changed  his  mind. 
Capodistrias  conducted  a  provisional  administration  which  was  cut 
short  by  his  assassination  in  1831.  The  Powers  then  selected  a  Bava- 
rian Prince,  who  ruled  as  Otto  I  from  1832  until  he  was  driven  out  by  a 
revolution  in  1862.  He  was  succeeded  the  next  year  by  George  of 
Denmark,  who  was  murdered  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  acces- 
sion. 

The  Portuguese  Problem,  1826-1828.  —  While  Turkey  and  Greece 
had  been  storm  centers  in  European  politics,  the  Portuguese  and  Span- 
ish questions  were  passing  through  acute  stages.  John  VI  of  Portugal 
died,  10  March,  1826.  The  Absolutists,  who  had  hoped  that  Peter  of 
Brazil  would  again  unite  the  two  crowns,  were  doomed  to  grievous 
disappointment.  He  proceeded  to  confer  a  liberal  constitution  upon 
Portugal,  providing,  among  other  things,  for  religious  toleration  and 
the  taxation  of  the  nobility.  Moreover,  he  signified  his  intention  of 
abdicating  the  Portuguese  throne  in  favor  of  his  seven-year-old  daugh- 
ter Mary  as  soon  as  two  conditions  had  been  fulfilled  —  the  establish- 
ment of  the  constitution  and  the  marriage  of  Mary  to  her  uncle  Miguel. 
The  proclamation  of  the  constitution  in  July  drove  the  ultraroyalists 
to  revolt.  Making  Spain  their  base  of  operations,  they  invaded  their 
country  with  the  aid  of  Spanish  troops.  The  Constitutionalists  at 
once  applied  to  the  British,  who  were  bound  by  treaty  to  assist  the 
Portuguese  Government  in  case  of  invasion.  Canning,  while  advocat- 
ing the  execution  of  the  treaty  obligations,  insisted  that  his  purpose 
was  not  to  interfere  in  domestic  concerns,  but  simply  to  resist  the 
Spanish  aggression.  The  British  forces  arrived  late  in  December,  1826. 
Although  they  engaged  in  little  active  fighting,  their  support  enabled 
the  Government  to  drive  out  the  invaders.  Fresh  difficulties  arose 
when  Pedro  decided  to  appoint  Miguel  regent.  The  Constitutionalists 
rose  against  him,  while  the  Absolutists  armed  in  his  defense.  When 
the  British  prematurely  withdrew  their  forces,  in  March,  1828,  Miguel 
summoned  the  ancient  Cortez,  which  named  him  King.  Although 
Pedro  stoutly  opposed  this  step,  Wellington,  now  Prime  Minister, 
declined  to  interfere. 

The  Portuguese  and  Spanish  Pretenders.  —  A  new  Cabinet,  con- 
stituted in  1830  with  Palmerston  as  Foreign  Secretary,  reversed  this 
attitude  of  neutrality.  One  good  reason  was  the  fact  that  British 
subjects  were  shamefully  treated  under  Miguel's  regime.  Early  in 
May,  1831,  a  fleet  was  sent  to  the  Tagus,  which  extorted  an  indemnity 
and  an  apology  from  the  usurper.  Pedro,  who,  6  April,  had  resigned 
the  throne  of  Brazil  in  favor  of  his  infant  son,  at  once  departed  to 
defend  the  claims  of  his  daughter  to  the  throne  of  Portugal.  He  was 
allowed  to  raise  troops  in  England  and  France,  though  neither  Govern- 
ment granted  him  either  money  or  men.  Joined  by  a  force  recruited 
from  the  Azores,  he  landed  in  Portugal,  in  June,  1832.  With  the  as- 


AFTER   THE    OVERTHROW  OF   NAPOLEON         889 

sistance  of  a  British  fleet  he  was  able,  in  less  than  a  year,  to  recover 
practically  all  of  the  country  except  the  north,  where  Miguel  continued 
to  hold  out.  Such  was  the  situation  when  Ferdinand  VII  of  Spain 
died,  29  September,  1833.  Influenced  by  his  wife,  Maria  Christina,  he 
disregarded  the  Salic  law  which  hitherto  had  prevailed  in  Spain  and 
left  the  throne  by  will  to  his  daughter  Isabella.  His  brother  Don 
Carlos,  thus  excluded,  at  once  combined  forces  with  Miguel.  In 
consequence,  Great  Britain,  Pedro,  and  the  Spanish  Queen  Dowager 
formed  a  triple  alliance  against  the  two  Pretenders,  which  was  extended 
to  a  quadruple  alliance  by  the  accession  of  France,  in  April,  1834. 
Miguel  soon  signed  an  agreement  by  which,  in  return  for  a  pension,  he 
renounced  his  claims  and  left  Portugal.  Carlos,  however,  refused  to 
yield,  and  the  war  dragged  on  for  years.  He  finally  fled  from  Spain  in 
1839  and,  six  years  later,  renounced  his  pretensions  in  favor  of  his  son. 
Since  then  Spain  has  occasionally  been  troubled  by  insurrections  to 
restore  the  Carlist  line,  a  representative  of  which  still  survives. 

The  Year  of  Revolutions,  1830.  The  Three  Days'  Rising  in  Paris, 
27-29  July.  —  Meanwhile,  the  year  1830  had  been  marked  by  a  series 
of  revolutionary  movements  in  which  France,  for  the  second  time,  led 
the  way.  Louis  XVIII  died  in  1824,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother 
Charles  X,  who,  with  his  ministers,  developed  a  policy  of  reaction  which 
aroused  intense  opposition.  Affairs  reached  a  crisis  when,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  liberal  victory  at  the  elections,  the  Government  issued 
three  ordinances  25  July.  The  first  declared  the  recent  elections 
illegal  and  dissolved  the  Assembly.  The  second  arbitrarily  changed 
the  election  laws  in  order  to  restrict  the  suffrage  to  the  rich  land- 
owners. The  third  curtailed  the  liberty  of  the  press  by  requiring  a 
royal  license  for  the  publication  of  pamphlets  and  newspapers.  The 
result  was  a  revolt  which  took  the  form  of  a  three  days'  street  fight  in 
Paris,  27-29  July.  Charles  X  was  driven  from  the  throne,  and  Louis 
Philippe  was  proclaimed  King.  He  was  the  son  of  Philippe  Egalite, 
a  notorious  figure  in  the  French  Revolution,  and  was  descended  from 
the  Duke  of  Orleans,  brother  of  Louis  XIV.  The  consequences  of  the 
revolution  and  the  change  of  dynasty,  in  addition  to  the  example 
which  it  set  for  other  European  countries,  was  to  transfer  the  balance 
of  power  from  the  nobles  and  clergy  to  the  bourgeoisie.  Wellington, 
convinced  of  the  pacific  policy  of  the  new  "  Citizen  King,"  secured  his 
recognition  and  choked  in  its  inception  a  hostile  combination  of  Aus- 
tria, Russia,  and  Prussia. 

The  Belgian  Revolution,  1830.  —  The  effect  of  the  French  revolu- 
tionary movement  was  first  manifested  in  the  neighboring  Belgium, 
formerly  the  Austrian  Netherlands.  The  Belgians  had  chafed  sorely 
under  the  rule  of  the  Dutch  King  William  I,  who  had  been  set  over 
them  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna.  The  Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands, 
created  by  the  Congress,  was  composed  of  two  elements  hopelessly 
at  variance.  The  Belgians  were  French  in  sympathy,  they  were 
Roman  Catholics,  and  chiefly  engaged  in  manufacturing  pursuits. 


8go  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Dutch,  who  were  the  dominant  partners  in  the  united  Kingdom, 
were  anti-French,  stanch  Protestants,  and  mainly  commercial  in 
their  interests.  Furthermore,  they  controlled  the  States-General  and 
held  a  large  share  of  the  public  offices.  In  addition,  the  King  alienated 
his  Belgian  subjects  and  roused  their  resentment  by  a  series  of  encroach- 
ments :  he  suspended  the  liberty  of  the  press ;  he  appointed  judges, 
who,  by  the  Constitution,  should  have  been  elected ;  he  took  control  of 
education;  and  proscribed  the  use  of  French  in  public  business. 
Following  the  revolt  in  Paris,  a  popular  rising  took  place  in  Brussels, 
25  August,  1830.  Thence  it  spread  through  the  provinces.  At  first 
the  insurgents  asked  only  for  a  separate  administration,  but  national 
sentiment  soon  came  to  demand  the  abolition  of  the  personal  union. 
Prussia  and  Russia  were  insistent  that  the  powers  should  maintain 
King  William  by  force  of  arms.  This  was  opposed  by  France,  where 
there  was  a  strong  popular  demand  for  the  reannexation  of  Belgium, 
which  had  been  under  French  rule  from  1794  to  1814.  Louis  was  forced 
to  declare  that,  if  the  Powers  interfered,  he  would  send  a  French  army 
to  occupy  the  country.  In  order  to  avert  a  general  war  it  was  eventu- 
ally agreed  to  refer  the  question  to  the  London  Conference,  which  was 
still  engaged  in  settling  the  affairs  of  Greece,  and  to  invite  Russia  and 
Prussia  to  join  in  the  deliberations.  While  the  Powers  were  at  work 
discussing  boundaries,  division  of  the  debt,  and  the  form  of  govern- 
ment which  the  Belgians  should  adopt,  a  National  Congress  had 
assembled.  The  Congress  proclaimed  the  independence  of  Belgium, 
voted  for  a  constitutional  monarchy,  and  elected  as  King  the  Due  de 
Nemours,  second  son  of  Louis  Philippe.  In  deference  to  the  other 
four  Powers  represented  at  London,  the  French  King  was  obliged  to 
decline  the  offer  for  his  son.  Thereupon,  the  crown  was  tendered  to 
Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg,  who  accepted  in  January,  1832.  The  Dutch, 
refusing  to  sanction  the  arrangement,  proceeded  to  invade  Belgium. 
The  new  King,  with  the  joint  support  of  France  and  Great  Britain, 
put  an  end  to  the  war  with  Holland  before  the  close  of  1833 ;  but  it 
was  not  till  1839  that  the  Dutch  King  finally  accepted  the  terms  of  the 
London  Conference. 

The  Effect  of  the  Revolutionary  Movements  on  England.  —  From 
France  and  Belgium  the  revolutionary  movement  spread  to  various 
German  states,  to  Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Poland.  The  continental 
uprisings  played  an  important  part  in  precipitating  the  demand  for 
reform  in  England.  The  restraint  which  had  governed  the  July 
Revolution  in  Paris  was  of  particular  significance  in  demonstrating  to 
the  conservative  middle  classes  that  results  could  be  accomplished 
without  anarchy  and  destructive  excesses.  Accordingly,  they  led  an 
attack  on  the  aristocratic  regime,  in  which  they  gained  a  notable  vic- 
tory in  a  peaceful,  parliamentary  way. 


AFTER  THE  OVERTHROW  OF   NAPOLEON         891 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Brodrick  and  Fotheringham,  Political  History,  chs.  VIII-XII. 
J.  A.  R.  Marriott,  England  since  Waterloo  (1913),  bk.  I  (bibliography,  pp.  541-545). 
Cambridge  Modern  History,  X,  chs.  XVIII,  XIX  (bibliography,  pp.  856-866) .  Sir  H. 
Maxwell,  Century  of  Empire,  I,  chs.  IX-XIV.  Sir  Spencer  Walpole,  History  of 
England,  1815-1856  (6  vols.,  cab.  ed.,  1907),  I,  chs.  IV,  V;  II;  the  most  thorough 
history  of  the  period,  moderate  Liberal  standpoint.  Bright,  III,  1350-1416. 
Hariett  Martineau,  History  of  England  during  the  Thirty  Years1  Peace,  1816-1846 
(4  vols.,  ed.  1877) ;  practically  a  contemporary  work. 

Parliament  and  parliamentary  reform.  See  especially,  May,  Constitutional  His- 
tory (ed.  1907),  I,  chs.  V,  VI,  and  E.  Porritt,  The  Unref armed  Rouse  of  Commons 
(2  vols.,  1902,  new  ed.  1909). 

Biographies  and  special  works.  For  Wellington,  Canning,  and  Sidmouth,  see  ch. 
XLVII  below.  C.  M.  Atkinson,  Life  of  Jeremy  Bentham  (1905).  E.  I.  Carlisle, 
Life  of  Wm.  Cobbett  (1904).  A.  Bain,  Life  of  James  Mill  (1882).  G.  Wallas, 
Life  of  Francis  Place  ( 1 89 1 ) .  S .  Walpole,  Life  of  Earl  Russell  ( 2  vols. ,  1 898) .  There 
are  brief  lives  of  Peel  by  Lord  Rosebery  (1899),  J.  B.  Thursfield  (1891),  Justin 
McCarthy  (1892),  F.  C.  Montague  (1888),  and  G.  Barnett  Smith  (1881).  The 
fullest  work  on  Peel  is  Sir  Robert  Peel,  his  Life  from  his  Private  Correspondence  (3 
vols.,  1891-1899,  ed.  C.  S.  Parker). 

Political  parties.  W.  Harris,  History  of  the  Radical  Party  in  Parliament  (1895). 
C.  B.  R.  Kent,  The  English  Radicals  (1899).  T.  E.  Kebbel,  History  of  Toryism 
(1886).  J.  A.  Roebuck,  History  of  the  Whig  Party  (2  vols.,  1852).  W.  L.  Blease,  A 
Short  History  of  English  Liberalism  (1913).  B.  Ward,  The  Dawn  of  the  Catholic 
Revival,  1781-1803  (1909),  and  The  Eve  of  Catholic  Emancipation,  1803-1829  (3 
vols.,  1912). 

Contemporary.  Brougham,  Memoirs  of  his  Own  Times  (1871);  very  biased. 
C.  G.  Greville,  Journal  of  the  Reigns  of  George  IV  and  William  IV  (ed.  Henry  Reeve, 
1888) ;  owing  to  his  high  family  connections  and  his  position  as  clerk  of  the  Privy 
Council,  Greville  had  exceptional  means  of  information. 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  260-261.  Robertson, 
Select  Statutes,  pt.  I,  nos.  XLIV-XLVI;  pt.  II,  nos.  XXV-XXVI. 


CHAPTER  XLIX 
ENGLAND   ON  THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORM   BILL 

General  Features.  —  The  period  between  the  beginning  of  the 
Industrial  Revolution  and  the  first  Reform  Bill  was  marked  by  many 
evidences  of  progress.  Manners  and  morals  improved  steadily. 
There  was  a  growing  humanitarian  spirit,  and,  in  spite  of  the  preva- 
lence of  laissez-faire,  the  legislative  stagnation  during  the  Great  War 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  ensuing  decade  was  followed  by  measures 
for  bettering  the  condition  of  the  subject.  In  literature,  the  romantic 
revolt  reached  a  glorious  climax.  The  results  of  the  transformation  in 
agriculture  and  industry  came  to  be  fully  manifest.  The  bewildering 
fluctuations  in  the  prices  of  foodstuffs,  and  the  transition  from  old  to 
new  methods,  caused  acute  suffering  to  the  poor,  but,  throughout  the 
War,  the  landlords,  the  manufacturers,  and  the  merchants  enlarged 
their  activities  and  swelled  their  fortunes. 

Manufactures.  —  Some  new  processes  were  introduced  —  for  exam- 
ple, Cartwright  invented  a  wool-combing  machine  which  did  the  work 
of  more  than  a  score  of  men ;  and  the  introduction  of  chlorine  bleach- 
ing resulted  in  a  great  saving  of  time  as  well  as  space.  On  the  whole, 
however,  this  was  an  age  of  perfecting  existing  processes,  of  extending 
the  factory  system  and  organizing  labor,  rather  than  of  new  inventions 
in  production.  The  cotton  industry  felt  the  effects  of  the  Revolution 
much  more  swiftly  and  effectively  than  the  wool  industry.  This  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  former  was  less  hampered  by  traditional  restric- 
tion, and  that  it  was  concentrated  largely  in  and  about  Lancashire, 
instead  of  being  scattered  throughout  the  rural  districts  of  the  country. 
The  increased  cheapness  of  processes  is  as  striking  as  the  growing 
production.  In  1815,  it  cost  only  eight  pence  to  spin  a  pound  of  cotton 
of  a  much  finer  quality  than  had  cost  forty-two  in  1740.  In  1740, 
about  a  million  and  a  half  pounds  of  raw  cotton  were  imported  for 
manufacture;  in  1789,  thirty-two;  in  1830,  two  hundred  and  forty- 
seven.  The  total  exports  in  1740  were  eight  millions  sterling;  in 
1815,  they  had  increased  to  fifty-eight ;  while,  during  the  same  interval, 
exports  had  gone  up  from  six  to  thirty-two  millions. 

British  Shipping.  —  The  tonnage  of  shipping  of  Great  Britain  was 
619,000  in  1780.  With  that  of  Ireland  added,  it  had  gone  up  to 
2,201,000  in  1830.  The  commercial  expansion,  which  had  contrib- 
uted largely  to  the  Industrial  Revolution,  was  in  its  turn  stimulated 
by  the  consequent  increase  in  production.  The  growing  dependence 


ENGLAND  ON  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORM  BILL   893 

on  world  markets  naturally  increased  the  instability  of  trade.  This 
was  accentuated  by  the  American  and  French  wars,  which  increased 
the  uncertainty  and  risk  of  business,  caused  violent  fluctuations  in 
prices,  encouraged  speculation,  and  led  to  unsteadiness  of  employment. 
The  Continental  System  had  the  particular  effect  of  cutting  off  some 
sources  of  food  supply  and  giving  an  artificial  stimulus  to  English 
tillage.  But  Great  Britain,  thanks  to  her  command  of  the  sea,  and 
to  her  improved  processes  in  textile  and  iron  manufacture,  was  able  to 
increase  enormously  her  carrying  trade,  and  to  extend  her  markets. 
Napoleon  himself  was  compelled,  very  reluctantly,  to  buy  her  goods, 
to  encourage  French  and  Italian  agriculture,  and  in  order  to  drain  his 
rival  of  gold,  he  even  allowed  the  export  of  foodstuffs  to  British  ports 
in  181 1.  The  most  serious  difficulties  arose  from  the  strained  relations 
with  the  United  States  during  the  years  preceding  and  including  the 
War  of  1812,  when,  for  a  time,  an  important  market  for  manufactured 
goods,  as  well  as  source  of  supply  for  food  and  raw  cotton,  was  almost 
wholly  cut  off.  As  has  been  seen,  the  end  of  the  Great  War  did  not 
bring  the  prosperity  which  had  been  anticipated.  Continental  nations 
were  too  exhausted  to  buy  much,  and  it  was  some  years  before  the 
peace  markets  grew  to  equal  those  which  the  artificial  demands  of  the 
war  had  created. 

Road  Building.  —  This  period  marked  an  epoch  in  communication 
and  transportation.  Thomas  Telford  (1757-1834)  did  a  notable  work 
in  road  construction,  in  building  canals  and  bridges,  and  in  improving 
harbors.  Among  his  achievements  were :  the  carrying  of  roads  around 
instead  of  over  hills,  the  widening  and  draining  of  roadbeds  and  laying 
a  solid  substructure  of  crushed  stone,  and  the  substitution  of  bridges 
for  fords.  His  bridge  across  the  Menai  Straits  was  the  first  of  any 
magnitude  to  be  constructed  on  the  suspension  principle  in  England. 
Much  as  Telford  accomplished  as  a  road  builder,  the  man  with  whom 
the  modern  system  is  chiefly  associated  is  John  McAdam  (1756-1836), 
whose  process,  adopted  throughout  the  civilized  world,  is  known  to-day 
as  "  macadamizing."  The  new  roads  supplemented,  the  canals  in 
facilitating  transportation  and  gave  a  great  impetus  to  traveling. 
The  number  of  stage  coaches,  estimated  at  1355  in  1812,  doubled  in  the 
next  thirteen  years.  The  old  cumbersome  vehicles  drawn  by  strong, 
slow  horses  were  replaced  by  a  lighter  type,  and  an  average  speed  of 
ten  to  twelve  miles  an  hour  was  attained.  Remote,  isolated  towns 
awoke  from  their  torpor  and  rubbed  off  their  provincialism.  Country 
gentlemen,  who  had  hitherto  traveled  on  horseback,  began  to  make 
use  of  the  public  coaches,  and,  by  mingling  with  men  in  other  walks 
of  life,  began  to  discard  their  prejudices  and  self-sufficiency.  But 
the  real  revolution  in  travel  and  transportation  was  wrought  by 
steam. 

The  Steamboat  and  Railroad.  —  The  idea  of  steam  navigation  was 
very  old;  but  no  practical  results  were  obtained  until  after  Watt's 
invention  had  proved  workable.  In  1807,  Robert  Fulton,  provided 


894  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

with  an  engine  manufactured  at  Soho,  successfully  operated  his  Cler- 
mont  on  the  Hudson.  Henry  Bell's  Comet  began  to  run  on  the  Clyde 
in  1813,  and  very  soon  steamboat  travel  became  general.  Already, 
tracks,  or  "  trains,"  as  the  English  called  them,  had  been  utilized  for 
transporting  coal  from  mines  to  canal  barges  and  river  vessels.  The 
successful  application  of  steam  power  to  this  traction  was  due  to  George 
Stephenson  (1781-1848),  who  began  life  as  a  herder  of  cows,  turned 
collier,  and  rose  to  be  enginewright  at  the  Killingworth  colliery.  His 
first  locomotive,  tried  in  1814,  ran  at  the  rate  of  three  miles  an  hour. 
Later  he  became  engineer  for  the  first  steam  railway — the  Stockdale 
and  Darlington — opened  in  1825.  When  he  was  chosen  to  undertake 
the  operation  of  a  line  from  Manchester  to  Liverpool,  he  nearly 
wrecked  the  project  by  asserting  that  trains  might  be  run  at  the  rate  of 
ten  miles  an  hour.  However,  his  Rocket,  in  competition  for  a  prize 
which  he  won,  attained  a  speed  of  thirty-five.  The  opening  of  the 
road,  in  1830,  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  era,  not  only  in  trans- 
portation, but  in  opportunities  for  indefinitely  increasing  the  employ- 
ment of  labor  and  capital. 

Agriculture.  —  The  revolution  in  agriculture,  although  it  owed  much 
to  the  factory  system,  was  still  further  stimulated  by  the  French  wars. 
Up  to  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  movement  was  largely 
confined  to  the  Eastern  Counties  and  to  Leicestershire.  As  late  as 
1795  there  were  in  Great  Britain  over  twenty-two  million  acres  of 
waste  land,  more  than  six  of  which  were  in  England.  During  the 
reign  of  George  III  between  five  and  six  millions  of  acres  were  inclosed, 
and  more  than  half  the  total  fell  within  the  years  between  1800  and 
1820.  Special  acts  and  agreements  between  parties  were  found  too 
slow  and  cumbersome,  so,  beginning  in  1801,  a  series  of  general  acts 
were  passed  to  facilitate  the  work.  While  his  predecessors  had  pointed 
the  way,  Arthur  Young  (1741-1820)  did  more  than  any  other  single 
man  to  complete  the  transformation  of  agricultural  methods.  Cu- 
riously enough,  he  had  himself  failed  as  a  practical  farmer.  In  1767, 
he  began  to  make  tours  through  Great  Britain  and  France,  and  has 
left  invaluable  information  in  his  graphic  reports.  Until  1810  he  was 
constantly  active  in  urging  consolidation  of  holdings,  reclamation  of 
waste,  .granting  long  leases  to  large  tenants,  and  the  investment  of 
capital  in  land.  He  spread  the  results  of  the  latest  experiments  in 
tillage  and  stock  breeding,  advocated  the  use  of  machinery  for  mowing, 
reaping,  and  threshing,  and  fostered  farmers'  clubs  and  agricultural 
fairs.  Aside  from  the  extinction  of  the  small  cultivator,  the  only  evil 
result  of  the  new  development  was  the  fact  that  the  war  prices  en- 
couraged many  to  sink  money  in  unproductive  lands  which  could  only 
be  farmed  at  a  loss  when  prices  fell  to  their  normal  level.  The  most 
striking  figure  among  the  capitalist  farmers  was  Thomas  Coke  of 
Holkham  (1752-1842),  created  Earl  of  Leicester  in  1837,  who,  by  his 
progressive  methods,  increased  his  rental  from  £2200  in  1776  to 
£20,000  in  1816. 


ENGLAND   ON   THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORM   BILL    895 

Scientific  Progress.  —  The  modern  era  in  science  was  heralded  by 
the  researches  and  discoveries  of  this  period.  Much  of  the  notable 
work  was  done  by  continental  scholars ;  but  Englishmen  contributed 
a  fair  share.  Henry  Cavendish  (1731-1810)  succeeded  in  converting 
hydrogen  and  oxygen  into  water,  and  proved  that  it  was  a  compound 
made  up  of  these  two  gases.  John  Dalton  (1766-1844)  was  the  first 
to  show  that  chemical  elements  are  made  up  of  atoms,  or  ultimate  par- 
ticles each  of  definite  weight.  This  atomic  theory  placed  the  science 
on  a  new  basis.  Sir  Humphrey  Davy  (1778-1829),  in  addition  to 
contributions  on  the  mechanical  theory  of  heat  and  important  electro- 
chemical researches,  conferred  a  priceless  boon  by  his  invention  of  the 
safety  lamp  (1815-1816)  for  miners.  By  covering  the  flame  with  gauze, 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  causes  of  explosions  was  practically  elim- 
inated. Scientific  geology  began  with  James  Hutton  (1776-1797), 
who  originated  the  modern  view  of  the  earth's  crust  in  his  Theory  of 
the  Earth,  1795,  while  Sir  Charles  Lyell  (1797-1875),  in  his  Principles 
of  Geology,  showed  that  "the  great  geological  changes  of  the  past  are 
not  to  be  explained  by  catastrophes,  followed  by  successive  creations, 
but  as  the  product  of  the  continuous  play  of  forces  still  at  work." 
Thus  a  long  step  was  taken  toward  the  evolutionary  theory  which  was 
soon  to  be  established  by  Darwin.  Edward  Jenner  (1749-1823)  made 
the  momentous  discovery,  first  published  in  1798,  that  frequent  vac- 
cination with  the  virus  of  cowpox  rendered  human  beings  practically 
immune  from  smallpox,  and,  in  cases  where  it  was  contracted,  greatly 
diminished  the  fatality.  In  1853,  England  took  the  step,  already 
adopted  by  many  continental  countries,  of  making  vaccination  com- 
pulsory. 

Philosophical  and  Economic  Thinking.  —  In  philosophy,  a  reaction 
was  led  by  Thomas  Reid  (1710-1796)  and  Dugald  Stewart  (1753- 
1828)  against  the  doctrine  that  external  objects  had  no  existence  except 
in  man's  ideas  of  them.  They  insisted  that  knowledge  was  intuitive 
and  that  the  external  world  was  real.  William  Paley  (1743-1805), 
author  of  Principles  of  Moral  and  Political  Philosophy,  1785,  and 
Evidences  of  Christianity,  1794,  was  a  stout  opponent  of  the  Deists  and 
a  forerunner  of  the  later  Utilitarians  —  whose  guiding  aim  was  the 
promotion  of  the  general  welfare  —  though  they  rejected  the  super- 
natural sanction  which  formed  an  essential  element  of  Paley's  system. 
In  general,  the  period  was  more  notable  for  its  political  and  economic 
than  for  its  purely  philosophical  thinking.  The  teachings  of  four  men 
stand  out  preeminently.  Adam  Smith's  free-trade  principles  began 
to  gain  increasing  currency.  Jeremy  Bentham  (1748-1832)  was  a 
pioneer  in  the  aim  to  secure  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest 
number  by  scientific  legislation.  Thomas  Mai  thus  (1766-1834),  in 
his  Essay  on  Population,  1798,  argued  that  a  chief  source  of  misery 
was  the  natural  tendency  of  population  to  increase  more  rapidly  than 
means  of  subsistence,  and  advocated  checking  its  growth.  At  the 
same  time,  he  admitted  that  disease  and  poverty  operated  partially  to 


896  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

modify  his  law.  Nor  was  he  simply  a  hard-hearted  theorist ;  for  he 
enthusiastically  supported  the  improvement  of  the  lot  of  children  by 
factory  legislation.  David  Ricardo  (1772-1823),  who  published  his 
Principles  of  Political  Economy  in  1817,  drew  his  inspiration  from 
Adam  Smith.  His  chief  contribution  was  his  new  doctrine  of  rent. 
Rent,  he  maintained,  is  merely  the  surplus  profit  which  any  land  yields 
over  the  worst  in  cultivation.  It  is  the  produce  of  the  earth  paid  to 
the  landlord  for  the  use  of  the  soil,  and  is  not  to  be  confused  with  the 
interest  and  profit  of  capital  invested.  Thus  it  follows  that  the  great 
owners  are  "  monopolists  appropriating  the  surplus  products  of  the 
soil."  The  views  of  these  four  men  profoundly  influenced  the  whole 
law  of  thinking  of  their  generation  and  of  that  which  followed. 

Heralds  of  Romantic  Revolt  in  Poetry.  —  The  decline  in  poetry 
during  the  second  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  has  been  attributed  to 
the  blighting  influence  of  Pope.  A  more  important  factor,  however, 
was  the  essentially  prosaic  character  of  the  age.  Yet,  as  has  been  seen, 
there  were  evidences  of  tendencies  to  break  away  from  convention,  to 
search  back  into  the  romance  and  mystery  of  the  past,  to  sound  the 
depths  of  fundamental  human  problems,  and  to  appreciate  the  beauties 
of  external  nature.  George  Crabbe  (1754-1832),  while  he  used  the 
conventional  couplet  and  told  prosaic  tales  in  verse,  marked  a  sig- 
nificant departure  from  the  artificial  sentimentality  "  of  the  Popian 
tradition."  This  was  clearly  manifest  in  The  Village,  1783,  a  bald 
picture  of  the  "  simple  annals  of  the  poor."  After  years  of  silence  he 
published  other  long  poems  toward  the  end  of  his  life ;  but,  in  the 
meantime,  the  human  character  of  his  appeal  had  been  voiced  by 
younger  and  sweeter  singers.  William  Cowper  (1731-1800)  uncon- 
sciously revealed  a  new  attitude  in  his  charming  descriptions  of  rural 
life,  notably  in  The  Task,  1785.  He  was  a  gentle  soul  in  whom  occa- 
sional fits  of  gayety  were  darkened  by  long  periods  of  religious  melan- 
cholia. John  Gilpin's  Ride,  1 783,  was  a  product  of  one  of  his  rollicking 
moods.  The  artist  poet  and  "  half-deranged  mystic,"  William  Blake 
(1756-1827),  though  he  exercised  no  influence  in  his  lifetime,  was  more 
truly  a  harbinger  of  the  coming  revolt.  His  Songs  of  Innocence  and 
Songs  of  Experience,  which  he  illustrated  himself,  appeared  succes- 
sively in  1789  and  1794.  At  his  best,  he  produced  passages  of  magical 
beauty,  but  his  unrestrained  imagination  often  led  him  into  wild 
and  meaningless  grotesqueness.  Robert  Burns  (1759-1796),  a  Scotch 
farmer  boy,  was  a  unique  apparition  in  lyric  poetry.  During  a  stormy 
life,  brought  to  a  premature  close  by  his  own  weakness  and  folly,  he 
produced  a  body  of  verse,  ranging  from  pathos  to  mirth,  which  touches 
the  deepest  springs  of  human  experience,  and  which  has  the  spon- 
taneous melody  of  the  song  bird. 

The  Romantic  Revolt.  The  "  Lake  School."  —  The  really  epoch- 
making  event  in  the  romantic  reaction  wras  the  publication,  in  1798,  of 
the  Lyrical  Ballads,  a  little  volume  which  was  the  joint  work  of  William 
Wordsworth  (1770-1850)  and  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  (1772-1834). 


ENGLAND   ON  THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORM   BILL    897 

The  collaboration  was  due  to  warm  personal  friendship  and  a  common 
revulsion  against  the  existing  literary  traditions.  Yet  the  two  were 
strikingly  unlike,  both  as  poets  and  men.  Coleridge's  mind  was  prone 
to  soar  away  into  the  regions  of  the  supernatural,  of  dreamland  and 
mystery,  though  he  never  went  to  the  lengths  of  inartistic  unreality, 
and  he  clothed  his  weird  fancies  in  exquisitely  melodious  verse.  His 
finest  achievement,  the  Ancient  Mariner,  —  contributed  to  the  Lyriccl 
Ballads,  —  Kubla  Khan,  and  Christabel  were  all  written  -as  early  as 
1801,  though  Christabel  was  not  published  till  1816.  In  his  later  life 
he  shone  chiefly  as  a  talker,  as  a  critic,  and  as  an  interpreter  of  German 
transcendentalist  philosophy.  Owing  to  a  growing  infirmity  of  will, 
of  which  addiction  to  opium  was  at  once  a  symptom  and  a  cause,  his 
projects,  after  early  manhood,  were  greater  than  his  achievements. 
As  to  Wordsworth,  no  poet  has  shown  a  greater  love  of  nature,  a  more 
sensitive  appreciation  of  her  varied  aspects  and  of  her  subtle  influence 
on  those  who  reverently  contemplate  her.  Nor  has  any  other  nature 
poet  reproduced  with  more  fidelity  what  he  has  seen  and  felt.  Yet, 
lacking  in  humor  and  desirous  to  avoid  artificial  pomp,  he  sometimes 
sank  to  dull  and  almost  ludicrous  commonplace.  He  was  appointed. 
Poet  Laureate  in  1843,  though  he  had  completed  his  best  work  thirty 
years  before.  The  Excursion,  his  longest,  but  not  his  best  poem, 
shows  him  at  his  best  and  worst,  for  it  contains  long  arid  stretches, 
relieved  by  oases  of  lofty  beauty.  Coleridge  and  Wordsworth  are 
the  leading  representatives  of  the  so-called  "  Lake  School,"  a  term, 
however,  which  is  very  misleading,  since  it  meant  no  more  than  that 
a  group  of  writers  of  widely  different  traits  were  drawn  by  the  ties 
of  friendship  to  take  up  their  residence  in  the  Cumberland  Lake 
district.  Robert  Southey  (1774-1843)  was  one  of  the  number.  Al- 
though he  wrote  some  admirable  verse,  among  which  his  little  poem 
on  the  battle  of  Blenheim  remains  a  classic,  and  though  he  preceded 
Wordsworth  as  Poet  Laureate,  his  most  distinctive  work  was  in  prose. 
His  Life  of  Nelson,  for  example,  is  a  model  of  lucid,  straightforward 
English. 

Scott  and  Byron.  —  Sir  Walter  Scott  (1771-1832),  by  his  antiquarian 
researches  into  the  history  and  legends  of  Scotland,  as  well  as 
by  his  astonishing  productivity  in  romantic  prose  and  poetry,  did 
more  than  any  other  single  man  to  foster  the  reviving  interest  in  the 
past.  In  1802-1803  appeared  three  volumes  of  Border  Minstrelsy,  a 
collection  of  Scottish  ballads.  The  manner  and  style  of  his  splendid 
series  of  original  poems,  which  followed,  were  suggested,  it  is  said,  by 
Christabel,  which  he  read  in  manuscript.  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel, 
published  in  1805,  was  followed  by  Marmion,  1808,  The  Lady  of  the 
Lake,  1810,  and  the  Lord  of  the  Isles,  1815.  Owing  to  the  sudden 
vogue  of  a  new  figure  in  the  poetic  world — Lord  Byron — he  turned 
to  prose.  George  Gordon  (1788-1824),  who,  in  1798,  succeeded  to  the 
title  and  encumbered  estates  of  the  barony  of  Byron,  was  destined  to 
prove  a  tempestuous  spirit  in  life  and  literature.  Scott  was  a  Tory 
3M 


A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

by  temperament  and  tradition.  Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  and  Southey, 
though  they  all  began  as  enthusiasts  for  the  French  Revolution,  were 
driven  into  the  conservative  ranks  by  the  excesses  which  followed. 
Byron,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  persistent  revolutionist  against  exist- 
ing institutions,  and  met  his  death  as  a  volunteer  in  the  war  for  Greek 
Independence.  He  first  manifested  his  fiery  temper  in  English  Bards 
and  Scotch  Reviewers,  1809,  a  reply  to  a  scathing  criticism  of  his  early 
poems.  After  a  journey  to  Greece  and  the  Orient  he  published  the  first 
two  cantos  of  Childe  Harold,  1812,  and  the  Giaour  and  the  Corsair  in 
1813  and  1814,  respectively.  Most  of  his  verse  in  this  period  was 
struck  off  at  a  white  heat.  It  is  brilliant,  but  careless,  stagey,  and 
lacking  in  depth  of  feeling  and  sureness  of  imaginative  range.  His 
best  verse  came  a  little  later  —  the  remaining  cantos  of  Childe  Harold, 
1816-1818,  and  Don  Juan,  1818-1824,  to  mention  only  the  long  works. 
Don  Juan  was  a  sardonic  satire  on  the  immorality  and  cant  prevailing 
in  the  society  of  the  day.  Byron  was  a  militant  egotist,  and  taught 
the  dangerous  message  of  individual  lawlessness;  but  his  personal 
beauty  and  his  lameness,  which  gave  it  a  touch  of  pathos,  his  pic- 
turesque temperament,  his  wild  irregular  career  and  tragic  end,  all 
contributed,  together  with  his  splendid  power  of  rhetoric  and  the 
intensity  of  his  passions,  to  gain  for  him  a  popularity  which  was 
followed  by  an  equally  strong  reaction.  This,  in  its  turn,  has  been 
succeeded  by  a  more  discriminating  appreciation  of  his  enduring  poetic 
qualities. 

Shelley  and  Keats.  —  There  are  many  points  of  resemblance 
between  Byron  and  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  (1792-1822).  Both  were 
poets  of  revolt  against  the  religious,  social,  and  political  institutions 
of  their  time,  and  both  led  short  and  stormy  lives.  Shelley  was 
drowned  off  the  coast  of  Italy  in  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age.  His 
earliest  long  poem,  Queen  Mob,  appeared  privately  in  1813,  a  crude 
harbinger  of  what  was  to  come  —  Alastor,  1816 ;  the  Revolt  of  Islam, 
1818;  the  Cenci,  1819;  Prometheus  Unbound,  1820.  These,  together 
with  numerous  shorter  poems,  and  a  considerable  body  of  prose, 
including  translations,  were  all  produced  within  ten  years.  He  was  a 
generous  and  impulsive  visionary  who  had  a  real  philosophy  of  revolu- 
tion, and  who  wrote  with  spiritual  fervor  and  matchless  melody.  No 
poet  ever  surpassed  him  in  his  finest  lyrical  flights ;  but  the  beauties 
of  his  thought  and  expression  are  unearthly  and  ethereal  in  character. 
John  Keats  (1795-1821)  was  a  frankly  human  poet  with  a  love  of  the 
beauty  of  the  earth  and  its  people,  and,  unlike  either  Byron  or  Shelley, 
he  bore  no  message  of  revolt  to  mankind.  Though  dependent  upon 
translations  in  the  case  of  Greek,  he  saturated  himself  with  the  legends 
of  antiquity,  and,  with  the  further  aid  of  Spenser,  of  the  Italian  and 
some  of  the  seventeenth-century  poets,  he  reproduced  the  spirit  of  the 
classic  times  with  wonderful  imaginative  power.  His  first  volume  of 
verses  was  published  in  1817,  Endymion  followed  in  1818,  and,  in  1820, 
came  a  collection  of  poems  which  marks  the  supreme  fruition  of  his 


ENGLAND   ON  THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORM   BILL     899 

genius.  Keats  had  to  struggle  against  the  lack  of  early  advantages, 
and  he  succumbed  to  consumption  at  the  age  of  twenty-five ;  but  in  his 
brief  interval  of  activity  he  prepared  a  heritage  which  has  permanently 
enriched  the  English  speech.  Two  other  poets  are  now  chiefly  remem- 
bered for  their  patriotic  verses.  The  fame  of  Thomas  Moore  (1779- 
1852)  rests,  not  on  his  Lalla  Rookh,  1817,  but  on  his  Irish  Melodies 
which  voice  so  beautifully  the  spirit  of  his  native  land.  And  so,  in 
connection  with  Thomas  Campbell  (1777-1844),  one  thinks,  not  of  the 
Pleasures  of  Hope,  but  of  his  stirring  war  songs:  Ye  Mariners  of 
England,  The  Battle  of  the  Baltic,  and  Hohenlinden. 

Novelists.  —  Novel  writing  showed  a  marked  development  as  the 
century  advanced.  Beginning  with  realistic  pictures  of  English  life, 
chiefly  on  the  external  side,  the  scope  of  prose  fiction  gradually  widened 
and  deepened,  as  historical  study  and  travel  increased  the  knowledge 
of  past  times  and  other  lands,  and  as  men  began  to  study  more  closely 
into  the  psychology  of  human  conduct.  William  Godwin  (1756- 
1836),  a  freethinker  and  pioneer  among  political  radicals,  published 
Caleb  Williams  in  1794,  a  protest  against  the  injustice  of  the  aristocracy 
toward  the  poor.  Maria  Edgeworth  (1775-1832)  was  an  Irish  woman 
who  wrote  a  series  of  novels  —  of  which  Castle  Rackrent,  1800,  is  the 
best  —  to  depict  the  wrongs  which  her  country  had  to  suffer  from 
absentee  landlords  and  other  evils,  and  with  the  broader  aim  of' 
preaching  to  her  readers  the  gospel  of  simplicity  and  morality.  Her 
work  is  chiefly  valuable  for  her  pictures  of  contemporary  Irish  life. 
According  to  Scott's  own  modest  testimony  her  achievements  in  this 
particular  suggested  to  him  the  plan  of  his  famous  Waverley  Novels 
which  tell  us  so  much  about  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century  Scot- 
land. The  success  they  attained  encouraged  him  to  write  his  equally 
famous  works  relating  to  the  Middle  Ages.  While  his  facts  are  not 
always  strictly  accurate  and  while  his  pictures  of  medieval  life  do  not 
always  correspond  to  actual  historical  conditions,  his  work  is,  never- 
theless, remarkable  for  its  high  and  varied  excellence.  Jane  Austen 
(1775-1817)  had  no  moral  lessons  to  expound,  and  she  made  no  effort 
to  deal  with  life  outside  the  provincial  society  of  southern  England ; 
but  she  describes  the  folk  in  her  own  restricted  circle  with  such  pene- 
trating observation,  rare  humor,  and  artistic  fidelity  as  to  gain  for 
her  a  place  in  the  first  rank  of  English  artists.  Pride  and  Prejudice  is 
her  best  known,  and,  all  told,  her  finest  book. 

The  Essayists.  —  This  period  was  famous  for  its  essayists,  among 
whom  De  Quincey  and  Lamb  stand  foremost,  with  Hazlitt  and  Leigh 
Hunt  not  far  behind.  Thomas  De  Quincey  (1785-1859),  the  friend  of 
Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  and  Southey,  is  perhaps  best  known  for  his 
Confessions  of  an  English  Opium  Eater,  1821.  His  distinction  as  a 
stylist  rests  upon  his  "  impassioned  prose  "  —  an  attempt  to  revive 
the  long,  rhythmical  sentences  and  gorgeous  imagery  of  the  pre- 
Restoration  period.  Charles  Lamb  (1775-1834),  who,  jointly  with 
his  sister  Mary,  did  the  Tales  from  Shakespeare,  produced  his  best 


QOO  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

work  in  the  Essays  of  Elia,  1820-1822.  He  showed  an  inimitable  art  of 
transforming  with  literary  grace  the  commonest  incidents  of  London 
life  and  weaving  about  them  the  spell  of  romance.  Walter  Savage 
Landor  (1775-1864),  beginning  as  a  writer  of  romantic  verse  and 
drama,  turned  to  the  classics,  both  for  his  subjects  and  his  form  of 
expression.  The  qualities  of  his  second  period  are  manifested  in  the 
Imaginary  Conversations  and  in  Pericles  and  Aspasia.  Leigh  Hunt 
(1784-1859),  the  original  of  Harold  Skimpole  in  Bleak  House, produced 
charming  pieces  of  critical  and  miscellaneous  prose,  and  excellent  verses 
as  well.  His  Abou  Ben  Adhem  is  a  popular  classic.  William  Hazlitt 
(1778-1830)  has  been  described  as  "  the  most  accomplished  dramatic 
critic  England  has  produced."  His  best  essays  owe  their  engaging 
quality  to  the  personal  touches  he  has  introduced. 

Periodical  Literature.  —  One  of  the  most  notable  features  of  the 
early  nineteenth  century  was  the  appearance  of  two  periodicals  which 
contributed  much  to  organize  criticism  as  a  distinct  branch  of  English 
letters,  which  assumed  the  position  of  literary  dictators,  and  became 
potent  influences  in  politics  as  well.  The  Edinburgh  Review  was 
projected,  in  1802,  by  Francis  Jeffrey,  Brougham,  and  Sidney  Smith. 
Under  the  able  editorship  of  Jeffrey  it  dominated  the  field  until  1809, 
when  Scott,  an  occasional  contributor,  becoming  alienated  by  its  Whig 
bias,  joined  Canning  in  founding  the  Quarterly  Review.  Although  it 
attracted  many  gifted  writers,  it  never  attained  quite  the  brilliancy 
of  its  older  rival.  Cobbett's  Political  Register  was  the  organ  of  the 
Radicals.  Lamb  and  De  Quincey  published  their  finest  work  in 
serial  form  in  the  London  Magazine;  and  Blackwood's  was  started  in 
1817.  The  growing  importance  of  periodicals  and  the  rise  of  women 
authors,  which  began  with  Fanny  Burney,  are  among  the  most  dis- 
tinctive facts  of  modern  English  letters.  The  Times,  the  greatest 
newspaper  in  the  world,  took  its  rise  about  the  time  that  the  daily 
press  was  beginning  to  really  count  as  a  factor  in  politics.  It  was 
founded  by  John  Walter  in  1785  ;  but  did  not  take  the  present  name 
till  three  years  later.  For  years  it  was  seriously  handicapped ;  at  the 
close  of  the  Great  War  its  circulation  was  only  8000  copies,  a  figure 
which  could  hardly  be  increased  so  long  as  hand  presses  were  employed, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  it  paid  £45,000  a  year  in  stamp  duties  and  an 
income  tax  of  10  per  cent  on  its  profits,  as  well  as  taxes  on  advertise- 
ments and  the  paper  on  which  it  was  printed.  With  the  introduction 
of  a  steam  press,  in  1814,  its  possibilities  for  circulation  were  indefi- 
nitely expanded. 

Painting.  —  While  portrait  painters  of  reputation  flourished  during 
this  period  —  notably  Copley,  Thomas  Lawrence,  and  Raeburn,  the 
"  Scottish  Reynolds"  —  none  of  them  ranks  with  their  three  famous 
predecessors.  Sir  David  Wilkie  (1785-1845)  was  a  pioneer  in  picturing 
humble  contemporary  life,  such  as  the  Fair  and  the  Village  Festival; 
but  the  significant  feature  in  the  history  of  painting  is  the  slow  but 
steady  development  of  landscape  art,  from  the  days  when  Wilson 


ENGLAND   ON  THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORM    BILL     901 

and  Reynolds  were  so  little  appreciated,  to  the  triumphant  achieve- 
ments of  Turner  and  Constable.  Worthy  of  mention  as  they  are, 
the  intervening  names  must  be  passed  by.  Joseph  Mallord  William 
Turner  (1775-1851)  was  the  son  of  a  London  hairdresser,  but,  never- 
theless, had  a  long  and  thorough  training  in  his  art.  Up  to  1820 
he  was  mainly  occupied  in  imitating  the  old  masters.  Then  he 
struck  out  for  himself,  and,  for  about  fifteen  years,  his  chief  aim  was  to 
produce  ideal,  poetic  creations  rather  than  actual  reproductions  from 
nature.  The  choicest  fruit  of  this  period  was  Ulysses  deriding  Poly- 
phemus, 1829,  generally  regarded  as  his  masterpiece.  In  the  third 
phase  of  his  artistic  career  he  devoted  himself  to  depicting  what  he 
actually  saw,  though,  even  then,  his  gorgeous  colorings,  particularly 
his  glowing  sunsets,  mark  him  as  a  romantic  poet  with  the  brush. 
This  is  evident  in  his  famous  Fighting  Temeraire,  1839.  Turner's 
genius  attained  its  height  in  his  second  and  third  periods,  for  his  later 
work  is  uneven  and  shows  signs  of  decay.  John  Constable  (1776-1837) 
was  the  great  master  of  English  landscape  painting,  of  the  prose  as 
distinguished  from  the  poetic  type.  It  was  he  who  completed  the 
emancipation  from  all  convention,  and  founded  a  school  with  the 
guiding  aim  of  reproducing  natural  scenery  with  the  utmost  fidelity. 
While  his  own  countrymen  were  slow  in  appreciating  his  art,  the  French 
welcomed  it  with  promptness  and  enthusiasm,  and  he  exercised  a 
potent  influence  on  Corot,  Millet,  and  the  other  members  of  the  famous 
coterie  of  Barbizon.  The  stirring  times  of  the  Great  War  naturally 
offered  a  great  opportunity  for  caricaturists,  of  whom  the  best  known 
are  James  Gillray  (1757-1815)  and  Thomas  Rowlandson  (1756-1827), 
whose  works  are  invaluable  to  the  student  of  contemporary  manners 
and  politics. 

Social  Effects  of  the  French  Revolution.  —  The  effects  of  the  French 
Revolution  in  checking  the  progress  of  reform  have  already  been 
emphasized.  The  social  effects  were  as  striking  as  the  political. 
Cut  off  from  making  the  Grand  Tour  by  reasons  of  safety  and  economy 
alike,  people  of  fashion  confined  their  holiday  to  trips  to  English  water- 
ing places.  Various  causes  continued  to  transform  radically  the  pre- 
vailing style  of  costume.  Improved  processes  of  woolen  and  cotton 
manufacture  resulted  in  a  steadily  decreasing  use  of  silks,  satins,  and 
velvets  by  both  sexes.  Then  Fox  and  his  set,  who  had  hitherto  led 
the  fashion  in  dandified  dress,  began  to  affect  republican  simplicity. 
Poverty  as  well  as  caprice  induced  many  to  follow  his  example,  even 
to  the  extent  of  appearing  in  Parliament  in  greatcoats  and  top-boots, 
instead  of  the  customary  court  dress  and  sword.  In  consequence 
of  the  tax  on  powder,  women  ceased  to  powder  their  hair.  Wigs, 
except  in  the  case  of  judges,  professional  men,  and  clergy,  had  been 
generally  discarded  early  in  the  reign  of  George  III,  and  now  those  of 
the  extremer  sort  began  to  wear  their  hair  short.  All  of  which  was 
lamented  by  Horace  Walpole  as  a  leveling  of  social  distinctions. 
The  Prince  of  Wales,  while  always  elegant  in  dress,  affected  the  Whig 


902  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

colors  of  blue  and  buff.  In  the  last  decade  of  the  century,  buckled 
knee  breeches  began  to  give  way  to  pantaloons  and  Hessian  boots, 
swallow-tail  coats  became  the  fashion,  and  the  cocked  hat  yielded 
to  the  top  or  "  sugar-loaf  "  hat.  These  innovations,  however,  were 
taken  up  at  first  only  by  the  upper  classes.  The  ordinary  citizen  and 
the  countryman  still  clung  to  knee  breeches  and  wide-skirted  coats. 

The  French  Revolution  was  also  not  without  effect  on  morals. 
Social  dissipation  and  extravagance  gave  place  to  greater  simplicity 
and  earnestness.  Ranelagh  was  closed  in  1803:  the  Pantheon  ceased 
to  hold  its  promenades,  masquerades,  and  operas,  and,  in  1812,  the 
building  was  torn  down.  Moreover,  there  was  a  strong  reaction 
against  excessive  gambling.  In  1796  the  Chief  Justice  threatened 
certain  ladies  of  rank  with  the  pillory  for  keeping  faro  banks  in  their 
houses,  and,  during  the  next  year,  three  were  actually  fined.  More 
important  than  repression,  was  the  fact  that  stress  of  events  offered 
food  for  conversation,  and  opened  avenues  of  activity  in  military  and 
political  life  more  engrossing  than  idle  frivolity.  In  1800  Wilberforce 
founded  a  new  Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Manners ;  a  new  asso- 
ciation arose  for  the  better  observance  of  the  Sabbath ;  and  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  was  established  in  1808.  The 
philanthropic  spirit  aroused  by  the  evangelical  revival  was  stimulated 
by  the  misery  engendered  by  the  War  and  the  introduction  of  ma- 
chinery. Heavy  drinking  was  still  a  prevalent  vice.  Men  were  not 
ashamed  to  appear  drunk,  even  in  Parliament,  and,  unhappily,  had  a 
sorry  example  in  the  otherwise  austere  Pitt.  However,  except  in 
the  case  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  his  boon  companions,  a  marked 
improvement  was  noticeable  among  the  political  leaders  during  the 
first  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Dueling  was  common, 
and  generally  approved  by  society  throughout  this  period.  Pitt 
fought  with  Tierney  in  1798;  Castlereagh  with  Canning  in  1809; 
Daniel  O'Connell  fatally  wounded  a  Dublin  merchant  in  1815,  though, 
in  consequence,  he  foreswore  dueling  for  the  future ;  but  Wellington 
challenged  Lord  Winchelsea  in  1829.  Owing,  however,  to  increasing 
protests,  earnest  efforts  were  made  to  stamp  out  the  practice.  In  1830 
two  judges  declared  the  survivor  in  a  duel  guilty  of  murder.  In  1843 
a  motion  was  proposed  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  dueling  ought 
to  be  abolished.  The  following  year  the  amended  Articles  of  War  pro- 
vided that  officers  should  give  and  accept  apologies,  and  should  be 
cashiered  if  they  fought.  In  1845  a  Radical  member  brought  a  chal- 
lenge before  the  House  as  a  breach  of  privilege.  These  measures, 
backed  by  a  gradual  change  in  public  opinion,  proved  effective. 

The  Game  Laws.  —  While  the  country  gentry  were  increasing  their 
rent  rolls,  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  were  steadily  encroaching 
upon  their  old  social  and  political  exclusiveness.  The  change  in  the 
game  laws  was  one  indication  of  the  breaking  down  of  the  old  aris- 
tocratic privileges.  Since  the  seventeenth  century  no  man  had  been 
allowed  to  kill  game,  even  on  his  own  land,  unless  he  possessed  a  free- 


ENGLAND   ON  THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORM   BILL    903 

hold  estate  worth  £100  a  year  or  a  £150  leasehold.  The  sale  of 
game  was  altogether  prohibited.  The  laws  were  evaded  in  ingenious 
ways.  Landowners  provided  shooting  for  their  younger  sons  or 
brothers  by  making  them  gamekeepers,  while,  in  spite  of  heavy 
penalties,  poaching  and  selling  game  were  very  common.  The  in- 
justice of  the  existing  system  was  somewhat  mitigated  by  a  bill  of 
Lord  Al thorp's,  in  1832,  providing  that  the  killing  and  selling  of  game 
be  allowed  to  any  one  obtaining  a  license  from  the  inland  revenue 
department. 

Laws  against  Cruelty  to  Animals.  —  An  increasing  humanitarian 
spirit  was  seen  in  measures  against  cruelty  to  animals.  Richard  Martin 
(1754-1834),  a  wealthy  Irish  landowner,  was  a  pioneer  in  this  work, 
which  earned  him  the  name  of  "  Humanity  Martin."  In  1823  he 
carried  a  bill  to  prevent  the  ill  treatment  of  horses  and  cattle ;  but  he 
was  not  even  allowed  to  introduce  a  measure  to  prohibit  bull  baiting 
and  dog  fighting  on  the  ground  that  it  would  interfere  with  the  sports 
of  the  poor !  Undaunted  by  this  setback,  he  founded,  in  1824,  the 
Royal  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals,  and  the  fruit 
of  his  efforts  was  a  law,  passed  ten  years  later,  which  did  away  with 
bull  baiting,  ox  driving,  and  cockfighting. 

The  Reform  of  the  Criminal  Law.  —  This  period  marks  the  first  steps 
in  the  reform  of  the  barbarous  and  unreasonable  criminal  code,  which 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century  included  nearly  two  hundred  offenses 
involving  capital  punishment.  For  instance,  picking  a  pocket  to  the 
value  of  twelve  pence  was  punishable  by  death.  To  make  matters 
worse  there  was  a  low  class  of  informers  who  throve  on  rewards 
offered  for  convictions,  while  unscrupulous  constables  often  neglected 
to  bring  to  task  those  guilty  of  misdemeanors,  in  order  that  they 
might  be  encouraged  to  commit  graver  crimes  involving  a  reward. 
It  was  estimated  that  £18,000  was  paid  in  blood  money  in  1815. 
What  with  misery,  an  ineffective  police  system,  and  a  high  percentage 
of  acquittals,  crime  increased  with  startling  rapidity.  The  courts 
were  overcrowded.  In  1825,  for  instance,  the  King's  Bench  had  eight 
hundred  and  fifty  untried  cases.  But  signs  of  improvement  were 
already  evident.  In  1815  the  pillory  was  done  away  with  for  every 
offense  except  perjury,  and  twenty  years  later  it  was  abolished  for  that 
offense  as  well.  The  flogging  of  women  was  declared  illegal  in  iSi;.1 
Brougham  did  much  to  simplify  procedure,  while  Peel,  who  prepared 
the  way  for  a  better  enforcement  of  the  laws  by  the  establishment  of 
the  metropolitan  police  system  in  i829,2  greatly  improved  the  criminal 
code.  He  abolished  benefit  of  clergy  in  1827,  and,  before  he  left  office, 
he  had  reduced  the  capital  penalties  to  about  a  dozen.  While  he 
deserves  much  credit,  his  work  would  have  been  impossible  but  for 
a  change  in  public  opinion  to  which  the  persistent  efforts  of  Sir  Samuel 

1  Public  executions  were  not  abolished  till  1868. 

2  Hence  London  policemen  are  vulgarly  called  "Bobbies"  and  "Peelers,"  even 
to  this  day.     The  system  was  by  1856  adopted  throughout  the  country. 


904  A  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

Romilly  largely  contributed.  Peel  also  attacked  the  wastefully  large 
number  of  courts  and  court  officers  and  broke  ground  for  the  reform 
of  Chancery,  where  costliness  and  delay  in  the  prosecution  of  suits 
had  become  proverbial.1  Furthermore,  he  undertook  to  unify  and 
simplify  the  procedure  in  the  courts  of  Common  Law.  This  work, 
to  which  he  contributed,  has  in  our  own  day,  after  years  of  slow  and 
painful  effort,  been  crowned  with  rich  results.  In  1832  Parliament 
went  a  step  further  in  removing  the  death  penalty  for  house  breaking, 
cattle  stealing,  counterfeiting,  and  certain  classes  of  forgery.2 

Altogether,  while  the  great  epoch  of  reform  came  after  1832,  not 
a  little  was  done  in  the  previous  decade  to  break  down  old  exclusive 
privileges,  and  to  legislate  with  a  view  to  promoting  the  greatest  happi- 
ness of  the  greatest  number. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

General  conditions.  Traill,  Social  England,  VI,  ch.  XXI.  S.  Walpole,  History 
of  England,  I,  chs.  I-III.  Brodrick  and  Fotheringham,  ch.  XX. 

Social  and  industrial.  J.  Ashton,  Social  Life  under  the  Regency  (1890).  Cambridge 
Modern  History,  X,  ch.  XXIII  (bibliography,  pp.  883-889).  Cunningham,  English 
Industry  and  Commerce,  " Modern  Times,"  pt.  II,  "Laissez-faire."  Porter,  Progress 
of  the  Nation.  Rogers,  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages  and  Agriculture  and  Prices. 
Wm.  Cobbett,  Rural  Rides  (new  ed.  1886),  and  Tour  in  the  Northern  Counties  (1833). 
R.  M.  Gamier,  History'of  the  English  Landed  Gentry  (1893) ,  and  Annals  of  the  British 
Peasantry  (1895).  J.  L.  and  B.  Hammond,  The  Village  Labourer,  1760-1832  (1911). 
Prothero,  English  Farming,  chs.  IX-XIV.  S.  and  B.  Webb,  History  of  Trade 
Unionism  (1902). 

Literature  and  scholarship.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  X.  chs.  XXII-XXIV 
(bibliographies,  pp.  879-882,  890-892).  Moody  and  Lovett,  ch.  XIII.  Taine,  III, 
bk.  IV,  ch.  I ;  IV,  bk.  IV,  ch.  II.  Saintsbury,  Nineteenth  Century  Literature  (1896). 
O.  Elton,  A  Survey  of  English  Literature,  1780-1830  (2  vols.,  1913).  G.  M.  C. 
Brandes,  Main  Currents  in  Nineteenth  Century  Literature  (Eng.  tr.,  V,  1905).  L. 
Stephen,  Hours  in  a  Library  (3  vols.,  1892).  H.  A.  Beers,  English  Romanticism  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century  (1899).  E.  Dowden,  The  French  Revolution  and  English 
Literature  (1897).  W.  J.  Courthope,  A  History  of  English  Poetry  (1905)  V. 

1  The  case  of  Jarndyce  vs.  Jarndyce,  familiar  to  readers  of  Dickens'  Bleak  House, 
is  not  an  exaggeration. 

2  By  an  Act  of  the  Parliament  which  was  in  session  when  Victoria  came  to 
the  throne  the  number  of  offenses  involving  the  death  penalty  was  reduced  to  six : 
high  treason,  murder,  rape,  piracy,  arson,  and  robbery  attended  by  murderous  vio- 
lence, 


CHAPTER  L 
THE  EPOCH  OF   REFORM.    WILLIAM   IV    (1830-1837) 

William  IV,  his  Early  History  and  Personal  Traits.  —  William,  Duke 
of  Clarence,  had  nearly  completed  his  sixty-fifth  year  when  he  came 
to  the  throne.  Born  21  August,  1765,  he  was  the  third  son  of  George 
III.  He  was  educated  for  the  navy ;  he  saw  some  service  and  even 
commanded  a  ship ;  but  he  showed  no  great  capacity  for  the  higher 
duties  of  the  profession  and  was  retired  in  1789  with  the  rank  of  Rear 
Admiral.  Though  he  was  not  allowed  to  serve  in  the  French  and 
Napoleonic  wars,  he  was  steadily  promoted  till  he  became  an  Admiral 
of  the  Fleet.  In  1818,  after  the  death  of  Princess  Charlotte,  he 
married  Adelaide  of  Saxe-Coburg  Meiningen.  By  the  death  of  his 
elder  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  in  1827,  he  became  heir  apparent. 
For  some  months,  in  1827-1828,  he  served  as  Lord  High  Admiral, 
and  during  his  brief  tenure  of  office  he  distinguished  himself  by 
meddling  and  by  making  long  rambling  and  absurd  speeches  on  the 
most  inappropriate  occasions.  This  latter  habit  clung  to  him  through- 
out his  life.  While  naturally  kind-hearted,  he  was  full  of  prejudices 
and  liable  to  sudden  fits  of  passion.  Indeed,  his  conduct  at  times  was 
eccentric  to. the  point  of  insanity,  which  led  to  his  nickname  of  "  Silly 
Billy."  1  At  his  accession,  however,  these  peculiarities  were  not  gener- 
ally known,  and  he  proved  so  good-natured,  frank,  and  simple  that  he 
was  received  with  a  popular  enthusiasm  almost  unheard  of.  His 
manners  were  the  reverse  of  kingly.  He  walked  about  the  streets  of 
London  with  an  umbrella  under  his  arm,  informally  greeting  acquaint- 
ances, and,  on  one  occasion,  he  pressed  a  guest  at  Windsor  to  wait 
till  the  Queen's  carriage  was  ready,  saying  that  she  would  "  drop  " 
him  at  his  home.  In  spite  of  his  shortcomings  and  follies,  he  had  right 
instincts  and  a  rough  common  sense  which  proved  a  great  help  to  his 
ministers  in  the  first  great  crisis  of  his  reign. 

The  Causes  of  the  Reform  Movement.  —  Catholic  Emancipation 
had  been  carried  in  Parliament  against  the  popular  will ;  parliamentary 
reform,  which  was  now  coming  to  be  the  burning  issue,  owed  its  pas- 
sage to  the  demands  of  a  majority  of  the  English  people.  With 
political  unions  springing  up  all  over  the  country,  and  now  that  the 
control  of  the  movement  had  passed  from  riotous  workmen  and 
visionary  radicals  to  the  leaders  of  the  sober,  prosperous  middle  class, 

1  Greville,  author  of  a  famous  series  of  Memoirs  covering  this  period,  remarks : 
"What  could  be  expected  from  a  man  with  a  head  shaped  like  a  pineapple  ?  " 

90S 


906  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  motions  introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons  could  no  longer 
be  disposed  of  with  the  scant  consideration  accorded  to  them  in  the 
,  past.  The  revolution  in  public  opinion  which  had  recently  begun  to 
manifest  itself  was  due  to  a  combination  of  four  causes.  The  first 
was  the  transference  of  the  balance  of  wealth  from  the  landed  aris- 
tocracy to  the  great  merchants  and  manufacturers.  The  second  was 
the  shifting  of  the  centers  of  population  from  the  south  and  east  to 
the  midlands  and  the  north,  which  made  the  unequal  distribution 
of  representation  between  the  two  sections  a  crying  grievance.  The 
third  was  the  fact  that  the  horrors  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the 
Napoleonic  aggression,  and,  indeed,  of  the  domestic  unrest  which 
followed  the  Great  War,  were  fading  from  the  memory  of  Englishmen. 
In  fact,  a  new  generation  was  springing  up  which  knew  nothing  of 
these  from  personal  experience,  while  the  recent  course  of  events  in 
Paris  was  such  as  to  stimulate  rather  than  to  retard  their  ardor. 
The  fourth,  and  perhaps  the  most  significant  cause  of  all,  was  the 
influence  of  the  advanced  thinkers  and  the  zeal  of  the  practical  states- 
men who  labored  to  prepare  the  way  during  the  long  and  discourag- 
ing years  of  reaction. 

Jeremy  Bentham  and  his  Influence.  —  Foremost  in  influence  was  the 
pioneer  of  the  Utilitarians,  Jeremy  Bentham  (1748-1832),  to  whom, 
it  is  perhaps  not  too  much  to  say,  "  progressive  and  practical  re- 
formers throughout  the  world  owe  more  .  .  .  than  to  any  single  man." 
While  he  ranged  over  vast  fields  of  speculative  thought,  his  guiding 
aim  was  to  discover  and  formulate  principles  which  might  be  applied 
to  practical  problems  of  reform.  When  he  was  about  twenty  years  of 
age,  he  adopted  as  his  maxim,  "  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest 
number."  The  means  which  he  adopted  for  realizing  his  end  was 
scientific  legislation.  Parliamentary  reform,  the  improvement  of 
the  law  and  legal  procedure,  the  amelioration  of  the  criminal  code, 
the  increase  of  humanitarianism,  and  the  remodeling  of  the  colonial 
system,  all  felt  the  impulse  of  his  master  mind.  In  his  Fragment 
on  Government,  published  in  1776,  he  began  his  work  with  an  attack  on 
Blackstone's  laudation,  in  the  Commentaries,  of  the  perfection  of  the 
British  Constitution.  At  that  time,  however,  and  for  years  to  come, 
he  advocated  moderate  and  gradual  reform.  The  refusal  of  the  states- 
men in  power  to  listen  to  him  was  responsible  for  turning  him  into  a 
Radical,  though  his  conversion  was  somewhat  delayed  by  his  fear  of 
the  French  Revolution.  His  Catechism  of  Parliamentary  Reform, 
in  which  he  outlined  his  political  views,  was  written  in  1809,  but  was 
not  published  till  1817.  Assuming  that  the  aim  of  all  government  is 
utility  —  the  good  of  the  governed  —  he  argued  that  the  existing 
system  was  hopelessly  at  fault,  since  it  was  the  instrument  of  the 
aristocratic  minority  for  the  promotion  of  class  interests.  Curiously 
enough,  he  had  a  low  opinion  of  mankind.  He  believed  that  the 
governing  motive  of  the  individual  was  the  furtherance  of  his  own 
ends.  For  that  very  reason,  however,  he  advocated  the  extension  of 


THE   EPOCH  OF  REFORM  907 

popular  government,  on  the  ground  that  control  by  the  majority 
would  make  for  the  good  of  the  greatest  number.  But  there  was  a 
serious  defect  in  his  reasoning.  It  was  too  mechanical.  He  failed 
to  realize  that,  even  if  all  men  were  selfish,  their  individual  interests 
were  bound  to  conflict,  and  that  the  sum  total  would  not  be  harmony, 
but  discord.  The  good  of  the  whole  can  only  be  secured  by  sacrifices 
on  the  part  of  the  individual.  Nevertheless,  his  arguments  for  in- 
creased parliamentary  representation  had  great  force  and  wide-reach- 
ing effect.  Owing,  however,  to  the  diffuseness  and  obscurity  of  his 
style,  his  views  were  spread  more  through  his  disciples  than  by  his 
own  writings.  Foremost  of  these  disciples,  who  formed  the  school  of 
philosophic  Radicals,  was  James  Mill  (1773-1836).  Directly  or  in- 
directly, Bentham's  influence  flowed  into  the  world  about  him  through 
two  main  channels.  On  the  one  hand,  he  inspired  practical  statesmen 
like  Brougham,  Peel,  and  Durham,  and,  on  the  other,  popular  agitators 
like  Cobbett,  "  Orator  "  Hunt,  Francis  Burdett,1  and  Francis  Place.2 
Movement  for  Parliamentary  Reform.  —  While  parliamentary 
reform  did  not  become  an  issue  in  practical  politics  till  the  beginning 
of  the  reign  of  William  IV,  the  subject  had  been  discussed  at  intervals 
for  nearly  a  century.  The  first  motion  is  said  to  have  been  intro- 
duced by  Sir  Francis  Dashwood,  a  profane  roisterer,  who  began  his 
parliamentary  life  in  1741.  Chatham  advocated  unsuccessfully 
measures  for  disfranchising  corrupt  boroughs  and  adding  their  mem- 
bership to  that  of  the  counties.  In  1776  John  Wilkes  "proposed  a 
motion  which  contained  all  the  leading  principles  of  parliamentary  re- 
form adopted  during  the  next  fifty  years."  During  the  interval  from 
1782  to  1785,  the  younger  Pitt  brought  forward  no  less  than  three 
measures,  all  of  which  were  thrown  out.  In  1792  the  Society  of  the 
Friends  of  the  People  was  formed  for  promoting  the  movement; 
but  sober  folk  had  now  come  to  couple  it  with  revolutionary  designs. 
Burke  and  Pitt  threw  the  weight  of  their  influence  against  it,  and  mo- 
tions introduced  by  Charles  Grey  between  1793  and  1797  were  defeated 
by  crushing  majorities.  The  cause  was  still  further  prejudiced  when  the 
Radical,  Burdett,  took  it  up  in  1809  and  proceeded,  during  the  next 
few  years,  to  demand,  also,  universal  suffrage,  annual  parliaments, 
equal  electoral  districts,  and  vote  by  ballot.  In  1819,  however,  Lord 
John  Russell,  third  son  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  by  introducing  a 
motion  for  moderate  reform,  once  more  identified  the  question  with 
the  Whig  party.  Though  he  gained  an  increasing  body  of  supporters, 
he  fought  an  uphill  fight  for  thirteen  years.  In  1821  he  managed  to 
secure  the  disfranchisement  of  the  corrupt  borough  of  Grampound, 

1  Sir  Francis  Burdett  (1770-1844)  was  an  ardent  Radical  who  came  to  be  a 
Conservative  after  the  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill. 

2  Francis  Place  (1771-1854),  who  was  a  poor  tailor,  was  a  fanatical  Radical  and 
an  acute  political  manager.     He  was  the  first  to  employ  the  electoral  caucus  in 
England,  and  he  controlled  the  borough  of  Westminster,  which  Burdett  represented 
for  thirty  years. 


9o8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

though  his  proposal  to  transfer  the  two  members  to  Leeds  was  de- 
feated in  the  Upper  House,  and  they  went  to  Yorkshire  instead. 

The  Eve  of  Triumph.  The  Whigs  win  the  General  Election  of 
1830.  —  The  excitement  which  followed  the  defeat,  early  in  1830, 
of  Russell's  proposal  to  enfranchise  Leeds,  Birmingham,  and  Man- 
chester, served  as  indication  of  the  strength  which  the  sentiment  for 
reform  had  gained.  The  Tories  refused  to  yield  an  inch.  Even  the 
liberal  remnant  of  the  Canningites  persisted  in  regarding  the  existing 
parliamentary  system  as  the  only  breakwater  against  the  rising  tide  of 
democracy.  But  the  temperate  attitude  of  the  Whig  leaders  had  won 
the  confidence  of  the  conservative  middle  classes.  While  Russell 
worked  to  counteract  the  influence  of  Burdett  in  the  Commons, 
the  historian  Macaulay  and  others  undertook  to  combat  the  political 
philosophy  of  the  Radicals  in  the  Edinburgh  Review.  They  contended 
that,  while  universal  suffrage  was  wild  and  dangerous,  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  householders  and  the  transfer  of  votes  from  small  decayed 
boroughs  to  populous  towns  was  not  only  safe  and  reasonable,  but 
an  imperative  recognition  of  the  growing  importance  of  the  commercial 
and  industrial  classes.  There  was  no  hope  of  change  so  long  as  the 
Wellington  Cabinet  survived;  but  its  end  was  not  far  off.  Parlia- 
ment was  dissolved  during  the  summer  of  1830,  and,  in  the  general 
election  which  followed,  the  doom  of  the  old  Tory  party  was  sounded. 
The  growing  enthusiasm  for  reform,  stimulated  by  "  the  compara- 
tively bloodless  victory  of  constitutional  principles  "  in  the  July 
Revolution,  was  the  decisive  factor,  though  the  result  was  somewhat 
influenced  by  the  action  of  a  number  of  borough  owners  who  nominated 
anti-Ministerialists  in  order  to  revenge  themselves  against  Wellington 
for  his  change  of  front  in  the  question  of  Catholic  Relief.1 

The  Advent  of  Grey's  Reform  Ministry,  November,  1830.  —  The 
King's  speech  at  the  opening  of  Parliament  contained  no  reference  on 
the  subject  of  reform.  The  disappointment  of  the  Reformers  was 
turned  to  fury  when  Wellington,  in  answering  a  speech  of  Earl 
Grey  in  the  Lords,  declared  that  the  existing  representative  system 
"  possessed  the  full  and  entire  confidence  of  the  country,"  and  that  its 
chief  merit  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  secured  a  "  preponderating  influence  " 
to  property,  especially  to  the  landed  interest.  Insisting  further  that 
"  no  better  system  could  be  devised  by  the  wit  of  man,"  he  announced 
that  not  only  would  he  never  introduce  a  Reform  Bill  himself,  but  that 
"  he  should  always  feel  it  his  duty  to  resist  such  measures  when  pro- 
posed by  others."  While  many  defended  the  existing  system  on  the 
ground  that  it  worked  well  and  that  change  would  be  dangerous,  few 

1  Before  Parliament  met,  death  had  taken  from  the  Whigs  a  man  whom  they 
could  ill  spare.  Huskisson  was  run  over  and  killed  by  a  train  at  the  opening  of 
the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railroad,  15  September.  His  loss  was  deeply  felt 
in  the  department  of  finance,  which  he  had  made  his  own,  and  in  which  the  Whigs 
proved  deplorably  weak.  There  is  little  doubt  that,  had  he  lived,  free  trade  would 
have  come  much  sooner  than  it  did. 


THE   EPOCH  OF   REFORM  909 

would  have  had  the  rashness  to  proclaim  that  it  was  theoretically 
perfect.  The  effect  of  the  speech  was  momentous.  "  I  have  not  said 
too  much,  have  I?  "  asked  Wellington  as  he  sat  down.  "  You  have 
announced  the  fall  of  your  Government,  that's  all,"  was  the  reply  of 
a  neighboring  peer.  Apparently  the  Duke  spoke  on  his  own  authority ; 
but  the  Cabinet  stood  by  him  and  resigned  in  November,  on  an  adverse 
vote  on  the  Civil  List,  without  waiting  to  face  the  inevitable  question. 
Thereupon,  Earl  Grey  (1764-1845)  consented  to  form  a  Ministry  on 
condition  that  parliamentary  reform  should  be  made  a  Cabinet  ques- 
tion. He  had  grown  old  in  the  service  of  the  Whig  party  during" 
the  period  of  its  adversity.  He  had  been  a  friend  of  Fox,  he  had  been 
an  opponent  of  the  oppressive  policy  of  Pitt,  and  had  championed 
many  liberal  measures.  Fear  of  radicalism  had  caused  him  for  a  time 
to  hold  aloof  from  reform ;  but  he  had  again  taken  up  the  work,  and 
it  was  fitting  that  the  Nestor  of  the  cause  should  be  chosen  Prime 
Minister  on  the  return  of  the  Whigs  to  office.  It  was  fortunate,  too, 
that  a  man  of  his  aristocratic  traditions  and  cautious,  unenthusiastic 
temperament  should  guide  the  party  in  the  stormy  months  which 
followed.  The  ministers  whom  he  selected  were  almost  exclusively 
peers  or  men  of  titled  connections.  It  was  a  remarkable  group. 
Four  —  Melbourne,  Palmerston,  Stanley  (later  Lord  Derby),  and  Lord 
John  Russell,  who  was  given  a  subordinate  office  without  a  seat  in  the 
Cabinet  —  subsequently  became  Prime  Ministers.  Among  the  other 
notable  members  were  Brougham,  Althorpe,  Lord  Durham,  and  Sir 
James  Graham.  The  task  confronting  the  new  Ministry  was  a 
tremendous  and  complicated  one. 

The  Unreformed  House  of  Commons.  Inequalities  of  Representa- 
tion. —  The  existing  representative  system  was  both  inadequate  and 
corrupt.  The  franchise  was  restricted  to  a  few  and  was  unequally 
distributed.  The  ten  southern  counties  of  England,  with  a  population 
of  2,900,000,  returned  237  members,  while  the  remaining  thirty  coun- 
ties in  the  midlands  and  the  north,  with  a  population  of  8,350,000,  were 
allowed  only  252.  In  other  words,  less  than  a  fourth  of  the  popula- 
tion had  nearly  half  the  representatives.  Lancashire,  with  1,000,000 
inhabitants,  had  19  members,  Cornwall,  with  an  eighth  of  this  popula- 
tion, had  1 8.  It  is  easy  to  explain  how  these  inequalities  arose.  The 
evil  was  manifest  chiefly  in  the  cities  and  boroughs.  Originally  such 
had  been  selected  as  would  be  most  likely  to  vote  supplies  to  the  Crown. 
The  burgesses  and  citizens,  who  looked  upon  representation  as  a 
burden  so  long  as  they  had  little  share  in  legislation,  usually,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  sought  to  evade  their  obligations.  In  consequence,  the 
sovereigns  and  sheriffs  were  accustomed  to  add  to  the  list  or  omit  from 
it  at  will.  Gradually  it  came  to  be  recognized  that  a  town  which  had 
once  sent  members  was  entitled  to  do  so  ever  after.  Then,  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II,  it  was  decided  that  no  new  boroughs  could  be  created. 

The  Abuses  of  the  Existing  Borough  System.  —  While  these  pro- 
visions, were  some  protection  against  despotic  sovereigns,  they  were 


A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

responsible  for  the  fact  that  small  decayed  places  continued  to  send 
representatives,  while  new  and  flourishing  centers  of  industry  got 
none.  Old  Sarum,  for  instance,  was  no  longer  anything  but  a  green 
mound  with  not  more  than  one  or  two  houses  in  the  neighborhood ; 
Gatton  was  a  gentleman's  park;  while  Dunwich  was  gradually  being 
covered  by  the  North  Sea,  so  that  it  was  suggested  that  the  voters 
would  soon  have  to  go  out  in  boats  to  exercise  their  electoral  privileges. 
Malmesbury  contained  thirteen  electors,  none  of  whom  could  write. 
Such  deserted,  or  half-deserted  constituencies  fell  an  easy  prey  to  terri- 
torial magnates,  to  the  agents  of  the  Crown,  or  to  rich  speculators  who 
gained  control  in  one  way  or  another,  sometimes  by  buying  the  borough 
outright,  sometimes  by  bribing  the  scanty  body  of  electors.  Startling 
anomalies  resulted.  "  Mr.  Canning,"  said  Bagehot,  a  great  authority 
on  the  Constitution,  "  was  an  eloquent  man,  but  even  he  could  not  say 
that  a  decaying  tree  stump  was  the  people."  It  was  estimated  on  the 
eve  of  reform  that  of  658  members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  487  were 
returned  by  the  nomination  of  144  peers1  and  123  commoners,  while 
only  171  were  representatives  of  independent  constituencies.  Although 
these  figures  are  based  to  some  extent  on  conjecture  and  may  exagger- 
ate, it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  not  more  than  a  third  of  the  House 
was  freely  chosen,  and  then  only  by  a  very  limited  body  of  electors. 

Types  of  Boroughs.  Qualifications  for  Voting.  —  There  were 
four  types  of  boroughs :  i.  There  were  nomination  or  pocket  boroughs, 
where  the  patron  or  proprietor  had  the  absolute  right  of  returning  the 
candidates.  Burke,  Sheridan,  Canning,  and  Brougham  were  among 
the  members  who  got  into  Parliament  in  this  way.  Since  they  had 
patrons  who  required  no  pledges,  it  was  argued  that  poor  men  of 
ability  who  had  no  money  to  pay  election  expenses  benefited  by  the 
system.  But  it  was  very  unwholesome  for  a  parliamentary  represen- 
tative to  be  thus  beholden  to  any  one,  and  few  patrons  showed  the 
generosity  of  those  in  question.  2.  Next  there  were  the  rotten 
boroughs,  where  the  electors  were  controlled  by  bribery  and  influence. 
As  late  as  1829  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  ejected  every  one  of  his  tenants 
in  the  borough  of  Newark,  remarking  by  way  of  justification :  "  Have 
I  not  the  right  to  do  what  I  will  with  my  own  ?  " 2  3.  In  still  another 
type  of  borough  the  body  of  electors  was  numerous  but  restricted. 
4.  Finally,  there  were  a  very  few  where  the  right  of  voting  rested  on 
a  democratic  basis.  The  qualifications  for  voting  in  boroughs  were 
varied  and  curious.  They,  again,  may  be  divided  into  four  main 
groups.  The  first  were  based  on  tenure.  In  a  few  towns  wrhich  had 
been  made  counties  by  charter  the  county  qualification  of  ownership 
of  a  forty- shilling  freehold  prevailed.  More  common  was  the  burgage 
holding,  an  ancient  form  of  freehold  tenement  in  towns  which  carried 
the  right  of  voting.  Secondly,  there  were  a  number  of  residence 

1  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  controlled  eleven  members,  Lord  Lonsdale,  nine,  Lord 
Darlington,  seven,  and  three  other  peers  six  each. 

2  Later  it  was  from  this  borough  that  Gladstone  first  entered  Parliament. 


THE  EPOCH  OF  REFORM  911 

qualifications.  In  some  cases  the  "inhabitant  householders"  could 
vote.  In  others,  it  was  those  liable  to  scot  and  lot  —  certain  ancient 
local  taxes,  together  with  local  duties,  such  as  serving  in  municipal 
offices.  In  still  other  cases,  those  who  had  a  single  room  where  they 
could  cook  their  own  food  could  vote.  This  class  was  known  as  pot- 
wallers  or  potwallopers  —  corruptions  of  the  original  term  potboiler. 
In  the  third  class  of  boroughs  the  franchise  was  confined  to  the  freemen 
of  the  municipal  corporation.  This  right  could  be  acquired  by  inher- 
itance from  the  original  freemen,  by  marriage  to  the  heiress  of  a  freeman, 
by  admission  to  a  trading  company  or  guild,  or  by  purchase.  Finally, 
there  were  the  close  boroughs,  where  the  right  to  vote  was  confined  to 
the  governing  body  of  the  municipality  —  the  mayor,  aldermen,  and 
councilors.  Most  of  the  charters  of  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts  limited 
the  electorate  in  this  fashion.  Even  in  boroughs  where  a  democratic 
qualification  existed,  the  number  of  electors  was  usually  so  small  that 
they  could  be  easily  bribed.1 

Bribery  and  Corruption  in  Elections.  —  Bribery  first  began  to  be 
systematic  under  Charles  II  and  increased  with  the  growing  influence 
of  the  House  of  Commons.  It  reached  its  height  in  the  reign  of  George 
III,  when  two  causes  especially  fostered  its  growth.  One  was  the  firm 
determination  of  the  King  to  reestablish  the  waning  royal  ascendancy. 
The  other  was  the  appearance  of  a  class  of  men,  known  as  nabobs, 
who,  having  made  fortunes  in  the  East  and  West  Indies,  spent  their 
money  lavishly  to  secure  parliamentary  seats,  partly  in  order  to  get 
into  society,  and  partly  in  the  interest  of  the  financial  and  commercial 
ventures  with  which  they  were  identified.  Their  competition,  and  that 
of  the  steadily  increasing  class  of  opulent  merchants  and  manufac- 
turers in  England,  sent  the  prices  soaring.2  Not  only  were  individual 
electors  bribed,  but  nomination  and  rotten  boroughs  were  sold  out- 
right ;  indeed,  seats  were  advertised  openly  and  shamelessly.  In 
the  election  of  1768,  for  example,  the  corporation  of  Oxford,  which  was 
a  close  borough,  demanded  of  their  two  members,  as  the  price  of  their 
reelection,  that  they  advance  a  sum  of  more  than  £5000  to  pay  the 
bonded  debt  of  the  city.  The  members  reported  the  matter  to  the 
Commons,  whereupon  the  mayor  and  ten  aldermen  were  lodged  in 
Newgate.  Undaunted,  however,  they  negotiated  in  prison  a  bargain 
for  transferring  the  seats  to  two  great  nobles.  Bribery  was  an  offense 
at  Common  Law ;  an  occasional  act  was  passed  to  remedy  the  evil ; 
and  a  few  of  the  more  corrupt  cases  were  exposed.  It  was  all  to  little 
purpose,  particularly  so  long  as  George  III  actively  promoted  the 
system.3  Moreover,  the  penalties  were  light :  disfranchisement  of 

1  It  is  estimated  that  the  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  elected  by  less 
than  1 5, poo  voters. 

2  The  average  price  for  a  borough  went  up  from  £2500  to  £5000.     One  sold 
for  £9000. 

3  In  1779,  for  instance,  he  wrote  to  Lord  North :   "If  the  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land requires  some  gold  pills  for  the  electors,  it  would  be  wrong  not  to  satisfy  him." 


9i2  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

the  guilty,  or  the  merging  of  the  constituency  into  one  slightly  larger. 
In  1809  an  act  imposing  the  penalties  of  fine  and  forfeiture  of  seat 
achieved  little  more  at  first  than  to  make  the  practice  less  open. 
The  purchase  of  seats  was  no  worse  than  the  bribing  of  electors,  and 
was  often  the  only  way  in  which  a  man  of  advanced  independent  views 
could  gain  admission  to  Parliament.  It  was  justified  on  this  latter 
ground  by  Sir  Samuel  Romilly. 1 

The  County  Franchise.  —  In  the  counties,  although  conditions  were 
better,  the  system  was  not  free  from  anomalies  and  abuses.  The 
forty-shilling  freehold  qualification,  created  in  1430,  insured  a  fairly 
wide  constituency.  On  the  other  hand,  copyholders  and  men  who 
rented  broad  lands  on  lease  were  excluded,  while,  owing  to  the  im- 
mense change  in  money  values,  forty  shillings  had  shrunk  to  a  very 
small  sum.  Many  freeholders  were  merely  poor  dependents  of  their 
great  neighbors,  and,  thanks  to  the  custom  of  open  polling,  they  were 
peculiarly  subject  to  corruption  and  intimidation.  The  evils  were 
accentuated  in  county  and  borough  alike  by  the  long  period  allowed 
for  voting  as  well  as  by  the  drunkenness  and  turmoil  which  prevailed 
during  the  elections.  Some  of  the  county  magnates  wielded  tremendous 
influence ;  for  instance,  so  late  as  1780,  one  of  the  Yorkshire  members 
was,  according  to  Fox,  always  elected  in  Rockingham's  dining  room. 
The  contest  for  the  other  must  have  been  keen ;  for  in  one  election 
£150,000  is  said  to  have  been  expended.  These  county  elections  were 
often  the  arena  where  the  political  rivalry  of  the  landed  magnates 
was  displayed.  Yet  the  voters  when  aroused  could  act  with  independ- 
ence, as  is  proved  from  the  fact  that,  in  1830,  out  of  82  county 
members  only  20  Tories  were  returned.  Each  county  was  represented 
by  two  members,  which  meant  an  even  distribution  throughout  the 
country ;  but  it  put  tiny  shires  like  Rutland  on  the  same  basis  as 
large  and  populous  ones  like  Lancashire. 

Scotland  and  Ireland.  —  In  Scotland  conditions  were  even  worse 
than  in  England.  In  a  population  of  over  2,000,000  there  were  not 
more  than  4000  voters.  The  borough  franchise  was  vested  in  town 
councilors.  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  had  only  thirty-three  electors 
each.  The  right  to  vote  in  the  counties  was  a  peculiar  privilege  that 
depended  neither  upon  property  nor  residence.  Argyllshire,  with 
100,000  inhabitants,  had  115  electors,  of  whom  only  31  owned  any 
land  in  the  county.2  Naturally  votes  were  put  up  for  sale.  The 
great  landowners  who  secured  control,  instead  of  fighting  on  party 

1"This  buying  of  seats,"  he  wrote,  "is  detestable,  and  yet  it  is  the  only  way 
(almost)  in  which  one  in  my  situation  who  is  resolved  to  be  an  independent  man 
can  get  into  Parliament.  To  come  in  by  a  popular  election  in  the  present  state 
of  the  representation  is  quite  impossible ;  to  be  placed  there  by  some  great  lord, 
and  to  vote  as  he  should  direct,  is  to  be  in  a  state  of  complete  dependence ;  and 
nothing  hardly  remains  but  to  owe  a  seat  to  the  sacrifice  of  a  part  of  one's  fortune." 

2  The  most  notorious  case  is  related  of  the  county  of  Bute,  where,  in  a  popula- 
tion of  1 4,000,  only  one  out  of  21  electors  was  a  resident.  In  the  election  of  i8,;T 
he  was  the  only  person  present  except  the  sheriff  and  the  returning  officer.  "  He 


THE   EPOCH  OF  REFORM  913 

lines,  commonly  agreed  to  support  the  Government  in  return  for 
patronage  and  other  rewards.  One  Scotch  member  declared  that : 
"  his  invariable  rule  was  never  to  be  present  at  a  debate  or  absent  at  a 
division ;  and  that  he  had  only  once  in  his  long  political  life  ventured  to 
vote  according  to  his  conscience ;  and  that  he  found  ...  he  had  voted 
wrong."  In  Ireland  the  system  of  borough  franchise  was  bad  enough  ; 
but  that  in  the  counties  was,  until  1829,  worse.  By  Irish  law  forty- 
shilling  freeholders  could  be  created  without  grant  of  property. 
The  landed  potentates  availed  themselves  eagerly  of  the  opportunity 
—  especially  after  the  Union  — until  Daniel  O'Connell  and  the  priests 
managed  to  tear  from  their  control  the  men  whom  they  had  regarded 
as  their  creatures. 

Bribery  and  Corruption  in  Parliament.  —  Until  the  partial  remedy 
provided  by  the  Grenville  Election  Act  it  was  practically  impossible 
to  exclude  candidates  belonging  to  the  dominant  party,  however 
great  the  irregularities  employed  in  their  election.  A  natural  result 
of  the  faulty  and  corrupt  electoral  system  was  the  venality  and  self- 
seeking  of  those  who  secured  seats.  Most  of  the  members  or  their 
patrons  expected  to  be  compensated  for  their  outlays  to  electors  or 
borough-mongers.  Inducements  were  offered  to  suit  all  tastes.  The 
rich  and  ambitious  were  tempted  with  peerages,  titles  of  honor,  patron- 
age, and  favor ;  the  poor  and  mercenary  by  places,  pensions,  and  bribes. 
The  Place  Bill  of  1705  had  done  something  to  diminish  the  number  of 
placemen.  The  incapacity  was  later  extended  to  pensioners;  but 
grants  were  continued  in  secret.  An  Act  of  1742  extended  the  dis- 
qualification to  many  minor  places  not  included  in  the  measure  of 
1705;  but  a  large  number  still  remained  untouched.  The  Rocking- 
ham  Act  of  1782  covered  many  more,  and  put  an  effective  check  on 
secret  pensions.  As  a  result  of  these  and  subsequent  measures,  the 
number  of  placemen  sitting  in  the  House  of  Commons  was  reduced 
from  271  in  the  time  of  George  I  to  89  under  George  IV.1  Meantime, 
the  practice  of  directly  bribing  members  grew  steadily  from  the 
Restoration  to  the  American  Revolution.  William  III  resorted  to  it, 
though  with  great  reluctance.  While  evidence  is  lacking,  it  is  com- 
monly  believed  that  Walpole  reduced  it  to  a  system.  So  far  as  George 
III  is  concerned,  the  case  is  clear  enough ;  but  this  form  of  corruption 
did  not  survive  the  Ministry  of  North.  Pitt,  as  has  been  seen,  was 
not  the  man  to  continue  the  practice,  though  he  created  more  peers 
than  any  minister  before  or  since.  Another  and  more  wasteful  means 
employed  by  George  III  to  secure  supporters  in  the  years  of  his 
personal  supremacy  was  through  loans  and  lotteries.  The  King's 
"  Friends  "  were  accorded  the  preference  in  the  distribution  of  shares 
and  tickets.  Half  of  the  loan  of  £12,000,000  raised  at  the  close  of 

.  .  .  took  the  chair,  .  .  .  called  over  the  roll  of  freeholders,  answered  to  his  own 
name,  ...  he  then  moved  and  seconded  his  own  nomination,  put  the  question  as 
to  the  vote,  and  was  unanimously  returned." 
1  That  is,  exclusive  of  army  and  navy  officers. 

3N 


9i4  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  American  war  was  subscribed  by  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. It  paid  it  per  cent.  Pitt  was  also  responsible  for  removing 
this  type  of  abuse.  The  Rockingham  Act  had  already  excluded  con- 
tractors from  the  House  of  Commons  in  1782. 

Counteracting  Tendencies.  —  These  long-continued  abuses  were 
not  due  solely  to  the  unreformed  parliamentary  system.  The  ex- 
travagance and  dissipation  of  the  upper  classes,  the  ignorance  and 
apathy  of  the  masses,  and  the  moral  and  religious  indifference  of  the 
age  all  played  a  part.  Nevertheless,  England  progressed  in  many 
directions  and  achieved  much  in  the  eighteenth  century,  while  her 
people  were  freer  and  her  institutions  far  better  than  those  of  any  other 
European  country.  Many  reasons  explain  why  this  was  so.  In  the 
first  place,  politics  attracted  the  ablest  and  some  of  the  best  men  of 
the  age,  who,  while  they  advanced  their  own  interests,  labored  to 
make  their  country  the  leading  power  in  the  world.  At  crises,  too, 
they  deferred  to  public  opinion,  an  opinion  in  which  the  sound  tradi- 
tions of  the  previous  century  survived,  and  which  was  being  fed 
by  the  new  and  enlightened  ideas  of  the  growing  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial classes.  Moreover,  after  the  Tories  again  became  a  factor  in 
politics  at  the  accession  of  George  III,  party  rivalry  played  an  im- 
portant role  in  checking  the  evils  which  had  developed  during  the  Whig 
ascendancy.  The  Whigs  soon  fell  into  eclipse  for  a  time  : ;  but  their 
leaders  were  active  and  courageous  in  denouncing  the  shortcomings 
of  their  political  rivals.  The  press,  too,  became  more  and  more  a 
means  of  ventilating  abuses  and  corruption.  While  many  evils  had 
been  checked  or  done  away  with  when  the  Grey  Ministry  came  to 
power,  the  cumbersome,  inadequate  method  of  representation  which 
did  so  much  to  foster  them  still  remained.2 

The  First  Reform  Bill  and  its  Defeat  in  the  Commons,  19  April, 
1831.  —  The  two  general  objects  in  the  work  which  the  Grey  Ministry 
now  undertook  were  to  redistribute  parliamentary  seats  on  a  more 
equal  basis,  and  to  extend  the  right  of  voting.  The  first  was  carried 
out  more  completely  than  the  second,  and  required  far  less  change 
in  years  to  come.  The  King  was  friendly  at  the  start,  the  Tories 
were  weak  and  divided,  and  the  people  showed  their  enthusiasm  in 
public  meetings,  in  political  unions,  and  in  floods  of  petitions.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  were  tremendous  obstacles  to  overcome.  The 
Whig  Ministers  were  lacking  in  administrative  experience.  The  King 
grew  timid  as  the  fight  became  hot.  The  borough  interests,  who  had 
so  much  at  stake,  roused  themselves  and  were  backed  by  two  thirds 
of  the  peers,  a  strong  minority  in  the  Commons,  and  by  a  not  incon- 

1  Disraeli  later  insisted  that  the  Whigs  were  anxious  for  reform  because  their 
Tory  rivals  had  snatched  from  them  the  control  of  the  existing  electoral  machinery. 

2  "Of  all  injurious  instruments  of  despotism,"  wrote  Sidney  Smith,  the  famous 
wit  of  the  period,  "I  most  commend  a  popular  assembly,  where  the  majority  are 
paid  and  hired,  and  a  few  bold  and  able  men,  by  their  brave  speeches,  make  the 
people  believe  they  are  free." 


THE  EPOCH  OF  REFORM  915 

siderable  Tory  sentiment  throughout  the  country.  Moreover,  the 
very  fervor  of  the  Radicals  was  a  source  of  embarrassment  to  the  Whig 
leaders  and  to  the  moderate  men  on  whom  they  counted  for  support. 
The  chairman  of  the  committee  selected  to  draft  the  Reform  Bill  was 
Grey's  son-in-law,  Lord  Durham,  a  man  of  rather  extreme  views. 
His  share  in  the  work  has  been  somewhat  obscured  by  that  of  Lord 
John  Russell,  who  was  very  properly  chosen  to  introduce  the  measure 
and  to  explain  its  terms.  The  second  reading  was  carried  by  a  ma- 
jority of  one,  amidst  scenes  of  wildest  joy  on  the  part  of  the  Whigs. 
Six  hundred  and  three  took  part  in  the  division,  the  largest  on  record 
up  to  that  time.  The  Bill,  however,  was  defeated  in  the  committee 
stage,  19  April,  1831,  by  an  amendment  against  a  provision  for  reducing 
the  membership  of  the  Commons  from  658  to  596. 

The  Lords  defeat  the  Second  Reform  BUI.  The  Third  Bill  and  its 
Final  Passage,  1832.  — The  Government  thereupon  persuaded  King 
William  to  appeal  to  the  people  in  another  general  election,  one  of  the 
most  momentous  in  English  history.  The  cry  throughout  the  country 
was :  "  The  Bill,  the  whole  Bill,  and  nothing  but  the  Bill."  The 
reformers  triumphed,  and  the  second  bill  passed  the  new  House  of 
Commons,  21  September,  1831,  by  a  majority  of  109.  Lord  John 
Russell  had  warned  the  Tories  that  "  it  was  impossible  for  the  whisper 
of  a  faction  to  prevail  against  the  voice  of  a  nation  "  ;  but  the  Lords 
proved  stubborn  and  threw  out  the  measure  on  the  second  reading, 
8  October.1  The  leading  newspapers  appeared  in  mourning.  The 
Chronicle  assured  its  readers  that  "  the  triumph  of  the  wicked  cannot 
endure  forever,"  and  the  Times  declared  that  it  turned  from  "  the 
appalling  sight  of  a  wounded  nation  to  the  means  already  in  action 
for  recovery."  Since  the  reverse  was  not  unexpected,  the  Ministry, 
sustained  by  a  vote  of  confidence  in  the  Commons,  merely  prorogued 
Parliament  and  prepared  a  third  bill.  Among  other  changes  the 
clause  reducing  the  membership  was  dropped.  The  agitation  outside, 
which,  even  though  intense,  had  hitherto  been  peaceful,  now  became 
violent.  Riots  broke  out  in  London  and  other  cities,  the  most  serious 
of  which  occurred  in  Bristol,  in  the  last  days  of  October,  when  the  mob 
reigned  supreme  for  two  days.  The  political  unions,  too,  became  so 
active  and  aggressive  that  a  proclamation  was  issued  suppressing 
certain  of  them  by  name.  Parliament  met  again,  6  December,  and, 
23  March,  the  Commons  sent  the  new  Bill  to  the  Upper  House  with 
an  increased  majority.  Fearful  of  continuing  to  defy  public  opinion 
openly,  the  Lords  voted  for  the  second  reading,  14  April,  by  a  majority 
of  9;  but  in  the  committee  stage  they  insisted  upon  amendments 
which  the  Ministry  could  not  accept.  Popular  excitement  became 
furious  in  its  intensity ;  a  clamor  arose  that  the  Peers  be  forced  into 

brougham  made  his  most  eloquent  and  theatrical  speech  on  this  _ occasion. 
He  ended  by  throwing  himself  on  his  knees  and  remained  so  long  that  his  friends, 
knowing  the  amount  of  mulled  port  he  had  drunk  to  stimulate  himself,  finally  went 
and  raised  him  to  his  feet. 


9i 6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

line ;  many  political  associations  refused  to  pay  taxes ;  in  London  a 
run  on  the  Bank  of  England  was  incited  by  placards  which  bore  the 
words :  "  To  stop  the  Duke,  go  for  gold.  "  With  the  country  trem- 
bling on  the  verge  of  a  revolution,  Grey  was  persuaded  by  his  colleagues 
to  advise  the  King  to  create  a  sufficient  number  of  new  peers  to  carry 
the  Bill.  Upon  William's  refusal  the  Cabinet  resigned.  Wellington 
undertook  to  form  a  ministry ;  but,  finding  the  task  was  as  hopeless  as 
it  was  dangerous,  he  counseled  the  King  to  recall  Earl  Grey.  Grey 
resumed  office  with  the  assurance  that  he  might  carry  his  measure 
without  altering  its  essential  features.  William  even  went  so  far 
as  to  consent  to  the  creation  of  new  peers,  on  condition  that  he 
might  confine  himself  to  the  -heirs  of  existing  noblemen ;  but  by 
using  his  influence  with  the  Tory  Lords  he  managed  in  the  end 
to  avoid  this  extreme  step.  A  hundred  peers,  led  by  Wellington, 
withdrew  from  the  Upper  House  during  the  final  voting.  With  the 
Tory  opposition  thus  weakened,  the  Bill  passed  through  the  commit- 
tee stage  and  the  third  reading,  and  received  the  royal  assent,  7  July, 
1832. 

The  Terms  of  the  Reform  Act  of  1832.  —  The  Act  in  its  final  form 
disfranchised  fifty-six  nomination  and  rotten  boroughs,  each  of  which 
had  less  than  2000  inhabitants  and  which  together  returned  1 1 1  mem- 
bers. Thirty  boroughs  where  the  population  was  less  than  4000  were 
deprived  of  a  single  member  each,  while  Weymouth  and  Melcombe 
Regis,  a  double  borough,  lost  two  of  its  four.  There  were  thus  143 
seats  for  redistribution.  Twenty-two  large  towns  received  two,  and 
twenty-one  a  single  member  each.  Furthermore,  the  county  member- 
ship was  increased  from  94  to  159.  The  remaining  13  representatives 
were  left  for  Scotland  and  Ireland.  In  addition  to  redistribution  of 
seats,  the  Bill  undertook  a  moderate  extension  and  equalization  of  the 
franchise.  In  the  boroughs  the  various,  queer,  and  antiquated  fran- 
chises were  abolished,  with  one  exception,1  and  the  vote  was  given  to  all 
householders  paying  a  rental  of  £10  a  year.  In  the  counties  the  forty- 
shilling  freehold  qualification  was  retained  in  the  case  of  the  voter 
who  occupied  his  estate,  or  who  had  acquired  it  by  inheritance,  mar- 
riage, or  other  specified  ways.  In  other  cases,  a  £10  qualification  was 
established  for  freeholders,  copyholders,  as  well  as  leaseholders  for 
terms  of  sixty  years.  A  qualification  of  £50  was  fixed  for  leaseholders 
for  shorter  terms  and  for  tenants  at  will.  The  tenants  at  will  were 
added  by  the  so-called  "  Chandos  clause,"  based  on  a  motion  of  the 
Marquis  of  Chandos.  While  his  aim  was  to  increase  the  power  of  the 
landlords,  the  effect  was  to  extend  somewhat  the  area  of  enfranchise- 
ment. 

Scotland  and  Ireland.  —  Scotland  and  Ireland  were  dealt  with  in 
two  separate  bills.  The  Scotch  representatives  were  increased  from 

1  Resident  freemen,  created  before  March,  1831,  were  allowed  to  retain  their 
vote.  The  qualification  was  designed  to  get  rid  of  hosts  qi  freemen  who  had  been 
created  to  vote  against  the  Reform  Bill, 


THE   EPOCH  OF  REFORM  917 

45  to  53,  of  which,  in  the  redistribution,  30  went  to  the  counties  and 
23  to  the  cities  and  boroughs.  In  the  former,  all  owners  of  property 
worth  £10  a  year  and  certain  classes  of  leaseholders  were  given  the 
right  to  vote ;  in  the  latter,  the  £10  householders,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  old  qualifications  were  abolished.  Ireland  was  given  five  more 
representatives.1  At  the  time  of  the  Union  a  number  of  nomination 
and  rotten  boroughs  had  been  swept  away.  While  the  remainder 
were  left  undisturbed  by  the  Act  of  1832,  the  right  to  return 
members  of  Parliament  was  taken  from  the  municipal  corporations 
and  conferred  upon  the  £10  householders.  In  1850  the  borough 
qualification  was  reduced  to  £8. 

The  Results  of  the  Reform  Bill. —The  Revolution  of  1688  had 
transferred  the  chief  power  from  the  sovereign  to  the  landed  aristoc- 
racy. The  Reform  Bill  shifted  the  balance  to  the  commercial  and 
industrial  middle  class.  It  was,  so  far  as  England  was  concerned, 
the  "  greatest  act  of  the  century."  The  system  of  Cabinet  and  party 
government  now  became  something  like  a  reality;  for  the  ministers 
henceforth  represented  a  popular  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  not  one  depending  upon  the  manipulation  of  the  sovereign,  the 
ministers,  and  the  landowning  magnates.  The  passage  of  the  measure 
had  demonstrated,  too,  that  at  a  crisis  the  House  of  Lords  could  not 
defy  the  popular  will.  Furthermore,  the  triumph  was  an  indication 
that  the  principle  of  change  which  had  been  struggling  for  expression 
during  the  past  decade  was  going  to  prevail.  Something  had  been 
accomplished  by  indirect  pressure  and  other  imperfect  means ;  but 
now  a  veritable  era  of  reform  was  about  to  open.2  The  Reform  Bill 
did  not  accomplish  all  that  its  advocates  had  predicted.  It  did  not 
put  an  end,  for  instance,  to  bribery  and  corruption,  though  the 
widening  of  the  electorate  tended  to  further  lessen  these  evils.  More- 
over, while  it  took  a  long  step  in  the  direction  of  equality  of  representa- 
tion, it  left  the  bulk  of  the  lower  classes  — •  the  majority  of  the  popula- 
tion —  without  the  vote.  Nor  had  the  secret  ballot,  which  has  proved 
one  of  the  most  effective  means  of  purifying  elections,  been  conceded. 
In  one  respect  the  Bill  was  reactionary ;  for  it  swept  away  the  demo- 
cratic franchises  of  certain  boroughs,  though  the  element  thus  deprived 
was  largely  corrupt.  There  was  widespread  discontent  among  the 
working  classes,  which,  while  it  was  to  some  extent  stirred  up  by 
disappointed  hopes,  was  due  to  real  suffering. 

The  First  Reformed  Parliament,  1832-1833. —  The  class  of  mem- 
bers elected  to  the  first  reformed  House  of  Commons,  in  the  winter 
of  1833,  was  not  strikingly  different  from  that  of  the  parliaments 

1  Making  a  total  of  105.     Two  seats  were  afterwards  taken  away  because  of 
corruption,  leaving  103,  the  present  number. 

2  Some  reformers  like  Sidney  Smith  were  alarmed  at  the  feverish  activity  of 
Parliament  during  the  next  few  years.     "All  gradation  and  caution  have  been 
banished,"  he  complained,  "since  the  Reform  Bill;  rapid  high  pressure  wisdom 
is  the  only  agent  in  public  affairs." 


9i  8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

immediately  preceding.1  The  counties  returned  numbers  of  the 
landed  gentry,  while  the  boroughs,  as  a  rule,  chose  responsible  men  of 
property.  Some  extreme  Tories  were  defeated ;  but  so  were  some  of 
the  advanced  Radicals.  Though  Cobbett  was  elected,  "  Orator  " 
Hunt  was  not.  If  the  House  ceased  to  be  the  "  best  club  in  London," 
it  was  no  assembly  of  demagogues.  Nevertheless,  the  Whigs  and  the 
other  anti-Tory  elements  were  in  an  overwhelming  majority.  It  is 
estimated  that  they  comprised  486  of  the  658  members.  They  were 
far  from  being  united,  however ;  the  supporters  of  the  Ministry,  who 
were  aristocratic  in  temper  and  fearful  of  democratic  excesses,  com- 
manded barely  more  than  half  the  votes  of  the  House.  The  remain- 
der of  the  party  was  made  up  of  free  lances,  Radicals  and  Irish 
"  Repealers."  The  Tory  minority  was  also  divided,  though  not  so 
markedly.  There  was  a  considerable  group  of  moderate  men  led  by 
Peel,2  who  had  discarded  the  old  party  name  and  who  adopted  that 
of  "  Conservatives."  Indeed,  it  was  not  long  before  the  terms  Whig 
and  Tory  were  completely  superseded  by  those  of  Liberal  and  Con- 
servative, respectively. 

The  Remedial  Legislation  of  1833.  —  The  distinguishing  feature  of 
the  new  Parliament  was  its  zeal  for  legislation.  It  has  been  said 
with  truth  that  "  no  session  has  been  more  fruitful  in  legislative  ac- 
tivity than  that  of  1833."  Among  the  long  list  of  remedial  measures 
were :  the  Irish  Church  Temporalities  Bill ;  the  abolition  of  slavery 
in  the  British  colonies;  an  epoch-making  Factory  Act;  the  renewal 
of  the  charters  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  of  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land, in  each  case  with  important  modifications;  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  permanent  judicial  committee  of  the  Privy  Council  as  the 
highest  court  of  appeal  for  colonial  and  ecclesiastical  causes.  Another 
legal  reform  was  the  abolition  of  a  number  of  obsolete  and  complicated 
actions  relating  to  real  property,  and  the  introduction  of  new  processes 
whereby  land  transfers  and  the  barring  of  entails  was  greatly  simpli- 
fied. Many  cumbersome  and  worn-out  methods  still  remained,  and 
it  required  nearly  a  century  of  law  reform  before  any  considerable 
results  were  accomplished.  The  achievements  of  the  year  are  all  the 
more  remarkable  in  view  of  the  attention  demanded  by  the  troubled 
situation  in  Ireland. 

The  Irish  Tithe  War,  1831-1833.  —  In  that  country  a  great  "  tithe 
war  "  had  broken  out  in  1831.  In  a  population  of  nearly  8,000,000 
souls  less  than  900,000  belonged  to  the  Established  Episcopal  Church. 
The  other  eight  ninths,  largely  agriculturists,  whose  tiny  holdings 
yielded  barely  enough  to  keep  them  from  starvation,  and  who  had  to 
support  their  own  priests,  bitterly  resented  the  payment  of  tithes  to 

1  Many  timid  folk,  fearing  a  revolution,  had  sent  their  money  to  Denmark  and 
the  United  States  for  investment.     The  panic  of  1837  in  the  latter  country  caused 
numbers  to  regret  the  step  they  had  taken. 

2  Peel  and  his  followers  accepted  the  results  of  the  Reform  Bill,  and  often  voted 
with  the  Government  against  the  extremists  of  their  own  party. 


THE   EPOCH  OF   REFORM  919 

the  hated  representatives  of  an  alien  faith.  Moreover,  the  method 
of  assessment  and  collection  was  irritating  and  unfair.  Grassland 
where  the  rich  pastured  great  flocks  was  exempt,  and  the  chief  burden 
fell  on  the  lesser  folk  who  could  ill  spare  their  pigs  and  their  poultry.1 
Yet,  pitiable  as  was  the  situation  of  the  Irish  peasantry,  the  ferocity 
with  which  they  tortured  and  murdered  the  tithe  proctors  and  abused 
and  intimidated  those  who  obeyed  the  law  was  more  deplorable.  After 
the  Government  had  safely  carried  the  Reform  Bill,  it  attempted, 
though  with  no  great  success,  to  relieve  the  Irish  situation.  Early 
in  1832  the  Lord  Lieutenant  was  authorized  to  advance  money  to  the 
clergy  who  were  suffering  from  failure  to  collect  the  chief  source  of 
their  income.  The  Government  officials  then  undertook,  with  the 
aid  of  the  military,  to  collect  the  arrears ;  but  their  efforts  proved  as 
futile  as  they  were  expensive.  One  case  is  recorded  where  three  com- 
panies of  soldiers  and  two  pieces  of  artillery  were  called  out  for  the 
sale  of  one  cow.  In  1833  the  attempt  was  given  up,  a  much  larger 
sum  was  advanced  to  the  clergy,  and  a  project  was  set  on  foot  —  which 
failed  in  1833  and  again  in  1834  —  to  substitute  for  the  tithes  a  money 
land  tax. 

The  Coercion  Bill  and  the  Irish  Church  Temporalities  Bill,  1833.  — 
The  use  of  military  force  had  only  aggravated  the  passions  of  the 
Irish.  Murders,  assaults,  and  destruction  of  property  increased 
with  alarming  rapidity.  Secret  organizations  multiplied,  while  the 
courts  were  hampered  by  the  intimidation  of  jurors  and  witnesses. 
To  meet  the  situation,  Stanley,  the  Irish  Secretary,  whose  policy  was 
a  "  quick  alternation  of  kicks  and  kindnesses,"  presented  to  the  Cabi- 
net a  Peace  Preservation  Bill  and  a  Church  Temporalities  Bill.  The 
conciliatory  measure  was  introduced  first.  It  imposed  a  gradual  tax  on 
clerical  incomes  to  relieve  the  Irish  rate  payers  from  the  burden  of 
parish  expenses,  and  provided  for  the  reduction  of  the  Irish  Episcopate 
by  abolishing  two  of  the  four  archbishoprics  and  eight  of  the  eighteen 
bishoprics,  as  vacancies  should  occur.  An  "  appropriation  clause," 
empowering  Parliament  to  apply  the  money  thus  saved  to  such  secular 
purposes  as  it  saw  fit,  had  to  be  sacrificed,  owing  to  the  opposition  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  bill,  thus  shorn  of  its  most  popular  feature, 
became  law.  Something  had  been  gained  by  the  abolition  of  the 
parish  cess,  as  the  rates  were  called;  but,  once  more,  Parliament 
had  thrown  away  the  chance  of  granting  a  free-handed  concession. 
The  bitterness  of  O'Connell  and  his  followers  was  accentuated  by  the 
drastic  character  of  the  accompanying  Coercion  Bill.  It  gave  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  unlimited  power  of  suppressing  public  meetings, 
and  of  declaring  any  county  in  a  state  of  disturbance.  In  such  dis- 
tricts inhabitants  were  forbidden  to  be  out  of  doors  between  sunset 

1  Tithes  should  be  distinguished  from  church  rates.  The  former  were  paid  in 
kind  for  the  support  of  the  bishops  and  clergy.  The  latter  were  voted  by  the  parish 
for  the  up-keep  of  the  church  fabric,  and,  in  modern  times  at  least,  were  paid  in 
money. 


920  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  sunrise,  trial  by  martial  law  was  introduced,  and  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  suspended. 

The  Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  Colonies,  1833.  —  Stanley,  in  view 
of  the  hostility  which  he  had  excited  in  Ireland,1  was  transferred  to 
the  office  of  Colonial  Secretary.  In  his  new  position  he  carried  a 
measure  for  which  the  abolitionists  had  been  struggling  ever  since 
the  slave  trade  had  been  done  away  with  in  1807.  Encouraged  by  an 
admission  of  Huskisson  that  slave  labor  was  more  costly  than  free 
labor,  Thomas  Fowell  Buxton,  a  wealthy  brewer  and  philanthropist, 
had,  15  May,  1823,  introduced  a  resolution  for  the  gradual  abolition 
of  slavery  throughout  the  British  dominions.  Canning  succeeded  in 
defeating  the  measure,  but  favored  steps  for  improving  the  lot  of 
those  in  bondage.  In  consequence,  a  circular  letter  was  issued,  24 
May,  1824,  forbidding  the  use  of  the  whip  in  the  field,  and  the  flogging 
of  women  under  any  circumstances.  In  spite  of  growing  popular 
sentiment,  the  West  India  interest  was  strong  enough  to  prevent 
anything  further  from  being  done  until  after  the  reform  of  Parliament. 
The  planters  who  were  badly  off  —  owing  to  the  fall  in  prices  after 
the  Great  War,  and  to  their  own  extravagance  and  wasteful  methods  — 
were  determined  to  fight  to  the  last  ditch.  Notwithstanding  their  op- 
position, a  bill  was  passed,  30  August,  1833,  providing  for  a  scheme  of 
gradual  emancipation.  All  children  under  six  years  of  age  and  all 
born  henceforth  were  declared  free.  Others  were  to  serve  an  ap- 
prenticeship, giving  three  fourths  of  their  time  to  their  masters.  The 
term  first  proposed  was  twelve  years,  but  it  was  shortened  to  seven 
before  the  bill  became  law.  Four  years  of  trial  proved  the  apprentice 
system  unworkable,  so  it  was  done  away  with  altogether.  Originally, 
too,  the  planters  were  to  be  compensated  with  a  loan  of  £15,000,000, 
but  in  the  final  act  that  was  altered  to  a  gift  of  £20,000,000.  Happily, 
Wilberforce,  the  pioneer  in  the  anti-slavery  cause,  lived  to  hear  that 
the  measure  crowning  his  life  work  had  passed  the  second  reading. 

The  Factory  Act  of  1833.  —  In  this  session  a  notable  act  was  passed 
to  improve  the  grievous  lot  of  children  employed  in  factories.  Atten- 
tion had  first  been  called  to  the  question  (in  1784)  by  Dr.  Percival  of 
Man  Chester  who  recommended  shortening  the  hours  of  labor,  improving 
sanitary  conditions,  and  placing  the  mills  under  supervision  and  legis- 
lative control.  The  first  Factory  Act,  passed  in  1802,  included  the 
cotton  and  woolen  industries,  but  applied,  for  the  most  part,  only  to 
"  apprentices."  Further  investigations  disclosed  frightful  condi- 
tions. Children  as  young  as  six  years  of  age  were  worked  for  thirteen 
or  fourteen  hours  a  day  in  unhealthy,  overheated  rooms.  Exhausted 
by  long  and  exacting  labor  and  without  opportunities  for  play,  sun- 
shine, or  education,  they  grew  old  before  their  time;  but  remained 
stunted  in  body  and  mind.  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the  elder,  took  up  the 

1  O'Connell  denounced  him  as  "scorpion  Stanley,"  and  he  was  wittily  described 
by  another  as  the  "Secretary  at  War  with  Ireland." 


THE   EPOCH  OF   REFORM  921 

work,  and  by  his.  recommendations  an  act  was  passed,  in  1819,  which 
went  a  step  further  in  remedying  the  existing  evils.  Peel's  efforts 
were  reenforced  by  those  of  Michael  Sadler  and  Lord  Ashley,  later 
Earl  of  Shaftesbury.  Sadler  had  already  prepared  a  new  bill  when  he 
was  defeated  in  the  general  election  of  1832,  so  it  fell  to  Ashley  to 
carry  on  the  struggle.  He  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  bulk  of  manu- 
facturers, who  were,  in  general,  supported  by  both  parties.  The 
Tories  were  averse  to  change,  and  the  Whigs  were  advocates  of  the 
laissez-faire  policy  which  aimed  to  minimize  the  interference  of  the 
State  in  individual  concerns.  Nevertheless,  he  was  able  to  carry,  in 
a  slightly  modified  form,  a  measure  which  he  introduced  in  1833.  It 
prohibited  the  employment  of  children  under  nine  years  of  age;  it 
restricted  the  labor  of  children  between  nine  and  thirteen  to  forty-eight 
hours  in  a  week  and  to  nine  in  a  single  day ;  that  of  young  persons 
between  thirteen  and  eighteen  to  sixty-nine  hours  a  week  and  to  twelve 
in  a  single  day.  It  provided  for  a  system  of  inspection  to  enforce  the 
provisions  of  the  law,  and  enacted  that  children  under  thirteen  should 
attend  school  for  two  hours  a  day.  The  regulations  of  1833  applied 
only  to  the  textile  industries  in  factories,  and  left  much  to  be  desired 
in  other  respects ;  but  it  was  the  happy  forerunner  of  later  remedial 
legislation  relating  to  conditions  of  labor. 

The  "  New  Poor  Law,"  1834.  —  In  the  following  year,  Parliament 
carried  another  measure  of  supreme  importance  — -  the  Poor  Law 
Amendment  Act,  popularly  known  as  the  "  New  Poor  Law."  The 
chief  fault  of  the  Elizabethan  laws  was  that  they  imposed  the  care  of 
the  poor  on  the  parish  —  a  unit  too  small  to  bear  the  burden  in  districts 
where  there  was  an  excess  of  paupers.  While  no  attempt  had  been 
made  to  deal  with  this  obvious  defect,  another,  and  the  wisest,  per- 
haps, of  the  Elizabethan  provisions  —  namely,  that  the  able-bodied 
should  be  made  to  work  in  houses  of  correction,  if  necessary,  and  that 
the  sick  and  helpless  should  be  provided  for  in  almshouses  —  had 
broken  down.  In  1795,  the  Berkshire  magistrates  began  the  practice 
of  supplementing  inadequate  wages  by  money  allowances.  This  prac- 
tice of  "  outdoor  relief  "  soon  became  general  and  was  sanctioned  by 
Parliament  in  1796.  It  tended  to  foster  pauperism  in  more  ways  than 
one.  It  discouraged  thrift,  because  many  who  would  never  have  gone 
to  the  poorhouse  were  quite  willing  to  receive  aid  in  this  way.  It 
kept  down  wages ;  for  it  tempted  employers  to  spare  their  own  pockets 
at  the  expense  of  the  rates.  Furthermore,  it  fostered  immorality, 
since  women  might  be  given  an  allowance  for  every  one  of  their  children 
whether  legitimate  or  not.  To  make  matters  worse,  iniquitous  laws  of 
settlement,  beginning  with  an  act  of  Charles  II  in  1662,  prohibited 
paupers  from  leaving  the  parishes  where  work  was  scarce  to  go  to 
those  where  there  was  an  abundance.  The  burden  of  the  rates  be- 
came crushing.  In  one  parish  the  annual  rate  rose  from  £18  to  £367 
in  three  years,  causing  farmers  to  leave  their  farms ;  in  another,  there 
were  one  hundred  and  four  paupers  out  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine 


922  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

inhabitants.  At  length,  a  seventh  of  the  population  came  to  be  de- 
pendent upon  the  rates,  which  reached  an  annual  total  of  £8,500,000. 
In  the  face  of  this  intolerable  situation  a  commission  of  investigation 
was  appointed.  Its  report,  February,  1834,  based  on  experiments 
which  had  proved  successful  in  a  number  of  the  districts,  contained 
five  recommendations :  i .  All  outdoor  relief,  except  medical  aid, 
should  be  abolished.  2.  Women  should  support  their  illegitimate 
children.  3.  The  Law  of  Settlement  should  be  modified  in  order  that 
the  poor  might  be  free  to  go  wherever  work  was  plentiful.  4.  Parishes 
should  be  grouped  into  unions,  so  that  the  prosperous  might  help  the 
poorer.  5.  A  central  poor-law  board  of  three  commissioners  should 
be  created  for  the  supervision  and  control  of  the  whole  local  system. 
In  spite  of  the  bitter  opposition  of  the  Radicals,  a  bill  based  on  those 
recommendations  —  Cobbett  denounced  it  as  the  "  poor  man's  rob- 
bery bill"  —became  law  in  August,  1834.  The  immediate  result 
was  no  little  suffering  and  intense  discontent,  leading  even  to  riots; 
but  the  measure,  in  the  long  run,  proved  to  be  very  highly  beneficial, 
even  though  outdoor  relief  was  never  wholly  discontinued.  The  rates 
fell  within  a  short  time  to  £3,000,000,  while  the  poor  steadily  improved 
in  self-reliance  and  industry. 

The  Resignation  of  Earl  Grey,  1834.  —  Before  the  Poor  Law  Bill 
reached  its  second  reading  Earl  Grey  had  resigned.  For  some  time, 
his  Government  had  been  declining  in  popularity.  It  had  offended 
various  special  interests  by  its  reform  measures,  while  at  the  same  time 
it  had  not  gone  far  enough  to  content  the  Radicals.  Moreover,  the 
budgets  of  Althorp  failed  to  satisfy  the  conflicting  claims  of  the  landed 
and  borough  representatives.  The  growing  weakness  of  the  Adminis- 
tration was  brought  to  a  head  by  a  hopeless  split  in  the  Cabinet  over 
the  Irish  question.  Russell,  who  was  of  "  the  opinion  that  the 
revenues  of  the  Church  of  Ireland  were  larger  "  than  sufficed  for  its 
own  needs,  sought  to  revive  the  recently  abandoned  "  appropriation 
clause."  "  Johnny  has  upset  the  coach,"  declared  Stanley  who  was 
opposed  to  turning  over  the  surplus  funds  to  secular  purposes. 
He  resigned  soon  after,  followed  by  others  of  his  way  of  thinking. 
For  the  moment,  Grey  consented  very  reluctantly  to  stay  on.  When, 
however,  Althorp  withdrew  because  the  Cabinet  refused  to  sanction 
an  agreement  with  O'Connell,  made  without  its  knowledge,  the  Premier 
finally  threw  up  his  office,  9  July,  1834. 

The  First  Melbourne  Ministry,  July-November,  1834.  —  Grey 
was  succeeded  by  Melbourne  (1779-1848)  who  had  been  Home 
Secretary  since  1830.  Unconventional  in  manner  and  profane  in 
speech,  he  was  naturally  of  a  serious  disposition  and  scholarly  in  his 
tastes.  He  was  an  old-fashioned  Liberal  of  the  laissez-faire  school  who 
was  opposed  to  the  restless,  innovating  spirit  of  the  Radicals.  His 
favorite  remark  was:  "  Why  can't  you  let  it  alone."  From  these 
political  convictions  and  from  his  languid,  indolent  bearing,  largely 
a  pose,  he  got  a  reputation  for  aimlessness  and  lack  of  firmness  that 


THE   EPOCH  OF  REFORM  923 

was  hardly  deserved.1  Contrary  to  the  King's  hopes,  Melbourne 
and  Peel  would  not  form  a  coalition,  so  the  Whig  Ministry,  somewhat 
reconstituted,  was  continued.  Althorp  consented  to  withdraw  his 
resignation.  The  Administration  was  mainly  occupied  with  the  Irish 
difficulties  until  the  autumn  prorogation,  when  two  events  happened 
which  made  a  change  inevitable.  Brougham,  during  a  journey 
through  Scotland,  delivered  a  series  of  speeches  which  prompted  the 
King  to  liken  him  to  an  "  itinerant  mountebank,"  and  which  hope- 
lessly alienated  numbers  of  his  party.  Then,  in  November,  1834, 
Althorp,  on  the  death  of  his  father,  Earl  Spencer,  went  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  thus  depriving  the  Whigs  of  the  leader  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, upon  whose  "  personal  weight  and  influence  "  they  mainly 
depended.  Thereupon,  Melbourne  wrote  to  William  that  it  was  for 
his  Majesty  to  consider  whether,  under  the  circumstances,  the  resigna- 
tion of  the  Ministry  might  not  be  advisable.  William  eagerly  seized 
this  opportunity  to  form  a  new  Government,  because  he  wanted  to  get 
rid  of  Brougham  and  because  Russell,  who  had  been  proposed  as 
Althorp's  successor  in  the  leadership  of  the  Commons,  was  unaccept- 
able to  him  on  account  of  his  attitude  on  the  appropriation  clause. 
There  is  no  truth  in  the  statement,  commonly  made,  that  he  dis- 
missed the  Melbourne  Ministry,  14  November,  1834,  without  pre- 
vious consultation.  The  point  is  important ;  because  if  he  had 
acted  in  the  arbitrary  fashion  attributed  to  him,  he  would  have 
assumed  an  authority  which  no  sovereign,  with  the  exception  of 
George  III,  had  ventured  to  assert  for  more  than  a  century. 

The  First  Peel  Ministry,  November,  i834-April,  1835.  —  By  the 
advice  of  Wellington,  Peel  was  selected  as  Prime  Minister.  On  the 
receipt  of  the  news,  the  Conservative  leader,  who  was  in  Italy,  hastened 
home.  He  covered  the  journey  from  Rome  to. Dover  in  twelve  days, 
which  was  regarded  as  a  marvelous  feat  of  traveling  for  those  days. 
During  the  interval,  the  Duke  carried  on  the  Government,  holding 
all  the  Secretaryships  of  State  himself.  Peel,  on  his  arrival,  took 
the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  .as  well  as  that  of  First 
Lord  of  the  Treasury,  Wellington  became  Secretary  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  and  Lyndhurst,  Lord  Chancellor.  The  rest  of  the  Cabinet 
was  made  up  of  new  men,  together  with  a  few  of  Wellington's  old 
followers.  Stanley  and  Sir  James  Graham,  who  had  broken  with  their 
Whig  colleagues  on  the  Irish  question,  refused  Peel's  offer  to  enter 
the  Ministry,  though  they  agreed  to  support  him  in  the  Commons. 
In  the  general  election  which  followed,  the  Prime  Minister  issued  an 
address  to  his  constituents.  This  "  Tamworth  Manifesto  "  is  notable 

1  He  once  remarked  in  a  Cabinet  meeting :  "It  does  not  much  matter  what  we 
say;  but  we  must  all  say  the  same  thing."  He  would  often  sit  blowing  a  feathei 
or  fondling  a  sofa  cushion  while  receiving  an  important  deputation,  when  really 
he  was  all  attention,  and  may  have  sat  up  all  night  studying  the  question  to  which 
he  appeared  so  indifferent.  His  friend  Sidney  Smith,  in  a  famous  satiric  passage, 
declared  him  an  impostor,  and  "accused"  him  of  "honesty  and  diligence." 


924  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

for  outlining  the  principles  of  the  new  liberal  Conservative  party  which 
Peel  had  been  developing  since  1832.  In  it,  he  announced  his  accept- 
ance of  the  Reform  Act  as  "  a  final  and  irrevocable  settlement  of  a 
great  constitutional  question,"  and  declared  that,  with  due  regard  for 
old  constitutional  principles,  he  was  prepared  to  proceed  with  the 
removal  of  abuses  and  the  initiation  of  "judicious  reforms."  This 
program,  while  it  attracted  the  extremists  of  neither  party,  made  a 
strong  appeal  to  the  moderates.1  While  the  Conservatives  had  gained 
strength  in  the  recent  election,  they  were  still  outnumbered  by  the 
combined  forces  of  the  Whigs,  Radicals,  and  Repealers.  True  to  hi', 
promise,  Peel  introduced  a  number  of  reforms  which  drew  upon  him 
the  charge  of  purloining  the  measures  of  his  adversaries,  and  which, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  were  carried  by  the  next  Liberal  Ministry.  He 
appointed  an  ecclesiastical  commission  to  inquire  into  abuses  and 
inequalities  existing  in  the  Established  Church ;  he  introduced  a  bill 
to  relieve  Dissenters  from  the  disabilities  of  the  marriage  laws  then  in 
force,  and  another  to  commute  the  English  tithes  into  money  pay- 
ments. In  April,  1835,  after  an  uphill  fight,  he  resigned  when  Russell 
carried  a  motion  1»o  devote  any  surplus  revenue  from  the  Irish  Church 
"  to  the  general  education  of  all  the,  classes  of  the  people  without 
religious  distinction."  He  was  destined  to  defeat  from  the  first,  and 
he  had  further  embittered  the  old-line  Tories ;  but  he  had  established 
his  reputation  at  home  and  abroad  as  a  man  of  capacity  bound  in 
time  to  return  to  power. 

The  Second  Melbourne  Ministry,  1835-1841.  Brougham.  —  Since 
Grey  refused  to  resume  office,  the  King  was  forced  to  turn  again  to 
Melbourne  and  to  accept  Russell  as  the  leader  of  the  Commons. 
The  membership  of  Melbourne's  second  Ministry  was  practically  the 
same  as  his  first,  with  one  striking  exception.  Brougham  was  not 
included.  Melbourne  declared  he  would  have  nothing  more  to  do 
with  him  for  two  reasons :  "  his  whole  character  and  his  whole  con- 
duct." Though  the  ex-Chancellor  lived  until  1868,  to  the  advanced 
age  of  ninety  years,  his  official  career  was  ended.  His  faults  of  temper 
and  his  indiscretions  made  him  an  impossible  colleague ;  but  by  his 
remarkable  abilities,  and  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  political,  social, 
and  legal  reform,  he  was  one  of  the  foremost  contributors  to  the 
progress  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  Municipal  Reform  Act,  1835.  —  The  most  notable  achievement 
of  the  new  Ministry  was  the  reform  of  the  municipal  corporations. 
In  1833  a  commission  had  been  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  state  of 
the  municipalities.  Its  report,  presented  early  in  1835,  revealed  a 
situation  crying  for  amendment.  The  Reform  Bill  had  swept  away 
many  of  the  small  rotten  boroughs,  and  had  improved  the  condition 

1  Parliament,  when  it  met  in  February,  1835,  was  forced  to  hold  its  sessions  in 
temporary  quarters.  On  October  16,  owing  to  carelessness  in  burning  an  accumula- 
tion of  old  Exchequer  tallies,  a  fire  had  broken  out  and  practically  destroyed  the 
old  parliamentary  buildings,  with  the  exception  of  Westminster  Hall. 


THE  EPOCH  OF  REFORM  925 

of  parliamentary  representation  and  qualifications  for  voting  in  those 
that  remained.  Its  scope,  however,  did  not  extend  to  internal  organ- 
ization and  administration.  The  government  was  very  generally  in 
the  hands  of  councils,  self-elected,  irresponsible,  and  corrupt.  The 
number  of  freemen,  who  in  some  cases  formed  the  corporation,  was 
usually  limited;  in  Portsmouth,  for  instance,  there  were  102  out  of 
46,000  inhabitants,  in  Cambridge  only  118  out  of  20,000.  Moreover, 
these  freemen,  usually  descendants  of  the  original  ratepayers,  and 
others  arbitrarily  added  for  political  purposes,  were  often  poor 
creatures  —  paupers,  indeed,  who  shared  in  old  charitable  endowments 
and  enjoyed  exemptions  from  tolls,  as  well  as  from  other  burdens. 
The  Municipal  Corporations  Bill,  framed  on  the  basis  of  the  report 
of  1835  and  introduced  by  Russell,  provided  for  drastic  changes.  All 
boroughs  and  cities,  with  the  exception  of  London,  —  and  sixty-seven 
others  omitted  because  of  their  small  size,  —  were  to  adopt  a  uniform 
plan  of  government.  This  was  to  be  vested  in  a  town  council,  con- 
sisting of  a  mayor,  aldermen,  and  councilors.  The  councilors  were 
to  be  elected  by  the  ratepayers,  together  with  the  freemen  who  had 
survived  the  Reform  Bill,  and  were  to  hold  office  for  three  years. 
The  mayor  was  to  be  chosen  annually,  and  the  aldermen  every  six 
years,  by  the  councilors  from  their  own  body.  Each  borough,  too, 
might,  if  it  chose,  have  a  recorder,  nominated  by  the  Crown,  for  the 
conduct  of  its  judicial  work.  Exclusive  trading  privileges  were 
broken  up,  and  measures  were  devised  to  prevent  jobbery  and  thieving. 
For  example,  much  business,  formerly  in  the  hands  of  small  com- 
mittees, was  transferred  to  the  whole  council  whose  meetings  were 
to  be  public  and  whose  accounts  were  to  be  audited  annually.  The 
bill  was  supported  by  Peel ;  but  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Tory 
peers.  Newcastle,  for  example,  denounced  it  as  "  the  latest  prod- 
uct of  the  arbitrary  will  of  a  tyrannical  House  of  Commons."  Never- 
theless, it  became  law,  September,  1835. 

The  Closing  Years  of  William's  Reign,  1836-1837.  —  In  the  fol- 
lowing year,  1836,  a  few  other  reforms  were  carried.  Chief  among 
them  was  an  act  converting  English  tithes  in  kind  into  an  annual 
rent  charge.1  Another  was  a  measure  authorizing  Dissenters  to  cele- 
brate marriages  in  their  own  chapels,  with  a  system  of  registration  in 
place  of  banns.  Civil  marriages  were  also  allowed ;  but  the  Church 
of  England  retained  the  practice  of  marrying  members  with  banns  or 
license.  The  Ecclesiastical  Commission  did  away  with  many  abuses, 
such  as  non-residence  and  pluralities,  and  performed  a  notable  work 
in  reducing  the  gross  inequalities  of  episcopal  and  clerical  incomes. 
Another  step  in  advance  was  to  allow  to  prisoners  on  trial  for  felony 
the  full  benefit  of  counsel.  What  with  the  difficulties  in  Ireland,  the 
active  obstructionist  tactics  of  the  Conservatives,  and  the  claims  of 
the  Radicals  for  more  progressive  measures  —  for  the  ballot  and  house- 

1  Compulsory  church  rates  were  abolished  in  1868,  though  voluntary  payments 
still  continue. 


926  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

hold  suffrage,  the  repeal  of  the  Septennial  Act,  the  abolition  of  the 
property  qualification  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  the  reform  of 
the  House  of  Lords  —  the  Ministry  had  stormy  sailing.  Such  was 
the  situation  when  William  IV  died,  20  June,  1837.  He  had  come  to 
the  throne  late  in  life,  defective  in  education,  and  with  abilities  far 
from  great.  Yet,  while  he  was  erratic  and  opinionated  and  grew 
more  and  more  timid  of  innovation,  he  was  honest,  well-meaning,  and 
loyal  in  the  support  of  his  ministers.  However  much  or  little  he  con- 
tributed to  the  result,  his  reign  was  marked  by  a  series  of  reforms 
unsurpassed  for  number  and  importance  during  any  period  of  equal 
length  in  English  history. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Brodrick  and  Fotheringham,  Political  History,  chs.  XIII-XIX. 
Marriott,  England  since  Waterloo,  pt.  II,  chs.  V,  VI.  Cambridge  Modern  History, 
X,  chs.  XVIII,  XX  (bibliography,  pp.  856-859,  867-870).  Maxwell,  Century  of 
Empire,  I,  ch.  XIV;  II  (1910),  chs.  I-IV;  Bright,  III,  1418-1472.  Martineau,  His- 
tory of  England,  bks.  IV,  V.  Walpole,  History  of  England,  III,  chs.  XI,  XIII;  IV, 
ch.XIV. 

For  parliamentary  reform  see  above,  ch.  XL VIII.  Also  G.  L.  Dickinson  The 
Development  of  Parliament  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (1895). 

Biographies  and  special  works.  E.  Ashley,  Life  of  Lord  Palmerston  (1879),  I. 
C.  Buxton,  Memoirs  of  Sir  Thomas  Powell  Buxton  (1898).  Torrens,  Memoirs  of 
Lord, Melbourne  (2  vols.,  1878).  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan,  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macau- 
lay  (2  vols.,  1876) ;  a  delightful  book.  E.  Hodder,  Life  of  the  Seventh  Earl  of  Shafles- 
bury  (1887).  B.  L.  Hutchins,  History  of  Factory  Legislation  (1903).  Sir  G.  Nicholls 
and  T.  Mackay,  History  of  the  English  Poor  Law  (3  vols.,  1904).  W.  Bagehot, 
Biographical  Studies  (1880). 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  263-265.  Robertson,  pt. 
I,  nos.  XLVII-XLVIII;  pt.  II,  no.  XXVI,  appendix,  pp.  430-438. 


CHAPTER  LI 

THE   EARLY   YEARS   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN  AND   THE  TRIUMPH 
OF   FREE  TRADE    (1837-1846) 

The  Victorian  Age.  —  When  Victoria  began  her  reign  of  sixty-four 
years,  covering  an  era  unique  in  the  progress  of  civilization,  nineteenth- 
century  England  had  already  witnessed  a  goodly  number  of  reforms. 
The  political  and  legal  disabilities  of  the  Protestant  Dissenters  and 
the  Roman  Catholics  had  been  almost  entirely  removed ;  the  most 
glaring  defects  and  inequalities  of  the  representative  system  had  been 
swept  away ;  the  exclusive  power  of  the  aristocracy  had  been  broken 
and  the  middle  classes  had  been  admitted  to  power ;  and  a  new 
humanitarian  spirit  had  manifested  itself  in  measures  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  lot,  not  only  of  men,  but  of  dumb  animals.  The  pros- 
perity of  the  Colonies  had  been  fostered,  and  the  British  Empire  had 
begun  to  extend  in  a  new  direction.  Rusty  shackles  which  hampered 
the  growth  of  trade  and  industry  had  been  struck  off,  and  new  inven- 
tions and  processes  were  in  operation  which  were  to  prove  revolu- 
tionary in  their  results.  There  was  still  much  misery  and  suffering 
among  the  lower  classes ;  but  before  the  new  reign  was  half  over  they 
began  to  share  in  an  amazing  advance  in  material  prosperity.  This 
was  due  largely  to  the  adjustment  of  the  masses  to  the  new  conditions 
of  industry ;  to  the  removal  of  the  restrictive  duties  which  still  rested 
upon  raw  materials  and  foodstuffs ;  to  enlightened  sanitary  and 
labor  regulations;  and  to  the  wonders  achieved  by  steam  and  elec-i 
tricity. 

Domestic  and  Foreign  Policy.  —  As  the  Government  by  the  exten- 
sion of  the  franchise  to  the  wage-earner  came  to  voice  more  nearly  the 
popular  will,  it  became  decidedly  paternal  in  character  —  utilitarian 
still,  but  socialistic.  Individualism  gave  way  to  collectivism.  While 
distinctions  of  rank  and  wealth  continued  to  exist,  the  State  came  to 
intervene  for  the  interest  of  the  masses  in  all  sorts  of  activities  from 
which  it  formerly  held  aloof  —  in  popular  education,  postal  savings 
banks,  recognition  of  trade  unions,  purchase  of  lands  for  the  tillers 
of  the  soil,  regulation  of  all  sorts  of  relations  between  the  employer 
and  the  employed,  old-age  pensions,  and  workingmen's  insurance. 
In  a  word,  the  Government,  as  it  has  grown  more  representative,  has 
grown  more  absolute.  Among  continental  countries  the  early  Vic- 
torian period  was  marked  by  great  strides  in  the  direction  of  liberty 
and  nationality.  While  the  Queen  and  her  Consort  were  generally 

927 


928  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

on  the  side  of  the  established  dynasties,  the  ministers  who  conducted 
the  foreign  policy  of  Great  Britain  were  prevailingly  in  favor  of  popular 
and  national  aspirations,  though  disinclined  to  go  to  the  length  of  armed 
intervention.  The  death,  in  1865,  of  Palmerston,  who  had  dominated 
British  policy  during  the  greater  part  of  the  period  since  1830,  marked 
an  epoch.  Colonial  Empire  came  to  be  the  absorbing  ideal,  and  Great 
Britain  sought  to  disentangle  herself  as  much  as  possible  from  European 
affairs  in  order  to  devote  her  energies  to  Asia,  Africa,  and  the  Pacific. 
Imperial  and  European  interests,  however,  proved  to  be  too  closely 
interwoven  to  enable  her  to  hold  aloof  from  the  complications  of  the 
adjoining  continent.  Fear  of  Russian  expansion  in  Asia  forced  her 
to  take  an  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  Turkey  and  the  near  East,  while 
the  amazing  development  of  Germany,  particularly  since  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  has  produced  a  Power  whose  industrial,  colonial,  and 
maritime  ambitions  have  caused  Great  Britain  serious  concern,  a  con- 
cern which  has,  of  late,  influenced  profoundly  her  European  policy. 

Victoria.  Her  Early  Life  and  Accession.  —  Alexandrina  Victoria — 
for  such  was  her  full  name  —  was  born  24  May,  1819.  Her  father, 
the  Duke  of  Kent,  who  had  spent  most  of  his  life  in  great  pecuniary 
embarrassment,  died  when  his  daughter  was  only  a  year  old.  She 
was  brought  up  by  her  mother  —  a  princess  of  the  House  of  Saxe- 
Coburg  —  in  great  simplicity  and  seclusion.  Considering  the  pre- 
vailing tone  of  the  Court  under  George  IV,  this  was  most  fortunate. 
While  the  Duchess  of  Kent  wisely  resolved  to  educate  the  little  Vic- 
toria in  England,  she  surrounded  her  with  German  influences,  seeking 
constant  council  from  her  brother  Leopold,  who  became  King  of  the 
Belgians  in  1832.  If  life  was  dull  at  Kensington  Palace,  the  training 
of  the  child  was  wholesome  and  calculated  to  develop  both  mind  and 
body.  In  the  gray  dawn  of  a  June  morning,  in  1837,  Victoria  was 
awakened  from  her  slumbers,  and  came  in  slippers  with  her  hair  down 
her  back  and  a  shawl  thrown  over  her  dressing  gown  to  learn  from 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Lord  Chamberlain  that  she  was 
Queen  of  England.  »At  eleven  o'clock  the  same  morning  she  appeared 
before  the  Privy  Council,  and  read  in  a  sweet,  strong  voice  the  speech 
which  Melbourne  had  prepared  for  her.  She  was  dressed  plainly  in 
black,  and,  though  not  five  feet  tall  and  in  no  sense  a  beauty,  her  dig- 
nity and  graciousness,  together  with  her  high  sense  of  the  responsibili- 
ties of  her  position,  made  a  profound  impression  on  all  those  present. 
She  was  a  striking  contrast  to  her  two  uncles  who  had  preceded  her  — 
one  an  effete  voluptuary,  the  other  a  genial  but  gusty  and  prejudiced 
mediocrity.  In  view  of  her  German  connections,  a  reference  in  her 
speech  to  her  English  education  and  her  love  for  her  "  native  country  " 
was  especially  tactful. 

The  Opening  of  the  New  Reign.  —  But  the  play  of  party  politics 
weakened  somewhat  the  enthusiasm  evoked  by  her  personal  charm. 
Peel  deplored  the  accession  of  an  inexperienced  maiden  in  such  critical 
times,  and  there  were  unsubstantiated  rumors  of  a  Tory  plot  to  put 


EARLY  YEARS   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN  929 

one  of  her  uncles,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  on  the  throne.  The 
Whigs,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  to  her  to  extend  them  the  support 
which  William  had  in  his  later  years  withdrawn.  Lord  John  Russell 
expressed  the  hope  that  she  would  prove  "  an  Elizabeth  without  her 
tyranny,  an  Anne  without  her  weakness."  Hanover,  on  account  of 
the  Salic  Law  which  governed  the  succession,  went  to  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland.1  The  separation  of  the  German  Kingdom  contributed 
in  a  measure  to  detach  Great  Britain  from  European  complications. 
Melbourne  appointed  himself  Victoria's  political  instructor.  To  a 
man  of  the  world,  verging  on  sixty,  immersed  in  public  business,  and 
fond  of  devoting  his  scant  leisure  to  scholarly  pursuits,  the  task  must 
have  been  far  from  congenial.  With  even  greater  self-denial  he  as- 
sumed the  office  of  private  secretary  when  the  two  parties  threatened 
to  come  into  conflict  over  the  appointment  of  a  candidate.  On  the 
whole,  he  performed  his  duties  cheerfully,  and  was  rewarded  with  the 
devotion  of  the  young  Queen,  though,  on  occasion,  she  showed  startling 
evidences  of  imperiousness  and  self-will.  While  she  later  acquired 
more  self-control,  she  never,  to  the  end  of  her  life,  hesitated  to  express 
her  views  fully  and  frankly.  She  generally  left  her  ministers  to  fol- 
low their  own  choice ;  but  if  it  went  against  her  own,  she  was  not  slow 
at  any  time  with  "  private  rebuke."  Melbourne's  Whig  influence, 
exerted  for  parliamentary  sovereignty,  ministerial  responsibility, 
and  limitation  of  the  prerogative,  was  somewhat  counterbalanced 
by  that  of  Leopold's  trusted  friend  and  former  secretary,  Baron 
Stockmar,  who  warned  her  against  becoming  a  mere  "nodding  man- 
darin." He  advised  her,  wisely  enough,  to  set  herself  above  parties, 
but  he  went  too  far  in  asserting  that  she  might  act  as  her  own  minister 
if  her  abilities  warranted  it. 

The  Civil  List,  1837.  —  One  of  the  earliest  acts  of  the  new  Parliament, 
which  assembled  in  the  autumn,  was  to  settle  the  Civil  List.  Recent 
sovereigns  had  gradually  yielded  their  hereditary  revenues,  and, 
in  return,  various  public  expenses  formerly  paid  out  of  the  royal  in- 
come had  been  transferred  to  the  Consolidated  Fund.  According  to 
the  arrangement  made  by  Melbourne,  Victoria  received  an  annual 
grant  of  £385,000,  £10,000  more  than  her  predecessor ;  but  the  old 
pension  and  secret  service  funds  amounting  to  £75,000  and  £10,000, 
respectively,  were  done  away  with.  The  Queen,  however,  was  al- 
lowed to  create  pensions  to  the  amount  of  £1200  annually,  over  and 
above  her  royal  income.  These  grants,  which  eventually  accumulated 
to  about  £23,000  a  year,  were  confined  to  rewards  for  contributions 
to  art  and  literature  or  for  other  forms  of  public  service  not  political ; 
also  to  assisting  meritorious  persons  in  need  of  help.  Efforts  on  the 
part  of  Radicals  to  reduce  the  amount  appropriated  for  the  Civil  List 
proved  unavailing.  The  revenues  from  Lancaster  and  Cornwall,2 

1  Hanover  was  annexed  by  Prussia  after  the  Austro-Prussian  War  of  1866. 

2  The  income  of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall  went  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  when  there 
was  one. 

30 


930  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  only  remaining  hereditary  revenues,  which  under  William 
amounted  to  only  £25,000,  increased  under  his  successor  to  £60,000 
and  £66,000,  respectively.  The  latter  went  to  the  Queen's  eldest 
son  when  he  came  of  age.  In  addition,  the  allowance  of  the 
Duchess  of  Kent  was  increased  from  £22,000  to  £30,000.  Subse- 
quently, more  than  £200,000  a  year  was  granted  in  annuities  to 
the  Prince  Consort  and  the  royal  children.  Victoria  very  properly 
devoted  part  of  her  income  to  the  payment  of  her  father's  debts, 
amounting  to  £50,000. 

The  Canadian  Problem,  1791-1837.  —  Although  Ireland  was  very 
unquiet,  the  first  crisis  which  Victoria's  ministers  had  to  face  arose  in 
Canada.  The  population  there  consisted  of  two  sharply  distinct 
elements.  One  was  the  original  French  stock  —  Roman  Catholic  in 
faith  and  bound  by  ancient  racial  traditions  —  which,  under  the 
Quebec  Act  of  1774,  enjoyed  freedom  of  worship  and  the  privilege  of 
trial  by  French  law  in  civil  cases.  The  other  element  was  made  up  of 
British  emigrants  —  pushing,  progressive,  and  chiefly  Protestants. 
In  1791  Pitt  carried  his  Quebec  Government  Bill,  which  divided  the 
country  into  the  two  provinces  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  with  the 
object  of  separating  the  British  in  the  west  from  the  French  in  the 
older  eastern  part.  This  policy  was  opposed  unsuccessfully  by  Fox, 
who  was  in  favor  of  uniting  rather  than  dividing  the  races.  The 
problem  of  government,  grave  enough  under  any  circumstances,  was 
accentuated  by  the  constitution  of  1791,  which,  regardless  of  French 
prejudices,  set  up  the  same  form,  on  the  English  model,  for  each  prov- 
ince. It  was  composed  of  a  governor,  an  executive  and  legislative 
council  of  life  members,  all  appointed  by  the  Crown,  together  with  a 
representative  assembly,  the  members  of  which  were  elected  every 
four  years.  Since  the  inert  French  occupied  the  more  desirable  situa- 
tion on  the  lower  St.  Lawrence  and  lay  as  a  barrier  between  the 
newer  settlements  and  the  sea,  the  British  pressed  in  to  Lower  Canada, 
and  succeeded  in  forcing  a  number  of  their  candidates  into  the  legisla- 
tive council.  Many  of  these  were  professional  politicians  and  agita- 
tors who  fomented  discontent.  The  French  resented  this  intrusion ; 
moreover,  they  regarded  as  a  particular  grievance  the  fact  that  one 
seventh  of  all  Canadian  lands  were  set  apart  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  Anglican  clergy.1  The  crisis  began  to  develop  when,  in  1832,  the 
Legislative  Assembly  of  Lower  Canada  refused  to  grant  money  for  the 
payment  of  the  councilors  whom  they  regarded  as  British  agents. 

The  Canadian  Revolt,  1837.  —  For  five  years  they  continued  to 
hold  up  supplies,  while  the  executive  authorities  seized,  for  their 
salaries  and  other  expenses,  such  moneys  as  they  could  get  their  hands 
on.  The  Assembly  insisted  on  their  rights  to  control  the  revenue, 
and  the  public  lands  as  well,  and  demanded,  further,  that  the  Legisla- 
tive Council  should  be  made  elective.  Finally,  under  the  lead  of  Louis 

1  These  were  the  so-called  "clergy  reserves."  In  addition,  the  Crown  reserved 
another  seventh,  and  much  more  was  appropriated  by  influential  jobbers. 


EARLY   YEARS   OF  VICTORIA'S  REIGN  931 

Joseph  Papineau,  they  refused  to  carry  on  public  business,  and  were 
declared  dissolved.  Stormy  meetings  of  protest  followed,  and  an 
attempt  to  arrest  the  chief  malcontents  resulted  in  armed  outbreak, 
in  1837,  which  was  not  put  down  without  bloodshed.  The  disaffection 
spread  to  Upper  Canada,  which  was  influenced  by  republican  sympa- 
thizers across  the  American  border.  The  main  causes  of  discontent 
in  the  Upper  Province  were  four :  (i)  The  fact  that  the  Council  was  not 
responsible -to  the  Legislature;  (2)  that  the  Government  was  hi  the 
hands  of  a  few  wealthy  families ;  (3)  that  lax  administration  resulted 
in  a  debt  of  £1,000,000;  and  (4)  that  their  development  was  ham- 
pered by  their  unfavorable  geographical  position.  The  trouble  here, 
however,  did  not  attain  serious  dimensions.  Major  Head,  the 
Governor-General,  a  Waterloo  veteran,  was  daring  enough  to  send 
his  regular  troops  to  the  seat  of  fighting,  and  to  rely  on  the  militia 
and  the  loyal  subjects  to  keep  order  in  his  province.  The  plan  worked 
well ;  but  he  was  so  severely  criticized  at  home  that  he  resigned.  Sub- 
sequently, however,  he  was  rewarded  with  a  baronetcy. 

Lord  Durham's  Mission,  1838.  —  Russell,  now  Home  Secretary, 
carried  a  bill,  in  1838,  to  suspend  the  constitution  of  Lower  Canada 
and  to  send  out  a  Lord  High  Commissioner  "  with  full  powers  to  deal 
with  the  Rebellion, and  to  remodel  the  constitutions  of  both  provinces." 
Lord  Durham,  chosen  for  the  post,  was  an  advanced  reformer,  and  a 
man  of  abilities  and  energy,  but  of  a  fiery  and  masterful  temper, 
and  wholly  devoid  of  tact.  His  mission  saved  Canada,  but  at  the 
cost  of  his  own  career.  On  his  arrival,  in  May,  1838,  he  at  once 
assumed  the  position  of  a  dictator.  He  issued  a  proclamation  in  which, 
while  he  threatened  extreme  punishment  for  the  rebellious,  he  invited 
the  Colonists  to  cooperate  with  him  in  devising  a  system  of  govern- 
ment suited  to  their  needs.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  his  original 
powers  had  been  greatly  reduced  since  his  appointment,  he  next 
proceeded  to  launch  a  series  of  ordinances,  proclaiming  "  a  very  liberal 
amnesty,"  with  striking  exceptions.  He  forbade  certain  leaders 
who  had  escaped,  Papineau  among  the  number,  to  return  under 
pain  of  death ;  furthermore,  he  exiled  to  Bermuda  others  who  were  in 
custody.  While  his  method  was  high-handed,  his  aim  was  just  and 
merciful.  He  wanted  to  carry  on  his  work  of  reorganization  free 
from  hostile  interference.  He  might  have  secured  the  conviction  of 
the  dangerous  by  packed  juries,  but  he  scorned  to  employ  such  a 
device.  Moreover,  trusting  in  the  righteousness  of  his  intentions, 
he  set  aside  the  Council,  and  selected  advisers,  chiefly  from  his  own 
secretaries  and  other  officials.  The  event'  showed  that  he  aimed  to 
use  his  powers  for  the  establishment  of  a  liberal,  constitutional  govern- 
ment; but  his  dictatorial  methods  aroused  a  fury  of  opposition  in 
Canada  and  in  England.1  Yielding  to  a  bitter  attack  in  the  House  of 

1  One  of  the  many  charges  against  him  related  to  the  gorgeous  pomp  in  which 
he  traveled  through  the  provinces.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  paid  his  own  personal 
expenses.  The  mission  cost  him  £10,000. 


932  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Lords,  the  Cabinet,  which  at  first  had  approved  the  Quebec  Ordinances, 
decided  to  disallow  them.  When  Durham  learned  of  this  action,  he 
started  for  home,  first  issuing  a  remarkable  proclamation  in  which  he 
appealed  to  the  Colonists  against  the  Home  Government.  This 
led  to  his  formal  recall  and  earned  for  him  the  name,  "  Lord  High 
Seditioner." 

Durham's  Report  and  its  Consequences.  —  Although  his  mission 
seemed  a  failure,  it  bore  enduring  fruit  in  his  famous  Rep.ort,  printed 
in  February,  1839,  which  "  laid  the  foundations  of  the  political 
success  and  social  prosperity,  not  only  of  Canada,  but  of  all  other 
important  colonies."  Durham  advised  that,  except  in  the  matters 
affecting  the  relations  between  the  Colonies  and  the  Mother  Country 
—  such  as  foreign  affairs  and  the  regulation  of  trade  —  the  making 
and  execution  of  the  laws  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Colonists 
themselves.  All  officials  save  the  Governor  and  his  secretary  were 
to  be  responsible  to  the  elected  legislature.  The  "  Clergy  Reserves  " 
were  to  be  abolished.  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  were  to  be  again 
united  with  an  assembly  representing  both  provinces.  Furthermore, 
the  other  British  North  American  colonies  might,  with  the  consent 
of  the  Canadian  Government,  be  admitted  to  the  union.  In  short, 
the  Durham  report  recommended  self-government  in  internal  affairs, 
reunion,  and  possible  federation.  In  July,  1840,  the  Canada  Govern- 
ment Bill,  embodying  the  substance  of  Durham's  suggestions,  passed 
through  Parliament  and  was  carried  into  effect  the  following  year. 
A  few  days  after  the  measure  became  law,  Durham  died  at  the  age  of 
forty-eight.  His  end  was  doubtless  hastened  by  the  Canadian  mission. 
The  constitution  which  he  suggested  for  Canada  became  a  model  for 
those  granted  within  the  next  few  years  to  such  British  possessions  as 
were  capable  of  exercising  the  privileges  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 
Truly  the  "  individual  withers,  but  the  world  grows  more  and  more." 
In  1867,  by  the  British  North  American  Act,  the  four  provinces  of 
Quebec  (Lower  Canada),  Ontario  (Upper  Canada),  New  Brunswick, 
and  Nova  Scotia  were  united  into  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  The 
executive  was  vested  in  the  Governor-General  appointed  by  the 
Crown,  who  was  in  turn  to  choose  lieutenant  governors  for  the  feder- 
ated provinces.  Also,  a  federal  parliament  was  set  up,  consisting  of  a 
senate,  composed  of  members  appointed  for  life  by  the  Governor- 
General,  and  a  representative  legislature.  Each  province  was  to  have 
its  own  legislature  for  local  concerns.1 

The  Irish  Poor  Law  and  Commutation  of  Tithes,  1838. — At  the 
beginning  of  Victoria's  reign  O'Connell  and  his  followers  were,  in 
general,  supporting  the  Whig  Ministry,  which  favored  a  conciliatory 
Irish  policy,  while  the  Conservative  Opposition  was  inclined  to  main- 

1  In  1870  Manitoba  (made  up  from  the  old  Hudson  Bay  territory)  joined  the 
federation.  British  Columbia  and  Vancouver  followed  in  1871,  Prince  Edward 
Island  in  1873.  The  provinces  of  Alberta  and  Saskatchewan  were  created  in  1905. 
Newfoundland,  alone,  now  remains  outside  the  Canadian  federation. 


EARLY   YEARS   OF   VICTORIA'S    REIGN  933 

tain  the  English  ascendancy  by  force.  Three  questions  were  pending : 
poor  relief,  municipal  reform,  and  the  settlement  of  tithes.  In  1838  a 
Poor  Law  Bill  was  passed  extending  to  Ireland  the  chief  features  of 
the  English  measure.  This  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Irish  contin- 
gent in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  ground  that  their  poor  were  too 
numerous  to  be  provided  for  in  the  workhouses.  In  the  same  year  a 
bill  was  passed  converting  the  tithes  into  a  fixed  rent  charge,  amounting 
to  75  per  cent  of  their  nominal  value  and  payable  by  the  landlord. 
The  Government  waived  its  right  to  collect  the  advances  it  had  made, 
and  voted  a  quarter  of  a  million  pounds  for  the  extinction  of  arrears. 
The  measure  was  only  carried  through  the  Upper  House  by  the  aban- 
donment of  the  attempt  to  carry  the  "  appropriation  clause  "  (see 
above,  p.  919)  which  had  been  a  bone  of  contention  since  1833. 
The  Irish  municipal  corporations  were  under  the  control  of  self-ap- 
pointed Protestant  councils.  A  measure  was  introduced,  also  in 
1838,  conferring  the  right  of  election  on  persons  paying  a  rental  of 
£5  a  year.  The  Lords  amended  the  qualification  to  £10,  which 
caused  the  Ministry  to  drop  the  bill.  It  was  carried  in  1840  in  the 
form  suggested  by  the  Peers.  The  Irish  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment Was  thus  far  from  successful.  The  Poor  Law  was  unpopular 
and  ineffective,  the  two  other  measures  were  only  carried  by  funda- 
mental concessions  to  the  Opposition.  The  Irish  executive  was  in 
the  hands  of  liberal-minded  men.  They  saw  that  the  difficulties 
were  social  and  economic  rather  than  political  —  oppression  by  land- 
lords, overpopulation,  lack  of  productive  forms  of  employment.  The 
Protestant  landlords'  interests,  however,  insisted  that  the  discontent 
and  disorders  were  due  to  the  conciliatory  attitude  of  the  Administra- 
tion. A  famous  phrase  of  the  permanent  Under-Secretary  Drummond 
"  property  has  its  rights  as  well  as  its  duties  "  —  particularly 
roused  their  fury. 

The  Suspension  of  the  Jamaica  Constitution,  1839.  —  The  Mel- 
bourne Ministry  in  this  period  has  been  aptly  compared  to  a  water- 
logged wreck  into  which  the  enemies  from  all  quarters  were  pouring 
broadsides.  In  the  Lords  it  was  exposed  to  the  powerful  attacks 
of  Brougham  and  Lyndhurst.  In  the  Commons  it  had  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  Peel  on  the  one  side  and  of  the  Radicals  on  the  other.1 
Outside,  the  middle  classes,  disturbed  by  the  prevailing  evidences  of 
unrest  and  by  the  violent  speeches  of  agitators,  were  moving  toward 
the  Conservative  ranks,  while  the  laboring  classes  were  as  far  removed 
from  the  Whigs  as  ever.  Weakened  by  the  trend  of  events  in  Canada, 
in  Ireland,  and  in  England,  the  Cabinet  was  in  no  condition  to  resist  a 

1  There  was  a  small  group  of  the  latter,  known  as  the  "philosophical  Radicals," 
who,  in  addition  to  demanding  more  political  power  for  the  masses,  were  contending 
for  free  trade,  compulsory  education,  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church,  re- 
vision of  the  game  laws,  abolition  of  flogging  in  the  army,  and  many  other  reforms. 
Canning  had  once  compared  them  to  "firebrands,  when  they  touch  the  floor  of 
the  House,  hiss  and  expire,"  nor  did  they  ever  succeed  in  forming  a  strong  permanent 
party.  Nevertheless,  most  of  their  program  has  since  been  enacted  into  law. 


934  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

West  Indian  crisis  which  centered  in  Jamaica.  The  planters  had  been 
hard  hit  by  the  emancipation  of  their  slaves.  The  freedmen  were 
disinclined  to  work  and  were  often  disorderly.  It  proved  increasingly 
difficult  to  meet  foreign  competition.  Within  a  few  years  the  produc- 
tion of  sugar  fell  off  more  than  a  third,  and  that  of  coffee  nearly  one 
half.  On  the  other  hand,  the  planters,  now  that  the  slaves  were  no 
longer  their  property,  abused  the  apprenticeship  system,  as  long  as  it 
lasted,  by  starving  their  hands,  working  them  to  death  in  the  fields, 
and  having  them  cruelly  flogged  in  the  houses  of  correction.  This 
started  a  new  wave  of  sentiment  in  favor  of  the  blacks,  and  the  Govern- 
ment was  forced  to  frame  measures  for  the  regulation  of  their  treat- 
ment in  prison.  The  result  was  to  produce  such  manifestations  of  dis- 
affection among  the  planters  that  a  bill  was  introduced  into  Parliament, 
9  April,  1839,  to  suspend  the  Jamaica  Constitution  for  five  years.  The 
bill,  in  spite  of  the  provocation  which  prompted  it,  \vas  so  drastic  and 
so  fraught  with  dangerous  possibilities  that  it  only  carried  in  the  Com- 
mons by  a  majority  of  five.  Melbourne,  realizing  that  his  situation 
was  hopeless,  resigned  early  in  May,  1839. 

The  Bedchamber  Question,  1839. — He  was  brought  back  to 
office  again  by  a  curious  episode  known  as  the  Bedchamber  Question ; 
for  which  the  Queen,  Melbourne,  and  Peel  must  all  share  the 
blame.  Victoria  had  a  high  sense  of  public  duty ;  however,  she  not 
only  lacked  experience,  but  she  was  still  very  much  of  a  child  both  in 
her  artlessness  and  her  willfulness.1  The  loss  of  her  beloved  adviser 
brought  her  to  tears ;  but  recovering  herself  she  sent  for  Wellington. 
Upon  his  refusal  to  form  a  Ministry,  she  turned  to  Peel.  Since  most 
of  her  lady  attendants  were  representatives  of  the  Whig  families, 
he  felt  the  necessity  of  substituting  a  few  associated  with  his  own 
party.  He  had  no  intention  of  making  a  clean  sweep ;  but  merely 
desired  to  remove  the  Mistress  of  the  Robes  and  two  or  three  of  the 
ladies  in  waiting.  Unfortunately  —  and  here  was  his  blunder  —  he 
did  not  explain  clearly  what  he  wanted  to  do.  Victoria  became 
enraged  and  refused  to  make  any  changes  among  her  lady  attendants, 
declaring  that  such  a  step  was  "  contrary  to  usage  "  and  "  repugnant 
to  her  feelings."  They  thought  to  treat  her  as  a  child,  she  wrote  to 
Peel,  but  she  would  show  them  that  she  was  Queen  of  England.  Peel 
replied  that  there  must  be  some  misunderstanding,  and  stubbornly 
declined  to  form  a  Ministry.  The  Queen  was  much  elated  and  turned 
again  to  Melbourne.  With  some  reluctance  —  he  is  said  to  have  re- 

1  Carlyle  noted  on  the  day  of  her  coronation,  28  June,  1838  :  "Poor  little  Queen  ! 
she  is  at  an  age  at  which  a  girl  can  hardly  be  trusted  to  choose  a  bonnet  for  herself ; 
yet  a  task  is  laid  upon  her  from  which  an  archangel  might  shrink."  After  the  solemn 
ceremony  was  over  she  went  home,  took  off  her  gorgeous  robes  of  State,  and  gave 
her  pet  spaniel  its  afternoon  bath.  Mendelssohn,  visiting  Buckingham  Palace  in 
1842,  has  a  pretty  story  of  how  she  got  down  on  her  hands  and  knees  to  help  him 
pick  up  some  music  scattered  by  the  wind,  and  how  she  later,  after  making  a  formal 
visit  of  State,  attended  by  red-coated  outriders,  sang,  with  the  greatest  bashful- 
ness,  a  little  song  for  him. 


EARLY  YEARS   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN  935 

marked:  "Nobody  thinks  I  want  to  stay,  do  they?"  —  he  was 
induced  to  resume  office.  Whether  he  was  moved  by  weak  good 
nature  or  by  chivalrous  devotion  toward  his  sovereign,  he  made  a 
mistake.  The  Queen  herself  afterwards  confessed  that  she  had 
acted  hastily.  Peel  was  quite  right  in  not  forming  an  Administration 
so  long  as  the  wives  and  other  relatives  of  his  political  opponents  had 
the  ear  of  a  ruler  so  young  and  inexperienced,  but  his  lack  of  tact 
and  exaggerated  suspicions  alienated  many  who  actually  believed  that 
the  Ministry  had  crept  back  in  "  behind  the  petticoats  of  the  ladies 
in  waiting." l  The  Bedchamber  Question  never  occurred  again. 
The  ladies  of  the  household  ceased  to  be  drawn  from  one  party; 
it  became  the  settled  practice  for  the  Mistress  of  the  Robes  to  be 
changed  with  each  new  Government,  but  the  other  places  were  no 
longer  considered  political.  The  old  Ministry  continued  for  two  years 
more,  while  the  Tories  grew  so  bitter  that  the  Queen  declared :  "  They 
do  all  in  their  power  to  make  themselves  odious  to  me." 

The  Queen's  Marriage,  10  February,  1840.  —  Early  in  1840,  Vic- 
toria contracted  a  marriage  with  a  prince  whose  wise  and  sober  coun- 
sels contributed  greatly  to  curb  her  masterful  and  impetuous  temper. 
Albert  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha  was  her  first  cousin.  Their  Uncle 
Leopold  looked  forward  to  the  match  from  their  earliest  youth ; 
but  the  final  choice  was  really  made  by  the  Queen  from  a  list  of  possible 
suitors.  And  the  pair  felt  a  devotion  for  one  another  almost  unex- 
ampled in  alliances  of  State.  The  marriage  announcement,  hailed 
with  joy  by  many,  was  condemned  by  the  Tory  party  leaders.  Al- 
bert's German  birth  gave  them  a  handle,  and,  although  his  family  were 
all  Lutheran,  the  rumor  got  afloat  that  he  was  a  "  Papist,"  and 
Wellington  carried  a  motion  in  the  Lords  censuring  the  Ministers  for 
having  failed  to  make  a  public  declaration  of  his  Protestantism. 
The  Queen  intensified  the  opposition  by  the  demands  which  she  made 
on  his  behalf.  In  the  first  place  she  insisted  that  he  be  created  King 
Consort.  Melbourne  was  finally  driven  to  declare :  "  For  God's 
sake,  Madam,  let's  have  no  more  of  this  !  "  Albert  was  subsequently 
created  Prince  Consort  by  royal  letters  patent  in  1857.  A  second 
difficulty  arose  when  she  prompted  the  Ministers  to  ask  that  his  an- 
nuity be  fixed  at  £50,000.  Though  it  was  no  more  than  the  queen  con- 
sorts of  recent  kings  had  been  receiving,  both  Tories  and  Radicals 
attacked  the  amount  as  extravagant  and  succeeded  in  reducing  it  to 
£30,000.  A  third  cause  of  friction  arose  from  the  Queen's  attempt  to 
give  him  precedence  next  to  herself.  When  Parliament  refused  to 
agree,  she  sought  to  accomplish  her  purpose  by  a  royal  warrant.  Much 
to  her  chagrin,  her  action  was  never  recognized  by  foreign  Powers. 
The  final  difficulty  came  when  he  assumed  the  office  of  royal  private 
secretary,  which  Melbourne  turned  over  to  him.  Prejudice  against 
foreigners  and  fear  of  his  influence  over  the  Queen  enabled  his  op- 

1  The  popular  toast  was :  '"The  Queen  would  not  let  her  belles  be  Peeled." 


936  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

ponents,  for  some  time,  to  limit  his  activity.  Gradually,  however, 
as  his  prudence  and  capacity  came  to  be  appreciated,  he  gained  an 
increasing  share  in  public  business,  he  assumed  most  of  the  responsi- 
bilities properly  belonging  to  the  Queen,  and,  in  fact,  if  not  in  name, 
became  with  her  the  joint  ruler  of  the  nation.  Yet  it  is  questionable 
whether  Albert  became  really  popular.  He  had  many  admirable 
qualities :  he  was  highly  educated  and  accomplished ;  he  was  public 
spirited  and  charitable ;  he  was  a  patron  of  literature,  science,  and 
art ;  but  he  had  no  fondness  for  English  sports  or  for  ordinary  society, 
and  was  self-absorbed,  cold,  and  formal. 

Stockdale  vs.  Hansard,  1839-1840.  —  Meantime,  an  important  con- 
stitutional issue  was  being  worked  out.  In  1835  reports  and  other 
papers  published  by  Parliament  were  for  the  first  time  placed  on  sale 
for  the  public.  In  the  following  year,  the  inspectors  of  the  prisons 
in  their  first  report  referred  to  a  book,  which  they  found  in  circulation 
at  Newgate,  as  disgusting  and  indecent.  Stockdale,  the  publisher, 
proceeded  to  bring  a  suit  against  Hansard,  the  printer  of  the  report. 
Hansard  pleaded,  first,  that  the  publication,  being  authorized  by  the 
House  of  Commons,  was  privileged,  and,  second,  that  the  libel  was 
true.  The  jury  found  for  the  defendant  on  the  second  issue ;  but  the 
Lord  Chief  Justice  declared  in  his  charge  that  an  order  of  the  House 
of  Commons  was  not  sufficient  justification  "  for  any  bookseller  who 
published  a  parliamentary  report  containing  a  libel  against  any  man." 
The  Commons  at  once  took  up  the  matter  and  passed  a  resolution 
challenging  the  decision  as  a  breach  of  parliamentary  privilege.  This 
was  in  1837.  Stockdale,  encouraged  by  the  attitude  of  the  court,  bought 
four  successive  copies  of  the  Prisons  Report,  and,  during  the  year 
1839  and  1840,  brought  four  successive  actions  against  Hansard,  re- 
covering damages  in  each  case.  The  Commons,  insisting  on  its  privi- 
leges, committed  to  custody  Stockdale,  his  attorney,  the  sheriff  who  col- 
lected the  damages,  as  well  as  many  others  involved  in  the  suit.  The 
Ministry  finally  found  it  necessary  to  intervene,  and  Russell  introduced 
a  bill,  which  passed  in  April,  1840,  providing  that  such  actions  as  that  of 
Stockdale  vs.  Hansard  should  be  stayed  on  the  production  of  a  certifi- 
cate that  matter  Complained  of  was  printed  by  order  of  either  House 
of  Parliament.  While  the  judges  did  not  feel  themselves  bound  by 
the  resolutions  of  the  Lower  House,  they  had  to  yield  to  a  statute. 

Penny  Postage,  1839-1840.  —  The  declining  years  of  the  second 
Melbourne  Administration  were  notable  for  the  introduction  of  the 
adhesive  stamp  and  of  a  uniform  penny  postage  for  letters,  under  half 
an  ounce  in  weight,  sent  to  any  point  in  the  United  Kingdom.  This 
reform,  which  went  into  effect  in  January,  1840,  revolutionized  com- 
munication. It  was  due  to  Rowland  Hill,  who  published  a  pamphlet 
on  Post  Office  reform  in  1837.  Hitherto,  rates  had  not  only  been 
exorbitant,  but  had  varied  according  to  the  size,  weight,  and  shape  of 
the  letter.  It  cost  a  shilling  from  London  to  Aberdeen  or  Belfast, 
and  the  average  price  was  sixpence.  By  the  abuse  of  franking,  which 


EARLY  YEARS   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN  937 

had  not  been  wholly  done  away  with,  many  persons,  who  could  best 
afford  to  pay,  were  exempt.  To  evade  the  extreme  charges,  an  ex- 
tensive system  of  smuggling  developed,  and  it  is  said  that  five  sixths 
of  the  letters  between  London  and  Manchester  were  conveyed  il- 
licitly.1 Rowland  Hill,  when  he  set  about  investigating  the  subject, 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  cost  of  sending  mail  was  trifling, 
that  the  distance  made  little  difference,  and  the  profit  increased  with 
the  number  of  letters  sent.  One  of  the  chief  advantages  of  his  system 
was  the  immense  amount  of  labor  saved  in  measuring  every  letter 
and  calculating  the  distance  it  had  come.  In  spite  of  its  merits  it  had 
to  encounter  a  storm  of  opposition.  Sidney  Smith  denounced  it  as 
the  "  nonsensical  Penny  Post  scheme,"  calculated  to  fill  "  reasonable 
men  with  alarm."  The  Postmaster-General  attacked  it  in  the  House 
of  Lords  as  the  "  wildest  and  most  extravagant  "  plan  of  which  he  had 
ever  heard.  The  number  of  letters,  he  predicted,  would  so  increase 
that :  "  the  walls  of  the  Post  Office  would  burst,  the  whole  area  in 
which  the  building  stands  would  not  be  large  enough  to  receive  the 
checks  and  letters."  While  the  Post  Office  business  has  increased  to 
an  extent  that  this  dismal  prophet  never  dreamed  of,  the  officials 
have  readily  handled  it,  and  Rowland  Hill  is  now  recognized  as  one 
of  the  great  practical  reformers  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Popular  Discontent.  —  Meanwhile,  the  working  classes,  who  had 
hoped  much  from  the  Reform  Bill  and  the  legislation  which  followed, 
were  grievously  disappointed  when  they  realized  that  the  chief  result 
had  been  merely  to  shift  the  balance  of  power  from  the  landed  aristoc- 
racy to  the  merchant  and  manufacturing  capitalist.  Many  causes 
contributed  to  accentuate  their  misery  and  discontent.  A  series  of 
bad  harvests,  beginning  in  1837,  brought  intense  suffering,  while  the 
high  protective  tariff  prevented  any  relief  from  the  importation  of 
foodstuffs.  Moreover,  the  lesser  folk  had  not  yet  adjusted  themselves 
to  the  vast  industrial  changes  following  the  introduction  of  machinery 
during  the  past  half  century.  People  flocked  from  the  country 
to  the  towns,  which  grew  too  fast  to  absorb  them.  Poverty,  over- 
crowding, and  horrible  unsanitary  conditions  prevailed.  Families 
were  huddled  together  in  narrow,  filthy  streets,  often  in  dark  and  ill- 
smelling  cellars.  No  provision  was  made  for  drainage  or  ventilation. 
Men,  women,  and  children  worked  long  hours  for  the  scantiest  wages.2 
The  laissez-faire  doctrines,  which  dominated  political  and  economic 
philosophy,  favored  unrestricted  competition,  and  stoutly  opposed 
State  intervention  for  regulating  conditions  of  industry  and  helping 

1  One  device,  noted  by  the  poet  Coleridge,  was  very  ingenious.     He  saw  a  post- 
man deliver  a  letter  to  a  woman  at  a  poor  cottage.     After  looking  at  it,  she  declared 
she  could  not  pay  the  shilling  charged.     Much  against  her  will,  Coleridge  paid 
for  it.     When  the  postman  had  gone,  she  explained  that,  by  an  arrangement  between 
her  brother  and  herself,  he  sent  her  a  blank  sheet  every  three  months  to  inform  her 
that  he  was  well. 

2  Graphic  pictures  may  be  found  in  Disraeli's  Sybil,  and  Mrs.  Gaskell's  Mary 
Barton. 


938  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  laborer.  The  Factory  Act  of  1833  had  only  made  the  barest 
beginning  in  this  direction.  Private  charity  had  neither  the  organiza- 
tion nor  the  will  to  render  much  aid.  The  New  Poor  Law  caused 
much  immediate  hardship,  leaving  to  the  destitute  no  alternative 
between  starvation  and  the  workhouse.  In  these  institutions  men 
were  separated  from  their  wives,  and  the  inmates  were  subjected  to 
injustice,  deprivation,  and  cruelty  of  which  Dickens's  Oliver  Twist 
presents  a  stirring  picture.  Conditions  were  in  the  making  which  were 
to  lead  to  better  things.  As  yet,  however,  none  of  them  were  realities 
and  the  prevailing  bitterness  and  discontent  were  emphasized  by  the 
"  belief  that  the  young  Queen  was  wholly  under  the  influence  of  a 
frivolous  and  selfish  Minister  who  occupied  her  with  amusements  while 
the  people  were  starving." 

The  Beginnings  of  the  Socialistic  Movement.  —  The  revolt  against 
the  existing  situation  was  manifested  in  three  distinct  movements 
—  socialism  and  trade  unionism ;  chartism ;  and  the  anti-corn  law 
agitation.  The  pioneer  of  the  socialists  was  Robert  Owen  (1771-1858) 
who  from  a  shop  assistant  rose  to  be  a  rich  cotton  manufacturer. 
He  established  schools  for  the  poor,  he  labored  for  improved  factory 
conditions,  he  advocated  cooperative  production ;  and  even  made  an 
experiment  in  communism  at  New  Harmony,  Indiana  in  America. 
About  1834  the  part  of  his  programme  which  aimed  at  the  control  of 
production  by  the  workingmen  began  to  be  enthusiastically  agitated. 
The  chief  agencies  for  carrying  on  the  propaganda  were  the  trade 
unions  which  had  begun  to  come  into  being  in  1829.  These  organiza- 
tions aimed  to  limit  the  hours  of  work  and  to  raise  wages,1  mainly  by 
means  of  "  strikes."  The  Grand  National  Consolidated  Trades 
Union,  which  was  started  in  1834  and  soon  numbered  half  a  million 
members,  designed  to  group  together  the  various  local  societies  and 
was  even  extended  to  the  agriculturalists.  Owing  to  the  energetic 
action  of  the  employers,  who  dismissed  their  men  belonging  to  the 
Union  and  to  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  Government  which  sentenced 
half  a  dozen  of  the  members  to  transportation,2  the  movement  col- 
lapsed. It  was  years  before  trades  unionism  became  an  effective 
force. 

Chartism.  The  First  Phase,  to  1839.  —  Chartism  and  socialism 
have  sometimes  been  confused,  but  their  methods  were  essentially 
different ;  they  had  nothing  in  common  except  a  desire  to  improve  the 
condition  of  the  laboring  classes.  The  Chartist  movement  may  be 
traced  to  a  Workingman's  Association,  founded  in  London  in  1836, 
which  developed  into  an  organization  for  extending  the  political  powers 
of  th.3  people.  This  was  totally  at  variance  with  the  aims  of  Owen 

1  They  aimed,  however,  to  keep  them  at  an  equal  level,  regardless  of  the  apti- 
tude or  industry  of  the  individual  workman. 

2  A  procession  of  trade  unionists,  numbering,  it  has  been  estimated,  about 
30,000,  marched  to  Whitehall  to  protest  against  this  sentence ;  but  Lord  Melbourne 
refused  to  receive  them. 


EARLY  YEARS   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN  939 

and  his  adherents  who  did  not  believe  in  political  remedies.  In  1837 
the  Association  embodied  its  demands  in  a  petition  containing  six 
points:  (i)  manhood  suffrage;  (2)  vote  by  ballot ;  (3)  abolition  of 
the  property  qualification  for  membership  in  Parliament ;  (4)  pay- 
ment of  members;  (5)  equal  electoral  districts;  and  (6)  annual 
parliaments.  The  movement  got  its  name  from  this  "  Charter,"  as 
Daniel  O'Connell  called  it.  Most  of  the  reforms  it  contained  had 
been  urged  by  the  Radicals  since  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and, 
with  the  exception  of  the  last  in  the  list,  all  of  them  have  since  been 
conceded.1  The  Chartist  agitation,  as  such,  however,  after  an  inter- 
mittent and  stormy  history,  collapsed.  Yet  for  a  time  it  was  very 
active  and  soon  reached  a  violent  stage.  Chief  among  its  leaders 
was  Feargus  O'Connor  (1794-1855)  whose  father  and  uncle  had  been 
involved  in  the  Rebellion  of  1798.  Unbalanced  from  the  first  and 
extremely  intemperate,  he  ultimately  lost  his  mind  altogether.  Since 
1835  he  had  been  busy  in  the  northern  and  midland  counties  preach- 
ing Radical  ideas  and  working  for  the  repeal  of  the  Poor  Law.  In  1837 
he  founded  at  Leeds  the  Northern  Star,  which  became  the  main  organ 
of  the  party.  Owing  to  his  egotism  and  the  incoherence  of  his  ideas, 
he  soon  quarreled  with  the  other  leaders ;  but  he  long  retained  his  hold 
on  the  rank  and  file.  The  Charter  was  published  in  May,  1838.  Organi- 
zations were  formed  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  huge  meetings 
were  held  to  further  the  work.  The  Birmingham  Political  Union,  es- 
tablished in  the  days  of  the  Reform  Bill  agitation,  was  revived  by 
Attwood,  its  founder,  who  suggested  a  national  convention  and  a 
national  petition  to  Parliament.  The  Convention  was  organized 
and  met  in  London  in  February,  1839.  Unfortunately,  the  movement 
passed  beyond  the  control  of  the  Workingman's  Association,  which 
had  framed  the  original  programme.  The  moderates  withdrew,  and 
the  violent  or  physical  force  party  became  supreme.  For  reasons 
of  safety  the  Convention  moved  to  Birmingham,  where  an  attempt  of 
the  police  to  interfere  with  a  meeting  provoked  a  riot.  This,  and  the 
rejection  of  the  Chartist  petition,  which  was  presented  to  Parliament 
a  few  days  later,  led  to  a  series  of  insurrections.  In  November  an 
attempt  to  seize  the  town  of  Newport,  in  Wales,  was  frustrated  by 
the  military  after  considerable  bloodshed.  John  Frost,  the  leader, 
with  two  companions,  was  convicted  of  high  treason  and  sentenced 
to  transportation  for  life.  This  put  an  end  to  the  Chartist  agitation 
for  some  years.  The  lack  of  any  controlling  mind  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  what  had  happened.  The  division  in  the  ranks  between 
the  peaceful  and  the  violent  elements  proved  fatal.  Perhaps  even 
more  decisive  was  the  fact  that  the  leading  Chartists  opposed  the 
Anti-Corn  Law  movement  which  was  in  the  hands  of  sober,  earnest  men 
of  the  middle  classes.  The  majority  preferred  cheap  bread  to  the 

1  A  possible  exception  is  the  right  to  vote ;  but  Great  Britain  practically  has  uni- 
versal manhood  suffrage. 


940  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

vague  possibilities  of  a  political  millennium  promised  by  extremists 
and  visionaries. 

The  Anti-Corn  Law  Movement,  1838-1841.  —  The  center  of  the 
agitation  for  free  trade  was  the  manufacturing  district  in  and  about 
Manchester.  Although  the  movement  against  the  Corn  Laws  actually 
began  in  London  it  made  little  progress  there.  The  Manchester 
School  of  politicians  saw  that  it  was  for  their  advantage  to  have  not 
only  cheap  raw  materials  but  also  cheap  food  for  those  whom  they 
employed.  A  period  of  stagnation,  resulting  in  scarcity  of  work  and 
reduction  of  wages,  gave  the  impetus.  In  1838  the  Anti-Corn  Law 
League  was  organized  in  Lancashire  with  Manchester  as  the  head- 
quarters.1 Large  amounts  of  money  were  subscribed,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  pamphlets  were  issued,  and  lecturers  were  sent  all  over 
the  country  to  bring  the  question  before  the  people.  For  years 
Charles  Villiers  (1802-1898),  a  member  of  one  of  the  most  aristocratic 
families  in  England,  had  been  introducing  into  Parliament  annual 
motions  for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  and  is  entitled  to  much  credit. 
But  the  real' leaders  of  the  movement  were  Richard  Cobden  (1804- 
1865)  and  John  Bright  (1811-1889).  In  T&35  Cobden  became  ac- 
quainted with  Bright,  and  later  induced  him  to  join  in  the  work  on 
which  he  had  set  his  heart.  Both  were  manufacturers  sprung  from 
middle-class  stock.  The  older  man  by  his  gift  of  persuasive  reasonable- 
ness and  the  younger  by  his  powers  of  fervid  oratory,  unequaled  in 
his  generation,  formed  a  combination  that  proved  irresistible  on  the 
platform  and  in  the  House  of  Commons.  But  they  had  a  long  uphill 
struggle  against  vested  interests  and  ingrained  prejudice.2  It  was  a 
tariff  question  which  finally  overthrew  the  decrepit  Melbourne  Ministry, 
which  had  been  staggering  along  since  1839  with  a  steadily  growing 
deficit.  In  1841  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  proposed  to  reduce 
the  differential  duty 3  on  foreign  sugar  from  63  to  36  shillings  the  hun- 
dredweight, while  Russell  announced  a  plan  to  substitute  a  fixed  duty 
of  8  shillings  the  quarter  on  wheat  in  place  of  the  existing  sliding  scale. 
While  the  Ministry  was  mainly  actuated  by  the  hope  of  obtaining 
more  revenue  by  encouraging  consumption,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  they 
were  influenced  also  by  the  growing  agitation  for  cheaper  food.  The 
Chancellor's  motion  was  defeated  in  the  Commons,  7  May,  1841. 
Instead  of  resigning,  the  Government  proceeded  to  introduce  Russell's 
resolution  and  was  again  beaten.  An  appeal  to  the  country  resulted 
in  a  Tory  victory  at  the  polls.  When,  in  the  new  Parliament,  Peel, 

1  Free  Trade  Hall  was  built  on  the  site  of  the  Manchester  Massacre  of  1819. 

2  Melbourne  declared  in  the  course  of  a  debate  in  1839:   "To  leave  the  whole 
agricultural  interest  without  protection,  I  declare  before  God  that  I  think  it  the 
wildest  and  maddest  scheme  that  has  ever  entered  into  the  imagination  of  man- 
kind to  conceive."     Lord  Essex  said  of  the  League  that  it  was  "the  most  cunning, 
unscrupulous,  knavish,  pestilent  body  of  men  that  ever  plagued  this  or  any  other 
country." 

3  This  was  a  duty  for  the  protection  of  the  Colonies  against  foreign  competition. 
Their  duty  of  245.  was  to  remain  unchanged. 


EARLY  YEARS   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN  941 

28  August,  carried  a  vote  of  censure  Lord  Melbourne  at  length  laid 
down  his  office. 

The  Second  Ministry  of  Peel,  1841-1846.  The  Budget  of  1842.  - 
Peel's  Ministry  contained  many  men  of  tried  ability  and  a  number  of 
young  men  of  promise.  Chief  among  the  latter  was  Gladstone,  who 
was  Vice-President  of  the  Board  of  Trade.  The  deficit  was  the 
most  pressing  problem  confronting  the  new  Prime  Minister.  He  pro- 
ceeded to  deal  with  it  in  1842.  In  the  first  place,  he  modified  the  slid- 
ing scale  of  1828,  aiming,  by  a  slight  readjustment  and  modification 
of  duties,  to  encourage  the  importation  of  foreign  corn.  Secondly, 
out  of  1 200  dutiable  articles  he  reduced  the  tariff  on  750.  The  articles 
were  grouped  in  three  classes :  raw.  materials  which  were  to  pay  5  per 
cent ;  partly  manufactured  goods,  1 2  per  cent ;  and  completed  prod- 
ucts, 20  per  cent.  In  addition,  the  duties  were  lowered  on  provisions 
and  timber.  Thirdly,  in  order  to  provide  against  possible  loss  of 
revenue  and  to  meet  the  deficit,  he  revived  the  Income  Tax,1  abolished 
at  the  close  of  the  Great  War.  In  1843  the  import  and  export  duties  on 
wool  were  swept  away  entirely.  Peel  had  been  put  into  office  pledged 
to  protection,  and  while  he  had  not  yet  abandoned  protectionist  prin- 
ciples, he  had  taken  such  a  long  step  in  the  direction  of  free  trade  that 
his  followers  began  to  ask :  "  Whither  will  he  lead  us?  "  2 

The  Bank  Charter  Act  of  1844.  —  Peel's  Bank  Charter  Act  of  1844, 
though  it  has  not  escaped  criticism,  was  a  notable  achievement,  de- 
signed to  meet  a  real  danger.  From  1834  to  1836  joint  stock  banks 
had  increased  from  fifty-five  to  a  hundred,  and  went  on  growing, 
though  less  rapidly,  as  well  as  putting  forth  many  branches.  While 
they  were  issuing  great  quantities  of  paper  money,  vast  amounts  of 
gold  were  being  shipped  to  the  United  States  to  meet  the  demands  of 
an  abnormal  growth  of  business  and  speculation.  During  the  three 
years  from  January,  1834,  to  January,  1837,  the  bullion  in  the  Bank  of 
England  was  reduced  from  £10, 000,000  to  £4,000,000,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  £29,000,000  of  notes  were  in  circulation.  Meantime, 
a  financial  reaction  had  set  in.  By  the  close  of  1836  England  was  on 
the  verge  of  a  crisis.  She  passed  it  safely ;  but  at  the  expense  of  a 
shrinkage  in  business  which  led  to  misery  and  discontent,  manifesting 
itself  in  riots,  Chartism,  and  Anti-Corn  Law  agitation.  In  the  United 
States  the  panic  ran  its  full  course :  every  bank  in  the  country  stopped 
payment,  while  180  failed  completely.  Peel  undertook  a  banking 
reform  for  two  reasons.  As  a  politician  he  was  opposed  to  a  policy 
which  led  to  commercial  depression  and  popular  unrest.  As  a  finan- 
cier he  disapproved  of  a  system  which  permitted  an  indefinite  increase 
of  paper  money  that  did  not  rest  on  an  adequate  basis  of  bullion. 

1  ^d.  was  imposed  in  every  £100  on  all  incomes  over  £150.     At  varying  rates, 
the  income  tax  has  proved  a  main  source  of  British  revenue  ever  since. 

2  They  had  before  their  eyes,  as  Lord  Stanhope  expressed  it :   "  the  strange  and 
lamentable  spectacle  of  the  vessel  of  State,  navigated  by  the  Conservatives  and 
bearing  the  Conservative  flag,  steering  a  Whig  course." 


942  A  HISTORY   OF  ENGLAND 

By  the  Act  of  1844  he  provided  for  a  separation  of  the  department  of 
the  Bank  of  England  which  issued  notes,  from  that  conducting  or- 
dinary banking  business.  Henceforth,  too,  the  issues  of  the  Bank 
were  to  be  covered  by  bullion,  three  fourths  in  gold,  except  for  £14,- 
000,000  covered  by  Government  securities.  Peel  wished  also  to  pro- 
hibit the  note  issues  of  the  country  banks,  but  went  no  further  than 
prohibiting  the  new  ones  from  issuing  notes,  limiting  the  old  ones  to  the 
existing  amounts,  and  requiring  weekly  reports. 

The  Second  Free  Trade  Budget,  1845.  —  By  retaining  the  Income 
Tax  Peel  was  able  in  1845  to  abolish  more  duties  and  to  further  reduce 
others.  Export  duties  were  done  away  with  altogether,  likewise 
the  duty  on  cotton,  and  the  excise  on  glass.  Stanley,  who  was  now 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  reported  that  "  our  men  look  sulky."  In  the 
Commons,  the  protectionist  contingent  found  a  champion  in  Benjamin 
Disraeli  (1804-1881).  He  came  of  a  Jewish  family  who  had  em- 
braced the  Christian  faith,  and  he  had  first  come  into  prominence  as 
a  dandy  and  a  writer  of  novels.  In  1837  he  entered  Parliament  as  a 
radical  Tory.  His  first  speech,  while  in  a  way  a  failure,  marked  him 
to  the  discerning  as  an  unusual  man.  Gradually  he  gathered  about 
him  a  group  known  as  the  Young  England  party,  wrhich  did  not 
long  survive.  Its  guiding  aim  was  a  union  of  the  sovereign  and  the 
nobility  with  the  masses  against  the  middle-class  capitalists.  He  soon 
began  to  dazzle  the  Commons  by  his  brilliancy ;  but  it  required  persist- 
ent effort  before  he  could  win  their  confidence.  When  Peel  formed  his 
Ministry  Disraeli  asked  him  for  office,  a  fact  which  he  afterwards 
unscrupulously  denied.  However,  he  refrained  from  attacking  his 
leader  until  the  latter  began  to  depart  from  protectionist  principles. 
Then  he  turned  on  him  all  his  marvelous  powers  of  ready  and  biting 
invective.  He  denounced  the  Conservative  Government  as  an 
"  organized  hypocrisy."  The  Prime  Minister,  he  declared,  had  caught 
the  Whigs  bathing  and  had  run  away  with  their  clothes.  The  analogy 
was  more  clever  than  correct.  It  was  the  liberal  Tories,  Huskisson 
and  Canning,  who  had  made  the  first  move  in  the  direction  of  free 
trade,  while  the  Whigs  as  a  party  had  not  as  yet  shown  any  enthusiasm 
for  the  policy.  Meantime,  the  Anti-Corn  Law  League  had  become  a 
great  fact.  Subscriptions  which  had  begun  at  £5000,  in  1839,  had  in- 
creased, in  1844,  to  nearly  £90,000.  The  growing  conviction  of 
Peel  is  significantly  illustrated  by  the  story  that  when,  13  March,  1845, 
Cobden  had  finished  a  convincing  speech,  the  Prime  Minister  crumpled 
the  notes  he  had  been  taking,  and,  turning  to  Sidney  Herbert,  one 
of  his  younger  ministers,  said :  "  You  must  answer  this,  for  I  cannot." 
The  victory  of  free  trade  was  not  far  off.  Meantime,  laudable  steps 
were  taken  to  improve  conditions  of  labor  in  mines  and  factories. 

Regulation  of  Labor  in  Mines  and  Factories,  1842-1844.  —  The 
leader  in  this  movement  was  Lord  Ashley  who  had  carried  the  Factory 
Act  of  1833.  His  efforts  met  determined  resistance  from  many 
quarters.  The  laissez-faire  politicians  and  economists  were  opposed 


EARLY  YEARS   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN  943 

to  any  interference  with  free  competition.  Employers  wanted  long 
hours  and  cheap  labor.  Parents,  failing  to  realize  that  employment  of 
women  and  children  kept  down  the  level  of  wages,  were  desirous  to 
have  every  possible  member  of  the  family  at  work.  Peel  expressed 
the  opinion  that  further  labor  restrictions  would  drive  capitalists  out  of 
England.  The  Manchester  School  took  the  same  attitude.  But  the 
growing  humanitarian  sentiment  prevailed,  Ashley  secured  the 
appointment  of  a  commission  to  inquire  into  conditions  in  mines  and 
collieries.  Its  report,  published  in  1842,  was  an  "  awful  document  " 
which  called  forth  a  feeling  of  "  shame,  terror,  and  indignation." 
In  some  places  children  of  four  years  were  found  at  work.  The  mines 
were  often  stifling  and  dripping  with  wet.  Women  and  children  had 
to  crawl  on  their  hands  and  knees  along  passages  from  two  to  three 
feet  high,  dragging  heavy  carts  by  chains  passing  between  their  legs 
and  fastened  by  girdles  around  their  waists.  Frequently,  they 
were  forced  to  toil  on  alternate  days  from  sixteen  to  twenty  hours  out  of 
the  twenty-four.  The  moral  effect  of  such  degrading  labor,  without 
education  or  recreation,  can  be  imagined.  Ashley  managed  to 
carry  a  bill,  in  1842,  excluding  women  from  the  mines  altogether.  He 
proposed  to  exclude  boys  under  thirteen  as  well,  but  had  to  submit 
to  an  amendment  of  the  House  of  Lords  admitting  those  over  ten  for 
three  days  a  week.  He  then  returned  to  the  factory  question,  and 
with  the  help  of  Peel  and  the  Home  Secretary,  Sir  James  Graham,  a 
bill  was  passed  in  1844  which  limited  the  hours  of  women  to  twelve. 
The  hours  of  children  under  thirteen  were  reduced  from  nine  to  six 
and  a  half.  Peel,  who  had  come  to  see  the  light,  only  secured  the 
passage  of  the  measure  by  threatening  to  resign.  An  attempt  to  cut 
down  the  hours  of  young  persons  between  the  ages  of  thirteen  and 
eighteen  from  twelve  hours  to  ten  failed.  The  ten  hour1  day  for 
women  and  young  persons  was  not  secured  till  1850. 

O'Connell  and  Repeal.  The  Young  Ireland  Party.  —  The  fall  of 
the  Whigs  had  thrown  O'Connell  into  violent  opposition.  He  began 
to  form  new  Associations  and  to  resume  the  agitation  for  repeal. 
Announcing  that  1843  would  be  the  repeal  year,  he  went  up  and  down 
Ireland  addressing  large  assemblies.  While  he  had  no  intention  of 
resorting  to  force,  he  talked  so  violently  and  attracted  such  immense 
numbers  to  his  cause,  that  the  English  Government  became  alarmed. 
Ships  and  troops  were  dispatched  across  the  Channel  and  fortifica- 
tions were  strengthened.  A  monster  meeting,  advertised  to  take  place 
at  Clontarf,  5  October,  1843,  was  forbidden.  O'Connell  acquiesced. 
Compelled  to  show  his  hand,  he  had  made  it  clear  that  he  was  prepared 
to  submit  rather  than  to  appeal  to  arms.  As  a  result,  the  spell  of  his 
influence  was  broken.  The  bolder  spirits  among  his  followers  lost 
all  faith  in  him.  A  few  days  after  the  Clontarf  fiasco  he  was  arrested, 

1  Really  the  working  day  was  from  six  to  six,  with  an  hour  and  a  half  for  meals. 
That  meant  ten  hours  and  a  half ;  but  the  result  was  reached  by  stopping  work  at 
two  o'clock  on  Saturdays. 


944  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

together  with  some  of  his  leading  adherents,  on  a  charge  of  conspiracy. 
After  a  most  unfair,  trial  he  was  sentenced  by  a  packed  jury  to  be 
fined  and  imprisoned.1  The  sentence  was  reversed  by  the  House  of 
Lords  on  appeal.  O'Connell,  who  was  verging  on  seventy  and  in 
declining  health,  never  recovered  the  ascendancy  which  he  had  lost. 
He  died  at  Genoa  in  1847.  Meantime,  the  leadership  had  passed  to 
the  Young  Ireland  Party  which  began  with  a  group  of  youthful 
journalists,  chief  among  them  Thomas  Davis  and  Charles  Gavan 
Duffy.  They  founded  the  Nation  newspaper  in  1842,  in  which  they 
published  prose  and  poetry  breathing  all  the  fervor  of  the  patriots  of 
antiquity.  After  disposing  of  O'Connell,  Peel  and  his  Cabinet  tried 
conciliation.  A  measure  of  Stanley's  for  improving  the  conditions 
of  the  Irish  tenantry  was  defeated.  In  spite  of  furious  outcries,  Peel 
did,  however,  increase  and  establish  on  a  permanent  basis  the  annual 
grant  of  Maynooth  College,2  which  had  dragged  on  an  impoverished 
existence  since  its  foundation  in  1795.  Moreover,  another  act  was 
carried  to  establish  three  nonsectarian  institutions,  known  as  Queen's 
Colleges,  at  Belfast,  Cork,  and  Galway,  respectively.  The  Roman 
Catholics  opposed  this  latter  measure,  and  so  did  the  extremists  among 
the  Protestants,  one  of  whom  denounced  it  as  a  "  gigantic  scheme  of 
godless  education." 

The  Potato  Famine  and  Peel's  Conversion  to  Free  Trade,  1845.  — 
In  the  autumn  of  this  year  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop  brought  about 
a  crisis  in  English  history.  A  disease  first  noticed  in  the  Isle  of  Wight 
spread  rapidly  over  England  and  Ireland.  The  Irish  crop  was  ruined, 
and  since  potatoes  constituted  almost  the  sole  food  of  the  population, 
famine  impended,  unless  prompt  measures  were  taken  for  their  relief. 
Peel,  who  was  already  inclining  to  the  view  of  Cobden  and  Bright, 
was  convinced  by  the  necessity  of  supplying  the  Irish  sufferers  with 
cheap  bread  from  abroad  that  the  time  had  come  for  removing  the 
duty  on  foreign  corn.  He  had  already  gone  so  far  as  to  admit  the 
principle  of  free  trade.  He  believed  that  prices  should  be  low  for  the 
sake  of  the  consumer  rather  than  high  for  the  sake  of  the  producers ; 
but  he  had  clung  to  a  moderate  duty  on  corn  in  order  to  encourage  its 
production,  that  Great  Britain  might  be  self-sufficing  in  time  of  war. 
Moreover,  he  was  the  Prime  Minister  of  a  party  pledged  to  protect 
the  agricultural  interests.  But  his  reduction  of  duties  in  1842  had 
resulted  in  increased  prosperity,  and  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that 
free  trade  was  "  in  the  interest  of  the  country  and  politically  inevi- 
table." The  only  question  was  whether  he  should  undertake  the  task 
or  leave  it  to  the  Whigs;  for  their  leader,  Russell,  had  also  reached  the 

1  Lord  Denman,  the  Chief  Justice,  referred  to  the  proceeding  as  "a  mockery, 
a  delusion,  and  a  snare,"  apparently  the  origin  of  this  well-known  phrase. 

2  It  was  denounced  as  "high  treason  to  Heaven  to  apply  the  revenue  of  a  Prot- 
estant people  to  the  education  of  a  Popish  priesthood."      A  few  years  later  a  well- 
known  man  declared  the  Irish  famine  of  1845-1846  to  be  "a  dispensation  of  Provi- 
dence in  return  for  the  Maynooth  grant." 


EARLY  YEARS   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN  945 

point  of  discarding  the  principles  of  protection.  Peel  discussed  the 
question  with  his  Cabinet  in  a  series  of  meetings  during  October  and 
November,  but  only  three  of  his  colleagues  —  Aberdeen,  Graham,  and 
Sidney  Herbert  —  would  support  his  views.  A  proposal  which  he 
made  to  suspend  temporarily  the  restriction  on  the  importation  of  corn 
and  to  call  a  parliament  to  consider  the  whole  subject  of  repeal, 
was  rejected.  While  the  Cabinet  was  thus  at  odds,  Russell,  22  Novem- 
ber, threw  a  bombshell  by  publishing  a  famous  document,  known  to 
history  as  the  "  Edinburgh  Letter  "  in  which  he  declared  for  free 
trade.  "  Let  us  unite,"  he  wrote,  "  to  put  an  end  to  a  system  which 
has  been  proved  to  be  the  blight  of  commerce,  the  bane  of  agriculture, 
the  source  of  bitter  divisions  among  classes,  the  cause  of  penury, 
fever,  mortality,  and  crime  among  the  people."  He  urged  a  concerted 
popular  movement  to  furnish  to  the  Government  the  only  excuse 
which,  in  his  opinion,  they  needed,  for  action.  Bright  assured  the 
Whig  leader  that  his  letter  had  made  "  the  total  and  immediate  repeal 
of  the  Corn  Laws  inevitable."  Peel,  spurred  on  by  Russell's  pronounce- 
ment, strove  to  induce  his  Cabinet  to  forestall  the  Whigs  by  framing 
a  repeal  measure  and  summoning  Parliament  to  vote  upon  it.1  Meet- 
ing another  refusal,  he  resigned,  5  December.  Russell  was  called  upon 
to  form  a  Government.  He  soon  gave  up  the  task  on  the  pretext 
that  Palmerston  would  take  nothing  but  the  Foreign  Office,  an  arrange- 
ment to  which  some  of  the  party  leaders  whom  he  wanted  would  not 
consent.  Apparently,  however,  he  was  not  anxious  to  fish  in  the 
troubled  waters  which  he  had  stirred  up.2  Accordingly  Peel  came 
back,  20  December. 

The  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  June,  1846.  —  Parliament  met 
22  January,  1846.  Peel  began  the  fight  by  proposing  a  further  re- 
duction of  the  duties  provided  for  in  the  budgets  of  1842  and  1845, 
from  20  to  10  per  cent  on  manufactured  goods,  to  5  per  cent  on  those 
partly  manufactured,  and  for  the  total  removal  of  all  imposts  on  raw 
materials.  This  he  followed  by  a  proposal  for  modifying  the  existing 
sliding  scale  on  corn,  with  duties  ranging  from  4  to  10  per  cent.  This 
was  to  remain  in  force  three  years.  On  the  i  February,  1849,  the  scale 
was  to  be  abolished,  leaving  only  a  nominal  duty  of  one  shilling  a 
bushel.  Immediately  a  large  section  of  the  Conservatives  arose  in 
revolt.  Their  real  leader  was  Disraeli.  Realizing,  however,  the  magic 
of  a  noble  name  and  powerful  family  connections  in  managing  the 
Tory  aristocracy,  he  chose  as  nominal  chief  Lord  George  Bentinck, 
a  son  of  the  Duke  of  Portland.  Hitherto,  Bentinck  had  been  known 

1  The  proposal  was  published  in  the  Times,  4  December,  though  Cabinet  pro- 
ceedings were  supposed  to  be  secret.     It  was  formerly  believed  that  the  informa- 
tion was  extorted  from  Sidney  Herbert  by  Mrs.  Norton,  granddaughter  of  Sheridan 
and  a  famous  beauty,  commonly  regarded  as  the  heroine  of  George  Meredith's 
Diana  of  the  Crossways.     It  is  now  known  that  the  story  was  given  out  by  Lord 
Aberdeen. 

2  Usually  he  had  been  ready,  as  Sidney  Smith  put  it,  to  undertake  anything  from 
commanding  the  Channel  fleet  to  operating  for  stone. 


946  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

only  as  a  racing  man ;  his  education  had  been  defective  and  he  spoke 
with  "  dignified  diffidence  " ;  but  he  showed  an  unbending  courage, 
a  power  of  hard  work,  and  a  dogged  persistence  which  made  up  for 
limitations  and  neglected  opportunities.  Disraeli  delighted  his  sup- 
porters and  confounded  his  opponents  by  his  sarcasm,  his  brilliant 
rhetoric,  and  his  audacious  party  tactics.  He  denounced  Peel  "  as  a 
man  who  never  originates  an  idea ;  a  man  who  takes  his  observations, 
and  when  he  finds  the  wind  in  a  particular  quarter  trims  his  sails  to 
suit  it,"  as  "  a  trader  on  other  people's  intelligence ;  a  political  burglar 
of  other  men's  ideas."  He  led  in  the  furious  outcry  that  the  Prime 
Minister  had  betrayed  the  Conservative  party,  and  sought  to  obstruct 
his  measures  at  every  stage  of  their  progress.  The  Protectionists  were 
willing  to  accept  a  temporary  suspension  of  the  corn  duties  which 
Peel  had  framed  as  a  special  measure  for  meeting  the  Irish  distress ; 
but  they  contended  that  there  was  no  reason  for  a  drastic  free  trade 
policy  at  the  same  time.  "  Never,"  asserted  Bentinck,  "  was  there 
a  change  of  so  extensive  a  character  proposed  on  so  slender  a  basis, 
and  with  so  little  cause  shown."  There  was  some  hostility,  on  the  part 
of  special  interests,  to  the  proposals  relating  to  raw  materials  and 
manufactures ;  but  Peel  was  able  to  show  that  every  decrease  of  the 
duty  had  been  followed  by  increase  of  business  and  employment.  To 
the  landed  gentry,  who  were  fighting  so  desperately  against  the 
repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  his  argument  was  that  the  welfare  of  the 
country  and  the  very  existence  of  the  poor  demanded  cheap  food  and 
steady  prices.  After  two  months  of  struggle,  both  the  Corn  Bill  and 
the  Customs  Bill  passed  the  Commons,  15  May.  Thanks  to  Welling- 
ton, who  again  showed  his  common  sense  in  foreseeing  the  inevitable, 
the  Lords  yielded,  25  June. 

The  Fall  of  Peel.  Estimate  of  his  Work.  —  On  the  very  same  day 
"  the  Ministry  which  had  carried  to  success  the  greatest  piece  of  legisla- 
tion .  .  .  since  Lord  Grey's  Reform  Bill,"  was  overthrown.  The 
distress  in  Ireland  had  so  accentuated  the  unrest  that  a  new  coercion 
bill  —  the  eighteenth  since  the  Union  —  was  introduced  into  the  House 
of  Lords  in  March.  It  passed  the  Upper  House,  but  Disraeli,  with 
the  help  of  the  Irish  and  Radical  members,  succeeded  in  defeating  it 
in  the  Commons.  Peel,  in  the  speech  announcing  his  resignation, 
29  June,  paid  a  generous  tribute  to  Cobden1  as  the  man  to  whom,  more 
than  any  other,  the  removal  of  the  duty  on  corn  was  due.  The  ex- 
tension of  the  free  trade  policy  was  fortunate  in  coming  in  on  a  wave 
of  great  material  prosperity  for  England,  and  protection  was  soon 
abandoned  as  a  political  issue.  A  marvelous  development  followed. 
In  addition  to  the  recent  legislation,  many  causes  were  operative,  such 
as  the  final  adjustment  of  the  laborer  to  the  factory  system,  wonderful 
improvements  in  machinery,  and  the  phenomenal  development  of 

1  Cobden  worked  and  voted  against  the  Coercion  Bill,  thus,  by  a  curious  irony  of 
fate,  contributing  to  overthrow  the  Prime  Minister  who  had  made  possible  the 
triumph  of  the  cause  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life. 


EARLY  YEARS   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN  947 

railway  and  steam  traffic  and  the  introduction  of  electricity.  How- 
ever much  Peel's  measures  may  have  contributed  to  the  new  era, 
he  certainly  understood  and  represented  the  commercial  interests  of 
the  country  better  than  any  other  Englishman  of  the  century.  He 
never  came  back  to  office ;  but  during  the  rest  of  his  life  headed  an 
opposition  band  consisting  of  a  few  devoted  followers  known  as  the 
"  Peelites."  He  died  2  July,  1850,  as  the  result  of  a  fall  from  his  horse 
a  few  days  before. 

For  forty  years  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, and  for  half  that  period  he  had  led  his  party  in  office 
and  in  opposition.  The  son  of  a  rich  manufacturer,  he  had  been 
educated  in  stanch  Tory  traditions  at  Harrow  and  at  Oxford.  He 
had  an  inexhaustible  capacity  for  work.  Though  nervously  or- 
ganized, fiery  and  sensitive  by  nature,  he  masked  his  natural  disposi- 
tion under  a  cold  reserve  which  made  him  seem  artificial  and  pompous. 
While  he  could,  with  his  few  intimates,  be  humorous  and  genial,  his 
power  in  the  Cabinet  and  in  Parliament  was  due  to  his  mastery  of 
detail  and  the  weight  of  his  reasoning  rather  than  to  any  fervor  of 
oratory.  His  public  policy,  if  it  exposed  him  at  times  to  the  charge 
of  inconsistency,  had  a  fundamental  unity;  namely,  to  preserve  the 
existing  Constitution  so  far  as  possible,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  country  by  progressive  legislation.  Bound 
by  conservative  tradition  and  lacking  in  imaginative  foresight,  he  was 
open  to  new  ideas,  which  on  occasion  led  him  to  depart  abruptly 
from  his  party  allegiance,  and  resulted  finally  in  producing  a  split 
in  the  Conservative  ranks.  But,  both  in  1829  and  in  1845,  he  resigned, 
and  only  resumed  office  when  the  Opposition  had  failed  to  form  a 
Government  to  carry  the  measures  which  he  regarded  as  indispen- 
sable. He  was  always  ready  to  sacrifice  himself  and  his  party  to  the 
public  good.  His  monument  endures  in  the  revival  of  the  specie  pay- 
ments of  1819 ;  the  reform  of  the  criminal  code,  1823  ;  Roman  Catholic 
emancipation,  1829;  the  improvement  of  the  banking  system,  1844; 
the  reduction  of  the  tariff  in  1842  and  1846,  and  the  repeal  of  the 
Corn  Laws.  Judged  both  by  his  work  and  his  character,  he  ranks  as 
the  foremost  statesman  of  his  generation. 

Foreign  Affairs.  The  Opium  War,  1840-1842.  —  Under  Grey  and 
Melbourne  the  control  of  foreign  affairs  was  in  the  hands  of  Palmers- 
ton.  His  policy  was  marked  by  an  aggressive  sympathy  with 
liberal  and  national  movements  against  despotism.  The  more  con- 
ciliatory Aberdeen,  who  succeeded  to  the  Foreign  Office  under  Peel, 
inherited  wars  with  Afghanistan  and  China,  disputes  with  the  United 
States,  and  strained  relations  with  France.  The  war  with  China  is 
one  of  the  most  discreditable  in  British  history ;  for,  however  great 
the  provocation  which  led  Great  Britain  to  assume  the  offensive,  the 
trouble  really  had  its  root  in  her  attempt  to  force  the  opium  trade 
upon  the  Chinese  against  the  protestations  of  their  Government 
and  of  such  public  opinion  as  there  was  in  the  Empire.  ^  Palmerston 


948  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tried  to  obscure  the  moral  issue  by  insisting  that  the  question  was  one 
of  protecting  the  native-grown  poppy  and  of  preventing  the  export 
of  bullion.  Whatever  their  motives,  the  Chinese  had  absolutely 
prohibited  the  importation  of  the  drug.  Their  general  policy  at  this 
time  was  to  exclude  all  foreign  commerce  so  far  as  possible.  Certain 
foreign  merchants,  however,  from  their  headquarters  in  the  island  of 
Hong-Kong  had  been  allowed  to  engage  in  a  very  restricted  business 
with  the  neighboring  city  of  Canton.  In  addition  to  this  licensed 
trade  considerable  smuggling  of  opium  had  developed.  Up  to  1834 
the  monopoly  of  the  China  trade  had  been  in  the  hands  of  the  East 
India  Company,  which  had  kept  both  the  recognized  and  the  illicit 
traffic  under  reasonable  control.  With  the  cessation  of  the  Company's 
exclusive  privileges  conditions  got  so  bad  that  the  British  Government 
appointed  officials  to  supervise  the  licensed  commerce  and  to  check 
the  smuggling.  But  the  Chinese  refused  to  recognize  these  superin- 
tendents and  treated  them  in  a  very  high-handed  fashion.  This  dis- 
cord gave  the  smugglers  increased  opportunities,  from  which  they  were 
not  slow  to  profit.  The  Chinese,  taking  matters  into  their  own  hands, 
seized  and  destroyed  some  20,000  chests  of  opium  in  the  Canton 
River.  Other  causes  of  friction  followed,  and  a  British  fleet  was  sent 
to  the  scene  of  action  in  1840.  The  Chinese  were  finally  brought  to 
terms.  By  the  treaty  of  Nankin,  26  August,  1842:  (i)  five  ports,  in- 
cluding Canton  and  Shanghai,  were  opened  to  British  trade;  (2)  Hong- 
Kong  was  ceded  outright ;  and  (3)  21,000,000  dollars  was  paid  for  the 
opium  destroyed,  for  debts  due  to  British  merchants,  and  for  a  war 
indemnity.  The  Chinese,  however,  still  refused  to  legalize  the  opium 
trade.  Unhappily,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  growth  and  sale  of  the 
drug  formed  a  chief  source  of  the  Indian  revenue,  the  British  Govern- 
ment would  take  no  steps  to  stop  the  traffic,  which  went  on  for  years 
unchecked.  In  other  respects  the  commercial  results  of  the  treaty 
proved  an  advantage  for  both  sides. 

Boundary  Disputes  with  the  United  States  Adjusted,  1842  and  1846. 
—  Chief  among  the  outstanding  disputes  with  the  United  States 
were  those  relating  to  the  northeast  and  northwest  boundaries.  Lord 
Ashburton,  sent  on  a  special  mission,  was  unable  to  settle  the  Oregon 
boundary,  but  managed  to  adjust  the  limits  of  northern  Maine,  which 
had  been  a  subject  of  controversy  since  1783.  By  the  Ashburton 
Treaty  a  compromise  was  arranged.  The  United  States  accepted  a 
line  in  northern  Maine  south  of  that  which  they  had  originally  claimed ; 
but,  by  way  of  compensation,  they  received  a  clear  title  to  Rouse's 
Point  on  Lake  Champlain  where  they  had  built  a  fort,  on  the  supposi- 
tion that  it  was  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  though  a  later 
and  more  accurate  survey  had  shown  that  it  was  really  in  British 
territory.  The  question  of  the  boundary  west  of  the  Rockies  was 
not  settled  till  1846.  Each  country  had  conflicting  claims  based  on 
discovery,  exploration,  and  settlement.  In  1818,  they  agreed  to  occupy 
the  disputed  territory  jointly,  and  the  northern  boundary  of  the  United 


EARLY  YEARS   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN  949 

States  was  fixed  at  49°,  between  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  and  the  Stony 
(Rocky)  Mountains.1  By  the  Florida  Treaty  of  1819  the  United  States 
acquired  such  claims  as  the  Spanish  had  north  of  42°.  In  1824,  Russia 
gave  up  all  claims  south  of  54°  40'.  The  Anglo-American  joint 
occupancy  proved  unsatisfactory,  and  by  the  Oregon  Treaty  as  finally 
concluded,  the  boundary  of  49°  was  extended  from  the  Rockies  as  far 
as  Vancouver  Sound,  and  thence  along  the  middle  of  the  channel  to  the 
sea.  The  British  thus  secured  the  whole  of  Vancouver  Island.  The 
navigation  of  the  Columbia  River  was  to  be  free  to  both  countries. 
Relations  with  France.  The  Spanish  Marriages,  1846.  —  Aber- 
deen, Peel's  conciliatory  Foreign  Secretary,  made  an  earnest  effort 
to  reestablish  cordial  relations  with  France,  which  had  been  severely 
strained  by  the  Palmerstonian  policy.2  Louis  Philippe,  Queen 
Victoria,  and  Prince  Albert  were  all  anxious  to  assist  him.  In  spite  of 
minor  points  of  friction  and  hostile  public  feeling,  which  the  press  on 
both  sides  of  the  Channel  strove  to  inflame,  the  two  countries  seemed 
on  the  road  to  a  cordial  understanding  when  the  French  King  took 
a  step  which  resulted  in  new  and  increased  estrangement.  It  was  well 
known  that  he  was  anxious  to  extend  his  influence  over  the  Spanish 
peninsula,  and  the  rumor  arose  that  he  was  designing  to  marry  his 
fourth  son,  the  Due  d'Aumale  to  the  young  Queen  Isabella.  In  1843 
he  denied  this,  but  admitted  that  his  fifth  son,  the  Due  de  Montpensier 
was  to  marry  her  sister.  The  British  Government  agreed  to  this 
plan,  in  view  of  his  promise  that  the  wedding  should  not  take  place 
until  Isabella  had  been  married  and  had  produced  an  heir.  The 
Spanish  Queen  Mother,  Maria  Christina,  who  acted  as  Regent,  desired 
to  have  her  elder  daughter  marry  Leopold  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 
a  cousin  of  Prince  Albert.  After  Leopold's  family,  not  without  some 
reluctance,  had  discountenanced  the  plan,  Palmerston,  who  on  the 
fall  of  Peel  had  returned  to  the  Foreign  Office,  wrote  a  dispatch  press- 
ing Isabella  to  marry  without  delay.  Among  the  three  suitors  whom 
he  mentioned  was  Leopold.  This  unauthorized  proceeding  alarmed 
Louis  Philippe,  who  without  more  ado  arranged  a  match  between 
the  Spanish  Queen  and  her  kinsman  the  Duke  of  Cadiz,  and  provided 
that  the  Due  de  Montpensier  should  marry  her  sister  the  very  same 
day.  This  was  announced  to  the  British  Government,  2  September, 
1846.  In  spite  of  all  protests  the  Spanish  marriages  were  celebrated 
10  October.  The  action  of  Louis  Philippe,  though  not  wholly  without 
excuse,  was  contrary  to  his  promise.  The  British  loudly  accused  him 
of  bad  faith,  and  never  trusted  him  again  during  the  two  years  that  he 
remained  on  the  throne. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 
See  ch.  LIII  below. 

*The  boundary  to  the  Mississippi  had  been  fixed  by  the  treaty  of  1783.  In 
the  interval  between  that  date  and  1818  the  United  States  had  acquired  Louisiana. 

2  Especially  in  the  adjustment  of  a  treaty  between  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  and 
Mehemet  Ali  of  Egypt  who  had  recently  been  at  war. 


CHAPTER  LII 

THE  REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS  IN  EUROPE  AND  THE  BEGIN- 
NING  OF  A  NEW  PERIOD  OF  WAR   (1846-1856) 

The  First  Russell  Ministry,  1846-1852.  Temporary  Measures 
for  Irish  Relief.  —  Although  Russell,  who  succeeded  Peel,  came  to 
office  with  only  a  minority  party  at  his  back,  the  Conservatives  were 
so  divided  between  the  Peelites  and  the  Protectionists  that  he  was 
able  to  get  a  footing  and  to  hold  on  for  nearly  six  years.  His  first 
pressing  problem  was  to  relieve  the  destitution  and  to  deal  with  the 
disturbances  in  Ireland.  The  misery  was  accentuated  by  a  second 
potato  blight  in  1846.  Father  Mathew  records  that,  on  a  journey 
from  Dublin  to  Cork  early  in  August,  he :  "  beheld  with  sorrow  one 
wild  waste  of  putrefying  vegetation.  Stupor  and  despair  fell  upon 
the  people.  In  many  places  the  wretched  men  were  seated  on  the 
fences  of  their  decaying  gardens  wringing  their  hands,  and  wailing 
bitterly  at  the  destruction  which  had  left  them  foodless."  Peel  had 
hurried  a  supply  of  Indian  corn  to  the  stricken  country  and  had  ad- 
vanced, on  the  part  of  the  Government,  a  considerable  sum  for  em- 
ploying the  people  on  public  works.  The  debt  was  to  be  assumed 
partly  by  the  State  and  partly  by  the  localities.  The  terms  of  the 
loan  proved  so  easy  that  the  landlords  took  advantage  of  them  to 
improve  their  estates,  and  Peel's  plan  was  soon  abandoned.  Russell 
started  a  new  system  of  public  works,  providing  that  the  money  should 
be  repaid  by  the  localities  within  ten  years  at  3^  per  cent.  His 
system,  too,  proved  ineffective  and  extravagant.  The  employment 
selected  was  usually  the  building  of  roads  which  led  nowhere :  light 
work  and  certain  wages  attracted  men  from  necessary  employments, 
and  the  numbers,  swelling  from  100,000  in  October,  1846,  to  734,000 
in  March,  1847,  became  so  unmanageable  that  this  system  also  had  to 
be  given  up.  Furthermore,  in  accordance  with  the  prevailing  laissez- 
faire  policy  of  the  Government,  food  depots  were  not  opened  while 
food  could  be  sold  at  a  reasonable  price.  Consequently,  speculators 
throve  and  the  people  starved.  After  something  had  been  done  by 
volunteer  committees,  Russell,  early -in  1847,  provided  a  system  for  the 
free  dispensation  of  food,  supplied  partly  from  Government  funds  and 
partly  from  local  rates.  This  system,  which  proved  effective,  was 
continued  till  the  harvest  season  of  1847.  In  addition  the  Corn  Laws 
and  the  Navigation  Laws  were  temporarily  suspended,  during  1846 
and  1847. 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS  IN  EUROPE       951 

Permanent  Measures.  —  These  devices,  necessary  as  they  were, 
tended  to  pauperize  the  Irish.  Consequently,  the  Government  under- 
took to  frame  more  permanent  measures  for  stimulating  enterprise 
and  developing  the  country  as  well  as  assisting  the  needy.  The  evils 
resulting  from  unrestricted  competition  in  rents,  tenure-at-will, 
and  arbitrary  evictions  were  left  untouched.  Also,  a  proposal  for 
reclaiming  waste  lands  and  selling  them  in  small  lots  was  defeated. 
Bentinck  proposed  a  Government  appropriation  of  £16,000,000 
for  railways,  from  which  companies  were  to  receive  an  advance  of 
£200  for  every  £100  expended.  It  was  questionable,  however, 
whether  such  a  large  sum  could  be  employed  to  the  best  advantage 
in  this  way  in  a  country  that  was  mainly  agricultural  rather  than 
commercial.  However  that  may  be,  only  £620,000  was  appropriated. 
Considerable  sums,  however,  were  advanced  for  draining  and  improv- 
ing estates.  Also,  the  Poor  Law  was  altered  by  a  provision  that, 
when  the  poorhouses  were  full,  outside  relief  should  be  given  and  paid 
for  from  a  rate  levied  on  the  landlords  and  tenants.  The  Lords  re- 
jected one  essential  clause  providing  that,  when  the  rates  exceeded 
25.  6d.  in  any  district,  the  excess  would  be  charged  to  the  union  in 
which  the  districts  were  grouped.  The  evil  result  followed  that  the 
needy  in  the  overburdened  areas  were  evicted  to  get  rid  of  them. 
The  Encumbered  Estates  Act  of  1848,  equally  well  meant,  was  equally 
unfortunate  in  its  results.  The  object  was  to  enable  impoverished 
landlords  to  sell  out  to  those  who  were  financially  able  to  work  the 
estates.  As  a  rule,  the  tenants  suffered  from  the  change ;  since  most 
of  the  new  proprietors  were  greedy  capitalists  seeking  to  wring 
the  utmost  farthing  from  their  investment.  While  the  progress  of 
starvation  was  gradually  checked,  the  effects  of  the  famine  ran  their 
course.  The  mortality  due  to  fever  and  suffering  was  dreadful. 
Murder  and  violence  increased  so  alarmingly  that  the  Liberals,  who 
in  opposition  had  helped  to  defeat  Peel's  Coercion  Bill,  were  reduced 
to  passing  one  of  their  own,  December,  1847.  Conditions  were  ripe 
for  revolt  when  a  series  of  revolutions  on  the  Continent  precipitated 
an  abortive  Irish  rising. 

A  Year  of  European  Revolutions,  1848.  — As  in  1789  and  in  1830 
the  movement  started  in  Paris.  It  resulted  in  the  expulsion  of  Louis 
Philippe  from  the  throne  and  the  establishment  of  a  short-lived 
republic.  Revolutions  followed  in  Germany,  in  Italy,  and  in  Austro- 
Hungary.  Liberalism  or  nationality,  in  some  cases  both,  furnished 
the  guiding  aim.  The  Pope,  driven  from  Rome,  was  restored  by 
French  troops  who  remained  in  occupation  of  the  city  from  1849  to 
1870.  The  object  was  to  counteract  the  Austrians,  who  possessed 
Lombardy  and  Venetia  and  dominated  Italy.  The  northern  Italians 
made  a  vain  effort  to  drive  out  their  masters,  and  had  to  struggle  for 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  they  attained  their  hope  of  a 
united  and  independent  country.  Nor  were  the  attempts  in  the 
direction  of  German  unity  successful  at  this  time,  although  constitu- 


952  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tional  gains  were  made  in  some  of  the  separate  states.  Palmers  ton 
favored  the  Italians  in  their  struggle  to  recover  Lombardy  and  Venetia 
from  the  Austrians.  It  was  largely  through  his  advice  that  the 
Austrian  Emperor,  Ferdinand,  abdicated,  2  December,  1848,  in  favor 
of  his  eighteen  year  old  nephew,  Francis  Joseph. 

The  Young  Ireland  Rising,  1848.  —  The  French  example  and  the 
hope  of  French  assistance  converted  the  Young  Ireland  party  into  a 
body  of  rebellious  conspirators.  They  had  chosen  as  their  leader 
William  Smith  O'Brien,  a  Protestant  of  wealth  and  ancient  lineage, 
who  originally  supported  O'ConnelFs  policy  of  peaceful  agitation.  He 
was  honest,  courageous,  and  patriotic,  but  lacked  the  decision  and  the 
personal  magnetism  necessary  to  head  a  successful  revolt.  He  failed 
in  a  mission  to  Paris  where  he  went  for  aid,  and  in  the  spring  of  1848 
was  arrested,  together  with  several  other  conspirators,  including 
Meagher  and  Mitchell.  In  the  trial  that  followed,  Mitchell,  editor 
of  The  United  Irishmen,  and  the  most  violent  of  the  Young  Ireland 
party,  was  sentenced  to  fourteen  years'  transportation.  O'Brien  and 
Meagher  were  acquitted.  Thereupon,  they  and  the  other  leaders 
planned  a  rising  in  August.  Before  they  had  completely  organized 
their  forces  they  were  scattered  by  the  police,  29  July,  in  an  engagement 
known  as  the  "  Widow  McCormack's  potato  patch."  After  a  period 
of  hiding,  O'Brien  reappeared.  Together  with  Meagher  and  a  few  of 
the  other  ringleaders  he  was  sentenced  to  death  for  high  treason,  a 
sentence  afterwards  committed  to  exile.  Danger  of  revolution  ceased 
for  the  time  being;  but  the  misery  and  discontent  which  had  fo- 
mented it  remained. 

The  Collapse  of  the  Chartists,  1848.  —  Aside  from  the  abortive 
Irish  rising,  the  only  other  effect  of  the  rebellions  of  1848  which  the 
British  Government  had  to  face  was  a  revival  of  Chartism,  and 
that  was  to  some  extent  due  to  a  threatened  financial  crisis  of  the  pre- 
vious year  which  drove  many  out  of  employment.  The  movement 
had  been  moribund  for  many  years,  in  spite  of  the  busy  agitation  of 
Feargus  O'Connor.  Early  in  1848,  meetings  began  to  be  held  in  the 
large  towns,  and  a  petition  was  circulated  which  received  thousands 
of  signatures.  On  4  April,  a  convention  was  opened  in  London.  A 
plan  was  adopted  to  assemble  at  Kensington  Common  on  the  loth, 
to  march  in  procession  to  Parliament,  and  present  the  monster  petition. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington,  commissioned  by  the  Government  to  guard 
against  insurrection,  caused  170,000  constables1  to  be  sworn  in  and 
held  the  regular  troops  in  readiness.  In  view  of  these  preparations, 
O'Connor,  losing  his  courage,  gave  up  the  procession  and  urged  his 
followers  to  disperse.  The  petition  was  sent  in  three  cabs.  Pur- 
porting to  contain  5,000,000  names,  less  than  half  that  number  were 
found  by  actual  count.  Many,  too,  were  fictitious ;  among  the  most 

1  Among  those  who  volunteered  was  the  nephew  of  Bonaparte,  Louis  Napoleon, 
then  in  exile,  who  was  destined  soon  to  become  President  and  later  Emperor  of 
the  French. 


REVOLUTIONARY   MOVEMENTS   IN  EUROPE       953 

numerous  were  those  of  Victoria  and  Wellington,  while  the  names  of 
characters  in  popular  novels  appeared  frequently.  Led  by  visionaries, 
distracted  by  conflicting  aims,  discredited  by  the  violence  of  the 
extremists,  and  rendered  ridiculous  by  a  final  futile  demonstration, 
the  Chartist  movement  at  length  collapsed.  Nevertheless,  it  was  fos- 
tered by  real  distress,  it  was  joined  by  many  honest  workmen,  and  most 
of  its  demands  have  since  become  the  law  of  the  land. 

The  "  Papal  Aggression,"  1850.  —  Owing  to  the  generally  prosper- 
ous condition  of  the  country  and  the  divisions  in  the  opposing  ranks, 
the  Russell  Ministry  had  comparatively  smooth  sailing  until  1850. 
Then  crises  began  to  develop,  and  though  the  Ministry  hung  on  for 
two  more  years,  the  latter  end  of  its  term  was  but  labor  and  heaviness. 
The  trouble  started  with  the  so-called  "  Papal  Aggression."  Im- 
pressed by  the  fact  that  a  few  men  of  note  had  gone  over  to  Rome  in 
consequence  of  the  Oxford  Movement,1  the  Pope  and  the  Vatican  had 
hopes  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  conversion  of  England.  To  that 
end,  a  papal  bull  was  issued,  in  1850,  setting  up  a  hierarchy  of  bishops 
in  England  who  should  derive  their  titles  from  English  sees  created 
by  the  bull.  Hitherto,  Roman  Catholic  bishops  sent  to  that  country 
had  been  known  as  bishops  in  partibus  infidelium.  Deriving  their 
titles  from  extinct  dioceses  in  Asia  Minor,  they  had  been  regarded 
as  missionaries  dwelling  in  a  land  of  unbelievers.  Cardinal  Wiseman 
was  made  head  of  the  new  hierarchy,  which  was  to  consist  of  twelve 
associates  or  suffragans.  While  to  many  it  was  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence whether  the  new  prelates  had  English  or  Asiatic  titles,  numbers 
of  good  people,  who  had  viewed  with  apprehension  the  Romeward 
tendency  of  the  high  Anglican  party,  were  convinced  that  Pius  LX  was 
seizing  the  opportunity  to  attempt  to  extend  the  spiritual  arm  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  over  the  whole  of  Great  Britain.  Wiseman  fed  the 
excitement  by  an  injudicious  pastoral  letter  addressed  to  the  English 
people,  7  October,  1850,  in  which  he  said,  among  other  things,  that: 
"  Catholic  England  has  been  restored  to  its  orbit  in  the  ecclesiastical 
firmament  from  which  its  light  had  long  vanished."  Then  Russell 
added  fuel  to  the  flames  by  a  famous  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Durham 
denouncing  the  Pope's  assumption  of  authority  as  "  inconsistent 
with  the  Queen's  supremacy,  with  the  rights  of  our  bishops  and  clergy, 
and  with  the  spiritual  independence  of  the  nation  as  asserted  even  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  times."  He  declared,  further,  that  "  the  danger 
within  the  gates  from  unworthy  sons  of  the  Church  of  England 
herself  "  was  more  alarming  than  anything  to  be  apprehended  from 
Rome.  He  scored  what  he  was  pleased  to  call  their  "  mummeries  of 
superstition,"  which,  he  declared,  the  mass  of  the  people  looked  on  with 
contempt,  "  scorning  the  laborious  endeavors  which  are  now  making 
to  confine  the  intellect  and  enslave  the  soul."  In  spite  of  his  assur- 
ances that  he  was  referring  to  the  extreme  Anglicans,  the  Roman 

1  For  the  Oxford  Movement,  see  below,  p.  1040. 


954  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Catholics  resented  this  denunciation  as  directed  against  their  own 
faith  and  ceremonial.  The  day  after  the  letter  appeared  was  Guy 
Fawkes's  Day,  which  furnished  the  occasion  for  parading  effigies  of 
the  Pope  and  Wiseman,  for  bonfires  and  other  wild  demonstrations  in 
London  and  elsewhere.  Resolutions  from  tumultuous  meetings  and 
floods  of  petitions  addressed  to  the  Queen  and  the  Ministers  called 
for  urgent  action. 

The  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  1851.  —  Curiously  enough,  the  Prime 
Minister  who  had  done  so  much  to  stir  the  popular  prejudice  was 
one  of  the  leading  advocates  of  religious  freedom  in  his  generation. 
After  all,  neither  he  nor  his  colleagues  after  calling  attention  to  the 
threatened  danger,  wanted  to  undertake  repressive  legislation.  In 
order,  however,  to  allay  the  excitement  and  possibly  to  discourage 
further  papal  activity  in  England,  Russell,  early  in  1851,  introduced 
the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill.1  It  forbade,  under  penalty;  the  assump- 
tion by  Roman  Catholics  of  titles  taken  from  any  territory  or  place  within 
the  United  Kingdom,  and  pronounced  void  anything  done  under  such 
titles.  This  measure  was  denounced  by  both  parties,  by  the  one  be- 
cause it  went  too  far,  by  the  other  because  it  did  not  go  far  enough.  A 
prominent  Radical  described  it  as :  "  one  of  the  meanest,  pettiest, 
and  most  futile  measures  that  ever  disgraced  bigotry  itself."  Owing 
to  the  difficulty  of  applying  it  to  Ireland,2  and  finding  it  impossible 
to  carry  a  bill  which  treated  that  country  differently  from  England, 
the  Ministry  was  obliged  to  modify  the  original  measure  until  it 
amounted  to  no  more  than  a  "  mere  declaration  against  the  assumption 
of  unlawful  titles."  During  the  discussion,  the  Government  was 
defeated  by  a  snap  vote  on  a  motion  relating  to  an  extension  of  the 
borough  franchise  to  the  counties.  Russell  resigned,  but  returned  to 
office  after  both  the  Conservatives  and  the  Peelites  proved  unable  to 
form  a  Cabinet.  After  the  secession  of  some  seventy  Irish  members 
he  introduced  certain  clauses  into  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill  that 
were  more  stringent  than  those  he  had  just  withdrawn.  So  it  finally 
passed,  but  it  remained  a  dead  letter,  and  was  repealed  in  1871,  after 
all  interest  in  the  matter  had  ceased. 

The  Great  Exhibition,  1851.  —  During  the  year  1851  attention 
was  drawn  from  politics  toward  a  remarkable  undertaking  for  which 
Prince  Albert  was  chiefly  responsible.  This  was  an  exhibition  of  the 
industries  of  all  nations  —  the  first  of  along  series  to  follow,  which  have 
done  so  much  to  bring  peoples  of  different  nations  together,  to  widen 
their  horizon  by  travel  and  mutual  acquaintance,3  and  to  further  in- 
dustrial and  artistic  progress.  The  Great  Exhibition  was  held  in 

1  Punch  had  a  cartoon  representing  Russell  as  a  small  boy  chalking  "No  Popery" 
on  the  wall  of  a  public  building,  and  running  away. 

2  There  the  Roman  Catholic  prelates  had  native  titles. 

3  One  of  the  many  curious  objections  urged  against  the  plan  was  that  it  would 
bring  an  influx  of  foreigners  who  would  inundate  the  country  with  "Popery"  and 
immorality. 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS  IN  EUROPE       955 

Hyde  Park  from  May  i  to  15  October,  during  which  period  it  was 
attended  by  over  6,000,000  visitors.  One  of  the  most  picturesque 
features  was  the  Crystal  Palace,  designed  by  Sir  Joseph  Paxton,  which 
is  still  standing  at  Sydenham,  whither  it  was  subsequently  removed. 
Contrary  to  expectation,  considerable  profits  accrued  from  the  venture, 
and  the  funds  were  employed  in  building  the  South  Kensington  Mu- 
seum. In  one  respect  hopes  aroused  were  disappointed.  Victoria 
referred  to  the  Exhibition  as  "  the  greatest  triumph  of  peace  the  world 
has  ever  seen,"  and  it  was  predicted  confidently  that  it  would  mark  an 
era  in  the  cause  of  international  peace.  Nevertheless,  the  first  con- 
tinental war  in  forty  years  soon  broke  out,  and  was  followed  by  a  long 
and  frequent  series  of  European  conflicts. 

The  Palmerstonian  Policy.  —  The  irrepressible  Palmerston  had  a 
remarkable  gift  for  sensing  and  voicing  English  public  opinion  in 
foreign  affairs ;  but  by  his  jaunty  aggressiveness,  his  habit  of  scolding 
other  governments  and  meddling  in  their  affairs  and  by  his  ten- 
dency to  follow  his  own  bent,  he  was  constantly  stirring  up  trouble 
abroad  and  embarrassing  the  Queen  and  the  Cabinet.  The  situation 
was  complicated  from  the  fact  that  Prince  Albert  was  peculiarly 
interested  in  foreign  policy  to  which  he  devoted  much  attention, 
while  Palmerston  treated  his  views  with  open  contempt  when  he  did 
not  ignore  them  altogether.  The  Prince  and  the  Queen,  though  they 
accepted  the  constitutional  system  in  England  and  would  not  have 
objected  to  seeing  it  adopted  voluntarily  by  European  sovereigns, 
were  firm  supporters  of  existing  dynasties  —  particularly  those  of 
Germany  with  which  they  had  close  family  connections  —  and  shud- 
dered at  violent  attacks  on  them.  Palmerston's  attitude  was  hope- 
lessly at  variance  with  theirs.  He  was  a  strenuous  advocate  of  liberal 
and  national  movements  abroad  and  went  to  the  point  of  encouraging, 
or  at  least  condoning  revolution.  He  favored  Italian  unity  and  had 
little  sympathy  for  the  reigning  Houses,  either  of  Austria  or  Germany. 
Not  only  his  policy  but  his  manner  of  proceeding  was  intolerable  to 
his  sovereign  and  her  consort.  In  1848,  without  consulting  them,  he 
'sent  a  mandate  to  the  Spanish  Government  to  liberalize  its  institu- 
tions, a  proceeding  which  led  to  the  recall  of  the  British  ambassador. 

The  Don  Pacifico  Case,  1847-1850.  —  His  action  in  the  celebrated 
Don  Pacifico  ease  brought  Great  Britain  for  the  third  time  since  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  to  the  verge  of  war  with  France,  and  for  a  mo- 
ment even  threatened  a  general  European  conflict.1  A  keen  party 
struggle  resulted  in  England  from  which  Palmerston  emerged  trium- 
phant and  with  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  most  effective  de- 
baters in  the  House  of  Commons.  Don  Pacifico  was  a  Jew  of  Portu- 

1  The  first  danger  arose  in  1840-1841  when  Great  Britain  was  supporting  Tur- 
key in  a  struggle  with  Mehemet  Ali  of  Egypt  who  was  backed  by  France.  Palm- 
erston concluded  an  alliance  with  Austria,  Russia,  and  Prussia  to  the  exclusion 
of  France.  The  latter  country  was  forced  to  submit  and  to  desert  the  Viceroy  of 
Egypt.  The  second  difficulty  was  that  relating  to  the  Spanish  Marriages. 


956  A   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

guese  extraction  who  had  moved  to  Athens  from  Gibraltar  where  he 
had  lived  as  a  British  subject.  In  an  Easter  demonstration,  in  1847, 
his  house  had  been  sacked  by  an  Athenian  mob.  Instead  of  appealing 
to  the  Greek  law  courts,  he  claimed  the  protection  of  the  British 
Government.  Palmerston  had  a  feeling  that  Russia  and  France,  who 
were  joined  by  treaty  with  Great  Britain  for  guarding  the  independence 
of  Greece,  were  in  league,  through  their  ambassadors,  against  British 
interests.  Certainly,  in  more  than  one  instance,  the  Greeks  had  dis- 
regarded the  rights  of  British  subjects.  So,  without  consulting  his 
allies,  he  sent  a  fleet  to  the  Piraeus  which  seized  such  Greek  vessels 
as  came  within  reach.  Nevertheless,  the  French  Government  pro- 
ceeded to  friendly  intervention ;  but,  while  the  French  and  British 
representatives  were  arranging  one  set  of  terms  in  London,  the  British 
minister  at  Athens  forced  another  upon  the  Greeks,  extorting  much 
harder  concessions.  In  the  House  of  Lords,  the  Opposition  led  by 
Stanley  introduced  a  resolution  which  amounted  to  a  vote  of  censure. 
This  was  followed  by  a  counter-resolution  in  the  Commons  asserting 
that  the  principles  of  the  Government's  foreign  policy  were  "  such  as 
were  calculated  to  maintain  the  honor  and  dignity  of  the  country." 
Palmers  ton's  speech  on  the  motion  was  a  general  defense  of  his  whole 
foreign  policy.  Occupying  five  hours  and  delivered  without  a  single 
note,  it  was  a  remarkable  achievement.  With  regard  to  Don  Pacifico, 
he  declared  that  he  had  acted  on  the  principle  that  any  one  who  bore 
the  name  of  Englishman  was  entitled  to  protection.  Working  up  to 
a  passionate  climax,  he  left  the  House  to  decide  "  whether,  as  the 
Roman  in  days  of  old  held  himself  free  from  indignity  when  he 
could  say  civis  Romanus  sum,  so  also  a  British  subject,  in  whatever 
land  he  may  be,  shall  feel  confident  that  the  watchful  eye  and  strong 
arm  of  England  will  protect  him  against  injustice  and  wrong."  It 
was  a  telling  appeal  to  British  pride.  It  mattered  little  that  Don 
Pacifico  claimed  damages  that  were  ridiculously  exorbitant.  He  did 
not  get  all  he  asked,  though  he  recovered  probably  more  than  he  had 
lost. 

The  Queen's  Memorandum  to  Palmerston,  12  August,  1850.  — 
Another  source  of  friction  in  the  British  foreign  relations  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  many  continental  sovereigns,  thinking  that  the  Queen 
was  all-powerful,  addressed  their  correspondence  directly  to  her. 
When  she  conscientiously  referred  such  communications  as  were  of 
importance  to  Palmerston  she  usually  received  advice  so  inconsiderate 
and  unconciliatory  as  to  cause  her  pain.  When  Russell  remonstrated 
with  him  for  this,  and  for  his  tendency  to  act  without  consultation, 
he  answered  that  the  Queen  showed  "  groundless  uneasiness."  The 
Prime  Minister  could  not  press  him  too  far,  since  Palmerston 's 
popularity  was  the  main  support  of  the  Government.  After  some 
delay  and  hesitation,  Victoria,  12  August,  1850,  sent  the  Foreign  Secre- 
tary a  memorial  which  should  govern  his  conduct  in  the  future. 
"  She  requires,"  it  stated,  "  First,  that  the  Foreign  Secretary  will  dis- 


REVOLUTIONARY   MOVEMENTS  IN   EUROPE       957 

tinctly  state  what  he  proposes  in  a  given  case,  in  order  that  the  Queen 
may  know  as  distinctly  to  what  she  has  given  her  royal  sanction. 
Second,  having  once  given  her  sanction  to  a  measure,  that  it  be  not 
arbitrarily  altered  or  modified  by  the  Minister.  Such  an  act  she  must 
consider  as  failure  in  sincerity  toward  the  Crown,  and  justly  to  be 
visited  by  the  exercise  of  her  constitutional  right  of  dismissing  that 
Minister.  She  expects  to  be  kept  informed  of  what  passes  between  him 
and  the  foreign  ministers  before  important  decisions  are  taken,  based 
upon  that  intercourse ;  to  receive  foreign  dispatches  in  good  time,  and 
to  have  the  drafts  for  her  approval  sent  to  her  in  sufficient  time  to  make 
herself  acquainted  with  the  contents  before  they  must  be  sent  oft'." 
This  request  was  reenforced  by  a  further  expression  of  the  royal 
grievances  and  commands  in  an  interview  which  Prince  Albert  held 
with  Palmerston.  The  latter  expressed  seeming  surprise  that  he 
had  offended,  made  assuring  promises  for  the  future,  but  went  on  in 
his  old  way.  It  was  not  long  before  he  gave  the  Queen  an  opportunity 
to  dismiss  him. 

His  Resignation,  19  December,  1851.  The  Fall  of  the  Russell 
Ministry,  21  February,  1852. — On  the  2  December,  1851,  Louis 
Napoleon,  the  President  of  the  French  Republic,  by  a  celebrated 
coup  d'etat  overthrew  his  opponents  and  made  himself  absolute 
head  of  the  State.  Although  Palmerston  was  in  general  opposed  to 
despotism,  he  hated  the  late  Orleanist  dynasty  and  had  great  confi- 
dence in  Louis  Napoleon.  So,  without  consulting  the  Queen  or  his 
colleagues,  he  first  expressed  in  a  private  conversation  with  Count 
Walewski,  the  French  ambassador  in  London,  his  approval  of  what 
had  been  done  and,  16  December,  repeated  his  approval  in  an  official 
dispatch  to  the  British  ambassador  at  Paris.  Russell,  on  the  other 
hand,  announced  a  policy  of  neutrality,  and  asked  for  Palmers  ton's 
resignation.  The  joy  of  Victoria  and  Albert  proved  as  premature  as 
it  was  unbounded.  Russell  practically  killed  his  Ministry  by  the 
dismissal  of  Palmerston ;  for  the  public  believed  with  the  latter  that 
it  was  a  "  weak  truckling  to  the  hostile  intrigues  of  the  Orleanist 
family  "  and  its  supporters  on  the  Continent.  Indeed,  unbearable 
as  his  conduct  had  been,  it  is  at  least  an  open  question  whether  the 
demands  of  the  Queen  were  not  an  encroachment  on  the  recognized 
doctrine  of  ministerial  responsibility.  Within  two  months  Palmers- 
ton  succeeded  in  defeating  the  Government  on  the  details  of  a  militia 
bill.  Writing  to  his  brother  he  announced  gleefully :  "  I  have  had  my 
tit  for  tat  with  John  Russell,  and  I  turned  him  out  on  Friday  last." 
Beyond  throwing  open  the  markets  to  foreign  as  well  as  colonial  sugar 
and  repealing  the  Navigation  Acts,  in  1849,  the  Russell  Ministry  had 
achieved  little  or  nothing. 

The  First  Derby  Ministry,  February  to  December,  1852.  —  Stanley, 
who  on  his  father's  death,  in  1851,  had  become  Earl  of  Derby,  suc- 
ceeded to  power  for  a  few  months.  Since  the  Peelites  refused  to  join 
him,  he  was  obliged  to  pick  mostly  new  men  for  his  ministers.  Disraeli 


958  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

was  rewarded  with  the  Chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer  and  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Commons.  As  a  party  leader  he  was  unsurpassed,  as  a 
financial  administrator  he  was  brilliant  and  picturesque  rather  than 
solid.  However,  he  was  shrewd  enough  to  realize  that  the  country 
was  too  prosperous  under  freedom  of  trade  to  admit  of  the  further  re- 
tention of  the  doctrine  of  protection.  So  he  abandoned  it  as  a  political 
issue.1  In  his  budget,  however,  he  sought  to  placate  the  farmers 
by  reducing  the  assessment  on  their  rentals  and  by  cutting  down  the 
malt  tax.  At  the  same  time,  in  the  interests  of  the  consumer,  he 
proposed  to  lower  the  duty  on  tea,  making  good  the  deficit  by  an 
increase  of  the  income  tax.  But  his  budget  was  defeated  and  the 
Government  was  forced  to  resign  in  December.  On  14  September, 
1852,  the  death  of  Wellington,  at  the  age  of  eighty- three,  removed 
from  public  life  Great  Britain's  foremost  subject,  and  broke  one  of 
the  few  remaining  links  with  the  past  century.  Except  for  the  brief 
storm  of  opposition  directed  against  him  for  his  share  in  Catholic 
emancipation  and  his  attitude  on  the  Reform  Bill,  his  popularity  and 
influence  with  the  Crown 2  and  people  alike  were  unique  in  English 
history. 

The  Aberdeen  or  Coalition  Ministry,  1852-1855.  —  Russell  was  am- 
bitious to  resume  office  as  Prime  Minister ;  but  was  persuaded  to  see 
that  it  was  impossible.  At  length,  a  combination  of  Whigs  and 
Peelites  was  patched  together  under  the  leadership  of  Aberdeen. 
While  the  Peelites  commanded  only  thirty  votes  in  the  Commons, 
the  eminence  and  the  ability  of  their  leaders  secured  for  them  places 
in  the  Ministry  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  numbers.  Besides  Aber- 
deen himself,  Graham,  Gladstone,  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  and  Sidney 
Herbert  were  all  Peelites.  The  leading  Whigs  in  the  Ministry  were 
Palmerston,  Home  Secretary,  and  Russell  who  became  Foreign 
Secretary,3  and  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Disraeli  on  the  eve 
of  his  resignation  had  declared :  "  This  I  know,  that  England  does  not 
love  coalitions."  He  proved  a  true  prophet,  but  before  the  crisis 
came  which  manifested  once  more  the  weakness  of  such  a  galaxy  of 
stars  from  different  parties,  the  Aberdeen  Ministry  carried  several 
good  measures.  Among  them  was  the  provision,  1853,  that,  except  in 
cases  where  the  sentence  was  fourteen  years  and  over,  penal  servitude 
should  be  substituted  for  transportation.  The  practice  had  begun 
in  1717,  and  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  great  grievance  by  the  American 
Colonies.  In  1787,  criminals  were  first  shipped  to  Botany  Bay  in  New 

1  Brougham  wrote  a  little  later:   "We  have  lived  to  see  the  day  when  a  real, 
genuine,  uncompromising  Protectionist  could  only  find  his  proper  place  in  one  of 
our  museums,  among  the  relics  of  the  ancient  world  or  the  specimens  of  extinct 
animals." 

2  The  Queen  wrote  in  her  diary:   "One  cannot  think  of  this  country  without 
'the  Duke,"  our  immortal  hero.    The  Crown  never  possessed  —  and  I  fear  never 
will  —  so  devoted,  loyal,  and  faithful  a  subject,  so  stanch  a  supporter.    To  us  .  .  . 
his  loss  is  irreparable,  for  his  readiness  to  aid  and  advise." 

8  He  was  soon  succeeded  in  this  office  by  Lord  Clarendon. 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS  IN  EUROPE       959 

South  Wales,  afterwards  many  other  parts  of  Australia  and  other 
islands  in  the  South  Pacific  were  also  employed  as  penal  settlements. 
They,  too,  protested,  and  an  inquiry  into  the  system  proved  that  it 
was  bad  from  almost  every  point  of  view.  It  was  finally  done  away 
with  altogether  in  1857.  Another  step  forward  was  the  opening  of 
the  civil  service  to  public  competition.  More  important  still,  Glad- 
stone, as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  introduced  the  first  of  a  series 
of  marvellous  budgets  which  established  his  reputation  as  perhaps  the 
ablest  financier  of  the  century.1  He  abolished  duties  on  124  articles 
and  reduced  those  on  133  more,  including  tea.  He  extended  the 
legacy  duties ;  but  proposed  to  reduce  the  income  tax  as  a  preliminary 
step  toward  its  total  abolition.  Before  many  months,  however,  Great. 
Britain  was  plunged  into  a  European  war  which  ruined  all  his  calcula- 
tions. 

The  Causes  of  the  Crimean  War.  —  The  Crimean  War,  which 
broke  out  in  the  spring  of  1854,  may  be  traced  to  three  main  causes: 
(i)  the  ambition  of  Louis  Napoleon,  who  aimed  to  unite  the  French 
people  in  some  great  foreign  enterprise ;  (2)  the  designs  of  Nicholas  I, 
who  wanted  to  extend  the  Russian  protectorate  over  the  Greek 
Christians  in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  to  secure  the  outlet  from 
the  Black  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean,  which  was  under  Turkish  con- 
trol ;  and  (3)  the  necessity  felt  by  Great  Britain  -to  maintain 
the  integrity  of  Turkey  as  a  means  of  checking  the  Russian 
advance  toward  India.  The  trouble  began  with  a  quarrel  over  the 
question  as  to  whether  the  Greek  or  the  Latin  churches  should  control 
the  Holy  Places  in  Palestine.  By  a  treaty  made  with  the  Porte,  in 
1740,  France  had  obtained  for  the  Latin  Church  possession  of  all  the 
sacred  places  then  in  Turkish  hands.2  Owing  to  the  negligence  of 
the  French  the  Greek  Christians,  who  were  assiduous  in  pilgrimages 
and  in  the  maintenance  of  the  sacred  shrines,  gradually  usurped  the 
protectorate  and  secured  their  position  by  special  permits  from  the 
Ottoman  Government.  The  religious  revival  of  the  nineteenth  century 
which  followed  the  indifference  and  skepticism  of  the  eighteenth, 
resulted  in  a  desire  on  the  part  of  many  Frenchmen  to  enforce  their 
treaty  rights  and  to  recover  what  they  had  lost.  Louis  Napoleon, 
in  order  to  secure  the  support  of  this  class,  composed  mostly  of  his 
political  opponents,  took  up  their  cause.  The  Sultan  in  his  desire  to 
satisfy  France  without  estranging  Russia,  who  stood  back  of  the 
Greek  Christians,  proceeded  to  define  the  powers  of  the  two  Churches 
in  a  different  way  to  each  of  the  States  involved.  The  friction  thus 
generated  was  increased  by  the  contempt  and  aversion  which  Nicholas 
manifested  for  Louis's  new  title  of  Emperor  of  the  French,  assumed 

llt  was  said  that  "he  brought  to  his  budget  speeches  an  eloquence  that 
brightened  the  driest  details,  and  made  the  wilderness  of  figures  to  blossom  like 
the  rose." 

2  They  included  the  Great  Church  in  Bethlehem,  the  Sanctuary  of  the  Nativity, 
and  portions  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher. 


960  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  December,  1852.  Instead  of  addressing  him  in  the  accustomed  form, 
Monsier  mon  frere,  he  referred  to  him  always  as  Mon  cher  ami.  Such 
was  the  situation  when  Nicholas  began  to  unveil  his  views  about  the 
future  of  Turkey.  Already  in  June,  1844,  he  had,  in  a  conversation 
with  Aberdeen,  referred  to  the  Porte  as  a  dying  man  and  suggested 
that,  in  case  of  a  break-up,  Great  Britain  and  Russia  should  be  in 
agreement  as  to  what  policy  to  pursue.  Now,  in  January,  1853,  he 
renewed  the  subject  with  the  British  ambassador  at  St.  Petersburg; 
but  received  no  encouragement  whatsoever. 

Great  Britain  Drawn  into  the  War.  —  Thus  far  Great  Britain  had 
not  become  involved  in  the  quarrel,  and  Aberdeen  was  anxious  to 
preserve  peace.  Lord  Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  sent  as  British  repre- 
sentative to  Constantinople,  was  chiefly  responsible  for  dragging  his 
country  into  the  war  as  a  principal.  He  was  a  veteran  in  eastern  di- 
plomacy, but  such  a  declared  opponent  of  Russian  ambition  that  the 
Emperor  had  once  refused  to  receive  him  as  ambassador.  Prince 
Menshikov,  whom  Nicholas  chose  as  his  agent  in  the  Turkish  nego- 
tiations, was  a  rough  soldier  who  was  equally  uncompromising.  He 
not  only  required  a  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  question  of  the  cus- 
tody of  the  Holy  Places,  but  demanded  also  that  Russia  should  have 
a  protectorate  over  all  the  Greek  Christians  in  the  Turkish  dominions. 
Lord  Stratford  succeeded  in  separating  the  two  questions ;  and  the 
first,  which  was  the  original  point  at  issue,  was  quickly  and  successfully 
adjusted.  The  second  demand  Menshikov  finally  presented  in  the 
form  of  an  ultimatum.  In  a  sense  it  was  very  natural  and  reasonable ; 
the  difficulty  arose  from  the  fact  that  the  Greek  Christians  numbered 
fourteen  millions,  or  a  majority  of  the  Sultan's  subjects.  As  their 
protector  the  Tsar  might  easily  become  the  dominant  factor  in  Otto- 
man affairs.  For  that  reason  Turkey,  acting  under  the  advice  of 
Lord  Stratford,  rejected  the  demand.  Nicholas  thereupon  withdrew 
his  ambassador,  and  though  he  did  not  at  once  declare  war,  he  sent 
his  troops  to  occupy  the  Danubian  Principalities.  The  intervention 
of  the  British  representative  at  Constantinople  had  brought  matters 
to  this  acute  stage.  Aberdeen  was  still  bent  on  conciliating  Russia, 
though  a  powerful  element  in  his  Cabinet,  headed  by  Russell,  Palmers- 
ton  and  Newcastle,  were  in  favor  of  forcing  concessions,  even  by  war 
if  necessary.  An  attempt  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  France,  Austria, 
and  Prussia  to  mediate  proved  unavailing.  Russia  insisted  on  the 
protectorate  which  could  not  be  arranged  in  a  way  to  satisfy  the 
Turkish  ideas  of  independence.  At  length,  24  October,  1853,  the 
Turkish  commander  on  the  Danube  threatened  the  Russians  with 
war  unless  they  evacuated  the  Principalities  within  fifteen  days. 
Receiving  an  unsatisfactory  reply,  the  Turks  crossed  the  river  and 
fighting  began.  On  30  November,  the  Russian  fleet  from  Sebastopol 
attacked  and  destroyed  a  Turkish  fleet  at  Sinope.  Although  hostili- 
ties had  already  opened,  this  so-called  "  massacre  of  Sinope  "  aroused 
great  indignation  among  the  majority  of  Englishmen.  Events 


REVOLUTIONARY   MOVEMENTS   IN   EUROPE       961 

moved  rapidly.  The  French  and  British  fleets  entered  the  Black  Sea. 
The  Russian  squadron  refused  to  return  to  Sebastopol,  and  Nicholas 
replied  to  a  letter  from  Louis  Napoleon  with  the  proud  boast :  "  Russia 
will  prove  herself  in  1854  what  she  was  in  1812."  An  alliance  was 
signed  between  Great  Britain  and  France,  12  March,  1854,  which  was 
followed  by  a  declaration  of  war  on  the  28th.  Just  as  in  1739,  a  genera- 
tion ignorant  of  the  horrors  of  war  began  with  rejoicing  in  a  combat 
which  a  pacific  Prime  Minister  had  striven  to  avert. 

The  Opening  of  the  Conflict.  —  Gladstone,  who  had  denounced 
Pitt's  policy  of  providing  for  war  by  loans,1  at  once  doubled  the  in- 
come tax  and  increased  the  duties  on  spirits,  sugar,  and  malt.  A 
joint  French  and  British  fleet  was  dispatched  to  the  Baltic  under  Sir 
Charles  Napier;  but,  in  view  of  his  boastful  promises,  the  results 
were  lamentably  small.  Neither  he,  nor  his  successor,  Admiral  Dundas, 
in  the  following  year,  succeeded  in  capturing  their  objective  point, 
Cronstadt,  the  port  of  St.  Petersburg  and  the  great  Russian  naval  sta- 
tion on  the  Baltic.  An  expedition  sent,  in  August,  1854,  against  the 
seaport  of  Kamschatka  in  the  north  Pacific  was  equally  unsuccessful. 
All  this  was  most  humiliating  for  England,  the  acknowledged  sea  power 
of  the  age.  In  this  same  month  of  August,  1854,  Russia,  owing  to 
the  effective  resistance  of  the  Turks  and  to  the  fact  that  Austria  had 
moved  a  large  force  to  the  frontier,  was  obliged  to  withdraw  her  troops 
from  the  Principalities.  It  was  an  earlier  refusal  to  do  this  which  had 
brought  on  the  war.  Peace  might  now  have  been  arranged ;  but  the 
British  public  would  not  hear  of  it  until  they  had  gained  some  notable 
victory  over  their  adversary.  Moreover,  they  feared  that  until  Russia 
had  been  taught  her  lesson  she  was  likely  at  any  time  to  renew  her 
demands  against  Turkey. 

The  Opening  of  the  Siege  of  Sebastopol,  October,  1854.  —  The 
great  objective  was  Sebastopol,  situated  near  the  southwestern  end 
of  the  Crimean  peninsula.  As  the  chief  naval  station  and  arsenal 
of  the  Russians,  it  was  regarded  as  a  dangerous  menace  to  Turkey. 
The  suggestion  to  attack  it  with  a  joint  Anglo-French  force  may  have 
come  from  Louis  Napoleon,  but  it  was  enthusiastically  welcomed  by 
the  British  and  approved  by  the  Cabinet,  28  June,  1854.2  The  in- 
vading army,  which  had  been  supporting  the  Turks  on  the  northern 
frontier  since  May,  did  not  land  in  the  Crimea  till  14  September. 
Already  weakened  by  cholera,  they  were  sent  against  a  strong  fortress 
at  the  verge  of  the  winter  season  without  adequate,  supplies  and  with  an 
insufficient  siege  train.  Proceeding  southward  toward  Sebastopol  they 
were  confronted  by  a  Russian  force  under  Menshikov  drawn  up  along 

1  "The  system  of  raising  funds  necessary  for  wars  by  loans,"  he  declared,  "  prac- 
tices wholesale,  systematic,  and  continued  deception  on  the  people.     The  people 
do  not  really  know  what  they  are  doing.     The  consequences  are  adjourned  into  a 
far  future." 

2  Kinglake,  the  great  authority  on  the  war,  says  that  most  of  the  Ministers  were 
asleep  when  the  final  decision  was  taken ;  but  the  question  had  been  under  discus- 
sion for  some  weeks. 

3Q 


962  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  southern  bank  of  the  river  Alma  across  their  line  of  march.  They 
succeeded  in  forcing  a  passage  on  the  2oth,  and  in  brushing  aside  their 
adversaries.  Instead  of  pressing  directly  on  Sebastopol  they  made  the 
mistake  of  veering  off  toward  the  southeast.  Thus  the  defenders  had 
time  to  block  the  harbor  with  sunken  men-of-war  and  to  strengthen 
the  town  with  new  earthworks.  The  British  established  their  base 
at  Balaclava  Bay,  while  the  French  took  a  position  not  far  off.  The 
siege  opened  17  October.  On  the  25th,  Menshikov  was  defeated  in  an 
attempt  to  secure  control  of  the  bay.  The  battle  of  Balaclava  is  fa- 
mous for  the  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,1  an  heroic  but  fruitless  under- 
taking based  on  a  confusion  of  orders.  Again,  5  November,  the  Rus- 
sians were  defeated  in  an  attack  on  Mount  Inkerman. 

The  Sufferings  in  the  Crimea  and  the  Fall  of  Aberdeen,  1854-1855. 
—  The  British  commander,  Lord  Raglan,  decided  to  winter  in  the 
Crimea.  On  14  November  a  heavy  storm  wrecked  the  transports 
which  were  bringing  medicine,  clothing,  and  food  for  the  men,  with 
hay  for  the  horses  as  well.  The  roads  from  the  bay  to  the  camp  were 
rendered  impassable  by  snow  and  mud.  The  horses  died  from  starva- 
tion, and  transportation  became  impossible.  Owing  to  these  adverse 
conditions  and  to  the  clumsy  and  short-sighted  policy  of  the  British 
Administration,  the  troops  dragged  through  a  winter  of  misery  and 
suffering.  It  was  no  new  thing  for  armies  to  be  subjected  to  such  pri- 
vations ;  but  for  the  first  time  in  history  the  horrible  conditions 
were  promptly  reported  to  a  sympathizing  and  indignant  public  at 
home.  Sir  William  Howard  Russell  (1821-1907)  of  the  London 
Times  was  the  first  of  the  special  correspondents  who  have  come  to 
play  such  a  part  in  modern  warfare.  Also,  the  conditions  of  the  hos- 
pitals at  Scutari,  opposite  Constantinople,  were  deplorable.  Much 
of  the  blame  has  been  laid  at  the  door  of  the  medical  staff  which  would 
not  inform  the  British  representative  of  its  needs.  The  dawn  of 
happier  times  began  with  the  arrival  of  Florence  Nightingale  (1820- 
1910)  as  a  hospital  nurse.  She  was  soon  put  in  full  charge  of  affairs. 
Although  handicapped  for  some  time  by  delays  in  transporting  medi- 
cine and  supplies,  she  introduced  notable  reforms.  In  March,  1855, 
the  establishment  of  a  new  Sanitary  Commission  did  wonders.  The 
death  rate  fell  from  31  to  14  per  cent  in  two  weeks,  and  by  June  was 
no  more  than  2.2  Meantime,  on  the  opening  of  Parliament  in  January, 
the  Aberdeen  Ministry  was  sharply  attacked,  and  a  motion  was  carried 
for  the  appointment  of  a  committee :  "  to  inquire  into  the  condition 
of  our  army  before  Sebastopol,  and  into  the  conduct  of  those  depart- 
ments of  the  Government  whose  duty  it  has  been  to  minister  to  the 

1  "C'est  magnifique,  mats  ce  n'est  pas  la  guerre,"  was  the  comment  of  the  French 
General  Bosquet.     Tennyson  has  immortalized  the  incident  in  his  famous  poem. 

2  Miss  Nightingale  during  her  long  life  rendered  incomparable  service  in  hospital 
management,  in  the  training  of  nurses,  and  improving  conditions  of  camp  life. 
Another  notable  advance  was  the  foundation  of  the  Red  Cross  Society  to  carry 
out  the  ideals  of  the  Geneva  Convention  of  1864. 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS   IN  EUROPE       963 

wants  of  that  army."  This  led  first  to  the  retirement  of  Russell, 
and,  shortly  after,  to  that  of  the  whole  Cabinet.  Aberdeen  was  too 
kindly  a  soul  for  such  stirring  times,  and  lacked  the  force  necessary 
to  make  his  divided  colleagues  act  in  harmony.  After  trying  all 
other  possibilities  in  vain,  the  Queen  was  at  length  obliged  to  turn 
to  her  old  enemy  Palmerston. 

The  First  Palmerston  Ministry,  February,  1855,  to  February,  1858.  — 
The  findings  of  the  commission  of  inquiry  did  not  constitute  a  very 
serious  indictment  against  the  late  Administration.  The  worst  it 
could  say  was  that  "  no  provision  had  been  made  for  a  winter  cam- 
paign," and  that  the  Crimean  expedition  had  been  "  planned  and 
undertaken  without  sufficient  information  and  conducted  without  suffi- 
cient care  or  foresight."  It  was  felt  that  the  existing  system  was  too 
cumbersome ;  in  consequence,  the  Secretary  at  War  and  the  Board  of 
Ordnance  were  abolished,  while  the  civil  and  military  administra- 
tion were  concentrated  in  the  Secretary  for  War1  and  the  Commander- 
in-Chief,  respectively.  In  January  the  Franco-British  alliance  was 
strengthened  by  the  adhesion  of  Piedmont.  The  end  of  the  war  was 
hastened  by  the  death  of  Nicholas  I,  2  March,  1855.  He  had  counted 
much  on  the  hardships  of  a  Russian  winter  —  or,  as  he  expressed  it, 
on  the  two  generals  "  January  and  February  "  —  to  fight  for  him. 
The  failure  of  his  hopes  apparently  broke  his  heart.  Shortly  after 
the  accession  of  his  son,  Alexander  II,  the  Russians  agreed  to  join  in  a 
congress  with  France,  Great  Britain,  and  Austria,  which  was  opened 
at  Vienna,  1 5  March.  It  came  to  nothing,  owing  to  Russia's  refusal  to 
give  up  her  preponderance  in  the  Black  Sea,  and  to  renounce  her  claim 
to  a  protectorate  over  the  Greek  Christians.  There  was  nothing  for 
it  but  to  reduce  her  to  a  conformable  attitude. 

The  Fall  of  Sebastopol,  n  September,  1855.  —  Great  Britain's  ex- 
penditures swelled  so  enormously  —  she  had  to  join  France  in  con- 
tributing a  subsidy  to  Piedmont  and  in  guaranteeing  a  loan  to  Turkey 
—  that  she  had  to  resort  to  a  loan  and  to  exchequer  bills.  Operations 
before  Sebastopol  were  pushed  with  vigor,  but  for  a  time  with  no  great 
success.  The  British,  in  an  attack  on  the  defense  known  as  the  Redan, 
were  thrown  back,  June,  1855.  Lord  Raglan,  who  had  borne  with 
stoical  calm  the  fire  of  criticism  directed  against  the  blunders  and 
mishaps  of  his  army  as  well  as  the  sufferings  to  which  it  had  been  sub- 
jected, was  greatly  cast  down  by  this  reverse,  and  succumbed  to  cholera 
on  the  28th.  He  was  succeeded  by  General  Simpson.  Shortly  before, 
the  French  got  their  first  capable  commander  —  General  Pelissier. 
After  investing  Sebastopol  all  summer  the  Allies  made  a  supreme 
effort,  8  September.  In  an  assault  that  was  preceded  by  a  three  days' 
cannonade  the  British  captured  the  Redan  only  to  lose  it  again. 
The  French,  however,  were  successful  in  securing  the  Malakoff  Tower 

1  The  Secretary  at  War  was  not  one  of  the  principal  Secretaries  of  State.  He 
was  a  sort  of  superfluous  official  who  acted  as  a  channel  of  communication  between 
the  War  Office  and  the  Ministry. 


964  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

which  commanded  all  the  surrounding  works.  Realizing  that  further 
resistance  was  hopeless,  the  Russian  commander  destroyed  the  re- 
maining fortifications  and  retreated.  Sebastopol  had  held  out  for 
nearly  a  year.  In  spite  of  the  draining  of  their  resources  and  the  loss 
of  their  chief  arsenal,  the  Russians  were  still  able  to  maintain  armies  in 
the  field,  while  they  even  gained  a  slight  compensating  advantage 
when  the  fortress  of  Kars  in  Asia  Minor  surrendered  to  their  arms  after 
a  sustained  and  heroic  defense.  Moreover,  Napoleon  III,  realizing 
that  his  subjects  were  regarding  with  growing  disfavor  a  war 
waged  in  alliance  with  the  British,  once  more  lent  an  ear  to  Austria 
who  was  anxious  to  arrange  terms  of  peace.  •  The  British  public  were 
anxious  to  continue  fighting  in  the  hope  of  gaining  a  signal  victory 
that  would  wipe  out  the  memory  of  the  bungling  and  reverses  of 
their  troops.  Nevertheless,  the  Government  agreed  to  participate 
in  a  peace  congress  which  met  at  Paris  in  February,  1856. 

The  Peace  of  Paris,  30  March,  1856.  —  Lord  Clarendon,  Great 
Britain's  leading  representative,  was  disgusted  with  Napoleon's 
pliant  attitude.  "  The  Emperor  of  Russia,"  he  declared,  "  must 
be  overflowing  with  generosity  and  self-abnegation  if  he  offers  good 
terms  to  a  people  so  ready  to  take  bad  ones  as  the  French."  But  he 
struggled  hard,  and,  backed  by  Austria,  he  secured  better  terms  for 
the  Allies  than  Napoleon  would  have  stood  out  for.  On  30  March, 
1856,  the  Treaty  of  Peace  was  signed  by  Russia,  Great  Britain,  Turkey, 
Austria,  and  Prussia,  the  latter  power  having  been  admitted  to  the 
Conference  after  it  was  already  under  way.  The  chief  terms  were 
as  follows :  (i)  Russia  and  Turkey  agreed  to  a  mutual  restoration  of 
territories.  (a)  The  independence  and  integrity  of  Turkey  were 
guaranteed,  together  with  her  recognized  place  among  European 
powers.  (3)  A  charter  recently  issued  by  the  Sultan  providing  for 
the  protection  of  his  Christian  subjects,  with  the  proviso  that  European 
nations  should  not  interfere,  was  confirmed.  (4)  The  Black  Sea  and 
the  Dardanelles  were  neutralized  and  closed  to  ships  of  war,  while 
both  Russia  and  Turkey  were  prohibited  from  maintaining  arsenals 
along  the  coast.  (5)  The  navigation  of  the  Danube  was  placed  under 
an  international  commission  and  the  Russian  boundaries  were  read- 
justed to  exclude  her  from  its  banks.  (6)  The  Principalities  of  Wal- 
lachia,  Moldavia,1  and  Servia  were  to  have  an  independent  adminis- 
tration under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Sultan,  guaranteed  by  the  Powers 
collectively.  The  Conference  also  subscribed  to  the  "  Declaration 
of  Paris  "  which  marks  an  epoch  in  the  progress  of  international  law. 
It  provided  that :  (i)  privateering  should  be  abolished  ;  (2)  a  neutral 
flag  should  cover  an  enemy's  goods  except  contraband  of  war ;  (3) 
neutral  goods,  except  contraband  of  war,  even  under  an  enemy's  flag, 
should  be  exempt  from  capture ;  (4)  blockades  to  be  binding  must  be 
effective.  The  United  States  did  not  come  into  this  agreement  because 

1  Later  united  to  form  the  Kingdom  of  Rumania. 


they  refused  to  abolish  privateering,  unless  all  private  property,  other 
than  contraband  of  war,  should  be  free  from  capture.  As  to  the  Peace 
itself,  there  was,  according  to  one  of  the  French  negotiators,  "  nothing 
to  show  which  was  the  conqueror  and  which  the  conquered."  Lord 
Derby  stated  that  he  accepted  it  "  without  opposition  and  without 
enthusiasm."  The  immediate  occasion  of  the  war,  the  custody  of  the 
Holy  Places,  had  been  settled  before  the  outbreak  of  hostilities.  While 
the  designs  of  Russia  on  the  integrity  of  Turkey  were  checked  for  some 
years  to  come,  Great  Britain  got  very  little  for  all  the  lives  she  had 
sacrificed 1  and  for  the  £77,000,000  which  she  had  spent. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 
See  ch.  LIII  below. 

1  It  is  estimated  that  the  war  cost  at  least  600,000  lives,  to  which  the  British 
contributed  20,000  at  the  lowest  estimate.  The  Queen  in  June,  1856,  instituted  the 
Victoria  Cross  to  be  given  to  soldiers  and  sailors  of  conspicuous  valor.  In  1896 
she  founded  the  Royal  Victorian  Order  to  be  conferred  on  those  who  had  rendered 
signal  public  services  to  her  and  her  heirs. 


CHAPTER  LIII 

THE  PALMERSTONIAN    REGIME   AND    THE    END    OF   AN   EPOCH 

(1857-1865) 

British  Relations  with  India.  Wellesley's  Annexations,  1798-1805. 
-  The  Peace  of  Paris  was  followed  by  difficulties  with  the  United 
States  over  the  enlistment  of  American  citizens  in  the  British  army 
during  the  Crimean  War,  but  timely  concessions  prevented  a  rupture. 
Also,  Great  Britain  had  to  face  a  Persian  advance  against  Afghanistan. 
This  movement,  which  was  regarded  as  a  part  of  Russian  intrigue, 
with  India  as  the  ultimate  goal,  was  successfully  repulsed  in  the  spring 
of  1857.  A  war  with  China  which  began  in  the  same  year  was  not 
concluded  until  i860,1  largely  owing  to  mutiny  in  India,  which  threat- 
ened the  very  existence  of  the  British  Indian  Empire.  Since  the  pas- 
sage of  Pitt's  India  Bill,  in  1784,  the  British  rule  had  been  extended 
throughout  the  whole  peninsula.  Many  reforms  had  been  effected, 
though  consequent  encroachments  upon  native  independence  and 
native  prejudice  had  been  bitterly  resented.  Ill  feeling  was  accen- 
tuated by  various  causes.  Having  once  intervened,  Great  Britain 
and  the  East  India  Company  were  constantly  obliged,  often  against 
their  will,  to  conquer  new  territories  in  order  to  secure  those  which  they 
already  held.  Moreover,  the  British  administrators,  while  in  general 
men  of  the  best  intentions,  were  often  overbearing  and  maladroit. 
Lord  Mornington,  later  Marquis  of  Wellesley,  who  went  out  as 
Governor-General  in  1798,  has  been  called  the  "  second  father  of  the 
Indian  Empire."  2  By  his  orders,  Mysore  was  divided  up  and  placed 

1  It  was  occasioned  by  the  fact  that  the  Chinese  authorities  had,  in  October, 
1856,  seized  for  piracy  the  lorcha  Arrow  sailing  under  a  British  flag.     While  the 
vessel  had  no  claim  to  British  protection,  Palmerston  took  the  matter  up  and 
forced  the  Chinese  to  yield.     Then  a  new  complication  arose,  owing  to  the  refusal 
of  the  Chinese  Governor  of  .Canton  to  admit  British  merchants  to  that  port,  ac- 
cording to  the  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  1842.     The  British,  aided  by  the  French, 
bombarded  and  captured  the  city,  but  the  authorities  at  Peking  remained  blandly 
indifferent.     It  was  necessary  to  capture  twice  the  forts  guarding  the  Peiho  River, 
which  leads  to  the  Imperial  capital,  and  to  pillage  and  burn  the  Emperor's  wonder- 
ful summer  palace  before  the  Allies  obtained  the  ratification  of  the  Treaty  of  Peking, 
24  October,  1860.     While  the  Chinese  were  not  to  blame  in  the  first  instance,  they 
were  guilty  of  wrong-headedness  and  treachery  in  the  conflict  that  followed.     They 
were  forced  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  300,000  taels,  to  admit  British  consuls  to  the 
treaty  ports,  as  well  as  a  British  representative  at  Peking.     Also,  the  emigration 
of  Chinese  coolies  was  placed  on  a  recognized  footing,  a  proceeding  which  opened 
up  grave  problems  for  the  future. 

2  Clive  is  known  as  the  father  of  the  Indian  Empire. 

966 


THE  PALMERSTONIAN  REGIME  967 

under  a  British  protectorate,  and  he  annexed  the  Carnatic  and  other 
districts,  thus  extending  the  British  rule  practically  over  the  whole  coast 
from  the  southeast  to  the  southwest.  He  forced  the  Nizam  of  Haida- 
rabad  to  cede  vast  territories  and  he  secured  from  the  Nawab  Wazir 
of  Oudh  the  whole  frontier  of  that  state  as  the  price  of  protection  from 
the  Afghans  and  the  Marathas.  Next,  he  took  up  the  cause  of  the  Peshwa 
of  Poonah,  who  was  at  feud  with  various  Maratha  chieftains  who  were 
the  terror  of  central  India.  In  the  course  of  the  struggle  the  British 
took  Delhi  and  assumed  the  guardianship  of  the  Mogul  Empire,  as  well 
as  obtaining  large  cessions  of  territory  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Welles- 
ley  resigned  in  1805,  when  the  Home  Government  ceased  to  support 
him  against  the  Company. 

The  Reforms  of  Bentinck,  1828-1835.  —  Neither  the  Government 
nor  the  Company  were  in  favor  of  further  territorial  expansion ;  but 
the  logic  of  events  and  the  ambition  of  governors  resulted  in  annexa- 
tions, protectorates,  and  subsidiary  treaties  at  more  or  less  regular  inter- 
vals. Following  Wellesley's  example,  Lord  Moira  (I8I3-I823)1  was 
particularly  active  in  this  work.  Though  he  disregarded  the  rights  of 
native  rulers,  his  acquisitions  have  been  justified  on  the  ground  that 
they  were  aimed  to  check  disorder  and  oppression.  Under  his  suc- 
cessor, Amherst,  occurred  the  first  Burmese  war  (1824-1826),  with  the 
consequent  annexation  of  a  considerable  district  east  of  Bengal. 
The  rule  of  Lord  William  Bentinck2  (1828-1835)  was  marked  by  great 
reforms.  He  abolished  the  sati  (suttee),  or  the  practice  of  burning 
Hindu  widows  on  the  funeral  piles  of  their  husbands.  Also,  he  sup- 
pressed the  Thagi,  or  thugs,  a  secret  society  of  robbers  and  murderers. 
In  addition,  he  greatly  increased  the  Indian  revenue,  chiefly  by  a 
reassessment  of  rent  in  the  northwest  provinces  and  by  a  license  duty 
on  opium  growers,  while  at  the  same  time  reducing  the  expenses  of 
the  administration.  He  made  English  the  official  language  of  the 
country  and  sought  to  foster  the  education  of  the  natives  in  English 
ways.  The  Anglo-Indians  resented  his  revision  of  the  "  batta,"  or 
official  allowances,  as  well  as  his  extension  of  the  recently  established 
custom  of  employing  natives  in  the  public  service.  On  the  whole, 
however,  his  rule  was  peaceful  and  prosperous.  Meantime,  the  func- 
tions of  the  Company  had  been  greatly  curtailed.  In  1813  its  trading 
monopoly  was  confined  to  China,  and  in  1833  even  that  was  taken 
away.  All  that  remained  to  the  Company  was  such  political  and  admin- 
istrative powers  as  had  been  provided  for  in  the  act  of  1784.  About 
this  time  the  ease  of  communication  with  Great  Britain  was  greatly 
facilitated  by  substituting  in  place  of  the  old  sea  route  around  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  a  new  one  by  way  of  the  Mediterranean  to  Alexandria, 
thence  overland  to  Suez  and  thence  by  the  Red  Sea.  Steamships  were 
introduced  in  1845,  and  the  Suez  Canal  was  cut  in  1869.  These  various 
changes  have  shortened  the  trip  from  four  months  to  three  weeks. 

1  Created  Marquis  of  Hastings  in  1816.       2  Uncle  of  the  protectionist  leader. 


968  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Auckland's  Fatal  Expedition  to  Afghanistan,  1838-1842.  —  Under 
Lord  Auckland  (1835-1844)  the  British  met  with  a  great  humiliation. 
Russia  was  thus  early  seeking  to  extend  her  influence  in  Afghanistan, 
and  Persia  was  assisting  her  advance.  Auckland  suspected  Dost 
Muhammad,  the  Afghan  emir  at  Kabul,  of  complicity.  So,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1 83 8,  he  proclaimed  his  deposition  and  set  up  in  his  place  the  repre- 
sentative of  a  rival  line  whom  he  supported  by  a  British  army.  The 
natives  submitted  for  a  time ;  but  late  in  1841  they  rose  in  revolt. 
General  Elphinstone,  in  January,  1842,  signed  a  humiliating  treaty  and 
agreed  to  evacuate  Kabul.  The  retreat  proved  one  of  the  most 
disastrous  in  British  annals.  Subjected  to  increasing  attacks,  only 
one  man  survived  out  of  a  force  of  4500  fighting  men  and  10,000  fol- 
lowers. Auckland  was  recalled,  and  when,  in  November,  1841,  Lord 
Ellenborough  started  to  India  as  his  successor,  only  three  garrisons  — 
one  of  which  subsequently  surrendered  —  were  holding  out  in  Afghan- 
istan. Sir  George  Pollock  succeeded  in  relieving  them.  Then,  having 
persuaded  Ellenborough,  who  had  ordered  him  to  withdraw,  to  allow 
him  full  discretion,  he  marched  on  Kabul.  He  took  the  city,  16  Sep- 
tember, 1842,  recovered  the  surviving  women  and  children,  and  mar- 
ried officers  who  by  special  exemption  had  not  joined  in  the  retreat, 
and  returned  to  India  in  triumph.  The  rule  of  the  boastful  and 
irrepressible  Ellenborough  was  also  notable  for  the  annexation  in 
1843  of  Sind  —  the  country  in  the  valley  of  the  lower  Indus.  This 
was  an  act  of  aggression  due  to  victories  of  General  Napier,  who 
described  it  as  a  "  very  advantageous,  useful,  and  humane  piece  of 
rascality." 

The  Sikh  Wars  and  the  Aggressive  Policy  of  Dalhousie.  —  Under 
Ellenborough's  successor,  Sir  Henry  (later  Viscount)  Hardinge  (1844- 
1848),  occurred  the  first  war  with  the  Sikhs,  a  military  and  religious 
sect  —  the  Puritans  among  the  Hindus  —  who  had  developed  a  great 
confederacy  in  the  Upper  Punjab,  northeast  of  Sind.  The  Sikhs 
proved  to  be  the  most  redoubtable  foes  which  Great  Britain  ever 
encountered  in  India.  As  a  result  of  the  first  war  (1845-1846), 
although  they  were  by  no  means  conquered,  they  agreed  "  to  modify 
their  warlike  organization  "  and  to  receive  a  British  resident  in  their 
capital  of  Lahore.  In  the  second  war,  which  came  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  Earl  (later  Marquis)  of  Dalhousie  (1848-1856),  the  Sikhs 
were  crushed  after  making  a  strong  fight,  and  the  Punjab  was  annexed. 
Curiously  enough,  these  warlike  enthusiasts  soon  grew  to  be  Great  Brit- 
ain's most  loyal  and  devoted  subjects.  Dalhousie  vastly  extended  the 
area  of  British  rule  by  a  series  of  notable  annexations.  An  able,  ener- 
getic ruler,  his  only  defect  was  lack  of  imagination.  Convinced  that 
the  British  system  was  infinitely  more  enlightened  and  efficient  than 
that  of  the  natives,  he  failed  to  realize  how  it  might  run  counter  to 
their  sentiments  and  prejudices.  In  1852,  as  a  result  of  the  second 
Burmese  war,  he  incorporated  Lower  Burma.  Perhaps  his  most  mo- 
mentous step  was  the  annexation  of  Oudh,  in  February,  1856.  Here,  it 


V$&3r%&®> 


o      c 
INDIA  IN  1857 

Sr/fwA  Dominions    1        <        Protected  States    \        I 

Independent  States    I         I       /renc/i    I 1     Portuguese    I 1 

ENGLISH   MILES  | 


THE   PALMERSTONIAN   REGIME  969 

should  be  said,  he  followed  the  Company's  wishes  rather  than  his  own. 
The  native  government  was  ineffective,  oppressive,  and  corrupt.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  transaction  was  not  only  badly  managed,  but  in- 
volved the  revocation  of  Wellesley's  treaty  of  1801  with  a  wazir  whose 
successors  had  always  been  loyal  to  Great  Britain.  It  aroused  an 
apprehension  among  the  other  native  princes  which  was  increased  by 
the  Governor-General's  announcement  that  the  British  would  take 
possession  of  all  states  where  the  ruler  was  without  natural  heirs. 
This  was  a  new  policy,  quite  at  odds  with  a  well-established  Indian  law 
and  practice  of  adopting  successors.  Following  the  proclamation 
several  of  the  Maratha  states  were  taken  over,  and  Nana  Sahib,  the 
adopted  son  of  the  ex-Peshwa,  was  deprived  of  his  pension,  a  proceed- 
ing for  which  he  later  took  a  fiendish  revenge.  Also,  the  Mogul  at 
Delhi  was  informed  that  he  could  not  hand  on  the  titles  and  revenues 
which  his  degenerate  line  had  long  enjoyed.  All  this  contributed 
to  prepare  the  way  for  the  Indian  Mutiny,  which  came  as  a  sudden 
shock  to  the  British  people  just  after  they  had  finished  celebrating 
the  centenary  of  Plassey,  23  June,  1857. 

The  Causes  of  the  Indian  Mutiny,  1857.  —  The  causes  of  the 
Mutiny  were  many  and  complex  —  "  a  combination  of  military  griev- 
ances, national  hatred,  and  religious  fanaticism"  —which  culminated 
suddenly  against  the  English  occupation  of  India.  There  wrere  all 
sorts  of  elements  of  discontent  inflamed  by  busy  agents  of  sedition. 
The  exiled  agent  of  Oudh  was  at  Calcutta,  and  more  than  two  thirds 
of  the  Sepoys,  or  native  soldiers,  who  made  up  the  Bengal  army  were  of 
his  province.  The  claimant  of  the  Peshwa  was  nursing  his  grievances 
at  Bithoor.  The  innovations,  reforms,  and  inventions  of  more  than 
two  decades  had  aroused  the  superstitious  fears  of  the  people,  es- 
pecially of  the  Brahmins,  who  cherished  their  caste  system  and  their 
other  traditions  with  peculiar  jealousy.  Owing  to  the  activity  of  the 
missionaries,  and  the  sympathy  accorded  them,  perhaps  too  zealously, 
by  many  of  the  officials  and  soldiers,  the  belief  got  abroad  that  Chris- 
tianity was  to  be  imposed  by  force  or  trickery  on  the  reluctant  country. 
Then  the  time  seemed  peculiarly  ripe.  The  miscarriages  in  Afghanis- 
tan had  encouraged  the  disaffected  to  believe  that  their  masters  were 
not  invulnerable.  Moreover,  the  Crimean  War  had  been  a  heavy 
drain  on  British  resources,  while  the  conflict  with  China  began  to  draw 
to  a  head  before  terms  of  peace  had  been  concluded  with  Persia,  whose 
Shah  was  united  in  a  close  religious  bond  with  the  Mohammedan 
Mogul  at  Delhi.  Owing  to  these  various  wars  successive  contingents 
had  been  withdrawn  till  only  45,000  Europeans  remained  in  the  Indian 
army,  while  the  native  troops  aggregated  nearly  300,000,  a  dispropor- 
tion of  numbers  well  calculated  to  encourage  disaffection.  Nev.erthe- 
less,  it  has  never  been  determined  whether  the  Sepoy  revolt,  which 
began  the  outbreak,  was  a  spontaneous  movement  or  whether  it  was 
the  result  of  a  long  and  carefully  organized  conspiracy. 

InFebruary,  1856,  the  masterful  Dalhousie  was  succeeded  by  Viscount 


970  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Canning,1  a  man  of  a  most  conciliatory  attitude.  His  arrival,  however, 
instead  of  averting  the  trouble,  was  followed  by  a  series  of  measures 
which  brought  it  to  a  head.  The  land  system  in  Oudh  was  approximated 
to  the  English  model,  and  many  of  the  native  Zamindars,  who  farmed 
the  taxes  of  whole  villages,  were  removed.  Sepoy  recruits  from  the 
province  spread  the  disquieting  news.  The  army  was  a  hot-bed  of 
discontent.  More  and  more  the  natives  had  been  excluded  from  the 
chance  of  promotion.  The  discontent  was  greatest  in  the  Bengal 
army,  where  the  privates,  who  were  Brahmins  or  other  high-caste 
Hindus,  hated  to  render  obedience  to  officers  whom  they  regarded  as 
inferiors.  Formerly,  they  had  been  privileged  over  the  Bombay 
and  Madras  armies  —  made  up  of  more  miscellaneous  elements  —  by 
exemption  from  service  beyond  the  seas.  Canning,  however,  i  Sep- 
tember, 1856,  issued  a  "  general  service  order  "  which  deprived  them  of 
this  exemption.  Since  the  Brahmins  might  not  cook  upon  the  "  black 
water,"  this  meant,  if  they  were  sent  across  to  Burma,  they  would 
have  to  subsist  on  parched  grain.  The  order  was  further  resented  as 
another  blow  at  the  caste  system.  But  the  spark  which  finally  caused 
the  explosion  resulted  from  the  introduction  of  the  Enfield  rifle  in 
place  of  the  old  musket.  The  new  weapon  was  loaded  with  greased 
cartridges  which  had  to  be  torn  with  the  teeth  before  they  were  in- 
serted in  the  gun  barrel.  Rumor  declared  that  the  grease  was  com- 
posed of  cow's  fat  and  pig's  lard.  This  infuriated  both  the  Moham- 
medans, to  whom  the  pig  was  an  unclean  beast,  and  the  Hindus,  who 
worshiped  the  cow  as  sacred.  In  vain  the  Government  offered 
assurances  that  the  rumor  was  untrue.  Many,  however,  have  re- 
garded the  greased  cartridges  as  a  godsend,  because  they  precipi- 
tated a  revolt  which  might  have  been  better  organized  if  it  had  been 
given  more  time  to  ripen.  Early  in  1857  chupattis,  or  flat  cakes  of 
flour,  were  sent  from  village  to  village  in  northern  India,  some  think 
merely  as  a  sign  of  general  discontent,  according  to  others,  as  a  signal 
of  revolt. 

The  Outbreak  of  the  Mutiny,  10  May,  1857.  —  In  spite  of  mutinous 
outbreaks  in  more  than  one  station  during  the  spring  of  1857,  the 
authorities,  from  the  Governor-General  to  the  officers  of  the  native 
troops,  were  slow  to  take  alarm  or  to  prepare  for  a  crisis.  A  little  more 
activity  at  the  start  might  have  prevented  the  mutiny  from  gaining 
dangerous  headway.  Unfortunately,  most  of  the  officers  in  command 
were  elderly  men,  incapable  of  prompt  decision.  The  first  serious 
rising  occurred  at  Meerut,  about  forty  miles  northeast  of  Delhi, 
where  on  Sunday,  10  May,  1857,  a  body  of  Sepoys  forcibly  rescued  a 
group  of  their  comrades  who  had  been  locked  up  for  refusing  to  use 
the  greased  cartridges.  After  a  night  of  slaughter  they  marched  off 
to  Delhi.  The  ancient  imperial  capital  became  the  center  to  which 
body  after  body  of  Sepoys  flocked  after  they  had  risen  in  arms.  The 

1  He  was  the  third  son  of  the  former  Prime  Minister. 


THE   PALMERSTONIAN  REGIME  971 

rebels  proclaimed  the  Mogul,  a  man  over  eighty  years  old,  as  Emperor, 
and  proceeded  to  massacre  all  the  English,  men,  women,  and  children, 
within  their  reach.  The  Mutiny  had  become  a  revolution.  The 
disaffected  regions  were  Oudh,  Bengal,  the  northwest  provinces,  and 
parts  of  central  India.  Southern  India  was  not  disturbed.  The  Pun- 
jab, which  occupied  a  very  important  strategic  position  in  relation 
to  the  northwest  provinces,  was  saved  by  the  energy  of  two  remarkable 
men,  Robert  Montgomery  and  John  Lawrence.  The  breathless  in- 
terest of  the  Mutiny  centered  about  Delhi,  Cawnpore,  and  Lucknow ; 
but  the  fighting  ranged  over  a  vast  area  from  the  lower  Ganges  to  the 
Punjab,  not  to  speak  of  central  India.  Canning,  once  the  danger  was 
fully  manifest,  acted  with  the  greatest  promptness  and  energy.  He 
caused  troops  to  be  hurried  to  the  scene  of  action  from  every  available 
point,  from  England,  from  the  Persian  frontier,  and  he  even  inter- 
cepted a  force  on  its  way  to  China.  However,  he  declared  that  he 
would  not  "  govern  in  anger,"  and  showed  such  mercy  to  the  muti- 
neers as  to  earn  him  the  name  of  "  Clemency  "  Canning. 

The  Massacre  at  Cawnpore,  and  the  Siege  of  Lucknow.  —  The  first 
efforts  were  directed  toward  the  relief  of  Delhi.  The  approach  from 
Calcutta  was  slow,  because  there  was  only  one  short  piece  of  railway, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  length,  running  from  the  city,  while 
the  roads  were  bad  besides.  One  general  sent  from  Ambola,  somewhat 
to  the  north  of  Delhi,  died  on  the  way.  Another  had  to  fight  a  force 
of  30,000  rebels  before  he  reached  the  danger  center.  Since  it  was 
defended  by  Sepoys  trained  in  English  fighting  methods,  who  had  a 
number  of  heavy  cannon  and  were  protected  by  strong  thick  walls, 
the  brave  little  army,  too  weak  to  attempt  an  attack,  encamped  out- 
side to  wait  for  reenf  or  cements  and  were  besieged  in  their  turn  by 
another  native  force.  Meanwhile,  the  danger  was  spreading  rapidly. 
At  Cawnpore,  General  Wheeler,  an  old  man  of  seventy-four  years, 
had  been  forced  to  take  refuge  in  the  English  residency.  It  was  in  an 
untenable  position,  and  after  holding  out  as  long  as  he  could  in  the 
withering  heat  against  the  shot  of  his  assailants,  he  made  a  treaty, 
27  June,  1857,  with  Nana  Sahib,  who  had  arrived  on  the  scene  of  action. 
Though  he  posed  as  the  friend  of  the  English,  he  had  been  nursing  his 
grievances  secretly  and  betrayed  the  English  confidence  by  ferocious 
treachery.  Having  granted  the  garrison  a  safe-conduct  to  proceed 
down  the  Ganges  to  a  place  of  security,  he  ordered  them  to  be  fired 
on  just  as  they  were  setting  off  in  boats.  The  men  who  survived  this 
cold-blooded  slaughter,  except  four  who  escaped,  were  taken  back 
to  Cawnpore  and  shot.  The  women  were  thrust  into  a  small  building 
where  they  endured  frightful  suffering  for  two  weeks ;  when,  on  the 
night  of  15  July,  a  relief  force  appeared,  the  infuriated  Nana  sent  in  a 
body  of  men  who  butchered  all  they  could  and  threw  all  the  rest,  some 
of  whom  were  still  alive,  into  an  adjoining  well.  Another  storm  center 
was  Lucknow,  the  capital  of  the  recently  annexed  province  of  Oudh. 
The  commandant,  Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  brother  of  John,  had  fore- 


972  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

seen  the  danger  and  prepared  for  it.  He  conducted  an  heroic  defense ; 
but,  about  a  month  after  the  beginning  of  the  attack,  he  was  hit  by  a 
shell  and  survived  only  a  few  days.  He  had  "  tried  to  do  his  duty  '' 
was  the  only  record  of  his  achievement  that  he  asked.  For  nearly 
three  months,  less  than  1000  Europeans  and  700  faithful  natives  held 
out  against  a  body  of  assailants  estimated  at  60,000. 

The  First  Relief  of  Lucknow,  September,  1857.  —  The  force  which 
had  arrived  at  Cawnpore  in  July  consisted  of  some  1 500  men,  of  whom 
not  more  than  1200  were  Europeans.  It  was  led  by  Henry  Havelock, 
who,  after  forty-two  years  of  faithful  service,  had  been  intrusted  with 
his  first  independent  command.  Leaving  Calcutta  in  June,  he  pressed 
on  in  spite  of  the  burning  heat.  While  unable  to  forestall  the  massacre, 
he  defeated  the  rebels  and  put  some  of  their  number  to  death,  though 
Nana  Sahib  escaped.  On  20  July  Havelock  started  for  Lucknow, 
less  than  a  hundred  miles  away.  His  little  band,  however,  was  so 
weakened  by  sunstroke,  cholera,  and  dysentery,  that  he  made  slow 
progress,  and  about  the  beginning  of  September  he  was  obliged  to 
send  a  message  to  the  besieged  that  he  could  not  bring  them  the  assist- 
ance he  had  promised.  Two  weeks  after,  Sir  James  Outram,  the 
general  who  had  brought  the  Persian  war  to  a  victorious  conclusion, 
arrived  with  reinforcements.  He  had  been  appointed  chief  commis- 
sioner of  Oudh  in  succession  to  Henry  Lawrence  and  also  had  orders 
to  supersede  Havelock,  whose  heroism  had  been  quite  ignored  by  the 
authorities.  Outram,  however,  with  uncommon  generosity,  insisted 
that  Havelock  should  remain  in  command  until  the  relief  of  Lucknow 
was  accomplished,  and  served  under  him  as  a  volunteer.  On  23  Sep- 
tember the  combined  forces  reached  the  outskirts  of  Lucknow,  and 
after  two  days  of  hard  fighting  forced  their  way  in.  They  were  not 
strong  enough  to  raise  the  siege,  but,  thanks  to  their  welcome  re- 
enforcements,  the  garrison  was  able  to  hold  out  until  Sir  Colin  Camp- 
bell finally  drove  off  the  enemy  in  November. 

The  Recovery  of  Delhi,  September,  1857.  —  Meantime,  Delhi, 
which  the  contingent  from  Ambola  had  not  been  strong  enough  to 
assault,  was  recovered,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  forces  sent  by 
John  Lawrence,  Governor  of  the  Punjab.  Risking  the  possible  dangers 
of  a  Sikh  rising  or  an  Afghan  invasion,  he  had  sent  a  relief  expedition 
three  days  after  the  outbreak  at  Meerut.  Marching  at  the  rate  of 
twenty-five  miles  a  day  for  three  weeks,  it  reached  the  beleaguered 
city,  9  June.  Another  reenforcement,  which  arrived  14  August  under 
General  Nicholson,  celebrated  for  prodigies  of  valor  in  the  Sikh  wrars, 
brought  the  numbers  up  to  8,000  men  in  condition  to  fight,  less  than 
half  of  them  Europeans.  A  general  assault  began  14  September; 
but  it  required  days  of  hard  fighting  before  the  last  gate  of  Delhi  was 
taken.  More  than  1 100  men  and  officers,  including  the  gallant  Nichol- 
son, had  fallen.  The  Emperor  was  spared  to  drag  on  the  five  re- 
maining years  of  his  existence  in  exile.  His  sons  were  put  to  death  to 
save  them,  so  it  was  alleged,  from  being  recovered  by  a  Mohammedan 


THE   PALMERSTONIAN   REGIME  973 

mob.  The  month  of  September,  notable  for  the  relief  of  Lucknow 
and  the  taking  of  Delhi,  marked  the  flood  tide  of  the  Indian  Mutiny. 
Nevertheless,  it  took  months  before  the  rebels  were  driven  from 
Lucknow  and  before  the  various  disaffected  districts  were  finally  re- 
duced. Sir  Colin  Campbell,  a  veteran,  who  had  served  in  the  Crimean 
War,  had  arrived,  17  August,  as  Commander-in-Chief.  Henceforth, 
he  directed  the  military  operations  of  the  reinforcements,  which  by 
autumn  had  begun  to  pour  rapidly  into  the  country.  Havelock  sur- 
vived just  long  enough  to  witness  Sir  Colin's  completion  of  the  relief 
of  Lucknow. 

Final  Suppression  of  the  Mutiny,  1858.  —  Partly  owing  to  the 
overcaution  of  Sir  Colin,1  the  conquest  of  Oudh  occupied  nearly  all 
the  year  1858.  His  method  was  by  means  of  converging  columns  to 
drive  the  rebels  to  the  northern  frontier,  where  they  were  obliged  to 
surrender  or  else  flee  to  the  mountains  and  jungles.  In  the  other 
disaffected  areas  the  most  serious  resistance  came  from  a  Maratha 
princess,  the  Rani  of  Jhanai,  "  the  best  man  on  the  Indian  side." 
After  the  armies  of  Bombay  and  Madras  had  cleared  the  rebels  out 
of  central  India,  this  valiant  amazon  was  finally  defeated  and  slain, 
17  June,  1858.  Before  the  beginning  of  1859  the  last  vestiges  of  the 
Mutiny  had  been  stamped  out. 

The  Powers  of  the  East  India  Company  Transferred  to  the  Crown, 
1858.  —  Meantime,  more  than  a  year  earlier,  the  remaining  powers 
of  the  East  India,  or  "  John  Company,"  as  it  was  popularly  called, 
had  been  transferred  to  the  Crown.  Early  in  1858  the  question  of 
the  government  of  India  had  come  up  for  discussion  in  Parliament. 
The  existing  system  was  loudly  criticized  on  two  grounds :  divided 
authority,  and  the  anomaly  of  allowing  a  mercantile  company  to  share 
in  the  control  of  the  Empire.  The  directors  framed  a  petition  against 
taking  away  the  remaining  powers  and  patronage  of  the  Company. 
The  document,  written  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  then  in  the  India  office, 
was  a  remarkable  defense.  It  declared  that  the  acts  of  aggression 
which  contributed  to  the  Mutiny  were  a  contradiction  to  the  Com- 
pany's traditional  policy,  and  argued  that  if  the  Government  took  over 
the  patronage  as  well  as  the  remaining  political  powers  of  the  Company, 
the  whole  administration  of  India  would  become  the  football  of  poli- 
tics. However,  the  dual  system  of  control  was  needlessly  complicated, 
and  Palmerston  framed  a  measure  for  putting  an  end  to  it,  but  was 
driven  out  of  office  before  his  bill  became  law.  Under  his  successor, 
Lord  Derby,  "  India  Bill  No.  2  "  was  introduced.  Many  of  its 

1  In  spite  of  his  cautious  methods  order  might  have  been  sooner  restored  in  the 
province  but  for  the  unfortunate  wording  of  a  proclamation  of  Canning's,  issued  20 
March,  1858.  It  declared  that,  with  certain  exceptions,  "the  whole  proprietory 
right  in  the  soil  of  the  province"  was  confiscated  by  the  British  Government,  al- 
though the  lives  and  honor  of  those  who  had  submitted  at  once  should  be  safe. 
Although  the  Governor-General  had  no  intention  of  depriving  any  innocent  men 
of  their  property,  he  unfortunately  failed  to  make  his  meaning  clear,  with  the  re- 
sult that  many  landholders  were  driven  into  revolt. 


974  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

provisions,  due  to  the  whimsical  notions  of  Ellenborough,  were  so 
fantastic  as  to  preclude  all  hope  of  its  passage.  Since  it  was  impera- 
tive that  the  government  of  India  should  be  settled  at  once,  and  since 
it  was  inadvisable  to  defeat  a  Ministry  which  had  just  come  in,  Russell 
proposed  that  the  Commons  should,  in  a  series  of  resolutions,  formulate 
the  principles  for  governing  India  on  which  the  majority  agreed. 
A  bill  based  on  these  nonpartisan  resolutions  was  passed  3  August 
and  was  proclaimed  in  India  in  November.  The  sovereignty  of  the 
Queen  was  to  be  represented  in  England  by  a  Secretary  of  State  for 
India  assisted  by  a  Council  of  fifteen,  seven  of  whom  were  to  be  elected 
by  the  directors  from  their  own  body,  and  eight  nominated  by  the 
Crown.  Vacancies  were  to  be  filled  alternately  by  the  Crown  and  the 
Council.  By  a  later  alteration  of  the  law  the  Crown  was  empowered 
to  fill  all  vacancies.  Appointments  to  the  civil  service  and  to  the 
engineer  and  artillery  corps  were  thrown  open  to  competitive  exami- 
nation. The  title  of  the  Governor- General,  who  resided  in  India,  was 
changed  to  that  of  Viceroy.  By  the  India  Act  of  1858  a  population  of 
200,000,000  souls  and  a  territory  of  800,000  square  miles  were  added 
to  the  British  dominions. 

The  Divorce  Bill  of  1857.  —  Meantime,  the  previous  year,  an  impor- 
tant act  had  been  passed  regulating  the  law  of  divorce.  Hitherto, 
jurisdiction  over  matrimonial  causes  had  been  vested  to  a  large  degree 
in  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  which  could  only  grant  separation  without 
the  right  to  marry  again.  Those  desiring  an  absolute  divorce  had  to 
apply  for  a  private  act  of  Parliament  —  a  very  costly  proceeding.  By 
a  measure  carried  by  Palmerston  in  the  face  of  determined  opposition, 
a  new  court  was  constituted  which  curiously  combined  the  functions 
of  probate,  divorce,  and  admiralty.  It  was  empowered  to  grant 
divorces  in  certain  cases  upon  due  cause  shown,  and  to  allow  even  the 
guilty  parties  to  marry  again.  In  spite  of  the  law,  the  Anglican  clergy, 
as  a  rule,  refused  to  marry  divorced  persons. 

The  Fall  of  Palmerston,  February,  1858.  —  Early  in  February,  1858, 
Palmerston  was  overthrown,  strangely  enough  on  the  ground  of  truck- 
ling to  the  demands  of  a  foreign  power.  On  14  January,  a  band  of 
conspirators  led  by  an  Italian,  Orsini,  had  attempted  to  assassinate 
the  French  Emperor  and  Empress  in  Paris.  The  intended  victims 
escaped,  though  ten  persons  were  killed  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
wounded  by  the  bombs  thrown  at  the  Imperial  carriage.  Orsini  was 
tried  and  put  to  death.  In  the  course  of  the  investigation  it  came  out 
that  the  plot  had  been  hatched  in  London,  and  that  the  bombs  had 
been  manufactured  in  Birmingham.  Walewski,  now  French  Minister 
of  Foreign  Affairs,  demanded,  in  a  peremptory  dispatch,  that  England 
should  cease  to  offer  any  asylum  for  political  refugees  and  should 
make  her  law  of  conspiracy  more  effective.  Moreover,  the  French 
officers  filled  their  addresses  congratulating  the  Emperor  on  his  escape 
with  insulting  reflections  and  menaces  against  England.  In  con- 
sequence, Palmerston  introduced  a  Conspiracies  to  Murder  Bill  which 


THE   PALMERSTONIAN  REGIME  975 

made  the  crime,  hitherto  a  misdemeanor,  a  felony  punishable  with 
penal  servitude  for  life.  His  action  created  a  furious  outcry,  his  bill 
was  defeated,  and  he  resigned. 

The  Second  Derby  Ministry,  February,  1858,  to  June,  1859.  Jewish 
Relief.  —  Derby  came  in  for  another  brief  ad  interim  ministry.  The 
French  difficulty  was  speedily  adjusted.  Walewski  disavowed  the 
language  of  the  officers  and  apologized  for  his  own  curtness.  In  the 
session  of  1858  Derby,  with  a  minority  in  the  Commons,  not  only 
carried  the  India  Bill  but  succeeded  in  practically  putting  an  end  to 
the  disabilities  excluding  Jews  from  Parliament.  Baron  Rothschild, 
the  head  of  a  famous  English  banking  firm,  and  Alderman  Salomans, 
elected  from  the  City  of  London  within  an  interval  of  a  few  years,  had 
both  made  vain  efforts  to  take  their  seats  in  spite  of  the  restrictions 
of  1828,  requiring  them  to  take  a  qualifying  oath  on  the  true  faith  of  a 
Christian.  In  1858  the  Lords,  after  they  had  rejected  a  bill  which 
Russell  had  carried  through  the  Commons  to  do  away  with  the  dis- 
abling oath,  agreed  to  a  compromise  allowing  each  House  to  frame  its 
own  test.  Thereupon,  the  Commons  drew  up  an  oath  which  Jews 
could  take  and  perpetuated  it  by  a  standing  order.  In  1866  an  act, 
intended  primarily  to  relieve  Roman  Catholics  from  pledging  them- 
selves that  they  had  no  intention  of  subverting  the  Church  of  England 
by  law  established,  resulted  in  a  new  oath  which  Jews  could  conscien- 
tiously take.  Only  atheists  remained  disabled  from  sitting  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  they  won  admission  after  a  hard  fight  some  years  later.  The 
year  1858  was  also  notable  for  the  abolition  of  the  property  qualifica- 
tion of  members,  a  restriction  which  had  long  been  evaded  by  trans- 
parent fictions.  Payment  of  members,  which  had  ceased  since  Eliza- 
beth's time,  was  not  restored  till  1911. 

The  Franco-Austrian  War,  1859,  and  the  Achievement  of  Italian 
Unity,  1861-1870.  —  The  Derby  Ministry  was  defeated  in  June,  1859, 
by  the  passage  of  an  amendment  to  an  address  from  the  Throne.  The 
amendment  was  directed  chiefly  against  the  Government's  alleged 
friendliness  to  France  in  a  war  which  had  just  arisen  over  the  situation 
in  northern  Italy.  The  Orsini  Conspiracy  had  contributed  indirectly  to 
revive  aspirations,  which  Napoleon  III  had  once  cherished,  of  liberat- 
ing Italy  from  Austrian  control.  The  conspirators  had  begged  him 
to  undertake  the  task.  Either  because  he  feared  that  a  refusal  might 
lead  to  new  attempts  upon  his  life,  or  because  they  had  succeeded 
in  arousing  ideals  which  had  long  slumbered  in  his  bosom,  he  set  to 
work.  Cavour,  who  years  before  had  begun  to  shape  plans  and  who 
had  raised  the  Italian  question  at  the  recent  Congress  of  Paris,  was 
just  the  man  to  lead  him  along  the  road  on  which  he  had  once  started. 
On  the  invitation  of  Napoleon  the  two  held  a  momentous  interview 
at  Plombieres,  a  watering  place  in  the  Vosges  district.  Much  beyond 
Cavour's  hopes,  the  French  Emperor  agreed  to  assist  the  Kingdom  of 
Sardinia  in  the  expulsion  of  Austria  from  Lombardy  and  Venetia  tf  a 
just  cause  for  war  could  be  found.  Cavour,  in  his  turn,  promised 


976  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

to  hand  over  Savoy  and  Nice  to  France.  Napoleon  counted  on  the 
help  of  Russia,  who  had  been  alienated  by  the  Austrian  attitude 
toward  her  in  the  Crimean  .War,  on  the  neutrality  of  Prussia,  who  was 
Austria's  rival  in  Germany,  and  on  the  good  will  of  the  English  people, 
inclined  to  sympathize  with  liberal  and  national  aspirations.  He 
brought  the  matter  to  a  head  in  a  manner  worthy  of  his  famous  uncle. 
At  his  New  Year's  reception  in  1859,  with  great  abruptness,  he 
expressed  his  regret  to  the  Austrian  ambassador  that  the  relations 
between  the  two  countries  were  not  so  good  as  they  had  once  been. 
Austria,  foreseeing  the  approach  of  a  crisis,  sent  an  ultimatum  to  Sar- 
dinia, ordering  her  to  disarm.  Meeting  with  a  refusal,  the  war  began. 
Queen  Victoria  and  the  Derby  ministry,  who  favored  the  Austrians, 
made  a  vain  attempt  to  mediate.  When  the  time  came  to  take  a 
decisive  step,  Napoleon  hesitated ;  but  finding  events  had  gone 
beyond  his  control,  he  finally  led  a  French  army  in  person  to  the  aid 
of  the  Sardinian  King,  Victor  Emmanuel.  On  4  and  24  June,  the 
Austrians  were  successively  defeated  at  the  two  decisive  battles  of 
Magenta  and  Solferino.  On  n  July,  Francis  Joseph  accepted  the 
preliminaries  of  Villafranca,  which  formed  the  basis  for  the  Peace  of 
Zurich,  10  November,  1859.  It  provided  that :  Austria  should  cede 
the  bulk  of  Lombardy  to  Napoleon  III,  who  was  to  hand  it  over  to 
Victor  Emmanuel ;  Italy  was  to  form  a  confederacy  under  the  head- 
ship of  the  Pope ;  and  Tuscany,  Modena,  and  other  states  which  had 
expelled  their  absolutist  sovereigns  were  to  reinstate  them.  But  the 
Treaty  was  unable  to  check  the  inevitable  logic  of  events.  The 
various  states  of  central  Italy,  refusing  to  submit  to  their  old  rulers, 
were  united  to  the  monarchy  of  Victor  Emmanuel.  In  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1860  Garibaldi  in  a  dashing  campaign  secured  Sicily  and 
Naples.  With  the  help  of  the  royal  Sardinian  army  other  conquests 
followed,  and,  17  March,  1861,  Victor  Emmanuel  was  crowned  King 
of  a  united  Italy,  which  included  the  whole  of  the  peninsula,  except 
Venice  and  the  Papal  States.  They  were  incorporated  in  1866  and 
1870  respectively. 

The  Beginning  of  the  Second  Palmerston  Ministry,  June,  1859.  — 
Meantime,  at  the  very  opening  of  the  Franco-Austrian  War,  Palmer- 
ston, whose  sympathies  were  altogether  with  the  Italians,  had  again 
come  to  power.  Gladstone  joined  the  Ministry,  thus  putting  an  end 
to  the  last  hope  which  the  Conservatives  had  cherished  of  recovering 
the  Peelites.  Yet,  so  far  as  home  politics  were  concerned,  Palmerston 
was  far  from  being  a  Liberal.  The  chief  interest  of  his  Ministry 
centered  in  foreign  politics,  and  while  the  period  was  not  absolutely 
barren  of  progress  in  domestic  affairs,  such  steps  in  advance  were 
usually  carried  in  spite  of  him  rather  than  by  his  aid.  When,  in  1860, 
Cobden,  through  a  private  audience  with  Napoleon  III,  negotiated 
a  commercial  treaty  with  France  by  which  some  duties  were  reduced 
and  others  abolished  altogether,  it  was  Gladstone  who  warmly  backed 
the  plan,  while  Palmerston  only  grudgingly  acquiesced.  Indeed, 


THE   PALMERSTONIAN   REGIME  977 

Gladstone's  whole  financial  policy  was  far  more  liberal  than  that  of 
his  chief.  He  proposed  in  his  budget  of  1860  to  reduce  the  number  of 
articles  on  the  tariff  from  419  to  48,  and,  what  aroused  the  stoutest 
opposition,  to  repeal  the  paper  duty.  This  meant  cheaper  news- 
papers, and  was  in  line  with  the  policy  by  which  the  stamp  duties 
had  been  reduced  from  4^.  to  id.  in  1836,  and  taken  off  altogether  in 
1855.  Palmerston,  who  shared  in  the  view  that  the  result  would  be 
the  spread  of  popular  and  social  discontent,  stood  put  against  the  meas- 
ure in  the  Cabinet,  after  which  he  wrote  to  the  Queen  that  if  the  House 
of  Lords  should  be  encouraged  by  his  attitude  to  assert  itself,  it  would 
"  perform  a  good  public  service."  This  was  a  distinct  breach  of  the 
principle  of  Cabinet  solidarity,  and  all  that  can  be  said  for  the  Prime 
Minister  is  that  he  made  no  attempt  to  conceal  his  action.  The  Lords 
rejected  the  bill  in  which  the  proposed  repeal  was  embodied.  Glad- 
stone declared  that  such  action  in  reference  to  a  money  bill  was  a 
"  gigantic  innovation."  It  was  well  recognized  that  the  Lords  could 
not  amend  a  money  bill ;  but  their  right  of  rejection,  though  not  often 
exercised,  could  not  be  questioned.  Gladstone  and  the  Commons  carried 
their  point  in  1861  by  making  the  Paper  Duty  Repeal  Bill  a  part  of 
the  budget.  Confronted  with  the  two  possibilities  of  passing  or  re- 
jecting all  the  appropriations  for  the  year,  the  Lords  chose  the  former. 
The  Outbreak  of  Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  1861.  —  The  Civil 
War  in  the  United  States,  which  broke  out  in  the  spring  of  1861, 
brought  Great  Britain  face  to  face  with  serious  problems,  both  foreign 
and  domestic.  There  was  a  twofold  issue  involved,  the  question 
of  the  extension  of  slavery  and  that  of  secession.  This  twofold 
aspect  of  the  conflict  contributed  to  confuse  the  attitude  of  British 
public  sentiment.  While  the  nation  as-  a  whole  was  opposed  to  the 
institution  of  slavery,  the  general  tendency  was  to  minimize  that 
issue  and  to  look  for  the  chief  cause  of  the  war  in  the  attempt  of  the 
North  to  hold  the  South  in  the  Union  against  her  will.  Differences  of 
opinion  in  England  were  based  on  social  rather  than  on  party  lines. 
The  upper  classes  supported  the  land-owning  gentry  of  the  South  as 
against  the  merchants,  traders,  and  small  farmers  of  the  North. 
Many  of  them  argued  that  the  slaves  were  kindly  treated,  and  that 
there  were  not  enough  abuses  in  the  system  to  justify  interference  with 
vested  property  interests  and  the  "  sovereign  rights  of  States."  The 
middle  and  lower  classes  in  the  midlands  stood  by  the  North.  This 
was  much  to  their  credit,  since  the  mills  which  furnished,  directly  or 
indirectly,  the  livelihood  of  vast  numbers  of  them  depended  on  the 
cotton  supplies  of  the  Southern  States.  The  leading  ministers  of  the 
Liberal  party,  then  in  power,  Palmerston,  Russell,  and  Gladstone, 
were  at  one  with  the  Conservative  aristocracy  as  against  those  who 
furnished  their  main  constituency.  Gladstone  went  so  far  as  to  de- 
clare in  a  public  speech :  Jefferson  Davis  "  had  made  an  army,  had 
made  a  navy,  and,  what  is  more,  had  made  a  nation."  Yet,  in  spite  of 
its  manifest  sympathies,  the  Government  decided  to  assume  a  posi- 

3* 


978  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

tion  of  strict  neutrality.  On  14  May,  1861,  a  proclamation  to  that 
effect  was  issued.  Englishmen  were  prohibited  from  enlisting,  from 
supplying  privateers,  and  from  lending  any  other  form  of  aid  to  either 
party.  Great  Britain  thus  went  to  the  point  of  recognizing  the 
Confederate  States  as  a  belligerent,  though  she  never  acknowledged 
the  independence  of  the  Confederacy.  Relations,  however,  were 
strained  during  the  whole  period  of  the  war.  The  South  was 
aggrieved  that  the.  British  would  not  espouse  her  cause  more  ac- 
tively, while  the  North  resented  the  unfriendly  attitude  of  the 
Government,  and  also  the  fact  that  the  policy  of  neutrality  was  not 
enforced. 

The  Trent  Affair,  1861.  —  Almost  at  the  start,  an  unfortunate  inci- 
dent brought  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  to  the  brink  of 
war.  In  November,  1861,  Mason  and  Slidell,  two  commissioners 
of  the  Confederacy,  embarked  at  Havana  in  the  British  mail  steamer 
Trent  to  seek  aid  from  Great  Britain  and  France.  The  vessel  was 
boarded  on  the  high  seas  by  Captain  Wilkes,  of  the  United  States  ship 
San  Jacinto,  and  Mason  and  Slidell  were  taken  off  as  prisoners.  The 
news  aroused  a  storm  of  indignation  in  England.  Palmerston  and 
Russell  started  to  handle  the  question  in  their  customary  precipitate 
and  arrogant  manner.  Fortunately  the  Queen,  acting  under  the  sage 
advice  of  the  Prince  Consort,  was  able  to  find  a  way  out  of  the  diffi- 
culty. In  place  of  the  apology  at  first  demanded,  the  British  Govern- 
ment expressed  itself  satisfied  with  the  release  of  the  prisoners  and  the 
assurance  that  Captain  Wilkes  had  acted  without  instructions. 
This  was  the  last  important  work  of  Prince  Albert,  who  died  of  typhoid 
fever,  14  December.  The  loss  was  serious  enough  for  the  nation ; 
for  Victoria,  whose  life  centered  about  her  husband,  it  was  a  blow  from 
which  she  never  recovered.  While  she  devoted  herself  with  increasing 
conscientiousness  to  business  of  State,  she  practically  withdrew  from 
all  social  activities  for  twenty  years. 

Blockade  Runners  and  Privateers.  —  While  the  sealing  up  of  the 
Southern  ports  crippled  the  cotton  industry  in  Lancashire  to  an  alarm- 
ing extent,  the  operatives  did  not  waver  in  their  allegiance  to  the 
Unionist  cause,  and  the  Government  insisted  on  recognizing  the  efficacy 
of  the  blockade.  Nevertheless,  British  speculators  made  enormous 
profits  from  blockade  running.  Much  as  the  United  States  resented 
this,  its  chief  grievance  was  the  active  share  which  British  ship- 
builders took  in  fitting  out  privateers  for  the  Confederacy  to  prey  on 
neutral  commerce.  Of  the  seven  cruisers  which  were  really  formidable 
five  were  British  built.  Of  these,  the  Alabama  was  the  most  notorious 
and  destructive.  She  was  constructed  at  Liverpool,  and,  although 
the  attention  of  the  British  Government  was  repeatedly  called  to  the 
purpose  for  which  she  was  designed,  no  steps  were  taken  to  detain 
her  until  it  was  too  late.  For  two  years  she  continued  her  dreaded 
course  until  she  was  sunk  by  the  Kearsarge  under  Captain  Winslow, 
19  June,  1864.  Her  favorite  device  was  to  lure  unsuspecting  merchant- 


THE   PALMERSTONIAN  REGIME  979 

men  by  flying  the  British  flag,  only  hoisting  the  Confederate  colors 
when  they  got  within  range.  Generally,  too,  she  burned  her  prizes, 
often,  in  this  way,  securing  other  captures  from  vessels  which  came  to 
the  rescue. 

The  Cotton  Famine  in  Great  Britain.  —  The  final  surrender  of  the 
Confederacy  in  April,  1865,  put  an  end  to  a  situation  which  was 
growing  steadily  more  embarrassing  for  Great  Britain.  The  operatives 
in  the  western  midlands  maintained  their  loyalty  to  the  Northern 
cause  in  spite  of  the  severest  deprivation.  In  1860  British  manufac- 
turers had  imported  1,500,000,000  pounds  of  cotton  from  the  Southern 
States.  By  July,  1862,  the  supply  had  fallen  to  500,000,000.  Un- 
happily, the  shortage  was  accentuated  by  the  greed  of  some  of  the 
Lancashire  owners,  who  sold  their  reserve  stocks  for  high  prices  abroad. 
Palmerston  sought  to  relieve  the  situation  by  importations  from  India 
and  Africa ;  but  it  required  time  to  develop  the  new  traffic,  and  the 
fiber  of  the  oriental  cotton  was  not  adapted  to  the  British  machinery. 
The  distress  became  so  acute  that  the  Government  had  to  devise 
special  measures  of  poor  relief.  Great  assistance  was  rendered  by 
voluntary  subscriptions  of  food,  clothing,  and  money.  The  colonies 
contributed  as  well,  and,  all  together,  about  £2,000,000  was  raised. 
Those  who  could  get  any  sort  of  work  proudly  refused  charity,  while 
many  who  had  savings-bank  accounts  exhausted  them  before  they 
would  seek  aid.  In  spite  of  the  intense  suffering,  only  a  single  riot  is 
recorded.  Conditions  were  at  their  worst  during  the  autumn  and 
winter  of  1862  ;  then  they  began  to  improve,  owing  to  the  increasing 
supply  of  cotton  from  the  East,  to  the  absorption  of  the  unemployed  in 
other  industries,  and  by  emigration.  In  some  ways  Great  Britain  prof- 
ited from  the  war.  The  destruction  of  Northern  commerce  by  the 
Confederate  cruisers  worked  in  favor  of  British  carrying  trade  and 
opened  the  way  to  new  markets,  while  the  high  price  of  cotton  was  a 
source  of  profit  to  certain  speculators.  Gladstone's  remarkable 
administration  of  the  Exchequer  contributed  to  steady  the  financial 
situation. 

The  Mexican  Schemes  of  Napoleon  III.  —  Far  more  serious  to  the 
United  States  than  the  unfriendly  attitude  of  Great  Britain  were  the 
designs  of  Napoleon  III.  In  1862  he  suggested  to  Russell  that  Eng- 
land combine  with  Russia  and  France  in  a  joint  attempt  at  mediation, 
a  proposal  which  the  British  Foreign  Minister  rejected  forthwith.  It 
is  rumored,  even,  that  in  private  conversation  he  urged  the  British 
to  unite  with  him  in  recognizing  Southern  independence.  He  had 
another  wild  scheme  from  which  Great  Britain  also  held  aloof.  In  the 
autumn  of  1860  she  had  joined  with  France  and  Spain  in  sending  an 
expedition  to  Mexico,  also  plunged  in  civil  war.  The  original  object 
was  to  protect  European  subjects,  and  to  enforce  payment  on  loans 
advanced  to  the  Mexicans.  Great  Britain  and  Spain,  having  obtained 
satisfaction  on  these  points,  withdrew  their  forces,  refusing  to  support 
Napoleon  in  a  vast  plan  which  he  unfolded  of  occupying  the  Mexican 


980  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

capital  and  setting  up  a  new  empire  in  the  Latin-American  world.  In 
May,  1862,  he  succeeded  in  inducing  Maximilian,  brother  of  Francis 
Joseph  of  Austria,  to  accept  the  imperial  title.  After  considerable 
fighting,  the  Mexicans  again  restored  a  stable  republic,  and  the  un- 
fortunate Maximilian  was  court-martialed  and  shot,  20  June,  1867. 

The  Schleswig-Holstein  Question,  1863-1864.  —  The  temperate 
counsels  of  the  Prince  Consort  were  missed  sorely  enough  in  the 
troubled  Anglo-American  relations  from  1861  to  1865,  but  even  more 
in  the  complicated  Schleswig-Holstein  question,  in  which  Great  Britain 
became  involved  in  1863.  Indeed,  as  the  Prime  Minister  once  re- 
marked, Prince  Albert  was  one  of  the  three  men  who  had  ever  under- 
stood it,  another  was  a  Danish  statesman  who  had  lost  his  mind, 
and  the  third  was  Palmerston  himself,  who  had  forgotten  it.  The 
trouble  arose  over  the  conflicting  claims  advanced  by  Denmark  and 
the  Germanic  Confederation  to  the  Duchies  of  Schleswig  and  Hoi- 
stein,  which  lay  at  the  base  of  the  Danish  Peninsula.  In  1852  a 
conference  at  London  had  arranged  a  compromise,  according  to  which 
they  were  held  by  Denmark,  subject  to  the  supervision  of  the  Confeder- 
ation. In  1863  the  Danish  King,  Frederick  VII,  died.  On  the  eve  of 
his  death  he  had  just  begun  to  assert  certain  claims  on  the  Duchies, 
which  were  taken  up  with  vigor  by  his  successor,  Christian  IX.  Aside 
from  the  possible  effect  on  the  European  balance  of  power,  the  British 
were  interested  on  dynastic  grounds.  Alexandra,  the  daughter  of 
Christian  IX,  had  just  married  the  Prince  of  Wales,  while  Victoria, 
the  Queen's  eldest  daughter,  had,  in  1858,  become  the  wife  of  Frederick, 
heir  to  the  throne  of  Prussia,  the  country  which,  under  the  energetic 
minister  Bismarck,  led  the  aggressive  wing  of  the  German  party. 
Owing  to  Bismarck,  the  Prussian  Government  had  recently  entered 
into  an  agreement  with  Austria  to  drive  the  Danes  out  of  the  Duchies 
and  hold  them  jointly.  'On  the  other  hand,  the  smaller  German  states, 
supported  by  a  liberal  minority  in  Prussia,  aimed  to  make  the  terri- 
tories an  independent  member  of  the  German  Confederation ;  for 
they  feared  their  absorption  by  the  growing  power  of  Prussia.  So  they 
backed  Duke  Frederick  of  Augustenburg,  who  had  an  hereditary  claim 
on  the  Duchies.  His  father  had  been  bought  off  by  the  Danes  in  1852, 
but  he  declined  to  be  bound  by  the  agreement.  Here  was  another 
family  complication  for  poor  Victoria,  since  Frederick  was  the  hus- 
band of  her  half  sister. 

The  sympathies  of  the  British  Queen  were  with  the  Germans  as 
against  the  Danes,  and  with  the  Prussians  as  against  the  Augustenburg 
party.  Not  only  did  she  feel  that  Great  Britain  was  bound  by  the 
treaty  of  1852,  in  which  the  Augustenburg  claim  had  been  annulled, 
but  she  wanted  to  see  Prussia  grow  strong  in  Germany.  Her  Cabinet 
and  her  people,  on  the  contrary,  were  strong  for  the  Danes.  This 
was  due  to  the  popularity  of  Princess  Alexandra  and  to  the  feeling  that 
Denmark  was  a  weak  state  oppressed  by  a  strong  and  bullying  com- 
bination. Palmerston  and  Russell  talked  loudly  of  intervention  in 


THE   PALMERSTONIAN   REGIME  981 

the  Danish  behalf.  While  Queen  Victoria  took  no  pains  to  conceal 
her  strong  German  sympathies,  she  strove,  though  in  vain,  to  avert 
a  war.  After  the  Danes  had  been  defeated  by  the  joint  forces  of  the 
Prussians  and  Austrians,  she  arranged,  in  1864,  a  conference  at  London, 
which,  however,  came  to  nothing.  When  Palmerston  and  Russell 
continued  to  talk  of  intervention  in  behalf  of  the  Danes,  she  insisted 
upon  neutrality,  and  even  threatened  to  dissolve  Parliament  and 
appeal  to  the  people  if  the  Ministers  continued  their  belligerent  course. 
She  had  her  way,  and  Great  Britain  kept  her  hands  off  when  Prussia 
and  Austria,  after  the  failure  of  the  conference,  proceeded  to  secure 
their  hold  on  the  Duchies.  Palmerston  had  led  on  the  Danes  in  their 
futile  resistance  by  holding  out  hopes  which  he  could  not  realize,  and 
he  and  the  Foreign  Secretary  had  made  themselves  ridiculous  in 
Europe  by  what  Derby  very  effectively  termed  their  policy  of  "  meddle 
and  muddle."  Yet  it  was  not  their  fault  that  they  had  to  back  down. 
It  was  due  to  the  Queen  and  to  the  French  Emperor,  on  whose  support 
they  had  counted.  Napoleon  III,  however,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
Great  Britain  had  refused  to  give  him  anything  more  than  moral 
support,  had  recently  been  forced  to  submit  to  a  contemptuous  rebuff 
from  the  Russians  when  he  had  ventured  to  remonstrate  with  them  for 
their  treatment  of  the  Poles,  who  had  been  driven  to  rebellion  in 
January,  1863-.  Consequently,  he  declined  to  take  any  decided  step 
unless  the  British  Government  bound  itself  to  go  to  war  if  necessary. 
The  Lords  succeeded  in  carrying  a  vote  of  censure  against  the  Adminis- 
tration. A  like  measure  was  only  defeated  in  the  Commons  by  Palm- 
erston's  personal  popularity,  which  he  had  to  bolster  up  by  telling 
references  to  Gladstone's  splendid  achievements,  to  the  commercial 
treaty  with  France,  and  to  other  measures  which  he  had  either  op- 
posed, or  to  which  he  had  given  a  reluctant  consent. 

The  Death  of  Palmerston  and  the  End  of  an  Epoch,  1865.  —  The 
death  of  Palmerston,  18  October,  1865,  when  he  was  within  two  days 
of  eighty-one,  ended  an  epoch.  In  domestic  politics  he  was  an  old- 
fashioned  Whig  who  with  his  tremendous  prestige  succeeded,  so  long 
as  he  lived,  in  blocking  grave  problems  of  social  and  political  reform 
that  were  pressing  for  solution.  He  would  hear  of  no  further  exten- 
sion of  the  franchise,  and  his  attitude  toward  the  suffering  peasantry 
in  Ireland  may  be  summed  up  in  his  famous  phrase :  "  Tenant  right 
is  landlord's  wrong."  Conservative  as  he  was  in  home  politics,1 
he  was  hated  by  European  governments  as  a  "  patron  of  revolution  " 
and  a  "  disturber  of  the  relations  between  subjects  and  their  sover- 
eigns." In  some  oft-quoted  lines  it  was  declared:  "If  the  Devil 
had  a  son  he  must  be  surely  Palmerston."  In  his  handling  of  foreign 

}  Disraeli  aptly  characterized  him  as  "the  Tory  chief  of  a  Radical  Cabinet  .  .  . 
with  no  domestic  policy,  he  is  obliged  to  divert  the  attention  of  the  people  from  the 
consideration  of  their  own  affairs  to  the  distraction  of  foreign  politics  .  .  .  his 
external  system  is  turbulent  and  aggressive  that  his  rule  at  home  may  be  tranquil 
and  unassailed." 


982  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

questions  he  had  often  embarrassed  the  Queen,  he  had  made  many 
blunders,  and  he  was  too  prone  to  consider  more  the  "  honor  of  Great 
Britain  than  the  merits  of  the  question  involved."  His  political  integ- 
rity was  not  always  beyond  reproach,  he  was  wanting  in  the  qualities 
of  constructive  statesmanship,  he  was  irrepressible,  overbearing,  and 
flippant.  Nevertheless,  he  was  the  friend  of  national,  liberal  aspiration, 
he  was  courageous,  industrious,  witty  and  good  natured,  and  very 
popular  because  he  was  the  embodiment  of  ideals  which  the  average 
Englishman  could  understand.  The  country,  however,  was  now 
ready  for  new  men  and  new  measures. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  S.  Low  and  L.  C.  Sanders,  Political  History  of  England  (1907),  list  of 
authorities,  pp.  491-508.  Marriott,  England  Since  Waterloo,  bk.  II,  chs.  V-XVII. 
Cambridge  Modern  History,^,  ch.  XX;  XI,  chs.  XI,  XII  (bibliography,  pp.  867-873). 
Maxwell,  Century  of  Empire,  II.  Bright,  History  of  England,  IV,  pp.  1-410.  Wai- 
pole,  History  of  England,  IV- VI,  chs.  XV  ff.  and  The  History  of  Twenty-five  Yeans 
(1904),  I.  Martineau,  History  of  England,  bks.  V  ff.  (to  1846).  J.  McCarthy, 
History  of  Our  Own  Times  (vols.  I-III,  1880),  is  a  "popular"  work  and  a  very  read- 
able account.  Herbert  Paul,  History  of  Modern  England  (5  vols.,  1904-1906),  I,  II, 
journalistic  and  partisan,  Liberal  standpoint. 

Biography.  S.  Lee,  Queen  Victoria,  a  Biography  (1902),  chs.  I-XXXI,  an  excellent 
brief  sketch.  Sir  T.  Martin,  Life  of  the  Prince  Consort  (5  vols.,  1875-1880).  J. 
Morley,  The  Life  of  W.  E.  Gladstone  (3  vols.,  1903),  the  standard  life  of  Gladstone. 
Monypenny,  Life  of  Disraeli  (not  complete,  promises  to  be  the  standard  work,  vols. 
I  and  II  go  to  1846).  T.  P.  O'Connor,  Lord  Beaconsfield  (6th  ed.  1884),  hostile 
estimate.  G.  Brandes  (Eng.  tr.  1880),  "an  elaborate  sketch,"  very  favorable. 
J.  Hitchman,  Public  Life  of  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  (2  vols.,  1875).  T.  E.  Kebble, 
Lord  Beaconsfield  and  other  Tory  Memoirs  (1907).  G.  B.  Hill,  Life  of  Rowland  Hill 
(2  vols.,  1880).  J.  Morley,  Richard  Cobden  (2  vols.,  1881)  and  G.  N.  Trevelyan, 
John  Bright  (1913),  the  standard  biographies  of  Cobden  and  Bright.  W.  M.  Torrens, 
Memoirs  of  Lord  Melbourne  (2  vols.,  1878).  G.  Saintsbury,  Life  of  the  Earl  of  Derby 
(1892).  S.  J.  Reid,  Life  of  Lord  John  Russell  (1886).  J.  B.  Atlay,  Victorian  Chancel- 
lors (2  vols.,  1908).  For  Russell,  Peel,  and  Palmerston,  see  above  chs.  XL VIII,  L. 

Special  Works.  T.  Carlyle,  Chartism  (1839).  R.  G.  Gammage,  History  of 
Chartism  (1854,  revised  in  expanded  form  1894).  W.  Lovett  and  J.  Collins,  Chartism 
(1840).  E.  C.  K.  Conner,  "Early  History  of  Chartism,"  English  Historical  Review, 
October,  1889. 

For  the  Crimean  War.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  XI,  pp.  869-870.  The  most 
exhaustive  work  is  that  of  A.  W.  Kinglake,  The  Invasion  of  Crimea  (8  vols.,  1863-1887). 

For  Canada.     Cambridge  Modern  History,  ch.  XX  (bibliography,  pp.  871-878). 

Ireland,  ibid.,  XI  (bibliography,  pp.  868,  871).     Low  and  Sanders,  p.  497. 

India,  ibid., "XI,  ch.  XXVI  (bibliography,  pp.  965-967).  Low  and  Sanders,  pp.  497 
-499.  The  Colonies  in  general.  Ibid.,  XI,  ch.  XXVII  (bibliography,  pp.  968-980). 
Low  and  Sanders,  pp  499-502. 

Contemporary.  The  Greville  Memoirs,  pt.  II  (3  vols.,  1885),  pt.  Ill  (2  vols.,  1887). 
B.  Disraeli,  Bcntinck,  a  Political  Biography  (1852).  Papers  of  Lord  Melbourne, 
(ed.  L.  C.  Sanders,  1889).  Baron  Stockmar,  Memoirs  (tr.  M.  Miiller,  2  vols.,  1872). 
Queen  Victoria  Letters  (eds.  A.  C.  Benson  and  Viscount  Esher,  3  vols.,  1907)  to  1861, 
throw  a  flood  of  light  on  early  Victorian  statesmen  and  politics.  Esher,  The  Girl- 
hood of  Queen  Elizabeth,  1836-1840  (1912),  selections  from  her  diary.  John,  Earl 
Russell,  Recollections  and  Suggestions  (1875). 

Selections  from  the  sources.  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  266-267 ;  Robertson,  pt. 
II,  nos.  XXVII-XXVIII,  app.,  p.  438. 


CHAPTER  LIV 

A  NEW  ERA  IN  DEMOCRACY.    THE  POLITICAL   RIVALRY  OF 
GLADSTONE  AND   DISRAELI    (1865-1880) 

The    Second   Russell   Ministry,   November,   1865- June,    1866.  — 

While  the  death  of  Palmerston  removed  the  chief  obstacle  to  progress 
in  domestic  legislation,  some  years  were  yet  to  elapse  before  either 
of  the  two  men  who  were  to  dominate  the  political  situation  for  the 
next  generation  came  to  head  a  Cabinet.  Lord  John  Russell  (created 
Earl  Russell  in  1861)  succeeded  Palmerston,  with  whom,  except  for 
occasional  intervals  of  rivalry,  he  had  worked  for  more  than  thirty 
years.  But  Russell  was  seventy-three  years  old,  and  Gladstone,  who 
became  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  was  already  recognized  as 
the  future  chief  of  the  Liberal  party.  Disraeli,  who  for  some  years 
had  led  the  Conservatives  in  the  Commons,  was  in  the  same  way  looked 
upon  as  Lord  Derby's  successor.  The  Russell  Administration  was 
confronted  with  many  acute  problems.  On  the  Continent  a  war, 
involving  tremendous  issues,  was  brewing  between  Prussia  and  Austria. 
Home  politics  were  gravely  troubled  by  a  devastating  cattle  plague, 
by  a  sharp  commercial  crisis,  and  by  an  insurrection  in  Jamaica. 
The  commercial  crisis,  though  it  involved  many  failures  and  much 
suffering,  was  safely  tided  over,  thanks  to  the  flourishing  condition  of 
trade  and  the  authority  granted  to  the  Bank  of  England  to  exceed 
the  limitation  of  its  note  issue  imposed  by  the  charter  of  1844.  The 
cattle  scourge  was  stayed  by  the  slaughter  of  great  numbers  of  infected 
animals,  with  compensation  to  the  owners.  The  calamity  did  not  prove 
an  unmixed  evil,  for  it  served  to  call  attention  to  the  unsanitary  con- 
ditions in  the  cattle  and  dairy  industries  and  resulted  in  new  and 
improved  methods.  The  Jamaica  insurrection  was  suppressed  by 
the  Governor,  John  Eyre,  with  energy  and  promptness;  but  the 
cruel  punishments  which  he  allowed  to  continue  long  after  the  danger 
was  passed,  as  well  as  the  callousness  of  the  officers  engaged  in  the 
work,  aroused  a  fury  of  indignation  in  England.  After  an  official 
inquiry  the  Governor  was  retired  on  a  pension,  but  no  attempt  was 
made  to  punish  either  him  or  the  officers  concerned.  Thereupon,  a 
committee  was  organized  by  John  Stuart  Mill,  Herbert  Spencer, 
Huxley,  and  other  eminent  men  to  prosecute  them  in  the  courts. 
Not  only  did  they  fail  to  secure  any  convictions,  but  Parliament,  in 
1872,  voted  Eyre  a  grant  to  help  pay  the  expenses  of  his  trial.  His 
most  notable  champion  was  Thomas  Carlyle. 


984  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

The  State  of  the  Franchise  in  1865-1866.  —  In  addition  to  these 
various  difficulties,  new  disorders  had  broken  out  in  Ireland ;  but  the 
chief  energies  of  Parliament,  which  opened  in  February,  1866,  were 
devoted  to  the  question  of  a  further  extension  of  the  franchise.  Since 
the  passage  of  the  celebrated  Act  of  1832,  numerous  reform  bills  had 
been  introduced;  but  none  of  them  had  even  succeeded  in  passing 
the  Commons.  In  1859,  during  the  second  Derby  Administration, 
Disraeli,  as  a  means  of  forestalling  the  Liberals,  had  introduced  a  bill 
for  equalizing  the  county  and  borough  qualification,  giving  the  vote 
to  those  who  possessed  a  specified  amount  of  personal  property,  to 
graduates  of  universities,  clergymen,  lawyers,  doctors,  and  school- 
masters. These  latter  concessions,  contemptuously  labeled  "  fancy 
franchises  "  by  John  Bright,  would  have  done  little  to  extend  the 
electorate.  The  measure  was  defeated  in  the  second  reading,  the 
Government  appealed  to  the  country  in  a  general  election,  but  was 
overthrown  at  the  very  opening  of  the  new  Parliament.  In  1852,  in 
1854,  and  again  in  1860  Russell,  because  of  pledges  which  he  had 
given,  had,  in  a  perfunctory  way,  introduced  reform  bills,  all  of  which 
he  had  subsequently  withdrawn.1  By  1866,  however,  he  had  come  to 
realize  that  a  further  extension  of  the  franchise  and  a  further  redis- 
tribution of  seats  was  inevitable.  The  right  of  voting  was  still  much 
restricted  and  the  representation  unevenly  distributed.  In  1865, 
out  of  5,300,000  adult  males,  there  were  only  900,000  voters.  Thus 
only  one  man  in  six  was  entitled  to  vote,  and  the  working  classes  were 
practically  excluded.  .Many  anomalies  in  the  representation,  left 
untouched  in  1832,  had  been  greatly  accentuated  by  the  amazing 
growth  of  the  industrial  population  during  the  past  thirty-five  years. 
The  borough  of  Totnes,  with  4000  inhabitants,  returned  as  many 
members  as  Liverpool  with  a  population  of  443,000,  and  the  thinly 
populated  county  of  Cornwall,  containing  only  350,000  souls,  had  a 
larger  representation  than  the  populous  Middlesex. 

The  Awakening  of  Democracy.  Russell's  Reform  Bill  of  1866  and 
its  Defeat.  —  While  the  majority  of  both  Houses  was  still  opposed 
to  change  and  the  public  seemed  indifferent  —  according  to  the  Prince 
Consort  the  abortive  Act  of  1860  excited  scarcely  "  as  much  interest 
as  a  Turnpike  Trust  Bill  "  —  such  inequalities  could  not  go  on  forever. 
Moreover,  the  country  was  on  the  eve  of  a  great  democratic  awakening. 
The  old  laissez-faire  principles  were  destined  to  give  way  to  a  new  spirit 
of  collectivism.  The  people  were  going  to  insist  more  and  more  that 
it  was  the  proper  function  of  the  State  to  educate  them,  to  provide  for 
the  public  health,  and  to  regulate  their  relations  with  their  employers. 
Yet  if  the  powers  of  the  Government  were  to  be  thus  enlarged,  it  fol- 
lowed that  those  whose  interests  were  at  stake  should  have  a  larger 
voice  in  public  affairs.  This  progress  toward  democracy  was  greatly 
stimulated  by  the  outcome  of  the  American  Civil  War.  The  victory 

1  He  was  sometimes  known  as  "Finality  Jack,"  because  he  had  once  declared 
that  the  terms  of  the  bill  of  1832  were  to  be  final. 


A  NEW   ERA  IN   DEMOCRACY  985 

of  the  North  was  a  triumph  for  democracy  over  an  aristocratic  oli- 
garchy. It  added  greatly  to  the  prestige  of  the  midland  operatives 
that  they  had  been  wiser  than  the  conservative  upper  classes  in  fore- 
seeing the  outcome,  while  the  patience  with  which  they  had  suffered 
for  their  principles  gained  for  them  not  only  sympathy  but  great 
respect  throughout  the  country.  Thus  strength  was  given  to  an  ar- 
gument which  began  to  be  advanced,  that  they  could  not  be  denied 
the  vote  which  was  to  be  conceded  to  the  negroes  in  the  United  States. 
Nevertheless,  the  bill  which  Russell  introduced  in  1866  was  defeated. 
The  primary  cause  was  a  revolt  of  a  section  of  the  Liberal  party  which 
came  to  be  known  as  the  "  Adullamites  "  from  John  Bright's  com- 
parison of  them  to  Saul's  discontented  subjects  who  took  refuge  with 
David  in  the  cave  of  Adullam.  Moreover,  the  measure  was  not 
calculated  to  arouse  great  popular  enthusiasm,  since  its  provisions 
would  not  have  increased  the  electorate  by  more  than  400,000,  while 
the  question  of  the  redistribution  of  seats  was  postponed  altogether 
for  the  moment.  The  victory  of  the  Opposition  drove  Russell  from 
office  in  June.1  Curiously  enough,  it  was  now  the  fate  of  the  Conserv- 
atives to  carry  a  bill  so  radical  as  virtually  to  transfer  the  balance  of 
power  from  the  middle  classes  to  the  workingman. 

The  Third  Derby  Ministry,  June,  1866,  February,  1868.  The 
Awakening  of  the  People.  —  For  the  third  time  Lord  Derby  became 
Prime  Minister  with  the  support  of  only  a  minority  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  After  overtures  to  the  Adullamites  had  failed  he  was 
obliged  to  form  a  purely  Conservative  Government.  The  most 
notable  of  the  new  men  in  the  Cabinet  was  Robert  Cecil,  Viscount 
Cranborne  (1830-1903),  who  succeeded  to  the  title  of  Marquis  of 
Salisbury  in  1868.  Noted  at  the  beginning  of  his  career  mainly  for 
audacious  sarcasm  and  his  uncompromising  Toryism,  his  forceful 
personality,  his  profound  knowledge,  his  grasp  of  domestic  and  foreign 
politics,  his  brilliancy  and  courage,  won  for  him  a  steadily  increasing 
weight  in  the  councils  of  his  party.  During  the  interval  between  the 
resignation  of  Russell  and  the  meeting  of  Parliament,  in  February 
of  1867,  a  sentiment  for  reform,  as  irresistible  as  it  was  sudden,  de- 
veloped among  the  working  classes.  The  rejection  of  Russell's 
bill  had  furnished  the  impulse.  The  discontent  aroused  by  the  finan- 

1  Though  he  lived  till  1878,  his  public  life  came  practically  to  an  end  with  his  resig- 
nation in  1866.  He  had  made  many  blunders  in  his  long  career,  notably  in  the  Bed- 
chamber Question  when  he  supported  Melbourne,  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  and 
the  Schleswig-Holstein  question,  and  many  regarded  his  resignation  in  1855  as 
a  desertion  of  his  colleagues,  though  he  had  this  justification,  that  his  views  had  not 
been  carried  out.  In  public  he  had  a  freezing  manner  that  diminished  his  influence, 
and  in  his  speeches  it  was  only  rarely  that "  languid  Johnny  turned  to  glorious  John." 
He  had,  too,  an  over-weening  self-confidence.  After  all  has  been  said,  however, 
"his  existence  flowed  at  a  very  high  level  of  thought  and  feeling,"  he  spent  his  life 
in  the  public  service  and  was  a  stanch  advocate  of  measures  making,  for  progress 
and  the  good  of  the  people.  The  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  and  the 
Reform  Bill  of  1832  owe  much  to  his  persistent  efforts,  and  he  gave  a  great  impulse 
to  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws. 


986  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

cial  crisis,  together  with  stirring  speeches  by  Bright  and  Gladstone, 
did  the  rest.  The  latter  had  revealed  to  them  in  his  telling  way,  as 
early  as  the  previous  Easter,  that  with  five  twelfths  of  the  aggregate 
income  of  the  country  they  had  only  a  seventh  of  the  electoral  power. 
On  23  July,  after  the  authorities  had  forbidden  a  meeting  in  Hyde 
Park  and  closed  the  gates,  the  mob  tore  up  the  iron  railings  and 
streamed  in  through  the  breach.  This  demonstration  made  a  pro- 
found impression.  Even  more  significant,  perhaps,  were  the  organiza- 
tions which  were  formed  to  advance  the  cause,  the  street  processions, 
the  crowded  meetings,  and  the  eloquent  arguments  of  the  chief  speakers. 
Disraeli,  once  more  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  was  just  the 
man  to  take  advantage  of  the  situation,  and  to  do  what  he  had  de- 
nounced Peel  for  doing  twenty  years  before. 

The  Reform  Bill  of  1867.  —  Declaring  that  "  parliamentary  reform 
should  no  longer  be  a  question  which  should  decide  the  fate  of  minis- 
tries "  and  that  his  aim  was  to  "  work  for  the  public  good,  instead 
of  bringing  forward  mock  measures  to  be  defeated  by  the  spirit  of 
party,"  Disraeli  at  first  sought  to  secure  the  support  of  both  Liberals 
and  Conservatives  for  a  series  of  resolutions  on  the  subject.  They 
contained  a  number  of  commonplaces;  but  their  main  purport  was 
to  take  away  with  one  hand  what  they  gave  with  the  other  by  checking 
the  concessions  made  to  the  laboring  classes  with  a  complicated 
system  of  "  fancy  franchises  "  and  dual  voting.  These  resolutions 
aroused  the  combined  opposition  of  both  factions  of  the  Liberal  party 
and  were  withdrawn.  In  devising  further  measures,  Disraeli  was 
opposed  by  members  of  his  own  Cabinet,  and  it  was  only  after  three, 
including  Lord  Cranborne,  had  resigned  that  he  introduced  the  scheme 
which  formed  the  basis  of  the  bill  that  subsequently  became  law.  It 
conceded  so  much  to  the  Liberal  leaders  that  Cranborne  described 
it  as  an  adoption  of  the  "  principles  of  Bright  at  the  dictation  of  Glad- 
stone." Indeed,  Disraeli  and  his  colleagues  admitted  that  "  if  the 
country  would  have  reform,"  they  "  might  as  well  keep  in  office  and 
give  it  to  them."  All  the  securities  designed  to  comfort  the  Tories 
had  to  be  thrown  overboard,  for  example,  "  fancy  franchises,"  based 
on  educational  qualifications  or  the  holding  of  a  certain  amount  of 
personal  property,  which  would  entitle  a  man  to  cast  a  vote  in  addi- 
tion to  the  one  which  he  might  have  as  a  householder.1  Another  con- 
cession, which  involved  a  hard  fight,  related  to  the  so-called  "  com- 
pound householders."  Certain  small  householders,  instead  of  paying 
the  public  rates  directly,  "  compounded  "  with  the  landlords,  or  in- 
cluded their  share  in  their  rents.  The  Derby  Ministry  intended  to 
exclude  this  class  altogether  by  making  the  franchise  dependent  upon 
a  personal  payment  of  the  rates.  Even  Gladstone  did  not  desire  to 
go  so  far  as  to  admit  all  the  compound  householders.  But  both  he 

1  This  did  not  affect  a  form  of  plural  voting  already  existing,  and  which  still 
continues,  whereby  a  man  can  vote  in  more  than  one  place,  provided  that  he  pos- 
sesses the  requisite  borough  and  county  qualifications. 


A  NEW  ERA  IN  DEMOCRACY  987 

and  the  Conservatives  had  to  give  way  to  a  determined  section  of 
Liberals  known  as  the  Tea  Room  Party.1  As  a  result,  the  compounding 
system  was  practically  abolished,  and  even  small  householders  were 
assessed  directly.  John  Stuart  Mill  roused  the  ire  of  some  and  the 
amusement  of  others  by  proposing  "  votes  for  women,"  a  question 
which  has  since  become  a  burning  issue.  The  qualifications  for  voting, 
as  finally  fixed  in  the  bill  of  1867,  were :  in  boroughs,  all  householders 
who  paid  the  poor  rates  and  all  lodgers  of  one  year's  residence  whose 
annual  rent  was  £10 ;  in  the  counties,  all  owners  of  land  of  £5  annual 
value  and  all  occupying  tenants  whose  rental  was  £12.  With  regard 
to  redistribution  of  seats,  certain  readjustments  were  made  without 
altering  the  size  of  the  House  of  Commons.  The  right  of  sending 
two  members  was  taken  from  all  boroughs  of  less  than  10,000  inhab- 
itants, while  four  large  towns  —  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Liverpool, 
and  Leeds  —  were  given  a  third  member,  two  others  received  a  second 
member ;  nine  new  boroughs  were  created,  and  twenty-five  additional 
members  went  to  the  counties.  Scotland  gained  a  few  seats  also; 
but  the  Irish  membership  was  left  unchanged. 

The  Significance  of  the  Act  of  1867.  —  A  long  step  had  been  taken 
in  the  direction  of  democracy.  Following  the  example  of  Wellington 
and  Peel,  a  Tory  leader  had  once  again  out-liberaled  the  Liberals. 
Derby  and  Disraeli  had  carried  through  a  much  needed  measure  of 
reform,  and  they  had  "  dished  the  Whigs  " ;  but  they  had  done  it  by 
shamelessly  violating  their  pledges  and  sacrificing  the  principles  of 
the  Conservatives  who  had  put  them  into  office.  "  It  is  not  a  party 
they  have  destroyed,"  wrote  an  anonymous  contributor  to  the  Times, 
"  it  is  a  creed  they  have  annihilated."  Cranborne  called  it  a  "  politi- 
cal betrayal  which  has  no  parallel  in  our  annals."  It  should  be  said, 
however,  that  it  was  in  line  with  Disraeli's  political  philosophy  to 
combine  the  nobility  and  the  working  man  against  the  great  middle 
class.  He  declared  boldly  that  he  was  "  educating  his  party." 
Lowe's  grim  comment  was :  "  We  must  now  educate  our  masters." 
To  Derby,  though  the  phrase  was  not  original,  the  momentous  step 
was  a  "  leap  in  the  dark,"  while,  in  more  picturesque  words,  Carlyle 
described  it  as  "  shooting  Niagara."  The  results,  however,  were  far 
from  cataclysmic.  The  Conservative  party,  instead  of  being  rent 
in  twain,  grew  to  be  stronger  than  it  had  ever  been  since  1832.  More- 
over, while  a  new  era  of  progressive  legislation  followed,  the  newly 
enfranchised  class  proved  far  from  revolutionary  in  its  demands. 

The  Austro-Prussian  War,  1866.  —  While  England  was  involved 
in  the  struggle  over  the  extension  of  the  franchise,  Prussia  had  over- 
whelmed the  Austrians  in  a  seven  weeks'  war  which  broke  out  in  June, 
1866.  The  battle  of  Koniggratz  or  Sadowa,  fought  3  July,  decided 
the  issue.  By  the  Peace  of  Prague,  23  August,  Prussia  realized  two 
great  ambitions  which  had  guided  her  policy  for  years.  One  was  the 

1  So  called  from  the  fact  that  they  held  their  meetings  in  the  tea  room  of  the 
House  of  Commons. 


988  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

organization  of  the  North  German  Confederation  under  Prussian 
presidency ;  the  other  was  the  rounding  out  of  her  dominions  and  the 
welding  together  of  her  scattered  territories  by  the  incorporation  of 
Schleswig-Holstein,  Electoral  Hesse,  and  various  other  states.  By 
the  Treaty  of  Vienna,  3  October,  the  Austrians  were  forced  to  cede 
Venice  to  Victor  Emmanuel,  who  had  fought  on  the  Prussian  side, 
and  to  recognize  the  Kingdom  of  Italy.  The  North  German  Con- 
federation held  its  first  diet  in  1867,  Bismarck  was  made  Chancellor  of 
the  Confederation,  and  a  long  step  was  taken  in  the  unification  of  Ger- 
many, completed  four  years  later.  In  March  of  1866,  the  Queen  had 
sought  to  avert  the  conflict  by  mediation ;  but  her  offers  had  been 
brusquely  .repulsed  by  Bismarck.  The  British  Government  was  in  no 
position  to  insist ;  for  the  policy  of  Palmerston  had  left  the  country  in  a 
position  of  isolation,  estranged  from  the  United  States,  from  Russia, 
and  from  France.  Thenceforth,  Great  Britain  held  aloof  and  sought 
to  maintain  a  policy  of  the  strictest  neutrality.  Her  attitude  was 
explained  by  Disraeli  in  a  speech  notable  from  the  fact  that  it  fore- 
shadows the  new  idea  of  Imperialism  which  was  soon  to  gain  such  a 
hold  on  the  popular  imagination  and  to  become  the  dominant  factor 
in  British  foreign  policy.  "  England,"  he  declared,  "  had  outgrown 
the  European  continent  .  .  .  her  position  is  no  longer  that  of  a  mere 
European  Power.  England  is  the  metropolis  of  a  great  maritime 
Empire  extending  to  the  boundaries  of  the  farthest  ocean  .  .  .  she  is 
as  ready,  and  as  willing  as  ever,  to  interfere  as  in  the  old  days  when 
the  necessity  of  her  position  requires  it.  There  is  no  power  indeed 
which  interferes  more  than  England.  She  interferes  in  Asia  because 
she  is  really  more  of  an  Asiatic  than  a  European  power."  Although 
circumstances  prevented  Great  Britain  from  holding  absolutely  aloof 
from  European  affairs,  her  interest  in  colonial  problems  became  steadily 
more  marked. 

The  Abyssinian  Expedition,  1867-1868.  —  An  evidence  of  the 
assertion  of  the  British  power  even  in  remote  countries  was  the  Abys- 
sinian expedition  sent  in  the  winter  of  1867-1868  under  Sir  Robert 
Napier  to  demand  from  Theodore  —  King  of  the  fabled  land  of  Prester 
John l  —  satisfaction  for  the  treatment  of  British  residents  and  mis- 
sionaries. When,  in  April,  the  punitive  force  reached  the  stronghold 
of  Magdala  after  an  admirably  timed  march  through  the  mountains, 
Theodore  was  found  to  be  dead.  The  British  had  reached  out  their 
arms  to  protect  their  mistreated  subjects  at  the  cost  of  £8,000,000. 
However,  Disraeli's  ornate  commentary  that :  "  the  standard  of  St. 
George  had  been  hoisted  on  the  mountains  of  Rasselas  "  became  the 
joke  of  the  day. 

The  End  of  the  Derby  Ministry,  February,  1868.  —  In  February, 
1868,  Lord  Derby,  who  had  accepted  office  reluctantly,  resigned 

1  Really  "presbyter,"  or  priest,  a  fabulous  Christian  monarch  of  the  twelfth 
century,  supposed  to  have  been  ordained  in  Egypt,  and  who,  according  to  some 
accounts,  is  said  to  have  conquered  Abyssinia. 


A  NEW  ERA  IN  DEMOCRACY  989 

the  Premiership  on  account  of  failing  health.  He  lived  just  long 
enough  to  oppose  unsuccessfully  the  abolition  of  compulsory  church 
rates  and  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church.  He  died,  23  Octo- 
ber, 1869,  at  the  age  of  seventy.  Starting  as  a  Liberal  he  had  gone  over 
to  the  Conservative  party  in  the  struggle  over  the  appropriation  of 
the  surplus  revenues  of  the  Irish  Church.  He  split  with  Peel  on  the 
repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  and  became  the  nominal  head  of  the  Protec- 
tionist party.  He  was  an  able  man  of  business,  a  classical  scholar, 
and  a  sportsman.  In  politics  he  was  brilliant  rather  than -constructive, 
a  good  fighter,  who  fell  short  of  being  a  great  statesman  and  party 
leader,  partly  because  of  his  lack  of  settled  convictions.  Greville, 
a  keen  though  caustic  observer,  complained  that  he  went  into  politics 
as  he  went  into  racing,  for  the  excitement  and  the  chance  of  winning. 
He  was  known  as  the  "  Prince  Rupert  of  debate,"  and  was  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  effective  debaters  of  his  day,  though  he  often  gave 
offense  by  his  levity  and  by  his  aloofness  from  those  below  him  in 
social  rank.  His  great  achievements  were  his  abolition  of  colonial 
slavery  and  his  work  as  head  of  the  relief  committee  at  the  time  of 
the  cotton  famine. 

The  First  Disraeli  Ministry,  February  to  November,  1868.  —  Derby 
was  succeeded  by  Disraeli,  who  was  now  sixty-four  years  of  age. 
For  thirty  years  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
for  half  that  period  had  been  the  recognized  leader  of  his  party, 
posing  all  the  while  as  a  man  of  fashion,  and  at  intervals  publishing 
novels.  At  the  very  entrance  of  his  public  life  he  had  expressed  to 
Lord  Melbourne  a  "  wild  ambition  "  to  become  some  day  Prime  Minis- 
ter. He  started  with  a  theory  of  the  Constitution  which  should  em- 
phasize the  power  of  the  monarchy  and  the  masses  as  against  the  Whig 
commercial  aristocracy,  in  other  words,  as  a  sort  of  democratic  Tory,1 
and,  for  a  time,  led  a  band  of  youthful  followers  known  as  the  Young 
England  party.  He  ended  as  an  Imperialist  of  the  most  pronounced 
type.  Surveying  his  political  life  as  a  whole,  many  inconsistencies 
may  be  noted,  but  that  is  a  peculiarity  which  he  shares  with  the  great- 
est English  statesmen  from  the  two  Pitts  to  Peel  and  Gladstone. 
Throughout  his  career  he  was  prone  to  utterances  that  were  sparkling 
and  sonorous  rather  than  definite  and  specific.  He  first  established 
his  position  by  his  brilliant  and  merciless  onslaughts  on  Peel  at  the 
time  of  the  Corn  Law  agitation.  As  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 
and  leader  of  the  Commons  during  the  three  Derby  administrations, 
while  he  showed  little  capacity  as  a  framer  of  budgets  or  as  a  routine 
administrator,  he  proved  unsurpassed  as  a  party  leader,  formidable 
and  courageous,  resourceful,  audacious,  and  imaginative.  He  was 
a  remarkable  judge  of  men,  and  succeeded  in  gaining  the  favor  arid  con- 
fidence of  the  Queen  to  a  higher  degree  than  perhaps  any  statesman 
of  the  reign.  This  was  due  to  his  enthusiasm  for  the  monarchical 

1  According  to  his  latest  biographer,  Monypenny,  he  began  his  public  life  as  a 
"political  adventurer  with  unintelligible  opinions." 


9QO  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

principle  of  government,  to  his  growing  faith  in  the  Imperial  destiny 
of  England,  and,  above  all,  to  his  courtesy  and  considerateness  and  his 
power  of  flattery.  As  he  himself  boasted,  "  Gladstone  treats  the 
Queen  like  a  public  department,  I  treat  her  like  a  woman."  One 
looks  in  vain  for  any  great  measures  of  progressive  legislation  which 
he  initiated,  with  the  exception  of  the  purchase  of  the  Suez  Canal 
shares ;  but  the  rescue  of  the  Tory  party  from  the  decline  which  fol- 
lowed the  Peelite  schism,  and  the  popularization  of  the  modern  Im- 
perialistic idea  are  peculiarly  his  work. 

Gladstone,  His  Character  and  Policy.  —  The  Opposition  leader, 
Gladstone  (1809-1898),  though  five  years  younger  than  Disraeli, 
had  already  been  in  Parliament  five  years  longer.  .  While  Disraeli 
had  never  been  even  to  public  school,  Gladstone  had  been  educated 
in  the  strongholds  of  aristocratic  conservatism  —  Eton  and  Christ 
Church,  Oxford.  The  son  of  a  rich  Liverpool  merchant  of  Scotch 
birth,  he  had  the  "  audacious  shrewdness  of  Lancashire  married 
to  the  polished  grace  of  Oxford,"  he  was  "  Oxford  on  the  surface, 
Liverpool  at  bottom."  His  intellectual  curiosity,  his  energy  and 
versatility  were  prodigious.  An  old-fashioned  Churchman,  he  was  in- 
tensely devout;  and  read,  thought,  and  wrote  much  on  theological 
questions.  His  knowledge  of  the  classics,  especially  of  Homer,  was 
at  once  extensive  and  minute.  It  was  said  that  he  could  talk  shop 
like  a  tenth  muse,  though  his  published  work  has  no  enduring  value 
either  as  literature  or  for  the  scholar.  He  spent  enough  effort  in 
putting  on  a  sound  basis  the  involved  estate  of  his  wife's  family  to  have 
fully  occupied  an  ordinary  man  a  lifetime.  All  this  was  aside  from  his 
life-long  activity  in  politics.  He  began  as  a  Tory,  seceded  with  the  Peel- 
ites,  and  ended  his  career  as  a  Liberal.  His  budget  of  1853  established 
his  reputation  as  a  financier  entitled  to  rank  with  Walpole,  Pitt,  and  Peel. 
His  measures  of  constructive  statesmanship  cannot  be  even  touched 
upon  except  by  outlining  the  last  half  century  of  English  history. 
Great  as  was  his  superiority  to  Disraeli  in  domestic  legislation,  his 
rival  far  outshone  him  as  a  foreign  minister.  Gladstone  always 
raised  his  voice  in  behalf  of  oppressed  nationalities,  but  he  was  op- 
posed to  the  aggressiveness  of  the  extreme  Imperialists  and  to  expensive 
fleets  and  armies,  he  gave  no  continuous  attention  to  external  concerns, 
and  left  too  much  to  his  colleague,  Lord  Granville.  Under  the  Glad- 
stone administrations  it  was  generally  felt  that  England  suffered 
abroad  both  in  dignity  and  power  because  of  vacillating  and  dilatory 
methods.  His  success  as  a  legislator  and  administrator  was  enhanced 
by  his  fascinating  power  of  expounding  the  measures  which  he  framed. 
He  was,  to  be  sure,  overcapricious  and  subtle,  and  surpassed  by  many 
in  the  finest  gifts  of  literary  grace ;  but,  thanks  to  his  telling  phrases, 
his  magical,  sonorous  voice,  his  flashing  eye,  his  wondrous  vitality  and 
earnestness,  no  orator  of  his  generation,  except  John  Bright,  was  his 
superior.  Gladstone  was  never  congenial  to  the  Queen.  His  seces- 
sion from  the  Peelites  toward  democratic  liberalism  offended  her,  and 


A  NEW   ERA  IN  DEMOCRACY  991 

his  reforming  zeal  with  its  ruthless  disregard  of  established  institu- 
tions and  vested  interests  excited  her  apprehension.  He  never  spared 
her,  as,  for  example,  when  he  sent  her  twelve  closely  filled  pages  on  the 
complicated  details  of  his  Irish  Church  bill.  Then  the  ease  with 
which  he  changed  his  mind,  and  "  oiled  the  joints  "  of  his  sudden 
transitions  with  words,  bewildered  her  as  it  did  many  another.  •  More- 
over, while  naturally  considerate,  he  came,  because  of  his  tremendous 
moral  enthusiasm,  to  regard  himself  as  a  chosen  vessel,  and  impressed 
his  opponents  and  many  of  his  followers  as  dictatorial.  While  Dis- 
raeli achieved  little  in  the  way  of  tangible  reform  and  re-created  the 
Conservatives,  Gladstone  accomplished  much  and  broke  up  the 
Liberal  party. 

Gladstone's  First  Ministry,  1868-1874.  —  Disraeli  held  his  first 
premiership  less  than  a  year.  The  Conservatives,  with  a  minority 
in  the  Commons,  had  only  managed  to  hold  on  because  of  the  split 
in  the  Liberal  ranks  over  the  question  of  parliamentary  reform.  That 
was  no  longer  an  issue,  and  Gladstone,  owing  to  grave  disturbances 
in  Ireland,  managed  to  reunite  his  party  on  the  question  of  dis- 
establishing the  Irish  Church.  In  April,  he  succeeded  in  carrying  a 
resolution  on  the  subject  against  the  Government.  Disraeli  offered 
his  resignation,  i  May,  1868 ;  but  since  the  Queen  was  reluctant  to 
accept  it,  and  since  the  Liberals  objected  to  appealing  to  the  country 
until  the  recent  electoral  reforms  had  been  carried  into  effect,  he  re- 
mained in  office  till  the  conclusion  of  the  autumn  elections.  The 
result  was  a  complete  Liberal  victory  at  the  polls.  Thereupon, 
Disraeli  took  the  wise  but  novel  step  of  resigning  without  waiting  to 
face  the  new  Parliament.  On  4  December,  Gladstone,  at  the  age  of 
fifty-nine,  was  entrusted  with  the  task  of  forming  the  first  of  his  four 
ministries.  For  the  first  time  in  years  there  were  two  united  parties 
confronting  one  another,  each  led  by  a  dominant  personality.  There 
were  pressing  problems  to  be  dealt  with  —  abolition  of  privilege,  re- 
duction of  expenditure,  readjustment  of  taxation,  constructive  social 
legislation,  and  the  perennial  Irish  question.  During  his  tenure  of 
office,  from  1868  to  1874,  the  new  Prime  Minister  and  his  Cabinet 
carried  a  series  of  notable  measures  of  which  a  half  a  dozen  stand  out 
with  special  prominence;  the  Irish  Church  Disestablishment,  1869; 
the  Irish  Land  Act  and  the  Elementary  Education  Act  of  1870 ;  the 
Army  Regulation  Act  of  1871;  the  Ballot  Act  of  1872;  and  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Judicature  Act  of  1873.  The  Irish  problem  claimed 
the  first  attention ;  for  the  disturbances  which  Disraeli  once  tersely 
attributed  to  "  a  starving  people,  absentee  landlords,  and  an  alien 
Church  "  had  broken  out  in  a  new  and  acute  form. 

The  Fenian  Movement,  1858-1865.  —  The  disturbances  were  due 
to  the  activity  of  the  Fenians.1  Early  in  the  fifties,  Phcenix  clubs  had 

1  The  name  "Fenians"  is  derived  from  an  old  Irish  word  meaning  "champions 
of  Ireland"  and  was  originally  applied  to  certain  tribes  who  served  as  the  militia 
of  the  ancient  kings  of  Erin. 


992  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

begun  to  spring  up  in  Dublin  in  which  young  men  enrolled  for  the  pur- 
pose of  achieving  Irish  independence ;  but  little  was  accomplished 
till  after  the  foundation  of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood  in  New  York  in 
1858.  The  organization  spread  rapidly  through  the  United  States 
where  the  immigrants  who,  since  the  potato  famine,  had  flocked 
across  the  ocean  in  steadily  growing  numbers,  had  accumulated  money 
and  political  training  which  made  them  more  capable  than  their 
countrymen  at  home  of  initiating  a  serious  rebellion.  Fenianism  had 
no  design  of  bettering  agrarian  conditions,  it  had  no  great  hold  on 
the  peasantry,  and  it  was  frowned  upon  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
priesthood.  Its  aim  was  to  throw  off  the  British  rule  by  intimidation 
and  force.1  The  movement  received  a  great  impetus  from  the  Ameri- 
can Civil  War  which  furnished  a  military  training  for  thousands 
of  Irishmen  and  aroused  their  martial  spirit.  Moreover,  they  were 
allowed  to  retain  their  guns  when  they  were  mustered  out.  Finally, 
the  ill  feeling  which  developed  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  led  them  to  count  on  the  alliance  of  the  Americans.  Many  of 
the  Irish  Americans  began  to  make  their  way  home,  and  to  extend 
their  organization  and  to  stir  up  disaffection  in  England  and  Ireland. 
There  were  active  plotters  enough,  but,  in  contrast  to  1798,  no 
leaders  of  position  and  ability. 

The  Fenian  Plots  and  their  Suppression,  1865-1866.  —  The  out- 
spokenness of  the  conspirators  and  the  reports  of  spies  stirred  the 
Government  to  action.  The  Brotherhood  was  shrewdly  organized. 
The  chief  power  and  control  of  plans  converged  toward  an  inner  ring 
or  center,  and  the  rank  and  file  in  the  outer  circle  had  little  to  disclose. 
However,  as  the  result  of  treachery,  O'Donovan  Rossa,  the  proprietor 
of  the  Irish  People,  was  taken  prisoner,  15  September,  1865,  and 
various  supplies  of  arms  were  disclosed  and  captured.  James  Stephens, 
the  Head  Center,  arrested  in  November,  managed  to  escape,  but  he 
made  for  New  York  and  never  attempted  to  return.  In  February, 
1865,  the  Russell  Ministry  passed  an  act  suspending  the  Habeas  Corpus 
in  Ireland  and  empowering  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  arrest  and  detain 
suspected  persons.  One  reverse  after  another  followed.  On  31  May, 
an  attempted  Fenian  invasion  of  Canada  failed,  largely  on  account  of 
the  determined  attitude  of  the  United  States.  A  general  rising,  pro- 
jected in  Ireland  in  March,  1867,  proved  abortive.  England  wit- 
nessed at  least  three  disquieting  manifestations  of  Fenian  activity. 
In  February,  1867,  an  attempt  to  capture  Chester  Castle,  to  seize 
the  arms  there  and  to  convey  them  to  Ireland  was  only  frustrated 
by  prompt  measures  on  the  part  of  the  Government.  Later  in  the 
same  year,  at  Manchester,  two  Fenian  prisoners  were  rescued  from  a 
prison  van,  and  the  sergeant  who  guarded  them  was  shot  through  the 

1  The  aim  was  declared  in  the  chief  Fenian  organ,  7mA  People,  in  February, 
1865:  "The  overthrow  of  the  British  Empire,  that  would  be  grand  indeed.  The 
day. Irishmen  humble  the  haughty  crest  of  England,  they  chain  forever  the  glory 
of  Ireland  to  the  stars;  they  strike  a  blow  that  resounds  through  eternity." 


A   NEW  ERA  IN  DEMOCRACY  993 

keyhole  of  the  locked  door.  Twenty-six  men  were  tried  for  this 
reckless  enterprise,  of  whom  five  were  convicted  and  three  were  exe- 
cuted. These  "  Manchester  martyrs,"  and  those  concerned  with  them 
in  the  rescue,  at  least  showed  courage,  however  misguided.  An  at- 
tempt to  free  two  other  prisoners  from  Clerkenwell  in  London,  13 
December,  by  blowing  up  a  portion  of  the  prison  wall,  was  nothing 
less  than  a  stupid  and  cowardly  outrage..  It  caused  the  death  of 
twelve  persons,  the  injury  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  more,  as  well 
as  forty  premature  childbirths,  of  which  twenty  resulted  fatally.  Had 
the  prisoners  themselves  been  in  the  yard  at  the  time,  they,,  too, 
would  have  been  killed.  While  such  performances  as  this  inevitably 
cast  discredit  upon  the  whole  movement  for  Irish  independence,  never- 
theless, leading  British  statesmen  became  convinced  that  violence 
was  nothing  but  the  logical  outcome  of  political  repression,  and  that 
the  only  way  to  restore  peace  and  quiet  was  to  offer  thoroughgoing 
measures  of  conciliation. 

The  Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church,  1869.  —  Gladstone, 
who,  when  called  upon  to  form  a  Cabinet,  had  declared :  "  My  mission 
is  to  pacify  Ireland,"  thus  found  his  hand  greatly  strengthened. 
Neither  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church,  to  which  he  was 
pledged,  nor  the  improvement  of  the  land  tenure,  which  he  regarded 
as  almost  equally  pressing,  had  been  demanded  by  the  Fenians,  but 
the  Prime  Minister  and  his  supporters  felt  that,  if  these  grievances 
were  once  removed,  the  movement  springing  up  from  discontent  would 
wither  at  the  roots.  Gladstone's  plan,  laid  before  the  Commons  in 
March,  1869,  provided  that  the  Irish  Church  should  cease  to  be  a 
legal  establishment  after  i  January,  1871.  Its  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction was  to  be  abolished,  and  the  four  Irish  bishops  were  no  longer  to 
sit  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The  Church's  endowments  were  also  to  be 
taken  away  with  compensation  for  vested  interests,  while  church 
buildings,  episcopal  residences,  and  parsonages  were  reserved  to  a  new 
voluntary  organization  which  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  Establish- 
ment. The  Regium  Donum  which  the  Government  had  allotted  to 
the  Presbyterians  since  the  time  of  William  of  Orange,  as  well  as  the 
Maynooth  Grant,  were  discontinued,  but  also  with  compensation. 
Private  endowments  made  since  the  Restoration  of  1660  were  to  be 
left  untouched.  The  tithe  rent  charge  was  to  be  bought  in  by  the 
landlords  for  a  sum  estimated  at  about  £9,000,000.  The  remaining 
property  of  the  Irish  Church,  consisting  mainly  of  land  and  land 
rents,  was  computed  to  be  worth  some  £6,000,000  or  £7,000,000  more. 
According  to  Gladstone's  plan,  almost  half  this  total  of  £16,000,000 
would  be  employed  in  providing  for  the  clergy.  They  were  to  have 
the  option  of  continuing  in  their  offices  and  drawing  their  revenues 
for  life,  or  of  settling  for  a  lump  sum.  The  surplus  remaining  was 
to  be  devoted  to  charity.  Although  the  Episcopal  clergy  in  Ireland 
denounced  the  bill  as  "  highly  offensive  to  Almighty  God  "  and  as 
"  the  greatest  national  sin  ever  committed,"  and  although  they  were 


994  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

strongly  backed  by  the  English  Conservatives,  who  regarded  it  as  a 
menace  to  Protestantism  and  property,  it  passed  the  Lower  House 
with  little  difficulty.  The  great  struggle  came  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
though  the  Peers,  instead  of  rejecting  it  forthwith,  strove  to  defeat  its 
main  provisions  by  hostile  amendments.  Their  attitude  set  rumors 
afloat  that  the  creation  of  new  peers  might  be  proposed,  and  led  Bright 
to  remark  that  by  throwing  themselves  athwart  the  path  of  the  national 
will  they  might  "  meet  with  accidents  not  pleasant  for  them  to  think 
about."  All  they  accomplished,  however,  was  to  secure  an  increased 
compensation  of  about  £850,000,  and  an  agreement  that  the  disposal  of 
the  surplus  should  be  left  to  Parliament.  The  Queen  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  compromise.  Much  as  she  disliked  the  measure, 
she  feared  the  consequences  in  case  the  Upper  House  persisted  in  its 
obstruction. 

The  Irish  Land  Act  of  1870.  —  Having  disestablished  the  alien 
Church  which  had  for  over  three  centuries  been  a  grievance  to  the 
Irish,  Gladstone,  in  1870,  undertook  to  deal  with  the  land  system. 
The  difficulties  were  many  and  complex.  In  the  first  place,  with 
comparatively  few  large  industries  or  thickly  populated  cities  the  bulk 
of  the  Irish  were  dependent  upon  the  land.  This  excess  of  culti- 
vators led  to  keen  competition.  Moreover,  the  Encumbered  Estates 
Act  of  1848  had  transferred  nearly  one  sixth  of  the  soil  to  a  class  of 
land  jobbers  who  were  more  greedy  and  exacting  than  the  old  absen- 
tees. Leases  and  contracts  were  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule, 
so  that,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  the  tenant  could  be  arbitrarily  evicted 
at  six  months'  notice.  The  case  of  the  tenant  was  all  the  worse  since 
he  commonly  made  the  improvements,1  and  after  he  had  thus  rendered 
the  holding  more  valuable,  he  was  liable  to  an  increase  of  rent  and  to 
eviction  if  he  could  not  pay.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  some 
evictions  were  defensible,  to  get  rid  of  the  thriftless  and  to  consolidate 
holdings  that  were  too  small.  In  Ulster  a  better  custom  —  known  as 
the  Ulster  Tenant  Right  —  prevailed.  There,  rents  were  fixed  by 
a  fair  valuation  instead  of  by  competition ;  they  were  not  raised  in 
consequence  of  improvements  made  by  the  tenant,  who  was  entitled 
to  compensation  for  unexhausted  improvements  when  he  left  the 
estate.  A  tenant  might  remain  in  undisturbed  occupancy  so  long  as 
he  paid  his  rent,  though  he  might  sell  his  good  will  and  transfer  to 
any  occupant  of  whom  the  landlord  should  approve.  Gladstone's 
bill  legalized,  in  the  districts  where  it  already  prevailed,  so  much  of  the 
custom  as  provided  compensation  for  arbitrary  disturbance  and  the 
right  of  tenants,  whether  disturbed  or  not,  to  sell  their  unexhausted 
improvements.  The  Bill  provided  a  similar  arrangement  for  the 
other  parts  of  Ireland  where  the  custom  did  not  exist.  By  the  so- 
called  "  Bright  Clauses "  subsequently  added,  loans  were  to  be 
advanced  by  the  Government  to  tenants  who  wished  to  buy  their 

1  In  England  the  reverse  was  true.  The  landlords  usually  made  the  improve- 
ments. 


A  NEW   ERA   IN  DEMOCRACY  995 

lands.  The  Act  of  1870  failed  to  give  satisfaction.  For  one  thing, 
it  failed  to  touch  the  evil  of  competitive  rents  which  were  in  most  cases 
too  high.  Moreover,  .while  it  hampered  the  landlord's  power  of  evic- 
tion, it  did  not  seriously  check  his  exercise  of  that  power.  Frequently 
he  found  it  more  profitable  —  when  he  wanted  to  raise  the  rent,  for 
example  —  to  pay  the  compensation  than  to  retain  a  tenant  whom  he 
regarded  as  undesirable.  In  a  word,  while  the  Irish  desired  many 
things,  including  fair  rents  and  fixity  of  tenure,  they  got  compensa- 
tion for  disturbance 1  and  unexhausted  improvements.  In  spite  of 
Gladstone's  well-meant  efforts  the  discontent  was  so  great  that  a 
Peace  Preservation  Act  had  to  be  passed,  in  1871,  giving  the  author- 
ities wide  powers  of  dealing  with  the  disturbed  districts  and  with  sus- 
pected persons.  Disraeli  was  exultant  over  the  'unfortunate  results  of 
his  rival's  policy  which  he  declared  had :  "  legalized  confiscation,  con- 
secrated sacrilege,  and  condoned  high  treason."  2 

The  Education  Question.  —  In  the  year  1870,  after  the  Irish  Land 
Act  had  been  carried,  W.  E.  Forster,  the  Vice-President  of  the  Privy 
Council,  pressed  forward  an  epoch-making  education  bill.  The  sub- 
ject needed  attention  sadly.  The  English  system,  so  far  as  it  could  be 
called  a  system,  was  incomparably  below  those  prevailing  in  the 
United  States,  in  Prussia,  and  in  Switzerland.  There  were  nearly  four 
million  children  of  school  age  of  whom  nearly  one  half  were  unprovided 
for.  About  one  million  attended  schools  attached  for  the  most  part 
to  the  Church  of  England.  They  were  supported  by  voluntary  sub- 
scriptions, supplemented  by  fees  and  small  Government  grants,  and 
were  under  Government  inspection.  Another  million  went  to  schools 
which  received  no  government  grant,  were  uninspected,  and  often  in  a 
very  unsatisfactory  state.  The  grammar  schools  founded,  after  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  by  the  Crown  and  by  men  who  profited 
from  the  spoil  of  the  monastic  lands  were  largely  under  Church  con- 
trol and  were  practically  monopolized  by  the  upper  and  middle  classes. 
Moreover,  they  did  not  furnish  primary  instruction,  which  was  gener- 
ally provided  by  private  schools  and  tutors.3  The  working  classes 
were  mainly  dependent  on  apprenticeship.  When  apprenticeship 
came  to  be  superseded  by  the  factory  system,  toward  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  two  men  who  represented  opposing  policies 
undertook  to  supply  the  lack  of  primary  instruction.  One,  Joseph 
Lancaster,  a  Quaker,  who  believed  in  non-sectarian  education, 
was  supported  by  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society  founded  in 
1808.  The  other  was  Andrew  Bell,  who  advocated  a  form  of  instruc- 
tion based  on  Church  principles.  The  National  Society  was  founded 

1  As  a  matter  of  detail,  the  scale  of  compensation  was  far  from  satisfactory. 

2  The  two  latter  charges  related  to  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  as  a 
concession  to  Fenianism. 

3  The  so-called  "public  schools"  like  Eton,  Rugby,  and  Harrow,  which  prepared 
for  the  universities,  were  not  free,  and  were  practically  beyond  the  reach  of  the  poorer 
classes. 


996  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  1811  to  carry  out  his  policy.  In  1833  Parliament  made  its  first 
grant  of  £20,000,  the  bulk  of  which  went  to  the  National  Society.  In 
1839  the  grant  was  increased  to  £30,000  x  and  a  Committee  of  the 
Privy  Council  on  Education  was  created.  Inspectors  of  schools  were 
appointed  who  had  to  receive  the  approval  of  the  two  Archbishops. 
Parliamentary  grants  increased  slowly  but  steadily  from  this  time, 
and  in  1856  a  Vice-President  of  the  Committee  on  Education  was 
created  who  was  made  eligible  to  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
thus  a  responsible  minister.  In  1862  a  modified  system  of  "  payment 
by  results  "  was  established  which  provided  grants  to  managers  of 
schools  for  each  child  on  the  basis  of  a. fair  average  of  attendance  and 
ability  to  pass  an  examination  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic. 
The  framers  of  the  act  of  1870  were  confronted  by  two  main  difficulties : 
the  disinclination  of  many  to  pay  rates  for  the  education  of  other  men's 
children,  and  the  question  of  religious  education. 

The  Education  Bill  of  1870.  —  There  were  sharply  conflicting  views 
among  those  who  agreed  that  the  existing  situation  should  be  reformed. 
Some  were  for  free,  compulsory  education,  divorced  altogether  from 
religious  control ;  others  were  opposed  to  free  education ;  others, 
again,  insisted  on  some  form  of  religious  teaching,  either  denomina- 
tional or  undenominational.  Forster's  plan  was  to  retain  the  volun- 
tary schools  where  they  were  doing  good  work,  and,  in  districts  where 
they  failed  to  meet  the  need,  to  set  up  schools  under  the  charge  of 
locally  elected  boards.  These  Board  Schools,  as  they  were  called,  were 
to  be  maintained  partly  by  Government  grant,  partly  by  parents' 
fees,  and  partly  from  local  rates.  Attendance  was  not  to  be  generally 
compulsory,  the  question  being  left  to  the  discretion  of  each  school 
board.  The  question  of  religious  instruction  was  eventually  settled 
by  a  compromise  which  satisfied  neither  of  the  extreme  parties.  The 
voluntary  schools  were  allowed  to  continue  their  religious  instruction, 
but  while  the  Government  grants  were  to  be  doubled,  they  were  to 
receive  no  aid  from  the  local  rates.2  In  the  Board  Schools,  all  de- 
nominational religious  instruction  was  prohibited.  Reading  and  ex- 
plaining the  Bible  was  allowed ;  but  even  that  had  to  come  at  hours 
when  parents  who  so  desired  might  withdraw  their  children.  Although 
the  Act  was  very  unpopular,  especially  among  the  Nonconformists, 
it  marked  a  long  step  in  the  direction  of  providing  instruction  free 
of  cost  for  all  the  children  of  the  kingdom.  Within  twenty  years  the 
number  of  schools  had  increased  from  9,000  to  20,000,  accommodating 
5,500,000  pupils,  and  attended  on  the  average  by  nearly  4,000,000. 3 

1  Brougham  pointed  out  that  this  same  year  in  which  £30,000  was  reluctantly 
granted  for  the  education  of  the  people  £70,000  was  devoted  to  building  the  stables 
of  the  Queen. 

2  Even  this  aid,  however,  was  allowed  in  an  indirect  way.     School  boards  were 
permitted  to  pay  fees  in  the  denominational  schools  for  the  children  of  parents  who, 
though  not  paupers,  were  unable  to  meet  the  expense. 

3  In   1902   a   Conservative   Government  under  Lord  Salisbury  abolished   the 
special  school  boards  provided  for  by  the  Act  of  1870,  and  placed  both  the  Board 


A   NEW  ERA   IN   DEMOCRACY  997 

The  Civil  Service  Reform,  1870.  —  Another  far-reaching  reform  in 
this  notable  year  1870  was  an  Order  in  Council  providing  that  candi- 
dates for  the  Civil  Service  should,  at  the  discretion  of  the  heads  of 
departments,  be  subjected  to  competitive  examinations.  The  quali- 
fication was  a  concession  to  the  opposition  of  Lord  Clarendon,  head  of 
the  Foreign  Office.  For  seventeen  years,  posts  in  the  Indian  Civil 
Service  had  been  filled  by  competitive  examination,  while,  since  1855, 
a  Civil  Service  Commission  had  selected  candidates  for  the  Home 
Service  by  examination,  but  only  in  the  case  of  those  nominated  to 
competition. 

The  University  Tests  Act,  1871. — An  Act  of  1871  opened  to  all 
students  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  the  right  to  obtain  university  de- 
grees, with  all  the  privileges  which  they  conferred,  and  the  right 
to  hold  lay  offices,  both  in  universities  and  the  colleges  without  the 
obligation  of  subscribing  to  any  religious  tests.  The  progressive 
legislation  following  the  great  Reform  Bill  of  1832  had  left  this  problem 
untouched ;  although  many  bills  dealing  with  it  had  been  introduced 
from  time  to  time.  At  Oxford,  a  student  was  obliged  at  matriculation 
to  subscribe  to  the  Thirty-nine  articles,  and  again  on  taking  the  B.A. 
and  the  M.A.  At  Cambridge  no  such  test  was  required,  though,  on 
taking  a  degree,  a  man  had  to  declare  that  he  was  a  bona  fide  member 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and,  since  it  rested  with  the  college  authori- 
ties to  receive  him  in  residence,  Nonconformists  were  for  years  prac- 
tically excluded  from  entrance.  In  1854,  the  university  test  for  matric- 
ulation was  abolished  at  Oxford,  while,  in  1856,  Cambridge  went 
a  step  further  by  throwing  open  to  Nonconformists  all  ordinary  bach- 
elors' degrees  and  the  nominal  title  of  the  M.A.  without  the  privileges 
attached  to  it.  Even  after  the  Act  of  1871  none  but  members  of 
the  Church  of  England  were  eligible  for  clerical  fellowships,  degrees 
in  divinity,  and  divinity  professorships. 

Arrny  Reform,  1870.  —  Cardwell,  Secretary  for  War,  and  Childers, 
First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  were  not  behindhand  in  reforms  relating 
to  their  respective  departments,  both  in  reduction  of  expenses  and 
increase  of  efficiency.  The  reduction  in  the  number  of  the  laborers 
and  artisans  employed  in  the  dockyards  made  many  enemies  for  the 
Ministry.  Cardwell  cut  down  the  number  of  British  troops  in  the 
Colonies  from  49,000  in  1868  to  less  than  21,000  in  1870,  thus  marking 
an  important  step  in  the  application  of  a  principle  already  recognized, 
that  the  oversea  possessions  should  provide  for  their  own  defense  in 
time  of  peace.  Then,  by  an  Act  of  1870,  he  made  the  Commander- 

and  the  Church  schools  under  the  supervision  of  the  County  and  Borough  Councils, 
and  provided  that  both  types  should  be  supported  by  Government  grants  supple- 
mented by  local  taxes.  At  the  same  time,  the  actual  control  of  the  Church  schools 
was  vested  in  a  committee  of  six,  two  from  the  Council  and  four  from  the  denomina- 
tion to  which  the  school  belongs.  Since  most  of  the  schools  were  of  the  Anglican 
communion,  the  Dissenters  made  vigorous  protests,  but,  owing  to  the  opposition 
of  the  Lords,  a  measure  framed  by  the  Liberal  Government,  in  1906,  with  a  view 
to  taking  public  education  out  of  denominational  hands  failed  to  pass. 


998  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in-Chief  more  subordinate  to  the  Secretary  for  War  than  he  had  been 
hitherto.  By  other  far-reaching  measures,  among  them  shortening 
the  term  of  enlistment,  he  practically  reorganized  the  whole  British 
army.  The  only  serious  struggle  arose  over  the  abolition  of  the  pur- 
chase of  army  officers'  commissions.  It  was  a  grave  defect  in  the 
existing  system  that  capable  men  of  training  could  be  jumped  by 
mere  youths  of  wealth  and  influence.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
argued  that  discipline  would  suffer  if  men  of  inferior  station  were  put 
in  command  of  their  social  superiors.  Naturally,  too,  those  who  had 
expended  large  sums  in  the  purchase  of  commissions  were  bitterly 
opposed  to  the  change.  As  a  concession  to  the  latter,  it  was  provided 
that  officers  who  had  paid  for  their  positions  might  retain  them,  and 
£7,000,000  was  appropriated  to  compensate  those  who  wished  to 
withdraw.  The  bill  passed  the  Commons  with  some  difficulty ;  but 
the  Lords,  while  they  did  not  venture  to  reject  it,  sought  to  shelve  it 
by  delaying  the  second  reading  till  the  whole  plan  of  army  reorganiza- 
tion was  before  them.  In  consequence,  Gladstone  induced  the  Queen 
to  declare  the  abolition  of  purchase  by  royal  warrant.  While  this 
was  perfectly  constitutional,  the  Prime  Minister  was  loudly  criticized. 
Many  Liberals  deprecated  his  resorting  to  the  royal  prerogative,  while 
Conservatives  resented  his  inducing  the  Queen  to  introduce  a  change 
with  which  she  was  not  in  sympathy,  and,  more  particularly,  his  dis- 
regarding the  will  of  the  Peers  after  he  had  already  submitted  the 
measure  to  them.  Disraeli  denounced  the  step  as  a  "  shameful  and 
avowed  conspiracy  against  the  Upper  House,"  which  was  now 
obliged  to  pass  the  Compensation  Bill.  The  Lords  took  their  revenge 
in  1871  by  rejecting  a  bill  providing  vote  by  ballot  and  more  effective 
checks  against  corrupt  practices  in  elections ;  but  they  had  to  give 
their  assent  the  following  year. 

The  Growing  Unpopularity  of  the  Gladstone  Ministry,  1871.  —  The 
Ministry,  though  it  survived  three  years  longer,  had  already  drawn 
upon  its  head  a  varied  and  powerful  opposition  that  was,  in  the  end, 
to  prove  overwhelming.  The  Education  Act  had  alienated  the  Non- 
conformists as  well  as  the  stanch  High  Churchmen,  the  reductions 
in  the  dockyards  had  aroused  the  workingmen,  the  abolition  of  pur- 
chase had  stirred  the  wrath  of  the  upper  classes.  A  number  of  bills, 
had  to  be  withdrawn  in  1871.  Chief  among  them  was  a  tax  on 
matches,  proposed  by  Lowe,  who  suggested  with  an  unfortunate 
play  of  wit,  that  each  box  should  bear  the  inscription  ex  luce  lucellum  — 
a  little  profit  out  of  light.  The  manufacturers  succeeded  in  arousing 
both  the  workmen  in  the  factories  as  well  as  the  poor  peddlers  in  the 
streets  and  enlisting  popular  sympathy  in  their  cause.  Moreover, 
the  conciliatory  attitude  of  the  Government  in  foreign  policy  was 
scornfully  branded  as  too  tame  and  submissive.  While  the  Liberal 
party  was  growing  steadily  weaker,  Disraeli  was  aiming  to  popularize 
the  Conservatives  by  exploiting  the  Imperial  idea.  The  Mother 
Country  and  her  colonies,  he  declared,  ought  to  be  united  in  close 


A  NEW  ERA  IN   DEMOCRACY  999 

Imperial  bonds;  there  should  be  an  Imperial  protective  tariff;  the 
ties  of  mutual  military  defense  should  be  drawn  together,  and  some 
form  of  a  representative  institution  should  be  set  up  in  London  in 
which  the  colonies  might  voice  their  aspirations  and  their  needs.  Of 
the  three  features  of  the  Conservative  program  which  he  framed  — 
"  the  maintenance  of  our  institutions,  the  preservation  of  our  Empire, 
and  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  our  people  "  — Imperialism 
proved  the  most  tangible.  In  a  famous  speech  at  Manchester  in 
1872  he  compared  the  Ministers  to  a  "  range  of  exhausted  volcanoes." 

The  Supreme  Court  of  Judicature  Act,  1873.  —  Such  was  the  situa- 
tion when,  in  February,  1873,  Gladstone  introduced  a  bill  to  unite  the 
various  colleges  of  Ireland  into  a  single  university  to  which  both 
Roman  Catholics  and  Protestants  should  be  freely  admitted  without 
religious  tests.  The  defeat  of  the  measure  by  three  votes  caused  the 
Prime  Minister  to  resign.  Since,  however,  Disraeli  did  not  feel  that 
his  party  was  yet  strong  enough  to  take  office,  the  old  Government 
came  back.  Although  in  a  sadly  crippled  state,  it  was  able  to  under- 
take, during  the  last  few  months  of  its  career,  one  more  notable  reform 
—  a  fundamental  reorganization  of  the  Law  Courts  and  their  procedure 
which  was  finally  completed  within  two  years.  By  the  Judicature 
Act  of  1873,  and  the  supplementary  acts  which  followed,  the  three 
Common  Law  Courts,  together  with  Chancery  and  various  other 
tribunals  were  consolidated  into  one  Supreme  Court  of  Judicature. 
This  was  to  consist  of  two  primary  divisions :  (i)  the  High  Court  of 
Justice,  made  of  three  subdivisions,  (a)  Queen's  Bench,1  (b)  Chancery, 
(c)  Probate,  Divorce,  and  Admiralty ;  (2)  the  Court  of  Appeal.  From 
the  Court  of  Appeal  the  cases  went,  as  a  last  resort,  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  which  was  strengthened  in  1876  by  the  addition  of  three  Law 
Lords  who  held  their  title  for  life.  A  fourth  was  subsequently  added. 

The  End  of  the  First  Gladstone  Ministry,  1874.  —  In  1874,  Glad- 
stone suddenly  appealed  to  the  country  in  a  general  election  which 
resulted  in  an  overwhelming  victory  for  the  Conservatives.  By  pro- 
posing a  tax  on  spirits  the  vanquished  Prime  Minister  had  added  to 
his  list  a  new  enemy  —  the  liquor  dealers  —  who  worked  so  actively 
against  him  that  he  wrote  to  his  brother :  "  we  have  been  borne  down 
in  a  torrent  of  gin  and  beer,"  doubtless  an  exaggeration  of  the  in- 
fluence of  this  particular  factor.  Disraeli,  in  a  recent  attack,  had 
accused  him  of  having  "  harassed  every  trade,  worried  every  profession, 
and  assailed  every  class  institution  and  species  of  property  in  the 
country."  "  It  would  have  been  better  for  us  all,"  he  declared  on 
another  occasion,  "  if  there  had  been  a  little  more  energy  in  our 
foreign  policy,  and  a  little  less  in  our  domestic  legislation."  The 
Ministry  had  committed  some  blunders,  it  had  made  many  enemies, 
and  alienated  some  of  its  friends.  Aside,  however,  from  those  who 
were  actuated  by  strong  religious  convictions  or  insistent  upon  a  more 

1  This  consolidation  was  not  completed  until  1880. 


iooo  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

aggressive  policy  abroad,  most  of  its  opponents  were  those  whose  class 
privileges  and  vested  interests  had  suffered.  It  had  come  to  power 
pledged  to  carry  out  a  vast  program  of  reform,  and  its  achievements 
in  constructive,  progressive  legislation  had  been  surpassed  by  few 
ministries  of  the  century.  Not  only  that,  but  it  had  also  reduced 
expenses  materially  and  left  the  treasury  in  a  flourishing  condition. 

England  and  the  Franco-Prussian  War,  1870-1871. — The  two 
most  important  features  in  British  foreign  relations  during  the  Glad- 
stonian  regime  were  the  attitude  of  the  Government  toward  the 
Franco-Prussian  War  and  the  adjustment,  of  the  Alabama  claims. 
Clarendon,  appointed  to  the  Foreign  Office  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Ministry,  died  in  1870.  His  death  was  a  serious  loss;  for  he  was  a 
finished  diplomat  whose  name  carried  great  weight  in  the  councils 
of  Europe.  Lord  Granville,  who  had  succeeded  him,  was  a  man  of 
tact  and  personal  charm  but  dilatory  and  yielding.  On  19  July,  1870, 
war  broke  out  between  France  and  Prussia.  The  causes  were  many 
and  complicated.  The  French  were  jealous  of  the  rising  power  of 
Prussia;  they  burned  to  recover  the  old  Frankish  territories  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  their  "  natural  frontier,"  while  Napoleon  III 
was  anxious  to  unite  his  discontented  subjects  in  a  great  war  of  con- 
quest. Led  on  by  the  adroit  diplomacy  of  Bismarck,  who  was  striving 
to  complete  the  unification  of  Germany  under  Prussian  domination, 
the  French  rushed  headlong  and  unprepared  into  the  conflict.  The 
result  was  a  Prussian  triumph.  On  i  September,  1870,  the  Emperor, 
with  an  entire  French  army,  was  surrounded  and  captured  at  Sedan. 
On  19  September  the  siege  of  Paris  began,  and  after  heroic  suffering 
the  city  yielded,  28  January,  1871.  Ten  days  before,  William, 
King  of  Prussia,  was  crowned  German  Emperor  at  Versailles,  and  by 
the  peace,  concluded  3  March,  France  ceded  Alsace  and  Lorraine  and 
agreed  to  pay  a  war  indemnity  of  five  milliards  of  francs.  The  or- 
ganization of  the  new  German  Empire  was  completed  in  1871.  After 
vain  offers  of  mediation  the  British  Government  remained  neutral. 
By  his  ruthless  methods  Bismarck  was  able  to  prevent  English  popular 
sympathy  for  France  from  going  too  far.  His  most  telling  stroke  was 
to  publish,  25  July,  1870,  the  draft  of  a  treaty  which  he  had  induced 
the  Emperor  to  submit  to  him,  looking  toward  a  French  occupation  of 
Belgium.  The  Queen,  naturally  inclined  to  favor  the  German  cause, 
nevertheless,  in  the  interests  of  humanity,  tried  to  prevent  the  bom- 
bardment of  Paris.  This  Bismarck  resented  as  "  petticoat  sentimen- 
tality," hindering  German  designs.  In  order  to  prevent  any  possi- 
bility of  Great  Britain  and  Russia  combining  to  intervene  in  behalf 
of  France,  he  sought  to  set  the  two  Powers  by  the  ears.  To  that  end, 
he  prompted  Russia  to  seize  the  opportunity  offered  by  the  disturbed 
condition  of  Europe  to  abrogate  the  clause  in  the  Treaty  of  1856  which 
excluded  Russian  ships  from  the  Black  Sea.  Russia  decided  to  take 
the  step  and  suddenly  announced  her  intention  in  a  circular  letter, 
issued  31  October,  1870.  Great  Britain  protested  stoutly  against  her 


A  NEW  ERA    IN  DEMOCRACY  1001 

proceeding  independently  of  the  other  parties  to  the  Treaty.  Although 
a  conference  was  assembled  at  London  in  December,  the  result  was  a 
foregone  conclusion.  Russia  had  her  way. 

The  Alabama  Claims.  —  The  settlement  of  the  Alabama  claims  was 
regarded  by  many  as  another  diplomatic  defeat  for  the  Gladstone 
Ministry.  Undoubtedly,  however,  Russell  had  been  at  fault  in  allow- 
ing the  Alabama,  to  sail.  In  1865,  he  admitted  to  Gladstone  that 
"  paying  twenty  millions  down  would  be  far  preferable  to  submitting 
the  case  to  arbitration."  The  question  was  complicated  by  the  resent- 
ment aroused  in  the  United  States  against  the  British  recognition  of 
the  belligerent  rights  of  the  South,  and  by  the  setting  forth  of  indirect 
claims  amounting  to  £400,000,000.  These  were  based  on  the  grounds 
that  Great  Britain's  encouragement  prolonged  the  war,  that  her 
attitude  was  responsible  for  a  large  share  of  the  Northern  losses  at 
sea,  and  on  the  expense  incurred  by  the  United  States  Government  in 
pursuing  the  various  cruisers  which  had  sailed  from  British  ports. 
After  long  and  arduous  negotiations  had  failed  to  accomplish  anything, 
the  two  Governments  finally  agreed  to  appoint  a  joint  commission 
to  discuss  the  questions  at  issue  and  decide  upon  a  plan  of  settlement. 
By  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  where  the  meetings  were  held  in  the 
spring  of  1871,  it  was  agreed,  among  other  things,  that  Great  Britain 
should  express  her  regret  at  the  escape  of  the  Alabama  and  the  other 
Confederate  cruisers,  and  that  the  assessment  of  damages  should  be 
referred  to  an  international  tribunal.  This  body,  which  was  to  meet 
at  Geneva,  was  to  consist  of  five  members  chosen  by  the  rulers  of 
Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  Brazil.  As 
the  result  of  its  findings,  announced  in  September,  1872,  the  United 
States  was  awarded  £3,250,000.  This  Geneva  Award  marked  the 
first  step  in  international  arbitration,  and  hence  a  notable  advance  in 
the  progress  of  civilization,  though  the  majority  of  the  British  people 
looked  upon  it  in  the  light  of  a  national  humiliation.  By  the  Foreign 
Enlistment  Act  of  1870,  making  it  "  an  offense  to  build  a  ship  in 
circumstances  which  gave  reasonable  cause  for  belief  that  it  would  be 
used  against  a  friendly  state  engaged  in  war,"  Great  Britain  pro- 
vided for  the  future  against  any  difficulties  of  this  nature. 

The  Second  Disraeli  Ministry,  1874-1880.  —  For  the  first  time  since 
the  Peelite  schism  the  Conservatives,  in  1874,  came  to  office  with  a 
decided  majority.  Their  ranks  were  greatly  strengthened  by  the 
accession  of  numbers  from  the  commercial  classes  who  were  alienated 
from  the  Liberal  party  because  it  was  attracting  the  increasing  support 
of  the  trade  unions  and  the  artisans.  A  Jew  who  had  achieved  his 
earliest  fame  as  a  fop  and  a  novelist,  and  who  had  entered  public 
life  advocating  a  union  of  the  nobility  and  the  masses  against  the 
capitalistic  class,  was  the  leader  of  a  new  combination  of  aristocracy 
and  conservative  commercialism.  After  the  mass  of  legislation  pro- 
duced by  the  late  Ministry,  Disraeli's  Government  proposed  to  give 
the  country  a  comparative  rest.  However,  a  few  bills  of  note  passed. 


1002  A   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

In  the  teeth  of  determined  obstruction  from  the  Irish  representatives, 
Assheton  Cross,  the  Home  Secretary,  was  able  to  carry  various  measures 
dealing  with  the  welfare  of  the  working  classes  —  notably  a  Public 
Health  Act  and  an  Artisans'  Dwelling  Act.  In  1876  the  persistent 
efforts  of  Samuel  Plimsoll,  the  "  sailors'  friend,"  were  rewarded  by 
the  passage  of  the  Merchant  Shipping  Act  aiming  to  prevent  the 
overloading  of  ships  or  sending  them  on  voyages  in  an  unseaworthy 
condition.1  Early  in  January,  1875,  Gladstone  withdrew  from  the 
leadership  of  the  Liberal  party,  though,  as  it  proved,  only  temporarily. 
The  Marquis  of  Hartington  took  his  place  in  the  Commons,  while 
Granville  continued  as  leader  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

The  Purchase  of  the  Suez  Canal  Shares,  1875.  —  While  the  Con- 
servative Ministry  passed  a  few  measures  which  indicate  that  they 
too  were  not  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  the  working  classes  and  sought 
their  support,  Disraeli's  most  notable  achievements  were  in  the  field 
of  foreign  affairs.  Perhaps  his  greatest  stroke  was  the  purchase, 
in  November,  1875,  of  the  Egyptian  Khedive's  shares  in  the  Suez 
Canal  Company.  For  £5,000,000  he  secured  nearly  half  the  total 
stock.  The  step  was  made  possible  by  the  bankruptcy  of  the  Khedive, 
Ismail,  a  colossal  spendthrift,  who  in  less  than  thirteen  years  had 
increased  the  Egyptian  debt  from  £3,000,000  to  £91,000,000.  Be- 
cause of  its  position  relative  to  India,  the  British  interest  in  Egypt  had 
always  been  great ;  with  the  building  of  the  Canal,  which  shortened 
it  nearly  six  thousand  miles,  this  interest  became  vital.  In  1856,  the 
French  engineer  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps  had  taken  up  the  project  which 
Napoleon  had  abandoned.  In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  Palmerston, 
he  succeeded  in  launching  a  company  with  a  capital  of  £8,000,000, 
about  half  of  which  was  subscribed  by  French  capitalists.  The 
Egyptian  Government,  which  took  up  the  remainder,  ultimately  sank 
more  than  £16,000,000  in  the  undertaking.  The  Canal,  begun  in 
1859,  was  opened  17  November,  1869,  with  great  festivities.2  It  was 
not  till  1872  that  the  receipts  began  to  exceed  expenses,  though,  from 
that  time,  the  profits  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds,  although  the 
Egyptians,  who  had  contributed  so  much,  received  nothing  except  the 
£5,000,000,  which  was  sunk  in  the  yawning  gulf  of  the  Khedive's 
expenses.  Prompted  by  a  suggestion  from  Frederick  Greenwood,  an 
English  journalist,  Disraeli,  when  he  found  that  Ismail  was  trying 
to  mortgage  his  shares  in  Paris,  negotiated  the  purchase  on  his  own  re- 
sponsibility and  got  Parliament  to  ratify  the  Act.  In  1876,  owing  to 
the  involved  condition  of  Egyptian  finances,  the  European  Powers 
were  obliged  to  step  in,  and  an  Anglo-French  dual  control  was  es- 

1  The  abuses  of  sending  ships  to  sea  in  an  unsafe  condition  in  order  to  gain  the 
insurance  is  graphically  pictured  in  Conan  Doyle's  The  Firm  of  Girdlestone. 

2  When  the  Khedive  learned,  six  weeks  before  the  event,  that  the  French  Empress 
Eugenie  desired  to  visit  the  pyramids  at  Giza,  he  ordered  a  road  seven  miles  long 
to  be  built.     It  was  done  in  the  intense  heat  by  10,000  peasants  who  were  forced 
under  the  lash. 


A  NEW  ERA  IN  DEMOCRACY  1003 

tablished.  In  the  following  year  Major  Evelyn  Baring  (later  and 
better  known  as  Lord  Cromer)  began,  as  British  Commissioner  to 
the  Public  Debt,  his  long  and  wonderful  career  in  Egypt.  Ismail, 
after  regaining  his  authority  for  a  brief  period,  was  finally  deposed, 
in  1879,  by  the  Sultan,  at  the  instance  of  Great  Britain  and  France. 
He  died  in  exile  in  1895.  He  was  succeeded  as  nominal  Khedive  by  his 
young  and  inexperienced  son,  Tewfik  Pasha,  who  fell  heir  to  "a  bank- 
rupt state,  an  undisciplined  army,  and  a  discontented  people."  A 
crisis  was  inevitable,  which  came  to  a  head  in  1881. 

Victoria,  Empress  of  India,  1876.— Another  evidence  of  Disraeli's 
Imperial  imagination  was  manifested  in  the  Royal  Titles  Bill  of  1876 
by  which  the  Queen  was  declared  Empress  of  India.  He  sought  to 
allay  the  opposition  —  based  to  a  large  degree  on  the  discredit  which 
the  Imperial  title  had  suffered  from  the  blasted  careers  of  Napoleon  III 
and  Maximilian  —  by  a  promise  that  Victoria  would  never  use  it  in 
England.  This  led  to  Lord  Rosebery's  witty  comment :  "  labeled  for 
external  use  only."  The  natives  of  India  received  the  innovation 
with  such  enthusiasm  that  the  feeling  against  it  in  England  soon  died 
away.  In  August,  1876,  Disraeli,  now  in  his  seventy-second  year, 
went  to  the  House  of  Lords  as  Earl  of  Beaconsfield. 

A  new  Crisis  in  the  Near  East,  1875.  —  Meantime,  the'  old  prob- 
lem of  Turkey  in  Europe  had  again  assumed  an  acute  form.  The 
trouble  began  in  1875  with  a  revolt  in  the  provinces  of  Bosnia  and 
Herzegovina.  Though  egged  on  by  Russia  and  Austria,  they  had  suf- 
fered real  grievances  at  the  hands  of  Turkish  officials  :  religious  oppres- 
sion, and  financial  extortion  as  well.  The  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of 
1856  had  been  violated  in  almost  every  conceivable  way :  the  Porte 
had  not  kept  its  promise  of  ameliorating  the  lot  of  the  Christians  under 
its  rule,  Russia  had  not  been  excluded  from  the  Black  Sea,  and  endless 
other  causes  of  friction  existed  to  invite  trouble.  The  three  Powers,  of 
Austria,  Russia,  and  Prussia,  were  insistent  that  Turkey  should  be 
made  to  reform  her  administration  by  force  of  arms  if  necessary. 
The  British  Ministers  would  go  no  further,  however,  than  to  urge 
reform  upon  the  Sultan.  They  still  believed  in  the  possibility  of  the 
regeneration  of  Turkey,  a  delusion  which  their  jealousy  of  Russia 
contributed  to  nourish.  Depending  upon  Disraeli's  support,  the 
Turks  pursued  a  policy  of  suave  evasion.  On  5  May,  1876,  a  body  of 
Mohammedan  fanatics  rose  at  Salonika,  and  among  their  victims 
were  the  French  and  German  consuls.  Although  British,  French, 
and  German  fleets  were  hurried  to  the  scene  of  action,  the  disorders 
continued.  At  Constantinople,  two  sultans  were  deposed  within  two 
months.  During  the  summer  of  1876,  Servia  and  Montenegro  joined 
in  the  war.  About  the  same  time  an  insurrection  broke  out  in  Bul- 
garia, and  was  suppressed  by  the  Turks  with  such  atrocities  as  to 
arouse  a  fury  of  indignation  in  England,  especially  among  the  Liberals. 
Gladstone,  emerging  from  his  retirement,  published,  in  September,  a 
pamphlet  on  the  Bulgarian  Horrors  and  the  Question  of  the  East,  and 


1004  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

made  speeches  of  fiery  eloquence  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed.  Beacons- 
field,  who  had  little  sympathy  for  the  Christians  in  the  Turkish  prov- 
inces and  a  consuming  dread  of  Russia,  accused  his  rival  of  making 
political  capital  out  of  the  situation,  referring  to  him  as  a  "  designing 
politician,"  seeking  "  to  further  his  own  sinister  ends."  The  more 
conservative  Liberals  were  offended  by  the  extreme  utterances  of  the 
historian  Freeman  at  a  meeting  where  Gladstone  also  appeared. 
"  Perish  the  interests  of  England,"  he  cried,  "  perish  our  dominion  in 
India,  rather  than  she  should  strike  one  blow  in  behalf  of  Turkey,  in 
behalf  of  the  wrong  against  the  right."  A  split  in  the  party  seemed 
imminent.  The  Marquis  of  Hartington,  for  example,  who  carried 
great  weight,  was  by  no  means  of  Gladstone's  way  of  thinking,  much 
less  of  Freeman's. 

The  Russo-Turkish  War,  1877-1878.  —  But  Beaconsfield  dominated 
the  Cabinet,  and  it  was  only  the  opposition  of  the  British  Government 
to  the  use  of  force  that  held  Russia  back.  At  length  a  conference 
of  the  Powers  was  arranged  at  Constantinople.  Lord  Salisbury,  the 
British  representative  at  Constantinople,  solemnly  informed  the 
Sultan  that  if  he  failed  to  observe  the  warning  of  the  Powers  and  al- 
lowed maladministration  to  continue,  the  responsibility  would  rest  with 
the  Porte.  The  effect  of  these  weighty  words  was  counterbalanced 
by  a  speech  of  Beaconsfield's  at  the  Guildhall,  9  November,  1876, 
in  which  he  declared  that :  "  In  a  righteous  cause  —  and  he  trusted 
that  England  would  never  embark  in  war  except  in  a  righteous  cause  — 
England  was  not  a  country  that  would  have  to  inquire  whether  she 
would  have  to  enter  into  a  second  or  third  campaign."  l  The  Turks, 
thus  encouraged  to  count  on  British  support,  rejected  a  protocol 
framed  by  the  Conference  voicing  the  demands  of  the  Powers.  As  a 
consequence,  Russia  declared  war  on  Turkey,  24  April,  1877.  For 
months  the  conflict  was  waged  with  varying  fortunes  until,  in  Decem- 
ber, the  power  of  the  Turkish  resistance  was  broken.  In  January, 
1878,  the  Russian  troops  occupied  Adrianople  ;  but,  though  they  were 
within  striking  distance  of  Constantinople,  their  energies  were,  for  the 
moment,  wellnigh  exhausted.  There  were  three  parties  in  England. 
At  one  extreme  were  those  who  regarded  the  welfare  of  the  Christian 
subjects  of  the  Porte  as  a  matter  of  secondary  importance,  and  in- 
sisted upon  the  maintenance  of  the  integrity  of  Turkey  as  a  necessary 
barrier  against  Russian  aggrandizement.  Opposed  to  them  was  the 
party  which  felt  that  the  maintenance  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  in  Europe 
was  a  disgrace  to  Christendom  and  that  it  must  be  destroyed  at  all 
hazards.  Between  these  extremes  was  the  great  mass  of  men  who  were 
ashamed  of  the  Turkish  atrocities ;  but  who,  nevertheless,  could  not 

1  The  aggressive  party  who  supported  him  in  these  views  came  to  be  known  as 
the  "  Jingoists,"  from  a  music-hall  song  of  the  autumn  of  1878  which  ran  : 

"We  don't  want  to  fight,  but  by  jingo  if  we  do, 
We've  got  the  ships,  we've  got  the  men, 
We've  got  the  money  too." 


A  NEW   ERA   IN   DEMOCRACY  1005 

bring  themselves  to  support  the  armed  intervention  of  Russia.  There 
were  sharp  differences  of  opinion  in  the  Cabinet  as  well.  The  policy 
of  Lord  Derby,1  the  Foreign  Minister,  was  to  hold  aloof  without 
coercing  or  assisting  Turkey,  so  long  as  the  British  interests  in  the 
Suez,  in  Egypt,  in  the  Persian  Gulf,  or  anywhere  along  the  route  to 
India,  were  not  affected.  With  some  difficulty  he  maintained  this 
policy  until  the  Russians  advanced  on  Constantinople,  when,  as  a 
counterpoise,  a  British  fleet  was  sent  to  the  ^Egean.  It  sailed  through 
the  Dardanelles,  and  took  up  a  position  near  the  Turkish  capital.  On 
3  March,  the  Russians  extorted  from  their  vanquished  enemy  the 
Treaty  of  San  Stefano. 

The  Treaty  of  San  Stefano,  1878.  —  The  Treaty  provided  for : 
(i)  the  creation  of  the  autonomous  vassal  principality  of  Bulgaria 
extending  from  the  Danube  on  the  north  and  the  Black  Sea  on  the  east 
to  the  ^Egean  on  the  south,  and  so  big  as  not  only  to  menace  the 
integrity  of  Turkey,  but  practically  to  swallow  up  Macedonia,  which 
the  Greeks  burned  to  recover ;  (2)  the  independence  of  Servia,  Mon- 
tenegro, and  Rumania2  with  considerable  additions  of  territory, 
though  Russia  designed  to  extend  her  boundaries  at  the  expense  of 
Rumania;  (3)  the  demolition  of  the  Danubian  fortresses;  (4)  the 
autonomy  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  under  Christian  governors; 
(5)  the  guarantee  of  reforms  and  protection  in  the  provinces  inhabited 
by  the  Armenians ;  (6)  the  payment  of  a  war  indemnity  by  Turkey. 
The  plan  of  a  "  big  Bulgaria  "  was  opposed  strenuously  both  by  the 
Mussulmans  and  by  the  Greeks.  Great  Britain  favored  their  protest, 
on  the  ground  that  it  would  practically  amount  to  the  creation  of  a 
Russian  province  dominating  the  Balkan  peninsula.  The  British 
only  later  came  to  recognize  that  the  formation  of  strong  and  inde- 
pendent buffer  states  in  the  Balkans  might  prove  just  as  effective  a 
check  on  the  expansion  of  Russia  as  would  the  preservation  of  the  in- 
tegrity of  Turkey.3  Austria  who  had  received  a  promise  that  she 
might  occupy  the  provinces  of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  was  also 
dissatisfied.  As  a  result,  the  Congress  of  Berlin  was  arranged,  where, 
owing  mainly  to  the  insistence  of  Great  Britain,  the  whole  treaty  was 
reviewed.  Although  it  was  unprecedented  for  a  Prime  Minister  to 
take  such  a  step,  Beaconsfield  went  in  person  to  Berlin. 

The  Congress  of  Berlin,  1878.  —  The  Congress,  which  sat  from  13 
June  to  13  July,  under  the  presidency  of  Bismarck,  was  a  brilliant 
assemblage  of  diplomats  representing  the  leading  European  powers. 
Its  chief  work  was  to  alter  two  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano. 
Austria  was  allowed  to  occupy  and  administer  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina.4 Also  the  "  big  Bulgaria  "  was  cut  down  to  a  district  north 

1  The  son  of  the  late  Prime  Minister. 

2  Formed  by  the  union  of  the  ancient  provinces  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia 
in  1859. 

3  Lord  Salisbury  declared  very  bluntly,  some  time  after,  that  Great  Britain  had 
"backed  the  wrong  horse."  4  Austria  annexed  the  provinces  in  1908, 


ioo6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  the  Balkans.  South  of  the  mountains  was  formed  the  province 
of  Eastern  Rumelia,  under  the  control  of  the  Sultan,  but  adminis- 
tered by  a  Christian  Governor- General  named  by  the  Porte  with  the 
assent  of  the  Powers.  Macedonia,  too,  was  excluded  from  the  Bul- 
garia contemplated  by  the  Russian  arrangement,  and,  in  spite  of  prom- 
ised reforms,  remained  groaning  under  Turkish  oppression  and  con- 
stantly in  revolt  until  the  Balkan  War  of  1912.  Meantime,  4  June,  Great 
Britain,  nine  days  before  the  opening  of  the  Berlin  Congress,  had  con- 
cluded a  convention  with  Turkey  by  which  she  received  the  island  of 
Cyprus  in  return  for  an  agreement  to  protect  the  Asiatic  provinces  of 
the  Porte  from  Russian  attack,  on  condition  that  the  Sultan  "  intro- 
duce necessary  reforms  therein."  Beaconsfield  on  his  return  to  Eng- 
land was  received  with  tremendous  enthusiasm,  and  declared  compla- 
cently that  he  had  obtained  "  peace  with  honor."  But  his  achieve- 
ments at  Berlin  were  hardly  worth  the  trouble  they  cost,  and  that  on 
which  he  prided  himself  most  was  not  destined  to  survive  a  decade.  He 
was  unable  to  keep  northern  and  southern  Bulgaria  apart  by  giving 
the  latter  a  new  name,  and  in  1885  his  Pet  creation  of  Eastern  Roume- 
lia  quietly  proclaimed  its  union  with  Bulgaria,  an  arrangement  which 
was  sanctioned  by  Salisbury,  the  successor  of  Beaconsfield  as  head  of 
the  Conservative  party.  Great  Britain,  however,  had  accomplished 
something  by  strengthening  the  Austrian  power  in  the  Balkan  States, 
and  by  showing  the  Russians  that  they  could  not  presume  to  adjust 
the  affairs  of  the  near  East  unopposed ;  but  even  the  heirs  of  Beacons- 
field's  policy  came  to  recognize  that  there  was  a  more  effectual  way  of 
holding  the  Muscovite  power  in  check  than  by  a  futile  attempt  to 
sustain  the  integrity  of  Turkey  in  Europe. 

The  Situation  in  India  and  Afghanistan,  1874-1878.  —  Among 
the  problems  facing  the  Beaconsfield  Administration  when  it  came  to 
power  was  a  famine  in  Bengal ;  but  concerted  measures  of  relief 
helped  to  tide  over  the  crisis  until  an  abundant  rainfall  and  a  fruitful 
harvest  brought  plenty  in  the  following  year.  The  loyalty  of  the  im- 
aginative Indians  was  stimulated  by  a  visit  of  the  Prince  of  Wales 
during  the  winter  of  1875-1876 ;  by  Victoria's  assumption  of  the  Im- 
perial title,  together  with  the  creation  of  "  native  councillors  of  the 
Empress  "  and  the  Order  of  the  Indian  Empire.  Early  in  1876,  Lord 
Lytton,  son  of  the  famous  novelist  and  himself  a  minor  poet  who  had 
served  as  a  diplomatist,  hitherto  without  distinction,  went  out  as 
Viceroy.  Like  so  many  of  Beaconsfield's  appointees,  he  showed  un- 
expected qualities  for  the  work  before  him.  In  devising  measures  to 
meet  another  famine  —  this  time  in  southern  and  western  India  —  as 
well  as  in  the  whole  field  of  internal  administration  his  regime  was 
marked  by  vigor  and  capacity.  Unhappily,  however,  he  soon  became 
involved  with  the  Amir  of  Afghanistan  in  what  was  regarded  as  a 
necessary  policy  of  intervention  for  the  purpose  of  checking  the  for- 
ward policy  of  Russia,  a  policy  in  which  that  country  was  strengthened 
by  the  attitude  of  Great  Britain  toward  the  treaty  of  San  Stefano.  In 


A  NEW  ERA  IN  DEMOCRACY  1007 

the  summer  of  1878  it  developed  that  the  Russians  were  treating  with 
the  Afghan  ruler,  and  had  induced  him  to  accept  a  Russian  mission 
at  Kabul.  Instead  of  trying  to  force  the  Russians  to  withdraw,  the 
British  Cabinet  followed  the  advice  of  Lytton  and  determined  to 
coerce  the  Amir  into  accepting  a  British  resident  as  well.  He  had 
desired  British  support  in  money  and  arms ;  but  he  was  stoutly  op- 
posed to  a  resident  British  mission  on  the  ground  that  it  would  weaken 
his  authority,  and  that  "  in  the  event  of  an  outbreak  he  would  be 
unable  to  protect  it."  Events  proved  him  right.  Lord  Lawrence,  an 
ex- Viceroy  and  one  of  the  most  notable  of  Indian  administrators,  pro- 
tested against  the  policy;  but  Beaconsfield  was  insistent,  and  even 
went  so  far  as  to  declare  in  his  speech  at  the  Guildhall  banquet,  in 
November,  1878,  that  the  object  was  to  establish  a  "  scientific  fron- 
tier "  in  the  northwest,  that  is,  nothing  less  than  territorial  aggression 
for  the  defense  of  India. 

The  Afghan  War,  1878-1879.  —  The  Government  had  to  send 
a  great  invading  army  to  enforce  its  demands.  Gladstone  uttered 
a  prophetic  prayer :  "  May  heaven  avert  a  repetition  of  the  calamity 
which  befell  the  army  in  1841."  Sher  Ali  fled  and  his  son  and  successor, 
Yakub  Khan,  negotiated  a  treaty  providing  for  a  readjustment  of  the 
frontier  and  the  admission  of  a  British  resident.  While  the  wise  fore- 
saw that  the  situation  was  full  of  danger,  the  Government  nourished 
the  delusion  that  they  had  secured  a  "  friendly,  and  independent 
and  a  strong  Afghanistan."  In  September,  the  British  envoy,  together 
with  the  little  force  which  had  been  left  with  him  on  the  withdrawal 
of  the  invading  army,  less  than  six  weeks  after  his  arrival  at  Kabul, 
was  killed  in  a  vain  attempt  to  defend  the  Embassy.  Yakub  Khan, 
who  had  all  along  been  encouraging  disaffection  among  his  subjects,  if 
he  had  not  instigated  the  actual  rising,  at  least  took  no  steps  to  put 
it  down.  General  Roberts  was  at  once  dispatched  to  Kabul,  and  oc- 
cupied the  city,  10  October.  Yakub  Khan  abdicated  and  went  into 
exile.  A  commission  of  inquiry  sentenced  eighty-seven  persons  to 
death  for  participation  in  the  murderous  outbreak  and  the  disturbance 
which  followed.  Reinforcements  were  hurried  to  the  assistance  of 
Roberts ;  but  Lytton,  who  contemplated  a  complete  subjugation  of 
northern  Afghanistan,  was  superseded  on  a  change  of  Ministry  in  1880. 
Abdur  Rahman  Khan,  a  cousin  of  the  late  Sher  Ali,  was  made  Amir 
at  Kabul,  while  Kandahar  was  placed  under  a  separate  ruler.  The 
aggressive  policy  of  Beaconsfield  and  Lytton  had  resulted  in  a  tragedy 
which  had  been  signally  avenged.  The  new  arrangements,  however, 
left  the  situation  fraught  with  uncertainty.  Various  difficulties  have 
arisen  in  subsequent  years  owing  to  native  risings  and  boundary  dis- 
putes with  Russia.  At  present,  however,  the  storm  center  of  Russian 
and  British  rivalry  is  rather  in  Persia  than  in  Afghanistan.  Elsewhere, 
the  Conservative  government  showed  the  same  forward  policy,  notably 
in  South  Africa,  where,  as  one  consequence,  the  British  were  plunged 
into  a  serious  war  with  the  Zulus,  lasting  from  January  to  July,  1879. 


ioo8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Fall  of  the  Beaconsfield  Ministry,  1880.  —  The  Beaconsfield 
Ministry  had  already  reached  the  highwater  mark  of  its  popularity 
at  the  time  of  the  Prime  Minister's  return  from  Berlin  in  1878.  Agri- 
cultural depression,1  decline  in  trade,  strikes,  the  Afghan  and  Zulu 
wars,  unsatisfactory  budgets,  dearth  of  remedial  legislation,  together 
with  the  policy  of  systematic  obstruction  initiated  by  the  new  Irish 
Home  Rule  party  in  the  Commons,  all  contributed  to  prepare  the  way 
for  its  overthrow.  In  November,  1879,  Gladstone,  now  a  veteran  of 
three  score  and  ten,  denounced  the  Government  in  a  remarkable 
series  of  speeches  delivered  to  his  constituency  of  Midlothian.  He 
scored  the  foreign  policy,  including  the  burden  of  expense  which  it 
involved,  and  he  scored  the  domestic  administration.  Many,  however, 
even  of  his  own  party  regarded  his  campaigning  with  apprehension  as  a 
"  precedent  tending  in  its  results  to  the  degradation  of  British  politics 
by  bringing  in  a  system  of  perpetual  canvass,  and  removing  the  politi- 
cal center  of  gravity  from  Parliament  to  the  platform."  On  8  March, 
1880,  Beaconsfield  appealed  to  the  country  in  a  general  election. 
The  cause  of  the  Liberals  was  much  assisted  by  the  superiority  of  their 
political  organization  based  on  the  model  which  Mr.  Joseph  Chamber- 
lain, destined  to  become  one  of  the  dominant  figures  of  the  generation, 
had  introduced  from  the  United  States  into  Birmingham,  whence  it 
spread  through  the  country.  Another  factor  in  the  election  was  the 
support  which  the  Irish  gave  to  the  Liberals  ;  "  but  the  main  cause  of 
a  change  of  fortune,  more  startling  than  any  of  the  party  managers 
had  anticipated,  was  Gladstone's  missionary  fervor,  playing  upon 
popular  discontent,  the  reaction  against  Imperialism  as  exemplified 
in  the  Zulu  and  Afghan  misadventures,  the  dislike  of  the  Noncon- 
formists to  Disraeli,  and  the  desire  for  something  fresh."  When  he 
learned  of  the  defeat  of  his  party  at  the  polls,  Beaconsfield  resigned, 
18  April,  1880,  without  waiting  to  face  Parliament. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

See  Chapter  LV  below. 
1  In  1879  occurred  the  worst  harvest  of  the  century. 


CHAPTER  LV 
THE  TWO  LAST  DECADES  OF  VICTORIA'S  REIGN   (1880-1901) 

The  Second  Gladstone  Ministry,  April,  1880- July,  1885.  —  While 
Granville  in  the  House  of  Lords  and  Hartington  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons were  still  the  leaders  of  the  Liberal  party,  it  was  Gladstone  who 
had  defeated  the  Conservatives  by  his  Midlothian  campaign  speeches. 
When  they  found  that  their  old  chief  would  accept  no  subordinate 
office,  they  persuaded  the  Queen,  much  against  her  will,  to  make  him 
Prime  Minister.  It  was  the  last  Cabinet  in  which  John  Bright  ever 
sat,  and  the  first  in  which  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain  held  office. 
The  latter,  together  with  many  of  his  colleagues,  were  destined  to 
break  from  their  party  on  the  question  of  Irish  Home  Rule. 

The  Bradlaugh  Case,  1880-1886.  —  At  the  opening  of  the  new 
session,  Charles  Bradlaugh,  elected  from  Northampton,  raised  an 
issue  which  culminated,  after  some  years  of  struggle,  in  the  removal 
of  the  last  religious  disability  for  membership  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. As  an  atheist  Bradlaugh  objected  to  the  required  oath  which 
contained  the  words :  "  So  help  me  God,"  and  insisted  on  taking  an 
affirmation  instead.  After  conflicting  motions  and  decisions,  an 
Affirmation  Bill  was  introduced  and  dropped  in  1881,  while  another 
was  defeated  by  three  votes  in  1883.  .Meantime,  Bradlaugh  changed 
his  mind  and  offered  to  take  the  oath.  Indeed,  he  produced  a  New 
Testament  from  his  pocket  and  administered  it  himself.  There  were, 
no  doubt,  a  number  of  members  whose  unbelief  was  as  strong  as  his 
own ;  but,  since  he  was  a  professed  freethinker  who  had  openly 
declared  that  the  prescribed  test  meant  nothing  to  him,  the  House  of 
Commons  and  the  courts  denied  him  the  right  to  do  what  many  who 
concealed  their  opinions  did  without  question.  The  persistent 
Bradlaugh  was  involved  in  no  less  than  eight  lawsuits,  he  was  un- 
seated and  reflected  many  times,  and  he  was  even  expelled  from 
the  House  by  force.  At  length,  in  January,  1886,  the  Speaker  ruled 
that  he  should  be  allowed  to  take  the  oath,  and,  he  held  his  seat  till 
his  death  in  1891.  In  1888  he  secured  the  passage  of  a  bill  legalizing 
the  substitution  of  an  affirmation  for  an  oath,  both  in  the  Commons 
and  in  the  Law  Courts.  Thus  the  question  was  settled  once  and  for  all. 
Although  his  case  occupied  so  much  of  the  session  of  1880,  various 
progressive  measures  were  passed.  Chief  among  them  was  a  Burial 
Act  allowing  interment  in  churchyards  without  religious  services, 
and  an  Employer's  Liability  Act,  which  greatly  assisted  workmen  to 
3  T  1009 


ioio  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

obtain  compensation  for  injuries  received  while  engaged  in  their 
occupation.  Ireland,  however,  was  again  demanding  serious  atten- 
tion. 

The  Origin  and  Rise  of  the  Home  Rule  Party.  —  In  1871,  Isaac 
Butt,  wrho  entered  Parliament  in  that  year,  launched  a  new  policy 
for  which  he  invented  the  name  "  Home  Rule."  In  contrast  to  the 
Fenians,  who  aimed  at  an  independent  republic,  it  was  the  purpose  of 
his  party  to  secure  a  separate  legislature  for  Ireland  by  peaceful,  politi- 
cal methods.  Owing  to  his  genial  temper  and  lack  of  aggressiveness, 
the  movement  made  little  progress  under  his  direction.  The  force 
which  he  lacked  was  supplied  by  Charles  Stewart  Parnell  (1846-1891) 
who  entered  Parliament  in  1875,  and  who,  two  years  later,  deliberately 
adopted  and  systematized  a  policy  already  resorted  to  on  occasion. 
This  policy  consisted  in  obstructing,  in  every  way  possible,  the  legis- 
lative policy  of  the  House  of  Commons  until  the  demands  of  the 
Irish  Home  Rulers  were  considered.  At  first  sight  it  would  seem  that 
he  was  the  very  last  person  to  lead  the  Nationalist  cause.  He  had 
not  a  drop  of  Irish  blood  in  his  veins,  for  his  ancestors  were  Englishmen 
who  had  settled  in  the  county  of  Wicklow.  Moreover,  he  was  a 
landowner,  a  graduate  of  Cambridge,  and  a  Protestant.  However, 
he  had  inherited  from  his  mother  —  a  daughter  of  the  American 
Admiral,  Charles  Stewart,  who  had  fought  in  the  war  of  1812  —  an 
intense  hatred  of  the  English,  a  hatred  still  further  inflamed  when  the 
authorities  searched  the  family  home,  not  sparing  even  his  mother's 
bedroom,  because  of  her  supposed  sympathy  with  Fenianism.  The 
attainment  of  Home  Rule  for  Ireland  grew  rapidly  to  be  his  consuming 
ambition.  He  was  a  cold,  undemonstrative  man ;  but  his  force  and 
energy  were  tremendous,  and  by  sheer  will  power,  with  little  or  no 
literary  training,  he  grew  to  be  -a  powerful,  incisive  speaker.  In  1877, 
he  was  elected  president  of  the  Home  Rule  Federation  of  Great  Britain. 
Though  he  was  opposed  to  force,  he  gradually  allied  himself  with  the 
Fenians  of  various  countries,  notably  with  the  Clan-na-Gael,  which  had 
its  center  in  America  and  differed  from  the  old  Fenians  who  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  parliamentary  agitation.  His  aim  was  to  unite  all 
organizations,  whether  constitutional  or  revolutionary,  in  the  cause 
to  which  he  devoted  his  life.  However,  he  repudiated  all  connection 
with  the  dynamiters.  In  the  autumn  of  1879,  he  was  elected  to  the 
presidency  of  the  National  Land  League  of  Ireland,  founded  for  the 
reduction  of  unjust  rents  and  for  the  ultimate  transfer  of  the  ownership 
of  land  to  the  occupiers.  Late  in  the  same  year  he  embarked  for  the 
United  States,  where  he  made  a  short  tour,  with  the  twofold  design 
of  raising  funds  and  of  extending  his  influence. 

The  Land  Act  of  1881.  —  Soon  after  Gladstone  came  to  power,  a 
Peace  Preservation  Act  expired  by  limitation,  and  the  Government 
undertook  to  maintain  order  by  ordinary  law.  This  proved  futile, 
violence  continued,  Parnell  persevered  in  his  obstructionist  tactics 
and  became  more  and  more  outspoken.  He  declared  that  if  a  tenant 


TWO  LAST  DECADES  OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     ion 

took  a  farm  from  which  another  had  been  evicted  he  "should  be 
isolated  from  his  kind  as  if  he  had  been  a  leper  of  old."  Such  treat- 
ment accorded  to  one  Captain  Boycott  who  was  overzealous  in  en- 
forcing the  rights  of  a  Mayo  landlord,  added  a  new  word  to  our  lan- 
guage. The  situation  in  Ireland  became  so  disturbing  that,  in  the 
session  of  1881,  the  Liberals  forced  through  a  new  series  of  coercive 
measures  in  the  teeth  of  determined  opposition  from  the  Irish  National- 
ists. By  way  of  conciliation,  however,  Gladstone  introduced  a  Land 
Act  designed  to  remedy  the  defects  of  his  measure  of  1870,  by  providing 
the  "  three  F's  "  demanded  by  the  Irish  —  fair  rents,  fixity  of  tenure, 
and  free  sale  of  his  interests  by  the  tenant.  The  Act  was  to  be  enforced 
by  a  Land  Court,  which,  however,  took  no  action  unless  voluntarily 
resorted  to  by  one  of  the  parties,  either  landlord  or  tenant.  It  might 
fix  a  "  judicial  rent  "  which  was  to  remain  in  force  for  fifteen  years, 
during  which  period  the  tenant  could  not  be  evicted  except  for  non- 
payment of  rent  and  certain  other  specified  reasons.  At  the  end 
of  the  fifteen  years  the  landlord  might  resume  possession  with  the 
Court's  consent.  Meanwhile,  if  at  any  time  the  occupier  wished  to 
part  with  his  tenant  right,  he  was  allowed,  subject  to  certain  restric- 
tions, to  sell  it  for  the  best  price  he  could  get,  though  the  landlord  was 
to  have  the  first  option.  In  case  the  tenant  wished  to  buy  his  holding, 
the  Government  was  to  loan  three  fourths  of  the  purchase  money. 
Advances  were  also  made  for  emigration,  and  for  improvements,  in- 
cluding reclamation  of  waste  lands.  In  spite  of  its  well-meant  pro- 
visions, the  Bill  found  favor  with  neither  the  landlords  nor  the  tenants, 
though  Gladstone  with  his  wondrous  skill  and  eloquence  was  able 
to  secure  its  enactment. 

The  Kilmainham  Treaty  and  the  Phoenix  Park  Murders,  1882.  — 
Once  more  coercion  and  conciliation  alike  proved  ineffective.  Before 
the  close  of  the  year,  Parnell  and  half  a  dozen  of  his  followers  were 
sent  to  Kilmainham  prison  for  inciting  Irishmen  to  defeat  the  Land 
Act  by  intimidating  tenants  inclined  to  take  advantage  of  its  pro- 
visions. In  the  spring  of  1882,  they  were  released  in  accordance 
with  the  terms  of  the  "  Kilmainham  Treaty  "  arranged  with  Glad- 
stone and  Mr.  Chamberlain,  by  which  they  agreed  to  put  an  end  to 
boycotting  and  to  cooperate  with  the  Liberal  party.  The  treaty 
had  scarcely  been  concluded  when  all  England  was  shocked  by  the 
news  that,  6  May,  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish,  the  new  Chief  Secretary 
for  Ireland,  and  Thomas  Henry  Burke,  the  Permanent  Under-Secre- 
tary,  had  been  murdered  by  a  band  of  Fenians  in  broad  daylight  in 
Phcenix  Park,  Dublin.  The  murderers  escaped;  but  they  were 
finally  discovered  and  sent  to  the  gallows  in  1883.  Parnell  gained 
great  credit  with  Gladstone  by  repudiating  all  connection  with  the 
outrage  and  offering  to  resign  from  the  leadership  of  the  Home  Rule 
party ;  but  the  Government  passed  a  Prevention  of  Crimes  Bill  which 
was  regarded  as  one  of  the  strongest  coercive  measures  of  the  century. 
In  October  of  1882,  a  National  League  was  formed  in  place  of  the 


ioi2  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Land  League  which  had  been  suppressed  in  the  previous  autumn.  The 
year  was  marked  by  a  series  of  murders  in  Ireland ;  but  Parnell 
brushed  aside  with  cold  contempt  the  charge  that  he  was  in  any  way 
privy  to  them.  Meantime,  he  had  broken  off  all  connection  with 
the  Clan-na-Gael,  which,  under  O'Donovan  Rossa,  Patrick  Ford,  and 
other  extremists,  was  seeking  to  terrorize  the  English  by  dynamiting 
their  public  buildings,  including  the  Houses  of  Parliament  and  the 
Tower  of  London.  From  1881  to  1884  they  spent  £100,000  in  at- 
tempts of  this  sort,  all  of  which  ended  in  failure.  In  the  House  of 
Commons  new  rules  of  procedure  were  adopted  against  the  obstruc- 
tionists and  some  notable  measures  were  carried. 

The  Corrupt  Practices  Act,  1883.  —  One  of  these  was  a  Corrupt 
Practices  Bill  which  reduced  the  cost  of  general  elections  from  £2,500,- 
ooo,  to  £800,000.  No  candidate,  or  his  agent,  might  henceforth 
spend  more  than  a  fixed  sum  for  election  expenses.  Any  candidate 
found  guilty  of  evading  in  person  the  terms  of  the  Act,  might,  varying 
with  the  gravity  of  his  offense,  be  excluded  from  Parliament  alto- 
gether ;  from  sitting  in  the  constituency  where  he  secured  his  election ; 
or  from  voting  or  holding  office  for  seven  years.  Even  if  the  fault  was 
committed  by  an  agent,  the  candidate  might  be  prohibited  from  rep- 
resenting the  constituency  in  question  for  seven  years.  Bribery, 
treating,  and  kindred  offenses  were  made  punishable  by  a  year's 
imprisonment  and  by  a  fine  of  £200. 

The  Franchise  Bill  of  1884.  —  In  February,  1884,  Gladstone 
introduced  a  new  franchise  bill  with  the  object  of  extending 
to  the  rural  classes  the  same  rights  of  voting  as  were  enjoyed 
in  the  boroughs,  and  for  establishing  a  substantially  uniform  fran- 
chise throughout  the  United  Kingdom.  The  household,  rating  and 
lodger  franchises  were  extended  to  the  counties,  and  a  new 
"  service "  franchise  was  added  which  conferred  the  franchise 
on  men  "  not  owners  or  tenants,  but  who  occupy  by  virtue  of  an 
office,  service,  or  employment,  a  dwelling  house  in  which  the  employer 
himself  does  not  reside,"  and  the  £10  franchise  was  applied  to  land, 
whether  there  were  buildings  on  it  or  not.  At  the  same  time,  other 
qualifications,  provided  for  in  the  acts  of  1832  and  1867,  were  left  un- 
touched. In  short,  the  measure  went  almost  to  the  length  of  manhood 
suffrage ;  since  domestic  servants,  bachelors  living  with  their  parents, 
and  those  who  had  no  fixed  abode 1  were  the  only  classes  excluded. 
The  Prime  Minister's  measure  provided  for  an  addition  of  some  2,000,- 
ooo  voters,  nearly  four  times  the  number  added  in  1832,  and  nearly 
twice  the  number  added  in  1867.  Not  only  the  Conservatives  as  a 
whole,  but  many  Liberals,  even  in  the  Cabinet,  insisted  that  it  was 
dangerous  to  go  to  such  lengths.  While  the  opposition  in  general  felt 

1  These  latter  were  excluded  by  various  residence  qualifications.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  man  who  owns  land  in  a  county  may  not  only  vote  by  virtue  of  that  fact ; 
but  may  cast  a  vote,  in  addition  to  that  to  which  he  may  be  entitled  on  account  of 
a  household  or  other  qualification  in  a  borough. 


TWO  LAST  DECADES  OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1013 

that  the  agricultural  laborer  was  too  ignorant  to  vote,  the  Conserva- 
tives laid  chief  emphasis  on  the  fact  that  Gladstone  refused  to  provide 
for  a  redistribution  of  seats  together  with  extension  of  the  franchise. 
The  Bill  passed  the  House  of  Commons,  with  some  difficulty, 'but 
was  rejected  in  the  Lords. 

Its  Passage.  The  Redistribution  Act,  1885.  —  The  Queen,  "  who 
regarded  a  working  harmony  between  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament  as 
essential  to  the  due  stability  of  monarchy,"  strove,  as  she  had  in  1869, 
to  avoid  a  breach.  Before  she  had  gone  very  far,  influential  members 
of  the  Conservative  party  had  independently  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  measure  might  safely  pass  if  joined  to  a  satisfactory  redis- 
tribution bill.  Gladstone,  while  he  demurred  at  first,  finally  yielded, 
though  one  of  his  followers,  Mr.  (now  Viscount)  Morley  launched  a 
jingle,  which  became  very  popular  about  "  mending  or  ending  " 
the  House  of  Lords.  The  question  was  settled  by  the  leaders  of  the 
two  parties  over  sundry  cups  of  afternoon  tea,  in  private  conference, 
and  the  Conservatives  were  informed  of  the  terms  of  the  redistribution 
bill  which  the  Prime  Minister  was  prepared  to  introduce.  As  a  result 
of  these  "  delicate  and  novel  communications,"  as  Gladstone  de- 
scribed them,  the  Franchise  Bill  passed  easily  during  the  autumn 
session  of  1884.  The  Redistribution  Bill,  which  followed  close  upon 
its  heels,  did  away  with  160  seats,  though,  by  substitutions  and 
the  increase  of  new  constituencies,  the  membership  of  the  House 
of  Commons  was  increased  from  658  to  670.  All  boroughs  with  a 
population  of  15,000  and  under  were  merged  into  the  counties, 
which  were  divided  into  one-member  constituencies  on  a  basis 
of  population.  Those  between  15,000  and  50,000,  together  with 
the  two  little  counties  of  Rutland  and  Hereford,  were  reduced  to  single- 
member  constituencies.  London  was  given  37  additional  members, 
though  the  City  proper  lost  2  of  its  4,  Liverpool  gained  6,  Birmingham 
and  Glasgow  4  each,  Yorkshire  16,  and  Lancashire  15.  Except  in 
the  City  of  London,  and  in  boroughs  and  cities  with  a  population  of 
between  50,000  and  165,000,  one-member  constituencies  became  the 
rule.  The  bill  became  law  in  June,  1885. 

The  Egyptian  Problem  and  the  Beginning  of  the  British  Occupation, 
1881-1882.  — The  foreign  policy  of  the  first  Gladstone  Ministry  had 
aroused  widespread  dissatisfaction,  that  of  the  second  stirred  the 
opposition  to  fury.  The  Cabinet  was  criticized  for  withdrawing  from 
Afghanistan  and  leaving  the  Amir  to  deal  unassisted  with  his  native 
opponents  and  with  the  Russians ;  it  was  also  denounced  for  making 
concessions  to  the  Boers  in  South  Africa  after  the  British  forces  had 
received  a  humiliating  defeat  at  their  hands.  However,  it  was  events 
in  Egypt  that  aroused  the  greatest  storm  and  contributed  more  than 
any  other  cause  to  drive  the  Liberals  out  of  office.  On  the  accession 
of  Tewfik  Pasha  the  Anglo-French  dual  control  was  revived,  and  the 
financial  administration  seemed  established  on  a  satisfactory  basis, 
with  due  regard  for  Egyptian  creditors.  A  crisis  came  in  1881,  when 


ioi4  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  Khedive  was  obliged  to  dismiss,  first  his  War  Minister,  and  then  his 
whole  Cabinet  at  the  demand  of  a  faction  of  the  army  who  represented, 
or  professed  to  represent,  the  anti-Turkish  or  patriotic  Egyptian  in- 
terests. What  had  begun  as  a  "  national "  movement  degenerated, 
under  their  guidance,  into  an  anarchistic  outburst  against  progressive 
administration,  and  an  anti-Christian  crusade.  They  were  led  by 
Arabi,  "  a  colonel  of  peasant  origin,"  who  became  War  Minister, 
5  February,  1882.  In  spite  of  a  joint  note  from  Great  Britain  and 
France,  the  Khedive  was  obliged  to  admit  him  to  office  and  was  threat- 
ened with  death  if  he  removed  him.  A  grievous  evidence  of  what 
might  be  expected  under  the  new  regime  was  a  Mohammedan  massacre 
of  Christians  at  Alexandria,  n  June.  The  European  Powers  were 
for  intervention  through  the  Porte ;  but  nothing  seemed  likely  to  be 
done ;  indeed  Arabi,  though  he  had  begun  with  an  anti-Turkish  prop- 
aganda, was  evidently  receiving  secret  support  from  Constantinople. 
So  the  British,  when  they  found  he  was  erecting  batteries,  determined, 
July  n,  to  bombard  Alexandria.  The  French  fleet  already  there 
refused  to  participate  and  sailed  away.  Arabi  was  forced  to  abandon 
the  city.  On  13  September  he  was  defeated  at  Tel-el-Kebir  and  put 
to  flight  by  a  British  army.  The  native  forces  had  shown,  as  Sir 
Evelyn  Baring  pithily  declared,  that  they  would  mutiny  but  would 
not  fight.  Numbers  were  tried,  and  Arabi,  together  with  a  few  others, 
was  exiled  to  Ceylon.  Lord  Duff erin,  who  was  sent,  in  November,  from 
Constantinople,  framed  and  submitted  to  the  British  Cabinet  a  scheme 
for  the  reorganization  of  the  Egyptian  administration.  At  the  re- 
quest of  the  Egyptian  Government  the  dual  control  came  to  end,  in 
spite  of  French  protests.  Gladstone  and  his  Cabinet  disdained  all 
thought  of  a  British  protectorate,  and  proposed  to  withdraw  as  soon  as 
conditions  warranted  the  step.  But  Great  Britain,  assuming  the  posi- 
tion of  adviser,  with  Baring  as  Agent  and  Consular  General,  acted  as  pro- 
tector in  fact  if  not  in  name,  and  remains  in  occupation  to  this  day. 
The  Sudan  and  Gordon  at  Khartum,  1884.  —  The  next  crisis 
in  Egyptian  affairs  was  due  to  the  situation  in  the  Sudan  ("  the 
country  of  the  blacks  "),  lying  in  the  upper  Nile  valley  to  the  south  of 
Egypt.  This  district  had  first  come  under  Egyptian  control  in  1819 
during  the  time  of  Mehemet  All.  In  1874,  General  Gordon  was  sent 
there  by  the  Khedive  with  the  design  of  developing  a  great  Central 
African  Empire.  In  1877  he  was  given  the  title  Governor- General  of 
the  Egyptian  Sudan  with  a  territory  1300  miles  square  under  his  con- 
trol. Gordon  was  a  religious  and  moral  enthusiast  and  made  dire 
war  on  the  powerful  slave  dealers,  who  speedily  resumed  their  traffic 
when  he  withdrew  in  1879.  In  1881,  a  man  rose  up  who  proclaimed 
himself  the  Mahdi  —  the  spiritual  and  temporal  ruler  to  whose  com- 
ing in  the  last  days,  Mohammedans  looked  forward.  He  declared  it 
his  mission  to  drive  the  hated  Egyptian  power  from  the  Sudan,  to  con- 
quer their  country,  to  overthrow  their  Turkish  suzerain,  and  to 
convert  the  whole  world  to  his  faith,  which  not  only  was  opposed  to 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1015 

Christianity,  but  to  orthodox  Mohammedanism  as  well.  He  gathered 
about  him  a  body  of  fanatical  enthusiasts  against  whom  the  English 
commander  of  the  Egyptian  army  was  unable  to  make  headway, 
because  of  the  disorganized  state  of  the  Egyptian  Government  and 
because  the  British  Foreign  Minister,  Lord  Granville,  refused  to 
assume  any  responsibility  in  the  Sudan.  When  Baring  protested 
that  (since  the  Sudan  was  a  dependency  of  the  Khedive)  it  was  im- 
possible to  separate  Egyptian  and  Sudanese  affairs,  the  Cabinet  de- 
cided to  abandon  the  country.  After  vain  attempts  had  been  made 
to  relieve  and  withdraw  the  loyal  garrisons  posted  there,  General 
Gordon,  whose  offer  to  undertake  the  task  had  been  twice  refused  by 
Baring  and  the  Egyptian  ministers,  was  sent  out  by  the  British  Gov- 
ernment, again  with  the  title  of  Governor-General.  Considering  that 
the  mission  was  intended  to  be  a  peaceful  one,  the  choice  was  most 
unhappy;  for  the  class  that  Gordon  had  bitterly  antagonized  were 
among  the  Mahdi's  stanchest  followers.  Arriving  at  Khartum, 
in  February,  1884,  his  communications  with  the  north  were  entirely 
cut  off  by  May. 

The  Failure  to  Relieve  Him,  1885.  The  Final  Conquest  of  the 
Sudan,  1898.  —  After  months  of  delay  the  British  Government  finally 
sent  a  force  to  relieve  him.  Against  the  advice  of  men  on  the  ground 
General  Wolseley,  the  commander,  chose  the  long  river  route  instead 
of  the  shorter  road  across  the  desert.  He  did  at  length  consent  to 
dispatch  a  column  by  way  of  the  desert ;  but  it  was  too  late  to  pro- 
cure camels,  or  adequate  equipment  and  supplies.  When  the  relieving 
force  arrived  within  striking  distance  of  Khartum,  27  January,  1885, 
the  Mahdi  was  in  possession  and  Gordon  was  dead.  In  the  face  of 
starvation  and  treachery  within,  as  well  as  attacks  from  without, 
he  had  held  on  magnificently  for  three  hundred  and  seventeen  days. 
The  tardy  arrival  of  the  relieving  force  roused  a  storm  of  fury  in 
England  and  proved  the  "  death  blow  of  the  Ministry,"  while  the 
name  of  Gordon  was  cherished  as  that  of  a  martyred  hero.  Neverthe- 
less, the  Sudan  was  abandoned.  While  the  Mahdi  only  survived  the 
taking  of  Khartum  five  months,  the  country  was  ruled  for  some 
years  by  his  successor,  an  ex-slave  dealer,  who  committed  sad  havoc 
and  almost  depopulated  it.  Meantime,  under  the  remarkable  ad- 
ministration of  Baring,  who  became  Lord  Cromer  in  1901,  Egypt 
was  absolutely  transformed.  Finances  were  put  on  a  sound 
footing,  roads  were  built,  irrigation  was  revolutionized  by  the 
Assuan  dam  begun  in  1898.  The  army,  too,  was  reformed.  Its 
most  notable  achievement  was  the  recovery  of  the  Sudan  in  a  cam- 
paign which  lasted  from  1896  to  1898.  Sir  Herbert  Kitchener,  the 
commander,  was  also  assisted  by  British  forces.  The  critical  engage- 
ment leading  to  the  recovery  of  Khartum  was  fought  at  Omdurman, 
2  September,  1898.  About  the  same  time,  Major  Marchand,  entering 
from  the  west,  occupied  Fashoda  for  the  French ;  but  after  delicate 
diplomatic  negotiations  he  was  induced  to  withdraw.  By  an  agree- 


ioi6  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

ment,  concluded  in  January,  1899,  the  government  of  the  Sudan  was 
placed  under  the  sovereignty  of  Great  Britain  and  the  Khedive  of 
Egypt.  Military  and  civil  control  was  vested  in  a  Governor-General 
recommended  by  the  British  and  appointed  by  the  Khedive.  Under 
the  new  regime  the  Sudan  appears  to  be  recovering  from  Mahdism 
and  to  be  on  the  road  to  civilization  and  prosperity. 

Cromer  and  Modern  Egypt.  —  In  addition  to  the  financial  and 
army  reforms  already  enumerated,  much  has  been  done  in  Egypt 
toward  improving  the  administration  of  justice,  the  condition  of 
prisons,  the  state  of  public  health,  and  the  advancement  of  education. 
At  first,  progress  in  the  latter  field  was  painfully  slow.  According  to 
the  census  of  1897,  no  less  than  88  per  cent  of  the  males  and  99^  per 
cent  of  the  females  were  unable  to  read  or  write.  Since  then,  however, 
the  gain  has  been  rapid.  With  the  improvement  of  material  condi- 
tions and  the  spread  of  education  there  has  been  an  increasing  demand 
for  self-government.  This  new  nationalism  first  became  manifest 
about  1892  upon  the  death  of  Tewfik  Pasha.  Stimulated  by  the 
strained  relations  between  the  British  agency  and  the  new  Khedive 
and  greatly  fostered  by  the  press,  it  was  taken  up  by  many  young  men 
of  the  better  class,  though  only  among  the  Mohammedans.  While 
much  can  be  said  for  the  movement  from  the  standpoint  of  sentiment, 
unquestionably  the  country  is  better  off  under  British  than  it  could 
hope  to  be  under  native  rule.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  only  one  per  cent 
of  the  natives  show  enough  interest  to  vote  on  those  questions  in  which 
they  have  a  voice.  Yet,  as  they  grow  ready  for  it,  more  and  more  of 
the  government  should  be  placed  in  their  hands.  The  French,  as 
they  saw  their  Egyptian  investments  steadily  increasing  in  value, 
gradually  became  reconciled  to  an  indefinite  British  occupation,  and, 
in  1904,  formally  agreed' to  demand  no  limit  to  its  continuance.  In 
1907  Lord  Cromer  resigned,  after  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  of 
labors,  crowned  by  unique  achievement. 

The  Fall  of  the  Second  Gladstone  Ministry,  12  June,  1885.  —  In 
1884-1885,  while  the  Gladstone  Ministry  was  unwillingly  involved  in 
the  Sudanese  difficulties,  Russian  encroachments  on  the  frontier  of 
Afghanistan  nearly  brought  on  a  war.  In  April,  1885,  the  Opposition 
joined  loyally  in  a  vote  of  supply  to  meet  the  situation.  But  Granville, 
the  Foreign  Minister,  proved  so  anxious  for  peace  that  he  was  accused 
by  the  Conservatives  of  truckling  to  Russia,  and  Salisbury  was  moved 
to  declare  in  a  public  speech  that :  "  the  Government  go  into  every 
danger  with  a  light  heart  and  then  they  make  up  for  it  by  escaping  with 
a  light  foot."  It  remained  for  him  as  Prime  Minister  to  settle  the 
question  of  the  disputed  frontier  in  1887.  Not  only  was  the  policy  of 
the  second  Gladstone  Ministry  unsuccessful  abroad,  but  its  well-meant 
efforts  to  deal  with  the  Irish  problem  had  antagonized  both  the  Home 
Rulers  and  the  Conservatives.  Gladstone's  peculiar  strength  was  in 
financial  administration  and  progressive  legislation  voicing  the  needs  of 
middle-class  Liberalism.  His  first  Administration  was  notable  for 


TWO  LAST  DECADES  OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1017 

marked  achievement  in  his  peculiar  field.  In  his  second,  when  he  was 
confronted  with  a  different  class  of  problems  his  prestige  suffered  dis- 
tinctly. Finally,  he  resigned,  12  June,  1885,  on  the  passage  of  a 
hostile  amendment  to  his  budget. 

The  First  Salisbury  Ministry,  July,  1885,  to  February,  1886.  — 
Salisbury,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  headship  of  the  Conservative 
party  on  the  death  of  Beaconsfield,  19  April,  1881,  became  Prime 
Minister  in  place  of  Gladstone.  The  Conservatives  had  always 
stood  for  coercion  in  Ireland;  but  on  the  advent  of  the  Salisbury 
Ministry  some  of  the  party  leaders  entered  into  an  understanding  with 
Parnell  that  their  policy  would  be  reversed  in  return  for  the  support 
of  the  Irish  Nationalists.  By  the  Ashbourne  Act  *  of  1885  the  Govern- 
ment advanced  £5,000,000  to  Irish  tenants,  who,  with  loans  from  this 
fund,  might  purchase  their  holdings  and  repay  the  debt  by  annual 
instalments  of  4  per  cent  for  forty-nine  years.  The  policy  of  creating 
a  body  of  peasant  proprietors  as  a  cure  for  Irish  discontent,  which  was 
initiated  by  John  Bright  in  1870,  and  which  formed  a  feature  of  the 
act  of  1 88 1,  was  thus  adopted  and  extended  by  the  Conservatives. 
Subsequent  Land  Purchase  Acts  were  passed  in  1887,  1891,  1896, 
and  1 903.2  This  form  of  assistance  to  the  Irish  tenantry,  together  with 
the  concession  of  increased  powers  of  self-government  in  local  affairs, 
came  to  be  the  main  substitutes  which  the  Conservatives  offered  in 
place  of  the  Home  Rule  demanded  by  the  Nationalists.  On  the  other 
hand,  early  in  1896,  the  Liberals  identified  themselves  with  the  cause 
of  the  Home  Rulers. 

Home  Rule  Adopted  by  Gladstone,  December,  1885.  —  In  the 
general  election  which  took  place  in  December,  1885,  Gladstone 
had  evaded  committing  himself  on  his  future  Irish  policy.  "  What- 
ever demands,"  he  said,  "  may  be  made  on  the-part  of  Ireland,  if  they 
are  to  be  entertained  they  must  be  subject  to  the  condition  that  the 
unity  of  the  Empire  must  be  preserved."  In  consequence  of  this 
cryptic  attitude,  worthy  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  Irish  refused  to  sup- 
port the  Liberal  party,  who,  nevertheless,  secured  335  members  in  the 
new  Parliament  to  249  Conservatives  and  86  Nationalists.  Scarcely 
were  the  elections  over  when,  17  December,  a  newspaper  report 
announced  that  Gladstone  was  prepared  to  support,  subject  to  certain 
conditions,  a  Home  Rule  proposition.  While  he  declared  that  the 
statement  had  been  published  without  his  knowledge  or  authority, 
it  represented  his  views  with  substantial  accuracy.  At  any  rate, 
it  soon  became  generally  known  he  was  for  "a  plan  of  duly  guarded 
Home  Rule."  Conditions  were  so  disturbed  in  Ireland  that  the 
Government  felt  obliged  to  introduce  a  new  coercion  bill.  On  its 
defeat  the  Salisbury  Ministry  resigned,  28  January,  1886. 

1  The  Act  was  named  from  its  author,  Lord  Ashbourne,  the  Irish  Lord  Chan- 
cellor. 

2  In  1891,  a  sum  of  £30,000,000  was  appropriated  for  this  purpose,  and  in  1903, 
£100,000,000,  of  which  £5,000  ooo  was  to  be  advanced  annually. 


ioi8  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Third  Gladstone  Ministry,  February  to  August,  1886.  The 
First  Home  Rule  Bill.  —  In  constructing  his  third  Ministry,  Gladstone 
informed  each  man  whom  he  asked  to  take  office  that  it  would  be  the 
aim  of  the  Government  to  determine  whether  or  no  Ireland  should 
be  given  an  independent  legislature.  As  a  result,  many  of  his  old 
associates,  including  Hartington  and  Bright,  refused  to  join.  Mr. 
Chamberlain  took  office  only  on  conditions,  and  resigned  before  the 
end  of  March.  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  achieved  the  result,  which 
proved  big  with  consequences,  of  stirring  up  Ulster  to  oppose  the 
impending  project,1  and  at  a  meeting  in  Manchester,  3  March,  em- 
ployed two  terms  which  soon  became  generally  current  —  "  Unionist 
and  Separatist."  On  8  April,  1886,  Gladstone  moved  for  leave  to 
bring  in  an  Irish  Government  Bill,  with  the  understanding  that  a 
new  Land  Purchase  Bill  was  to  follow.  His  plan  aimed  at  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  legislative  body  to  sit  in  Dublin  for  the  purpose  of  making 
the  laws  and  controlling  the  administration  of  Ireland.  It  was  to  be 
made  up  of  two  orders.  The  first  was  to  consist  of  28  representative 
life  peers,  together  with  75  other  members  with  a  property  qualifica- 
tion of  £200  a  year,  elected  for  ten  years  by  voters  qualified  with 
an  annual  income  of  £25.  The  other  was  to  consist  of  the  103 
members  already  .provided  for,  plus  101  more  elected  by  the 
existing  constituencies.  The  two  orders  were  to  deliberate  together, 
though  they  might  vote  separately.  In  case  of  a  disagreement,  a  bill 
might  be  held  up  for  three  years  or  until  the  next  dissolution'.  The 
Prime  Minister  purposed,  however,  to  secure  the  unity  of  the  Empire, 
and  the  rights  of  the  minority,  with  possibly  a  separate  arrangement 
for  Ulster.  Irish  members  were  not  to  sit  in  the  Parliament  at  West- 
minster. While  the  Irish  legislature  was  to  have  the  power  of  im- 
posing taxes,  they  were  not  to  include  customs,  or  certain  excises, 
which  were  reserved  to  the  Imperial  body,  though,  after  Ireland's 
share  of  the  common  expenses  had  been  provided  for,  any  surplus 
remaining  was  to  be  handed  over  to  the  Irish  Exchequer.  Moreover, 
certain  areas  of  legislation,  relating  chiefly  to  the  Crown,  the  army 
and  the  navy,  navigation  and  trade,  were  also  to  be  dealt  with  by 
the  British  Parliament  exclusively.  The  Lord  Lieutenant  was  still 
to  be  appointed  by  the  Crown,  but  existing  religious  disabilities  were 
to  be  removed.  It  was  estimated  that  Ireland  should  contribute 

1  In  the  past  Ulstermen  had  been  among  the  leaders  in  the  endeavor  to  secure 
an  independent  government  for  Ireland.  But  there  was  a  strong  Protestant  ele- 
ment in  the  district,  and  there  were  vast  industrial  interests  centering  chiefly  in 
Belfast,  and  their  change  of  front  was  due  to  the  fear  that  their  religion  and  their 
wealth  might  be  exploited  by  the  poor  Roman  Catholic  element  who  would  dominate 
the  Irish  legislature.  The  argument  that  the  grant  of  Home  Rule  would  be  a 
betrayal  of  the  Ulster  loyalists  appealed  strongly  to  the  Queen,  who,  however, 
opposed  the  step  on  other  grounds  as  well.  It  appeared  to  her  as  a  breach  of  her 
coronation  oath  and  as  a  concession  to  the  forces  of  disorder.  Moreover,  she  com- 
plained that  Gladstone  had  "sprung  it"  on  her  and  on  the  country  without  ade- 
quate notice. 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1019 

one  fifteenth  of  the  Imperial  expenses.  Parnell  insisted  that  one 
twentieth  would  be  a  fairer  proportion ;  but  guaranteed,  nevertheless, 
that  the  Nationalists  would  support  the  Bill.  Its  main  defect, 
however,  and  the  one  most  criticized,  was  the  exclusion  of  the  Irish 
members  from  Westminster.  Gladstone  himself  admitted  that 
this  was  an  open  question.  Whatever  chances  the  measure  may 
have  had  in  the  House  of  Commons  were  ruined  by  a  schism  in  the 
Liberal  party.  The  secession  movement,  known  as  Liberal  Unionism, 
is  said  to  have  come  to  birth  at  a  meeting  held  in  Her  Majesty's 
Theatre,  14  April.  Among  the  leaders  of  the  revolt  were  Hartington 
and  Mr.  Chamberlain. 

The  Defeat  of  the  First  Home  Rule  Bill,  1886.  —  During  the 
Easter  recess  the  champions  of  the  opposing  parties  made  speeches 
throughout  the  country.  Salisbury  was  particularly  bitter  in  his 
utterances.  Instead  of  concession  he  advocated  an  even  stricter 
government  for  Ireland.  "  Apply  that  recipe,  honestly,  consistently, 
and  resolutely  for  twenty  years,"  he  declared,  "  and  at  the  end  of  that 
time  you  will  find  that  Ireland  will  be  fit  to  receive  any  gifts  in  the  way 
of  local  government  or  repeal  of  coercion  laws  that  you  may  wish 
to  give  her."  He  implied  that  the  Irish  were  as  incapable  of  self- 
government  as  the  Hottentots  and  the  Hindus.  He  even  pronounced 
against  appropriating  money  for  the  further  purchase  of  tenant  hold- 
ings, insisting  that  it  would  be  preferable  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
1,000,000  Irish  emigrants.  In  spite  of  a  noble  and  eloquent  speech  by 
Gladstone,  the  Home  Rule  Bill  was  defeated  on  the  second  reading 
by  343  to  313,  with  93  Liberals  voting  on  the  opposition  side.  The 
session  ended  25  June,  "  the  shortest,  and  so  far  as  regards  legislation, 
the  most  barren  Parliament  of  the  reign."  Another  general  election 
followed.  In  Ireland  it  was  marked  by  intense  violence,  at  Belfast 
even  with  loss  of  life,  and  an  inquiry  showed  that  the  Orangemen  were 
responsible  for  beginning  the  trouble.  In  England  the  strife  was  con- 
fined to  words,  though  they  were  heated  enough.  Randolph  Churchill 
referred  to  the  recent  bill  as  a  "  farrago  of  superlative  nonsense  ...  to 
gratify  an  old  man  in  a  hurry."  John  Bright  had,  from  the  start, 
actively  opposed  the  Home  Rule  policy  of  his  close  friend  and 
former  leader.  In  writing  him  on  the  subject  he  had  stated  that, 
while  he  would  do  much  to  "  clear  the  rebel  party  from  Westminster," 
he  could  not  give  his  assent  to  a  measure  which  he  regarded  as 
unjust  to  Protestant  loyal  Ulster.  His  letters  during  the  campaign 
carried  great  weight.  On  the  other  hand,  such  was  the  magic  of 
Gladstone's  presence,  that,  even  though  he  was  puzzling  and  per- 
suasive rather  than  convincing,  he  won  converts  wherever  he  went. 
In  the  end,  however,  he  was  completely  defeated. 

The  Second  Salisbury  Ministry,  August,  1886,  to  August,  1892.  — 
Salisbury,  who  became  a  second  time  Prime  Minister,  offered  Harting- 
ton the  leadership  of  the  combined  Conservatives  and  Liberal  Unionists 
in  the  Commons ;  but  he  refused  for  two  reasons  —  because  the  Con- 


1020  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

servatives,  as  the  larger  group,  were  entitled  to  a  leader  from  their  own 
ranks,  and  because  he  objected  to  fusing  the  two  parties.  The  leader- 
ship of  the  House  and  the  Chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer  was 
finally  offered  to  the  brilliant  but  audacious  and  erratic  Randolph 
Churchill,  a  younger  son  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough.  Contrary 
to  expectation,  he  filled  both  offices  most  acceptably ;  but  suddenly 
resigned,  23  December,  1886.  Against  the  idea  of  his  chief  and  his 
colleagues  he  was  opposed  to  huge  armaments  and  to  the  "  spirited 
foreign  policy  "  inherited  from  Disraeli,  believing,  according  to  his 
principles  of  "  Tory  democracy,"  that  the  public  money  and  the 
energy  of  the  Government  should  be  devoted  mainly  to  improved 
administration  and  the  popular  welfare.  He  took  the  final  step  in 
the  question  in  the  army  and  navy  estimates.  In  common  with  many, 
he  thought  that  Salisbury  would  have  to  come  round  to  his  way  of 
thinking  if  he  wished  to  maintain  his  Government.  However,  the 
Prime  Minister  refused  to  yield  an  inch,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
Churchill  continued  to  support  his  party  after  he  left  office.  Goschen, 
a  Liberal  Unionist  of  tried  financial  ability,  succeeded  as  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  and  W.  H.  Smith  took  the  leadership  of  the  Commons. 
"  Parnellism  and  Crime,"  1887.  — The  Irish  problem  continued  to 
be  the  storm  center  of  politics.  Parnell  introduced  a  Tenant  Relief 
Bill  which  was  rejected ;  but  he  refused  to  be  responsible  for  the  "  plan 
of  Campaign,"  printed  in  the  United  Irishmen,  21  October,  1886, 
according  to  which  tenants  who  thought  they  were  overcharged 
should  offer  their  landlords  what  they  regarded  as  a  fair  rent,  which,  if 
it  were  refused,  should  be  turned  into  the  funds  of  the  National  League. 
Early  in  March,  1887,  Salisbury's  nephew,  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour, 
became  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland.  Hitherto  known  chiefly  as  a 
young  man  of  languid,  elegant  tastes  and  as  a  writer  on  deep  philo- 
sophical subjects,  he  proved  to  be  a  vigorous  and  effective,  if  somewhat 
ruthless,  administrator.  On  28  March,  in  a  striking  speech,  in  which 
he  declared  with  reference  to  the  National  League :  "  We  cannot 
forget  that  the  League  leans  in  part  upon  those  dark,  secret  societies 
who  work  by  dynamite  and  the  dagger,  whose  object  is  assassina- 
tion," he  introduced  a  new  Crimes  Bill  which  contained  the  novel 
feature  that  its  provisions  should  be  permanent.  While  it  was  being 
enacted  into  law,  intense  excitement  was  aroused  by  a  series  of  articles 
in  the  Times,  entitled  "  Parnellism  and  Crime,"  charging  the  Irish 
leader  and  his  followers  with  the  employment  of  violence  and  intimi- 
dation to  gain  their  ends,  and  even  with  sanctioning  murder.  On 
1 8  April,  appeared  the  facsimile  of  a  letter,  purporting  to  be  signed  by 
Parnell  and  dated  15  May,  1882,  in  which  he  was  made  to  declare 
that  he  had  only  condemned  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  as  a  matter 
of  policy.  Though  Parnell  forthwith  denounced  the  letter  as  a  forgery, 
its  publication  had  the  effect  of  facilitating  the  passage  of  the  Crimes 
Act.  Even  at  that,  the  Opposition  fought  so  stoutly  that  a  new 
method  of  cutting  off  discussion  had  to  be  adopted  —  the  "  guillo- 


TWO  LAST   DECADES   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1021 

tine  "  —  by  which  clauses  which  had  not  been  reached  after  an 
allotted  period  were  put  without  amendment  or  debate.  In  July, 
1888,  Mr.  Frank  Hugh  O'Donnell,  one  of  those  against  whom  charges 
had  been  directed  in  the  recent  articles,  brought  suit  against  the 
Times  for  libel.  At  the  trial,  the  counsel  for  the  newspaper  produced 
new  letters  alleged  to  have  been  written  by  Parnell. 

Parnell's  Temporary  Triumph,  1889.  —  The  Irish  chieftain  was 
at  length  roused  from  the  indifference  which  he  had  displayed 
hitherto.  On  6  July,  he  issued  in  the  House  of  Commons  a  formal 
denial  of  any  connection  with  the  letters.  Feeling  that  he  would 
be  unlikely  to  obtain  justice  from  a  Middlesex  jury,  he  asked  for 
a  select  committee  to  investigate  the  question  of  their  origin. 
The  Government,  refusing  his  request,  took  the  unprecedented 
action  of  appointing  a  special  commission  of  three  judges  to  inquire 
into  the  whole  subject  of  the  charges  made  by  the  articles  on  "  Par- 
nellism  and  Crime."  The  sessions  of  the  Commission  extended  over 
more  than  a  year,  from  September,  1888,  to  November,  1889;  but 
before  its  work  was  half  completed,  the  author  of  the  letters  attributed 
to  Parnell  was  discovered.  He  proved  to  be  one  Richard  Piggott,  a 
broken-down  Irish  journalist,  who  had  sold  them  to  the  Times. 
Confessing  the  forgery,  he  fled  across  the  Channel,  and,  i  March,  1889, 
he  shot  himself  in  Madrid  to  escape  the  officers  on  their  way  to  arrest 
him.  Thus  ended  the  most  dramatic  feature  of  the  inquiry.  The 
Commission  issued  its  report,  13  February,  1890.'  Though  many  of 
the  charges  in  the  Times  against  the  other  Irish  leaders  were  sustained, 
Parnell  was  acquitted  of  all  complicity.  The  proprietors  of  the  news- 
paper had  to  pay  him  £5000  damages  and  to  assume  all  the  costs 
of  the  investigation,  amounting  to  £250,000. 

Final  Ruin  and  Death,  1891.  —  Scarcely  had  the  Irish  chieftain 
won  his  triumph,  which  promised  much  for  Home  Rule,  when  he  and 
the  cause  were  overtaken  by  a  crushing  reverse.  In  November, 
he  was  involved  as  co-respondent  in  a  divorce  suit  brought  by 
Captain  O'Shea  who  had  been  one  of  his  most  devoted  followers. 
The  result  was  to  destroy  Parnell's  credit  with  the  morally  strict, 
and  to  furnish  others  with  a  pretext  for  repudiating  him.  Gladstone 
at  first  declined  to  be  "  a  censor  and  a  judge  of  faith  and  morals  " ;  but, 
owing  to  the  decided  attitude  of  the  strong  Nonconformist  element 
in  his  party  and  to  the  unmistakable  trend  of  public  opinion,1  he 
decided,  after  some  hesitation,  to  throw  Parnell  over.  "  The  English 
wolves  howl  for  my  destruction  "  was  the  bitter  comment  of  the 
discredited  chieftain,  who  defiantly  resisted  all  efforts  -to  induce  him 
to  resign.  The  result  was  to  produce  a  schism  among  his  followers. 
After  a  long,  hard  struggle,  forty-four  of  the  Nationalists  chose  Justin 
McCarthy  as  their  leader,  while  a  minority  of  twenty-six  stuck  to 
Parnell.  During  the  few  remaining  months  of  his  life  he  fought  an 

1  The  Roman  Catholic  clergy  also  declared  against  him. 


1022  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

uphill  but  hopeless  fight  to  regain  his  lost  ascendancy.  He  came  to 
advocate  separation,  he  bitterly  denounced  those  of  the  opposing  camp 
who  had  repudiated  him,  and  had  in  his  turn  to  submit  to  scathing 
personal  abuse.1  He  died  6  October,  1891,  at  the  age  of  forty-six. 
"  The  strongest  and  the  strangest  of  the  Irish  political  leaders  ...  he 
had  brought  Home  Rule  from  the  clouds  and  made  it  the  leading  issue 
in  the  party  conflict."  Mr.  John  Redmond  took  his  place  as  head  of 
the  minority. 

The  Queen's  Jubilee  and  the  Growth  of  Imperialism,  1887.  —  These 
years,  during  which  the  Irish  problem  was  passing  through  such  acute 
stages,  were  marked  by  a  striking  revival  of  the  popularity  of  the 
monarchy,  due  to  the  Queen's  emergence  from  the  seclusion  in  which 
she  had  remained  since  the  Prince  Consort's  death  and  to  the  growing 
strength  of  the  Imperialistic  sentiment  which  Disraeli  had  done  so 
much  to  promote.  In  1886,  an  Indian  and  Colonial  exhibition  had 
brought  home  to  Englishmen  the  extent,  the  wealth,  the  resources, 
and  the  possibilities  of  their  over-sea  possessions.  The  Jubilee  of  1887, 
marking  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Victoria's  accession,  was  at  once 
a  mighty  manifestation,  and  a  potent  factor  in  the.  revival  of  the  royal 
popularity  and  of  the  Imperialistic  sentiment  which  had  such  an  effect 
in  fostering  it.  The  pomp  and  circumstance,  the  crowds  and 
pageantry  which  attended  the  celebration,  together  with  the  simul- 
taneous outbursts  of  enthusiasm  which  the  event  called  forth  in  the 
Colonies  and  in  India,  were  no  mere  vaporings.  "  Thenceforth  the 
sovereign  was  definitely  regarded  as  the  living  symbol  of  the  unity 
not  merely  of  the  British  Nation  but  of  the  British  Empire."  2  In 
July  was  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  the  Imperial  Institute,  designed 
as  a  meeting  place  for  visitors  from  India  and  .the  Colonies,  and  for 
the  exhibit  of  the  products  of  the  various  parts  of  the  Empire.  More 
important  still,  representatives  of  the  Mother  Country  and  the  Colonies 
held,  during  April  and  May,  the  first  of  a  series  of  meetings  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  matters  of  common  concern,  such  as  colonial  defense  and 
Imperial  penny  postage. 

The  Last  Years  of  the  Second  Salisbury  Ministry. — 'In  1888, 
an  important  act  was  passed  creating  elective  County  Councils 
for  England  and  Wales  which  took  over  many  of  the  adminis- 
trative functions  of  the  justices  of  the  peace.3  London  was  made  a 

1  One  of  them,  for  example,  branded  him  as  "an  unapproachable  trickster,  not 
only  a  libertine  and  a  liar,  but  a  cowardly  sneak,"  and  declared  that  "any person 
attempting  to  patch  up  the  present  difference  by  a  compromise  on  the  basis  of  his 
leadership  should  be  hunted  out  of  the  country  with  a  kettle  tied  to  his  tail." 

2  The  Queen  wrote  that  she  was  "loth  to  part  with  the  year  in  which  she  had  met 
so  much  affection  and  kindness,"  and,  as  an  indication  of  her  widening  interests, 
she  began  lessons  in  Hindustani. 

3  The  so-called  County  Courts  of  1846  had  already  deprived  them  of  many  of 
their  judicial  functions  and  acted  as  a  link  between  the  Quarter  Sessions  and  the 
Assizes.     Unlike  the  County  Councils  the  area  of  their  activity  did  not  follow  the 
old  county  lines.     There  were  many  more  courts  than  there  were  counties. 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1023 

separate  administrative  county,  though  the  ancient  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  the  City  were  left  undisturbed.  On  the  death  of  William 
Henry  Smith,  6  October,  1891,  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour  succeeded  him  as 
leader  of  the  Commons.  During  the  five  years  of  his  secretaryship, 
while  he  had  governed  with  a  firm  hand,  he  had  framed  various  meas- 
ures to  relieve  Ireland's  poverty  which  had  been  responsible  for  so 
much  of  the  discontent  and  disorder.  His  last  and  most  important 
step  in  this  direction  was  the  Land  Purchase  Act  of  1891.  The 
chief  weakness  of  the  scheme  was  that  it  availed  little  in  the  congested 
districts  where  the  tenants  were  too  poor  to  purchase  their  holdings, 
even  with  the  liberal  aid  of  the  Government.  In  1892,  Parliament 
was  nearing  the  end  of  its  septennial  term,  and  the  two  rival  parties 
appealed  to  the  country  in  a  general  election.  The  Conservative 
Government  had  a  good  record  behind  it.  Its  financial  administra- 
tion had  been  effective,  and,  taking  advantage  of  a  surplus  in  1891,  it 
had  relieved  from  fees  those  attending  the  public  elementary  schools, 
thus  carrying  out  the  principles  of  the  Act  of  1870.  Also  in  1891, 
it  had  passed  an  act  further  improving  conditions  in  factories  and  an 
act  making  the  landlord  responsible  for  the  payment  of  tithes.  These 
measures  were  followed,  in  1892,  by  an  Act  to  assist  tenants  and  agri- 
cultural laborers  to  purchase  small  farms.  Tendencies  toward  State 
socialism  and  protection  were  becoming  more  and  more  marked.  As 
yet,  however,  the  Liberals  were  less  ready  to  accept  the  new  situation. 
They  still  based  their  policy  mainly  upon  "  the  extension  of  political 
equality  and  the  abolition  of  privilege."  The  Conservatives,  on 
the  other  hand,  just  because  they  were  the  guardians  of  privilege  and 
vested  interests,  preferred  to  assist  the  masses  rather  than  to  increase 
their  powers.  With  regard  to  foreign  affairs,  the  Salisbury  Ministry 
was  occupied  in  various  negotiations  involving  much  friction  with 
Germany,  France,  and  Portugal.  Since  most  of  their  diplomatic 
business  had  to  do  with  Africa,  it  can  best  be  considered  in  connection 
with  a  crisis  which  developed  later  on  in  that  country.  Both  there 
and  elsewhere,  however,  the  Government  asserted  the  claims  of  the 
British  with  dignity  and  force. 

The  General  Election  of  1892.  —  While  Gladstone  made  Home  Rule 
the  main  issue  in  the  campaign  of  1892,  he  aimed  to  combine  the 
liberal  and  radical  members  of  his  party  by  advocating  a  series  of 
reforms  known  as  the  Newcastle  Programme,  from  the  fact  that  it 
was  adopted  at  a  convention  at  Newcastle,  in  October,  1891.  Among 
the  proposals  were :  the  disestablishment  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  Wales,  and  of  the  Church  of  Scotland ;  local  veto  on  the  sale  of 
liquor ;  the  abolition  of  plural  voting ;  extension  of  the  Employers' 
Liability  Act,  and  restriction  of  the  hours  of  labor.  This  programme 
alienated  a  greater  number  than  it  attracted.  Stanch  Churchmen 
shuddered  at  the  thought  of  disestablishment,  a  strong  element  op- 
posed any  further  concessions  to  labor,  and  the  liquor  interests  were 
up  in  arms  at  the  prospect  of  local  option.  The  Conservatives,  as  a 


1024  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

substitute  for  Home  Rule,  proposed  to  extend  the  peasant  proprietory 
by  further  appropriations  for  land  purchase  and  to  grant  the  Irish  a 
limited  amount  of  local  government  by  establishing,  with  some  modifi- 
cations, the  English  system  of  County  Councils.  In  England,  Gladstone 
was  beaten,  but  he  got  enough  votes  in  Wales  and  Scotland  to  give  him, 
with  the  aid  of  eighty-one  Irish  Nationalists,  a  majority  of  forty  for 
Home  Rule.  Salisbury  remained  in  office  to  face  the  new  Parliament, 
and  only  resigned  when  a  vote  of  no  confidence  was  carried,  1 5  August. 

The  Fourth  Gladstone  Ministry  (August,  1892,  to  March,  1894)  and 
the  Second  Home  Rule  Bill.  —  Though  many  of  his  own  party  desired 
to  avoid  the  issue,  Gladstone,  13  February,  1893,  introduced  his  second 
Home  Rule  Bill.  It  differed  from  the  first  chiefly  in  the  provision  that 
eighty  Irish  representatives  were  to  sit  in  the  Parliament  at  West- 
minster, but  with  the  privilege  of  voting  only  on  matters  of  Irish 
concern.  The  chief  objection  to  this  provision  was  that  it  would  make 
the  existing  system  of  Cabinet  Government  practically  impossible, 
since  the  tenure  of  the  Government  depends  upon  a  majority  in  the 
Commons.  As  was  the  case  in  this  very  Parliament,  it  might  not 
have  a  majority  without  them.  In  spite,  however,  of  this  considera- 
tion, and  in  spite  of  brilliant  speeches  and  determined  resistance  from 
the  Opposition,  the  Bill  passed  the  Lower  House,  i  September,  by  a 
majority  of  thirty-four.  The  "  in  and  out  "  clause  was  omitted,  which 
raised  the  new  objection  that  Ireland'  was  given  a  decided  advantage 
over  Wales  and  Scotland ;  since  the  Irish  members  would  have  a  voice 
in  Welsh  and  Scotch  internal  concerns  as  well  as  an  independent 
control  over  their  own.  In  order  to  prevent  obstruction  against  the 
passage  of  the  Bill  it  was  again  necessary  to  resort  to  the  "  guillotine." 
The  excitement  and  bitterness  was  intense ;  27  July,  some  of  the  mem- 
bers went  so  far  as  to  resort  to  personal  violence,  for  the  first  time,  it 
is  said,  in  parliamentary  history.  It  was  all  in  vain,  however,  for 
the  measure  was  rejected  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  second  reading, 
by  a  vote  of  419  to  41.  Indeed,  many  members  of  the  Lower  House 
had  only  voted  for  the  measure  because  they  foresaw  this  result. 

Ireland  in  the  Last  Decade  of  Victoria's  Reign.  —  It  was  nearly 
twenty  years  after  the  defeat  of  Gladstone's  Bill  of  1893  before  a 
measure  of  Home  Rule  again  succeeded  in  passing  the  Commons. 
During  the  interval  there  was  a  period  of  comparative  peace  in  Ireland, 
and  the  issue  played  a  relatively  small  part  in  practical  politics.  Many 
reasons  contribute  to  explain  this.  For  one  thing,  Mr.  John  Morley, 
who  was  Irish  Secretary  from  1892  to  1895,  ruled  with  wisdom  and 
sympathy.  Then  the  Conservatives,  who  were  in  power  from  1895  to 
1905,  continued  their  policy  of  trying  to  "  kill  Home  Rule  by  kind- 
ness." In  1896  and  1903,  new  Land  Purchase  Acts  were  passed, 
and,  in  1893,  a  Local  Government  Act  extended  to  Ireland  the  same 
degree  of  local  government  which  the  English  enjoyed.1  In  the 

1  In  1894  a  Local  Government  Bill  had  been  carried  in  England  which  supple- 
mented the  Act  of  1888  by  establishing  throughout  England  and  Wales  elective 
district  and  parish  councils. 


TWO   LAST   DECADES   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1025 

previous  year,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  (later  Sir)  Horace 
Plunkett,  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organization  Society  was  founded, 
and  contributed  much  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country  by  fostering  co- 
operative farming  and  the  development  of  the  dairy  and  poultry 
industry ; l  at  the  same  time,  some  forty  credit  banks  had  been  es- 
tablished to  assist  the  farmers  with  loans.  In  1899  the  work  was  made 
more  effective  by  the  creation  of  a  new  Department  for  Agriculture, 
Industries  and  Technical  Instruction,  with  Mr.  Plunkett  as  Vice-Presi- 
dent.  Although  there  has  been  friction  with  the  Government  and 
evictions  have  not  wholly  ceased,  Ireland  has  been  growing  steadily 
better  off,  and,  during  the  first  ten  years  of  the  present  century,  the  de- 
crease of  population  has  been  less  than  in  any  decade  since  the  potato 
famine.  Another  factor  which  tended  for  a  number  of  years  to  weaken 
the  force  of  the  Home  Rule  movement  was  the  split  in  their  ranks  re- 
sulting from  the  disgrace  of  Parnell.  It  was  not  till  1899  that  the  two 
sections  of  the  Nationalists  were  reunited  under  Mr.  J-ohn  Redmond.2 
The  Home  Rule  Problem.  —  Many  factors  have  contributed  to 
render  the  Irish  problem  so  difficult  as  to  be  almost  insoluble.  In  the 
first  place,  there  is  the  difference  of  racial  temperament  which  has 
made  it  well-nigh  impossible  for  the  two  peoples  to  understand  one 
another.  Then,  too,  religious  antagonism  was  for  centuries  an  element 
of  discord,  though,  since  the  Disestablishment  Act  of  1869,  that  has 
not  been  so  acute  as  formerly.  Furthermore,  the  Irish  were  embittered 
by  their  poverty;  although  this  was,  to  a  large  degree,  due  to  the 
unfortunate  physical  features  of  the  country  and  to  a  certain  lack  of 
industrial  aptitude,  it  was  greatly  fostered  by  misgovernment  as 
well  as  by  absenteeism,  middlemen,  and  rack-renting.  While,  of  late 
years,  the  Government  has  done  its  best  to  improve  the  situation, 
it  has  always  been  handicapped  by  party  differences,  by  the  long  tradi- 
tion of  political  oppression  in  the  past,  and  the  natural  desire  of  the 
Irish  for  independence.  How  far  Home  Rule  would  solve  the  question 
it  is  difficult  to  predict.  Certainly  the  Irish  were  far  from  successful 
during  the  years  when  they  had  an  independent  parliament  from  1782 
to  1800 ;  but  they  did  not  have  a.  fair  chance  during  that  period,  since 
the  control  of  affairs  was  in  the  hands  of  a  small  Protestant  clique. 
The  Irish  Nationalists  argue  that  the  Union  was  brought  about  by 
fraud  and  hence  should  be  repealed ;  that  Ireland  best  understands 
her  own  needs  and  hence  should  govern  herself ;  and  that,  though 
they  have  a  representation  in  Parliament,  their  members  accomplish 

1  This  was  a  happy  departure,  for  the  soil  of  Ireland  was  in  general  too  wet  for 
tillage,  and  the  improved  methods  of  transportation  had  made  it  practically  impos- 
sible for  the  Irish  to  withstand  American  competition  in  the  supply  of  meat.     While 
poultry  and  dairy  products  are  more  perishable,  parts  of  Ireland  suffer  still  from 
insufficient  railway  facilities,  giving  Denmark  an  advantage  in  supplying  the  Lon- 
don market. 

2  About  1905  the  Independent  Nationalists  became  prominent.     Their  policy 
is  complete  abstention  from  parliamentary  activity,  a  total  ignoring  of  the  English, 
and  the  development  of  Irish  nationality. 


1026  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

little  except  by  obstruction,  save  at  times  when  the  two  great  parties 
are  so  evenly  balanced  as  to  give  them  the  balance  of  power.  These 
arguments  have  appealed  to  some  Englishmen,  others  have  contended 
that,  right  or  wrong,  the  Irish  should  be  listened  to,  while  to  others, 
again,  the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of  Home  Rule  is  that  a  legisla- 
tive body  at  Dublin  would  relieve  the  pressure  on  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment, which  is  sadly  overworked.  On  the  other  hand,  much  has 
been  urged  against  Home  Rule.  For  one  thing,  it  has  been  argued 
that  the  Irish  are  unfit  to  govern  themselves.  Secondly,  that  it 
would  not  only  destroy  the  integrity  of  the  British  Empire  but, 
owing  to  the  position  of  Ireland,  it  would  be  strategically  dan- 
gerous to  give  her  an  independent  government.  Thirdly,  since 
Ireland  is  not  self-sufficing,  it  would  be  an  impossible  task  to 
adjust  the  financial  burdens.  Fourthly,  it  would  be  unfair  to  the 
Ulster  Protestants.  Finally,  none  of  the  schemes  yet  suggested 
would  be  workable  —  either  the  admission  or  the  exclusion  of 
Irish  members  at  Westminster  or  the  "  in  and  out  "  arrangement. 
Apparently,  the  best  solution  would  be  a  scheme  of  "  devolution  " 
corresponding  to  the  system  in  vogue  in  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
with  a  federal  parliament  at  Westminster  for  the  whole  United 
Kingdom,  and  separate  bodies  for  England,  Wales,  and  Scotland, 
and  northern  and  southern  Ireland.  Even  this,  however,  would 
not  be  wholly  without  objection,  since  there  is  a  strong  Roman  Catholic 
element  in  most  of  the  counties  of  Ulster. 

The  Resignation  of  Gladstone,  March,  1894.  —  Gladstone's  patience 
with  the  House  of  Lords  was  almost  exhausted  when  they  defeated 
his  Home  Rule  Bill.  When  they  suggested  various  amendments  to 
the  Local  Government  Bill  of  1894  he  was  provoked  to  declare  that : 
"  the  differences  between  the  two  Chambers  disclosed  a  state  of  things 
of  which  we  are  compelled  to  say  that,  in  our  judgment,  it  cannot  con- 
tinue." This  hint,  thrown  out  more  than  once  during  recent  years, 
that  the  veto  power  of  the  House  of  Lords  must  in  some  way  be  cur- 
tailed, later  came  to  be  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  Liberal  party, 
and  was  finally  realized  by  the  Parliament  Bill  of  1911.  Gladstone 
made  it  in  what  proved  to  be  his  last  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
He  might  have  urged  various  reasons  for  his  resignation  —  his  ad- 
vanced age,  his  failing  eyesight  and  hearing.  Moreover,  he  had  not 
only  failed  in  his  supreme  effort  to  carry  Home  Rule,  but  had  shattered 
his  party  as  well.  The  immediate  occasion,  however,  of  his  retire- 
ment, although  he  made  no  mention  of  it  in  his  letter  of  resignation, 
was  his  objection  to  the  increased  naval  estimates  and  his  inability  to 
bring  the  majority  of  the  Cabinet  to  his  way  of  thinking.  His  final 
interview  with  the  Queen  was  cold  and  formal.  She  was  so  opposed 
to  his  policy,  and  so  estranged  from  him  personally,  that  she  was 
relieved  to  see  him  go,  and  did  not  even  consult  him  as  to  his  successor. 

The  Rosebery  Ministry,  March,  1894,  to  June,  1895.  —  The  selection 
of  a  Premier  to  conduct  the  Liberal  Government  which  remained  in 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1027 

office  was  a  matter  of  some  perplexity.  Sir  William  Harcourt,  the 
natural  choice  of  the  majority,  was  unpopular  with  certain  men  of  in- 
fluence because  of  his  anti-imperialistic  views.  The  office  was  finally 
given  to  Lord  Rosebery.  He  is  a  man  of  personal  charm  and  of 
varied  interests  and  attainments.  He  has  an  exquisite  taste  in  art, 
he  is  widely  read,  he  writes  with  distinction,  and,  as  an  orator,  has 
been  exceeded  by  no  one  of  his  generation  in  grace  and  felicity  of  ex- 
pression. On  the  other  hand,  never  having  sat  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, he  lacked  the  experience  which  can  only  be  gained  in  that  body, 
he  was  wanting  in  energy  and  in  the  strength  of  conviction  that  makes 
such  an  appeal  to  the  rank  and  file  of  a  political  party.  With  regard 
to  Home  Rule,  for  example,  to  which  the  followers  of  Gladstone  were 
committed,  he  declared  that  he  agreed  with  Salisbury  in  holding  that 
before  it  was  granted :  "  England  as  the  predominant  member  of  the 
partnership  of  the  three  Kingdoms,  will  have  to  be  convinced  of  its 
justice."  The  most  notable  piece  of  legislation  of  his  Ministry  was 
a  measure  of  Harcourt,  now  leader  of  the  Lower  House,  which  added 
£4,000,000  to  the  budget  by  equalizing  the  death  duties  on  real  and 
personal  property  and  imposing  a  graduated  assessment  of  from  one  to 
eight  per  cent,  depending  upon  the  value  of  the  estate.  At  the  same 
time  the  income  tax  was  decreased.  This  attempt  to  relieve  the  poor 
at  the  expense  of  the  rich  caused  much  grumbling,  and  it  was  freely 
predicted  that  great  estates  would  sink  under  the  burden  and  ulti- 
mately be  broken  up.  During  the  session  of  1895,  the  Government 
was  defeated  by  a  snap  vote  on  an  amendment  to  the  army  estimates 
calling  attention  to  "  the  insufficient  provision  of  small  arm  ammuni- 
tion," especially  cordite.  The  Cabinet,  which  was  not  making  much 
headway,  seized  this  opportunity  to  resign,  21  June.  Salisbury  re- 
turned to  head  his  third  and  last  Ministry,  a  Ministry  which  survived 
the  nineteenth  century  and  the  reign  of  Victoria. 

The  Third  Salisbury  Ministry,  June,  1895,  to  July,  1902.  —  Salisbury 
took  the  post  of  Foreign  Secretary,  while  his  nephew,  Mr.  Balfour, 
led  the  House  of  Commons  as  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  Some  of 
the  chief  Liberal  Unionists  took  office  in  the  new  Government,  among 
them  Hartington,  since  1891  Duke  of  Devonshire,  and  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain. The  latter  had  entered  public  life  as  a  Radical,  but  in  his  new 
position  as  Colonial  Secretary  he  devoted  himself  to  a  zealous  ex- 
ploitation of  the  policy  of  Imperialism  which  he  had  recently  adopted. 
Regarding  the  colonies  and  the  dependencies  as  the  real  source  of  Great 
Britain's  wealth  and  strength,  he  determined  that  it  should  be  her 
guiding  aim  to  develop  and  consolidate  the  Empire.  The  celebration 
of  the  Queen's  "  diamond  jubilee,"  marking  the  completion  of  the  six- 
tieth year  of  her  reign,  contributed  to  strengthen  the  sentiment  mani- 
fested so  strikingly  ten  years  before.1  The  Premiers  of  the  self- 

1"The  passion  of  loyalty,"  says  Sir  Sidney  Lee,  Victoria's  biographer,  "which 
the  Jubilee  of  1887  had  called  forth,  reached,  at  the  close  of  the  next  decade,  a  degree 
of  intensity  which  had  no  historical  precedent."  A  further  reason  for  tightening 


1028  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

governing  colonies  and  the  representatives  of  India  and  the  Crown  colo- 
nies came  to  join  in  the  festival,  and  another  conference  of  colonial 
delegates  was  held,  with  especial  reference  to  trade  and  defense.  Al- 
though no  general  agreement  was  reached  on  either  point,  the  question 
of  colonial  preferential  tariffs  was  raised  for  the  first  time.  A  few 
years  later,  Mr.  Chamberlain  made  a  vain  attempt  to  commit  his  party 
to  this  form  of  protectionist  policy.  In  1898  a  penny  postage  was 
established  between  England  and  the  greater  part  of  the  Empire. 
Among  the  most  important  domestic  measures  of  the  Ministry  during 
its  first  years  was  the  Irish  Local  Government  Act  (1898)  and  an  act  es- 
tablishing borough  councils  in  London,  1899.  Gladstone  died,  19 
May,  1898,  and,  30  July,  Bismarck,  the  creator  of  German  unity 
and  the  most  commanding  figure  in  Europe,  followed  him  to  the  grave. 

The  Venezuela  Boundary  Dispute,  1895-1899.  —  Toward  the  close 
of  1895,  Grover  Cleveland,  President  of  the  United  States,  had  nearly 
brought  on  a  war  with  Great  Britain  by  a  belligerent  message  sent  to 
Congress,  17  December.  He  declared  that  Salisbury's  refusal  to  sub- 
mit to  arbitration  her  territorial  claims  in  a  boundary  dispute  with 
Venezuela  was  a  violation  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  He  asked  Con- 
gress to  authorize  him  to  appoint  a  boundary  commission  whose 
findings  should  be  "  imposed  upon  Great  Britain  by  all  the  resources 
of  the  United  States."  Salisbury's  calm  and  courteous  attitude  alone 
averted  war.  Convinced  of  the  justice  of  his  cause,  he  submitted  it  to 
the  commission  appointed  by  Cleveland,  and  the  proposal  to  enforce 
its  findings  was  dropped.  The  commission  was  made  up  of  two 
American  and  two  British  judges  with  a  Russian  jurist  as  president. 
In  October,  1899,  it  rendered  a  unanimous  opinion  conceding  to 
Great  Britain  practically  all  she  had  claimed.  Meantime,  Salisbury's 
good  offices  in  preventing  an  anti-American  coalition  of  the  European 
Powers  when  the  Spanish  War  broke  out  in  the  spring  of  1898,  contrib- 
uted to  bring  about  a  friendlier  feeling  between  his  country  and  the 
United  States. 

Great  Britain  and  Turkey,  1894-1897.  —  Terrible  massacres  of 
the  Armenians,  in  which  it  was  estimated  that  ten  thousand  perished 
during  the  years  from  1894  to  1896,  again  brought  the  Turkish  problem 
to  the  center  of  the  European  stage.  Early  in  1895,  the  Powers 
presented  a  joint  note  to  the  Porte,  demanding  reforms,  but  this  time  it 
was  Russia  who  stood  out  against  coercing  Turkey.  Gladstone,  from 
the  retirement  in  which  he  was  spending  his  declining  years,  raised 
his  voice  for  independent  intervention  on  the  part  of  Gr^at  Britain. 
While  the  Armenians  had  to  wait  till  the  autumn  of  1899  before  any 
reforms  were  undertaken,  Salisbury  had  long  since  come  to  believe  that 
Great  Britain  had  made  a  mistake  in  seeking  to  maintain  the  integrity 
of  Turkey.  In  a  speech  of  19  January,  1897,  he  made  his  famous 

the  bonds  of  colonial  union  was  due  to  the  fact  that  relations  with  Germany,  France, 
and  the  United  States  had  tended  to  put  Great  Britain  in  a  state  of  "splendid 
isolation." 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1029 

declaration  with  reference  to  Great  Britain's  part  in  the  Crimean  War : 
"  We  put  all  our  money  on  the  wrong  horse."  In  the  Greco-Turkish 
War  of  1897  he  put  his  new  views  into  practice.  The  trouble  began 
with  a  civil  war  which  broke  out  between  the  Christian  and  Moham- 
medan inhabitants  of  the  island  of  Crete  in  June,  1896.  In  view  of 
the  prevailing  sentiment  among  the  Cretans  in  favor  of  a  union  with 
the  Greeks,  the  Government  of  the  latter  country  stepped  in ;  as  a 
result,  Turkey  declared  war  and  drove  the  Greek  troops  from  the 
Island  in  May,  1897.  Thereupon,  the  Powers,  led  by  Great  Britain, 
intervened  and  arranged  terms  by  which  Crete  was  accorded  an 
autonomous  government  with  Prince  George  of  Greece  as  High  Com- 
missioner. 

Great  Britain  and  China,  1898.  —  In  the  far  East,  Great  Britain 
was  trying  to  maintain  the  policy  of  the  "  open  door,"  while  Russia, 
Germany,  and  France  were  striving  to  enrich  themselves  at  the 
expense  of  China,  though  they  sought  to  preserve  her  integrity  against 
Japanese  encroachment.1  In  November,  1897,  Germany,  having  the 
murder  of  two  missionaries  as  a  pretext,  seized  the  port  of  Kiao  Chau. 
Following  this  step,  a  German  fleet  was  sent  to  China  under  Prince 
Henry,  and,  in  March,  1898,  Kiao  Chau  was  "  leased  "  to  Germany, 
Russia  secured  Port  Arthur  after  her  fleet  had  wintered  there,  and 
France,  somewhat  later,  obtained  Kwang-Chau  Lung.  In  order  to 
counteract  these  acquisitions,  Great  Britain,  in  May,  1898,  secured  a 
lease  of  the  island  of  Wei-hai-Wei,  together  with  some  territory  on 
the  mainland  opposite  Hong  Kong. 

The  Hague  Conference  of  1899.  —  In  May,  1899,  Great  Britain 
sent  representatives  to  an  international  conference  at  the  Hague, 
assembled  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia  "for 'the  dis- 
cussion of  schemes  of  arbitration,  disarmament,  and  the  amelioration 
of  the  customs  of  war."  While  no  agreement  was  reached  as  to  dis- 
armament, a  permanent  court  of  arbitration  was  established,  "  largely 
through  the  efforts  of  the  British  delegate  Sir 'Julian  Pauncefote." 
Before  the  conference  closed  Great  Britain  had  reached  the  verge  of 
war  with  the  Boers  in  South  Africa,  a  war  of  which  the  embers  still 
smoldered  at  the  close  of  Victoria's  reign. 

The  British  Advance  in  Africa.  —  For  some  time  the  British  advance 
in  Africa,  north  and  south,  had  been  steady.  She  was  firmly  intrenched 
in  Egypt,  with  no  intention  of  withdrawing,  and,  early  in  1899,  she 
had  extended  her  sway  over  the  Egyptian  Sudan.  Already,  in  June, 
1894,  in  corfsequence  of  the  financial  straits  of  the  British  East  Africa 
Company,  founded  in  1888,  she  had  proclaimed  a  protectorate  over 
Uganda  which  commanded  the  Nile  basin  and  which  Rosebery  re- 
garded as  "  the  key,  perhaps,  of  central  Africa."  In  1899  the  Niger 
Company  was  bought  out  for  £865,000,  thus  adding  to  the  Empire  a 
territory  about  one  third  the  size  of  India.  She  had  secured  a  foothold 

1  In  a  war  with  China,  1894-1895,  Japan  had  secured  Korea  and  Formosa,  to- 
gether with  other  concessions. 


io3o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  South  Africa  nearly  a  century  before,  when  she  conquered  Cape 
Colony  from  the  Dutch  during  the  Napoleonic  Wars.  The  country 
was  granted  a  constitution  in  1850  and  became  self-governing  in  1872. 
Natal,  settled  by  the  Boers,  or  descendants  of  the  original  Dutch 
immigrants,  was  taken  over  as  a  British  possession  and  annexed 
to  the  Cape  Colony  in  1843,  of  which  it  was  made  independent  in  1856. 
Directly  west  of  Natal  was  the  Orange  Free  State,  originally  settled 
by  immigrants  from  Cape  Colony,  annexed  by  Great  Britain  in  1848 
and  recognized  as  independent  in  1854.  Meantime,  in  1836,  Boers 
from  the  Cape  Colony  had  made  new  homes  for  themselves  in  the  dis- 
trict known  as  the  Transvaal.  After  being  recognized  as  independent 
in  1852  it  was  later  annexed  by  Great  Britain  in  1877. 

The  Zulu  War,  1879.  —  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  sent  out  in  1877  to  the 
Cape  Colony  as  Governor  and  Lord  High  Commissioner,  was  in- 
structed to  work  for  the  federation  of  the  various  South  African  states, 
but  a  bill  to  unite  the  Transvaal,  Natal,  the  Orange  River  Free  State, 
and  Cape  Colony  in  a  voluntary  federation,  although  it  passed  the 
Lords,  was  defeated  in  the  Commons,  largely  by  the  Radicals  and  the 
Irish  Nationalists.  The  Radicals  took  the  ground  that  the  annexa- 
tion of  the  Transvaal,  completed  about  the  time  of  Frere's  arrival, 
had  aroused  discontent  in  that  state,  while  the  Irish  were  ready  for  any 
obstruction.  Discontent  and  disorder  were  rife  enough  in  South 
Africa.  There  were  risings  of  the  Kaffirs  and  other  natives,  and,  worst 
of  all,  a  formidable  war  with  the  Zulus  broke  out  in  1879.  The  real 
cause  of  the  latter  was  the  resentment  of  the  Zulu  chieftain  Cetewayo 
against  the  British  for  taking  the  Boers,  his  enemies,  under  their  pro- 
tection. Among  the  occasions,  however,  were  the  demands  of  Frere 
that  he  surrender  certain  of  his  Zulu  subjects,  who  had  crossed  the 
border  and  slain  some  refugees,  and  that  he  accept  a  British  resident. 
The  High  Commissioner  was  responsible  for  invading  Zululand  before 
the  Home  authorities,  occupied  with  the  war  in  Afghanistan,  had  de- 
cided to  send  reinforcements.  This,  together  with  the  fact  that  the 
commanders  on  the  spot  undervalued  the  fighting  qualities  of  the 
natives,  led  to  hard  fighting  from  January  to  July  and  to  a  series  of 
British  reverses  before  the  Zulus  were  finally  overcome.  Frere  was 
censured  for  his  precipitation,  but  justified  himself  on  the  ground  of 
pressing  danger,  and  the  colonists  supported  him  with  the  greatest  en- 
thusiasm and  confidence.  Cetewayo  was  captured  and  taken  prisoner 
to  England,  while  Zululand  was  divided  among  a  number  of  chieftains. 
Owing  to  the  resulting  confusion  and  strife,  Cetewayo  was  reinstated 
in  1883,  but  was  driven  out  and  died  in  the  following  year.  Part  of 
his  lands  were  later  taken  over  by  the  Transvaal,  and  the  remainder 
came  under  the  British  protection  in  1897.  Meantime,  events  had 
developed  in  the  Transvaal  leading  to  a  great  British  humiliation  dur- 
ing Gladstone's  second  ministry. 

The  Revolt  in  the  Transvaal,  1880-1881. — The  Conservatives 
had  already  selected  a  successor  for  Sir  Bartle  Frere  as  High  Com- 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF  VICTORIA'S  REIGN     1031 

missioner,  and  though  the  new  Government  planned  to  retain  him 
as  Governor  with  the  hope  of  carrying  through  the  South  African 
Federation,  he  was  soon  removed.  Gladstone  had  encouraged  the 
Boers  by  his  language  during  the  Midlothian  campaign ; l  but  when 
they  found  that  there  was  no  hope  that  independence  would  be  granted 
them  they  prepared  for  rebellion.  By  the  end  of  December,  1880, 
British  detachments  had  been  forced  to  surrender,  and  a  troop  of 
Boers  had  invaded  Natal.  Sir  George  Colley,  the  British  commander, 
was  hampered  by  the  fact  that  the  Home  Office  desired  to  continue 
negotiations,  by  the  inadequacy  of  his  forces,  and  by  the  old  British 
delusion  that  farmers  would  not  fight.  Hence,  in  an  attempt  to  seize 
Majuba  Hill,  27  February,  1881,  he  was  attacked  by  the  Boers,  he 
lost  his  life,  and  his  little  army  was  cut  to  pieces.  In  the  teeth  of  this 
disaster,  so  momentous  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  cost  the  British  no 
more  than  three  hundred  men  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners, 
Gladstone  insisted  on  resuming  the  negotiations  as  if  nothing  had 
happened,  and  self-government  was  restored  in  the  Transvaal.  Al- 
though the  arrangement  continued  for  nearly  a  score  of  years,  it 
satisfied  almost  no  one.  The  opponents  of  the  Ministry  declared 
that  the  British  had  humiliated  themselves  by  making  terms  with  the 
victorious  insurgents,  the  British  supporters  in  South  Africa  com- 
plained that  they  had  been  deserted,  while  the  Dutch  chafed  at  the 
fact  that  any  suzerainty  had  been  reserved  to  the  Queen.  Two 
factors  ultimately  combined  to  precipitate  a  crisis  in  South  Africa. 
One  was  the  ambition  of  a  very  remarkable  man  to  make  Great  Britain 
predominant  in  Africa,  the  other  was  the  discovery  of  gold  in  the 
Transvaal. 

The  Designs  of  Cecil  Rhodes  and  the  Discovery  of  Gold  in  the 
Transvaal.  —  Cecil  Rhodes  (1853-1902),  who  was  the  son  of  a  clergy- 
man, was  educated  at  Oxford ;  but  as  a  young  man  went  for  his  health 
to  South  Africa,  where  he  made  a  huge  fortune,  mainly  out  of  the 
Kimberley  diamond  mines  and  the  Transvaal  gold  fields,  and  rose 
to  be  Prime  Minister  of  Cape  Colony  in  1890.  In  October,  1888, 
he  secured  the  mining  rights  in  Matabeleland  for  the  British  South 
Africa  Company,  which  received  its  charter  29  October,  1899.  Under 
the  chairmanship  of  Rhodes  it  extended  its  exploitations  into  Mashona- 
land.  The  territories  over  which  it  ruled  came  to  be  known  as  Rho- 
desia. While  Rhodes  lacked  scruple  in  the  pursuit  of  his  aims,  he  was 
not  a  mere  money  maker.  His  dream  was  to  make  his  country  su- 
preme in  Africa,  north  and  south,  and  to  unite  the  two  by  a  railroad 
from  Cairo  to  the  Cape.  Salisbury  enthusiastically  supported  a 
strong  policy  in  Africa.  He  refused  to  recognize  the  Portuguese 

1  For  example,  in  a  speech  of  25  November,  1879,  he  declared,  the  Transvaal 
"is  a  country  where  we  have  chosen,  most  unwisely,  I  am  tempted  to  say  insanely, 
to  place  ourselves  in  the  strange  predicament  of  the  free  subjects  of  a  monarchy 
going  to  coerce  the  free  subjects  of  a  republic,  and  to  compel  them  to  accept  a  citi- 
zenship which  they  decline  and  refuse." 


io3  2  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

claim  to  Matabeleland  and  Mashonaland,  which  lay  to  the  west  of 
Portuguese  West  Africa.  In  1890,  in  return  for  the  cession  of  Heligo- 
land in  the  Baltic,  he  induced  the  Germans  to  abandon  their  claims  to 
Uganda  and  the  Upper  Nile,  and  to  recognize  the  British  protectorate 
over  Zanzibar.  France  also  agreed  to  this,  in  return  for  the  British 
recognition  of  the  French  protectorate  over  Madagascar.  The  dis- 
covery of  gold  in  the  Transvaal  brought  in  a  flood  of  foreigners,  or 
"  Uitlanders,"  who  were  bent  on  developing  the  country,  and  on 
securing  a  voice  in  its  affairs  proportional  to  their  wealth  and  influence. 
The  Boers,  who  were  mainly  an  agricultural  people,  wanted  to  keep 
the  country  to  themselves,  they  had  little  desire  to  develop  it,  and  were 
determined  to  exclude  the  Uitlanders  from  the  franchise  and  from  all 
share  in  the  government. 

The  Jameson  Raid,  1895.  —  In  the  midst  of  the  struggle,  the  world 
was  startled  to  learn  that,  29  December,  1895,  Dr.  Leander  Jameson, 
the  administrator  of  Rhodesia,  had  ridden  into  the  Transvaal  with  a 
body  of  the  Chartered  Company's  troops.  It  developed  from  a  sub- 
sequent parliamentary  inquiry  that  Rhodes  had,  as  early  as  June, 
formed  an  agreement  with  the  foreigners  interested  in  the  South  Africa 
gold  fields  to  promote  a  revolution  in  the  city  of  Johannesburg.  He 
told  his  story  quite  frankly  before  the  committee.  He  pointed  out  that 
the  position  of  the  Uitlanders,  who  owned  more  than  half  the  land, 
nine  tenths  of  the  wealth,  and  paid  nineteen  twentieths  of  the  taxes, 
was  intolerable;  that  the  attitude  of  the  Transvaal  was  notoriously 
unfriendly  to  Cape  Colony ;  and  stated  that  his  aim  was  to  secure 
control  of  the  country  in  order  to  incorporate  it  in  a  projected  South 
African  Republic  under  Great  Britain.  His  design  was  to  assist  the 
insurgents,  or  "  reformers,"  with  the  Company's  forces,  whereupon  the 
British  Government  was  to  intervene  and  annex  the  country.  The 
rising  came  to  nothing,  owing  to  dissension  among  the  "  reformers," 
for  one  faction  was  opposed  to  Rhodes's  plan  of  British  rule  and 
favored  an  independent  republic.  It  was  after  the  failure  of  this 
projected  rising  that  Jameson  undertook  his  raid,  in  spite  of  the 
efforts  of  Rhodes  and  the  "  reformers."  He  was  met  by  a  force  of 
the  Boers,  and,  after  a  slight  engagement,  was  overcome,  and  sur- 
rendered. Together  with  the  other  leading  raiders,  he  was  handed 
over  to  the  British  High  Commissioner,  Sir  Hercules  Robinson,  who 
sent  them  to  England  for  trial.  Jameson  was  sentenced  to  fifteen 
months'  imprisonment,  and  some  of  the  others  to  shorter  terms.  Four 
of  the  reform  leaders  at  Johannesburg  were  sentenced  to  death ;  but 
the  sentence  was  commuted  to  a  fine  of  £25,000  each.  Forty-two 
other  members  of  the  reform  committee  had  to  pay  £2000  each. 

Drifting  into  War,  1896-1899.  —  In  January,  1896,  Rhodes  resigned 
as  Premier  of  Cape  Colony,  and,  in  June,  as  managing  director  of 
the  Chartered  Company.  He  was  never  tried  for  his  share  in  the 
conspiracy  and  raid,  though  he  returned  to  England,  in  1897,  to  give 
his  testimony  before  the  parliamentary  committee.  While  the  com- 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1033 

mittee  reported  that  "  whatever  justification  there  may  have  been  for 
action  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Johannesburg,  there  was  none  for 
a  person  in  Mr.  Rhodes's  position,"  he  was  warmly  defended  in  debate 
by  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  other  men  of  influence.  The  Boers,  es- 
pecially President  Kruger  of  the  South  African  Republic,  always 
suspected  that  the  British  Government  was  privy  to  Rhodes's  scheme. 
These  suspicions  were  no  doubt  unfounded,  though  it  is  most  likely 
that  both  he  and  Jameson  fancied  that  the  authorities  were  not  ig- 
norant of  their  designs,  and  would  approve  of  them  in  case  they  suc- 
ceeded. After  the  attempt  to  force  their  land  had  proved  futile, 
the  Boers  were  more  disinclined  than  ever  to  grant  to  the  Uitlanders 
the  concessions  which  they  demanded  and  deserved.  Their  cause 
was  warmly  espoused  by  the  new  High  Commissioner,  Sir  Alfred 
Milner,  who  sent  a  strong  representation  to  Mr.  Chamberlain  urging 
that  the  Government  must  for  its  own  credit  assert  itself  in  behalf  of 
"  thousands  of  British  subjects  kept  permanently  in  the  position  of 
helots."  As  a  result,  a  series  of  conferences  was  arranged  with 
Kruger  in  the  early  summer  of  1899.  They  came  to  nothing  because 
the  British  insisted  on  a  franchise  based  upon  five  years'  residence, 
while  Kruger  would  concede  nothing  less  than  seven  years,  and  hedged 
in  with  various  restrictions  at  that.  While  the  Unionist  Government 
was  hot  for  war,  the  Liberals  opposed  what  they  regarded  as  an  unjust 
and  unnecessary  aggression  in  behalf  of  Rhodes  and  the  financial 
interests.  At  length,  18  August,  the  Boers  went  so  far  as  to  offer  a 
five  years'  franchise,  but  on  conditions  that  the  British  Government 
would  not  accept,  namely  that  they  would  agree  never  again  to 
interfere  in  the  affairs  of  the  Republic,  and  to  drop  all  claims  to 
suzerainty.  After  further  vain  negotiations,  both  sides  determined 
upon  the  war.  The  Boers  were  far  better  equipped  than  the  British 
imagined ;  for,  ever  since  the  raid,  they  had  been  quietly  buying  from 
Europe  arms  and  ammunition  of  the  most  improved  type.  On  9 
October,  they  sent  an  ultimatum  which  the  British  refused  to  con- 
sider, and,  two  days  later,  they  invaded  Natal.  In  the  war  which 
followed  it  required  three  years  and  cost  Great  Britain  over 
£220,000,000  to  subdue  a  population  of  50,000  adult  males. 

Opening  of  The  Boer  War,  October,  1899.  —  Neither  party  ex- 
pected a  long  conflict.  The  Boers  recalled  their  easy  victory  in  1881 ; 
they  counted  on  their  admirable  preparation,  and  the  fact  that  their 
opponents  had  so  few  troops  in  South  Africa.  The  British  proved 
incapable  of  profiting  by  past  experiences.  They  did  not  dream  that  a 
scanty  population  of  farmers  would  be  capable  of  effective  resistance ; 
they  did  not  realize  the  extent  of  their  equipment,  or  how  peculiarly 
adapted  they  were  to  the  kind  of  fighting  which  the  nature  of  the 
country  required.  Moreover,  their  generals,  trained  in  peace  or  in 
warfare  with  savages,  proved  at  first  no  match  for  the  very  competent 
Boer  commanders  —  De  Wet,  Cronje,  and  Botha.  As  early  as  12 
September,  Wolseley  had  predicted  the  possibility  of  "  the  most 


1034  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

serious  war  England  has  ever  had,"  but  the  crisis  found  the  Cabinet 
unprepared.  Their  only  excuse  was  that  any  evidences  of  armed 
preparation  would  imperil  the  negotiations.  When  the  negotiations 
failed  they  took  the  consequences.  For  the  sake  of  political  effect 
it  was  regarded  as  necessary  to  defend  northern  Natal ;  but,  strategi- 
cally, it  was  unwise,  since  the  territory  in  question,  penetrating  like  a 
wedge  between  the  Transvaal  and  the  Orange  Free  State,  was  exposed 
to  attack  on  both  sides.  As  a  result,  the  British  met  with  several 
reverses,  and  Sir  George  White  was  shut  up  in  Ladysmith,  where  he 
had  to  withstand  a  long  siege.  The  arrival  of  General  Buller,  as 
Commander-in-Chief,  with  reinforcements  brought  no  immediate 
relief ;  indeed,  three  defeats  followed  within  a  week.  All  this,  however, 
had  the  effect  of  consolidating  British  public  opinion  in  favor  of  the 
war,  and  of  calling  forth  the  best  efforts  not  only  of  the  United  King- 
dom but  of  the  whole  Empire ;  for  as  Mr.  Asquith  put  it,  "  the  British 
title  to  be  known  as  a  World  Power  was  now  on  trial."  Volunteers 
were  called  for,  and  the  colonies,  who  had  already  sent  contingents, 
loyally  responded  to  the  request  for  more.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
British  army,  including  regulars,  militia,  volunteers,  and  contingents 
from  Canada,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand,  exceeded  the  whole  Boer 
population.  While  Buller  was  left  to  operate  in  Natal,  General 
Roberts  was  put  in  command 1  with  General  Kitchener  as  his  chief  of 
staff,  and  ordered  to  advance  into  the  Transvaal  through  the  Orange 
River  Free  State. 

The  End  of  the  First  Phase  of  the  War,  September,  1900.  —  On 
15  February,  1900,  Roberts  succeeded  in  relieving  Kimberley,  which 
had  been  besieged  for  four  months.  Cronje,  retreating  toward  Bloem- 
fontein,  was  compelled  to  surrender,  27  February,  and,  15  March, 
Roberts  occupied  the  capital  of  the  Orange  Free  State.  He  then  gave 
his  overspent  troops  a  six  weeks'  rest ;  rather  too  long  a  period,  since 
it  enabled  the  Boers  to  recover  from  the  shock  of  the  blows  which  he 
had  dealt  them.  Meantime,  Buller,  though  he  was  defeated  again 
and  again,  kept  doggedly  at  his  work  of  trying  to  break  through  the 
Boer  lines.  However,  the  operations  of  Roberts  drew  a  portion  of 
the  enemy's  forces  from  Natal,  a,nd  28  February,  after  two  weeks  of 
hard  fighting,  Buller  succeeded  in  a  fourth  and  final  attempt  to  relieve 
Ladysmith.  General  White  had  conducted  an  heroic  defense  for 
one  hundred  and  eighteen  days.  Nor  were  the  sufferings  of  his  garri- 
son in  vain ;  since,  by  holding  out,  they  had  saved  southern  Natal 
from  being  overrun  by  the  Boers.  Buller  proceeded  to  fight  his  way 
north,  and,  12  June,  brought  his  army  into  the  Transvaal.  While 
Lord  Roberts's  troops  had  been  taking  their  enforced  repose,  General 
De  Wet  was  conducting  an  active  guerrilla  warfare  in  the  south  and 
east  of  the  Orange  Free  State  and  creating  havoc  with  small  British 

1  By  the  end  of  1900  he  had  an  army  of  250,000,  a  greater  force,  it  is  said,  than 
had  ever  been  intrusted  to  any  single  British  general. 


AFRICA  IN  1910 


200    400     600     800    1000 

REFERENCE 

|          |  (ierman       \         \  Portuguese  \         \  Otto 

[         ]  He'trig 

XOTE:  The  Coloring  shows  the  possessions  of  the  different 
European  Powers  at  the  present  day. 
The  independent  African  States  are  uncolored.O0 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF   VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1035 

detachments.1  Disregarding  this  diversion  Roberts,  when  he  was 
ready,  started,  i  May,  for  Pretoria,  with  General  French  and  General 
Ian  Hamilton  accompanying  the  flanks  of  his  army.  Johannesburg 
was  occupied,  31  May,  and  Pretoria  was  reached  and  taken,  after 
slight  resistance,  5  June.  During  the  advance,  Roberts's  army 
relieved  Mafeking  on  the  Transvaal  border,  where  Colonel  Baden- 
Powell  2  had  been  gallantly  holding  out  for  some  time.  The  backbone 
of  the  war  was  now  broken ;  but  De  Wet  was  still  unbeaten,  and  other 
detachments  cooperating  with  him  conducted  a  harrowing  partisan 
warfare.  They  constantly  threatened  Roberts's  communications,  and, 
at  one  time,  cut  him  off  wholly  from  the  south.  Finally,  General 
Hamilton  was  able  to  effect  a  junction  with  Buller's  army  from  Natal, 
and  to  separate  the  Boer  forces  in  the  Transvaal  from  those  in  the 
Free  State.  The  plan  was  to  crush  them  in  detail.  While  those  in 
the  hill  country  of  the  state  were  gradually  overcome,  De  Wet  managed 
to  escape  north.  Although  smaller  forces  continued  to  give  trouble 
elsewhere,  the  conflict  was,  from  the  summer  of  1900,  concentrated 
mainly  in  the  Transvaal.  By  September,  Roberts  regarded  the  war 
as  practically  ended,  and  Kruger  had  reached  such  a  pitch  of  despair 
that  he  started  for  Europe.  Yet,  although  the  British  commander 
issued  a  proclamation  annexing  the  Transvaal,  and  declaring  that  he 
would  treat  those  who  still  held  out  as  rebels,  it  was  still  more  than 
a  year  and  a  half  before  the  supremacy  of  the  conquerors  was  finally 
recognized. 

The  Second  and  Concluding  Stage  of  the  War,  September,  1900,  to 
June,  1902.  —  The  second  phase  of  the  war,  which  consisted  in  the 
"  gradual  acquisition  and  occupation  of  the  country,"  was  left  to 
General  Kitchener.  He  secured  his  conquests  by  block  houses  con- 
nected "  by  thousands  of  miles  of  barbed  wire  entanglement." 
Peace  was  concluded,  i  June,  1902,  by  which  the  Transvaal  and  the 
Orange  River  Free  State  were  finally  incorporated.  General  Roberts, 
on  his  return  home  the  previous  autumn,  became  the  nation's  hero, 
and  was  showered  with  honors.  He  was  made  an  earl,  received  the 
Order  of  the  Garter,  and  succeeded  as  Commander-in-Chief  to  Lord 
Wolseley,  who  was  verging  on  seventy  and  in  feeble  health.  Alto- 
gether, while  there  was  much  discontent  with  the  existing  military 
organization,  with  the  lack  of  preparation  at  the  opening  of  the  war, 
and  at  the  disasters  which  marked  its  early  stages,  there  was,  neverthe- 
less, sufficient  enthusiasm  for  what  had  been  accomplished  to  induce 
Salisbury  to  dissolve  Parliament  in  the  autumn  of  1900,  and  to  try  the 
chance  of  prolonging  his  Government.  The  election  in  October, 
known  as  the  "  Khaki  election  "  went  in  his  favor.  The  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  War  Office,  by  which  the  Commander-in-Chief  was  replaced 
by  a  General  Staff,  followed  some  time  later. 

1  However,  about  this  time  the  Orange  River  Free  State  was  declared  annexed 
to  the  British  Empire  and  to  be  called  henceforth  the  Orange  River  Colony. 
2  Later  notable  as  the  founder  of  the  Boy  Scouts. 


1036  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Boxer  Rebellion,  1900.  —  While  the  Boers  were  still  uncon- 
quered,  Great  Britain  was  occupied  with  other  colonial  and  foreign 
complications.  In  the  summer  of  1900  a  second  AshantPwar,  30 
September,  led  to  the  annexation  of  that  country,  over  which  the 
British  had  formerly  been  exercising  a  protectorate.  In  China  occurred 
the  rising  of  the  Boxers,  a  society  organized  against  foreign  encroach- 
ment and  favored  by  the  dominating  faction  of  the  Chinese  court. 
In  June,  1900,  they  attacked  the  legations  at  Peking,  and  the  German 
Minister  was  killed.  A  joint  force  of  British,  American,  and  Japanese 
troops  under  the  command  of  a  German  officer,  Count  von  Waldersee, 
succeeded  in  relieving  the  besieged  legations  in  August.  By  terms 
arranged  in  January,  1901,  the  Chinese  agreed  to  punish  some  of  the 
ringleaders,  to  pay  a  large  war  indemnity,  and  to  concede  further 
commercial  advantages  to  the  Powers.  Russia  took  occasion  to 
occupy  the  whole  of  Manchuria,  a  step  which  involved  her  ere  long 
in  war  with  Japan. 

Death  and  Character  of  the  Queen,  1901.  —  The  Queen,  though  she 
received  Lord  Roberts  early  in  January  after  his  triumphal  return 
from  South  Africa,  did  not  live  to  see  the  end  of  the  Boer  war.  She 
died  22  January,  1901,  at  Osborne,  Isle  of  Wight,  in  her  eighty-second 
year,  after  completing  the  longest  reign  in  English  history,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  that  of  Louis  XIV,  lasting  seventy-one  years,  the 
longest  of  any  European  sovereign.  Doubtless  the  grief  at  her  death 
was  more  widespread  and  heartfelt  than  that  inspired  by  any  of  her 
predecessors.  This  was  partly  due  to  her  personal  character.  During 
her  last  years  the  feeling  against  her  German  husband  and  against 
her  selfish  isolation  following  his  death  had  been  forgotten,  and 
people  remembered  her  virtues  —  her  courage,  her  honesty,  her 
unblemished  reputation,  and  her  interest  in  their  welfare  —  which  she 
had  come  to  manifest  more  and  more  as  time  went  on.  Possessed 
of  no  great  intellectual  power,  Victoria  was  gifted  with  uncommon 
will  and  energy  and  strength  of  character.  To  be  sure,  she  recog- 
nized the  constitutional  limitations  of  the  Crown  as  no  previous 
sovereign  had  done,  and  she  had  the  tact  to  yield  to  the  expressed 
will  of  her  subjects  when  the  occasion  demanded  it.2  Moreover, 
toward  the  close  of  her  reign  the  sovereign  lost  all  control  over  the 
army,  the  pardoning  power  passed  practically  to  the  Home  Secretary, 
and  the  distribution  of  titles  and  honors  came  to  be  more  and  more  a 
function  of  the  ministers.  Also,  she  deliberately  excluded  herself 
from  the  business  of  Parliament.  She  ceased  to  prorogue  that  body 
after  1854,  she  seldom  opened  it  after  the  death  of  the  Consort,  and 
during  the  last  fifteen  years  of  her  reign  she  was  never  present  in 
either  House.  Again,  her  frequent  trips  abroad,  without  leaving  a 

1  The  first  had  occurred  in  1873-1874. 

2  This  was  manifested  particularly  in  her  efforts  to  bring  the  Lords  into  harmony 
with  the  Commons  during  the  agitation  over  the  Irish  Church  Disestablishment 
in  1869  and  the  Franchise  Act  in  1884. 


TWO  LAST  DECADES   OF  VICTORIA'S   REIGN     1037 

regent  or  lords  justices,  tended  to  break  the  tradition  that  the  sovereign 
was  an  essential  element  in  the  machinery  of  government.  In  spite 
of  her  customary  high  sense  of  duty,  she,  on  occasion,  allowed  personal 
considerations  to  influence  her  in  ways  that  conflicted  at  times  with 
the  broadest  public  interests.  Her  prolonged  indulgence  in  private 
grief  put  a  barrier  between  her  and  her  subjects.  Since  she  was  fond 
of  Scotland,  she  went  there,  after  1854,  for  a  part  of  every  year,  while 
she  visited  Ireland  only  four  times  during  her  whole  reign,  and,  from 
1861  to  1900,  never  set  foot  in  the  country  at  all.  This  discrimination 
was  keenly  felt  by  the  sensitive  Irish.  Her  German  family  connections 
and  her  devoted  attachment  to  their  dynastic  interests  influenced, 
frequently  and  strongly,  her  attitude  toward  many  foreign  questions, 
and  often  aroused  irritation  and  suspicion  among  the  ministers  and 
subjects.  Nevertheless,  she  followed  public  business  and  performed 
her  public  duties  conscientiously  and  punctiliously.  And  she  pos- 
sessed an  influence  out  of  all  proportion  to  her  constitutionally  recog- 
nized powers.  Most  of  the  higher  appointments  were  submitted  for 
her  consideration,  and  she  was  very  free  in  her  criticisms,  while  in  the 
choice  of  bishops  she  often  asserted  herself  strongly.  Her  long 
experience  and  her  detachment  from  party  passions  gave  great  weight 
to  her  views,  and  she  was  very  frank  and  honest  in  expressing  them  to 
her  ministers.  In  the  robustness  of  her  nature,  her  simplicity,  her 
charitable  interest  in  the  poor,  her  domestic  ideals,  her  limited  appre- 
ciation of  literature  and  art,1  as  well  as  in  her  rather  masterful  temper, 
she  represented  the  best  type  of  average  English  people.  While 
strict  in  the  standards  of  conduct  which  she  set  for  those  about  her, 
she  was  very  tolerant  in  matters  of  religious  opinion.  True  to  her 
feminine  nature,  she  was  guided  usually  by  sentiment  rather  than 
principles  of  reason  and  logic ;  but  her  sentiments  were  usually  whole- 
some and  her  instincts  were  right. 

The  Close  of  the  Reign  and  its  Problems.  —  Yet  the  cause  of 
Victoria's  final  popularity  was  due  less  to  personal  qualities  than  to 
the  fact  that  she  was  regarded  as  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of 
the  Imperial  unity  that  was  the  outgrowth  largely  of  the  last  quarter 
century  of  her  life.  "  She  and  her  ministers  .  .  .  encouraged  the  iden- 
tification of  the  British  sovereignty  with  the  unifying  spirit  of  Imperial- 
ism, and  she  thoroughly  reciprocated  the  warmth  of  feeling  for  herself 
and  her  office,  which  the  spirit  engendered  in  her  people  at  home  and 
abroad."  The  reign  was  one  of  astounding  material  progress  and  of 
great  political  progress  as  well ;  but  her  death  left  many  problems 
pressing  for  solution  —  the  question  of  preferential  tariffs  in  the, 
colonies,  Imperial  federation,  the  status  of  Ireland,  the  relations  be- 
tween the  House  of  Commons  and  the  House  of  Lords,  relations  be- 
tween capital  and  labor,  and  of  provisions  to  be  made  for  the  poor 
in  the  case  of  old  age,  sickness,  and  unemployment.  Something  has 

1  Except  for  music,  of  which  she  was  very  fond. 


io38  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

been  done  during  the  reigns  of  her  son  and  grandson  to  deal  with  those 
problems,  though  many  phases  of  them  still  await  settlement. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

Narrative.  Low  and  Sanders,  Political  History,  chs.  X-XIX.  Marriott,  England 
since  Waterloo,  bk.  Ill,  chs.  XVIII-XXVI.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  XII,  ch. 
Ill  (bibliography,  pp.  853-855).  Bright,  History  of  England,  IV,  V.  Maxwell,  Century 
of  Empire,  III.  Paul,  Modern  England,  III-V  (to  1895).  Walpole,  History  of 
Twenty-five  Years,  II-IV  (to  1880).  McCarthy,  History  of  Our  Own  Times  (1880- 
1905),  V— VII.  T.  H.  Ward,  Reign  of  Queen  Victoria  (2  vols.,  1887),  a  cooperative 
work.  C.  A.  Whitmore,  Six  Years  of  Unionist  Government,  1886-1892  (1892). 
H.  Whates,  Third  Salisbury  Administration,  1895-1900  (1901).  R.  H.  Gretton, 
A  Modern  History  of  the  English  People  (1913),  I,  1880-1898.  G.  Slater,  The 
Making  of  Modern  England  (1913). 

Biography.  In  addition  to  works  cited  in  chapter  LIII  above,  see  H.  D.  Traill, 
The  Marquis  of  Salisbury  (1890).  Lord  E.  Fitzmaurice,  Life  of  Earl  Granville  (2 
vols.,  1905).  R.  B.  O'Brien,  Life  of  Charles  Stuart  Parnell  (3  vols.,  1898),  very  out- 
spoken. W.  Churchill,  Life  of  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  (2  vols.,  1906),  especially  good 
for  the  Fourth  Party.  Rosebery,  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  (1896).  T.  E.  Kebbei, 
Lord  Beaconsfield  and  other  Tory  Memoirs  (1907).  J.  Bryce,  Studies  in  Contempo- 
rary Biography  (1903).  B.  Holland, Life  of  Spencer  Compton,  Eighth  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire (1911).  A.  L.  Thorold,  The  Life  of  Henry  Labouchcre  (1913).  Sir  H.  Maxwell, 
The  Life  and  Letters  of  George  Villiers,  Fourth  Earl  of  Clarendon  (2  vols.,  1913). 

Ireland  and  Home  Rule.  Low  and  Sanders  (bibliography,  p.  406).  Cambridge 
Modern  History,  XII,  ch.  IV  (bibliography,  pp.  863-868).  See  also  J.  E.  Morris, 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  1485—1910  (1914).  A.  Balfour,  Aspects  of  Home  Rule 
(191 2) ,  adverse.  E.  Childers,  The  Framework  of  Home  Rule  (1912).  Lord  Evcrsley, 
Gladstone  and  Ireland  (1912). 

Egypt.  Cambridge  Modern  History,  XII,  ch.  XV  (bibliography,  pp.  913-914),  an 
excellent  brief  account.  Lord  Cromer,  Modern  Egypt  (2  vols.,  1908),  is  the  stand- 
ard authority  on  the  subject. 

India.   Cambidge  Modern  History,  XII,  pp.  915-917. 

For  a  critical  bibliography  on  the  Boer  War,  see  Low  and  Sanders,  p.  501.  A  good 
brief  popular  account  of  the  second  war  is  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle's  The  Great  Boer  War 
(1902). 

For  a  critical  bibliography  of  the  successive  English  ministries  from  1865  to  1902, 
see  Low  and  Sanders,  503-506. 

For  foreign  affairs  see  ibid.,  pp.  502-503,  and  Cambridge  Modern  History,  XII, 
pp.  951-971  passim. 

Selections  from  the  sources!  Adams  and  Stephens,  nos.  267-276;  Robertson,  pt. 
II,  XXIX-XXXII,  app.  439-441. 


CHAPTER  LVI 


General  Features.  —  The  period  from  the  First  Reform  Bill  to 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  is  so  complex  in  character 
and  so  teeming  with  achievement  that  only  the  barest  outline  of  its 
main  features  can  be  attempted  in  a  single  chapter.  In  literary 
production  it  challenges  comparison  with  any  age  except  the  Eliza- 
bethan. In  painting  the  output  has  been  notable.  History  has 
been  transformed  almost  into  a  new  science,  while  significant  work 
has  been  done  in  philosophy  and  other  fields  of  humanistic  scholarship. 
However,  the  really  epoch-making  achievements  of  the  Victorian  era 
have  been  in  the  field  of  pure  science  and  in  its  practical  applications, 
particularly  in  transportation  and  communication.  The  doctrine  of 
evolution  has  revolutionized  modern  thinking,  while  steam  and  elec- 
tricity, by  infinitely  multiplying  means  of  distribution,  have  de- 
veloped the  possibilities  of  production  to  a  point  hitherto  undreamed 
of.  Moreover,  but  for  steam  navigation,  the  postal  service,  and  the 
telegraph,  the  amazing  growth  of  the  British  Empire  and  the  unity 
which  pervades  it  would  have  been  impossible.  Finally,  the  democ- 
ratization of  the  United  Kingdom  —  the  triumph  of  popular  majority 
rule,  with  the  consequent  breaking  down  of  class  privileges,  the  growth 
of  State  intervention  in  the  interest  of  the  masses,  and  the  increasing 
humanitarian  spirit  —  is  a  distinctive  feature  of  this  wonderful  age. 

The  Condition  of  the  Church.  —  The  religious  and  moral  enthusiasm 
inspired  by  the  Wesleyan  revival  began  to  spend  its  force  early  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  at  least  so  far  as  the  upper  classes  were  con- 
cerned, and  the  Establishment,  except  for  the  Evangelicals,  hardly 
warmed  by  the  fervor  of  the  movement,  relapsed  into  its  customary 
state  of  chilly  conservatism.  Its  bishops  were  pompous,  dignified 
figures  who  had  secured  their  high  offices  through  family  connection, 
personal  influence,  or  reputation  for  learning,  who  enjoyed  ample 
incomes  and  extensive  powers,  and  who,  with  little  regard  for  purely 
religious  work,  devoted  themselves  to  politics,  to  the  administration 
of  their  estates,  to  society  and  scholarly  leisure.  Among  the  "  high 
and  dry  "  Anglicans  there  were  two  types.  The  clergy  of  the  better 
sort  were  kindly  and  respectable,  but  idle  and  worldly.  The  less 
edifying  representatives  of  this  party  were  the  "  two-bottle  orthodox," 
the  hard-drinking,  sporting  parsons  who  came  from  the  hunting  field 

1039 


1040  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

with  pink  coat  and  top-boots  barely  covered  by  a  cassock  to  read  a 
funeral  service.  More  earnest  were  the  few  on  whom  the  evangelical 
revival  had  left  an  enduring  mark,  and  who  manifested  their  enthusiasm 
in  practical  work,  in  prison  reform,  antislavery  agitation,  and  the 
reformation  of  manners.  As  a  rule,  however,  they  were  limited  and 
narrow  in  their  ideas.  The  greatest  extremes  of  wealth  and  poverty 
existed  in  the  Church.  While  the  bishops  and  a  few  favored  clergy 
were  in  receipt  of  rich  revenues,  the  rank  and  file  of  the  country  parsons 
drew  only  meager  stipends.  It  is  estimated  that  of  the  ten  or  eleven 
thousand  livings  which  constituted  the  Establishment,  more  than  half 
were  held  by  non-resident  rectors  and  vicars,  usually  represented  by 
underpaid  curates.  Akin  to  the  evil  of  non-residence,  and  made  pos- 
sible by  it,  was  the  distressing  prevalence  of  pluralities.  Furthermore, 
men  of  influence,  Churchmen  and  laymen  alike,  heaped  their  relatives 
and  supporters  with  fat  benefices.  There  was  already  much  discontent, 
when  a  series  of  events  occurred  which  threatened  to  shake  the  Estab- 
lishment to  its  very  foundations.  In  1828  came  the  repeal  of  the 
Test  and  Corporation  Acts,  followed  by  the  Catholic  Relief  Bill  in 
1829.  The  passage  of  the  Reform  Bill,  three  years  later,  gave  an 
impulse  to  a  more  radical  policy  in  ecclesiastical  as  -well  as  political 
legislation.  Lord  Grey  advised  the  bishops  to  "  set  their  houses  in 
order,"  and,  in  1833,  came  the  Irish  Church  Temporalities  Act. 
The  attempt  to  meet  the  threatened  dangers  resulted  in  the 
Oxford  Movement,  so  called  because  it  was  started  largely  by  a  group 
of  young  Oxford  scholars,  and  for  some  years  had  its  center  in  the 
University.  Its  main  aim  was  to  emphasize  the  antiquity  and  au- 
thority of  the  Church,  partly  for  the  purpose  of  asserting  its  independ- 
ence of  State  control,  and  partly  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating  the 
imagination  and  arousing  spiritual  and  moral  enthusiasm  in  its  mem- 
bers. Another  powerful  stimulus  to  the  Movement  was  the  romantic 
revival  in  literature,  the  glorification  of  medievalism,  which  Scott 
had  done  so  much  to  foster. 

The  Beginning  of  the  Oxford  Movement.  —  John  Henry  Newman, 
who  came  to  be  the  dominating  figure  in  the  Oxford  group,  dated 
the  beginning  of  the  Movement  from  a  sermon  on  "  National 
Apostasy  "  preached  by  John  Keble  at  the  opening  of  the  Oxford  Assizes, 
14  July,  1833,  in  which  he  denounced  the  action  of  the  commissioners 
appointed  under  the  Irish  Church  Temporalities  Act  to  administer 
the  surplus  revenues.  The  men  who  now  banded  together  felt 
that  if  the  Church  of  England  was  to  be  saved,  it  must  be  justified 
on  other  grounds  than  mere  expediency  and  custom.  To  promulgate 
their  teachings  they  started  a  series  of  Tracts  for  the  Times,  in  which 
they  sought  to  revive  and  emphasize  old  Catholic  beliefs  which  had 
been  discredited  and  forgotten,  and  to  assert  the  continuity  of  the 
visible  Church  from  the  time  of  Christ  and  the  apostles.  Newman, 
who  was  a  chief  contributor,  also  exercised  a  magnetic  appeal  through 
his  sermons  from  the  pulpit  of  the  University  Church.  The  Movement 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1041 

was  strengthened  about  1834-1835  by  the  accession  of  Dr.  Pusey,  a 
man  of  high  social  position  and  a  scholar  of  established  reputation. 

The  Results  of  the  Movement.  —  It  was  not  long,  however,  before 
serious  difficulties  and  divisions  arose.  The  liberals  were  opposed  to 
the  dogmatism  of  the  Movement,  the  "  two-bottle  orthodox  "  were 
alienated  by  its  asceticism,  while  both  combined  with  the  Evangelicals 
to  resist  its  growing  Romeward  tendencies.  A  crisis  was  precipitated 
in  1841  by  the  appearance  of  Tract  XC,  in  which  Newman  sought 
to  prove  that  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  were  not  necessarily  in  contradic- 
tion with  ancient  Catholic  doctrine.  A  storm  of  indignation  arose, 
the  Tract  was  condemned  by  the  Oxford  authorities,  and,  in  1843, 
Newman  resigned  his  living  at  St.  Mary's  and  went  into  retirement 
at  Littlemore.  The  following  year,  William  George  Ward,  a  zealous 
follower,  responsible  for  pushing  his  master  to  extreme  conclusions, 
published  an  Ideal  of  the  Christian  Church  which  was  Roman  rather 
than  Anglican.  He  was  degraded  from  his  degrees,  and  joined  the 
Roman  Catholic  communion  in  September,  1845.  Newman,  who 
had  been  slowly  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Church  of  England 
was  a  schismatical  offshoot  of  the  true  Catholic  faith,  followed  in 
October.  A  few  other  prominent  men  took  the  same  step,  and  the 
Oxford  Movement  broke  up.  Although  it  had  failed  in  its  efforts  to 
check  the  influx  of  liberalism  and  to  assert  the  Church's  independence 
of  State  control,  its  results  were  various  and  far  reaching.  As  a 
reaction  against  the  attempt  to  identify  Christianity  with  Roman 
Catholicism  a  small  but  influential  body  of  thinkers,  including  New- 
man's own  brother,  were  driven  to  skepticism.  Others,  less  radical, 
such  as  Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  Charles  Kingsley,  and  Arthur 
Penrhyn  Stanley,  formed  the  nucleus  of  a  new  liberal  party  —  the 
Broad  Churchmen  —  which  gained  strength  from  the  dissensions 
between  the  Tractarians,  the  Evangelicals  and  the  old  high  and  dry 
Anglicans,  though  a  further  impetus  toward  both  skepticism  and  a 
more  liberal  school  of  Churchmanship  came  from  the  scientific  develop- 
ments of  the  century.  Such  were  the  opposing  tendencies  to  which 
the  Oxford  Movement  gave  rise.  On  the  other  hand,  the  unshrinking 
attitude  of  those  who  remained  true  to  Anglicanism  stimulated  the 
growth  of  a  new  type  of  High  Churchmen,  resembling  the  Laudian 
divines  of  the  seventeenth  century,  who  emphasized  the  Catholic, 
apostolic  traditions  of  the  Church  of  England.  Among  them  were 
Gladstone,  and  with  this  party  Keble  and  Pusey  threw  in  their  lot. 
An  indirect  result  of  the  Movement  was  to  reawaken  a  love  for  beauty 
and  art  in  religious  worship ;  to  restore  ancient  ceremonies,  and  to 
stimulate  an  enthusiasm  for  medieval  architecture.  Such  ritualism 
has  become  a  usual  though  not  invariable  accompaniment  of  High 
Churchmanship.  It  inspires  piety  and  works  of  charity  in  those  who 
are  best  reached  through  the  channels  of  aesthetic  emotion,  and  it  has 
brought  light  and  color  into  the  drab,  unlovely  lives  of  many  who  have 
little  or  no  cultural  influences  outside  their  religion. 


1042  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Later  Conflicts  in  the  Church  of  England.  —  The  Gorham  case 
(1847-1850),  in  which  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council 
reversed  a  decision  of  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  that  the  views  of  Gorham 
on  the  subject  of  baptismal  regeneration  were  contrary  to  the  teachings 
of  the  Church  of  England,  led  to  new  secessions  to  Rome.  Chief 
among  the  seceders  was  Manning,  who  rose  to  be  head  of  the  Roman 
Catholics  in  England.  A  new  outcry  arose  when  a  group  of  Broad 
Churchmen  issued,  in  1860,  a  volume  of  Essays  and  Reviews,  manifest- 
ing views  colored  by  recent  German  theology  and  by  the  results  of 
contemporary  scientific  research.  Again  the  Privy  Council  blocked 
an  attempt  of  the  Episcopal  authorities  to  prosecute  for  unorthodoxy. 
Still  a  third  time  the  lay  arm  asserted  its  supremacy  over  the  ecclesias- 
tical when  John  William  Colenso  was  reinstated  in  his  bishopric  of 
Natal  after  he  had  been  deposed  for  writing  a  work  in  which  he  con- 
tended that  the  books  of  the  Pentateuch  were  productions  of  a  late 
period  in  Hebrew  history.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Public  Worship 
Regulation  Act  of  1874,  which  authorized  the  punishment  of  clergy- 
men accused  of  ritualistic  innovations  by  a  lay  judge  appointed  for 
the  purpose,  accomplished  little  except  to  stir  up  ill  feeling.  Although 
several  clergymen  were  imprisoned  for  resistance,  and  in  spite  of 
bitter  opposition  from  some  quarters,  ritualism  is  still  strong  in  the 
Church  of  England. 

Lay  Patronage  and  the  Secession  from  the  Church  of  Scotland.  — 
Meantime,  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  been  rent  by  a  secession, 
which,  though  impelled  by  different  motives,  had  this  in  common  with 
the  Oxford  Movement,  that  it  aimed  to  free  the  Church  from  secular 
control.  An  act  of  1711  had  restored  to  lay  patrons  the  right,  taken 
from  them  twenty  years  before,  of  presenting  candidates  to  benefices. 
Although  this  was  opposed  by  many  Presbyterians,  and  even  resulted 
in  the  secession  of  a  small  body,  the  crisis  leading  to  the  great  dis- 
ruption did  not  come  till  1833.  The  extension  of  the  political  franchise 
strengthened  the  party  which  held  that  pastors  should  not  be  forced 
on  unwilling  congregations  by  a  few  privileged  persons.  As  a  result, 
the  "  Veto  Act  "  was  carried  through  the  General  Assembly  in  1834, 
providing  that  the  dissent  of  the  majority  of  the  male  members  of  a 
congregation  would  be  sufficient  to  exclude  any  minister  presented.  In 
a  test  case,  which  reached  the  House  of  Lords  in  1839,  the  Peers 
decided  in  favor  of  the  patrons,  while,  in  another  case  in  1841,  the 
Assembly  deposed  seven  members  of  a  presbytery  who  obeyed  the 
courts  contrary  to  the  Veto  Act.  Next,  a  proposal  was  made  to  abolish 
lay  patronage  altogether,  and,  when  the  Government  refused  its 
assent,  some  four  hundred  of  the  clergy  seceded,  and,  choosing  as 
their  moderator  Dr.  Chalmers  —  a  man  of  great  eloquence  and  ability 
who  had  been  a  leader  in  the  ten  years'  struggle  —  they  constituted 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  In  1902  the  bulk  of  this  body  combined 
with  the  United  Presbyterians  —  an  organization,  dating  from  1847, 
of  various  other  groups  outside  the  Establishment —  to  form  the  United 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1043 

Free  Presbyterian  Church.  In  1874,  lay  patronage  was  abolished 
in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  strong  efforts  are  now  being  made  to 
bring  the  two  great  bodies  again  into  one  fold. 

General  Tendencies  of  Victorian  Literature.  —  The  reign  of  Victoria 
marks  a  distinct  era  in  literature.  At  her  accession,  in  1837,  the  great 
figures  of  the  romantic  revival  were  all  dead  except  Wordsworth, 
who  had  done  his  best  work  long  before.  While  new  writers  were  in 
the  making,  the  death  of  Byron,  in  1826,  and  of  Scott,  in  1832,  was 
followed  by  an  arid  interval  in  poetry  and  novel  writing,  when  Felicia 
Hemans  set  the  standard,  and  elegant  "  Keepsakes  "  and  "Books 
of  Beauty  "  were  the  vogue.  The  literature  to  come  was  profoundly 
influenced  by  the  growth  of  democracy,  by  the  new  scientific  temper, 
and  the  growing  humanitarian  spirit.1  There  was  an  increased  in- 
tensity of  moral  earnestness,  a  desire  to  appeal  to  the  masses  —  who 
for  the  first  time  in  history  began  to  form  a  considerable  circle  of 
readers  —  to  form  their  taste,  and  to  voice  the  unrest  that  they  were 
manifesting,  by  denouncing  the  evils  from  which  they  suffered  under 
the  existing  political,  social,  and  industrial  system. 

Prose  Writers.  Macaulay.  —  Thomas  Babington  Macaulay  (1800- 
1859),  preeminent  as  an  essayist  at  the  beginning  of  the  period,  was 
not  one  of  the  apostles  of  discontent.  He  was  active  in  public  affairs 
from  his  entrance  in  Parliament,  in  1830,  until  within  a  few  years  of 
his  death,  and  both  in  his  speaking  and  writing,  he  stoutly  championed 
the  dominant  Whigism  and  laissez-faire.  Having  done  his  part  to- 
ward securing  the  extension  of  the  franchise,  in  1832,  and  the  reforms 
which  followed,  he  was  content  to  depict  with  complacent  satisfaction 
the  achievements  of  his  party.  He  was  a  man  of  prodigious  industry, 
and  gifted  with  a  phenomenally  ready  and  retentive  memory.  His 
essay  on  Milton,  in  1825,  was  the  first  of  a  long  and  varied  series  which 
he  contributed  to  the  Edinburgh  Review.  In  1842-1843,  appeared 
his  stirring  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome.  Meantime,  in  1839,  he  began  his 
History  of  England,  which  centers  about  the  Revolution  of  1688, 
and  which  he  left  uncompleted.  He  showed  himself  to  be  a  master 
of  clear,  picturesque  narrative,  which  he  enriched  by  apt  illustrations 
drawn  from  copious  stores  of  knowledge,  and  he  excelled  in  graphic 
portraiture  of  political  situations.  On  the  other  hand,  he  went  too  far 
in  his  attempts  to  be  vivid,  he  was  partisan,  and  he  lacked  the  ability 
to  delineate  complex  characters,  often  presenting  little  more  than 
bundles  of  contrasted  traits.  But  he  was  a  forthright,  virile  figure, 
who  did  much  to  shape  the  literary  tastes  and  historical  views  of  the 
general  reader  of  his  time  and  of  subsequent  generations. 

Carlyle.  —  Thomas  Carlyle  (1795-1881),  essayist,  historian,  and 
miscellaneous  writer,  was  in  his  tempestuous  preaching  against  the 
materialism,  and  what  he  fancied  to  be  shams  of  the  age,  a  striking 

1  An  early  manifestation  of  this  spirit  is  to  be  found  in  two  poems  of  Thomas 
Hood  (1798-1845),  the  Bridge  of  Sighs  and  the  Song  of  the  Shirt,  the  latter  of 
which  appeared  in  the  Christmas  number  of  Punch,  in  1843. 


1044  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

contrast  to  Macaulay.  He  first  attracted  attention  with  Sartor 
Resartus,  or  the  "  tailor  patched,"  which  appeared  in  Frazer's  Magazine 
in  1833-1834.  To  some  degree  a  spiritual  autobiography,  it  is  also 
a  scathing  jeremiad,  lighted  by  flashes  of  grim  humor  and  noble 
prophecy,  against  hollow  pretense  and  false  ideals,  against  the  tend- 
ency to  glorify  mechanical  progress  rather  than  the  things  of  the 
spirit.  His  French  Revolution,  1837,  is  unique  in  the  field  of  historical 
literature.  The  picture  is  distorted,  but  it  tells  the  story  with  a  fire 
and  dramatic  intensity  that  leaves  an  indelible  impression  on  the  mind. 
The  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  1845,  is  made  up  of  skil- 
fully selected  extracts,  interpreted  with  incisive  comments  by  Carlyle. 
One-sided  as  it  is,  it  completely  vindicated  Cromwell  from  the  charges 
of  hypocrisy  which  had  hung  over  him  for  two  centuries.  The  History 
of  Frederick  the  Great,  which  occupied  the  author  from  1857-1865, 
gave  him  another  opportunity  to  champion  a  strong  man,  and  to 
exhibit  his  rare  genius  for  epic  narration.  Meantime,  in  essays  and 
lectures  he  was  constantly  preaching  on  the  "  eternal  verities  "  and 
"  the  government  of  the  best,"  and  railing  against  unbaked  democracy 
—  "  the  universal  Morrison's  Pill  "  with  which  its  advocates  expected 
to  cure  all  the  ills  of  society  and  the  body  politic.  In  reply  to  the  accu- 
sation that  he  was  sponsor  for  the  doctrine  that  "  might  makes  right," 
he  insisted  that  the  true  purport  of  his  teaching  was  that  "  right  makes 
might."  By  virtue  of  his  inimitable  style,  with  its  strange  words  — 
often  coined  for  his  purpose  —  his  choppy  constructions,  and  wild 
exclamations,  he  did  succeed  in  arousing  many  from  their  spiritual 
torpor ;  but,  as  a  practical  reformer,  he  had  little  that  was  tangible  to 
contribute. 

Arnold,  Ruskin,  and  Newman.  —  Matthew  Arnold  (1822-1888)  be- 
gan his  literary  career  as  a  poet.  His  verses,  superb  in  their  classic 
purity  and  finish,  stand  in  striking  contrast  to  the  glowing  romanticism 
of  the  previous  generation,  but  are  chilled  by  austere  self-restraint.  It 
was  as  a  discriminating  literary  critic,  as  an  advocate  of  liberalism  in 
Biblical  interpretation,  and  as  an  apostle  of  culture  —  or,  to  use  his 
own  words,  of  "  sweetness  and  light  "  —  to  the  Philistine  middle 
classes,  that  he  did  his  most  distinctive  work.  Perhaps  the  perfection 
of  prose  in  nineteenth-century  England  was  reached  by  John  Henry 
Newman  (1801-1890),  especially  in  his  Idea  of  a  University  and  in  the 
Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua,  the  latter  of  which  is  one  of  the  most  pro- 
foundly human  in  the  world's  literature  of  spiritual  biography.  In  it 
he  sought  to  reveal  to  his  countrymen  the  great  visible  Church  as  an 
infallible  guide  descended  from  Christ  and  the  apostles.  John  Ruskin 
(1819-1899)  marked  an  epoch  in  art  criticism  in  his  Modern  Painters, 
the  first  volume  of  which  appeared  anonymously  in  1843.  He  began 
the  work  in  defense  of  Turner ;  but  in  successive  volumes,  the  fifth 
and  last  of  which  appeared  in  1860,  he  broadened  the  scope  of  his  task 
to  include  a  championship  of  modern  painters  in  general,  and  to  de- 
velop a  philosophy  of  art.  According  to  the  view  which  he  worked 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1045 

out,  art  is  a  true  manifestation  of  the  temper  of  the  artist  and  a  re- 
flection of  the  spirit  of  his  age.  In  the  Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture, 
1849,  Ruskin  contributed  greatly  to  stimulate  a  new  Gothic  revival. 
On  the  completion  of  the  Modern  Painters  he  turned  toward  questions 
of  economic  and  social  reform,  problems  into  which  he  sought  to  infuse 
the  breath  of  idealism.  Gifted  with  an  exquisite  sense  of  beauty, 
with  a  consuming  moral  enthusiasm,  and  a  style  of  singular  eloquence 
and  richness,  he  performed,  in  spite  of  his  inconsistencies  and  occa- 
sional petulance,  signal  service  in  elevating  artistic  criticism  from  a 
mere  question  of  professional  technique,  as  well  as  in  unlocking 
treasures  hitherto  hidden  from  the  common  man.  Thus  Carlyle, 
Arnold,  Newman,  and  Ruskin  were,  each  in  his  peculiar  way,  preachers 
to  their  generation. 

Victorian  Poets.  Tennyson  and  Browning.  —  Alfred  Tennyson 
(1809-1892),  the  reigning  poet  of  the  Victorian  Age,  succeeded  Words- 
worth as  Poet  Laureate  in  1850.  He  began  to  publish  short  lyrics 
as  early  as  1826 ;  but  it  was  years  before  he  showed  independence  of 
his  youthful  models,  Byron,  Scott,  and  Moore.  Then  he  produced 
some  pieces  of  striking  individuality  and  rare  beauty.  Following 
these  smaller  efforts,  he  launched  the  longer  poems  which  established 
his  reputation:  The  Princess,  1847;  In  Memoriam,  1850;  Maud, 
1854;  and  the  Idylls  of  the  King,  1858.  Tennyson's  distinctive 
merit  is  his  perfection  of  form.  He  excelled,  too,  in  voicing  the  con- 
ventional thought  and  ideals  of  Victorian  society.  He  was  the  up- 
holder of  well-ordered  harmony  against  individual  caprice.  Whenever 
he  approached  the  tragic,  it  was  in  a  spirit  of  reposeful  melancholy 
rather  than  of  passionate  revolt.  This,  and  his  lack  of  dramatic  fire, 
were  due  to  the  natural  bent  of  his  mind  and  to  his  outwardly  calm 
and  prosperous  life.  His  further  limitations  are  manifested  in  his 
elaboration  of  the  obvious  and  the  commonplace,  and  his  surfeit  of 
"  linked  sweetness  long  drawn  out."  Almost  more  than  any  other 
poet,  he  has  suffered  from  the  defects  of  his  qualities ;  since  many  of  his 
most  ineffective  if  beautiful  poems  are  most  popular.  Robert  Brown- 
ing (1812-1889)  was  his  opposite  in  almost  every  respect.  Though 
he  could  write  with  simplicity  and  exquisite  melody  he  was,  both  in 
phrasing  and  in  the  structure  of  his  verse,  all  too  often,  crabbed  and 
obscure.  On  the  other  hand,  he  equaled  Tennyson  in  his  power  of 
faithfully  depicting  nature ;  he  had  the  dramatic  genius  which  Tenny- 
son lacked,  and  is  without  a  rival  among  the  poets  in  his  ability  to 
interpret  in  verse  the  spirit  of  music  and  painting.  He  was  a  student 
of  life  in  all  its  aspects,  he  showed  an  insatiable  curiosity  for  probing 
into  the  farthest  recesses  of  human  motives  and  mastering  the  com- 
plexities of  the  mind  and  soul.  Yet,  while  never  unmindful  of  sin 
and  folly,  he  was,  throughout  his  long  life,  an  undaunted  optimist. 
Much  in  his  writing  that  is  difficult  at  first  sight  becomes  clear  to  the 
patient  reader,  and  almost  invariably  rewards  serious  effort.  Pauline, 
his  first  poem,  appeared  in  1832;  and  Paracelsus,  1835,  first  attracted 


1046  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

the  attention  of  the  discerning.  Sordello,  1840,  is  the  most  inscrutable 
of  his  productions.  Among  his  longer  works  are:  Pippa  Passes,  A 
Blot  on  the  'Scutcheon,  and  A  Soul's  Tragedy,  1845-1846;  and  his 
marvelous  Ring  and  the  Book,  1868-1869.  In  1846,  Browning  mar- 
ried Elizabeth  Barrett,  the  first  woman  poet  of  high  distinction 
since  Sappho. 

The  Preraphaelites.  —  The  Preraphaelite  Movement,  which  be- 
gan about  1848,  was  primarily  artistic  rather  than  literary  in  its 
inception,  a  protest  against  the  conventionalism  bound  to  result  from 
the  following  of  any  master,  even  Raphael,  the  "  prince  of  painters." 
Nevertheless,  it  owed  much  to  Newman's  revival  of  ecclesiastical  and 
religious  symbolism,  and  had  an  important  influence  in  stimulating 
mystical,  romantic  poetry  of  a  medieval  type.  Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti 
(1828-1882),  the  guiding  spirit  of  the  "  Preraphaelite  Brotherhood," 
was  a  poet  as  well  as  an  artist  and  produced  verses  of  haunting  beauty, 
such  as  the  Blessed  Damozel.  Tennyson,  who  had  no  affiliation 
with  the  Movement,  was  possibly  influenced  by  it  in  undertaking  his 
Idylls  of  the  King.  Algernon  Charles  Swinburne  (1837-1909),  a 
devotee  of  pagan  beauty,  showed,  particularly  in  his  earlier  work,  a 
temper  of  revolt  against  convention  and  propriety  which  shocked 
the  majority  of  his  contemporaries.  Few  or  none  have  excelled  him 
in  power  of  word  music,  or  in  mastery  of  the  varied  forms  of  poetical 
technique,  and,  especially  in  Atlanta  in  Calydon,  1865,  he  showed 
a  rare  gift  of  reproducing  the  spirit  of  the  Greek  drama.  However, 
notwithstanding  a  few  signal  achievements,  the  poetic  drama  of  the 
Victorian  Age  never  recovered  the  ascendancy  which  the  novel  had 
begun  to  usurp  in  the  previous  century. 

The  Novelists.  —  Before  Scott  had  closed  his  labors  two  novelists 
had  appeared  on  the  scene,  who,  though  they  continued  to  write  ac- 
ceptable works  for  half  a  century,  were  soon  overshadowed.  Benja- 
min Disraeli  (1804-1881),  later  Lord  Beaconsfield,  was  the  creator 
of  the  political  novel.  Of  little  excellence  as  pure  literature,  his  books 
furnish  invaluable  pictures  of  the  public  men  and  problems  of  his  time. 
Beginning  in  1826,  with  Vivian  Grey,  which  created  a  sensation  by 
its  brilliancy  and  audacity,  he  concluded  with  Endymion  in  1880. 
Coningsby,  1844,  and  Sybil,  1846,  in  which  he  attacked  the  social  and 
political  system  of  the  dominant  Whigs  and  advocated  his  peculiar 
views  of  Tory  democracy,  are  perhaps  his  most  important  productions. 
Edward  Bulwer  Lytton  (1803-1873),  created  Baron  Lytton  in  1866, 
also  active  in  political  affairs,  was  an  author  of  unusual  versatility.  He 
wrote  society,  philosophical,  scientific,  indeed,  all  sorts  of  novels,  and 
plays  as  well.  The  Last  Days  of  Pompeii,  1834,  and  the  Last  of  the 
Barons,  1843,  are  among  the  most  popular  stories,  though  Pelham 
and  My  Novel  have  more  merit.  The  Lady  of  Lyons  and  Richelieu 
are  still  produced  on  the  stage.  While  Lord  Lytton  made  the  most 
of  his  great  talents,  he  missed  the  goal  which  is  only  attained  by 
genius  and  sincere  conviction. 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN  ENGLAND     1047 

Dickens  and  Thackeray.  —  In  1836,  appeared  the  Sketches  by 
Boz  and  the  first  installment  of  Pickwick  Papers  by  Charles  Dickens 
(1812-1870).  The  long  series  of  his  novels  which  followed  are  familiar 
in  every  household,  and  probably  have  been  more  widely  read  than 
those  of  any  other  writer  in  the  English-speaking  world.  The  hard- 
ships of  his  early  life;  which  brought  him  into  contact  with  the  people, 
his  early  training  as  a  journalist,  and  his  love  for  the  stage  explain  his 
power  of  appealing  to  the  masses,  his  facility,  and  his  dramatic  instinct. 
During  the  past  generation  there  has  been  a  tendency  to  belittle  his 
title  to  fame.  His  faults  are  patent  enough  to  the  critical  reader. 
His  humor  is  largely  obvious  and  extravagant  caricature,  dwelling 
much  on  "  external  oddities,"  his  pathos  is  often  "  shallow  and  over- 
wrought," his  situations  are  frequently  artificial  and  theatrical, 
he  was  wanting  in  penetration,  and  his  characters  are,  as  a  rule,  merely 
personified  traits.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  a  keen  observer  who 
could  describe  vividly  what  he  saw,  and  tell  a  story  of  absorbing 
interest.  He  had  a  genius  for  depicting  the  tragic  and  the  terrible, 
his  fun,  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said  against  it,  is  wholesome  and 
captivating,  and  his  characters  live  in  the  memory.  Finally,  and  who 
would  want  to  achieve  more,  his  genial  optimism  has  brought  joy 
to  millions  of  human  kind.  It  has  been  said  that  Dickens  brought 
good  out  of  evil,  and  that  Thackeray  brought  evil  out  of  good.  Though 
this  is  hardly  fair  to  Thackeray,  the  two  great  masters  were  in  striking 
contrast.  William  Makepeace  Thackeray  (1811-1863),  though  he 
began  by  picturing  unscrupulous  adventurers,  later  selected  his 
scenes  and  characters  from  high  life  or  from  the  upper  middle  classes. 
He  cared  little  for  external  nature,  and  was  strong  in  the  analysis  and 
portrayal  of  character.  He  dwelt  on  the  faults  and  weaknesses  of 
society  and  of  individuals ;  but,  if  he  was  cynical  on  the  surface,  he 
was  a  generous-minded,  big-hearted  man,  who  defined  humor  as  "  wit 
tempered  with  love,"  who  could  appreciate  noble  traits,  and  show  a 
wealth  of  pity  and  tolerance  for  even  the  least  edifying  of  those  whom 
he  felt  called  upon  to  depict.  Less  widely  popular  than  Dickens,  he 
has  always  made  a  stronger  appeal  to  the  thinking  reader.  Besides 
his  inimitable  satiric  pictures  of  a  life  in  his  own  day,  he  produced  in 
Henry  Esmond,  one  of  the  greatest  historical  novels  in  the  English 
language;  he  drew  a  racy  sketch  of  the  four  Georges,  and,  in  his 
English  Humorists,  he  has  made  the  literary  world  of  the  eighteenth 
century  live  again  before  our  eyes. 

Bronte  and  Eliot.  —  Charlotte  Bronte  (1816-1855),  the  most 
famous  of  three  gifted  sisters,  is  chiefly  known  for  Jane  Eyre,  a  novel 
of  intense  power  and  passion,  but  characterized  by  unrealities  of  detail 
due  to  her  limited  experience  of  life.  Mary  Ann  Evans  (1819-1880), 
who  wrote  under  the  name  of  George  Eliot,  was  a  woman  of  wide 
knowledge  both  of  life  and  books.  In  her  first  novels  she  reproduced 
with  graphic  fidelity  the  scenes  and  folk  of  her  countryside,  and  en- 
livened her  serious  problems  with  touches  of  fine  humor.  As  her  work 


1048  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

progressed,  she  overdeveloped  her  inclination  for  psychological  analy- 
sis :  Adam  Bede,  the  Mill  on  the  Floss,  and  Silas  Marner  show  her  at 
her  best.  Yet,  even  in  these  early  productions,  she  keeps  in  the  fore- 
ground her  great  lesson  that  dire  consequences  attend  disregard  of 
the  moral  order. 

Minor  Novelists.  —  Among  numbers  of  minor  novelists  some  have 
produced  work  well  worth  reading  by  subsequent  generations.  Charles 
Lever  (1806-1872)  wrote  rollicking  tales  of  Irish  and  military  life 
during  the  era  of  the  Napoleonic  wars.  Captain  Marryat  (1792- 
1848),  a  naval  officer,  after  his  retirement  from  active  service,  in  1830, 
produced  a  series  of  breezy  sea  stories  which  are  not  only  entertaining, 
but  valuable  as  a  reflection  of  the  author's  actual  experiences.  The 
Rev.  Charles  Kingsley  (1819-1875)  was  a  many-sided  man,  among 
other  things  a  Christian  socialist  and  an  exponent  of  muscular  Chris- 
tianity. He  began  by  writing  on  contemporary  problems,  turn- 
ing later  to  history  and  historical  fiction.  Westward  Ho,  a  glorification 
of  the  Elizabethan  seamen,  is  perhaps  his  best  novel,  while  his  Water 
Babies  is  one  of  the  most  famous  children's  stories  in  the  language. 
Charles  Reade  (1814-1884)  started  out  as  a  dramatist,  but  came  to 
devote  most  of  his  energies  to  stories  exposing  social  abuses.  The 
Cloister  and  the  Hearth,  in  which  he  ventured  into  historical  fiction, 
almost  ranks  with  Henry  Esmond  and  the  best  work  of  Scott.  Mrs. 
Gaskell  (1810-1865),  in  Mary  Barton  and  other  works,  took  up  thecause 
of  the  poor  in  the  manufacturing  districts,  but,  from  the  literary  stand- 
point, is  remembered  chiefly  for  Cranford,  an  exquisite  picture  of  life 
in  a  secluded  English  village.  Anthony  Trollope  (1815-1882)  was 
amazingly  industrious  and  businesslike,  reproducing  what  he  saw 
with  the  fidelity  of  a  photographer  and  with  almost  equal  absence 
of  imagination ;  but  his  realistic  descriptions  of  the  clerical  life  in 
the  cathedral  city  of  "  Barchester  "  are,  in  their  way,  distinct  achieve- 
ments. Wilkie  Collins  (1824-1889)  still  retains  a  hold  on  the  lovers 
of  weirdness  and  mystery.  A  period  which  could  produce  Dickens, 
Thackeray,  George  Eliot,  to  say  nothing  of  such  a  long  list  of  writers 
of  second  rank,  is  certainly  supreme  in  the  age  of  the  novel. 

Later  Victorian  Novelists.  —  While  it  is  too  early  to  estimate  the 
importance  of  the  most  recent  novelists,  three  stand  out  sufficiently 
to  merit  attention.  George  Meredith  (1828-1909)  published  The 
Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel,  one  of  his  best  known  novels,  as  early  as 
1859,  the  same  year  in  which  Adam  Bede  saw  the  light.  Yet  he  should 
be  grouped  with  the  later  generation,  for  he  outlived  his  contem- 
poraries, he  was  productive  to  the  end  of  his  life,  and,  owing  to  his 
obscurity  and  his  daring  manner  of  portraying  life,  he  received  only 
belated  recognition.  His  work  presents  obvious  points  of  criticism, 
he  was  incapable  of  constructing  an  absorbing  coherent  plot,  and  his 
style  is  often  as  perversely  difficult  as  that  of  Browning.  While  this 
latter  fault  was  due  in  some  degree  to  the  complex  and  baffling  human 
problems  with  which  he  chose  to  deal,  it  prevented  him  from  making 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN  ENGLAND     1049 

the  universal  appeal  reserved  for  supreme  geniuses.  On  the  other 
hand,  few  Englishmen  have  ever  equaled  him  in  epigrammatic 
power ;  he  had  a  wonderful  gift  of  subtle  analysis,  he  described  nature 
lovingly  and  superbly,  he  delineated  the  life  of  the  English  upper 
classes  with  fascinating  skill,  and,  at  the  same  time,  equaled  Shake- 
speare and  George  Eliot  in  his  faculty  for  creating  peasants  who  could 
talk  in  their  own  tongue.  Thomas  Hardy  (born  1840)  resembles 
Meredith  in  his  love  of  nature,  and  he  has  reproduced  with  artistic 
fidelity  the  scenes  and  people  of  his  native  Wessex ;  but  his  conviction 
that  the  irony  of  circumstance  makes  sport  with  human  endeavor 
most  often  renders  him  harrowing  to  read.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
(1850-1894),  handicapped  during  much  of  his  life  by  a  malady  which 
killed  him  prematurely,  showed  himself  a  prince  of  story-tellers 
and  narrated  his  entrancing  tales  in  a  style  of  exquisite,  if  rather 
overconscious,  art.  He  may  prove,  as  some  have  prophesied,  the 
herald  of  a  new  romanticism.1 

Philosophy  and  History.  —  Among  the  many  philosophical  thinkers 
of  the  Victorian  Era  two  are  perhaps  most  important  from  the  historical 
standpoint  —  John  Stuart  Mill  (1806-1873)  and  Herbert  Spencer 
(1820-1903).  Mill,  who  had  a  soul  above  the  mechanical  training 
given  him  by  his  father,  James,  was  active  in  many  fields.  He  was 
the  last  and  greatest  economist  of  the  "orthodox"  school  which 
developed  from  Adam  Smith,  and  his  Principles  of  Political  Economy, 
1848,  long  remained  the  standard  work  on  the  subject;  he  wrote  a 
suggestive  essay  On  Liberty,  1859,  in  which  he  sought  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  the  relation  between  the  individual  and  the  law,s  of  Society  and 
the  State ;  he  was  a  pioneer  in  the  movement  for  the  enfranchisement 
of  women;  he  was  an  interpreter  of  positivism2  and  the  science  of 
sociology,  both  of  which  originated  with  the  Frenchman  August  Comte 
(1798-1867).  In  his  Logic,  1843,  Mill  marked  the  greatest  advance 
since  Bacon.  His  main  contribution  was  in  reducing  scientific 
thought  to  definite  rules,  and  providing,  what  Bacon  did  not,  a  philo- 
sophical method  for  scientific  reasoning.  In  other  words,  he  taught  — 
what  was  peculiarly  valuable  in  an  age  of  scientific  discovery  —  the 
method  of  generalizing  from  the  facts  and  then  verifying  by  deduction 
from  known  laws.  Spencer  published,  in  1855,  his  Principles  of 
Psychology,  based  upon  the  evolutionary  principle,  a  very  notable 
fact,  since  the  book  appeared  four  years  before  Darwin's  Origin  of 
Species.  In  1860,  he  issued  the  prospectus  of  his  System  of  Synthetic 
Philosophy,  "  in  which,  beginning  with  the  first  principles  of  knowledge, 
he  proposed  to  trace  the  progress  of  evolution  in  life,  mind,  society, 

1  Richard  Blackmore  (1825-1900),  in  Lorna  Doone,  and  Joseph  Henry  Short- 
house  (1834-1903),  in  John  Inglesant  have,  amongst  other  writing,  each  created 
a  work  of  enduring  merit.     Rudyard  Kipling  (born  1865)  has  produced  verse  of 
striking  force  and  originality,  with  a  strong  Imperialistic  bent,  and  has  written 
tales  which  throw  a  flood  of  light  on  India  and  the  Anglo-Indian  military  and  civil 
life. 

2  The  positivist  philosophy  devotes  itself  to  a  description  of  scientific  phenomena. 


1050  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

and  morality."  This  he  did  in  a  long  series  of  volumes,  starting  with 
First  Principles  in  1862.  His  great  service  was  to  introduce  the  prin- 
ciple of  evolution  into  the  varied  subjects  with  which  he  dealt,  and  — 
though  here  he  was  not  completely  successful  —  to  investigate  the 
laws  which  underlie  life  and  thought,  and  to  group  them  into  a 
synthetic  or  unified  form. 

Historical  and  Classical  Scholarship.  —  This  period  marks  an 
amazing  advance  in  historical  method  and  research,  though  Thomas 
Buckle  (1821-1862)  failed  in  his  effort  to  construct  a  philosophy  of 
the  subject.  The  History  of  Greece,  by  George  Grote  (1794-1891), 
is  a  monument  of  learning,  which,  notwithstanding  bias  in  favor  of 
Athenian  democracy,  and  the  fact  that  it  has  been  superseded  in 
parts  by  more  recent  investigations,  still  remains  a  classic.  There 
are  some,  however,  who  regard  the  less  widely  known  work  of  Bishop 
Thirlwall  (1797-1875)  as  one  of  greater  merit.  Most  notable,  how- 
ever, has  been  the  progress  in  the  study  of  English  history,  especially 
in  the  early  period.  The  enthusiasm  for  freedom  manifested  in  and 
stimulated  by  the  Reform  Bill  led  to  a  new  interest  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period  —  regarded  as  a  golden  age  of  liberty  which  Norman 
absolutism  destroyed.  While  others  preceded  him,  the  first  signifi- 
cant pioneer  work  was  John  Kemble's,  The  Saxons  in  England, 
1849.  Meantime,  scholars  had  begun  to  edit  and  print  the  original 
sources  and,  before  long,  a  body  of  materials  became  available  which 
challenge  comparison  with  those  of  any  other  country  in  Europe. 
Among  those  who  have  written  on  the  subject,  only  the  most  prominent 
names  can  be  mentioned  —  Freeman,  Stubbs,  Maine,  Pollock,  and 
Maitland  on  the  medieval  period,  and  Froude,  Gardiner,  Lecky,  and 
Walpole  on  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  eighteenth,  and  nineteenth 
centuries,  respectively.  Classical  archaeology  was  greatly  fostered 
by  the  removal  to  England  of  the  Parthenon  sculptures,  which  Lord 
Elgin  began  to  acquire,  in  1803,  while  ambassador  to  the  Porte,  and 
which  he  sold  to  the  British  Government  in  1816.  While  the  Victorian 
Age  has  produced  many  learned  and  elegant  classical  scholars,  none 
have  shown  the  genius  of  Bentley,  or  of  Richard  Porson  (1759-1808), 
second  only  to  him  in  achievement,  and  perhaps  superior  to  him  in 
natural  aptitude. 

Darwinism.  —  In  science  and  its  practical  applications  "  the  advance 
made  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria  has  been  greater  in  many 
ways  than  the  advance  made  from  the  beginning  of  civilization  to 
that  time."  Among  the  landmarks  of  progress  three  stand  out  pre- 
eminent —  the  establishment  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution ;  the  exten- 
sion of  the  use  of  steam,  particularly  in  transportation ;  and  the 
applications  of  electricity.  The  first  has  fundamentally  trans- 
formed man's  whole  attitude  toward  the  origin  and  growth  of  life. 
Evolutionary,  as  distinguished  from  creationist,  philosophy  is  as  old 
as  the  Greeks,  while  biological  evolution,  in  the  general  sense  of  the 
descent  of  one  species  from  another,  was  by  no  means  a  new  idea. 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1051 

Erasmus  Darwin  (1731-1802)  had  speculated  on  the  doctrine,  and  it 
had  been  advocated  by  the  Frenchman  Lamarck  (1744-1829) ;  but 
it  was  only  the  long  and  patient  experimental  studies  by  Charles 
Darwin  (1809-1882),  grandson  of  Erasmus,  which  placed  it  on  a  sound 
scientific  basis  and  resulted  in  its  final  acceptance.  He  made  clear 
the  causes  of  biological  evolution  by  showing  that  different  species 
of  plants  and  animals,  "  instead  of  being  each  separately  created," 
are  evolved  from  lower  types  by  means  of  "  natural  selection  "  in 
the  struggle  for  existence ;  in  other  words,  there  is  a  "  survival  of  the 
fittest  "  1  due  to  a  continuous  process  of  adaptation.  In  1837,  Darwin 
began  his  special  investigations,  which  were  first  completely  set  forth 
in  his  Origin  of  Species  in  1859.  During  the  previous  year,  Alfred 
Russell  Wallace  (1822-1913)  sent  a  paper  from  the  Malay  Islands 
On  the  Tendency  of  Varieties  to  depart  indefinitely  from  the  Original 
Type,  anticipating  the  results  to  which  Darwin  had  been  working 
for  so  many  years.  Happily  both  men  thought  more  of  the  advance- 
ment of  human  knowledge  than  self-glorification.  Darwin  published 
a  preliminary  paper,  together  with  Wallace's,  and  the  latter  got  credit 
to  the  full  extent  for  his  contribution.  Darwin,  however,  had  started 
first  and  had  based  his  findings  on  an  incomparably  wider  and  more 
thorough  research.  His  views  were  bitterly  opposed  by  the  more 
conservative  scientists,  and  by  those  who  fancied  that  their  theological 
beliefs  were  endangered  by  the  conflict  between  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion and  the  Biblical  story  of  the  Creation  as  popularly  understood. 
Gradually,  however,  the  substance  of  the  Darwinian  doctrine  has  won 
its  way  to  general  acceptance,  though  certain  features  of  it,  such  as 
the  inheritance  of  acquired  characteristics,  have  been  modified  by 
later  investigators.  The  final  victory  was  due,  in  a  considerable  de- 
gree, to  the  championship  of  Thomas  Huxley  (1825-1895),  who  com- 
bined to  an  unusual  extent  the  faculty  for  original  research  with  the 
gift  of  popular  exposition. 

Progress  in  Other  Sciences.  —  Not  only  did  the  period  witness  sig- 
nal progress  in  most  of  the  older  sciences  —  geology,  for  example, 
threw  much  new  light  on  the  antiquity  of  the  earth  and  of  plant  and 
animal  life — but  many  newer  ones,  such  as  palaeontology  and  anthro- 
pology, were  marked  off  as  distinct  fields  of  investigation.  An  im- 
portant stage  in  development  was  the  founding  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  1834.  Notable  gains  were 
made  in  medicine  and  surgery,  chiefly  through  the  discovery  of  anaes- 
thesia, the  germ  theory  of  disease,  and  antiseptic  surgery.  In  the 
former,  Americans  led  the  way,  and  the  credit  for  introducing  ether 
is  disputed  in  behalf  of  two  claimants.  Apparently  Dr.  Jackson 
first  discovered  its  uses,  while  Dr.  Morton  was  the  first  to  apply  it  in 
surgical  operations.  Shortly  afterwards,  in  1847,  a  Scot,  (later  Sir) 
James  Y.  Simpson,  brought  chloroform  into  use.  John  Tyndall 

1  This  term  was  coined  by  Herbert  Spencer  and  adopted  by  Darwin,  who  used 
it  interchangeably  with  "natural  selection." 


io52  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

(1820-1897),  a  natural  philosopher,  who  devoted  much  attention  to 
physics,  and  who  exercised  an  even  wider  influence  than  Huxley  in 
the  popularization  of  science,  was  a  pioneer  in  the  germ  theory  of 
infection  and  in  recognizing  the  value  of  sterilization.  Dr.  (later 
Baron)  Joseph  Lister  (1827-1913)  did  wonders  in  reducing  the  fatality 
of  surgical  operations  by  the  introduction  of  antiseptic  bandaging. 
Physics  and  chemistry  made  amazing  strides,  both  in  pure  science  and 
in  its  practical  application.  Among  the  latter,  the  invention  of  photog- 
raphy has  an  important  place ;  for  it  has  become  an  indispensable 
ally  to  investigators  in  the  most  diverse  fields,  from  astronomy  to  his- 
tory. The  Frenchman,  Daguerre  (1789-1851),  acting  on  suggestions 
from  his  assistant,  Niepce,  first  perfected,  in  1839,  the  process  of  ob- 
taining pictures  through  the  chemical  action  of  sunlight  on  a  metallic 
plate;  but  the  daguerreotype  was  soon  superseded  by  the  modern 
photograph,  in  which  William  Talbot  (1800-1877)  ^d  the  way.  His 
process  of  taking  impressions  on  sensitized  paper  has  in  turn  been  im- 
proved upon  by  the  use  of  the  dry  plate. 

Electricity.  —  The  discovery,  by  the  Italian,  Alessandro  Volta,  of  the 
voltaic  pile,1  in  1800,  followed  by  his  cell,2  first  provided  the  battery 
tor  producing  continuous  supplies  of  electricity.  The  applications 
which  followed  have  had  an  incalculable  effect  on  modem  civilization. 
The  next  notable  step  was  the  discovery  of  electromagnetism  by  the 
Danish  physicist  Orsted,  in  1819,  together  with  the  resulting  develop- 
ments by  Ampere  and  Ohm.  Michael  Faraday  (1791-1867),  who 
began  his  scientific  work  as  the  assistant  of  Sir  Humphrey  Davy, 
and  who  has  been  described  as  the  "  prince  of  investigators,"  did  so 
much  for  pure  and  applied  science  that  only  a  special  treatise  could 
do  him  justice.  Most  significant  in  connection  with  the  present 
subject,  was  his  work  on  magnetic  induction  which  prepared  the  way 
for  the  dynamo  —  the  machine  now  employed  for  generating  elec- 
tricity in  large  quantities.  His  discovery  of  benzine,  in  1825,  has 
led  to  important  commercial  results,  especially  in  connection  with  the 
preparation  of  aniline  dyes.  William  Thomson  (1824-1907),  created 
Lord  Kelvin  in  1892,  was  a  remarkable  combination  of  pure  scientist 
and  inventor,  whose  investigations  extended  over  the  field  of  mathe- 
matics, heat,  electricity,  and  magnetism. 

Steam  Railways  and  Navigation.  —  The  development  of  railways 
in  Great  Britain  since  the  opening  of  the  Manchester  and  Liverpool 
railway,  in  1830,  has  been  enormous.3  The  tremendous  significance 

1  So  called  because  it  consisted  of  a  series  of  strips  of  different  metals,  such  as 
copper  and  zinc,  placed  alternately  one  upon  the  other,  with  cloth  or  paper  between 
the  layers,  and  moistened  with  an  acid  solution. 

2  This  consists  of  a  cup  filled  with  acidulated  water  into  which  plates  of  copper 
and  zinc  are  introduced. 

3  An  idea  can  be  gained  from  the  following  figures  for  1912  : 

Miles  of  line  open 23,441 

Tons  of  goods  carried  .         .         .         .  520,279,128 

Passengers 1,294,337,048 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1053 

of  this  development  can  only  be  realized  in  view  of  the  numbers  of 
men  employed  for  the  manufacture  of  all  the  vast  equipment  which 
goes  to  make  up  a  railroad,  in  the  structure  of  the  carshops,  in  the 
mines  for  supplying  the  materials  for  fuel ;  in  view  of  the  increased 
facilities  for  emigration  and  for  carrying  laborers  to  and  fro ;  and  in 
view  of  the  creation  of  new  markets  and  the  possibilities  of  transport- 
ing food  supplies.  The  development  of  steam  navigation  is  equally 
striking.  In  1819,  the  first  steamship  crossed  the  Atlantic  from 
Savannah  to  Liverpool,  and,  going  partly  under  sail,  occupied  thirty- 
two  days.  It  was  not  till  1838  that  the  whole  distance  was  covered 
under  steam,  when  the  time  was  cut  to  fifteen.1  Now,  the  fastest 
steamers  have  made  a  record  of  less  than  five,  exclusive  of  the  delays 
in  entering  and  leaving  port.  At  first  the  ships  were  side-wheelers 
built  of  wood.  The  first  iron  steamship  was  built  in  1821  and  the  first 
iron  screw  propeller  in  1838 ;  but  screw  propellers  and  iron  construc- 
tion were  not  generally  adopted  till  the  early  sixties.  Iron  gave  place 
to  steel  about  twenty  years  later.  The  invention  of  the  compound, 
and  then  of  the  triple-expansion  engine,  due  to  high  pressure  steam 
and  improved  boiler  construction,  made  it  possible  to  build  both  larger 
and  swifter  vessels.  All  this,  added  to  the  employment  of  artificial 
refrigeration  and  cold  storage,  has  added  greatly  to  the  comfort  of 
travel.  For  a  long  time  steam  was  used  only  for  passenger  traffic 
on  the  ocean,  while  fast  sailing  clippers  were  employed,  especially  in 
the  China  trade ;  but  the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal,  in  1869,  put  an 
end  to  their  supremacy.  Nowadays  sailing  ships  are  little  used 
except  for  slow  coasting  trade.2  The  effect  of  steam  navigation  in 
supplying  food  and  raw  materials,  opening  new  markets,  stimulating 
emigration  and  industry,  as  well  as  in  consolidating  the  British  Empire 
has  been  almost  incalculable. 

Army  and  Navy.  —  In  view  of  her  insular  position,  Great  Britain 
has  not  found  it  necessary  to  keep  so  large  an  army  on  foot  as  the 
continental  countries,  especially  since  the  self-governing  colonies 
have  equipped  militia  of  their  own,  and  has  thus  far  refrained  from 
compulsory  service.  However,  since  the  advent  of  the  airship 
and  the  development  of  Germany  as  a  sea-power,  there  has  been  an 
earnest  agitation,  led  by  the  military  authorities,  to  increase  the  land 
forces  and  to  make  them  more  effective.  On  the  other  hand,  Great 
Britain  has  long  felt  the  need  of  maintaining  a  powerful  navy  to 
protect  her  commerce,  her  possessions  beyond  the  seas,  and  to  insure 
against  the  cutting  off  of  her  food  supplies  in  time  of  war.  Yet, 
during  the  first  half  of  the  century,  her  naval  constructors  lagged 

1  This  was  very  soon  after  Dionysius  Lardner  had  declared  that  "as  well  might 
they  attempt  a  voyage  to  the  moon,  as  to  run  regularly  between  England  and  New 
York." 

2  The  total  amount  of  shipping,  British  and  foreign,  entering  the  United  King- 
dom, has  increased  from  4,657,795  tons  in  1840  to  66,660,449  in  1910.     The  amount 
clearing  has  almost  exactly  corresponded. 


1054 


A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 


behind  the  merchant  marine  in  the  introduction  of  improvements. 
Indeed,  so  late  as  the  Crimean  War,  the  French  navy  was  on  a  more 
modern  footing.  Since  then,  however,  the  British  have  forged  steadily 
to  the  front  in  iron  and  steel  construction  for  hulls,  in  the  introduction 
of  armor  plate,  in  the  introduction  of  breech-loading  guns  worked 
by  machinery,  and  in  the  employment  of  torpedoes  and  torpedo  boats. 
While  keeping  fully  abreast  of  other  nations  in  the  adoption  of  im- 
proved processes,  they  have  endeavored  to  maintain  their  fleet  at 
about  double  the  strength  of  their  nearest  rival,  Germany.1 

Electrical  Inventions  and  Appliances.  —  Only  a  bewildering  array 
of  figures  could  give  an  adequate  idea  of  the  great  development  in 
the  iron,  cotton,  and  other  manufacturing  industries ;  but  the  result 
has  been  due  not  so  much  to  the  invention,  as  to  the  perfecting  and 
developing  of  those  already  described.  However,  as  practical  realities, 
all  the  epoch-making  electrical  inventions  and  appliances  date  from 
the  Victorian  Era.  The  first  attempt  to  construct  an  electric  tele- 
graph was  made  by  one  Lesage  in  1774;  but  it  was  more  than  half 
a  century  before  a  series  of  lines  was  actually  in  operation,  and  not 
till  1844  that  the  first  public  system  in  England  was  installed.  It  was 
soon  superseded  by  the  system  of  the  American,  Morse,  invented 
in  1838,  and  first  employed  in  1844  on  a  line  of  wires  running  from 
Washington  to  Baltimore.  Meantime,  experiments  in  submarine 
telegraphy  had  been  made.  So  early  as  1839,  the  banks  of  the  Hooghly 
River  in  India  had  been  connected  by  an  insulated  wire  placed  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  stream.  A  line  between  Dover  and  Calais  was 
established  in  1851.  The  first  attempt  to  lay  an  Atlantic  cable  was 
made  six  years  later.  After  two  successive  failures,  in  1858  and  1865, 
the  momentous  task  was  finally  achieved  in  1866.  Infinite  credit  is 
due  to  Cyrus  Field  in  securing  finances,  and  to  the  scientific  genius 
of  Lord  Kelvin.  The  perfection  of  wireless  telegraphy  has  been  the 
signal  achievement  of  the  Italian,  Marconi,  who  began  his  experi- 
ments in  1895,  and,  in  1899,  first  succeeded  in  sending  messages  across 
the  Channel  from  Boulogne  to  Dover.  In  1837  Page,  an  American 
physicist,  prepared  the  way  for  the  telephone  by  his  discovery  that 
sounds  could  be  transmitted  by  electricity.  Nearly  forty  years 

1  The  respective  strength  of  the  three  leading  naval  powers  in  1912  was: 


U.K. 

U.S. 

GERMANY 

Built 

Building 

Built 

Building 

Built 

Building 

Battleships  . 

53 

IO 

29 

6 

32 

9 

Coast  defense 

9 

4 

Cruisers    .     . 

108 

37 

53 

6 

Torpedo  boats  am 

destroyers 

301 

28 

IO 

173 

17 

Submarines  . 

62 

12 

18 

17 

8 

2 

VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN  ENGLAND     1055 

later,  in  1876,  Graham  Bell  was  finally  awarded  a  patent,  although 
two  other  men  had  made  application  on  the  very  same  day  as  himself. 
As  the  result  of  a  long  series  of  experiments  by  Foucault  and  Staite, 
arclights  were  first  made  to  work  successfully  in  1849,  though  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy  had  discovered  the  voltaic  arc  years  before.  The 
incandescent  lamp,  which  traces  its  beginnings  to  a  process  devised 
about  1841  by  an  Englishman,  De  Moleyns,  only  came  to  be  generally 
employed  toward  the  end  of  the  last  century.  With  the  perfecting 
of  the  dynamo,  within  the  recent  generation,  electricity  has  taken  pos- 
session of  the  field  as  a  motive  force  and  as  a  means  of  communication 
and  illumination,  while  it  bids  fair  to  supersede  steam  for  purposes  of  . 
transportation  on  railways. 

Agricultural  Progress.  —  The  period  of  agricultural  distress  fol- 
lowing- the  Napoleonic  War  continued  for  some  years.  When  prices 
dropped,  the  cultivation  of  poor  land  ceased  to  be  profitable.  Land- 
lords who  had  mortgaged  their  estates  to  extend  their  farming  opera- 
tions went  under,  together  with  tenants  working  on  borrowed  capital. 
A  natural  result  was  misery  and  discontent  on  the  part  of  the  agricul- 
tural laborers.  Shortly  before  Victoria's  accession  conditions  began 
to  improve,  and,  with  brief  intervals  of  depression,  the  improvement 
continued  until  about  1876.  This  renewed  prosperity  was  due  to  a 
combination  of  many  causes.  For  one  thing,  the  revival  and  growth  of 
manufactures,  following  the  temporary  slump  during  the  first  years 
of  the  peace,  created  a  new  demand  for  food  supplies  and  enhanced 
their  price.  Then  the  Poor  Law  of  1834  lifted  a  great  burden  from 
the  rural  taxpayer,  while  the  Tithe  Commutation  Act  of  1836  did 
away  with  uncertainties,  inequalities,  and  waste,  which  had  worked 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  cultivator.  Railways  and  steam  navigation 
made  possible  the  transportation  of  perishable  products,  and  made  new 
markets  accessible.  At  the  same  time,  the  establishment  of  joint 
stock  banks  provided  capital  for  improvements.  In  these  improve- 
ments science  came  to  the  aid  of  practice.  In  1838,  the  Royal  Agri- 
cultural Society  was  founded;  this  was  followed  by  the  establishment 
of  the  Royal  Agricultural  College  in  1842,  and,  during  the  next  year, 
experiments  began  to  be  made  at  the  agricultural  station  recently  set 
up  at  Rothamsted,  Herts.  Chemical  and  geographical  knowledge 
was  applied  in  the  treatment  of  the  soil,  and  artificially  prepared 
fertilizers  were  adopted  with  excellent  results.  Improved  methods  of 
draining  proved  a  special  boon  to  farmers  in  the  clay  soil  districts 
where  lands  had  been  under  water  during  the  rainy  season  and  hard- 
baked  during  times  of  drought.  Intensive  farming,  which  aimed  to 
get  the  greatest  amount  out  of  land  already  under  cultivation,  began 
to  take  the  place  of  extensive  tillage,  which  consisted  in  merely  ex- 
tending the  area  to  be  worked.  The  ambition  of  wealthy  manufac- 
turers and  merchants  'to  become  landed  proprietors  had  the  twofold 
effect  of  bringing  much  capital  into  agriculture  and  of  raising  the 
price  of  land.  Finally,  in  this  period,  great  improvements  were  made 


1056  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

in  agricultural  machinery  when  new  types  of  plows,  harrows,  cul- 
tivators, as  well  as  mowing  machines  and  steam  threshing  machines, 
came  to  be  employed. 

Decline  in  Agriculture. — The  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws,  in  1846, 
ushered  in  a  brief  interval  of  depression,  due  partly  to  an  influx  of 
cheap  food,  partly  to  the  breaking  of  the  monopoly,  and,  more  es- 
pecially, to  the  fear  of  the  British  farmer  that  he  could  not  compete  with 
the  over-sea  producers.  Conditions,  however,  soon  righted  themselves. 
The  laborer  was  helped  by  the  migrations,  following  upon  the  potato 
famine,  of  large  numbers  of  Irishmen  who  had  hitherto  come  to  Eng- 
land during  the  harvest  season  and  had  brought  down  wages  by  their 
competition.  On  the  other  hand,  the  influx  of  money  from  the  dis- 
covery of  gold  in  California,  1848,  and  in  Australia,  1850-1851, 
raised  prices,  and  thus  aided  the  landlord  and  tenant  farmer.  The 
third  quarter  of  the  century  was,  on  the  whole,  perhaps  the  most 
prosperous  period  in  the  annals  of  British  agriculture.  About  1875 
came  a  new  decline  from  which  the  farmer  has  never  recovered.  A 
chief  cause  was  the  increasing  competition  from  over-sea,  due  to  the 
development  of  the  steamship  and  the  invention  of  refrigerating  pro- 
cesses which  have  made  it  possible  to  convey  meat  in  cold  storage 
from  the  extreme  ends  of  the  world.  For  a  time  these  foodstuffs 
were  absorbed  by  the  growing  population;  but  a  bad  harvest  in 
1875,  followed  by  a  worse  one  in  the  "  Black  Year,"  1879,  led  to  extra 
heavy  imports  of  corn  and  wheat  from  abroad,  to  the  withdrawal  of 
much  land  from  tillage,  and  to  a  consequent  rural  exodus.  Of  late, 
efforts  have  been  made  to  bring  the  laborer  back  to  the  soil.  In  1875 
a  bill  was  passed  to  arrange  for  compensation  to  agricultural  tenants 
for  unexhausted  improvements.  Then  from  1882  to  1890,  a  series 
of  Allotment  Acts  were  passed  to  enable  the  local  authorities  to  acquire 
lands  to  rent  in  small  parcels.  This  was  followed,  in  1892,  by  the 
Small  Holdings  Act  empowering  county  councils  to  obtain  lands  and 
advance  sums  of  money  to  those  who  desired  to  purchase  holdings  of 
fifty  acres  or  under.  But  none  of  these  measures  proved  effective ;  for 
in  fifteen  years  not  more  than  850  acres  were  sold.  A  new  Small 
Holdings  and  Allotments  Act  of  1907,  authorizing  the  county  councils 
to  take  lands  at  the  current  price  with  or  without  the  consent  of  the 
large  owners,  has  proved  more  successsful,  and  within  three  years  nearly 
100,000  acres  were  allotted  to  small  cultivators.  At  present,  plans 
are  under  discussion  to  improve  the  housing  conditions  of  the  agri- 
cultural laborer,  to  raise  his  wages,  to  secure  deserving  tenants  against 
eviction,  and  to  increase  still  further  the  number  of  peasant  proprietors. 
In  view,  however,  of  the  experience  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
increasing  competition  from  abroad,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  small 
farmer  could  maintain  himself. 

Decorative  Art.  —  Fertile  as  was  the  Victorian  Age  in  science  and 
invention,  it  was,  in  the  early  period  at  least,  barren  of  anything  except 
bad  taste  in  decorative  art.  Mansard  roof  houses,  furnished  with 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1057 

glaring  carpets,  ghastly  marble  statuary,  and  ornately  carved  black 
walnut  are  unlovely  monuments  of  this  period  of  Philistine  ugliness. 
Those  who  strove  for  better  things  were  for  years  as  voices  crying  in 
the  wilderness.  About  the  middle  of  the  century  Ruskin  began  to 
preach  the  gospel  of  a  revival  of  Gothic  art  and  ornament.  The  Pre- 
raphaelite  Brotherhood,  not  long  after  its  foundation,  extended  its 
scope  to  include  architecture,  costume,  and  household  decoration,  as 
well  as  painting  and  literature.  Toward  the  end  of  its  short  life  it 
became  an  "  aesthetic  affectation,"  making  for  itself  a  "  sort  of  religion 
out  of  wall  paper,  old  teapots,  and  fans  " ;  but  it  began  as  a  healthy 
plea  for  simplicity  and  beauty  against  conventional  unsightliness,  and 
set  standards  which  survived  its  own  organization.  Much  was  due  to 
William  Morris  (1834-1896),  perhaps  the  most  versatile  man  with 
brain  and  hand  of  any  of  the  century.  He  painted  pictures,  he  pro- 
duced large  quantities  of  excellent  prose  and  verse,  he  went  in  for  print- 
ing and  bookbinding,  and,  in  1860,  he  started  a  firm  for  supplying 
stained  glass,  tapestries,  carpets,  and  household  furniture.  Every- 
thing was  designed  by  men  of  artistic  instinct  and  training,  and,  so 
far  as  possible,  fashioned  by  hand.  This  wholesome  revival  of  the 
traditions  of  the  medieval  arts  and  crafts  has  had  an  immense  in- 
fluence. Artistic  taste  has  continued  to  improve,  although  an  inevi- 
table obstacle  to  its  general  diffusion  has  been  the  necessity  for  cheap 
machine-made  goods. 

Painting  and  Music.  —  The  Preraphaelite  Brotherhood  was  founded 
by  John  Everett  Millais  and  Holman  Hunt,  though  Dante  Gabriel 
Rossetti  became  the  great  spiritual  influence.  Among  other  famous 
members  were  Ford  Madox  Brown  and  Edward  Burne- Jones.  During 
the  five  years  of  its  organized  activity  it  formed  the  nearest  to  a 
native  school  of  painting  that  England  has  ever  had.  Outside  the 
Brotherhood  there  are  many  names  that  might  be  mentioned.  Sir 
Edwin  Landseer  (1802-1873)  struck  out  a  new  path  in  emphasizing 
the  human  qualities  in  animals ;  Clarkson  Stanfield  was  notable  as 
the  most  realistic  of  English  marine  painters ;  and  George  Frederick 
Watts  (1820-1904),  during  the  course  of  his  long  life,  painted  superb 
portraits  of  most  of  the  celebrated  Englishmen  of  his  time.  While 
it  is  too  early  to  estimate,  the  general  opinion  is  that  the  greatest 
artists  since  Constable  and  Turner  have  been  D.  G.  Rossetti,  Millais, 
and  James  McNeill  Whistler  (1834-1903),  an  American  who  spent 
his  later  life  in  London.  Owing  to  the  influence  of  Handel,  the 
oratorio  has  been  the  form  of  musical  composition  which  has  since 
appealed  most  to  the  mass  of  Englishmen.  Grand  opera  and  sym- 
phony have,  until  the  present  generation,  met  with  no  widespread 
appeal.  And  if  we  except  Michael  Balfe  (1808-1870) ,  whose  Bohemian 
Girl  has  enjoyed  a  long  and  general  popularity,  the  uniquely  excellent 
comic  operas  of  Gilbert  and  Sullivan,  and  the  fine  compositions  of 
Sir  Edward  Elgar  (born  1857),  the  British  have  contributed  practically 
nothing  in  the  way  of  operatic  or  orchestral  productions. 
3V 


1058  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Industrial  and  Social  Progress.  —  Two  striking  facts  in  the  material 
progress  of  England  during  the  period  since  the  first  Reform  Bill 
are  the  increase  of  population  and  the  increase  of  wealth.  The  number 
of  inhabitants  of  the  United  Kingdom  has  increased  from  24,392,485 
in  1831  to  45,365,599,  the  greatest  proportional  growth  being  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales  —  from  13,896,797  to  36,075,269.  The  total  wealth 
of  the  country,  estimated  on  the  basis  of  income,  has  swelled,  during 
the  interval,  from  about  £225,000,000  to  £1,011,100,345.  In  other 
words,  wealth  has  increased  about  twice  as  fast  as  the  population. 
Unhappily,  however,  this  increase  has  been  most  unevenly  distributed. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  century  to  1842  there  was  a  startling  growth 
of  poverty  and  crime,  then  came  a  striking  change  for  the  better. 
Curiously  enough,  machinery  was  to  a  large  degree  responsible,  both 
for  the  wretchedness  and  for  the  prosperity  which  followed  it.  Other 
factors  were  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  which  steadied  and  cheapened 
the  price  of  food ;  the  legislation  regulating  conditions  of  employment, 
especially  in  the  case  of  women  and  children ;  and  the  improvement  of 
sanitary  conditions  in  the  populous  towns.  Although  conditions  are 
still  deplorable  enough,  the  English  laborer,  what  with  better  housing, 
better  lighting,  better  industrial  regulations,  and  better  wages,  is 
far  better  off  than  his  fathers  before  him.  Friendly  societies,  trades 
unions,  cooperative  stores  and  banks,  and  building  societies  are  at 
once  indications  of  and  further  aids  to  thrift  and  progress.  At  the 
same  time,  the  growing  consumption  of  meat,  tea,  sugar,  and  tobacco 
indicates  a  rising  standard  of  comfort.  This,  together  with  a  steady 
upward  movement  of  prices,  especially  during  the  last  decade,  has 
resulted  in  the  acute  problem  that  the  incomes  of  large  numbers  of  the 
working  classes  have  ceased  to  be  sufficient  to  meet  their  expenditures. 
Hence  a  serious  agitation  has  developed  to  secure  a  minimum  wage. 

Evidences  of  Progress.  —  Yet,  in  spite  of  the  resulting  crisis,  and 
in  spite  of  panics  and  unrest,  strikes  and  chronic  unemployment,  a 
survey  of  the  period,  as  a  whole,  shows  encouraging  evidences  of 
progress.  Parliament,  which  was  primarily  occupied  "  with  protecting 
property  against  the  people  "  now  devotes  much  of  its  energy  to 
"  protecting  the  people  against  property."  The  old  privileges  of 
the  favored,  and  the  disabilities  of  the  unfavored  classes  have  been 
removed  one  by  one.  The  abolition  of  sinecures,  the  curtailing  of 
the  exemptions  of  members  of  Parliament  from  arrest,  the  cessation 
of  compulsory  Church  rates,  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church, 
and  the  destruction  of  the  monopoly  of  the  East  India  Company, 
are  among  the  examples  of  the  former,  while  the  concessions  to  the 
Roman  Catholics,  Nonconformists,  and  aliens  are  instances  of  the  latter. 
Although  there  are  still  acute  differences  between  labor  and  capital, 
the  breaking  down  of  the  aristocratic  barriers  has  brought  the  classes 
closer  together:  "the  arrogance  of  the  aristocracy  is  less  insolent, 
the  bitterness  of  the  democracy  is  less  uninformed  and  ignorant." 
Philanthropy  has  become  more  general,  and  educational  and  social 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1059 

settlements  have  been  established  in  the  crowded  quarters  of  large 
cities.  The  temperance  revival  of  Father  Mathew  (1790-1856), 
though  mainly  concentrated  in  Ireland,  was  not  without  effect  in 
England,  while  cheaper  tea  has  contributed,  at  least  in  some  degree, 
to  check  the  excessive  use  of  alcohol.  The  establishment  of  a  system 
of  public  education,  the  introduction  of  cheap  light  in  the  form  of 
petroleum,  gas,  and  electricity,  and  the  spread  of  the  newspaper  — 
not  an  unmixed  blessing  —  has  done  much  to  develop  a  more  in- 
telligent and  happy  body  of  citizens. 

Improvement  of  Prison  Conditions.  —  The  increase  of  humanitari- 
anism  may  be  seen  in  all  directions,  in  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade 
and  slavery,  the  prohibition  of  flogging  in  the  army  and  navy,  the 
discontinuance  of  the  press  gang  and  transportation,  the  protection 
of  dumb  animals,  and  the  improved  treatment  of  debtors  and  convicts. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  century,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Howard, 
prison  conditions  were  still  frightful.  Yet  he  had  not  labored  in  vain, 
for  his  work  was  taken  up  by  Elizabeth  Fry,  whose  interest  and  pity 
awakened  by  a  casual  visit  to  Newgate  in  1812;  by  Fowell  Buxton 
and  other  worthy  persons.  As  a  result  of  this  organized  work  of  the 
Society  for  the  Improvement  of  Prison  Discipline,  which  they  founded, 
the  Gaol  Acts  of  1823-1824  were  passed,  providing  for  improved 
sanitation  and  cleanliness  and  for  individual  cots  or  hammocks  for 
prisoners.  Also,  regular  labor,  prison  chaplains  and  schoolmasters, 
as  well  as  matrons  for  the  women,  were  recommended.  Following  a 
parliamentary  report  of  1835  the  principle  was  established  of  separate 
cells  in  place  of  the  old  practice  of  herding  debtors,  hardened  criminals, 
and  even  lunatics  promiscuously  together.  More  recently,  the 
custom  has  been  adopted  of  short  terms  of  solitary  confinement, 
followed  by  penal  servitude  or  associated  labor  on  public  works; 
followed  again  by  release  on  ticket  of  leave  or  probation.  Notwith- 
standing the  increase  of  population,  the  convictions  for  crime  have 
been  decreased  from  19,927  in  1840  to  11,987  in  1910. 

Condition  of  Women.  —  Although  much  remains  to  be  done,  the 
lot  of  women  has  greatly  improved  since  the  beginning  of  the  century. 
Within  the  memory  of  those  yet  living,  the, education  of  girls  was  largely 
in  the  hands  of  governesses  and  private  schools,  with  the  emphasis 
on  deportment,  music,  and  other  accomplishments.  Memory  was 
trained  at  the  expense  of  the  reasoning  faculties,  and  teaching  was 
given  out  of  "  elegant  abridgements."  Since  the  middle  of  the 
century,  however,  their  instruction  has  approximated  to  that  of  boys, 
and  higher  education  has  been  opened  to  them.  In  1867  women 
were  admitted  to  examinations  at  the  University  of  London,  in  1881 
at  Cambridge,  and  in  1884  at  Oxford.  Meantime,  two  colleges  for 
women,  Girton  and  Newnham,  had  been  founded  at  Cambridge.  In 
1837,  the  Ladies'  Gallery  was  opened  in  the  new  House  of  Commons. 
Six  years  before,  the  first  petition  for  votes  for  women  was  intro- 
duced. In  1867  John  Stuart  Mill  made  a  strong  plea  for  giving  them 


io6o  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

the  privilege,  and  in  1912  a  bill  conceding  a  restricted  suffrage  passed  a 
second  reading  in  the  Commons.  Since  then,  however,  the  methods  of 
the  militants  have  given  the  movement  for  enfranchisement  a  setback. 

Recent  Labor  Legislation.  —  Since  the  Reform  Bill  of  1867  there 
has  been  a  marked  increase  in  labor  legislation.  This  includes  an  act 
of  1878  simplifying,  systematizing,  and  extending  all  the  factory  legis- 
lation of  the  century,  and  an  act  of  1901,  which  replaced  it,  and  which 
is  still  in  force.  It  includes  also  a  series  of  acts  relating  to  mines  and 
collieries,  passed  at  intervals  between  1872  and  1906.  More  striking, 
perhaps,  are  the  recent  measures  providing  for  social  insurance. 
Bismarck  initiated  this  policy  in  Germany,  between  1881  and  1891, 
as  a  supplement  to  coercion  in  checking  social  unrest.  In  one  form 
or  another  it  has  since  been  adopted  by  the  leading  continental 
countries.  In  England  the  Liberal  party,  which  came  to  power  in 
December,  1905,  on  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour,  has  taken 
notable  steps  in  the  same  direction.  These  have  been  embodied 
mainly  in  three  great  measures  —  The  Workingmen's  Compensation 
Act,  1906;  the  Old  Age  Pension  Act,  1909;  and  the  National  In- 
surance Act,  1911.  Formerly  employees  or  workmen  could,  in  case 
of  accident,  only  recover  damages  by  lawsuit,  a  long  and  costly 
process;  and  they  had  to  prove,  too,  that  the  employer  was  directly 
responsible.  Beginning  in  1880,  a  series  of  acts  wras  passed  shifting 
the  burden  of  proof  on  the  employer.  The  first  of  the  series  applied 
only  to  specified  dangerous  trades;  but  the  Act  of  1906  renders  the 
employer  liable  for  compensation  —  except  in  cases  of  "  serious  and 
willful  misconduct  "  —  to  all  manual  laborers,  and  practically  all 
other  employees,  including  domestic  servants,  who  receive  a  salary  of 
less  than  £250  a  year.  Although  not  compelled  to  do  so,  most  em- 
ployers now  carry  a  special  insurance  to  meet  such  liabilities. 

Old  Age  Pensions  and  Insurance  against  Sickness  and  Unemploy- 
ment. —  The  Old  Age  Pension  Law  of  1909  was  the  outcome  of  nearly 
thirty  years  of  struggle.  It  provides  that  every  person,  male  or  female, 
over  seventy  years  of  age,  who  has  been  a  British  subject  for  twenty 
years  and  a  resident  of  Great  Britain  for  twelve,  shall  receive  a  pension, 
provided  his  or  her  incomers  less  than  £31  los.  Even  paupers  are 
included,  though,  as  soon  as  the  pension  begins,  poor  relief  ceases. 
It  is  in  no  sense  an  insurance  scheme,  since  the  recipients  contribute 
nothing.  The  Act  of  1911  has  a  twofold  aim :  "  to  provide  for  Insur- 
ance against  loss  of  Health  and  for  the  Prevention  and  Cure  of  Sickness, 
and  for  Insurance  against  Unemployment."  By  the  terms  of  the 
first  part  of  the  Act,  all  wage  earners  between  sixteen  and  sixty-five 
who  have  less  than  £26  annual  income  from  property  are  obliged  to 
insure  against  sickness.  Under  the  supervision  of  Government  in- 
surance commissioners  the  scheme  is  administered  through  "  approved 
societies,"  either  existing  friendly  societies1  or  new  bodies  specially 

1  These  are  voluntary  benefit  or  "mutual  assurance"  societies,  some  of  which 
date  back  at  least  to  the  eighteenth  century,  and  may  possibly  even  trace  their  descent 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN    ENGLAND     1061 

created.  The  funds  are  subscribed  partly  by  the  workers,  partly  by 
the  employers,  and  partly  by  the  State,  though  if  the  wage  of  the 
former  is  below  a  certain  minimum,  his  quota  falls  on  the  employer. 
The  benefits  include  weekly  payments  during  sickness,  free  medical 
attendance,  and  free  treatment  at  hospitals  to  be  supplied  by  the  State. 
The  second  part  of  the  Act  is  in  the  nature  of  an  experiment  for  meeting 
the  problem  of  chronic  unemployment.  Something  was  accomplished 
by  the  Labor  Exchange  Act  of  1909,  according  to  which  England  was 
divided  into  eleven  districts,  each  including  a  number  of  labor  ex- 
changes, which  serve  to  bring  employers  and  laborers  together,  and, 
if  necessary,  advance  money  to  pay  the  tatter's  traveling  expenses  to 
the  place  where  work  is  offered  him.  So  far,  the  Act  of  1911  applies 
only  to  two  trades  —  the  building  and  the  engineering  —  which  in- 
clude nearly  2,500,000  out  of  a  total  of  15,000,000  workmen.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  sickness  insurance,  the  employees,  the  employers,  and 
the  State  all  contribute.  The  benefit  is  limited  to  a  maximum  of 
fifteen  weeks,  and  is  withheld  in  case  the  unemployment  is  due  to  mis- 
conduct, to  strikes,  or  lockouts.  These  socialistic  features  of  the 
Liberal  program  are  due  -mainly  to  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  since  1908,  and  are  being  watched  with  great  interest. 
The  Cooperative  Movement.  Trade  Unionism.  —  The  cooperative 
movement  in  England,  of  which  Robert  Owen  was  the  practical 
founder,  started  as  an  effort  to  check  the  evils  of  competition.  His 
ideas,  first  of  a  benevolent  cooperation  between  employers  and  work- 
men, and  then  of  State-organized  communities  in  which  the  employer 
had  no  place,  came  to  nothing ;  but  an  indirect  result  not  contemplated 
by  him  was  the  organization  of  cooperative  shops.  The  first  to  achieve 
practical  success  was  started  at  Rochdale  in  1844.  Since  then  many 
other  ventures  have  been  undertaken.  While  attempts  at  cooperative 
production  have  been,  generally  speaking,  failures,  cooperative  shops 
for  distribution  have  had  a  considerable  if  not  sensational  success. 
In  course  of  time  their  members  formed  a  national  organization,  and 
began  to  hold  annual  congresses  and  to  go  into  the  wholesale  business. 
In  1902,  there  were  850,659  members  with  a  total  volume  of  business 
of  £31,305,910.  The  trades  unions  of  various  trades  began  to  hold 
annual  congresses  in  1870,  before  the  acts  of  iSyi,1 1875,  and  1876  gave 

from  the  medieval  gilds.  While  trades  unions  sometimes  have  the  benefit  fea- 
ture, the  friendly  societies,  as  such,  are  not  confined  to  single  trades  and  are  not 
concerned  with  strikes.  They  included  about  5,000,000  members  in  1908. 

1  In  1867,  as  a  consequence  of  outrages  committed  against  workmen  in  Sheffield 
and,  to  a  less  degree,  in  Manchester,  a  royal  commission  was  appointed  to  investi- 
gate the  whole  subject  of  the  trades  unions  which  were  held  to  be  responsible.  It 
was  shown  that  they  labored  under  serious  disabilities.  Some  of  the  judges,  at 
least,  were  of  the  opinion  that  any  combination  to  raise  wages  was  a  "conspiracy 
and  a  misdemeanor."  Hence  the  discontent  of  the  unions;  but  it  was  found  that, 
while  one  murder  and  many  cases  of  intimidation  could  be  traced  to  their  members, 
only  twelve  unions  out  of  sixty  in  Sheffield,  and  only  one  of  many  in  Manchester 
were  involved.  So,  by  the  Trades  Unions  Act  of  1871,  their  legality  was  formally 
recognized. 


1062  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

them  legal  status.  In  1899  a  General  Federation  of  Trades  Unions, 
affiliated  with  kindred  organizations  on  the  Continent,  was  created 
"  to  supplement  the  activities  of  the  Trades  Union  Congress."  In 
1901,  in  the  famous  Taff  Vale  Case,  the  House  of  Lords  struck  a  blow 
at  trade  unionism,  by  a  decision  "  that  the  members  of  the  trade  union 
are  liable  singly  and  collectively  for  acts  committed  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  Union."  This  decision,  however,  was  offset,  to  a  large 
degree,  by  the  Trades  Dispute  Act  of  1906  —  to  which  the  peers 
gave  a  reluctant  assent  —  protecting  the  funds  of  trade  unions.  By 
the  Osborne  Judgment  of  1909  the  Lords  decided  that  it  was  illegal 
to  employ  moneys  raised  by  compulsory  contributions  to  pay  the 
salaries  of  the  members  representing  them  in  Parliament.  This, 
again,  has  been  offset  by  a  measure  of  1911  providing  for  the  payment 
of  all  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  at  £400  a  year. 

Laborite  Political  Parties.  —  Meantime,  labor  had  sought  to  reen- 
force  the  work  of  the  trades  unions  by  organizing  into  political  parties. 
Two  labor  candidates  stood  for  Parliament  in  1868,  and,  six  years 
later,  when  the  number  had  risen  to  thirteen,  two  were  elected.  In 
1893,  the  Independent  Labor  Party  was  organized  for  the  purpose, 
not  only  of  demanding  State  intervention  in  the  interests  of  labor — 
for  procuring  an  eight-hour  day,  for  example  —  but  with  the  avowed 
socialistic  aim  of  establishing  "  collective  ownership  and  control  of 
the  means  of  production,  distribution,  and  exchange."  Since  these 
views  proved  too  radical  for  the  rank  and  file  of  the  British  workmen 
the  Trades  Union  Congress,  in  1899,  took  steps  which  resulted  in 
the  organization  of  a  group  in  the  Commons  prepared  "  to  cooperate 
with  any  party  which  for  the  time  being  may  be  engaged  in  promoting 
legislation  in  the  direct  interest  of  labor."  In  1906,  this  organization 
took  the  name  of  the  Labor  Party,  and  succeeded  in  electing  twenty- 
nine  out  of  fifty-one  candidates,  whereas  the  Independent  Laborites 
elected  seven.  Although  the  number  of  labor  representatives  has 
since  declined  somewhat,  the  Liberal  party  depends  upon  them, 
together  with  the  Irish  Nationalists,  for  a  majority. 

Socialism.  —  English  socialism  was  for  a  long  time  identified  with 
Robert  Owen,  who  enunciated  his  views  nearly  twenty  years  before  the 
word  was  coined  in  1835.  His  work,  however,  had  no  direct  result, 
and  the  system  owes  its  development  to  continental  thinkers.  About 
the  middle  of  the  century,  however,  a  school  of  Christian  Socialists  was 
founded  in  England  by  Charles  Kingsley,  Thomas  Hughes,  and  F.  D. 
Maurice  as  a  protest  against  the  prevailing  laissez-faire.  While 
Christian  Socialism,  as  a  formal  movement,  had  a  short  life,  it  planted 
seeds  which  have  never  died.  In  1864,  an  International  Working- 
men's  Association  was  formed  in  London  by  the  combined  efforts 
of  British  trade  unionists  and  continental  refugees.  As  a  whole, 
however,  the  British  workmen  have  never  been  socialists,  though 
the  depressions  from  1875  to  1880  have  had  the  effect  of  accentuating 
socialistic  tendencies,  of  developing  a  new  unionism  more  aggressive 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1063 

and  less  individualistic  than  the  old.  The  Democratic  Federation, 
dating  from  1881,  and  its  reconstitution  two  years  later,  under  the 
name  Social  Democratic  Federation,  marks  the  modern  stage.  Yet 
neither  the  Federation,  nor  the  Social  Democratic  party  which  it 
formed,  has  been  very  successful.  In  1911,  it  numbered  only  18,000, 
while  the  less  extreme  Independent  Labor  Party  aggregated  not  more 
than  60,000,  and  as  a  rule  both  have  been  forced  to  act  with  the  non- 
socialistic  laborites.  Recently,  however,  syndicalism  —  a  revolu- 
tionary trade  unionism  originating  in  France  about  1906,  and  aiming 
to  control  production  and  distribution  —  has  been  a  force  in  general 
strikes.  The  Fabian  Society,  founded  in  1883,  consists  of  educated 
men,  including  many  Liberals,  who  hold  moderate,  theoretical  social- 
istic views,  and  it  directs  its  appeal  mainly  to  the  upper  and  middle 
classes.  While  out  and  out  socialism  has  made  little  headway, 
socialistic  principles  have  gained  increasingly  in  both  the  Con- 
servative and  Liberal  parties,  and  have  shown  their  strength  in 
the  legislation  outlined  above,  undertaken  by  the  latter  party  since 
1906. 

Greater  Britain.  —  One  of  the  most  significant  features  of  the 
nineteenth  century  has  been  the  growth  of  the  British  Empire.  In 
1912,  it  included  an  area  of  13,663,000  square  miles  and  426,000,000 
inhabitants  —  nearly  one  quarter  of  the  land  surface  of  the  globe  and 
slightly  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  world's  population.  The  annual 
trade  of  this  vast  Empire  amounts  to  approximately  £1,600,000,000, 
and  its  total  revenue  exceeds  £400,000,000.  The  Imperial  dominion 
comprises  possessions  in  Europe,1  Asia,2  Africa,3  America,4  and  Oceania.5 
They  may  be  grouped  under  two  main  heads  depending  upon  their 
form  of  government.  I.  The  self-governing  colonies,  including 
Canada,  Newfoundland,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the  Union 
of  South  Africa.  Although  nominally  under  a  Governor-General 
sent  out  by  the  King,  they  are  really  governed  by  ministers  responsible 
to  elected  assemblies.  While  the  Crown  has  a  veto  on  all  other  legis- 
lation, they  can,  without  interference,  impose  taxes  and  duties,  and 
even  forbid  the  immigration  of  certain  classes  of  British  subjects. 
II.  Crown  colonies.  These  may  be  subdivided  into  three  classes. 
In  the  first,  there  is  an  approximation  to  responsible  government, 
for  they  have  a  legislative  assembly,  wholly  or  partly  elected,  in  addi- 
tion to  an  executive  council  appointed  by  the  Crown  or  the  Governor 

1  Notably :  the  United  Kingdom ;  the  Channel  Islands ;   Cyprus ;  Malta ;  and 
Gibraltar. 

2  The  Indian  Empire ;   Ceylon ;   the  Straits  Settlements ;   the  Federated  Malay 
States ;   Hong  Kong ;   and  parts  of  Borneo. 

3  The  Union  of  South  Africa,  including  Cape  Colony,  Natal,  the  Orange  Free 
State,  Transvaal,  and  Rhodesia ;  British  East,  West,  and  Central  Africa,  including 
many  separate  possessions  in  the  interior  and  along  the  coast.     In  addition,  Great 
Britain  has  many  islands  off  the  African  shore,  and  Egypt  is  under  British  control. 

4  Canada,  Newfoundland,  and  various  West  India  islands. 

5  The  Commonwealth  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand. 


io64  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

of  the  colony.  The  Bahamas,  Jamaica,  Mauritius,  and  Malta  fall 
within  this  group.  In  the  next  category,  both  the  legislative  and  the 
executive  councils  are  appointed.  Ceylon  and  the  Straits  Settlements 
have  this  forms  of  government.  Finally,  there  are  possessions  like 
Gibraltar  and  St  Helena,  where  both  the  executive  and  legislative 
powers  are  vested  in  the  Governor  alone.  Outside  the  categories  of 
self-governing  and  Crown  colonies  are  various  possessions  or  quasi- 
possessions.  India  is  governed  by  the  King  as  Emperor,  through  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  India  and  his  council  in  England,  and  through 
the  Viceroy  in  India.  The  Viceroy  is  assisted  by  an  executive  and  a 
legislative  council,  the  latter  partly  elective.  Then  there  are  protec- 
torates —  for  example  British  Central  and  East  Africa,  Uganda,  and 
Nigeria  —  under  the  control  of  the  Crown  in  foreign  affairs;  and 
spheres  of  influence,  where  other  foreign  countries  agree  not  to  acquire 
territory  or  control,  either  by  treaty  or  annexation.  These  retain 
their  native  government  under  British  supervision.  Egypt  is  some- 
what anomalous.  While  there  is  no  protectorate,  "  the  administration 
is  supervised  and  controlled  in  every  detail  through  the  British  Consul- 
General,  under  whom,  again,  is  the  Governor-General,  exercising  su- 
preme authority  in  the  British  Egyptian  Sudan." 

The  Growth  of  the  Empire.  —  With  the  exception  of  Canada  and 
portions  of  India,  the  greater  part  of  the  present  Empire  was  only 
acquired  or  settled  during  the  last  century.  For  a  generation  and 
more  after  the  loss  of  the  American  possessions  and  the  publication 
of  the  Wealth  of  Nations,  the  view  persisted  that  the  monopoly  of 
the  colonial  market  and  trade  should  be  in  the  hands  of  British  manu- 
facturers and  merchants,  though  the  colonies  were  favored  in  various 
ways  at  the  expense  of  other  countries  —  by  differential  duties  and  by 
the  exclusive  right  of  supplying  the  Mother  Country  with  goods  not 
produced  by  the  native  British.  Aside  from  the  political  evil  of  alien- 
ating the  subjects  beyond  the  seas,  this  system  was  attended  with 
two  economic  disadvantages :  it  fostered  the  growth  of  industries 
more  naturally  adapted  to  other  countries,  and  raised  the  cost  for 
the  consumer.  Some  attacked  the  system ;  then,  after  its  exclusiveness 
had  been  modified  in  the  early  twenties,  and  particularly  after  the 
troubles  with  Jamaica  in  the  succeeding  decade,  others  came  to  ques- 
tion the  worth  of  foreign  possessions  at  all.  Indeed,  this  view  was  held 
by  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  laissez-faire  school,  and,  so  late  as 
1848,  Sir  James  Graham  declared  that:  "we  ought  to  limit  our 
colonial  Empire."  Meantime,  however,  the  development  of  steam 
navigation  began  to  alter  the  situation.  Emigration  was  stimulated  ; 
and  the  value  of  the  colonies  came  to  be  realized  as  refuge  for  redundant 
population,  as  an  outlet  for  superfluous  capital,  as  sources  of  food  and 
raw  materials,  and  as  markets  for  manufactured  goods.  The  real 
beginning  of  the  movement  dates  from  1819  when  the  Government 
appropriated  £50,000  "  to  send  a  few  hundred  laborers  to  Cape 
Town."  About  5000  ultimately  went.  Many  would  have  preferred 


VICTORIAN   AND    POSTVICTORIAN   ENGLAND     1065 

the  United  States  or  Canada ;  but  the  Government  insisted  on  South 
Africa,  partly  because  it  did  not  want  to  send  its  subjects  to  a  foreign 
country,  and  partly  because  South  Africa  lay  on  the  trade  route  to 
the  east  and  because  its  climate  was  less  rigorous  than  the  Canadian. 
Later,  although  it  advanced  further  small  sums  to  emigrants,  it  ceased 
to  dictate.  As  a  result,  the  majority  went  to  North  America.1  About 
the  middle  of  the  century  a  preference  for  the  United  States  became 
peculiarly  marked,  and  was  due  to  the  desire  of  the  Irish,  driven  from 
home  by  the  potato  famine  and  the  events  which  followed,  to  settle 
outside  the  British  dominions.  Meantime,  Edward  Gibbon  Wakefield 
(1796-1862),  who  had  sought  a  new  home  in  the  far-off  Pacific  where  he 
might  live  down  a  reprehensible  early  career,  had  "  helped  to  create  a 
new  enthusiasm  for  Empire,"  among  the  thinkers  and  statesmen  of 
his  native  England.  His  views  were  briefly  stated  in  his  Letter  from 
Sydney,  1829,  and  afterwards  elaborated  in  his  Art  of  Colonization. 
Largely  through  his  efforts,  and  the  men  he  influenced,  a  society 
was  formed  in  1830  for  systematic  colonization.  Lord  Durham,  too, 
in  his  famous  Report  wrote  an  eloquent  plea  for  the  development  of 
the  colonial  possessions,  and  the  establishment  of  self-governing 
systems  on  the  Durham  model  greatly  furthered  the  work.  Shortly 
after  the  middle  of  the  century,  the  Imperialistic  reaction  developed 
which  was  first  generally  manifested  in  the  enthusiasm  at  Victoria's 
Jubilee  of  1887.  The  development  of  India,  Canada,  and  South  Africa 
has  been  considered  in  other  connections.  The  origin  and  growth  of 
a  new  Britain  in  the  southern  hemisphere — with  an  area  about  equal 
to  the  United  States  —  can  best  be  taken  up  separately. 

The  Beginnings  of  Australia.  —  The  Venetian  traveler,  Marco 
Polo  (1254-1324),  refers  to  a  land  now  generally  believed  to  be  Aus- 
tralia, though  the  name  originated  with  the  Spanish  explorer,  De 
Quiros,  about  1605.  The  Dutchman,  Abel  Tasman,  discovered  New 
Zealand  about  1642,  and  visited  the  island  south  of  Australia  which 
now  bears  his  name,  though  he  called  it  Van  Dieman's  Land,  after 
the  Governor  of  Java.  Dampier,  who  sailed  in  these  waters  in  1688, 
and  again  in  1699,  made  some  explorations  along  the  northwest 
coast  of  Australia.  Seventy  years  later,  on  his  second  voyage  to  the 
Pacific,  Captain  Cook  with  the  members  of  an  astronomical  expedi- 
tion landed  at  Poverty  Bay,  New  Zealand,  in  1769.  After  sailing 
around  the  islands,  he  proceeded  to  Australia,  explored  the  south- 
eastern coast,  and  named  it  New  South  Wales.  The  Spanish  and  the 
Dutch,  who  had  been  first  on  the  ground,  made  no  effort  to  found  settle- 
ments, and  the  vast  territories  fell  to  the  latest  comers,  the  British. 
In  1787-1788,  Commodore  Phillip  was  sent  out  with  a  shipload  of 
convicts,  and  founded  a  city  at  Port  Jackson  which  he  named  Sydney. 

1  Between  1819  and  1829,  126,000  migrated  to  Canada  and  72,000  to  the  United 
States ;  during  the  next  decade  3  20,000  went  to  Canada  and  1 70,000  to  the  United 
States.  Then,  from  1840-1849,  428,000  went  to  Canada,  912,000  to  the  United 
States;  from  1850  to  1859  the  respective  numbers  were  250,000  and  1,350,000. 


io66  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

The  mortality  among  the  convicts  was  frightful  during  the  voyage, 
and  conditions  were  hard  after  their  arrival ;  for  the  soil  was  sandy 
and  the  convicts  ignorant  and  intractable.  The  real  need  was  for 
men  of  agricultural  experience  and  capital.  Tempted  "  with  the 
promise  of  land,  implements,  and  food,"  a  few  families  began  to  come 
out.  Grants  were  also  made  to  convicts  whose  terms  had  expired, 
as  well  as  to  some  of  the  guards,  and  the  free  population  increased 
slowly  until  New  South  Wales,  as  the  new  state  was  called,  numbered, 
in  1821,  nearly  40,000  inhabitants.  But  there  was  a  great  dispro- 
portion of  men,  and  drunkenness  was  a  fruitful  cause  of  disorder. 
Meantime,  the  sheep  raising  industry,  which  was  to  prove  the  main 
source  of  Australian  prosperity,  had  been  introduced,  in  1791,  by 
John  MacArthur,  who  soon  had  a  flock  of  1000.  The  numbers  multi- 
plied steadily  until,  in  1909,  there  were  46,187,678. 

During  a  drought,  in  1812-1813,  some  of  the  colonists  crossed  the 
Blue  Mountains  where  they  found  a  rich,  fertile  soil.  Danger  of 
French  rivalry  and  increase  of  immigration  resulted  in  extending 
the  area  of  settlement.  In  1826,  the  Governor  of  New  South 
Wales  received  instructions  to  assert  the  British  claim  to  the 
whole  of  Australia,  and  to  occupy  the  stations  on  the  western 
shore.  Thus  began,  in  1829,  the  settlement  of  West  Australia 
with  the  capital  at  Perth.  An  attempt  to  develop  the  colony  was 
made  by  private  individuals;  but  the  experiment  proved  a  failure. 
In  1838,  there  were  only  2000  inhabitants,  and  in  1849,  not  more  than 
5000.  Meantime,  Wakefield  published  his  Letter  from  Sydney, 
already  referred  to,  which  marks  an  epoch  in  Australian  colonization. 
He  insisted  that  lands  should  be  sold  to  settlers  in  small  lots  and  at 
reasonably  high  prices,  and  that  the  proceeds  should  be  used  to  pay 
the  passage  of  emigrant  laborers  and  for  general  government  expenses. 
A  company  was  formed  to  colonize  South  Australia  on  his  plan. 
Settlement  began  in  1834,  and  the  capital  was  founded  at  Adelaide  in 
1836.  Owing  to  mismanagement  and  speculation  on  the  part  of 
the  members,  the  Company  became  so  embarrassed  that,  in  1841,  the 
British  Government  was  forced  to  advance  £155,000.  Nevertheless, 
the  colony  grew  much  more  rapidly  than  that  of  West  Australia. 
Wakefield's  system,  however,  bore  hardly  on  the  sheep  raisers,  who  were 
unable  to  pay  55.  per  acre  which  was  the  price  demanded.  So  they 
moved  inland  and  occupied  fresh  lands  for  which  they  paid  nothing 
at  all  —  hence  the  origin  of  the  term  "  squatter."  Eventually  a  com- 
promise was  arranged  by  which  they  were  given  temporary  rights  of 
occupancy  at  a  low  rent.  In  1835,  Van  Dieman's  Land,  or  Tasmania, 
which  had  been  settled  as  a  subordinate  penal  settlement  in  1803, 
was  made  a  separate  colony.  In  1851,  Victoria  was  made  independent 
of  New  South  Wales  with  Melbourne  (founded  in  1837)  as  the  capital. 
Queensland,  carved  out  of  New  South  Wales  in  1859,  was  the  last 
of  the  six  Australian  colonies.  Brisbane  (founded  in  1824)  was  made 
the  capital. 


VICTORIAN  AND   POSTVICTORIAN  ENGLAND     1067 

The  Commonwealth  of  Australia.  —  Australia's  three  great  problems 
have  been :  the  transportation  evil ;  the  subjugation  of  the  natives ; 
and  the  establishment  of  free  institutions  and  self-government.  After 
a  long,  hard  struggle  transportation  was  abolished  in  1857,  though 
some  convicts  were  supplied  to  West  Australia  till  1867.  The  Aus- 
tralian natives  were  of  a  very  inferior  type.  Numbers  were  shot  for 
cattle  stealing,  more  succumbed  to  drink  and  other  evil  habits.  While 
a  few  survive  in  Australia  proper,  they  are  now  quite  extinct  in  Tas- 
mania. In  1842,  a  legislative  council  was  established  in  New  South 
Wales,  but,  owing  to  the  steady  growth  in  numbers,1  wealth  and  in- 
telligence, there  was  an  increasing  demand  for  a  more  complete  form 
of  self-government.  After  the  example  had  been  set  in  Canada,  New 
South  Wales,  Victoria,  Tasmania,  and  South  Australia  (under  a 
permissive  Imperial  act  of  1850)  drew  up  constitutions  with  popularly 
elected  legislatures,  which  received  the  sanction  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  1855.  Queensland  received  a  similar  privilege  in  1859,  and 
West  Australia  in  1890.  By  various  extensions  of  the  franchise  every 
adult  man  and  woman  has  received  the  right  to  vote  in  every  one  of 
the  six  states.  Besides  being  a  pioneer  in  women's  suffrage,  Australia 
has  taken  over  the  Government  ownership  of  railroads  and  has  made 
a  remarkable  contribution  in  the  so-called  "  Torrens  System  "  of 
conveyancing.  By  an  act  passed  first  in  South  Australia  at  the  in- 
stance of  Sir  Richard  Torrens  in  1858,  all  estates  were  required  to  be 
registered,  and  the  registered  owner  was  considered  the  real  owner  in  all 
future  transactions.  Thus,  much  confusion  formerly  arising  from 
disputed  titles  has  been  saved.  After  nearly  twenty  years  of  agitation, 
the  various  states  were  federated  into  the  Commonwealth  of  Australia 
by  a  measure  sanctioned  by  the  Imperial  Parliament  in  1900.  The 
inauguration  of  the  new  Commonwealth  took  place  at  Sydney,  i 
January,  1901,  and,  in  the  following  May,  the  first  Parliament  was 
opened  by  the  present  King  George  V,  then  Duke  of  Cornwall  and 
York.  Although  Melbourne  is  the  present  capital,  a  new  site  has 
been  selected  at  Yass  Canberra,  in  New  South  Wales,  where  a  model 
metropolis  is  now  in  process  of  construction.  The  executive  is  vested 
in  the  Sovereign  acting  through  the  Governor-General,  assisted 
by  an  executive  of  seven  members.  There  is  a  federal  Parliament, 
consisting  of  a  senate  of  thirty-six  —  six  from  each  state  —  and  a 
house  of  representatives  elected  on  a  basis  of  population.  Such 
powers  as  are  not  specially  vested  in  the  federal  legislature  remain  in 
the  legislatures  of  the  several  states.2 

1  The  discovery  of  copper  in  1848,  and,  more  especially  of  gold,  in  1851,  led  to 
a  considerable  influx  of  settlers.     Gold  was  discovered  in  West  Australia  in  1886- 
1887,  with  the  result  that  the  population  increased  to  50,000  in  1891,  and  to  281,000 
in  1910. 

2  This  arrangement  differs  from  that  in  Canada  where  such  powers  as  are  not 
specially  delegated  to  the  provincial  legislatures  are  reserved  to  the  Dominion 
Parliament.     The  system  adopted  in  South  Africa,  in  1909-1910,  is  different  from 
either  in  not  being  a  federation  at  all.     There  it  was  felt  that,  with  only  1,000,000 


io68  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

New  Zealand.  —  In  the  thirties,  an  association,  started  by  Wake- 
field,  was  formed  for  the  colonization  of  New  Zealand,  a  group  of  two 
large  and  some  smaller  islands  lying  about  twelve  hundred  miles  east 
of  Australia.  The  British  Government  and  the  missionaries  at  first 
opposed  the  project,  fearing  that  it  would  cause  trouble  with  the 
Maoris,  a  native  race  of  Malay  stock,  highly  intelligent  and  very  war- 
like. Nevertheless,  settlement  proceeded  apace,  and,  in  1839,  New 
Zealand  was  declared  subject  to  the  Crown  under  the  governor  of  New 
South  Wales.  In  1840,  a  Lieutenant  Governor  was  sent  out,  and  the 
following  year  a  colony  was  constituted  by  charter.  Auckland,  in 
South  Island,  was  selected  as  the  first  capital;  but,  in  1865,  the 
capital  was  transferred  to  Wellington  in  North  Island.  'The  Maoris 
long  proved  a  serious  problem,  though  it  must  be  admitted  they  had 
much  right  on  their  side.  Now,  however,  they  are  dying  out,  and, 
in  1908,  formed  only  47,000  out  of  a  population  of  1,008,000.  In  1852, 
a  self-governing  constitution  was  granted.  New  Zealand  is  perhaps 
the  most  progressive  state  in  the  world.  Women  were  given  the  vote 
in  1893.  Like  Australia  it  has  a  State-owned  railway  system,  and,  in 
many  other  respects,  has  led  in  State  socialism.  The  Labor  party  has 
been  a  power  since  1891.  Under  the  Labor  Ministry,  large  estates 
have  been  broken  up  —  partly  by  heavy  taxation,  partly  by  com- 
pulsory sale ;  a  State  bank  has  been  founded  to  lend  money  to  small 
farmers  for  the  purpose  of  improving  their  lands ;  and  very  progressive 
laws  have  been  enacted  for  regulating  factories  and  conditions  of 
labor.  In  1895,  a  carefully  worked  out  scheme  was  launched  for 
settling  trade  disputes  and  preventing  strikes.  In  the  event  of  a 
failure  to  agree  between  employers  and  workmen's  unions,  provision 
was  made  for  application  to  a  Board  of  Conciliation,  and,  in  the  last 
instance,  to  an  Arbitration  Court  under  a  judge,  whose  decision  shall 
be  final  and  may  be  enforced  by  fine  and  imprisonment.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  laborers  have  proved  more  refractory  than  employers,  and  of 
late  the  attempt  to  avert  strikes  has  been  unsuccessful.  In  1898, 
ten  years  before  the  Mother  Country,  a  system  of  old  age  pensions  was 
adopted,  with  a  weekly  allowance  of  los.  for  all  persons  over  sixty-five. 
In  1907,  New  Zealand  was  proclaimed  a  Dominion  to  which  various 
small  islands  in  the  Pacific  were  annexed. 

The  Imperial  Problem.  —  Such  is  the  British  Empire  at  the  end 
of  the  first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century.  The  problem  of  adminis- 
tering this  vast  extent  of  territory,  scattered  over  the  globe  and  in- 
habited by  360,000,000  non-European  people  of  distinct  traditions 
and  sentiments,  is  a  complex  and  formidable  one.  It  has  been  ren- 
dered easier  from  the  fact  that,  in  a  considerable  part  of  the  expansion, 
extension  of  commerce  and  colonization  has  been  a  factor  as  potent 
as  military  force.  So  far  as  possible,  too,  Englishmen  have  been  given 

whites  to  4,000,000  blacks,  it  would  be  safer  to  form  a  single  strong  government 
or  union  than  to  establish  a  federation  of  the  four  existing  states.  The  former 
states  are  now  provinces  which  merely  administer  their  local  affairs. 


VICTORIAN  AND   POST  VICTORIAN  ENGLAND     1069 

an  opportunity  to  practice  self-government  in  their  new  homes,  and 
"  to  train  subject  peoples  for  the  discharge  of  similar  responsibilities." 
Where  responsible  government  has  been  impossible,  efforts  have  been 
made,  in  the  last  half  century,  to  provide  for  effective  administration 
by  civil  servants  whose  merits  have  been  tested  by  examination.  While 
British  statesmen,  up  to  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago,  expected  and  even  wished 
for  a  sundering  of  the  Imperial  dominions — much  to  the  distress  of  loyal 
Canadians  and  Australians  — -  a  great  change  has  taken  place,  espe- 
cially in  the  last  generation.  The  British  people,  formerly  ignorant  and 
indifferent  in  all  that  concerned  Imperial  questions,  are  now  enthusiastic 
and  active.  In  1875,  the  Imperial  Federation  League  was  founded 
"  under  the  auspices  of  statesmen  of  both  political  parties."  Con- 
ferences of  colonial  ministers,  beginning  at  London  during  the  Jubilee 
of  1887,  have  done  much  to  draw  the  self-governing  colonies  to  the 
Mother  Country.  The  aid  furnished  by  Canada  and  Australia  in  the 
Sudan  in  1885  and  in  the  Boer  War  was  also  significant  of  an  enhanced 
sense  of  unity.  The  penny  post,  the  improved  steam  communica- 
tions, the  cable  to  Australia,  have  been  additional  links.  The  confer- 
ences begun  in  1887  have  now  become  regular  institutions  meeting 
every  four  years,  and  have  discussed  such  vital  questions  as  Imperial 
preferential  tariffs  and  Imperial  defense.  And,  in  the  intervals  of  their 
meeting,  a  permanent  Imperial  secretarial  staff  is  in  constant  session 
at  London  under  the  supervision  of  the  Colonial  Secretary  to  keep  the 
dominions  informed  of  all  matters  of  common  concern  that  may  come 
up  at  future  conferences.  The  League  of  the  Empire,  founded  in  1901, 
is  active  throughout  the  British  dominion  for  the  furtherance  of  educa- 
tion in  Imperial  concerns.  The  prospects  of  federation ,  widely  discussed 
a  few  years  ago,  now  seem  less  bright ;  but  the  bonds  of  union  based 
on  community  of  interest  and  policy,  are  becoming  steadily  stronger. 


FOR  ADDITIONAL   READING 

General  conditions.  Traill,  Social  England,  VI,  chs.  XXII-XXIV  (authorities, 
pp.  341-342  ;  517-518;  933-936)  to  1885.  J.  Ashton,  When  William  IV  was  King 
(1896).  Brodrick  and  Fotheringham,  ch.  XX.  Low  and  Sanders,  ch.  XX.  Wai- 
pole,  History  of  England,  III,  ch.  XII ;  IV,  ch.  XVII,  VI ;  conclusion.  History  of 
Twenty-five  Years,  I,  ch.  I. 

Constitutional  and  legal.  May,  Constitutional  History.  Maitland,  Constitu- 
tional History,  period  IV,  an  excellent  brief  survey.  D.  J.  Medley,  Manual  of  Eng- 
lish Constitutional  History,  a  valuable  work  of  reference,  not  chronological.  E.  Jenks, 
Short  History  of  the  English  Law  (1912),  especially  period  IV.  Sir  W.  R.  Anson, 
Law  and  Custom  of  the  Constitution  (1886-1892).  A.  V.  Dicey,  Law  and  Public 
Opinion  (1905),  very  suggestive.  W.  Bagehot,  The  English  Constitution  (2d  ed. 
1872).  S.  Low,  The  Governance  of  England  (1904).  L.  Courtney,  The  Working 
Constitution  of  the  United  Kingdom  (1901).  T.  F.  Moran,  The  Theory  and  Practice 
of  the  English  Government  (1903).  The  two  latter  are  good  brief  accounts.  A.  L. 
Lowell,  The  Government  of  England  (2  vols.,  1912),  the  standard  work  on  the  subject. 

Social  and  industrial.  Porter's  Progress  of  the  Nation  (ed.  F.  W.  Hirst,  1912). 
McCulloch,  Dictionary  of  Commerce  and  Commercial  Navigation  (1860-1872).  R.  H. 
Palgrave,  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy  (1894-1899).  T.  Mackay,  History  of  the 


A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

English  Poor  Law  (1904).  S.  and  B.  Webb's  Trades  Unions  (1894)  and  Industrial 
Democracy  (1897) .  G.  ].Holyoa.ke's  History  of  Co-operation  (2  vols.,  1875-1879,  revised 
ed.  1906).  j.  F.  Wilkinson,  The  Friendly  Society  Movement  (1891).  Sir  E.  W.  Brabrook, 
Provident  Societies  and  Industrial  Wtljare  (1898).  Sir  E.  F.  Du  Cane,  The  Punish- 
ment and  Prevention  of  Crime  (1885).  F.  A.  Ogg,  Social  Progress  in  Contemporary 
Europe  (1912),  which  contains  much  on  England,  is  an  excellent  compendium.  C. 
Hayes,  British  Social  Politics  (1913),  valuable  for  legislation  since  1906.  See  also 
Cambridge  Modern  History,  XII,  ch.  XXIII  (bibliography).  R.  E.  Prothero,  English 
Farming,  chs.  XV  ff.  S.  Smiles,  Lives  of  George  and  Robert  Stephenson  (1868). 
Acworth,  The  Railways  of  England  (1900). 

Science  and  literature.  G.  J.  Romanes  Darwin  and  After  Darwin  (1892-1897). 
F.  Darwin  ed.  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  Darwin  (3  vols.,  1887).  O.  Lodge,  Pioneers 
of  Science  (1893).  A.  R.  Wallace,  The  Wonderful  Century  (1898).  R.  Garnett,  Heroes 
of  Science  (1885).  G.  P.  Gooch,  History  and  Historians  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 
(1913).  Cambridge  Modern  History,  XI,  ch.  XIII  (bibliography,  pp.  934-936),  XII, 
ch.  XXVI  (bibliography,  pp.  972-976).  Moody  and  Lovett,  chs.  XIV,  XV.  Taine, 
English  Literature,  IV,  bk.  V.  McCarthy,  Our  Own  Times,  II,  ch.  XXIX;  IV,  ch. 
LXVII.  E.  C.  Stedman,  Victorian  Poets  (1903).  Mrs.  Oliphant,  A  Literary  His- 
tory of  England  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (1882).  W.  L.  Cross,  The  Development  of 
the  English  Novel  (1911).  J.  A.  Buckley  and  W.  T.  Williams,  A  Guide  to  British 
Historical  Fiction  (1912).  For  further  references  on  the  novel,  see  Moody  and 
Lovett,  451.  For  literature  in  general,  see  ch.  XLIX  above. 

The  Church.  Wakeman,  ch.  XX.  F.  W.  Cornish,  The  History  of  English  Church 
(pts.  I  and  II,  1910).  Walpole,  History  of  England,  V,  XXI ;  History  of  Twenty-five 
Years,  IV,  XIX.  Newman,  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua  (1864-1865,  frequently  reprinted). 
R.  W.  Church,  The  Oxford  Movement  (1891).  W.  Ward,  William  George  Ward  and 
the  Catholic  Revival  (1893).  For  further  references  see  Low  and  Sanders,  pp.  506- 
507.  P.  H.  Brown,  Scotland,  III,  bk.  VII,  ch.  XL 

Colonies  and  Empire.  Sir  G.  Cornewall  Lewis,  An  Essay  on  the  Government  of  the 
Dependencies  (1841,  new  ed.  C.  P.  Lucas,  1891).  'Egerton,  British  Colonial  Policy. 
C.  P.  Lucas,  Historical  Geography  of  the  British  Colonies  (1888  ff.,  new  ed.  6  vols., 
1910-1911).  Sir  C.  W.  Dilke,  Problems  of  Great  Britain  (4th  ed.  1890)  and  British 
Empire  (1899).  A.  F.  Pollard  ed.  The  British  Empire:  its  Past,  its  Present  and  its 
Future  (1909).  H.  E.  Egerton,  Federations  and  Unions  within  the  British  Empire 
(1911).  W.  J.  Ashley,  British  Dominions,  their  Present  Commercial  and  Industrial 
Condition  (1911).  E.  G.  Hawk,  The  British  Empire  and  its  History  (1911).  W.  H. 
Woodward,  Short  History  of  the  Expansion  of  the  British  Empire,  1500—1902  (1902). 
The  two  latter  are  brief  popular  accounts.  The  government  of  the  Empire  is 
described  briefly  in  Lowell,  The  Government  of  England,  II,  pt.  VI,  and  Courtney, 
United  Kingdom,  pt.  III.  For  a  full  bibliography  on  the  Colonies  and  the  Empire, 
see  Low  and  Sanders,  pp.  497-502,  and  Cambridge  Modern  History,  XI,  pp.  968-980 ; 
XII,  927-948. 


CHAPTER  LVII 

SKETCH  OF  THE  REIGN  OF  EDWARD  VII  (1901-1910)  AND  OF 
THE  EARLY  YEARS  OF  GEORGE  V  (1910-1914) 

Edward  VII.  Accession  and  Character.  —  Albert  Edward,  who 
ascended  the  throne  as  Edward  VII,  22  January,  1901,  was  in  his 
sixtieth  year.1  He  was  a  man  of  unusual  social  gifts  and  worldly  ex- 
perience, genial,  tactful,  and  fond  of  seeking  acquaintances  from  the 
most  diverse  walks  of  life,  though  he  loved  splendor,  and  was  punc- 
tilious in  matters  of  ceremony  on  state  occasions.  He  spent  short 
terms  at  the  universities  of  Edinburgh,  Oxford,  and  Cambridge,  but 
the  rigid  training  to  which  his  parents  subjected  him  disinclined  him 
for  serious  study.  Books  made  little  appeal  to  him,  and  in  later  life  he 
rarely  read  anything  but  the  newspapers.  Owing  to  the  isolation  in 
which  he  was  brought  up  he  never  acquired  any  aptitude  for  ath- 
letic games,  though  as  a  young  man  he  rode  to  hounds,  a  pursuit 
which  he  afterwards  gave  up  for  shooting.  He  was  interested  in 
yachting,  in  middle  life  he  became  a  patron  of  the  turf,  and  toward 
the  end  of  his  days  developed  a  fondness  for  motoring.  He  was  an 
enthusiastic  supporter  of  the  theater  and  the  opera  and  the  leader  of 
fashion  in  London.  Indeed,  his  love  of  pleasure  and  his  Bohemian 
tastes  aroused  serious  criticism  at  times  on  the  part  of  the  soberer 
folk;  but  the  emergence  of  Queen  Victoria  from  her  seclusion,  the 
swelling  tide  of  Imperialistic  sentiment,  together  with  his  own  good 
nature  and  public  spirit,  made  him  a  popular  figure  years  before  he 
became  king.  He  was  an  ardent  promoter  of  philanthropic  causes 
and  a  ready  and  gracious  speaker  at  dedications  of  public  buildings 
and  other  ceremonious  occasions,  and  from  1875  to  1901  was  the 
Grand  Master  of  the  Masonic  Order.  He  took  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  5  February,  1863,  and  from  time  to  time  attended  sessions 
of  the  Upper  House  or  followed  debates  in  the  House  of  Commons 
from  the  Peers'  Gallery.  Unhappily  his  mother  excluded  him  from 
serious  political  activities.  It  was  not  till  Gladstone's  last  Ministry, 
1892-1894,  that  Cabinet  business  was  regularly  communicated  to  him, 
and  he  did  not  have  unrestricted  access  to  foreign  dispatches  until 
Salisbury  took  the  Premiership  for  the  third  and  last  time  in  1895. 
But  while  he  was  not  studious  or  systematically  trained,  he  was 
observant ;  he  gathered  stores  of  information  from  those  with  whom 
he  conversed,  and  retained  what  he  heard.  He  was  widely  traveled ; 
he  visited,  at  one  time  or  another,  the  chief  possessions  of  the  British 

1  He  was  born  9  November,  1841. 
1071 


io72  A  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

Empire,  and  was  accustomed  to  spend  parts  of  each  year  in  continen- 
tal capitals  and  watering  places.  In  his  close  association  with  foreign 
sovereigns  and  foreign  ambassadors  he  learned  much  that  was  officially 
kept  from  him ;  but  he  knew  little  and  cared  little  for  routine  matters, 
domestic  or  foreign.  On  10  March,  1863,  he  married  Alexandra, 
daughter  of  Christian,  who  became  King  of  Denmark  in  November  of 
the  same  year.  Two  sons  and  three  daughters  were  born  of  the 
marriage.  Albert  Victor,  Duke  of  Clarence,  who  was  born  8  June, 
1864,  died  14  January,  1892,  while  George,  born  3  June,  1865  and 
created  Duke  of  York  in  1892,  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  1910. 

First  Measures  of  the  New  Reign,  1901.  —  In  taking  the  oath  be- 
fore the  Privy  Council,  23  January,  1901,  King  Edward  declared  that 
he  was  "  fully  determined  to  be  a  constitutional  Sovereign  in  the 
strictest  sense  of  the  word."  He  opened  Parliament  in  person,  14 
February,  and  read  the  speech  from  the  throne,  formalities  which  the 
late  Queen  had  dispensed  with  in  1885  and  1861  respectively.  The 
Commons  voted  him  a  Civil  List  of  £470,000,  an  increase  of  £85,000 
over  that  which  Victoria  had  received;  but  the  step  was  bitterly 
opposed  by  the  Radicals,  the  Laborites,  and  the  Irish  Nationalists.1 
Two  other  important  measures  carried  in  this  session  were  the  Demise 
of  the  Crown  Bill,  to  render  reappointments  to  office  unnecessary 
on  the  accession  of  a  new  sovereign,  and  a  Royal  Titles  Bill,  adding 
to  the  royal  style  the  words  "  all  the  British  Dominions  beyond  the 
Seas."2 

The  Coronation,  and  the  Retirement  of  Salisbury,  1902.  —  The 
horizon  during  the  first  year  of  the  new  reign  was  clouded  by  the  Boer 
War,  not  formally  concluded  till  31  May,  1902,  and  King  Edward  had 
to  suffer  bitter  attacks  not  only  from  the  German  press  but  even  from 
that  of  the  French,  a  people  with  whom  he  had  been,  and  desired  to 
be,  friendly.  The  coronation,  set  for  26  June,  1902,  had  to  be  post- 
poned, owing  to  a  sudden  illness  of  the  King,  and  subsequently  took 
place,  9  August.  Meantime,  Salisbury,  who  was  in  failing  health, 
resigned  n  July,  and  died  22  August  of  the  following  year.  He  was 
succeeded  by  his  nephew,  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour.  The  results  of  a  con- 
ference of  the  colonial  premiers  beginning  30  June  under  the  presi- 
dency of  Mr.  Chamberlain,  were  announced  3  November.  Similar 
conferences  were  to  be  held  every  four  years,  the  self-governing  colonies 
were  to  increase  their  contributions  toward  the  Imperial  navy,  the 
views  of  such  as  might  be  affected  by  any  proposed  treaty  with  a 
foreign  power  were  to  be  ascertained,  and  it  was  declared  that  the 
principle  of  preferential  trade  between  Great  Britain  and  the  oversea 

1  The  opposition  of  the  latter  was  due  largely  to  the  rejection  in  the  Lords  of  a 
bill  to  alter  the  terms  of  the  Declaration  made  by  the  sovereign  on  his  accession, 
which  contained  expressions  denouncing  the  Roman  Catholic  faith. 

2 The  full  royal  title  was:  "Edward  VII,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  of  the  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  and  of  all  the  British  Dominions  beyond 
the  Seas,  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  Emperor  of  India." 


EDWARD   VII   AND   GEORGE  V  1073 

• 

dominions  would  stimulate  and  facilitate  mutual  commercial  inter- 
course, though  any  hard  and  fast  rules  were  at  present  impracticable. 

Mr.  Chamberlain  and  "Tariff  Reform,"1  1903. — On  15  May, 
1903,  Mr.  Chamberlain  raised  the  issue  in  a  speech  at  Birmingham, 
advocating  preferential  tariffs  and  reciprocity  in  colonial  trade,  and 
retaliation,  where  necessary,  in  the  case  of  foreign  countries.  In  this 
and  subsequent  speeches  he  argued  that  the  whole  fiscal  situation  had 
changed  since  the  days  of  Cobden  and  Bright,  that  Great  Britain's 
exports  were  decreasing  and  her  imports  increasing.  He  did  not  pro- 
pose to  tax  raw  materials,  but  advocated  moderate  duties  on  corn, 
flour,  meats,  dairy  produce  (counterbalanced  by  reductions  on  tea, 
coffee,  cocoa,  and  sugar)  and  foreign  manufactures.  In  this  way, 
he  insisted,  Great  Britain  would  have  a  means  of  bargaining  with  the 
colonies  and  supplying  them  with  the  products  of  industries  which 
they  had  not  yet  started ;  of  preventing  other  countries  from  dumping 
their  products  on  British  shores;  and  of  increasing  the  revenue. 
Business  depression,  lack  of  employment,  the  deficit  due  to  the  late 
war,  and  the  growing  enthusiasm  for  colonial  unity 2  all  told  in  his 
favor,  though  his  opponents  argued  that  the  country  needed  cheap 
food  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  increase  the  customs  revenue  and 
to  keep  out  imports  at  the  same  time.  His  resignation  from  the  Cabi- 
net was  announced,  18  September,  and  he  was  followed  into  retire- 
ment by  various  free-trade  Unionists  of  whom  the  Duke  of  Devonshire 
was  the  most  influential.  Apparently  Mr.  Balfour  was  ready  to  go 
too  far  for  them  and  not  far  enough  for  Mr.  Chamberlain.  The  Prime 
Minister  was  inclined  to  favor  the  principle  of  retaliation,  without 
taxing  food,  but  declared  that  the  question  of  preferential  tariffs 
could  not  be  raised  during  the  present  parliament,  and  suggested  that 
it  be  referred  to  the  next  Colonial  Conference. 

Army  Reform,  1904.  —  The  miscarriages  of  the  South  African  War, 
and  the  defects  in  military  training  and  equipment  which  it  mani- 
fested, forced  the  Government,  n  October,  1902,  to  appoint  a  Com- 
mission of  Inquiry.  The  Commission's  report,  25  August,  1903,  was 
an  "  unsparing  condemnation  of  War  Office  methods."  While  it 
made  no  recommendations  as  a  body,  the  chairman,  Lord  Elgin,  and 
other  individual  members,  offered  important  suggestions.  Lord  Elgin 
recommended  the  abolition  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  and  the  insti- 
tution of  a  war  board  similar  to  the  Board  of  Admiralty.  As  a  result, 
a  War  Office  Reconstruction  Committee  was  appointed.  In  accord- 
ance with  its  report,  submitted  1904,  a  Defense  Committee  was  con- 
stituted with  the  Prime  Minister  as  its  head;  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  was  replaced  by  an  Army  Council  including  the  War  Secretary, 

1  This  meant  an  alteration  of  the  tariff  in  the  direction  of  protection,  instead  of 
in  the  direction  of  free  trade,  as  is  the  usage  in  the  United  States. 

2  On  24  May,  1904,  occurred  the  inaugural  celebration  of  Empire  Day  in  London 
and  the  colonies  as  a  permanent  memorial  to  Queen  Victoria  and  an  outward  and 
visible  sign  of  Imperial  cohesion. 


1074  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

four  military  members,  together  with  one  civil  and  one  finance  mem- 
ber,1 while,  in  addition,  a  Board  of  Selection  was  appointed,  with  the 
Duke  of  Connaught  as  President,  to  control  appointments.  The 
Defense  Committee  was  given  a  staff,  consisting  of  a  secretary  and 
some  ten  officers  of  either  service. 

The  Fall  of  the  Balfour  Ministry,  December,  1905.  —  The  Balfour 
Ministry  was  steadily  growing  weaker.  The  Prime  Minister  per- 
sisted in  treating  the  tariff  question  as  irrelevant  and  in  staving  it 
off  till  the  next  Colonial  Conference ;  but  the  Liberals  were  gaining 
new  strength.  They  worked  persistently  to  embarrass  the  Ministry 
and  profited  by  the  split  in  the  Unionist  ranks ; 2  they  carried  votes 
on  three  occasions  condemning  the  policies  of  Mr.  Chamberlain  and 
Mr.  Balfour  and  won  various  by-elections.  Besides  the  tariff  there 
were  various  other  difficulties  confronting  the  Government.  For  one 
thing,  the  Nonconformists  were  opposing  the  Education  Bill  of  1902 
(see  above,  p.  996)  by  a  policy  of  passive  resistance,  withdrawing  their 
children  from  the  denominational  schools  and  refusing  to  contribute 
financial  support.  Then,  6  March,  1905,  George  Wyndham,  chief 
Secretary  for  Ireland,  resigned  from  the  Cabinet,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  his  Under-Secretary,  Sir  Anthony  Macdonnell,  to  whom  he  had 
given  practically  a  free  hand,  had  been  found  "  coquetting  with  Home 
Rule  "  by  working  with  Lord  Dunraven,  president  of  the  Irish  Reform 
Association,  to  secure  a  devolution  of  financial  and  legislative  powers 
for  Irish  representative  councils.  Finally,  the  Ministry  had  aroused 
great  dissatisfaction  by  sanctioning  ordinances,  prompted  by  the 
South  African  mine  owners,  for  admitting  Chinese  coolie  labor  into 
the  Rand.  This  strengthened  the  conviction  that  the  Boer  War  had 
been  waged  in  the  interests  of  the  capitalists.  In  view  of  all  these 
difficulties,  Mr.  Balfour  tendered  his  resignation,  4  December,  1905, 
counting,  it  is  said,  on  the  hope  that  the  Liberals  would  not  be  able  to 
form  a  Cabinet  and  that  his  party  would  be  recalled  to  power.  The 
Conservative  Government  had  been  in  office  continuously  for  ten  and 
a  half  years  and  for  nearly  twenty,  excluding  the  "  transient  and 
embarrassed  Governments  of  Gladstone  and  Rosebery."  The  people 
tire  of  the  party  in  office  after  a  time,  so,  in  addition  to  other  com- 
plications, old  age  contributed  to  the  demise  of  the  Conservative 
regime. 

Foreign  Relations,  1902-1905.  The  Entente  Cordiale,  1904.  — 
Under  the  Marquess  of  Lansdowne,  who  had  succeeded  Salisbury  as 
Foreign  Secretary3  in  1900,  and  aided  by  the  pacific  Edward  VII,  the 

1  They  were  :  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff ;  the  Adjutant-General ;  the  Quarter- 
master-General;    the  Master-General  of  the  Ordnance;    the  Civil  Member;    and 
the  Inspector-General  of  the  Forces. 

2  On  i  December,  1904,  the  Unionist  Free  Trade  Club  was  inaugurated  under 
the  presidency  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  as  an  offset  to  the  Tariff  Reform  League 
which  had  held  its  first  meeting  21  July  previously. 

3  The  Prime  Minister  had  held  this  office  himself  from  1895  to  1900. 


EDWARD   VII  AND   GEORGE   V  1075 

ties  with  Italy  and  Portugal  had  been  strengthened,  and  cordiality 
with  France  had  been  reestablished  after  the  partial  estrangement 
dating  from  the  British  occupation  of  Egypt  and  manifest  during  the 
Boer  War.  The  King  was  closely  related  by  marriage  or  blood  rela- 
tionship with  most  of  the  leading  dynasties  of  Europe  —  Germany, 
Russia,  Denmark,  Greece,  Norway,  Spain,  and  Portugal.  He  often 
visited  his  royal  kinsmen  or  met  them  at  continental  watering  places. 
He  was  particularly  attached  to  France,  both  imperial  and  republi- 
can. As  Prince  of  Wales  he  had  made  long  and  frequent  visits  to 
Paris,  where  he  had  many  warm  friends.  But  as  King,  in  spite  of  his 
friendly  foreign  attitude,  he  was  careful  not  to  usurp  the  functions  of 
his  responsible  ministers.  In  1903,  during  his  first  continental  tour 
since  his  accession,  he  stopped  at  Paris,  and  his  visit  was  returned  by 
President  Loubet  in  July.  This  prepared  the  way  for  the  entente  • 
cordiale  concluded  by  Lansdowne  and  the  French  Foreign  Minister 
Delcasse,  8  April,  1904.  The  British  agreed  to  recognize  French 
interests  in  Morocco,  while  the  French  agreed  to  recognize  those  of 
Great  Britain  in  Egypt.  In  return  for  an  assurance  that  the  British 
Government  would  not  alter  the  political  status  of  Egypt,  they  ceased 
to  ask  for  a  fixed  time  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  British,  and  consented 
to  allow  them  a  freer  hand  in  the  administration  of  Egypt's  surplus 
revenues.  The  entente  cordiale  was  later  expanded  into  a  triple  entente 
by  the  adhesion  of  Russia,  the  ally  of  France,  and  served  as  a  counter- 
poise to  the  triple  alliance  of  Germany,  Austria,  and  Italy.  Edward, 
Le  Roi  Pacificateur,  was  able  to  accomplish  very  little  toward  improv- 
ing relations  with  Germany.  The  latter  country,  in  consequence  of  the 
enormous  development  of  population  and  industry  following  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  sought  to  spread  beyond  the  seas,  and  resented  the  fact 
that  Great  Britain  had  preempted  the  best  part  of  the  colonial  field. 
The  British,  on  their  part,  were  apprehensive  of  the  increasing  manu- 
facturing and  commercial  development  of  Germany  and  of  her  growing 
sea  power.  Moreover,  there  were  personal  reasons  why  the  English 
royal  and  the  German  Imperial  families  were  not  warmly  attached  to 
one  another.  The  Queen  was  a  Danish  princess,  and  the  Prussian 
attitude  on  the  Schleswig-Holstein  question  had  aroused  a  rancor  never 
completely  healed.  Another  source  of  friction  was  the  unpopularity  of 
the  King's  sister,  Victoria,  in  Germany.  So,  while  Edward  and  his 
nephew,  the  Emperor  William,  interchanged  formal  visits  on  occasion, 
their  relations  were  far  from  wholly  cordial. 

The  Russo-Japanese  War,  1904-1905.  —  The  result  of  the  Russo- 
Japanese  war  added  another  disturbing  factor.  The  causes  of  the 
conflict  were  Russia's  refusal  to  evacuate  Manchuria  and  to  give  assur- 
ances as  to  the  territorial  integrity  of  Korea  and  the  Chinese  Empire 
and  equal  rights  of  trade.1  The  Japanese  insisted  on  these  points  and 

1  On  30  January,  1902,  Great  Britain  had  concluded  an  alliance  with  Japan  for 
the  maintenance  of  peace  and  order  in  the  Far  East,  especially  the  integrity  of  China. 


1076  A   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

war  broke  out  8  February,  1904.  The  Japanese  won  a  complete 
triumph ;  after  an  investment  of  five  months  they  captured  Port 
Arthur,  3  January,  1905 ;  they  defeated,  with  tremendous  slaughter, 
a  huge  Russian  army  before  Mukden ;  and  they  destroyed  the  Russian 
Baltic  fleet  in  the  Sea  of  Japan.1  Peace  was  signed  at  Portsmouth, 
New  Hampshire,  U.  S.  A.,  5  September,  1905,  by  which  Russia 
recognized  the  preponderating  influence  of  Japan  in  Korea  and  re- 
stored Manchuria  to  China. 

The  Morocco  Crisis,  1905,  and  the  Algeciras  Conference,  1906.  — 
While  Japan  leaped  into  the  position  of  a  military  and  naval  power 
of  the  first  rank,  Russia  was  so  prostrated  that  Germany  took  advan- 
tage of  the  situation  to  protest  against  the  recent  strengthening  of  the 
Anglo-French  entente  by  which  France  was  given  a  free  hand  in  induc- 
ing the  Sultan  of  Morocco  to  undertake  civilizing  reforms.  Although 
Germany,  in  return  for  commercial  privileges,  had  agreed  to  the  French 
policy  of  "  peaceful  penetration  "  in  Morocco,  she  changed  her  tone 
as  the  war  went  steadily  against  Russia.  In  the  spring  of  1905  the 
Emperor  visited  Tangier  in  his  yacht,  and,  under  the  pretense  of  pro- 
tecting German  commercial  rights,  practically  assumed  a  protectorate 
over  Morocco  by  declaring  that  he  could  not  allow  any  power  to  step 
between  him  and  the  free  sovereign  of  a  free  country.  M.  Delcasse, 
who  was  responsible  for  the  French  policy,  was  forced  to  resign  6  June. 
The  British  Government  remained  neutral,  but  intimated  that  un- 
provoked aggression  against  France  wrould  arouse  public  opinion  in 
England.  Finally,  a  conference  was  arranged  at  Algeciras,  meeting 
16  January,  1906,  when  it  was  agreed  that  the  Powers,  and  not  France 
alone,  should  settle  with  the  Sultan  of  Morocco  a  plan  for  policing  the 
country  and  reforming  the  system  of  taxation. 

The  Liberal  Programme,  1906.  —  On  5  December,  Sir  Henry  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman 2  was  summoned  to  form  a  Cabinet.     Mr.  Asquith 

It  provided  that  if  either  Power  went  to  war  in  defense  of  its  interests,  the  other 
would  maintain  neutrality,  and  that  if  either  were  attacked  by  more  than  one  for- 
eign enemy  the  other  would  come  to  its  assistance.  This  treaty  was  expanded  into 
a  formal  alliance,  27  September,  1905,  by  which  the  maintenance  of  the  territorial 
rights  of  Japan  in  Korea  and  of  Great  Britain  in  India  were  mutually  guaranteed, ' 
as  well  as  the  integrity  of  China  and  the  policy  of  the  open  door. 

1  This  fleet  on  its  way  to  the  Asiatic  waters  had  committed  "an  extraordinary 
outrage"  in  the  North  Sea,  that  for  the  moment  threatened  war  with  Great  Britain. 
Shortly  before  midnight,  21  October,  1904,  at  Dogger  Bank,  about  twenty  miles 
off  its  course,  the  squadron  passed  through  a  fleet  of  Hull  trawlers  and,  in  a  fit  of 
"nervous  frenzy,"  opened  fire,  sank  one  vessel,  seriously  damaged  others,  killed 
two  men  and  wounded  several  more.     But  the  Tsar  and  the  Russian  Government 
expressed  profound  regret,  promised  full  compensation,  and  detained  the  fleet  at 
Vigo  for  the  return  of  the  officers  implicated.     It  turned  out  that  the  Admiral 
Rozhvestvensky  had  mistaken  the  trawlers  for  Japanese  torpedo  boats  !  The  incident 
was  subsequently  adjusted  peacefully  by  an  international  commission  sitting  at  Paris. 

2  He  was  the  first  to  have  his  status  solely  as  Prime  Minister  and  not  from  a 
ministerial  office.     Hitherto  the  Premier  had  usually  taken  the  First  Lordship  of 
the  Treasury,  the  Chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer,  or,  in  the  case  of  Salisbury,  the 
Foreign  Secretaryship.     Sometimes  he  had  united  two  offices. 


EDWARD   VII   AND   GEORGE  V  1077 

was  made  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  Sir  Edward  Grey,  Foreign 
Secretary.  The  main  features  of  the  Liberal  programme  were :  the 
exclusion  of  Chinese  labor  from  the  Transvaal ;  the  emendation  of  the 
Education  Act  in  the  interest  of  the  Nonconformists ;  the  reduction 
and  national  control  of  liquor  licenses ;  and  sweeping  measures  for 
social  and  industrial  betterment.  Parliament  was  dissolved  8  January, 
1906,  and,  in  the  ensuing  general  election,  the  Liberals  secured  a 
greater  majority  than  in  any  parliament  since  that  returned  after  the 
Reform  Bill  of  I832.1  One  of  the  first  steps  was  to  stop  the  further 
importation  of  Chinese  into  South  Africa.  Also,  self-government  was 
granted  to  the  Transvaal,  in  which  the  right  to  vote  was  conceded  to 
all  white,  male  British  subjects  of  full  age  who  had  resided  in  the 
Colony.  Plans  were  also  made  for  granting  a  similar  constitution 
to  the  Orange  River  Colony.2  At  home,  the  Trades  Disputes  Bill 
and  also  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Bill  (see  above,  p.  1060)  were 
passed,  but  an  Education  Bill  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
In  1907,  the  Small  Holdings  Bill 3  was  carried,  and  in  spite  of  the 
protests  of  the  bishops,  a  bill  legalizing  marriage  with  a  deceased 
wife's  sister.4  Again,  in  1908,  an  Education  Bill 5  failed  to  pass  the 
Peers  and  also  a  Licensing  Bill,  though  the  Old  Age  Pensions  Bill 
(see  above,  p.  1060)  became  law  in  igog.6  Thus  the  Liberal  party 
with  an  overwhelming  majority  in  the  Lower  House  was  able  to 
carry  only  part  of  its  programme,  owing  to  the  Conservative  strength 
which  invariably  dominates  the  Peers.  As  early  as  October,  1907, 
after  they  had  effectively  demolished  a  Scotch  Small  Landholder's  Bill, 
Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  intimated  that  the  constitution  of 
the  Upper  House  would  have  to  be  altered.  However,  he  did  not 
live  to  finish  the  fight.  Owing  to  a  breakdown  in  health  he  resigned 
5  April,  igoS.7 

Mr.  Lloyd  George's  Budget  of  1909,  and  the  War  against  the  House 
of  Lords.  —  The  King,  who  was  at  Biarritz,  summoned  Mr.  Asquith 
to  assume  the  Premiership,  and  in  the  reconstructed  Cabinet  Mr. 
Lloyd  George  became  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  It  was  his 
revolutionary  Budget  which  forced  the  issue.  In  consequence  of 

1  There  were  379  Liberals;   51  Labor  members;   83  Irish  Nationalists;  and  157 
Unionists. 

2  In  1910  the  two  were   combined  with  Cape  Colony  and  Natal  to  form  the 
Union  of  South  Africa. 

3  Besides  providing  immunity  for  the  funds  of  trades  unions,  it  declared  that 
what  was  lawful  for  an  individual  was  also  lawful  for  a  combination,  and  legalized 
peaceful  picketing. 

4  Many  clergymen  acting  under  the  advice  of  their  bishops  refused  to  perform 
such  marriages. 

5  The  Education  Bills  of  1906  and  1908  aimed  at  popular  control  of  rate-aided 
schools  and  at  abolishing  religious  restrictions  in  the  choice  of  teachers. 

6  In  1907  a  court  of  criminal  appeal  was  constituted  and  met  for  the  first  time, 
15  May,  1908. 

7  He  died,  22  April,  1908. 


1078  A   HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND 

increased  naval  estimates  !  and  the  cost  of  the  new  social  industrial 
legislation  he  was  confronted  with  a  deficit  of  £16,500,000.  The 
Opposition  insisted  that  the  taxable  resources  of  the  country  were 
already  overstrained  and  that  tariffs  were  the  only  means  of  enhanc- 
ing the  revenue.  Nevertheless,  Mr.  Lloyd  George  proceeded,  in  April, 
1909,  to  frame  a  Budget  based  on  four  principles  that  took  no  account 
of  tariffs.  They  were :  (i)  the  appropriation  of  about  £3,000,000  from 
the  sum  annually  set  aside  for  debt  reduction ;'  (2)  increased  duties 
on  the  luxuries  of  the  masses,  notably  liquor  and  tobacco ;  (3)  taxation 
of  the  excess  of  wealth  by  an  increase  of  the  income  tax  and  the  suc- 
cession duties,  and  a  higher  rate  for  unearned  incomes,  from  which 
he  anticipated  a  revenue  of  over  £7,000,000;  (4)  heavy  rates  on 
monopolies,  such  as  liquor  licenses,  and  —  what  roused  a  furious 
outcry  —  on  unearned  increments  of  land ;  that  is,  the  increase  in  site 
values  of  unoccupied  and  uncultivated  lots.  In  general,  the  aim  of  the 
Budget  was  to  meet  the  deficit  to  a  large  degree  by  "  shifting  the 
burden  of  taxation  from  the  producers  to  the  possessors  of  wealth." 
The  Finance  Bill  based  upon  it  was  introduced,  26  May,  and  was  hotly 
attacked  on  the  ground  that  it  discriminated  unfairly,  that  it  struck 
at  security  of  property,  and  that  it  would  drive  capital  from  the 
country.  It  finally  passed  the  Commons,  5  November,  but  was 
rejected  by  the  Lords,  on  the  3oth,  until  the  judgment  of  the  country 
could  be  obtained — a  step  which  Mr.  Asquith  denounced  as  "a  wan- 
ton breach  of  the  settled  practice  of  the  Constitution."  2  Parliament 
was  prorogued  3  December,  dissolved  8  January,  1910,  and  an  appeal 
made  to  the  country  in  a  general  election.  The  issue  was  fought  on 
the  Budget,  the  abolition  of  the  veto  power  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  the  introduction  of  a  scheme  of  Home  Rule ;  for  the  Irish  Nation- 
alists had  only  agreed  to  support  the  Government  on  condition  that 
power  of  the  Peers  be  so  reduced  that  they  would  be  unable  to  defeat 
a  new  measure  of  Home  Rule.  The  result  of  the  election  showed  a 
striking  falling  off  in  the  Liberal  majority.3 

The  Parliament  Bill  of  1911.  — Parliament  opened  21  February.  On 
10  May,  three  resolutions  passed  the  House  of  Commons,  (i)  Hence- 
forth the  Lords  should  have  no  right  to  veto  a  money  bill;  if  in 
one  month  they  refused  their  assent  it  should  nevertheless  go  to  the 
King  for  his  signature,  the  power  to  determine  whether  any  par- 
ticular measure  was  a  money  bill  being  left  to  the  Speaker.  (2)  Any 
measure  not  a  money  bill  passing  the  Commons  in  three  successive 
sessions  might,  in  spite  of  the  veto  of  the  House  of  Lords,  be  submitted 
to  the  King  for  his  approval,  provided  that,  in  each  instance,  it  had 

1  It  was  the  British  policy  to  keep  the  naval  strength  of  the  country  equal  to 
that  of  any  other  two  powers  combined. 

2  While  the  right  of  the  Peers  to  amend  money  bills  had  been  given  up  in  1678  they 
had  never  abandoned  their  right  of  veto,  though  they  had  long  ceased  to  exercise  it. 

3  The  final  returns  were:    Liberals,  275;    Labor  party,  40;    Nationalists,  71; 
Independent  Nationalists,  n;  Unionists,  273. 


EDWARD   VII   AND   GEORGE  V  1079 

been  submitted  to  the  Peers  one  month  before  the  close  of  the  ses- 
sion, and  provided  that  two  years  had  elapsed  since  its  first  introduc- 
tion. (3)  The  maximum  life  of  a  parliament  should  henceforth  be 
five  years  instead  of  seven.  On  17  June,  a  conference  began  between 
the  party  leaders.1  It  rose  with  Parliament,  2  August,  and  resumed 
its  sittings  in  the  autumn.  At  length,  10  November,  Mr.  Asquith 
announced  that  it  "  had  come  to  an  end  without  arriving  at  any  de- 
cision." Parliament  resumed  its  sittings.  In  the  Lords,  on  the  second 
reading  of  the  Parliament  Bill  based  on  the  three  resolutions  of  21 
April,  the  Marquess  of  Lansdowne  moved,  as  an  alternative  to  the 
Government  scheme,  a  plan  for  reconstructing  the  Upper  House  by 
making  it  more  representative,  reducing  the  Conservative  majority, 
and  slightly  curtailing  its  powers.2  As  a  consequence,  Parliament 
was  dissolved,  28  November,  and  a  general  election  was  held  for  the 
second  time  within  a  year,  with  the  Lansdowne  resolutions  as  the 
official  programme  of  the  Unionist  party. 

The  Liberal  coalition  made  a  net  gain  of  only  2  seats,  thus  increasing 
its  majority  from  124  to  i26.3  On  21  February,  1911,  Mr.  Asquith 
introduced  his  Parliament  Bill  into  the  House  of  Commons,  and, 
8  May,  Lord  Lansdowne  introduced  a  new  alternative  scheme  in  the 
House  of  Lords  ; 4  but,  nevertheless,  the  Parliament  Bill  passed  the 
Lords  with  amendments  20  July ; 5  but  Mr.  Asquith  refused  to  accept 
the  amendments  and  announced  that  he  had,  before  the  election,  se- 
cured the  assent  of  the  King  to  create  a  sufficient  number  of  peers  to 
carry  the  Bill  if  necessary.  As  a  result,  the  Bill  without  amendments 6 

1  Mr.  Asquith,  Lord  Crewe,  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  and  Mr.  Birrell,  Chief  Secretary 
for  Ireland,  represented  the  Government,  while  Mr.  Balfour,  the  Marquess  of 
Lansdowne  (leader  of  the  Opposition  in  the  House  of  Lords) ,  Lord  Cawdor  and  Mr. 
Austin  Chamberlain  represented  the  Opposition. 

2  It  provided  that :   (i)  In  future,  the  House  of  Lords  should  consist  of  Lords  of 
Parliament,  sitting  by  virtue  of  certain  offices  or  qualifications,  some  chosen  by 
hereditary  peers  and  nominated  by  the  Crown,  others  chosen  from  outside ;    (2) 
Bills   other   than  money  bills,  if  causing  differences  for  two  successive  sessions, 
should  be  settled  in  a  joint  session  of  the  two  Houses ;    (3)  The  Lords  would  give 
up  their  privilege  of  vetoing  money  bills  on  condition  that  there  should  be  no 
tacking.     Already,  21  March,  Lord  Rosebery  had  carried  a  series  of  resolutions  for 
a  reform  of  the  House  of  Lords  based  on  the  principle  that  the  possession  of  a 
peerage  should  no  longer  of  itself  give  the  right  to  a  seat  and  a  vote. 

3 The  Liberals  actually  lost  2  seats;  but  the  Laborites  and  the  Nationalists, 
between  them,  gained  4. 

4  It  provided  for  :  (i)  100  hereditary  Lords  elected  by  the  Peers ;   (2)  120  chosen 
by  electoral  colleges  composed  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  from  tht 
district;   (3)  100  by  recommendation  of  the  Ministry  in  power,  selected  in  propor- 
tion to  the  strength  of  the  respective  parties ;   (4)  the  2  Archbishops,  together  with 
5  bishops,  chosen  by  the  episcopal  bench;    (5)  16  peers  of  judicial  office.     The 
representative  peers  thus  selected  were  to  hold  office  for  twelve  years,  one  fourth 
going  out  every  three  years. 

5  Its  passage  in  the  House  of  Commons  had  been  expedited  by  "kangaroo" 
closure,  authorizing  the  chairman  to  make  selections  from  amendments. 

6  On  3  May,  Mr.  Asquith  had  stated  that  the  Government  was  under  obligation, 
if  time  permitted,  to  propose  a  scheme  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  Upper  House 
during  the  lifetime  of  the  present  Parliament. 


io8o  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

passed  the  Lords,  10  August,  and  received  the  royal  assent  18  August, 
in  spite  of  the  "  Die-Hards  "  or  "  Forwards  "  led  by  Lord  Halsbury, 
who  had  pledged  themselves  to  die  in  the  last  ditch.  On  24  August, 
the  Commons  voted  £252,000  to  pay  their  members  salaries  of  £400 
a  year. 

The  Accession  of  George  V,  6  May,  1910.  —  King  Edward  did  not 
live  to  see  the  end  of  the  struggle.  Early  in  March,  1910,  he  caught 
cold  on  his  way  to  Biarritz.  He  returned  to  London,  26  April,  where 
he  died  6  May.  His  eldest  surviving  son  took  the  oath  x  before  the 
Privy  Council,  7  May,  and  was  proclaimed,  9  May,  as  George  V. 
In  July,  the  new  King  and  Queen  made  visits  to  Ireland,  Wales,  and 
Scotland,  and  in  the  winter  of  1911-1912  they  paid  a  visit  to  India 
for  the  purpose  of  holding  a  coronation  Durbar.  An  announcement, 
made  12  December,  that  the  capital  was  to  be  transferred  from  Cal- 
cutta to  Delhi  was  not  received  with  unmixed  satisfaction.  Indeed, 
while  India  has  been  of  late  years  more  prosperous  than  ever  before, 
there  has  been  much,  perhaps  inevitable,  suffering,  and  a  party  of  the 
more  educated  has  sought  to  arouse  the  masses  against  British  domina- 
tion. A  manifestation  of  the  extremer  sort  was  an  attempt  to  assassi- 
nate the  Viceroy,  Lord  Hardinge,  while  making  a  state  entry  into 
Delhi,  23  December,  1912.  However,  he  has  since  shown  his  interest 
in  the  welfare  of  the  people  under  his  care  by  his  attempts  to  mitigate 
the  lot  of  the  Indian  laborers  in  South  Africa.  Stimulated  no  doubt 
by  a  concerted  international  movement  to  suppress  the  opium  traffic, 
Great  Britain  has  at  last  put  an  end  to  the  Indo-Chinese  trade  in  the 
drug.  Under  an  agreement  reached  between  China  and  Great  Brit- 
ain 8  May,  1911,  the  Chinese  production  and  the  imports  from  India 
were  to  be  proportionally  reduced  until  the  traffic  should  cease  entirely, 
which  was  not  to  be  later  than  1917.  The  Chinese,  it  is  alleged,  vio- 
lated their  part  of  the  agreement,  and,  in  1912,  an  acute  situation  was 
reached  when  cargoes  valued  at  £  1 1,000,000,  bought  by  Indian  dealers 
from  the  Government 2  with  money  advanced  from  the  banks,  were 
held  up  at  Shanghai.  However,  in  May,  1913,  it  was  announced 
that  the  Indo-China  opium  traffic  was  ended,  and  India  has  already 
taken  new  measures  to  meet  the  loss  in  revenue  from  this  source,  esti- 
mated at  £4,000,000  a  year. 

1  On  31  August,  1910,  after  a  long  struggle,  an  Accession  Declaration  Act  was 
passed  which  shortened  the  form  of  the  oath  and  removed  the  phrases  offensive  to 
Roman  Catholics.     The  oath  was  as  follows :   "I  (name  of  sovereign)  do  solemnly 
and  sincerely,  and  in  the  presence  of  God,  profess,  testify  and  declare  that  I  am  a 
faithful  Protestant,  and  that  I  will,  according  to  the  enactments  which  secure  the 
Protestant  succession  to  the  Throne  of  my  Realm,  uphold  and  maintain  the  said 
enactments  to  the  best  of  my  powers  according  to  the  law." 

2  China  was  still  in  the  throes  of  a  revolution.     In  consequence  of  a  series  of 
revolts  which  began  in  the  autumn  of  1911,  the  Manchu  dynasty  abdicated  early 
hi  February,  1912.     A  republic  was  set  up  with  Yuan  Shih-Kai  as  provisional  presi- 
dent, 10  March,  1912.     On  6  October,  1913,  he  was  elected  president ;  but  has  made 
himself  practically  dictator. 


EDWARD   VII  AND    GEORGE   V  1081 

South  African  Problems,  1910-1914.  —  Since  the  Union  of  South 
Africa  in  ig io,]  there  has  been  much  discord,  discontent,  and  unrest. 
Particularly  since  1912  the  Premier,  Louis  Botha,  a  former  general 
on  the  Boer  side,  has  been  sharply  opposed  by  General  Hertzog  and 
the  anti-British  party  because  of  his  enthusiasm  for  Imperialistic 
defense.  Another  difficulty  has  been  raised  by  the  treatment  of  the 
East  Indian  indentured  laborers.  In  1913,  the  South  African  Parlia- 
ment passed  an  Immigrants  Regulation  Act  which  continued  a  £3 
tax  imposed  some  years  before  by  the  Natal  Government  on  such 
laborers  at  the  end  of  their  term  of  service,  and  also  restrictions  on 
their  movements  from  province  to  province.  Thereupon,  the  East 
Indians  began  a  policy  of  passive  resistance.  In  November,  1913, 
their  leader  in  Natal  headed  a  march  of  men,  women,  and  children 
across  the  Transvaal  border  as  a  protest.  Refusing  to  pay  a  fine,  he 
and  others  were  sentenced  to  nine  months'  imprisonment.  Another 
grievance  has  arisen  from  the  fact  that  a  Natal  court  has  recently 
decided  that  wives  married  according  to  Hindu  or  Mohammedan  rites 
have  no  status  in  the  province.  Moreover,  during  the  year  1913- 
1914  South  Africa  has  been  disturbed  by  serious  strikes.  Since  there 
are  5,000,000  natives  to  1,250,000  whites,  the  Botha  Government  was 
so  alive  to  the  danger  that  it  not  only  proclaimed  martial  law  and 
called  out  troops  but  went  to  the  length  of  deporting  ten  of  the  strike 
leaders,  who  were  put  on  a  steamer  at  Durban,  and  sent  to  England 
early  in  the  spring  of  1914.  While  the  Government  secured  the  pas- 
sage of  a  bill  in  the  South  African  Parliament  legalizing  its  action,  the 
English  labor  leaders  have  taken  up  the  case  and  warmly  protested 
against  sending  British  subjects  into  exile. 

The  Imperial  Conferences  of  1907  and  1911.  — The  fourth  colonial 
(henceforth  Imperial)  Conference  met  at  the  Colonial  Office,  15  April, 
1907.  It  took  up  the  question  of  Imperial  tariffs ;  but  since  the 
colonial  premiers  favored  a  preferential  protective  policy  and  the  new 
Liberal  Government  opposed  it,  no  agreement  could  be  reached.  On 
the  other  hand,  important  steps  were  taken  toward  a  common  system 
of  Imperial  defense.  At  the  next  meeting,  in  1911,  Sir  Joseph  Ward, 
the  Premier  of  New  Zealand,  proposed  an  Imperial  Parliament  of  two 
houses ;  since  no  other  Dominion  was  prepared  to  go  anything  like 
so  far  in  the  direction  of  Imperial  federation  the  matter  was  dropped ; 
but,  after  a  consultation  between  the  British  Premier  and  the  Com- 
mittee of  Imperial  Defense,  it  was  announced  that  henceforth  the 
Dominions  would  be  consulted  "  automatically  "  as  far  as  possible 
in  international  agreements  which  affected  their  interests.2  On  i  May 
the  rate  of  postage  from  Australia  to  the  United  Kingdom  and  all 

1  Although  the  Act  of  Union  had  passed  the  Imperial  Parliament  in  1909,  it  did 
not  go  into  effect  till  IQIO. 

2  On  14  July,  1911,  the  Anglo- Japanese  alliance  was  revised  and  renewed  with 
the  knowledge  and  concurrence  of  the  Dominions. 


io82  A   HISTORY   OF   ENGLAND 

other  parts  of  the  Empire,  including  Egypt,  was  reduced  from  2d. 
to  id.  the  half  ounce. 

Canadian  Reciprocity,  1910-1911.  The  Borden  Naval  Programme, 
1912-1913.  — The  advocates  of  Imperial  preference  were  greatly  dis- 
turbed by  an  agreement  between  the  Canadian  and  United  States 
governments,  published  26  January,  1911,  providing  for  a  substan- 
tially free  exchange  of  natural,  especially  food  products  and  for  a 
mutual  reduction  of  duties  on  manufactured  goods.  The  arrangement 
was  ratified  by  the  United  States  Congress,  22  July;  but  in  a  par- 
liamentary election  in  September  the  Canadian  Liberal  Administra- 
tion, under  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier,  who  had  opened  the  negotiations, 
was  defeated  and  its  reciprocity  policy  rejected.  Mr.  Borden  suc- 
ceeded as  the  new  Conservative  Prime  Minister.  During  the  summer 
of  1912,  he,  with  several  members  of  his  Cabinet,  was  in  England,  and 
as  a  result  of  several  conferences  with  the  British  Ministry  they  made 
a  tentative  offer  to  supply  the  Mother  Country  with  three  super- 
Dreadnaughts  at  a  cost  of  £7,ooo,ooo.1  On  5  December,  Mr.  Bor- 
den introduced  the  proposal  into  the  Canadian  Parliament,  and, 
in  spite  of  an  amendment  by  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  that  the  ships  should 
be  constructed  in  Canada  and  should  not  take  part  in  any  Imperial 
war  unless  voted  by  the  Dominion,  the  Borden  Naval  Bill  passed  the 
Commons,  15  May,  1913.  Thereupon,  the  Senate  voted  that: 
"  This  House  is  not  justified  in  giving  its  assent  to  this  Bill  until  it 
is  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  country,"  and  the  final  issue 
awaits  the  next  election. 

The  Morocco  Situation,  1911.  —  In  consequence  of  a  rebellion  in 
Morocco,  France  landed  troops  to  restore  order;  whereupon,  Ger- 
many took  occasion  to  declare  that  she  would  not  acquiesce  in  French 
ascendancy  in  the  country  without  compensation,  and,  2  July,  1911, 
the  Emperor  sent  a  ship  of  war  to  Agadir.  The  British  Government 
declared  that  this  action  created  a  new  and  grave  situation  and  that 
it  did  not  purpose  to  stand  aside  if  British  interests  were  affected.  In 
consequence  of  this  and  of  a  firm  speech  by  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  21  July,  the  Germans  sent  satisfactory  assurances.  By  an 
arrangement,  concluded  in  November,  Germany,  in  return  for  terri- 
torial cessions  in  the  Congo  region,  recognized  the  French  political 
ascendancy  in  Morocco.  At  the  same  time,  equal  economic  oppor- 
tunities for  all  were  guaranteed. 

The  Turco-Italian  War,  1911-1912.  — On  29  September,  1911,  war 
broke  out  between  Italy  and  Turkey,  and,  4  November,  the  Italian 
King  issued  a  decree  annexing  Tripoli.  After  a  year  of  fighting, 
preliminaries  of  peace  were  arranged  15  October,  1912.  Although 
Turkey  neither  affirmed  nor  denied  the  Italian  sovereignty  in  Tripoli, 
she  agreed  to  withdraw  her  troops  and  to  give  no  aid  to  the  Arabs, 

1  In  1909  New  Zealand  had  contributed  the  battleship  New  Zealand,  which  was 
commissioned  in  1912,  and  in  November,  1912,  the  Confederated  Malay  States 
offered  a  cruiser. 


EDWARD   VII   AND   GEORGE  V  1083 

and  the  Powers  recognized  the  Italians.  Italy  promised  to  return 
the  islands  in  the  ^Egean  which  she  had  occupied ;  but  that  clause  of 
the  treaty  remains  in  abeyance. 

The  Balkan  War,  1912. —The  Christian  States  of  the  Balkan 
Peninsula  seized  the  opportunity  to  combine  against  Turkey,  to  realize 
long-cherished  ambitions,  and  to  redress  ancient  grievances.  By  the 
end  of  July,  1912,  alliances  were  concluded  between  Greece,  Bulgaria 
(which  had  declared  itself  an  independent  kingdom  in  1908),  Servia, 
and  Montenegro.  On  8  October,  Montenegro  declared  war  on 
Turkey.  On  the  lyth,  Turkey  replied  by  a  declaration  against  Bul- 
garia, while  on  the  same  day  Greece  and  Servia  declared  war  on  the 
Porte.  After  the  Allies  had  gained  a  series  of  striking  successes  a 
peace  conference  was  arranged  at  London,  where  delegates  from  the 
countries  at  war  held  their  first  meeting,  16  December.  Meantime, 
Great  Britain  and  the  other  Great  Powers  had  been  working  to  keep 
the  conflict  localized,  and  Mr.  Asquith,  in  his  Guildhall  speech x  of 
9  November,  had  declared  that :  "  the  victors  were  not  to  be  robbed 
of  the  fruits  which  cost  them  so  dear."  Terms  which  the  Turkish 
delegation  agreed  to  accept  were  rejected  in  consequence  of  a  coup 
d'etat  in  Constantinople,  and,  3  February,  1913,  hostilities  were  re- 
newed. On  1 6  May,  sittings  were  resumed ;  after  ten  days  of  wran- 
gling, Sir  Edward  Grey  sent  for  three  of  the  delegates  and  informed  them 
that  they  must  accept  terms  on  the  basis  of  a  treaty  drawn  up  by  the 
Great  Powers  or  leave  London.  As  a  result,  the  Treaty  of  London 
was  signed,  30  May,  by  which  Turkey  ceded  all  of  Rumelia  west  of  a 
line  from  Midea  on  the  Black  Sea  and  Enos  on  the  ^Egean,  and  ceded 
Crete  to  Greece.  The  question  of  the  status  of  Albania  and  the 
^Egean  Islands  was  left  for  the  Powers  to  determine.  The  peace  was 
followed  by  the  break-up  of  the  Balkan  League.  Servia  and  Greece 
combined  against  Bulgaria;  Rumania,  which  had  remained  neutral 
in  the  previous  war,  took  a  hand ;  fighting  broke  out  in  July,  and 
Turkey  took  advantage  of  the  situation  to  reoccupy  Adrianople,  which 
she  had  just  been  forced  to  yield.  Peace  was  made  at  Bucharest, 
6  August,  by  which  all  her  opponents  profited  at  the  expense  of  Bul- 
garia, who  was  excluded  from  any  outlet  to  the  ^gean  in  the  west. 
Although  the  Triple  Alliance  was  renewed  for  twelve  years  in  1912, 
Anglo-German  relations  were  greatly  improved  by  the  necessity  of 
cooperation  in  the  near  East ;  for  Germany  was  not  keen  on  assisting 
Austria  to  expand  in  the  Balkans,  while  Great  Britain  was  even  more 
reluctant  to  allow  Russia  to  extend  her  influence  through  the  Slavonic 
peoples  in  the  peninsula.  Nevertheless,  suggestions  made  in  the 
autumn  of  1913  by  Mr.  Churchill,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty, 
for  a  holiday  in  the  construction  of  naval  armaments  were  coldly  re- 
ceived in  Germany. 

1  The  occasion  for  important  pronouncements  in  foreign  policy  by  the  Prime 
Minister. 


1084  A  HISTORY   OF    ENGLAND 

Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  1901-1914.  —  In  spite  of  one 
or  two  causes  for  friction,  friendly  relations  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  have  not  been  seriously  disturbed  since  the  turn  of 
the  century.  By  an  award  of  20  October,  1903,  a  long  standing  dis- 
pute between  Canada  and  the  United  States  regarding  the  Alaska 
boundary  was  settled.  While  the  extreme  claims  of  the  United  States 
were  not  recognized,  the  Canadians  were  disappointed  of  their  hope 
of  access  to  the  sea  in  that  region  and  their  two  delegates  refused  to 
sign.  Although  the  British  representative,  Lord  Alverstone,  affixed 
his  signature,  the  general  feeling  in  England  was  that  the  United 
States  had  got  the  better  of  the  bargain.  On  the  other  hand,  an  award 
at  the  Hague,  September,  1910,  adjusting  the  Atlantic  fisheries  dispute, 
was  mainly  in  favor  of  Great  Britain,  though  there  were  reservations 
in  support  of  American  interests.  Meantime,  following  as  far  as  pos- 
sible the  recommendations  of  the  Second  Hague  Conference  of  1907, 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  concluded  an  arbitration  treaty, 
excluding,  however,  from  compulsory  arbitration  subjects  affecting  the 
"  independence  "  or  "  honor  "  or  "  vital  interests  "  of  the  two  coun- 
tries, or  "  the  interests  of  third  parties."  The  treaty,  which  was  for 
five  years,  was  renewed  in  the  spring  of  1914,  though  there  was  a  ground- 
less fear  on  the  part  of  certain  United  States  senators  that  it  might 
be  invoked  to  force  an  arbitration  of  the  vexed  question  of  the  Panama 
tolls.  The  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty  of  19  April,  1850,  had  provided  for 
the  common  use  and  neutral  control  of  any  canal  constructed  by  the 
Nicaragua  or  Panama  routes,  and  the  British  agreed  not  to  make 
any  settlements  in  Central  America.  This  was  superseded  by  the 
Hay-Pauncefote  treaty,  18  November,  1901,  by  which  Great  Britain 
gave  up  all  claims  to  any  share  in  the  construction  or  control  of  a 
canal  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific ;  but  on  condition  that  the  navi- 
gation be  free  to  ships  of  all  nations  on  equal  terms.  On  24  August, 
1912,  a  bill  signed  by  President  Taft  for  the  regulation  of  the  Panama 
Canal,  then  nearing  completion,  exempted  from  tolls  American  ship- 
ping engaged  in  coastwise  trade.  Regarding  this  as  a  violation  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Hay-Pauncefote  treaty,  the  British  Government  framed 
a  protest  which  was  presented  at  Washington  9  December,  Sir  Edward 
Grey  suggesting  that  if  the  United  States  could  not  accept  the  British 
interpretation  they  should  refer  the  matter  to  arbitration.  The 
British  announcement,  in  August,  1913,  that  they  would  not  take 
part  in  the  Panama  Exposition  of  1915,  though  based  on  grounds  of 
expense,  was  regarded  by  many  as  an  evidence  of  dissatisfaction  at 
the  attitude  of  the  United  States  toward  the  tolls  question.  In  accord- 
ance with  a  recommendation  made  by  President  Wilson  in  a  message 
to  Congress,  5  March,  1914,  it  was  voted  12  June  to  repeal  the  exemp- 
tion clause,  with  the  proviso,  however,  that  the  United  States  did 
not  thereby  relinquish  any  of  its  rights. 

Recent  events  in  Mexcio  have  put  a  severe  strain  on  Anglo- 
American  relations.  In  1910  Francisco  Madero  led  a  revolution  against 


EDWARD   VII   AND   GEORGE   V  1085 

Porfirio  Diaz,  President  from  1876  to  1880  and  again  from  1884  to 
1911.  In  May  of  the  latter  year,  Diaz  was  forced  to  resign  and  Madero 
succeeded  him  in  November.  In  February,  1913,  Madero  was  slain 
and  Huerta  set  himself  up  as  dictator.  While  Great  Britain  and  other 
Powers  who  had  interests  in  Mexico  recognized  him  as  de  facto  ruler, 
President  Wilson  held  aloof.  In  January,  1914,  the  Spectator  voiced 
the  sentiment  of  many  Englishmen  when  it  declared  that,  "  if  external 
force  is  used  to  restore  order  it  must  be  by  the  United  States  alone," 
and  complained  that  the  President  "  deprecates  anarchy  and  blood- 
shed, but  neither  stops  them  himself  nor  allows  anybody  else  to  stop 
them."  On  17  February,  the  murder  or  execution  of  William  S.  Ben- 
ton,  a  British  subject  who  had  lived  in  Mexico  as  a  rancher  for  twenty 
years,  aroused  great  resentment,  but  the  wise  moderation  of  Sir  Edward 
Grey,  who  decided  to  act  through  communications  to  the  United  States 
Government,  averted  a  possible  rupture.  Then  a  series  of  events 
stirred  the  President  to  determined  action,  and,  22  April,  Vera  Cruz 
was  occupied  by  American  forces.  Since  then,  the  representatives 
of  the  three  leading  South  American  states  —  Brazil,  Chili,  and  Argen- 
tine —  have  undertaken  to  adjust  the  Mexican  situation  by  mediation. 
Labor  Disturbances  in  England,  1911-1912. — The  opening  years 
of  the  reign  of  George  V  were  disturbed  not  only  by  a  grave  consti- 
tutional crisis  but  by  serious  labor  troubles.  There  had  been,  in  1908, 
an  engineers'  strike  affecting  83,000  men  and  a  strike  of  the  Lancashire 
cotton  spinners  involving  120,000  operatives.  In  1910,  there  had  been 
strikes  in  the  shipyards,  in  the  cotton  trade,  and  in  the  South  Wales 
coal  fields,  but  the  year  1911  proved  to  be  an  "  unprecedented  year 
of  strikes,"  which  reached  the  dimensions  of  a  veritable  epidemic  dur- 
ing the  weeks  immediately  following  the  coronation.  The  situation 
became  acute,  in  August,  with  the  outbreak  of  a  dock  strike  in  London. 
The  dockers  got  the  increase  which  they  demanded,  but  they  refused 
to  go  to  work  until  the  other  classes  belonging  to  the  National  Trans- 
port Federation  were  dealt  with.  The  movement  spread  to  the  rail- 
roads and  culminated,  17  August,  when  for  two  days  traffic  was  nearly 
stopped,  and  Government  interference  and  the  employment  of  mili- 
tary force  was  necessary.  As  a  result  of  negotiations  during  18  and 
19  August  the  strike  was  brought  to  an  end.  The  strikes  in  1912  were 
less  in  number  than  in  1911,  but,  considering  the  number  of  persons 
involved  and  the  loss  of  time  and  money,  they  were  more  serious  than 
in  any  previous  year  in  English  history.  Worst  of  all  was  the  coal 
strike,  occasioned  by  the  demand  for  a  minimum  wrage  for  all  under- 
ground workers.  On  26  February,  the  first  miners  wrent  out  in  Derby- 
shire, and,  by  2  March,  all  the  mines  in  the  country,  except  a  few  pri- 
vate ones,  were  idle.  At  length  the  Government  stepped  in  and 
passed  a  minimum  wage  bill,  29  March.  It  provided  for  joint  district 
boards  under  an  independent  chairman,  chosen  either  by  agreement 
or  by  the  Board  of  Trade.  Mr.  Asquith,  however,  refused  a  demand 
that  a  minimum  wage  should  be  fixed  in  all  cases  at  2s.  for  boys  and  55. 


io86  A  HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

for  men.  As  a  result  of  a  ballot,  taken  4  April,  201,013  voted  for 
resumption  of  work,  while  244,011  voted  against  it;  but  a  conference 
of  miners'  delegates,  6  April,  declared  for  resumption,  since  a  majority 
of  two-thirds  was  necessary  to  declare  a  strike.  After  the  Easter 
holidays  most  of  the  men  were  back.  The  strike  had  involved 
1,000,000  mine  workers  and  500,000  from  allied  industries,  and,  from 
the  time  when  the  first  men  went  out,  had  lasted  six  weeks.  This, 
and  the  failure  of  the  London  dockers  and  transport  workers  to  bring 
about  a  general  strike  in  July,  struck  a  hard  blow  at  syndicalism.  Yet, 
on  the  whole,  in  spite  of  these  labor  disturbances  and  the  Balkan  war, 
the  year  was  one  of  prosperity  in  trade.  Prices  were  rising ;  but  busi- 
ness was  good  and  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours  were  very  general. 

The  Liberal  Programme,  1911.  —  In  the  Autumn  session  of  1911 
the  National  Insurance  Bill  (see  above,  pp.  1060-1061)  was  forced 
through  the  Commons  by  a  rigid  enforcement  of  closure  and  carried 
in  the  Lords,  notwithstanding  vigorous  protests.  Outside,  it  was 
opposed  chiefly  by  domestic  servants,  by  those  who  employed  them, 
and  by  the  doctors.  The  domestics  felt  that,  taken  care  of  in  homes, 
they  did  not  need  to  contribute  to  any  such  scheme,  while  their 
employers  also  objected  to  the  extra  expense.  The  doctors,  regarding 
the  remuneration  as  inadequate  and  the  conditions  of  service  as  too 
arduous,  stood  out  stubbornly  for  better  terms.  Finally,  in  December, 
1912,  Mr.  Lloyd  George  refused  to  come  to  the  terms  of  the  British 
Medical  Association  and  proceeded  to  enroll  in  panels  such  indi- 
viduals as  would  agree  to  serve.  The  other  leading  features  of  the 
Liberal  programme  were  Home  Rule,  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Welsh  Church,1  and  the  abolition  of  plural  voting,  or  the  introduction 
of  the  principle  of  "one  man,  one  vote."  On  8  November,  1911, 
Mr.  Balfour  resigned  his  position  as  leader  of  the  Opposition  and, 
on  the  i3th,  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Andrew  Bonar  Law,  who  had  been 
a  member  of  Parliament  since  1 900  and  to  whom  Lord  Lansdowne  had 
referred  in  1909  as  "  one  of  the  Dreadnoughts  of  the  Unionist  party." 

The  Revival  of  Home  Rule  and  the  Ulster  Opposition,  1912-1914. 
-  The  prospect  of  Home  Rule  led  to  a  determined  opposition  in  Ulster 
led  by  Sir  Edward  Carson,  who  began  his  political  career  as  a  Liberal, 
who  attained  great  prominence  as  a  lawyer,  and  rose  to  be  Solicitor- 
General  in  the  Balfour  Ministry.  He  soon  attained  such  an  ascend- 
ancy in  the  Province  as  to  gain  the  name  of  King  Carson.  On 
5  January,  1912,  he  organized  a  great  demonstration  at  Omagh. 
Furious  excitement  was  aroused  when  it  was  announced  that  Mr. 
Winston  Churchill z  was,  8  February,  to  address  a  meeting  of  the 
Nationalists  in  Ulster  Hall,  Belfast.  The  Standing  Committee  of 
the  Ulster  Unionist  Council  made  determined  preparations  to  prevent 
this,  and  Mr.  Churchill  avoided  a  riot  and  possible  conflict  by  holding 

1 A  subject  which  had  been  under  discussion  for  some  years. 

2  Curiously  enough  his  father,  Lord  Randolph  Churchill,  a  Conservative,  had 
done  more  than  any  other  Englishman  to  stir  up  Ulster  against  Home  Rule  in 
Gladstone's  day. 


EDWARD   VII  AND   GEORGE  V  1087 

the  meeting  in  an  athletic  field  outside  the  city.  On  n  April,  1912, 
the  Home  Rule  Bill  was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons.1 
Although  objections  to  the  financial  provisions  of  the  Bill  were  pointed 
out  and  the  advantage  Ireland  would  have  over  Wales  and  Scotland, 
the  chief  criticism  was  directed  against  the  injustice  to  Ulster,  and 
motions  were  made  to  exclude  the  four  northeast  provinces  of  Antrim, 
Armagh,  Down,  and  Londonderry,  which  are  prevailingly  Protestant.2 
In  August,  it  was  announced  that  the  men  of  Ulster  would  pledge 
themselves  to  a  solemn  covenant  for  united  resistance  to  Home  Rule 
and  for  refusal  to  accept  it  if  it  were  set  up.  A  series  of  great  demon- 
strations began  at  Enniskillen  18  September,  and  culminated  with 
the  signing  of  the  Covenant  at  Belfast  on  the  28th.3  Meantime,  the 
Welsh  Church  Disestablishment  Bill  had  been  introduced  into  the 
Commons,  23  April  and,  in  June,  a  Franchise  Bill  providing  for  uni- 
versal manhood  suffrage  and  the  abolition  of  plural  voting.  On  12 
July,  1913,  there  was  another  demonstration  at  Craigavon  attended 
by  150,000  Ulstermen,  and  a  resolution  was  adopted  to  resist  Home 
Rule  by  force  of  arms  if  necessary.  The  enrollment  of  the  Ulster  vol- 
unteers began,  and  by  December  the  numbers  had  reached  100,000. 
Sir  George  Richardson,  a  retired  lieutenant-general  of  the  British 

1  It  provided  for  a  parliament  in  Ireland,  consisting  of  a  senate  of  40  members 
and  a  house  of  commons  of  164  members.     Ulster,  which  was  to  have  59  members, 
to  be  safeguarded  by  the  provision  that  the  Irish  Parliament  could  not  make  any 
law  "  either  directly  or  indirectly  to  establish  or  endow  any  religion  or  prohibit 
the  free  exercise  thereof,  or  give  any  preference,  privilege  or  advantage  or  impose 
any  disability  or  disadvantage  on  account  of  religious  belief  or  religious  or  eccle- 
siastical status."     Furthermore,  it  could  not  legislate  on  peace  or  war,  the  navy,  or 
army,  foreign  relations,  trade  outside  Ireland,  coinage  or  legal  tender.     Temporary 
restrictions  were  placed  on  legislation  relating  to  land  purchase,  old  age  pensions, 
national  insurance,  labor  exchanges,  royal  Irish  constabulary,  post  office  and  other 
savings  banks  and  friendly  societies. 

The  executive  was  to  remain  vested  in  the  sovereign  or  his  representative,  and 
42  members  from  Ireland  were  to  be  elected  to  the  British  House  of  Commons. 
The  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  was  to  give  the  final  decision  as  to 
the  constitutional  validity  of  any  act  of  the  Irish  Parliament.  The  Irish  Exchequer 
was  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  Irish  administration,  except  for  the  reserved  serv- 
ices mentioned  above.  The  Imperial  Exchequer  was  to  pay  an  annual  sum  to  the 
Irish  Exchequer,  starting  at  £500,000  and  reduced  £50,000  for  six  years  until  it 
became  a  permanent  annual  payment  of  £200,000. 

2  The  province  of  Ulster  consists  of  9  counties,  or  1 1 ,  including  Belfast  and  Derry 
City.     It  returns  17  Home  Rulers  and  16  anti-Home  Rulers,  and,  if  the  large  and 
wealthy  city  of  Belfast  were  excluded,  the  Roman  Catholics  would  be  in  the  major- 
ity.    They  have  a  strong  minority  in  the  four  Protestant  counties:   31.6  per  cent 
in  Down;    20.3  in  Antrim;  45.3  in  Armagh,  and  41.1  in  Derry.     Belfast  contains 
24.1  per  cent  Roman  Catholics  and  Derry  City,  56.2.     The  problem  of  exclusion  is 
complicated  by  the  Roman  Catholic  minority  in  the  four  counties  and  the  Protes- 
tants scattered  through  the  rest  of  Ireland. 

3  On  ii  November,  1912,  a  curious  incident  happened  —  an  amendment  to  the 
financial  resolution  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  was  carried  against  the  Government  227 
to  206.     Instead  of  resigning  or  dissolving,  the  Prime  Minister,  on  the  i3th,  intro- 
duced a  resolution  to  rescind  the  decision.     This  caused  such  an  uproar  that  the 
House  was  adjourned.     On  the  i8th,  the  canceled  resolution  was  withdrawn  and 
a  new  one  introduced. 


id88  A   HISTORY  OF   ENGLAND 

army,  was  chosen  as  Commander-in-Chief ,  and  an  Indemnity  Guarantee 
Fund  was  raised  to  protect  sufferers  in  the  cause.  All  through  July 
and  August  Sir  Edward  Carson  went  through  Ulster  making  speeches 
and  declaring  that,  in  the  event  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  passing,  Ulster 
would  set  up  a  provincial  government  and  refuse  to  pay  taxes  to  the 
Parliament  at  Dublin.  In  December,  the  Government  prohibited 
the  importation  of  arms ;  but  it  was  a  question  whether  the  proclama- 
tion was  legal,  and  certainly  it  was  "not  effective  in  preventing  gun- 
running.  In  September,  Lord  Loreburn,  ex-Liberal  Lord  Chancellor, 
sent  a  letter  to  the  London  Times  urging  a  reconsideration  of  the  Home 
Rule  policy  of  the  Government.  Mr.  Churchill  suggested  a  possible 
scheme  of  federation,  but  the  Cabinet  was  under  pledge  to  the  Na- 
tionalists to  carry  a  Home  Rule  Bill  before  considering  any  form  of 
modification.  The  only  alternatives  seemed  to  be,  to  take  a  refer- 
endum, which  the  Unionists  desired,  or  to  run  the  risk  of  civil  war,  if 
the  Home  Rule  Bill  were  pressed  to  a  final  passage. 

The  Triumph  of  Home  Rule,  1914.  —  On  10  February,  1914,  Parlia- 
ment met.  The  chief  features  of  its  programme  as  announced  in  the 
speech  from  the  throne  were :  (i)  a  bill  for  Irish  Home  rule,  which  had 
already  passed  in  two  successive  sessions  and  been  vetoed  by  the 
Lords ;  (2)  a  bill  for  the  disestablishment  of  the  Welsh  Church,  which 
had  had  the  same  history ; l  (3)  a  Plural  Voting  Bill ; 2  (4)  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  House  of  Lords ;  (5)  a  measure  to  increase  the  number  of 
landed  proprietors;  (6)  a  provision  for  Imperial  naturalization; 
(7)  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the  poor,  particularly  by  better 
housing;  (8)  enlarged  facilities  for  education.  The  Home  Rule  Bill 
continued  as  the  center  of  interest.  The  Unionist  Opposition,  realiz- 
ing that  they  could  not  defeat  the  measure  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
determined  to  force  a  dissolution,  to  secure  an  appeal  to  the  country 
by  a  referendum  or  to  intimidate  the  Liberals  by  threats  of  civil  war 
in  Ulster.  On  2  March,  appeared  a  Declaration  signed  by  twenty 
English  subjects,  headed  by  Earl  Roberts,  to  the  effect  that :  "  the 
claim  of  the  Government  to  carry  the  Home  Rule  Bill  into  law  with- 
out submitting  it  to  the  judgment  of  the  nation,  is  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  our  Constitution,"  and  that  if  it  was  so  passed  they  would 
hold  themselves,  "  justified  in  taking  or  supporting  any  action  that 
may  be  effective  to  prevent  it  being  put  into  operation,  and  more  par- 
ticularly to  prevent  the  armed  forces  of  the  Crown  being  used  to  de- 

1  It  passed  the  Commons  19  May,  1914,  and  by  the  terms  of  the  Parliament 
Bill  of  1911  becomes  law,  on  the  signature  of  the  King. 

2  On  13  January,  1913,  the  Speaker  announced  that  any  substantial  amendments 
to  the  Franchise  Bill  would  necessitate  a  new  measure.     Owing  to  amendments 
providing  for  votes  for  women,  the  Government  withdrew  the  Bill.     This  was  re- 
sented by  women  suffragists,  especially  the  Militants,  who  had  begun  their  violent 
methods  in  1907,  and  who  had  acquiesced  in  the  tabling  of  a  Conciliation  Bill, 
granting  the  vote  to  certain  classes  of  women,  on  the  understanding  that  conces- 
sions would  be  granted  them  in  the  Franchise  Bill.     On  8  April,  1913  a  Plural  Vot- 
ing Bill  was  substituted,  which  having  twice  passed  the  Commons  and  having  been 
twice  vetoed  by  the  Lords,  passed  a  third  time  in  the  House  of  Commons,  15  June. 


EDWARD   VII   AND    GEORGE  V  1089 

prive  the  people  of  Ulster  of  their  rights  as  citizens  of  the  United 
Kingdom."  Five  days  later,  Mr.  Asquith  laid  a  compromise  scheme 
before  Parliament,  providing  that  before  the  Bill  became  operative 
the  parliamentary  electors  in  each  of  the  nine  counties  of  Ulster  might 
decide  by  vote  whether  their  county  should  be  excluded  from  the 
arrangement  for  a  term  of  six  years.  Mr.  Bonar  Law  said  that  if 
the  Government  insisted  on  the  excluded  counties  coming  in  at  the 
end  of  six  years  the  Unionists  could  not  accept  the  plan.  He  again 
urged  dissolution  and  submission  of  the  whole  question  to  the  electors, 
though  he  later  intimated  that  he  would  agree  to  leave  the  question 
of  the  term  of  the  exclusion  to  a  future  parliament.  Then  came  a 
crisis.  On  20  March,  the  Government  issued  an  order  that  was  inter- 
preted by  several  of  the  army  officers  as  a  step  toward  the  coercion  of 
Ulster  and  they  forthwith  resigned.  Colonel  Seely,  the  Secretary  for 
War,  at  once  assured  them  that  they  had  misunderstood  the  order, 
which  was  purely  a  precautionary  measure,  and  that  the  Government 
had  no  intention  of  using  the  suppression  of  disorder  to  crush  politi- 
cal opposition  to  the  Home  Rule,  whereupon  they  withdrew  their  resig- 
nations. The  Radical  Press  at  once  raised  the  cry  of  "  army  dicta- 
tion." Colonel  Seely,  taking  the  blame  on  himself,  offered  his  resig- 
nation ;  Mr.  Asquith  refused  to  accept  it,  but  repudiated  the  guarantee, 
and  the  Army  Council  framed  an  order  to  the  effect  that  henceforth 
no  officer  was  to  ask  for  or  receive  any  assurances  "  as  to  orders  which 
he  may  be  required  to  fulfill."  This  led  to  the  resignation  of  Sir  John 
French,  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff,  Sir  John  Ewart,  the  Adjutant- 
General,  and  others.  Colonel  Seely  offered  his  resignation  a  second 
time,  which  the  Prime  Minister  now  accepted,  announced  his  inten- 
tion of  assuming  the  Secretaryship  for  War  himself,  resigned  his  seat 
from  East  Fife,  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  Place  Bill  of  1705, 
and  stood  for  reelection.  He  was  returned  without  a  contest.  Dur- 
ing his  absence  Sir  Edward  Grey  threw  out  a  hint  that  within  six 
years  some  form  of  federation  might  be  devised.  Mr.  Redmond, 
the  leader  of  the  Irish  Nationalists,  who  had  previously  insisted  that 
there  should  be  no  "  watering  down"  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  declared 
that  he  was  ready  to  exert  himself  to  placate  Ulster  and  to  do  all  pos- 
sible to  reach  an  honorable  settlement.  On  25  May,  the  Home  Rule 
Bill  passed  the  House  of  Commons  by  a  majority  of  77,  and  whether 
the  Lords  veto  it  or  not  it  will  go  to  the  King  for  his  signature.  After 
nearly  a  half  century  of  struggle  the  Home  Rulers  have  triumphed, 
at  least  in  Parliament. 

FOR  ADDITIONAL  READING 

R.  H.  Gretton,  A  Modern  History  of  the  English  People,  1880-1910  (2  vols., 
1913),  rather  journalistic  and  Liberal  in  sympathy,  but  clear  and  vivid.  The  New 
International  Year  Book,  1901-1913,  a  particularly  good  summary  of  the  recent 
Liberal  legislation.  The  London  Times  (weekly  ed.),  the  annual  summaries  since 
1910  are  especially  full.  For  Edward  VII,  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  ad 
Supplement,  I,  546-610. 
4A 


APPENDIX 

LIST  OF  PRIME  MINISTERS  FROM  WALPOLE  TO  ASQUITH 

1721-1742 Sir  Robert  Walpole. 

1742-1743       Lord  Wilmington. 

1743-1754 Henry  Pelham. 

1754-1756 I.  Duke  of  Newcastle. 

1756-1757       Duke  of  Devonshire. 

Real  head,  William  Pitt 
Secretary  of  State. 

1757-1762       II.  Duke  of  Newcastle. 

Pitt  Secretary  of  State  till  1761. 

1762-1763       Earl  of  Bute. 

1763-1765       George  Grenville. 

1765—1766 I.  Marquis  of  Rockingham. 

1766-1770       Duke  of  Grafton. 

1770-1782       Lord  North. 

March- July,  1782 II.  Marquis  of  Rockingham. 

1782-1783       Earl  of  Shelburne. 

April-December,  1783 Coalition  Ministry. 

Duke  of  Portland  nominal  Prime  Minister 
Real  heads  Fox  and  North. 

1783-1801       I.  William  Pitt,  the  younger. 

1801-1804 Henry  Addington  (Viscount  Sidmouth). 

1804-1806 II.  William  Pitt. 

1806-1807       "All  the  Talents." 

Lord  Grenville  and  Fox,  d.  September,  -1806. 

1807-1809       II.  Duke  of  Portland. 

1809-1812       Spencer  Perceval. 

1812-1827       Lord  Liverpool. 

April-August,  1827 George  Canning. 

1827-1828       Lord  Goderich. 

1828-1830       Duke  of  Wellington. 

1830-1834       Lord  Grey. 

July-November,  1834 I.  Lord  Melbourne. 

1834-1835       I.  Sir  Robert  Peel. 

1835-1841       II.  Lord  Melbourne. 

1841-1846       II.  Sir  Robert  Peel. 

1846-1852       I.  Lord  John  Russell. 

February-December,  1852 I.  Lord  Derby. 

1852-1855       Lord  Aberdeen. 

1855-1858       I.  Lord  Palmerston. 

1858-1859       II.  Lord  Derby. 

1859-1865       II.  Lord  Palmerston. 

1865-1866       II.  Lord  John  Russell. 

1866-1868       III.  Lord  Derby. 

February-December,  1868    .     .     .       I.  Benjamin  Disraeli  (Earl  of  Beaconsfield) . 

1868-1874 I.  William  E.  Gladstone. 

1874-1880 II.  Disraeli. 

1090 


APPENDIX  1091 

1880-1885       II.  Gladstone. 

1885-1886 I.  Marquis  of  Salisbury. 

February-July,  1886 III.  Gladstone. 

1886-1892       II.  Salisbury. 

1892-1894       IV.  Gladstone. 

1894-1895       Lord  Rosebery  (Earl  of  Midlothian). 

1895-1902       III.  Salisbury. 

1902-1905       Mr.  Arthur  Balfour. 

1905-1908 Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman. 

1908-  /?         Mr.  Herbert  Henry  Asquith. 


INDEX 


Abdur  Rahman  Khan,  1067 
Ab'ercromby,  General,  729, 

73i 

Abercromby,  General  Ralph, 
commander  in  Ireland,  840 

Aberdeen',  Lord,  supports 
Peel's  free  trade  views, 
945 ;  problems  of  Foreign 
Office  under  secretaryship 
of,  947  ;  conciliatory  pol- 
icy of,  with  regard  to 
France,  949 ;  coalition 
Ministry  of,  958;  Tsar 
approaches,  regarding 
intervention  in  Turkey, 
960;  fall  of  Ministry  of, 
963 

Ab'ernethy,  treaty  of,  78 

Abhorrers,  the,  562 

Abjuration  Act,  the,  648 

Abou'kir  Bay,  battle  at, 
844,  845 

Abraham,  the  Plains  of,  732 

Absenteeism,  Irish,  880 

Abyssinia,  Napier's  expedi- 
tion to,  988 

Acadia,  see  Nova  Scotia 

Accession  Declaration  Act, 
the,  1080 

Acre,  Napoleon's  failure  to 
capture,  845 

Acton  Bur'nell,  Statute  of, 
see  Merchants 

Adams,  John,  aids  in  nego- 
tiating peace  with  Eng- 
land, 780  and  note 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  Amer- 
ican Secretary  of  State, 
885 

Adams,  Samuel,  757 

Addington,  Henry,  Lord 
Sidmouth,  becomes  Prime 
Minister,  847,  848 ;  re- 
signs, 850;  in  Grenville 
Ministry,  651 ;  Home 
Secretary,  870 ;  retires 
from  Home  Secretaryship, 
874 


Addison,  Joseph,  796,  797 ; 
his  A    Tory's    Creed,  678 
Addled  Parliament,  the,  437 
Adelaide,  Australia,  1066 
Adelaide    of    Saxe-Coburg, 
Queen  of  William  IV,  905 
A'delhard  of  Bath,  125 
Admiral,  the  Lord  High,  343 
Admiralty,  Court  of,  999 
"Admonitions     to     Parlia- 
ment," Cartwright's,  389 
Adrian  IV,  Pope,  in 
Adrian  VI,  Pope,  300 
Adrianople,  occupied  by  the 

Russians,  1004 
"Adul'lamites,"  the,  985 
Advertisements,  the,  of  Par- 
ker, 389 

Aegean  Islands,  the,  1083 
^Elf'heah,     Archbishop     of 
Canterbury,     martyrdom 
of,  52 

/El'fric,  Colloquies  of,  74 
jEl'la,    chief   of   the   South 

Saxons,  29 
/Eth'elbald,  King  of  Mercia, 

38 

/Eth'elbert,  King  of  Kent,  3 T . 
32  ;    conversion  to  Chris- 
tianity, 32  ;  his  laws,  33,  44 
^Eth'elfrith,    Northumbrian 

king,  33 
jEth'elred,     King     of     the 

West  Saxons,  42 
^th'elred,  the  Redeless, 
Anglo-Saxon  king,  decline 
of  the  royal  power  under, 
51 ;  second  coming  of 
the  Danes,  51,  52 ; 
Danegeld  and  massacre  of 
Danes,  52;  retires  to 
Normandy,  return  to  Eng- 
land and  death,  53 
/Eth'elric,  Northumbrian 

king,  33 

Affirmation  Bills,  1009 
Afghanistan,  947 ;   England 
repulses  a  Persian  attack 


upon,  966 ;  Auckland's 
expedition  to,  968 ;  Rus- 
sia seeks  to  extend  her 
influence  over,  967  ;  Eng- 
lish failures  in,  a  cause  for 
Indian  Mutiny,  969 ;  the 
war  of  1878-1879  in, 
1006,  1007  ;  British  with- 
drawal from,  1013 

Afghans,  and  cessions  de- 
manded by  British  in  India 
as  protection  against,  967 

Africa,  British  advance  in, 
1029 ;  cotton  imported 
from,  during  English  fam- 
ine, 979 

African  Slave  Trade,  Pitt's 
opposition  to,  818,  819; 
abolishment  of,  by  Eng- 
land, 851  and  note. 

Agadir,  1082 

Agincourt  (Aj'inkort),  battle 
of,  250,  251 

Agitators,  the,  502,  505 

"Agreement  of  the  People," 
the,  504,  509 

Agric'ola,  Governor  of  Brit- 
ain, 19 

Agricultural  laborers,  condi- 
tion of,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  596,  597 

Agriculture,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  164,  165;  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  215, 
216;  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 283-285 ;  growth  of, 
under  Elizabeth,  409 ;  con- 
dition of,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  591-593 ; 
development  of,  in  eight- 
eenth century,  789-791 ; 
condition  of,  in  1812- 
1813,  856 ;  status  of,  at  end 
of  Napoleonic  wars,  869; 
improvement  in,  in  early 
nineteenth  century,  894 ; 
condition  of,  in  the  reign 
of  Victoria,  1055,  1056 


Such  English  proper  names  as  are  peculiarly  pronounced  are  indicated. 


1094 


INDEX 


Aidan  (I'dan),  35 

Aids,  feudal,  85 

Aix-la-Chapelle',  the  peace 
of  (1668),  549;  (i748), 
716,  717,  720 

Alabama  Claims,  the,   1001 

Alabama,  the  cruiser,  978- 
979 

Alais',  sister  of  Philip  of 
France,  114,  122 

Al'aric,  sack  of  Rome  by,  21 

Alaska  boundary,  the,  1084 

Albany,  Dukes  of,  271,  272, 
298,  333 

Albemarle,  Duke  of,  see 
Monck,  George 

Albero'ni,  Cardinal,  684- 
686,  700 

Albert,  Prince  Consort,  935, 
955,  978,  980 

Albert  Edward,  Prince  of 
Wales,  see  Edward  VII 

Albert  Victor,  Duke  of  Clar- 
ence, 1072 

Alberta,  creation  of  Cana- 
dian province  of,  932 

Albertus  Magnus,  159 

Aldermen,  election  of,  under 
act  of,  1835,  925 

Alehouses,  73,  220,  594 

Alencon,  Duke  of,  suitor 
of  Elizabeth,  370,  385, 
386 

Alexander  III,  Pope,  no 

Alexander  IV,  Pope,  154 

Alexander  VI,  Pope,  520 

Alexander  III,  King  of  Scot- 
land, 170 

Alexander  of  Parma,  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Netherlands, 
385,  391,  393,  394,  396 

Alexander  I,  Tsar  of  Russia, 
847 ;  signs  Treaty  of 
Tilsit,  852;  breaks  alli- 
ance with  Napoleon,  858 ; 
advocates  intervention  in 
European  politics,  884 

Alexander  II  of  Russia,  ac- 
cession of,  963 

Alexandra,  Queen  of  Ed- 
ward VII,  980,  1072,  1075 

Alexandria,  captured  by 
Napoleon,  844 ;  massacre 
at  and  bombardment  of, 
1014 

Alfon'so  VI,  King  of  Portu- 
gal, 54° 

Alfred,  the  Great,  King  of 
the  West  Saxons,  his 


youth,  42 ;  his  repulse  of 
the  Northmen,  43 ;  mili- 
tary reorganization,  43, 
44 ;  laws  and  political 
reorganization,  44 ;  pro- 
motion of  literature  and 
education,  45  ;  final  esti- 
mate of,  46;  other  refer- 
ences, 72,  74 

Algeciras  Conference,  the, 
1076 

Alien  Bill,  the,  829 

A'li,  Me'hemet,  886 

Allegiance,  oaths  of,  432, 
559,  621,  622,  880 

Allotments  Acts,  1056 

Alma  River,  battle  at  the, 
962 

Almanza  (alman'tha),  battle 
of,  663 

Aln'wick,  113 

Althorp  (all'trup),  Lord, 
883,  903 ;  in  Grey's 
Ministry,  909 ;  resigns 
from  Grey's  Cabinet,  922  ; 
in  Melbourne's  Cabinet, 
923 ;  in  House  of  Lords, 
ib.  See  Spencer,  John 
Charles 

Alva,  Duke  of,  Governor  of 
the  Netherlands,  381,  382, 
384,  385,  392 

Alverstone  (awl'verston), 
Lord,  1084 

Amboise,  conspiracy  of, 
374 

Ambola,  971 

Amboy'na,  massacre  at,  514, 
5i9 

American  Civil  War,  the, 
outbreak  of,  977  ;  end  of, 
979 ;  stimulates  growth  of 
democracy  in  England, 
984-985 ;  stimulates  Fe- 
nian movement,  992 

American  Colonies,  the,  be- 
ginnings of  the,  436;  mi- 
grations to,  during  the 
Laudian  regime,  465  ;  in- 
stitutional divergences  of, 
from  the  mother  country, 
746,  747  ;  preparation  of, 
for  independence,  747 ; 
effect  of  the  Seven  Years' 
War  upon,  748,  749; 
the  question  of  parliamen- 
tary supremacy  over,  749 ; 
their  constitutions,  750; 
attempt  to  establish 


bishops  in,  750;  the 
revenue  from,  751 ;  oppo- 
sition to  the  Stamp  Act 
in,  752,  753;  object  to 
criminal  transportation, 
958-959 

American  Revolution,  the, 
the  causes  of,  746-753 ; 
outbreak  of,  766 ;  strength 
of  the  combatants,  767 ; 
Continental  Congress  as- 
sumes executive  control 
of  Colonies,  767  ;  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  ib.;  Wash- 
ington appointed  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  army, 
768 ;  Continental  army 
organized,  ib. ;  siege  of 
Boston,  ib. ;  Declaration 
of  Independence,  ib. ;  the 
Southern  Colonies  in,  ib. ; 
campaign  of  1776,  768, 
769 ;  Burgoyne's  cam- 
paign, 1777,  769,  770; 
Convention  of  'Saratoga, 
770;  the  French  Alliance, 
770,  771 ;  progress  of,  in 
1778-1779,  772,  773;  the 
war  in  1780-1781,  774— 
776;  influence  of,  upon 
Ireland,  777 ;  opening  of 
peace  negotiations,  780 ; 
end  of,  780,  781;  Pitt 
denounces  the  war  of, 
812 

Amherst,  General,  729,  731, 
736 

Amherst,  Lord,  Governor- 
General  of  India,  967 

Amicable  Loan,  the,  301 

A'miens,  Mise  of,  153,  154 

Amiens,  the  Peace  of,  848; 
rupture  of,  849,  850 

Ampere,  inventor,  1052 

Amusements,  English,  in, 
eighteenth  century,  806 

Anassthesia,  discovery  of, 
1051 

Anarchy,  extent  of,  under 
Stephen,  104 

Anchorites,  160 

Ande'rida,  29 

Andred's  Weald,  28,  29 

Andr6  (an'dra),  Major,  exe- 
cution of,  775 

Angevin  (an'jevin)  dynasty, 
beginning  of  the,  107 

Angles,  their  invasion  of 
Britain,  29,  30 


INDEX 


1095 


Anglo-French  dual  control 
in  Egypt,  1002,  1003, 
1013,  1014 

Anglo- Japanese  treaties,  the, 
1075,  1076,  1081 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  the, 
45,  7i 

Anglo-Saxon  period,  the, 
revived  interest  in  the 
study  of,  1050 

Anglo-Saxons,  the,  conver- 
sion to  Christianity,  31 ; 
literature,  70,  71 ;  art, 
71,  72 ;  architecture,  72  ; 
houses,  72;  daily  life,  72, 
73 ;  travel,  hunting,  inns, 
public  health,  73  ;  trade, 
73-74;  navy,  74;  slave 
trade,  ib. 

Aniline  dyes,  1052 

Anjou,  inherited  by  Henry 
II,  103 ;  secured  by  Philip 

II,  136 

Anjou,  Duke  of  (later  Henry 

III,  King  of  France),  384, 
390,  391,  397 

Anna  Maria,  daughter  of 
Philip  III  of  Spain  and 
Queen  of  Louis  XIII  of 
France,  441 

Annapolis  (Port  Royal),  670 

Annates,  153;  Act  of,  317, 
3i8 

Anne  of  Bohemia,  Queen  of 
Richard  II,  225,  228,  234, 
237 

Anne,  of  Brittany,  282 

Anne  of  Cleves,  Queen  of 
Henry  VIII,  332 

Anne  of  Denmark,  Queen 
of  James  I,  429,  440 

Anne,  Princess,  flees  from 
James  II,  583 ;  Marl- 
borough's  plot  in  favor  of, 
630 ;  acknowledged  as 
successor  of  William  III, 
636;  see  Anne,  Queen  of 
England 

Anne,  Queen  of  England, 
her  opposition  to  party 
government,  616;  char- 
acter of,  650,  65 1 ;  favors 
of,  to  Marlborough,  657 ; 
aversion  to  the  Whigs 
and  quarrels  with  Sarah, 
658,  660,  662,  665,  672 ; 
insists  on  resignation  of 
Philip  of  Spain,  ib. ;  share 
of,  in  bringing  about  the 


Union,  661,  662;  takes  a 
new  favorite,  665  ;  drives 
out  the  Whigs,  667;  de- 
sire for  peace,  668;  dis- 
trust of  Bolingbroke,  672 ; 
dismisses  Oxford,  673, 
674 ;  makes  Shrewsbury 
Lord  Treasurer,  674;  her 
death,  ib. 

Annual  Parliaments,   479 

An'selm,  Saint,  52,  83,  89; 
made  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 91,  92 ;  conflict 
with  William  Rufus,  92, 
93 ;  journey  to  Rome,  93 ; 
recalled  by  Henry  I,  94; 
comprise  an  investiture, 
95,  96 

An'son,  Commodore  and 
later  Admiral,  704,  716 

Anti-Corn  Law  League,  the, 
942 

Anti-Corn  Law  Movement, 
the,  Chartists  oppose,  939- 
940;  progress  of,  940,  941 

Antiseptic  surgery,  1052 

An'trim,  1087 

Apology  of  the  Commons, 
433 

Apparel,  Statutes  of,  285 

Appeals,  Act  of,  318;  in 
colonial  and  ecclesiastical 
causes,  permanent  com- 
mittees of  Privy  Council 
to  hear,  918 

Appellant,  see  Lords  Appel- 
lant. 

Apprentices,  system  of,  598 ; 
turbulence  of,  600 

Appropriation  of  supply, 
447,  545 

Arabi,  the  revolt  of,  1014 

Arbitration  court,  the,  in 
New  Zealand,  1068 

Arbitration  treaties,  1084 

Arbuth'not,  John,  645 

Architecture,  Anglo-Saxon, 
72 ;  Norman,  ib. ;  Anglo- 
Norman,  Romanesque, 
Gothic,  or  Early  English, 
89,  90;  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  161 ;  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  221, 
222;  "decorated"  style, 
222;  perpendicular,  ib.', 
the  Elizabethan,  417;  in 
the  seventeenth  century, 
6n 

Arc  lights,  invention  of,  1055 


Arcot,  721 

Area,  the,  of  the  British 
Empire,  1063 

Areopagit'ica,  the,  608,   640 

Argyle',  see  Campbell,  Arch- 
ibald, eighth  Earl  of; 
Archibald,  ninth  Earl  and 
first  Marquis  of,  and 
John,  second  Duke  of 

Arimathe'a,  Joseph  of,  22 

Ark'wright,  Richard,  in- 
vents water  frame,  785 

Aries,  Synod  of,  22 

Arlington,  Earl  of,  see  Ben- 
net,  Henry 

Armada,  the  Spanish,  394- 
396 

Armagh  (ar'mah'),  1087 ; 
the  Archbishop  of,  victim 
of  the  Popish  Plot,  560 

Armagnac  (armanyac'), 
Count  of,  249 

Armed  Neutrality,  the 
formation  of,  against 
Great  Britain,  774 

Arminians,  the,  452 

Arms,  Assize  of,  118 

Army,  the  parliamentary,  in 
the  Civil  War,  488-490; 
the  royalist,  in  the  Civil 
War,  ib. ;  condition  of,  in 
1793,  831 ;  Americans  in 
the  British,  during  Cri- 
mean War,  966;  reforms 
in  1870,  997-998;  in 
1904,  1073,  1074;  the 
sovereign  loses  control 
over,  1036;  crisis,  the,  in 
Ulster,  1089 ;  see  also  New 
Model  and  Standing  army 

Army  Act,  the,  621 

Army  Council,  debates  in 
the,  of  the  New  Model,  503, 
504;  the,  of  1904,  1073 

Army  officer's  commissions, 
struggle  over  purchase  of, 
in  1870,  998 

Army  plot,  the  first,  479; 
the  second,  481 

Arnold,  Benedict,  treason  of, 

774,  775 
Arnold,      Matthew,      1044, 

1045 
Ar'ran,  Earl  of,  Regent  of 

Scotland,  367 
Arrow,   the    affair  of,    966, 

note 
Art,  Anglo-Saxon,   71,  72; 

in   the   seventeenth   cen- 


1096 


INDEX 


tury,  611 ;  Victorian,  1056, 
1057;   see  also  Painting 
Art  of  Colonization,  the,  1065 
Artevelde,  van,  Jaques,  192 
Arthur,     legendary    British 
king,    29,    89,    138,    198, 
223,  224,  290 
Arthur,   Prince,   nephew  of 

John,  135,  136 
Arthur,      Prince,      son      of 

Henry  VII,  282,  308 
Articles,   the  Lords  of  the, 

428 

Articles,  of  faith,  the  Ten, 

325,   326;    the  Six,  331; 

the  Forty-two,  355 ;    the 

Thirty-nine,   379,    1041 

Articles  of  the  Eyre  of  1194, 

124 
Articles  of  War,  the,  forbid 

dueling  in  army,  902 
Artificers,  Statute  of,  414 
Artisans'  Dwelling  Act,  the, 

1002 

Artois,  the  Count  of,  834 
Ar'undel,  Archbishop,  247 
Arundel,  Earl  of,  235,  236, 
237,  238 ;  see  also  Howard, 
Thomas 

Aryan  "race,"  13 
Ascham    (As'kam),    Roger, 

344,  346,  419 
Ashan'ti  wars,  the,  1036 
Ash'bourne  Act,  the,  1017 
Ash'burton,    Lord,    adjusts 
boundary    disputes    with 
United  States,  948—949 
Ashby    vs.  White,   case  of, 

659 

Ashley,   Lord,     921 ;    labor 
legislation    of,    in    1843- 
44,  942-943. 
Aske,  Robert,  327,  328 
Askew,  Anne,  336 
Asien'to,  the,  671,  717 
As'quith,     Herbert    Henry, 
1076;       on      the      South 
African  War,    1034;    be- 
comes    Prime     Minister, 
1077 ;  denounces  the  veto 
of    the    Budget,     1078; 
promise     to     reconstruct 
the  House  of  Lords,  1079 ; 
carries  the  Parliament  Bill 
by  a  threat  to  create  new 
peers,    1079,    1080;     his 
Guildhall   speech   on   the 
Balkan    War,    1083 ;    his 
attitude  on  the  minimum 


wage,  1085,  1086;  carries 
the  Home  Rule  Bill  in 
Parliament,  1087,  1089; 
assumes  the  secretaryship 
of  War,  1089 

Assandun',  battle  of,  53 

Assemblies,  see  General  As- 
semblies 

Asser,  biographer  of  Alfred, 
45 

Assisi  (ase'si),  157 

Assize',  various  meanings  of 
the  term,  116;  courts, 
406;  the  Bloody,  569 

Assize  of  Arms,  118 

Assize  of  Clarendon,  117, 
131,  iS9 

Assize  of  Northhampton,  117 

Association,  the  bond  of, 
388;  of  the  Eastern 
Counties,  492  ;  the  Catho- 
lic, O'Connell  founds,  880 

As'suan  dam,  the,  1015 

Astrology,  417 

Atheists,  Parliament  open 
to,  975,  1009 

Ath'elstan,  Anglo-Saxon 
king,  his  conquests  and 
power,  47,  48 

Atlantic  cable,  the,  1054 

Atlantic  fisheries,   1084 

Attainder,  bills  of,  against 
Wolsey,  311;  against 
More  and  Fisher,  320; 
against  Thomas  Crom- 
well, 332 ;  against  Thomas 
Seymour  (See'more),  352 ; 
against  Strafford,  479 ; 
the,  of  Fenwick  (Fen'- 
ick),  634,  635;  against 
Bo'linbroke  and  Or'- 
monde,  678 

At'terbury,  Francis,  Bishop 
of  Rochester,  690,  691 

Attwood,  Thomas,  organizes 
National  Convention  of 
Workingmen,  939 

Auckland,  Australia,  1068 

Auck'land,  Lord,  expedition 
to  Afghanistan  of,  968 

Audit  of  accounts,  206,  246, 

545 

Auerstadt,  battle  of,  852 
Augmentations,    Court    of, 

324,  406 
Augsburg,     the     Religious 

Peace  of,  442 

Augsburg  Confession,  the, 
321,  326 


Augusta  of  Saxe-Gotha,  wife 
of  Frederick,  Prince  of 
Wales,  701,  718,  740,  741, 
753 

Augus'tine,  Saint,  converts 
Kent  and  establishes  Arch- 
bishopric of  Canterbury, 
32;  failure  to  win  over  the 
British  bishops,  33 

Augustinians,  99 

Augustus  (the  Strong),  King 
of  Saxony,  664 

Aumale,  Due  d',  949 

Aurelia'nus,  Ambrosius,  29 

Austen,  Jane,  899 

Austerlitz,  battle  of ,  150, 151 

Australia,  transportation  to, 
958-959;  the  origin  and 
growth  of,  1065-1067 

Austria,  in  war  of  First  Coali- 
tion, 834 ;  concludes  peace 
of  Campo  Formio  with 
France,  837;  in  Second 
Coalition  against  France, 
845-846 ;  forms  Third 
Coalition  against  France, 
850,  851 ;  Francis  II 
becomes  Emperor  of,  751 
and  note;  Napoleon  de- 
feats, in  1809,  855 ;  joins 
Russia,  Prussia,  and 
Sweden,  in  War  of  Liber- 
ation, 859;  signs  first 
Treaty  of  Paris,  861-862 ; 
signs  Quadruple  Alliance, 
865 ;  status  of,  in  Italy, 
883-884 ;  aids  in  suppress- 
ing revolutions  in  1820, 
884;  compels  Russia  to 
evacuate  Danubian  Prin- 
cipalities in  Crimean  War, 
961 ;  signs  Treaty  of 
Paris  after  Crimean  War, 
964-965 ;  cedes  Lombardy 
to  Sardinia,  975-976  ; 
Schleswig-Holstein  Ques- 
tion and,  980,  981 ;  over- 
whelmed by  Prussia  in 
war  of  1866,  987-988 
Austrian  Succession,  the 
War  of  the,  causes  of,  704 ; 
events  of,  706-710,;  end 
and  results  of,  716,  717 
Austro-Hungary,  Revolu- 
tion of  1848  in,  951,  952 
Austro-Prussian  War,  the, 

987-988 

Auxiliary    sciences    to    his- 
tory, ii 


INDEX 


1097 


Auxilium,  118 

A'vice,  see  Isabel 

Avignon,  the  papacy  at, 
226 

Avranches',  submission  of 
Henry  II  at,  112 

Aylesbury  (ails'bury)  elec- 
tion case,  the,  659 

B 

Babington's  plot,   393 

Bacon,  Roger,  150-161,  304 

Bacon,  Sir  Francis,  succes- 
sively Baron  Verulam 
and  Viscount  St.  Albans, 
writings  of,  420;  estimate 
of,  444 ;  his  impeachment 
and  fall,  444,  445 ;  men- 
tioned, 606,  1049 

Bacon,  Sir  Nicholas,  Lord 
Keeper,  371 

Badajoz,  Wellington  cap- 
tures, 857 

Baden,  the  Peace  of,  679 

Baden-Powell  (Bayden- 
Po'ell),  Colonel,  1035 

Bad'minton,  595    , 

Badon,  Mount,  29 

Bahamas,  the,  781 

Bakewell,  Robert,  790,  791 

Balaclava  Bay,  962 

Balance  of  trade,  288 

Balfe,  Michael,  1057 

Bal'four,  Arthur,  becomes 
Irish  Secretary,  1020 ; 
leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  1023,  1027 ; 
becomes  Prime  Minister, 
1072 ;  his  attitude  on 
tariff  reform,  1073,  IO74; 
his  resignation,  1074  >  his 
retirement  from  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Opposition, 
1086;  on  the  Parliament 
Bill  conference,  1079 

Balkan  War,  the,  1083 

Ball,  John,  231,  232,  234 

Bal'liol,  Edward,  King  of 
Scotland,  190,  191,  197 

Balliol,  John,  King  of  Scot- 
land, 170,  171 

Balliol  College,  Oxford,  160 

Bangorian  Controversy,  the, 
683 

Bank  of  England,  the  foun- 
dation of  the,  637-639; 
bids  on  the  Debt,  686, 
687;  suspends  in  1797, 


836;  resumes  specie  pay- 
ments, 875 ;  in  crisis  of 
1825,  877  ;  run  on,  during 
Reform  Bill  agitation,  916 ; 
charter  of,  reserved,  918; 
critical  condition  of,  at 
Victoria's  accession,  941 

Bank  Charter  Act,  Peel's,  of 
1844,  941-942 

Ban'nockburn,  battle  of,  184 

Banns,  marriage,  719 

Bantry  Bay,  French  expedi- 
tion lands  at,  835 

Baptists,  law  against  the, 
500 

Barber  Surgeons,  gild  of, 
221;  monopoly  of,  broken, 
792 

Barbon,  Nicholas,  606 

Barcelona,  657 

Bardi,  the,  194 

Barebones  Parliament,  the, 
see  Nominated 

Barillon,  French  ambassa- 
dor, 573 

Baring,  Evelyn,  Lord 
Cromer,  British  Commis- 
sioner in  Egypt,  1003 ; 
Agent  and  Consular  Gen- 
eral, 1014,  1015 ;  his 
effective  administration, 
1015,  1016 

Bar'net,  battle  of,  268,  269 

Baronet,  the  title  of,  created, 
437,  438 

Barons,  concessions  to,  in 
Magna  Carta,  143 ;  de- 
mand elective  ministers, 
151 ;  refuse  a  grant  to 
Henry  III,  152;  war 
against  Henry  III,  153- 
155;  final  submission, 
156;  conflicts  with  Ed- 
ward II,  182-185 

Barre,  Colonel,  752 

Barrier,  fortress,  646 ; 
treaties,  664,  671,  826 

Barrows,  neolithic,  13 

Barrows,  Celtic,  14 

Bartholomew  Fair,  806 

Barton,  Elizabeth,  the,  nun 
of  Kent,  319 

Basle,  Peace  of,  834 

Basques,  the,  13 

Bastille,  the,  destruction  of, 
824 

Bastwicke,  John,  464,  477 

Batavian  Republic,  834 ; 
Austria  recognizes,  846 


Bate  Case,  the,  434 
Bath,  city  of,  22,  602 
"Batta,"  the,  double,  809; 

Bentinck  revises,  967 
Battle,  trial  by,  117 

Battle  of  Lewes,  the,  161 

"Battle  of  the  Saints,"  the, 
778 

Baxter,  Richard,  538,  539, 
576,  604 

Bayeux  Tapestry,  the,  60 

Beachy  Head,  battle  of,  625 

Bea'ton,  Cardinal,  333,  334, 
352,  367 

Beaufort  (bo'fort),  the  Duke 
of,  595 

Beaufort,  origin  of  House  of, 
246 

Beaufort,  Edmund,  Duke  of 
Somerset,  257,  258,  259, 
260 

Beaufort,  Henry,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  254,  255,  257 

Beauvais  (bo  va'),  the 
Bishop  of,  257 

Becket,  St.  Thomas,  Chan- 
cellor, 108 ;  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  ib.  •  conflict 
with  Henry  II,  108-1 1 1  ; 
murdered,  1 1 1 ;  canon- 
ization, ib. ;  113,  219,  225, 
242,  243,  329 

Bedchamber  Question,  the 
934,  935,  985 

Bede,  the  Venerable,  his 
Historia,  37,  38,  71-73 

Bedford,  Dukes  of,  see  John 
and  Russell 

Beggars,  219,  342 

Belfast,  9;  Queen's  College 
at,  944;  anti-Hotoe  Rule 
agitation  in,  1086,  1087 

Belgae,  14 

Belgium,  Austria  cedes  to 
France,  846 ;  revolution 
of  1830,  in,  880-890 

Bell,  Andrew,  educational 
theories  of,  995 

Bell,  Graham,  inventor  of 
telephone,  1055 

Bell,  Henry,  steamboat  of, 
on  Clyde,  894 

Bellerophon,  the,  864 

Bellingham,  assassin  of  Per- 
ceval, 856 

Benares,  Chait  Singh,  Raja 
of,  810 

Benedict  of  Peterborough, 
Chronicle  of,  127 


iog8 


INDEX 


Benedictine  Order,  the,  37 

Benefit  of  clergy,  112  ;  abol- 
ished, 903 

Benevolences,  abolished  by 
Richard  III,  274;  ac- 
count of,  405 ;  attempts 
of  James  I  to  collect,  438 ; 
of  Charles  I,  455 ;  abol- 
ished, 457 

Bengal,  the  winning  of,  735  ; 
famine  in,  809  ;  discontent 
in  army  at,  before  Mu- 
tiny, 970;  in  Indian  Mu- 
tiny, 971 

Bennet,  Henry,  Earl  of  Ar- 
lington, 548,  550,  551 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  assists 
in  law  reform,  875 ;  pio- 
neer in  legislation,  895 ; 
influence  of,  906-907 

Ben'tinck,  Lord  George, 
becomes  Conservative 
leader,  945-946;  proposal 
of,  for  railroads  in  Ire- 
land, 951 

Bentinck,  William,  Earl  of 
Portland,  635,  646 

Bentinck,  William  Henry, 
Duke  of  Portland,  808, 
833,  852,  855 

Bentinck,  Lord  William,  re- 
forms of,  in  India,  967 

Bentley,  Richard,  792,  1050 

Benton,  William,  1085 

Benzine,  the  discovery  of, 
1052 

Beowulf,  45,  70,  71 

Berengaria,  of  Navarre,  122 

Ber'esfords,  the  influence  of, 
in  Ireland,  838 ;  appeal 
of,  against  Fitzwilliam, 
840 

Bergen,  542 

Bergen-op-Zoom,  716 

Berkeley  (bark'ly),  George, 
793-794 ;  Governor,  307 

Berlin,  the  Congress  of, 
1005,  1006 

Berlin,  Decree,  the,  852,  853 

Bermuda,  Durham  exiles 
Canadian  rebels  to,  931 

Bernardoni,  Giovanni  Fran- 
cesco, see  St.  Francis 

Berni'cians,  30 

Bernstorff,  677 

Bertrand  de  Born,  121 

Berwick  (beVick),  Duke  of, 
natural  son  of  James  II, 
634,  685 


Berwick,  the  Pacification  of, 
470;  the  treaty  of,  374 

Bible,  the  Wiclif  version, 
228;  forbidden,  247; 
translations  of  the,  307, 
330,  33i 

Bible  Society,  the  British 
and  Foreign,  902 

Bill  of  Rights,  the,  142,  561 ; 
terms  of,  622 

Birmingham,  3 ;  Chartist 
National  Convention  at, 
939 ;  Russel  proposes  to 
enfranchise,  908 ;  Orsini's 
bombs  manufactured  at, 
974 ;  representation  of, 
under  the  Act  of  1867, 987 

Birmingham  Political  Union, 
the,  Revival  of,  939 

Birrell,  Augustine,   1079 

Bishops,  method  of  appoint- 
ment, under  Anglo-Saxon 
kings,  under  William  I, 
79;  election  of,  96,  122; 
attempt  to  establish,  in 
the  Colonies,  750;  the 
character  of  the  early 
nineteenth  century,  1039 

Bishops'  Drag-net,  the,  573 

Bishops'  War,  the  first,  470  ; 
the  second,  473 

Bismarck,  his  attitude  on  the 
Schleswig-Holstein  Ques- 
tion, 980;  made  Chan- 
cellor, 988 ;  his  conduct  of 
the  Franco-Prussian  War, 
1000;  death  of,  1028; 
his  social  insurance  policy, 
1060 

Black,  Joseph,  792 

Black  Box,  the,  562 

Black  Death,  198-200,  216, 
220,  231,  284 

"Black  Friday,"  712 

Blackmore,  Richard,  1049 

Black  Mountains,  the,  7 

Black  Prince,  the,  see  Ed- 
ward 

Black  Rubric,  the,  354 

Black  Sea,  Castlereagh  fears 
Russian  supremacy  in, 
886;  Russian  desire  for 
outlet  from,  959 ;  Russia 
refuses  to  yield  her  pre- 
ponderance in,  963 ;  Peace 
of  Paris  neutralizes,  964; 
Russian  ships  again  al- 
lowed in,  1001 

Blackstone,     Sir     William, 


529 ;  his  Commentaries, 
529,  740;  Bentham  at- 
tacks views  of,  906 

Blackwood's  Magazine,  900 

"Black  Year,"  the,  1056 

Blake,  Robert,  admiral  and 
general,  513,  520 

Blake,  William,  the  poetry 
of,  896 

Bleaching,  by  chlorine,  892 

Blenheim,  612;  battle  of, 
of,  656 

Blenheim  palace,  657 

Blockades,  "Declaration  of 
Paris"  on,  964 

Blockade  running,  British 
profit  by,  in  American 
Civil  War,  978-979 

Bloemfontein  (blom'fontin), 

i°34 

Blood  feud,  16 

Bloody  Assize,  the,  569 

Bloody  Clavers,  see  Graham, 
John 

Blore  Heath,  battle  of,  261 

Bliicher,  Marshal,  in  Water- 
loo Campaign,  862-865 

Blue  Coat  School,  356 

"Blue  Stockings,"  origin  of 
term,  806 

Boadice'a,  or  Bou'dicca,  in- 
surrection of,  19 

Board  of  Ordinance,  aboli- 
tion of  the,  963 

Board  schools,  996 

Board  of  Selection,  the,  1074 

Boccaccio,  225,  303 

Bo'cher,  Joan,  353 

Bodleian  Library,  303 

Boer  War,  the,  1032-1036; 
aid  of  British  colonies  in, 
1069;  conclusion  of,  1072, 
1074 

Boleyn  (bul'len),  Anne,  309, 
310,  317,  3i8,  324,  325 

Bolingbroke,  see  Henry  of 
Lancaster  and  St.  John, 
Henry 

Bologna  (bolon'ya),  Uni- 
versity of,  115,  128 

Bombay,  721 ;  acquired 
under  Charles  II,  540 

Bonaparte,  Jerome,  King  of 
Westphalia,  852  and  note 

Bonaparte,  Louis,  King  of 
Holland,  851 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  at 
siege  of  Toulon,  832,  833; 
defeats  Austrians,  1 796, 


INDEX 


1099 


835 ;  aims  to  strike  India, 
838;  Egyptian  campaign 
of,  844,  845 ;  becomes 
First  Consul,  846;  ambi- 
tions and  position  of, 
in  1803,  849;  Emperor 
of  the  French,  850; 
crushes  Third  Coalition, 
850,  85 1 ;  defeats  Prus- 
sians at  Jena  and  Auer- 
stadt,  851,  852  ;  territorial 
changes  effected  by,  in 
1806,  851,  852;  the 
Continental  System  of, 
852,  853;  signs  Tilsit 
treaty  with  Russia,  ib. ; 
beginning  of  uprising  in 
Spain  against,  853-855 ; 
defeats  Austria  in  1809, 
855;  loses  Spain,  856- 
858 ;  Russian  campaign 
of,  858;  first  abdication 
of,  858-859 ;  escapes  from 
Elba,  862;  defeat  of,  at 
Waterloo,  862-865;  buys 
English  goods,  893 ;  his 
canal  project,  1002 
Bonar  (bon'ner)  Law,  An- 
drew, 1086,  1089 
Boniface  VIII,  Pope,  175, 

176 

Bonner,    Edmund,     Bishop 

of  London,  350,  362,  363 

Book    of    Common    Order, 

375 

Book  of  Homilies,  the,  350 
Book  of  Rates,  the,  434 
Books  of  Beauty,  1043 
Books    of    Discipline,    first 

and  second,  375 
Borden,  Robert,  1082 
Borden  Naval  Bill,  the,  1082 
Border,  the  Scottish,  8 
Border    Minstrelsy,  Scott's, 

897 

Borodino,  battle  of  the,  858 
Boroughs,  origin  and  char- 
acteristics of,  47,  64-65 ; 
after  the  Conquest,  88; 
under  Henry  I,  98;  in 
the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries,  128,  129; 
members  from,  under  the 
Tudors,  403 ;  types  of, 
before  first  Reform  Bill, 
910-911;  abuses  in,  be- 
fore first  Reform  Bill, 
009-910 ;  franchise  in, 
under  Reform  Acts  of 


1832  and  1867,  916,  987; 
under  Municipal  Reform 
Act  of  1835,  925 

Boroughbridge,  battle  of,  185 

Bosca'wen,  Admiral,  722, 
729,  730 

Bosnia,  1003,  1005 

Boston  Massacre,  763 

Boston  "Tea  Party,"  764 

Boston  Port  Bill,  ib. 

Boston,  siege  of,  768 

Boswell,  James,  799 

Bosworth,  battle  of,  274,  275 

Bot,  65 

Botany  Bay,  transportation 
to,  958-959 

Botha  (bo'ta),  General,  in 
the  Boer  War,  1033 ; 
Premier  of  South  Africa, 
1081 

Bothmar  (bot'mar),  677 

Bothwell,  see  Hepburn, 
James 

Boufflers  (boo-flay'),  Mar- 
shal, 635,  636 

Boulogne  (booloin'),  334; 
sold  to  France,  353 ;  Na- 
poleon's camp  at,  850 

Boulton  (bol'ton),  Matthew, 
787,  788 

Bourbon,  Duke  of,  Regent 
of  France,  691,  692 

Bourbon,  Isle  de,  721 

Bourbons,  the,  restored  to 
France  by  allies,  859; 
Metternich  pledged  to 
protect,  884;  (Orleanist) 
Palmerston's  hatred  of, 
957 

Boxer  Rebellion,  the,  1036 

Boxley,  the  Rood  of,  328, 
329 

"Boy   Patriots,"    the,    703, 

744 

Boy  Scouts,  the,  1035 
Boycott,  Captain,  ion 
Boyle,  Robert,  606 
Boyne,  battle  of  the,  626 
Brachicephalic  skulls,    13 
Bracton,  439 
Braddock's  defeat,  722 
Bradlaugh   (brad'law)   case, 

the,  1009 

Bradshaw,  John,  507,  533 
Braemar,    Highlanders     as- 
semble at,  679 
Braganza,  House  of,  driven 

from  Portugal,  853-854 
Brahmins,  excited  state  of, 


a  cause  of  Indian  Mutiny, 
969,  970 

Brandon,  Charles,  Duke  of 
Suffolk,  296,  327,  344 

Brandywine,  battle  at  the, 
769 

Brazil,  Portuguese  Royal 
family  flees  to,  853,  854; 
declares  independence, 
876 ;  foreign  recognition 
of  independence  of,  884- 
885 

Bread  riots  in  1795,  834 

Breda,  declaration  of,  527, 
529,  533-535;  the  Peace 
of,  543 

Breslau  and  Berlin,  Peace 
of,  707 

Brest,  296 ;  failure  of  the  ex- 
pedition against,  632 

Br6tigny,  Peace  of,  203 

Breviary,  the,  331 

Bribery  in  Parliament,  913, 
914 

Bridewell,  356 

Bridgettine  monks,  the,  320 

Bridgewater  Canal,  786,  787 

Bright,  John,  works  to  secure 
Corn-Law  repeal,  940 ; 
characterization  by,  of 
Disraeli's  franchise  bill  of 
1859, 984 ;  furthers  reform 
in  1866,  986;  proposes 
"votes  for  women,"  987; 
in  Gladstone's  second 
Ministry,  1009 ;  opposes 
Home  Rule,  1018,  1019 

"Bright  clauses,"  the,  in 
Irish  Land  Act  of  1870, 
994-995 

Brihuega,  the  battle  of,  665 

Brindley,  James,  786,  787 

Brisbane,  1066 

Bristol,  5,  287 ;  riot  at,  915 

Britain,  races  in,  1 1  ff . ; 
extinct  men  and  animals 
of,  i  i-i  2 ;  paleolithic 
age  in,  ib. ;  neolithic  man 
in,  12-13;  Celtic  invaders 
into,  14;  after  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Romans,  25 

British  and  Foreign  School 
Society,  the,  995 

British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science, 
the,  1051 

British  Columbia,  932 

British  East  Africa  Com- 
pany, 1029 


IIOO 


INDEX 


British  Empire,  the,  area, 
population,  and  revenue 
of,  i,  1063;  desire  to 
restrict,  1064,  1069 ;  in- 
crease of  emigration  in, 
1065 ;  see  Canada,  South 
Africa,  Australia,  and  New 
Zealand;  the  problem  of, 
1068,  1069 

British  Indian  Empire,  the, 
China  threatens,  966 

British  Isles,  physical  char- 
acteristics, i-io ;  area 
and  population,  i ;  cli- 
mate, 1—2 

British  Museum,  foundation 
of,  793  note 

Brittany,  Duchy  of,  194,  282 

"Broad  bottom,"  ministries, 
706,  709 

Broad  Churchmen,  the,  1041, 
1042 

Bronte,  Charlotte,  1047 

Bronze  age,  in  Britain,  13 

Brougham  (broom),  Henry, 
characterization  of,  868 ; 
counselor  for  Queen  Caro- 
line, 873 ;  assists  in  legal 
reform,  875 ;  contributes 
to  Edinburgh  Review,  900 ; 
influence  of  Bentham  on, 
907  ;  in  Grey's  Ministry, 
909 ;  speech  of,  on  second 
Reform  Bill,  915,  note; 
hostility  of  William  IV 
to,  923 ;  not  in  Mel- 
bourne's second  Ministry, 
924 ;  political  policy  of, 
in  1838-1839,  933 

Brown,  Lord   Madox,   1057 

Browne,  Archbishop,  335 

Browne,  Robert,  388 

Browne,  Sir  Thomas,  607 

Brownists,  the,  388 

Browning,  ElizabethBarrett, 
1046 

Browning,  Robert,  1045, 
1046 

Bruce,  David,  King  of  Scot- 
land, 190,  196,  197 

Bruce,  Robert,  claimant  to 
Scottish  throne,  170 

Bruce,  Robert,  King  of  Scot- 
land, 177,  180,  184,  190 

Bruce,  Edward,  184,  201 

Bruce,  Thomas  Lord  Elgin, 
1050;  see  Elgin  sculp- 
tures 

Brunanburh,  battle  of,  47 


Brussels,  Wellington's  head- 
quarters at,  862 ;   popular 
rising  of  1830  in,  890 
Brut,  legend  of,  127 
Brythons,  the,  14 
Buchanan,  George,  429 
Bucharest,    the    Peace    of, 

1083 
Buckingham,  Dukes  of,  see 

Stafford  and  Villiers 
Buckle,  Thomas,  1050 
Budget,  Disraeli  poor  at 

framing  a,  989 
Budgets,  Peel's,  of  1842, 
941 ;  the  second  Free 
Trade,  942 ;  Gladstone's 
first,  959;  Disraeli's,  of 
1852,  upsets  Derby's  first 
Ministry,  958 ;  Glad- 
stone's, of  1860,  977; 
Llpyd  George's,  1077, 
1078 

Bulgaria,  1003-1006 
Bull,  see  John  Bull 
Bull    baiting     forbidden    in 

England,  903 

Buller,  General,  1034,  1035 
Bunker  Hill,  battle  of,  768 
Bunyan,  John,  576,  607 
Bur'dett,  Francis,  907 
Burford,  battle  of,  38 
Burgh,  de,  see  Hubert 
Burghley      (bur'ly),     Lord, 

see  Cecil,  William 
Burgoyne,     General,     cam- 
paign of,  769,  770 
Burgundy,     Edward     IV's 
commercial    treaty    with, 
271 

Burgundy,  Dukes  of,  see 
John,  Philip,  and  Charles ; 
see,  also  Margaret  and 
Mary 

Burh,  see  Borough 
Burial  Act,  the,  1009 
Burke,  Edmund,  726;  views 
of,  on  American  taxation, 
749 ;  character  and  policy 
of,  754.  755  ;  opposes  the 
Stamp  Act,  755  ;  works  to 
conciliate  American  Col- 
onies, 765,  766;  made 
Paymaster  of  the  Forces, 
776;  in  trial  of  Hastings, 
820 ;  attitude  towards 
French  Revolution,  825, 
and  note ;  estrangement 
between  Fox  and,  825, 
826 ;  denounces  Pitt's 


foreign  policy,  828 ;  on 
the  war  with  France,  830 ; 
opposes  parliamentary  re-- 
form, 907 

Burke,  Thomas  Henry,  ion 

Burmah,  Lower,  British  an- 
nexation of,  968 

Burmese  war,  the  first,  967 

Bur'net,  Gilbert,  Bishop  of 
Salisbury,  604 

Burne-Jones,  Edward,  1057 

Burney,  Fanny,  English 
novelist,  800-801,  900 

Burns,  Robert,  poetry  of, 
896 

Burton,  Henry,  464,  477 

Burton,  Robert,  607 

Bury,  St.  Edmund,  42 ; 
brothers  of,  131 

Bushel's  case,  639 

Bussy,  Marquis  de,  721 

Bute,  Earl  of,  see  Stuart, 
John 

Butler,  James,  twelfth  Earl 
and  first  Duke  of  Ormonde, 
498,  510,  511 

Butler,  James,  second  Duke 
of  Ormonde,  654,  670,  678, 
679,  685,  690 

Butler,  Samuel,  608 

Butt,  Isaac,  1010 

Buxton,  Thomas  Powell, 
920,  1059 

Byng  (blng),  Admiral 
George,  Viscount  Torring- 
ton,  664,  685 

Byng,  Admiral  John,  723, 
724,  726,  727,  728 

Byron,  Lord,  in  Greece, 
886,  and  note;  literary 
work  of,  897-898;  influ- 
ence of,  1045 


Cabal'  Ministry,  the,  532, 
547-549 ;  break-up  of, 

551 

"Cabinet,"  the,  of 
Charles  II,  532 

Cabinet  system,  the  be- 
ginning of,  529,  614-617, 
642 ;  weakness  of,  under 
Anne,  667 ;  check  in 
the  progress  of,  under 
George  III,  738;  influ- 
ence of  first  Reform  Bill 
upon,  917 

Cable,  the  Atlantic,  1054 


INDEX 


IIOI 


Cabot,  John,  5,  283,  200,  303 
Cabot,  Sebastian,  410 
Cade,    Jack,    rebellion    of, 

259 

Cadiz,  Duke  of,  949 

Cadiz,  plundered  by  Drake, 
394 ;  expedition  against, 
under  Howard  and  Es- 
sex, 397,  398;  unsuccess- 
ful expedition  to,  in  1625, 
454;  expedition  against, 
under  Rooke  and  Or- 
monde, 654 

Csdmon,  71 

Caedwalla,  34 

Caesar,  Julius,  his  Com- 
mentaries, 14;  descrip- 
tion of  the  Celtic  religion 
ib.  •  of  London,  16;  first 
invasion  of  Britain, 
55  B.C.,  17;  second  in- 
vasion, 54  B.C.,  17,  18; 
description  of  the  ancient 
Germans,  27,  62 

Calais,  made  a  staple,  212, 
213 ;  siege  and  capture 
of,  197 ;  attempt  of 
French  to  recover,  202 ; 
use  of  cannon  at,  218; 
retained  at  end  of  Hun- 
dred Years'  War,  260; 
representation  granted  to, 
339;  lost  by  England, 
364,  365,  372 

Calcutta,  acquired  by  the 
British,  591,  721;  the 
"Black  Hole"  of,  734; 
capital  transferred  from, 
to  Delhi,  1080 

"Caleb  Williams,"  899 

Caledonians,  the,  15 

Calendar,  the  reform  of 
the,  718,  719;  extended 
to  the  Colonies,  750 

Calico  printing,  introduced 
into  England,  590 

Calvin,  Robert,  case  of,  435 

Calvinism,  366,  367 ;  doc- 
trinal and  political  in- 
fluence of,  349,  350 

Cambrian  Mountains,  7 

Cambridge,  University  of, 
beginning  of,  128;  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  223; 
teaching  monks  to  be 
maintained  at,  323 ;  in 
the  time  of  Henry  VIII, 
345;  the  Test  Act  of 
1871,  997 


Cambridge  Platonists,   the, 

603,  604 
Camden,    Earl,    see    Pratt, 

Charles 
Camera    Stellata,    see    Star 

Chamber 
Cameron,        Donald,        of 

Lochiel,  711 
Cameron,     Sir     Ewen,     of 

Lochiel,  628 
Cameronians,  the,  574 
Campbell,    Archibald,    fifth 

Earl  of  Argyle,  367 
Campbell,  Archibald,  eighth 

Earl     and     Marquis     of 

Argyle,    481,     506,    512, 

Si3,  535 
Campbell,  Archibald,  ninth 

Earl  of  Argyle,  568 
Campbell,  Archibald,   Mar- 
quis   and    first    Duke    of 

Argyle,  628 
Campbell,      John,      second 

Duke     of     Argyle,     679, 

680,  699 
Campbell,    Sir    Colin,    972, 

973,  and  note 
Campbell,     Thomas,     poet, 

899 
Campbell-Bannerman,      Sir 

Henry,  1076,  1077 
Campeggio,    Cardinal,    310, 

3" 
Camperdown,  British  naval 

victory  off,  837,  838 
Campion,  Edmund,  387 
Campo    Formio,    Peace    of, 

837 

Camulodunum,  18,  19 
Canada,  the  British  con- 
quest of,  736;  ceded  to 
the  British,  743 ;  proph- 
ecy concerning  the  French 
surrender  of,  741,  749; 
regulations  for,  under 
Quebec  Act,  764,  765 ; 
France  gives  up  all  claim 
to,  771 ;  loyalty  of,  to 
England,  in  war  of  1812, 
860;  governmental  prob- 
lems and  revolt  in,  930- 
932;  Durham's  proposed 
constitution  for,  becomes 
model  for  British  Colo- 
nies, 932;  Government 
bill  for  the,  932 ;  immi- 
gration into,  1065 ;  gov- 
ernment of,  1067 
Canadian  Reciprocity,  1082 


Canal  transportation,  de- 
velopment of,  in  Eng- 
land, 786,  787 

Canning,  George,  opposition 
of,  to  Addington  Ministry, 
847,  848;  quarrel  be- 
tween, and  Castlereagh, 
855 ;  leader  of  House  of 
Commons,  874,  875 ; 
Ministry  of,  878-879 ; 
death  of,  879;  foreign 
policy  of,  884-886;  duel 
with  Castlereagh,  902 ; 
joins  Scott,  to  found 
Quarterly  Review,  900 ; 
defeats  bill  for  gradual 
abolition  of  slavery  in 
British  Colonies,  920 

Canning,  Viscount,  in  India, 
969-970;  energy  of,  in 
the  Mutiny,  971 

Cannon,  use  of,  213,  218 

Canons,  Black,  99;  White, 
ib. 

Canon  law,  the,  116 

Canterbury,  foundation  of 
the  archbishopric  of,  32 ; 
murder  of  Archbishop 
Thomas  at,  1 1 1 ;  dis- 
puted election  of  the 
Archbishop  of,  137 

Canterbury  Tales,  127,  225 

Canton,  opened  to  British 
trade,  948 

Canton  River,  Chinese 
destroy  opium  in,  948 

Cape  Breton,  ceded  to  the 
British,  743,  see  also 
Louisburg 

Cape  Colony,  1030,  1031 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  pro- 
visions concerning,  in 
treaty  of  Amiens,  848 ; 
secured  to  Great  Britain 
by  Congress  of  Vienna, 
865 

Cape  Passaro,  battle  off,  685 

Cape  St.  Vincent,  battle 
off,  836 

Capel,  Arthur,  Earl  of 
Essex,  562,  564 

Capet,  Hugh,  founder  of 
the  French  Capetian 
dynasty,  56 

Capitalist  class,  develop- 
ment of,  in  England, 
788,  789 

Capodistrias,  President  of 
Greece,  887,  888 


IIO2 


INDEX 


Caracalla,  decree  of,  21 
Caraffa,        Cardinal,        see 

Paul  IV 

Carbery  Hill,  battle  of,  377 
Card  playing,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  217,  218 ;  rage  for,  in 
eighteenth-century     Lon- 
don, 806 

Cardan,  Jerome,  417 
Cardinal's     College     (later 

Christ  Church),  297 
Cardwell,     Edward,     army 

reforms  of,  907-998 
Carew  (ca'ry),  Sir  Peter,  360 
Carham     (car'am),     battle 

of,  54 

Caricaturists,     British,     in 
late  eighteenth  and  early 
nineteenth  centuries,  901 
Carisbrooke  Castle,  505 
Carlos,  Don,  son  of  Philip  II, 

375 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  his  vin- 
dication of  Cromwell,  524 ; 
champions  cause  of  John 
Eyre,  983 ;  on  Reform  of 
1867,  987 ;  his  writings, 
1043-1045 

Carmar'then,  Marquis  of, 
see  Osborne,  Sir  Thomas 

Carnar'von,  i6g 

Carnatic,  the,  721 ;  winning 
of  the,  735 

Carnot,  French  War  Min- 
ister, 832,  835,  837 

Carolinas,  the,  the  British 
wage  unsuccessful  war  in, 

774, 775 

Caroline  of  Anspach,  Queen 
of  George  II,  696,  697, 
700,  701 

Caroline,  Queen  of 
George  IV,  history  of, 
872-873 

Carpenter,  General,  680 

Carr,  Robert,  successively 
Viscount  Rochester  and 
Earl  of  Somerset,  440,  441 

Carson,  Sir  Edward,  1086, 
1088 

Carteret,  John,  Lord  Gran- 
ville,  706,  707,  709,  716, 
718 

Carthagena,  Vernon's  ex- 
pedition against,  704 

Carthusians,  the,  126;  pro- 
ceeding against,  320,  321 

Cartwright,  Edmund,  Eng- 
lish inventor,  785,  786, 892 


Cartwright,  Thomas,  Pres- 
byterian, 389 

Carucage,  the,  of  1198,  124 
Carwell,  Madame,  554 
"Case   of   the   Army   fully 

stated,"  the,  504 
Cashel,  synod  at,  112 
Casket  Letters,  the,  377 
Cassiter'ides,  or  tin  islands, 

14 

Cassivellaun'us,  or  Cas- 
wallon,  17 

Castillon,  battle  of,  260 

Castle  Chamber,  court  of, 
406 

Castles,  Anglo-Norman,  89, 
90;  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  162 ;  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  221 

Castlemaine,  Lady,  see  Pal- 
mer, Barbara 

Castlereagh  (Castleray'), 
Viscount,  in  Ireland,  142 ; 
British  Secretary  for  War, 
854 ;  quarrel  between,  and 
Canning,  855 ;  represents 
Great  Britain  at  Congress 
of  Vienna,  862 ;  political 
status  of,  after  Napoleonic 
wars,  868;  suicide  of, 
874,  and  note ;  advo- 
cates non-intervention  in 
European  affairs,  884 ; 
attitude  toward  Russian 
intervention  in  Greece, 
886;  duel  with  Canning, 
902 

Catalonia,  657,  663,  665 

Cateau  Cambrdsis,  Peace 
of,  343,  372 

Catesby,  Robert,  432 

Catharine  of  Aragon,  Queen 
of  Henry  III,  betrothed 
to  Arthur,  282 ;  marries 
Henry  VIII,  283 ;  divorce 
proceedings  against,  308- 
311;  popularity  of,  317; 
divorce  from  Henry  VIII 
pronounced,  318;  death 
of,  321,  322 

Catharine  of  Braganza, 
Queen  of  Charles  II,  540, 
558,  560 

Catharine  Howard,  Queen 
of  Henry  VIII,  332,  333 

Catharine  Parr,  Queen  of 
Henry  VIII,  336 

Catherine  de'  Medici,  379, 
384 


Catherine,  Empress  of  Rus- 
sia, 692 

Catherine  II,  Empress  of 
Russia,  827 

Catholic  Emancipation,  879- 
882 

Catholic  League,  the,  of 
1609,  442 

Catholic  Relief  Bill,  the, 
1040 

Catholics,  see  Roman 
Catholics 

Cattle  Act,  the  Irish,  536 

Catuvellauni,  the,  17 

Cautionary  towns,  the 
Dutch,  391,  438 

Cavalier  Parliament,  the, 
temper  and  work  of,  536, 
537  ;  the  Clarendon  Code 
of,  537-539 ;  overthrow 
of  Clarendon  by,  544,  545 ; 
gains  of,  545,  546 ;  origin 
of  corruption  in,  553,  554 ; 
its  dissolution,  560,  561 

Cavalier  poets,  the,  607,  608 

Cavaliers,  name  first  em- 
ployed, 483 ;  burdens  on, 
522 

Cavendish,  origin  of  the 
family  of,  329 

Cavendish,  Lord  Frederick, 
ion 

Cavendish,  Henry,  scientific 
discoveries  of,  895 

Cavendish,  William,  fourth 
Duke  of  Devonshire, 
Prime  Minister,  725 

Cavour,  Count,  r&le  of, 
in  achievement  of  Italian 
unification,  975-976 

Cawnpore,  massacre  at,  971 

Caxton,  William,  290,  291 

Ceaw'lin,  29 

Ce'cil,  Robert  (later  Earl 
of  Salisbury),  successively 
Secretary  of  State  and 
Lord  Treasurer,  397,  429, 
432,  434,  437 

Cecil,  Robert,  successively 
Viscount  Cranborne  and 
Marquis  of  Salisbury,  en- 
trance into  politics,  985 ; 
comment  of,  on  Reform 
Bill  of  1867,  986,  987 ;  his 
negotiations  in  the  Russo- 
Turkish  War,  1004,  1005  ; 
his  attack  on  Gladstone, 
1016;  his  first  Ministry, 
1017;  his  negotiations 


INDEX 


1103 


with  Parnell,  1017;  his 
denunciation  of  the  first 
Home  Rule  Bill,  1019; 
his  second  Ministry,  1019- 
1024;  estimate  of  his 
domestic  and  foreign 
policy  during  his  second 
administration,  1023 ; 
his  defeat  and  resignation, 
1023,  1024;  third  and  last 
Ministry,  1026  S. ;  man- 
agement of  the  Vene- 
zuela disputes,  1028;  see 
Khaki  election ;  retire- 
ment and  death  of,  1072; 
as  Foreign  Secretary, 
1074,  1076 

Cecil,  William,  Lord 
Burghley,  successively 
Secretary  of  State  and 
Lord  Treasurer,  character 
°f>  37 1 1  372;  sympathy 
with  the  Puritans,  389; 
his  cautious  councils,  397 ; 
his  death,  398;  his  eco- 
nomic policy,  413 

Celts,  the,  invasion  of,  into 
Britain,  13 ;  myths  con- 
cerning, ib.  •  remains  of, 
in  Britain,  ib. ;  religious, 
social  and  political  char- 
acteristics of,  in  Britain, 
14-16;  trade  and  indus- 
try, 16-17;  slightness  of 
influence  of,  on  Anglo- 
Saxons,  30 

Censorship,  see  Press 

Ceorls,  69 

Cerdic  and  Cynric,  founders 
of  the  West  Saxon  House, 
29 

Cerro,  mines  at,  340 

"Cessation,"  the,  in  Ireland, 
498 

Cetewayo,  Zulu  chief,  1030 

Ceylon,  secured  to  Great 
Britain  by  Congress  of 
Vienna,  865 ;  retained  by 
England  in  Peace  of 
Amiens,  848 

Chaise,  Pere  la,  556,  557 

Chait  Singh,  810 

Chalgrove  Field,  battle  of, 
402 

Chalmers  (Chah'mers),  Dr., 
1042 

Chaluz,  Castle  of,  125 

Chamberlain,  Austin,  1079 

Chamberlain,  Joseph,  enters 


the  Cabinet,  1009;  helps 
arrange  the  Kilmainham 
Treaty,  ion;  breaks 
from  the  Liberal  party, 
1019 ;  becomes  Colonial 
Secretary  under  Salis- 
bury, 1027 ;  fosters 
Imperialism  and  protec- 
tion, 1027,  1028 ;  presi- 
dent of  the  conference  of 
1902,  1072;  his  advocacy 
of  Tariff  Reform,  1073, 
1074;  resignation  of,  1073 
Chancellor,  the  Lord  High, 
functions  of,  97,  108,  168, 
404 

Chancellor,  Richard,  410 
Chancery,    court    of,   'Peel 
inaugurates     reform     of, 
904;     under    the    reform 
of  1873,  999 

Chandernagore,  721,  734 
Chantries,  336,  345;  sup- 
pressed, 349;  disposal  of 
the  spoil  from,  353 
Chantry  schools,  345 
Chapman,  George,  418 
Charlemagne,  Emperor  of 
the  Franks,  37,  38,  41,  74 
Charles,  Prince  (later 
Charles  I),  432 ;  proposed 
as  husband  for  Maria 
Anna  of  Spain,  441 ; 
journey  to  Spain,  446; 
betrothed  to  Henrietta 
Maria,  447 ;  involved  with 
Buckingham  in  anti- 
Hapsburg  alliances,  447, 
448,  see  Charles  I 
Charles  I,  King  of  England, 
character  and  problems 
of,  450,  451 ;  his  advisers, 
452,  453 ;  quarrels  with 
his  first  Parliament,  453, 
454;  dissolves  his  second 
to  block  inpeachment  of 
Buckingham,  454,  455 ; 
his  financial  exactions, 
455 ;  involved  in  war 
with  France,  455,  456; 
forced  to  sign  the  Petition 
of  Right,  457,  458;  at- 
tempts to  collect  tonnage 
and  poundage  and  issues 
a  Declaration  concerning 
religion,  458,  459;  dis- 
solves Parliament  and 
orders  the  imprisonment 
of  Eliot  and  eight  other 


members,  459,  460;  his 
eleven  years  of  personal 
rule,  460-471 ;  summons 
Short  Parliament,  471, 
472 ;  devices  of,  for 
raising  money  after  its 
dissolution,  472 ;  sum- 
mons a  Great  Council 
and  a  new  Parliament, 
473 ;  forced  to  consent 
to  Strafford's  execution, 
478,  479;  journey  to 
Scotland,  481 ;  rejects 
the  Grand  Remonstrance, 
483;  attempts  to  arrest 
the  five  members,  483, 
484 ;  withdrawal  from 
London  and  struggle  for 
control  of  the  kingdom, 
484;  raises  standard  at 
Nottingham,  485 ;  as  com- 
mander of  the  royalist 
forces,  489,  491,  492, 
495-497 ;  rejects  the 
Treaty  of  Oxford,  491 ; 
his  flight  after  Naseby, 
497,  498;  his  intrigues 
with  the  Irish,  498; 
his  surrender  to  the 
Scots,  499;  futile  nego- 
tiations with  the  Scots, 
500,  501 ;  handed  over 
to  Parliament,  501 ;  his 
person  secured  by  the 
army,  502 ;  rejects  the 
Heads  of  Proposals,  502, 
503 ;  flees  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight  and  makes  the 
"Engagement"  with  the 
Scots,  504,  505 ;  his  trial 
and  execution,  506-508 ; 
his  regulation  of  trade 
and  manufactures,  589 ; 
as  an  art  collector,  611 
Charles  II,  King  of  England, 
proclaimed  in  Ireland  and 
Scotland,  510,  511;  his 
sojourn  in  Scotland,  512; 
defeat  at  Worcester  and 
flight,  513 ;  results  of  his 
French  policy,  521;  his 
recall  to  England,  527 ; 
his  declaration  at  Breda, 
527,  529;  his  character 
and  policy,  530,  531 ;  his 
moderation,  533 ;  his  rev- 
enue, 533,  534;  his 
failure  to  secure  tolera- 
tion, 534,  535,  538;  his 


HO4 


INDEX 


coronation,  536;  foreign 
policy  and  marriage  of, 
539,  54°;  draws  close 
to  France,  540;  his  first 
war  with  the  Dutch, 
540-543 ;  growing  dis- 
content against,  543,  544 ; 
throws  over  Clarendon, 
544,  545 ;  seeks  to  make 
himself  absolute,  547 ; 
joins  a  Triple  Alliance 
against  Louis  XIV,  549; 
negotiates  the  Secret 
Treaty  of  Dover,  549, 
550;  his  Declaration  of 
Indulgence,  551;  his 
second  war  with  the 
Dutch,  552,  553;  gives 
up  his  Roman  Catholic 
designs  and  allies  with 
the  High  Church  party, 
553,  554;  his  idleness, 
554;  his  tortuous  foreign 
policy,  555,  556;  his 
attitude  toward  the 
Popish  Plot,  556-560; 
vain  effort  of,  to  save 
Danby,  560,  561 ;  his 
triumph  over  the  Whigs, 
562-564 ;  his  death,  565  ; 
state  of  monarchy  at 
death  of,  566;  his  Dec- 
laration of  Indulgence 
compared  with  those  of 
James  II,  576;  bribery 
in  elections  commences 
under,  911 

Charles  IV,  King  of  France, 
191 

Charles  V,  King  of  France, 
204,  205,  207 

Charles  VI,  King  of  France, 
238,  245,  249,  251,  254 

Charles  VIII,  King  of 
France,  281,  282,  343 

Charles  IX,  King  of  France, 
379,  384 

Charles  X,  King  of  France, 
889 

Charles  V,  German  Em- 
peror, 298-301,  308,  310, 
334,  359,  364,  380 

Charles,  Archduke,  later 
Emperor  Charles  VI,  646, 
647,  657,  658,  659,  663, 
668,  670,  692,  704 

Charles  II,  King  of  Spain, 
549,  645,  646 

Charles     III,     successively 


King  of  Naples  and  Spain, 
684,  685,  700,  741,  742 

Charles  IV,  King  of  Spain, 
Napoleon  forces  retire- 
ment of,  853,  854 

Charles  XII,  King  of 
Sweden,  663,  682,  685 

Charles  (the  Bold),  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  267,  270,  299 

Charles,  Duke  of  Orleans, 
250 

Charles  Albert  of  Bavaria, 
elected  Emperor  as 
Charles  VII,  704,  705,  710 

Charles  Edward,  the  Young 
Pretender,  birth  of,  690; 
joins  the  futile  French  ex- 
pedition of  1744,  709;  his 
leadership  of  the  '45, 
710-714;  his  flight,  last 
years  and  death,  714 

Charleston,  siege  of,  re- 
pulsed, 768 

Charlotte,  Queen  of 
George  III,  740 

Charter,  confirmations  of 
the,  148,  154,  170,  175, 
176 

Charter  of  Forests,  148 

Charter,  the  Great,  see 
Magna  Carta 

Charter  of  Liberties,  of 
Henry  I,  94 

Charter  of  Stephen,  100 

Chartered  Company,  the, 
1032 

Charterhouse,  the,  320 

Charters,  of  boroughs,  1 29 

Chartism,  first  phase  of, 
938-940;  collapse  of,  952- 
953 

Chateau  Gaillard,  124 

Chateaubriand,  his  char- 
acterization of  William 
Pitt,  814  note 

Chatham,  Earl  of,  see  Pitt, 
William 

Chatterton,  Thomas,  802 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  127,  221, 
290,  291,  303,  418;  his 
life  and  writings,  224,  225 

Chauvelin,  French  ambassa- 
dor to  England,  828,  830 

Cheke,  Sir  John,  344,  355 

Chelsea,  pottery  industry  at, 
786 

Chess,  73 

Chester,  22 ;  battle  of,  33 ; 
palatinate  of,  78;  repre- 


sentation granted  to,  339 ; 
Fenian  attempt  to  capture 
castle  of,  992 

Chesterfield,  Earl  of,  see 
Stanhope,  Philip  Dormer 

Chevalier  de  St.  Georges, 
the,  see  James  Francis 
Edward 

Chichester,  Sir  Arthur,  436 

Child,  Sir  Josiah,  605,  636 

Child  labor,  abuses  of,  943 

Childers,  Hugh,  naval  re- 
forms of,  997-998 

Children,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  217;  legislation 
affecting  the  employment 
of,  943 

Chillingworth,  William,  603 

Chiltern  Hills,  4 

China,  opium  war  of,  with 
Great  Britain,  947-948 ; 
Great  Britain  at  war  with, 
in  1856,  966  and  note; 
war  with  Japan,  1029; 
relations  with,  in  the  last 
years  of  Victoria,  ib. ; 
Manchuria  restored  to, 
1075 ;  coolie  labor  from, 
excluded  from  the  Trans- 
vaal, 1076 ;  revolution 
in,  1080;  see  Boxer  Re- 
bellion and  Opium 

Chinese  coolies  in  South 
Africa,  1074,  1077 

Chinon,  114,  255 

Chippenham,  treaty  of,  43 ; 
election,  the,  705 

Chivalry,  90,  218 

Christ  Church,  see  Cardinals, 
College 

Christian  IX,  King  of  Den- 
mark, 980,  1072 

Christianity,  British,  22; 
conversion  of  Anglo- 
Saxons  to,  31 

Christian  socialism,  1048, 
1062 

Christmas,  Old  Father,  224 

Christ's  Hospital,  356 

Chronicle,  The  London,  on 
defeat  of  second  Reform 
Bill,  915 

Chroniclers,  see  Ordericus, 
Florence  of  Worcester, 
Henry  of  Huntington, 
William  of  Malmesbury, 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth, 
Benedict  of  Peterborough, 
Roger  of  Hoveden,  Wil- 


INDEX 


1105 


Ham  of  Newborough, 
Walter  of  Coventry,  Mat- 
thew Paris,  Froissart 

Chupattis,  the,  970 

Church,  the  English,  be- 
ginnings of,  32,  35;  or- 
ganization and  extension 
of,  36 ;  influence  of,  38 ; 
a  model  of  unity  in 
Anglo-Saxon  England, 
40;  attitude  of  Wil- 
liam I  toward,  79,  80; 
concession  to,  in  charter 
of  Henry  I,  94;  gains  of, 
under  Stephen,  105  ;  secu- 
lar character,  under 
Henry  II,  126;  conces- 
sions to,  in  Magna  Carta, 
143 ;  condition  of,  under 
Henry  III,  159.  160; 
Statute  of  Mortmain 
directed  against,  1 79 ; 
parliamentary  attacks  on 
its  wealth,  247 ;  the, 
declining  power  of,  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  278, 
279;  condition  of,  at 
the  eve  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, 307,  308;  see  also 
Church  of  England, 
Church  of  Rome,  Refor- 
mation, Oxford  Move- 
ment, Anselm,  Becket, 
Wiclif,  Laud,  Wesley 

Church,  the  Scotch-Irish, 
22,  23 

Church  of  England,  separa- 
tion of,  from  Rome,  315- 
320;  articles  of  faith  of, 
325,  326;  suppression 
of  the  monasteries,  322- 
324,  328-330;  Protestant 
excesses,  349,  350;  first 
Act  of  Uniformity,  350, 
351 ;  the  second  Act  of 
Uniformity,  the  revised 
Prayer  Book,  and  the 
Forty-two  Articles,  354, 
355 ;  Mary  restores  the 
system  of  Henry  VIII, 
350,  360;  the  Eliza- 
bethan settlement  of, 
372-374;  attacked  in 
the  Marprelate  libels,  389, 
390 ;  royal  supremacy 
over,  under  Elizabeth, 
402,  403 ;  in  Ireland, 
436;  views  of  the  High 
Anglican  party  in^  452; 
4B 


the  Declaration  of 
Charles  I  concerning  in- 
novations in  the,  459, 
460;  the  Laudian  policy 
and  religious  discontent, 
461-466 ;  split  in  parlia- 
mentary party  over  re- 
form of,  480,  481 ;  atti- 
tude of  Cromwell  toward, 
518;  ceases  to  be  a 
national  body,  528;  fail- 
ure to  secure  toleration 
in,  534,  535 ;  the  Claren- 
don Code,  537-539;  re- 
versal of  the  policy  of 
Charles  II  toward,  553 ; 
aims  of  James  II  to  Ro- 
manize, 570-573,  575-579 ; 
his  belated  concessions 
to,  580,  581 ;  the  clergy 
of,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  596 ;  Latitudi- 
narian  movement  in,  603, 
604;  toleration  in,  and 
the  failure  of  comprehen- 
sion, 621,  622;  the  es- 
tablishment guaranteed,  in 
the  union  with  Scotland, 
662 ;  Sacheverell's  de- 
fense of,  666 ;  rationalism 
in,  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 793 ;  Ecclesiastical 
Commission  corrects 

abuses  in,  925 ;  educa- 
tion in  control  of,  995 ; 
monopoly  of  members  of, 
under  Test  Act  of  1871, 
997 ;  condition  of,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  1039— 
1041 ;  later  conflicts  in, 
1042 

Church  of  Rome,  introduced 
into  Kent,  32;  triumph 
at  Whitby,  35 ;  organiza- 
tion and  extrusion  of, 
36;  its  influence,  38; 
English  fear  of,  in  1850, 

953-954 

Church  of  Scotland,  see 
Scotland 

Church  courts,  under  Wil- 
liam I  and  Stephen,  109; 
under  Henry  II,  no; 
powers  of,  under  Eliza- 
beth, 402 

Church  lands,  533 

Church  rates,  compulsory, 
Derby  opposes  abolition 
of,  989 


Churchill,  John,  later  Duke 
of  Marlborough,  deserts 
James  II,  583 ;  his  plot 
and  dismissal  by  Wil- 
liam III,  630;  discloses 
the  expedition  against 
Brest,  632;  draws  to- 
ward William  III,  634; 
takes  up  his  work,  648; 
character  of,  653,  654 ; 
his  relations  to  parties, 
ib. ;  his  campaigns,  654- 
656,  658-659,  662-665, 
668,  669;  receives  grant 
of  Blenheim,  657 ;  forces 
a  Whig  secretary  on  the 
Queen,  660;  accused  of 
aiming  at  a  military 
dictatorship,  665;  refuses 
to  resign,  667 ;  attempts 
to  obstruct  the  peace, 
668 ;  his  removal,  669 ; 
his  achievements,  671, 
672;  retires  to  the  Con- 
tinent, 672;  military  sys- 
tem of,  outworn,  717 

Churchill,  Lord  Randolph, 
1018,  1020,  1086 

Churchill,  Winston,  1083, 
1086-1088 

Gibber,  Colley,  802 

Cinque  (sink)  Ports,  the, 
162,  163,  213;  Lord  War- 
den of  the,  407 

Cintra,  the  Convention  of, 
854 

Circulation  of  the  blood, 
discovery  of  the,  606 

Cisalpine  Republic,  Austria 
recognizes,  846 

Cistercians,  99,  126 

Cities,  65  ;  under  Munici- 
pal Reform  Act  of  1835, 
925  ;  see  also  Boroughs 

"Citizen  King,"  the,  889 

Ciudad  Rodrigo,  Wellington 
captures,  857 

Civil  List,  the,  beginning  of, 
under  William  III,  623 ; 
of  George  III,  739,  741 ; 
of  George  IV,  868;  of 
William  IV  and  Victoria, 
929,  930 ;  of  Edward  VII, 
1072 

Civil  Service,  opened  to 
public  competition,  959; 
Reform  of,  in  1870,  997 

Civil  War,  the  great,  open- 
ing of,  485;  comparison 


no6 


INDEX 


of    parties    in,    486-400; 

plan    of    campaign,    490; 

the    campaigns   of     1642 

and  1643,  490,  491 ;    end 

of  the  first,  499 ;    state  of 

parties,  499 
Civil  War,  the  second,  505 ; 

crushed  by  Cromwell,  505, 

506 
Claim  of  Right,   the,   627, 

IOIO,  IOI2 

Clarence,  Dukes  of,  see 
Albert  Victor,  and  George 

Clarendon,  Assize  of,  131, 
iS9 

Clarendon  Code,  the,  537- 

539 

Clarendon,  Constitutions  of, 
no,  117 

Clarendon,  Earl  of,  see 
Hyde,  Edward  and  Henry, 
and  Villiers,  George 

Clarkson,  Thomas,  819 

Classes,  Presbyterian,  366 

Classicism,  revolt  against, 
in  eighteenth  century, 
801-802 

Claudius,  Roman  Emperor, 
18 

Claverhouse  (Cla'vers),  see 
Graham,  John 

Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty, 
the,  1084 

Clement  IV,  Pope,  161 

Clement  VII,  anti-pope,  227 

Clement  VII,  Pope,  235, 
300,  301,309-311,  315,318 

Clergy,  the  condition  of,  in 
the  time  of  Alfred,  45 ; 
in  the  time  of  Henry  III, 
159;  the  condition  of  the, 
in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, 596;  in  eighteenth 
century,  793 ;  attempts 
to  relieve  Irish,  in  1833, 
919 ;  Episcopal,  in  Ire- 
land denounce  Glad- 
stone's Church  Disestab- 
lishment Bill,  993-994 ; 
the  character  of,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  1039, 
1040 

Clergy  reserves,  the,  930 
and  note,  932 

Clericis  Laicos,  Bull  of,  174 

Clerkenwell,  Fenian  attempt 
to  destroy,  993 

Clermont,  the,  Hudson 
steamboat,  893-894 


Cleveland,  President  Grover, 
1028 

Clifford,  Thomas,  Baron, 
Lord  Treasurer,  547,  548, 
SSo,  S5i,  553 

Clinton,  Henry  Pelham, 
fourth  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
910 

Clinton,  Henry  Pelham,  fifth 
Duke,  958,  961 

Clinton,  General,  768,  769, 
770;  Commander-in- 

Chief  of  British  forces  in 
America,  772 

Clipper  ships,  1053 

Clive,  Robert,  later  Baron 
Clive,  "the  father  of  the 
British  Empire  in  India," 
721,  722,  727,  734-736, 
809-810,  966 

Clontarf,  O'Connell  plans 
mass-meeting  at,  943 

Close  boroughs,  911 

Closetings,  the,  of  James  II, 
575 

Closure,  1086 

Cloth  manufacture,  211 

Club,  the,  a  discontented 
faction  in  Scotland,  627, 
628 

Clubs,  London,  601 

Cluniac  reforms,  49,  50,  80 

Clyde  River,  the,  8 

Cnut,  conqueror  of  Edmund 
Ironside,  King  of  Eng- 
land, 53 ;  extends  power 
of  the  earls,  becomes 
ruler  of  Denmark  and 
Norway,  his  laws,  journey 
to  Rome,  54;  character 
and  rule,  ib. ;  his  forest 
laws,  8 1 ;  see  Chess 

Coal,  begins  to  be  used  as 
fuel,  589,  590;  use  of, 
in  iron  manufacture,  786 

Coal  strike,  the,  1085,  1086 

Coalition,  the  First,  against 
France,  832-836;  end 
of,  837,  838;  war  of 
Second,  against  France, 
845-846;  war  of  Third, 
850-851 

Coast  line,  importance  of,  7 

Coat  and  conduct  money, 
472 

Cobbett,  William,  views 
of,  869 ;  goes  to  America, 
870;  the  "Two-penny 
Trash"  of,  871  and  note; 


Political  Register  of,  the 
Radical  organ,  900;  in- 
fluenced by  Bentham, 
907 ;  in  first  Reformed 
Parliament,  918;  de- 
nounces the  New  Poor 
Law,  922 

Cobden,  Richard,  fights  for 
Corn-Law  repeal,  940 
and  note;  Peel's  tribute 
to,  946  and  note ;  nego- 
tiates a  commercial  treaty 
with  France,  976 

Cobham,  Eleanor,  second 
wife  of  Humphrey  of 
Gloucester,  254,  257 

Cockfighting  forbidden  in 
England,  903 

Codrington,  Admiral,  vic- 
tory of,  at  Navarino,  887 

Coercion  Bills  for  Ireland, 
919-920,  946,  951 ;  see 
also  Ireland 

Coffeehouses,  601 

Coifi,  34 

Coinage,  British,  16;  Nor- 
man, 90;  of  Henry  VII, 
288 ;  under  Edward  I, 
II,  III,  214;  under 
Henry  VII,  288;  de- 
basement of,  355 ;  restora- 
tion of,  by  Elizabeth, 
408;  debasement  of,  sug- 
gested, 472;  restoration 
of,  under  William  III, 
635 ;  see  also  Debasement 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  407,  438- 
44°.  457 

Coke,  Thomas,  894 

Colchester,  18,  29 

Cold  harbors,  220 

Cole,  Old  King,  20,  224 

Coleman,  Edward,  556,  557, 

559 
Colenso,      John      William, 

Bishop,  1042 
Coleridge,    Samuel    Taylor, 

literary  work  of,  896-897  ; 

attitude      towards      the 

French  Revolution,   898 
Col'et,  John,  304,  305,  344 
Coligny,  Admiral,  383,  384 
Collectivism,     development 

of  policy  of,  984 
Colleges,   Irish,   Gladstone's 

bill  to  unite,  999 
Colley,  Sir  George,  1031 
Col'lier,  Jeremy,  610 
Collins,  Wilkie,  1048 


INDEX 


1107 


Colloquies,  of  ^Elfric,  74 

Colman,  35 

Colonial  conferences,  1022, 
1028,  1070,  1072-1074, 
1081 

Colonial  preference,  1072, 
1080,  1081 

Colonial  system,  the  old, 
evils  of,  1064 

Colonies,  Huskisson's  policy 
regarding,  875 ;  Ben- 
tham's  influence  on  im- 
provement of  government 
of,  906;  abolition  of 
slavery  in  British,  918, 
920,  934,  see  Buxton  and 
Jamaica ;  contribute  to 
England  during  cotton 
famine,  979 ;  England's 
growing  interest  in  prob- 
lems concerning,  in  1866, 
988;  Crown  and  self- 
governing,  1063,  1064 ; 
see  American  colonies 

Colonies,  American,  begin- 
ning of  struggle  of,  with 
Great  Britain,  763 ;  First 
Continental  Congress  of, 
765  ;  attempts  of  British 
government  to  conciliate, 
765,  766;  British  views 
concerning,  before  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  766 ;  out- 
break of  Revolution  of, 
ib. ;  British  estimate  of 
fighting  capacity  of,  767 
and  note;  strength  of, 
in  the  Revolution,  767, 
768;  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence of,  768;  un- 
rest in,  before  the  Revolu- 
tion, ib. ;  France  and 
Spain  join,  against  Eng- 
land, 770,  771 ;  cotton 
from,  to  England,  784 

Colonies,  British,  Durham's 
Constitution  becomes 
model  for  self-governing, 
932;  troops  in,  reduced 
in  number  by  Cardwell, 
997 ;  Disraeli's  Imperial- 
istic theories  regarding, 
998-990 

Colonies,  the  Canadian, 
Durham's  proposals  for 
governing,  931-932 

Colonies,  the  Spanish- 
American,  declare  inde- 
pendence, 876 


Colonization,  American,  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  41 1, 
412 

Columba,  Saint,  35 

Columbia  River,  the  navi- 
gation of,  free  to  English 
and  Americans,  949 

Columbus,  Bartholomew, 
290 

Columbus,  Christopher,  282, 
290,  303 

Colville,  see  Calvin,  Robert 

Comet,  the,  Bell's  steam- 
boat, 894 

Cominges,  William,  286 

Comitatus,  68 

Comites,  the,  28 

Commander-in-Chief,  the 
reorganization  of  duties 
of,  963 ;  Cardwell  in- 
creases subordination  to 
Secretary  for  War  of  the, 
997-998 ;  the  office  of, 
abolished,  1073 

Commendams,  431,  439 

Commercial  classes  favored 
by  the  Tudors,  401 

Commercial  system,  the 
British,  747,  748 

Commercial  treaties,  289 ; 
see  France,  Ireland,  Bur- 
gundy, and  Intercursus 
Magnus 

Commission,  Civil  Service, 
selects  candidates  for 
Home  Service,  997 

Commissioner,  Lord  High, 
Durham  sent  to  Canada 
as,  931 

Committee  of  Both  King- 
doms, the,  489,  495 

Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council  on  Education, 
the,  creation  of,  996 

Committee  of  Safety,  the, 
in  the  Civil  War,  488 

Common  law,  the,  116; 
Peel  simplifies  procedure 
in  courts  of,  904- 

Common  law,  the  courts  of, 
406 ;  reform  of,  in  1873, 999 

Common  Pleas,  Court  of, 
117,  144;  see  also  Com- 
mon Law  Courts 

Common  Prayer,  Book  of, 
350;  revised  editions  of, 
354,  355,  373,  557  ;  Queen 
Carcline's  name  omitted 
from,  872,  873 


Common  Sense,  Paine's 
pamphlet,  768 

Commons,  House  of,  first 
separate  session  of,  174; 
payment  of  members,  ib. ; 
attempt  to  exclude  law- 
yers, ib. ;  origin  of  legis- 
lative powers  of,  210,  211 ; 
money  grants  to  originate 
in,  246;  composition  of, 
under  Henry  VIII,  339; 
Roman  Catholics  excluded 
from,  373 ;  control  of,  by 
Elizabeth,  403,  404 ;  priv- 
ileges gained,  in  judging 
disputed  elections,  in  free- 
dom from  arrest,  433 ; 
"Apology"  of,  ib.;  quar- 
rels of,  with  James  I 
over  privilege,  445,  446; 
protestation  of,  446 ; 
gains  of,  under  James  I, 
448, 449  ;  insist  on  right  to 
initiate  money  bills,  472  ; 
gains  in  appropriation  of 
supply  and  audit  of  ac- 
counts, 545 ;  successfully 
afesert  that  money  bills 
must  originate  in,  and 
cannot  be  amended,  545, 
546 ;  resolution  of,  re- 
serving the  exclusive  right 
of  granting  trading  priv- 
ileges, 636 ;  property 
qualification  in  the,  668; 
unable  to  exclude  legal 
qualified  members,  744 ; 
attempt  to  exclude 
Wilkes,  745,  746;  theory 
and  practice  of  represen- 
tation in,  747 ;  failure 
of,  to  exclude  members, 
758;  struggle  over  de- 
bate reporting  in,  762; 
contractors  excluded  from, 
776 ;  composition,  824 
and  note ;  inequalities 
in  representation  in,  009- 
910 ;  placemen  in,  913  ; 
composition  of,  in  first 
Reformed  Parliament, 
917-918;  radical  claims 
to  abolish  property  quali- 
fication for,  926 ;  frame 
resolutions  for  governing 
India,  974 ;  property 
qualification  for,  abol- 
ished, 975 ;  distribution 
of  seats  in,  under  Reform 


no8 


INDEX 


Bill  of  1867,987;  atheists 
made  eligible,  1009 ;  pay- 
ment of  members  in, 
1062,  1080;  see  Corrupt 
Practices  Act,  Franchise 
Act,  and  Parliament  Bill 

Commonwealth  of  Australia, 
the,  1067 ;  government 
of,  ib. 

Commonwealth,  the  Eng- 
lish, 509-516;  forces  of 
disorder  in,  510;  sea 
power  of,  513,  514;  grow- 
ing opposition  to,  514, 
515;  end  of,  516 

Commonwealth  of  Oceana, 
the,  604,  605 

Commune,  the,  of  London, 
122,  129,  130 

Communion  in  both  kinds, 
331,  349 

Communism,  Owen's  ex- 
periments in,  938 

Comperts,  323 

Compound  householders, 
986 

Comprehension,  failure  to 
secure,  551,  621,  622 

Compton,  Henry,  Bishop  of 
London,  572,  581,  583 

Compton,  Sir  Spencer,  later 
Earl  of  Wilmington,  706, 
708 

Compton,  Spencer,  succes- 
sively Marquis  of  Harting- 
ton  and  Duke  of  Devon- 
shire, 1002 ;  attitude  on 
the  Bulgarian  Massacres, 
1004 ;  Liberal  leader, 
1009 ;  breaks  from  the 
Liberal  party,  1018,  1019; 
refuses  the  leadership  of 
the  Commons  under  Salis- 
bury, 1019,  1020;  takes 
office  under  Salisbury, 
1027  ;  opposition  to  tariff 
reform,  1073,  1074 

Compurgation,    117 

Comus,  Milton's,  609 

Conciliation  Bill,  the,   1088 

Concordat  of  iSoi,  the,  847 

Conde,  French  Marshall, 
566 

Conde,  Huguenot  leader, 
378,  382 

Confederacy,  the  Southern, 
Great  Britain  recognizes, 
as  a  belligerent,  978; 
surrender  of,  979 


Confederation  of  Rhine,  for- 
mation of,  851 

Conferences,  see  Colonial 
and  Imperial 

Confirmatio  Cartarum,  176 

Congregation,  Lords  of,  368, 
374 

Congregationalists,  the,  388 

Congress,  the  American, 
rejects  North's  concilia- 
tion proposals  in  1778,  771 

Congress  European,  at 
Verona,  884 ;  Canning 
opposed  to  governing 
Europe  by,  884-885 

Congresses,  European,  pro- 
vision for,  by  quadruple 
Alliance,  883 

Congreve,  William,  610 

Connaught,  the  Duke  of, 
1074 

Connaught,  the  Province  of, 
112,  471 

Connecticut,  the  Funda- 
mental Orders  of,  517 

Conservatives,  the  name 
adopted  by  moderate 
Tories,  918;  middle 
classes  joining,  in  1838- 
1839,  933 ;  revolt  of, 
against  Corn-Law  re- 
peal, 945 ;  divisions  of, 
in  1846,  950;  Disraeli 
re-creates  party  of  the, 
991 ;  the  English,  de- 
nounce Gladstone's  dis- 
establishment Bill,  993 ; 
see  Unionists 

Conservators  of  the  Peace, 
1 80 

Consolidated  Fund,  Pitt's, 
816,  817 

Consols,  815  and  note 

Conspiracies  to  Murder  Bill, 
Palmerston's,  974-975 

Conspiracy,  the  Cato  Street, 
872 

Constable,  John,  901 

Constance,  Council  of,  227, 
251 

Constantine,  Roman  Em- 
peror and  founder  of 
Constantinople,  20 

Constantinople,  capture  of 
(1453),  6,  289,  302 

Constantius,  Roman  Em- 
peror, 20 

Constitution,  the  English, 
750 ;  Bentham  objects 


to  Blackstone's  laudation 
of,  906;  Disraeli's  early 
theory  of  the,  989 

Constitutional  Information, 
English  Society  for,  828 

Constitutional  royalists,  the, 
476,  483 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon, 
no,  112 

Consubstantiation,  227 

Continental  Army,  Ameri- 
can, organization  of,  768; 
at  Valley  Forge,  770 

Continental  Congress,  the 
First,  765 ;  the  Second, 
768 

Continental  system,  the, 
establishment  oi,  852,  853 ; 
produces  industrial  suf- 
fering in  England,  856; 
causes  war  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United 
States,  859-860 ;  effects 
on  England  of,  893 

Conventicle  Act,  the,  538 

Conventicles,  389 

Convention  Parliament,  the, 
of  the  Restoration,  527, 
529,532-535;  of  William 
of  Orange,  584-586;  its 
illegal  status,  587  ;  turned 
into  a  parliament,  621 

Convocation,  beginnings  of, 
1 74 ;  powers  of,  restricted 
by  Henry  VIII,  317; 
forced  to  declare  null  the 
marriage  of  Henry  VIII 
and  Catharine,  318; 
powers  of,  under  Eliza- 
beth, 402 ;  grants  to 
Charles  I,  and  assertion 
of  the  Divine  Rights  of 
Kings,  472;  clergy  cease 
to  grant  supplies  in,  545  ; 
rejects  plan  of  compre- 
hension, 622;  suspended 
for  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five  years,  683 

Cook,  Captain  James,  789, 
1065 

Coolies,  Chinese,  Treaty  of 
Peking  recognizes  emi- 
gration of,  966  note ; 
in  South  Africa,  1074, 
1077 

Cooper,  Sir  Anthony  Ash- 
ley, first  Earl  of  Shaftes- 
bury,  chief  of  the  Puritan 
party,  532;  his  aims, 


INDEX 


1109 


548 ;  not  consulted  in  the 
Treaty  of  Dover,  550; 
dismissed,  551 ;  organizes 
the  Country  party  in  the 
Lords,  554;  foments  the 
Popish  Plot,  558,  559; 
share  in  passing  the 
Habeas  Corpus  Act,  561 ; 
leader  in  the  Exclusion 
struggle,  562,  563 ;  his 
flight  and  death,  563,  564 

Cooper,  Anthony  Ashley, 
third  Earl  of  Shaftesbury, 
640,  793 

Cooper,  Samuel,  611 

Cooperative  movement,  the, 
1061 

Coote,  Colonel  Eyre,  735 

Cope,  Sir  John,  711 

Copenhagen,  bombardments 
of,  846,  847,  852 

Coper'nicus,  303 

Cfip'ley,  John  Singleton,  900 

Cor'biesdale,  battle  of,  512 

Cork,  9;  Queen's  College 
established  at,  944 

Corn  laws,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  284;  the,  of 
1815,  856;  question  of 
the,  in  1826,  877-878; 
repeal  of  the,  945-946  and 
notes;  suspended  in  1846- 
1847,  950;  repeal  of  the, 
Russell  and,  985  note; 
Derby  splits  with  Peel 
on  abolition  of  the,  989; 
the  repeal  of,  1056 

Cornwall,  Duchy  of,  77 ; 
disposition  of  revenues 
from,  929  and  note,  930 

Cornwall,  tin  mines  of,  3 ; 
revolt  in,  351 

Cornwallis,  Lord,  joins  Clin- 
ton in  Virginia,  775 ; 
surrender  of,  775,  776; 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ire- 
land, 841,  842;  works 
for  Irish  Union,  842,  843 

Coroners  or   crowners,    123 

Corot,  French  artist,  Con- 
stable's influence  on,  901 

Corporation  Act,  the,  537; 
repeal  of  the,  880-881, 
985 

Corporations,  municipal, 
Reform  Act  of  1835  for, 
924-925 

Corresponding  Society,  the 
London,  828 


Corrupt  Practices  Act,  1012 

Corruption,  parliamentary, 
Pitt  fights,  814,  815; 
in  elections  for  Parlia- 
ment, 911-912  and  notes; 
in  Parliament,  913  and 
note,  914 

Corsned,  the,  or  sacred 
morsel,  66 

Cosmo,  Grand  Duke  of 
Tuscany,  594 

Cotswold  Hills,  4 

Cotters,  64 

Cotton,  manufacture  of,  sta- 
tus of,  in  1830,  892;  fam- 
ine of,  in  England,  979 

Council,  see  also  Privy 
Council 

Council  of  the  North,  the 
President  and,  court  of, 
328,  378,  406;  abolished, 
480 

Council  of  Wales  and  the 
Marches,  the,  406 

Council  for  Trade,  the,  591 

Councilors,  election  of 
town,  under  Act  of  1835, 
925 

Councils,  county,  1022  ;  dis- 
trict and  parish,  1024 

Count  of  Britain,  the,  20 

Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore, 
the,  20 

Counterfeiting,  death  pen- 
alty for,  removed,  904 

Counter-Reformation,  the, 
379 

Counties,  unfair  represen- 
tations of,  before  first 
Reform  Bill,  909 

Country  gentry,  the,  in  the 
seven teenttt  century,  595 

Country  party,  the,  554 

County,  franchise  in,  be- 
fore first  Reform  Bill, 
912;  franchise  in,  under 
Reform  Bill  of  1867,  987; 
see  Shire 

County  Councils,  407,  1022 

County  Courts,  1022 

Courtenay  (court'ny),  Wil- 
liam, Bishop  of  London, 
208 

Courtenay,  Edward,  360 

Courts,  of  Appeal,  the,  a 
division  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Judicature,  999 ; 
baron,  87 ;  of  Common 
Law,  the,  168;  custom- 


ary, 88;  constitution  of 
a  new,  for  divorces,  974; 
leet,  87;  Pie  Powder, 
163 

Covenanters,  the,  506,  512, 
513;  rising  of  the  (1679), 
573,574;  their  opposition 
to  William  III,  627 

Covenants,  in  Scotland,  367, 
368;  the  Scottish  Na- 
tional, 469,  471;  the 
Solemn  League  and,  493 ; 
Englishmen  ordered  to 
take  the,  494 ;  the  Ulster, 
1087 

Coverdale,  Miles,  330 

Cowper  (coo'per),  William, 
poetry  of,  896 

Crabbe,  George,  poetry  of, 
896 

Craft  gilds,  130 

Craftsman,  the,  698 

Craggs,  James,  688 

Craigavon,  1087 

Cranborae,  Viscount,  see 
Cecil,  Robert 

Cranfield,  Lionel,  Earl  of 
Middlesex,  447 

Cranmer,  Thomas,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury, 
enters  the  service  of 
Henry  VIII,  314;  made 
archbishop,  317;  gives 
sentence  of  divorce,  318; 
views  on  monasteries,  323, 
327;  his  first  Prayer 
Book,  345,  350;  his 
second,  354;  his  Forty- 
two  Articles,  355  ;  accepts 
Lady  Jane  Grey  as  suc- 
cessor of  Edward  VI, 
355;  execution  of,  364; 
attitude  toward  the  Bible, 
452 

Crawford,  Earl  of,  481 

Crecy  (cray'see  or  cres'sy), 
battle  of,  195.  196,  218 

Creeds,  the  three,  325 

Crete,  1029,  1083 

Crewe,  Chief  Justice,  dis- 
missed by  Charles  I,  455 

Crewe,  Lord,  1079 

Crime,  in  England  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  805, 
806,  903 ;  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  1058 

Crimean  War,  the,  causes 
of,  959  and  note,  960; 
England  dragged  into, 


IIIO 


INDEX 


960-961 ;  opening  of  the 
conflict,  961 ;  opening  of 
siege  of  Sebastopol,  961 ; 
suffering  during  the,  962, 
963 ;  end  of  the,  963- 
965,  and  notes;  checks 
designs  of  Russia  on 
Turkey,  965 ;  Americans 
in  British  army  in  the, 
966 ;  the  navy  in,  1054 

Criminal  Appeal,  the  Court 
of,  1077 

Criminal  Code,  the  reform 
of,  in  early  eighteenth 
century,  903-904 ;  Ben- 
tham's  influence  on  re- 
form of,  906 

Criminous  clerks,  109,  no 

Cromer,  Lord,  see  Baring, 
Evelyn 

Crompton,  Samuel,  Eng- 
lish inventor,  785 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  343  ;  early 
parliamentary  career  of, 
476;  considers  migration 
to  America,  483 ;  his 
"  Ironsides "  and  New 
Model,  489,  490,  492,  495- 
497  ;  views  on  the  first  par- 
liamentary recruits,  ib. ; 
leader  of  the  anti-Presby- 
terian party,  494;  at 
Marston  Moor,  495 ; 
views  of,  on  toleration, 
496 ;  urges  conciliation 
between  Parliament  and 
the  army,  502 ;  his  slow 
change  of  view,  503,  504 ; 
crushes  the  Second  Civil 
War,  505,  506 ;  assumes 
the  lead  in  abolishing 
monarchy,  506-508 ;  ef- 
forts to  preserve  order, 
510;  conquest  of  Ire- 
land, 510,  511;  of  Scot- 
land, 512,  513;  dissolves 
the  Rump,  515;  made 
Lord  Protector,  517;  his 
aim,  518;  his  religious 
policy,  ib. ;  his  foreign 
policy,  519;  makes  peace 
with  the  Dutch,  ib. ;  his 
war  with  Spain,  520; 
his  alliance  with  France, 
520,  521 ;  his  difficulties 
with  his  parliaments,  521- 
523;  his  death,  523,  524; 
final  estimate  of,  524,  525  ; 
his  body  dishonored,  533 ; 


his  attitude  toward 
France,  540;  regret  for, 
543,  544;  contributes  to 
agricultural  progress,  592 ; 
as  a  patron  of  art  and 
music,  6n;  fear  of  his 
army,  642  ;  Carlyle's  vin- 
dication of,  1044 

Cromwell,  Richard,  525, 
526 

Cromwell,  Thomas,  early 
career  of  and  entrance 
into  the  service  of 
Henry  VIII,  314,  315; 
his  use  of  Parliament, 
315  ;  advises  a  Lutheran 
alliance,  321 ;  undertakes 
dissolution  of  the  monas- 
teries, 322-324,  326;  his 
innovations,  327;  his  in- 
junctions, 327,  330;  fall 
and  death  of,  332;  his 
packing  of  Parliament, 
338,  339 

"Cromwellian  Settlement," 
the,  511 

Cronje,  General,  1033,  1034 

Cronstadt,  British  and 
French  fail  to  capture, 
961 

Crosby,  Lord  Mayor,  762 

Cross,  Assheton,  1002 

Crown,  the,  powers  of  the 
East  India  Company 
transferred  to,  973-974 

Crown  lands,  404,  533 

Crown  pleas,  123,  144 

Crown  Point,  731 

Crown  revenues,  see  Rev- 
enues 

Cruelty  to  Animals,  Royal 
Society  for  Prevention  of, 
903 

Cruelty  to  animals,  British 
laws  against,  ib. 

Crusades,  the  first,  93 ; 
third,  120,  121,  122; 
influence  of,  157 

Crystal  Palace,  the,  955 

Culloden,  the  battle  of,  713 

Cumberland,  see  Ernest  Au- 
gustus and  William 
Augustus 

Cumbria,  170 

Cumbrian  Mountains,  2 

Cunobelinus,  18 

Curia  Regis,  the,  86,  97,  117 

Customs  Bill,  the,  passage 
of,  946 


Customs  duties,  origin  of, 
211,  212;  Pitt's  reforms 
of,  815,  816,  817 

Cynewulf,  71 

Cyprus,  1006 

D 

Dacre,  Scottish  homages  at 
47 

Daguerre,  1052 

Dalhousie  (dalhSw'zie), 
Earl  of,  aggressive  policy 
in  India  of,  968-969 

Dalrymple  (dalrim'ple), 
John,  Master  of  Stair,  629 

Dalrymple,  John,  second 
Earl  of  Stair,  707 

Dal  ton,  John,  atomic 
theory  of,  895 

Dampier  (dam'per),  Wil- 
liam, 789,  1065 

Danby,  Earl  of,  see  Osborne, 
Sir  Thomas 

Danegeld,  52,  55,  81,  118 

Danelagh,  43 

Danes,  see  Northmen 

Danes,  in  Ireland,  112 

Dante,  157,  225 

Danubian  Principalities,  the, 
960,  961,  964 

Darby,  Abram,  786 

D'Arc,  see  Jeanne 

Dardanelles,  the  Peace  of, 
Paris  neutralizes,  964 

Dare,  Virginia,  412 

Darien  Company,  the,  660, 
661 

Darlington,  Countess  of, 
see  Kielmannsegge,  Coun- 
tess von 

Darnel's  case,  456 

Darnley,  Earl  of,  see  Stew- 
art, Henry 

Darvell  Gadarn,  329     • 

Darwin,  Charles,  1049,  1051 

Darwin,  Erasmus,  1051 

Dashwood,  Sir  Francis,  907 

Dauphin,  the,  later 
Charles  VII,  King  of 
France,  250,  251,  252, 
2S4.  256 

David  I,  King  of  Scotland, 
100,  101 

David,  Welsh  prince,  169 

Davis,  Jefferson,  977 

Davis,  John,  411 

Davis,  Thomas,  944 

Davison,  Secretary,  393,  394 


INDEX 


mi 


Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  895, 
1055 

Death  duties,  1027 

Debasement  of  the  coinage, 
340,  341 ;  suggested,  472 

Debates,  struggle  over  re- 
porting, 761,  762 

Debt,  see  National  Debt 

Deccan,  the,  721 

Deceased  wife's  sister,  mar- 
riage with  a,  legalized, 
1077 

Declarations,  of  Breda,  the, 
see  Breda ;  the,  concerning 
religion  of  Charles  I, 
459,  460;  of  Charles  II 
of  1662,  537 ;  the,  of 
Charles  II,  concerning 
religion,  534,  535;  of 
Independence,  the,  768 ; 
of  Indulgence,  the,  of 
Charles  II,  551 ;  the,  of 
Monmouth,  569;  of  In- 
dulgence, the  first,  of 
James  II,  575,  576;  the 
second,  578,  579;  of 
James  II,  630,  631 ;  of 
Paris,  the  terms  of,  964- 
965;  of  the  Rights  of 
Man,  824;  of  Sports,  the, 
463,  464;  of  William  of 
Orange,  581,  582 

Decorative  Art,  in  the  Vic- 
torian Age,  1056,  1057 

Decretum,  the,  116 

De  donis  conditionalibus, 
179 

Defender  of  the  Faith,  origin 
of  the  title,  295 

"Defenders,"  the,  in  Ire- 
land, 839,  840 

Defenestration  of  Prague, 
the,  442 

Defense  Committee,  the, 
1073,  1074 

Defense,  Imperial,  1081 

Defense  of  the  Seven  Sacra- 
ments, Henry  VIII's,  295 

Defoe,  Daniel,  647,  799 

De  Grasse,  Admiral,  775, 
778 

De  Guichen,  Admiral,  775 

De  h&retico  comburendo,  the 
Statute,  247,  326,  529 

Deirans,  30 

Deists,  the  English,  793 

Delcasse',  M.,   1075,  1076 

Delegates,  High  Court  of, 
318,  402 


Delhi,  720;  in  the  Indian 
Mutiny,  967,  970-973 ; 
made  capital  of  India, 
1080 

Delinquency,  500 

Demise  of  the  Crown  Bill, 
1072 

Democracy,  awakening  of, 
in  England,  984-985 ; 
its  effect  on  literature, 
1042 ;  Carlyle's  denun- 
ciation of,  1044 

Democratic  Federation,  the, 
1063 

De  Moleyns  (dem'moleens), 
1055 

Demouriez,  French  com- 
mander, 829 

Denain,  the  battle  of,  670 

Denmark,  joins  armed  neu- 
trality of  1800,  846,  847; 
Great  Britain  seizes  fleet 
of,  852 ;  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein  and,  980-981 

Deorham,  battle  of,  29 

Depositions,  of  Edward  II, 
186;  of  Richard  II,  240; 
of  Henry  VIII,  papal 
bull  for,  318 

De  Quincey.Thomas,  writing 
of,  899,  900 

Derby  (dar'by),  Earls  of,  see 
Stanley,  Edward  George 
and  Edward  Henry 

Derby,  the  races,  602 

"Derbyshire  Insurrection," 
the,  870 

De  Religiosis,  the  Statute, 
see  Mortmain 

Desborough,  John,  526 

Desmond,  Earl  of,  386 

Despensers,  the,  184,  185, 
1 86 

D'Estaing,  Admiral,  772 

Dettingen,  the  battle  of, 
696,  707,  708 

Devereux  (dev'erroo'), 

Robert,  second  Earl  of 
Essex,  370,  397,  398 

Devereux,  Robert,  third 
Earl  of  Essex,  440,  476, 
477-479,  484,  486,  490- 
492,  495,  496 

Devolution,  1026 

Devolution,  the  War  of,  549 

Devon,  revolt  in,  351 

Devonshire,  Dukes  of,  see 
Cavendish,  William,  and 
Compton,  Spencer 


De  Wett,  General,  1033, 
1034,  1035 

De  Witt,  John,  Grand 
Pensionary  of  Holland, 
552 

Dialogue  of  the  Exchequer, 
127 

Diarmait,  King  of  Leinster, 
112 

Diaz,  Bartholomew,  411 

Diaz,  Porfirio,  1085 

Dickens,  Charles,  938,  1047 

Dickinson,  John,  757 

Diebitsch,  Russian  com- 
mander, in  Balkans,  887 

"Die-Hards,"  the,  1080 

Differential  duty,  940 

Diggers,  the,  504 

Dilettanti  Society,  the,  803 

Diocletian,  reorganizer  of 
Roman  Empire,  20 

Directory,  the,  established 
in  France,  835 

Disarming  Act,  the,  715 

Discovery,  under  the 
Tudors,  409-411 

Disestablishment,  the,  of 
the  Irish  Church,  991, 
993,  994;  of  the  Welsh 
Church,  1086,  1088  . 

Dispensing,  royal  preroga- 
tive of,  abolished,  586 

Dissent,  after  the  Clarendon 
Code,  539 

Dissenters,  the  Protestant, 
528;  efforts  of  James  II 
to  win  over,  575,  576; 
the  High  Churchmen  ap- 
proach, 576;  gain  legal 
toleration,  621;  repeal 
of  Test  and  Corporations 
Acts  favor,  880;  meas- 
ures on  behalf  of,  924,  925  ; 
status  of,  at  Victoria's 
accession,  927 

Dissolution  of  the  monas- 
teries, 322-324,  328-330; 
effect  of,  on  the  poor,  342 
Disraeli  (dizray'ly)  Benja- 
min, supports  protection 
in  Commons,  942 ;  leads 
revolt  of  Conservatives 
against  Corn  Law  repeal, 
945—946 ;  unites  Irish  and 
Radicals  to  defeat  Coer- 
cion Bill  for  Ireland,  946 ; 
Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, 957-958;  com- 
ment of,  on  Aberdeen's 


III2 


INDEX 


Coalition  Ministry,  958; 
positions  and  prospects 
of,  in  1865,  083 ;  bill  of, 
to  extend  franchise  in 
1859,  g84;  passes  Reform 
Bill  of  1867,  986-087 ; 
comment  of,  on  Napier's 
Abyssinian  expedition, 
988 ;  foreshadows  idea 
of '  British  Imperialism, 
in  speech,  988;  first 
Ministry  of,  989—990 ; 
characterization  of,  989, 
990 ;  comparison  between 
Gladstone  and,  990-991 ; 
resignation  of,  in  1868, 
991 ;  delight  of,  at  fail- 
ure of  Land  Act  of  1870, 
995 ;  exploits  Imperial- 
ism during  Gladstone's 
first  Ministry,  998-999 ; 
criticism  of  Gladstone's 
first  Ministry  by,  999 ; 
his  second  Ministry,  1001- 
1008;  policy  of,  1001, 
1002 ;  his  purchase  of 
the  Suez  Canal  shares, 
1002 ;  makes  Victoria 
Empress  of  India,  1003 ; 
created  Earl  of  Beacons- 
field,  1003  ;  his  policy  in 
the  Russo-Turkish  War;^ 
1003-1006 ;  at  the  Con- 
gress of  Berlin,  1005, 
1006;  his  Afghan  War, 
1006,  1007 ;  his  resigna- 
tion, 1008;  as  a  novelist, 
1046 

Distraint  of  knighthood,  461 
District  Councils,  1024 
Divine  Right  of  Kings,  the, 
views  of  James  I  on,  429, 
430;     asserted    by    Con- 
vocation,   47  2  ;     not    be- 
lieved in  by  Charles   II, 
531 ;    blow    at,    587 ;    de- 
cline of  belief   in,   under 
the  Hanoverians,   693 
Divorce  of  Henry  VIII  and 
Catharine,  301,  302,  308- 
311,  315,  316,  318 
Divorce,    the   law   of,    719; 
the    Bill    of,    1857,    974; 
the  Court  of,  in  1873,  999 
Dock  strike,  the,  1085 
Dockwray,  William,  602 
Dogger  Bank  incident,  the, 

1076 
Dolichocephalic  skulls,  13 


Domesday  Survey  and  Book, 
81,  82 

Domestic  system,  the,  287, 
288 

Dominican    friars,    157—159 

Dominion  of  Canada,  the, 
932  and  note 

Dominion  of  New  Zealand, 
the,  1068 

Domremy,  255 

Don  Carlos,  Spanish  Pre- 
tender, 889 

Don  Pacifico  Case,  the,  955, 
956 

Donne,  John,  607 

Donum,  118 

Dorislaus,  murder  of,  514 

Dorset,  Marquis  of,  invades 
Guyenne,  295,  344 

Dort,  Synod  of,  452 

Dost  Muhammad,  968 

Douay,  college  at,  387 

Douglas,  Archibald,  Earl  of 
Angus,  333 

Dover,  the  secret  Treaty  of, 
549,  550,  557 

Dover,  the  sham  Treaty  of, 
550 

Dowlah,  Suraja,  734,  735 

Down,  1087 

Downing,  Sir  George,  545 

Downing  Street,  545 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  391— 
394,  397,  4U 

Drama,  the  English,  be- 
ginnings of,  224;  the 
Elizabethan,  422-425 ; 
the  Jacobean,  Carolian, 
and  Restoration,  610,  611 ; 
in  age  of  Anne  and  the 
Georges,  802-803  ;  in  the 
Victorian  Age,  1046 

Drapier  Letters,  the,  691, 
798 

Dresden,  battle  of,  859; 
the  Peace  of,  710 

Dress,  in  the  Elizabethan 
period,  416;  in  the  Res- 
toration period,  602 ;  ex- 
travagance of,  in  eight- 
eenth-century England, 
806 ;  in  early  nineteenth 
century,  901-902 

Dreux,  battle  of,  379 

Drinking,  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  217;  excessive, 
in  early  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 902 

Drogheda,  massacre  of,  511 


Druidism,  15 ;  suppression 
of,  18,  19 

Drumclog,  battle  of,  574 

Drummond,  Under-Secre- 
tary  in  Ireland,  933 

"  Drunken  Administration," 
the,  of  Cartaret,  706 

Dryden,  John,  601 ;  his 
career  and  chief  works, 
609—611 

Dubois,  Cardinal,  682,  691 

Dudley,  Dud,  589 

Dudley,  Edmund,  280,  699 

Dudley,  Guildford,  355,  360, 
361 

Dudley,  John,  successively 
Earl  of  Warwick  and 
Duke  of  Northumberland, 
351 ;  assumes  control  of 
the  Council,  353 ;  Prot- 
estant zeal  of,  353 ; 
makes  himself  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  354 ;  his 
plot,  355  ;  its  failure  and 
his  execution,  358 

Dudley,  Robert,  Earl  of 
Leicester,  353,  370,  375, 
39i,  397,  398,  415 

Dueling,  600,  902 

Dufferin,  Lord,  1014 

Duffy,  Charles  Gavan,  944 

Duke  of  Britain,  the,  20 

Dumouriez,  treason  of,  832 

D unbar,  the  battle  of,  512, 
Si3 

Duncan,  Admiral,  mutiny 
in  fleet  of,  837,  838 

Dundas',  Admiral,  961 

Dundee',  Viscount,  see  Gra- 
ham, John 

Dunkirk,  acquired  by  Crom- 
well, 520;  sold  to  France, 
540,  544  ;  to  be  razed,  670 

Dunning  attacks  power  of 
George  III,  773 

Dunstan,  St.,  early  life  and 
character,  48;  Abbot  of 
Glastonbury,  share  in 
monastic  and  educational 
reform,  adviser  of  Edred, 
banishment  under  Edwig, 
49 ;  recall  by  Edgar,  49, 
50;  made  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  decline  of  in- 
fluence under  .flLthelred,  51 

Dunraven,  Lord,  1074 

Dunwich,  borough  of,  910 

Dupleix,  721 

Duquesne,  Fort,  722 


INDEX 


1113 


Duquesne,  Marquis,  Gover- 
nor of  Canada,  722 

Durham,  Bishop  of,  Rus- 
sell's letter  to  the,  953 

Durham,  palatinate  of,  79 

Durham,  Lord,  influenced  by 
Bentham,  907  ;  in  Grey's 
Ministry,  909 ;  presides 
over  committee  to  draft 
Reform  Bill,  915;  mis- 
sion of,  to  Canada,  931, 
932;  the  "Report"  of, 
932,  1065 

Dutch,  the,  as  trade  rivals 
of  the  English,  410,  591 ; 
the  carrying  trade  of,  in 
the  reign  of  Charles  I,  466 ; 
send  auxiliaries  in  1715 
and  1745,  711,  712; 
French  violate  treaty 
rights  of,  829 

Dutch  Wars,  the  first,  514, 
519;  the  second,  540- 
543  ;  the  third,  552,  553 

Duties,  Gladstone's  reduc- 
tion of,  959;  Gladstone 
raises,  to  fight  Russia, 
961 ;  Gladstone  repeals, 
on  paper,  977 

Dynamiters,  the  Fenian, 
1012  , 

Dynamo,  the,  1052,  1055 

Dykevelt,  his  mission  to 
England,  577,  578 


Eadgar  the  ^Etheling,  58,  76, 
77,  78 

Ealdhelm,  St.  Aldhelm, 
Abbot  of  Malmesbury,  37 

Ealdorman,  the,  44,  50,  51, 
67  ;  see  also  Earl 

Earls,  Anglo-Saxon,  69 ; 
power  of,  broken  by  Wil- 
liam I,  78;  rising  of  the 
Norman,  ib. 

East  Africa  Company,  the 
British,  1029 

East  Anglian  Hills,  4 

Eastern  Association,  the 
army  of  the,  489 

East  Florida,  781 

East  India  Company,  the 
Dutch,  411 ;  the  English, 
founding  of  the,  411,  413 ; 
purchase  of  pepper  from, 
472 ;  the  new  General 
Society,  636;  its  union 


with  the  old  company,  ib. ; 
growth  of,  720,  721 ; 
North's  attempt  to  assist, 
764 ;  organization  of,  809 ; 
Parliament  investigates, 
809,811;  North's  Regu- 
lating act,  809,  810  ; 
Pitt's  Bill  to  regulate, 
815;  charter  of,  renewed, 
918;  monopoly  of  China 
trade  held  by,  948;  ex- 
tends control  in  India, 
966,  et  seq. ;  monopoly 
for  trading  removed,  967  ; 
powers  of,  transferred  to 
the  Crown,  973-974 ;  the 
French,  720,  736 

East  Indian  laborers,  in 
South  Africa,  1081 

Eastland  Company,  the,  413 

East  Saxons,  the,  conquest 
of  London  by,  29 

Ecclesiastical  Commission, 
the,  corrects  abuses  in 
Church  of  England,  925 

Ecclesiastical  Commission, 
the  court  of,  572,  577, 
582-586 

Ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
under  William  I  and 
Stephen,  109;  under 
Henry  II,  100-112;  in 
the  Tudor  period,  402 

Ecclesiastical  Polity,  Hook- 
er's, 390,  420 

Ecclesiastical  Reservations, 
the,  442 

Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill, 
the,  954,  985 

Economic  theory,  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  605  ; 
in  the  eighteenth  century, 
795.  796;  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century,  895, 
896;  in  the  Victorian 
period,  1049 

Edgar,  the  Peaceful,  Anglo- 
Saxon  King,  49 ;  the  "nigh- 
water  mark  of  royal 
supremacy  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period,  49,  50 

Edgehill,  battle  of,  489,  490 

Edgeworth,  Maria,  899 

Edict  of  Nantes,  the,  397 ; 
revoked,  570 

Edinburgh,  54 ;  represen- 
tation in  Parliament  be- 
fore first  Reform  Bill, 
912;  the  treaty  of,  374 


"Edinburgh  Letter,"  the, 
945 

Edinburgh  Review,  the,  900, 
908,  1043 

Edmund,  Anglo-Saxon  King, 
48 

Edmund  Ironside,  Anglo- 
Saxon  King,  53 

Edmund  (Crouchback), 
younger  son  of  Henry  VII, 
152,  156,  171,  174 

Edmund,  Earl  of  Kent,  189 

Edmund  of  Lancaster,  240 

Edmund  Rich,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  150,  151 

Edred,  Anglo-Saxon  King, 
48 

Education,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  291 ;  under 
Henry  VIII,  344;  foun- 
dations of  Edward  VI, 
for,  356;  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  594;  re- 
form of,  in  1870,  995-996 
and  notes 

Education  Bill,  the,  of  1870, 
996;  of  1902,  1074;  of 
1906,  1077 ;  of  1908,  ib. 

Edward  the  Elder,  46;  his 
reconquest  of  the  Dane- 
lagh, 47 ;  relations  with 
the  Scots,  ib. 

Edward  "The  Martyr,"  51 

Edward  the  Confessor,  King 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  his 
holiness,  his  fondness  for 
Normans,  55 ;  declares 
William  of  Normandy  his 
heir,  reaction  against  his 
Norman  favorites,  57; 
his  death,  58 

Edward  I,  King  of  England, 
as  Prince,  133 ;  allied 
with  Simon  de  Montfort, 
154;  joins  the  King,  ib. ; 
hostage  after  Lewes  and 
escape,  155 ;  victory  at 
Evesham,  ib. ;  lessons 
learned  from  de  Mont- 
fort,  156;  goes  on  Cru- 
sade, ib.,  158;  accession 
and  character,  166,  167 ; 
military  policy,  167 ;  as 
a  lawgiver  and  adminis- 
trative organizer,  167, 
1 68;  conquest  of  Wales, 
168—169;  wars  with  Scot- 
land and  France,  169-172 ; 
summons  Model  Parlia- 


INDEX 


ment,  173,  174;  conflicts 
with  his  subjects,  174, 
175;  expedition  against 
Flanders,  175;  confirms 
the  Charters,  175,  176; 
peace  with  France,  176, 
177 ;  last  campaign 
against  Scotland,  177  ;  his 
quo  warranio  inquiries 
and  statutes,  178-181 ; 
expulsion  of  the  Jews,  170, 
1 80;  significance  of  reign 
of,  181 ;  trade  regulations 
of,  211,  212;  asserts 
sovereignty  of  the  seas, 
213 

Edward  II,  King  of  England, 
appointed  Regent,  175; 
accession  and  character, 
181,  182 ;  conflicts  with 
the  barons,  182-185;  in- 
vasion of  Scotland  and 
repulse  at  Bannockburn, 
184;  culmination  of  mis- 
rule, 185 ;  overthrow  and 
imprisonment,  185,  186; 
deposition  and  death,  186, 
187 

Edward  III,  King  of  Eng- 
land, proclaimed  guar- 
dian of  the  realm,  186; 
chosen  King,  ib. ;  years  of 
minority,  189;  marries 
Philippa  of  Hainault,  ib. ; 
assumes  the  government, 
189,  190;  his  character, 
190;  sends  expedition 
against  Scotland,  190, 
191 ;  assumes  title  of 
King  of  France,  191 ; 
alliances  abroad,  192 ; 
expeditions  against  Flan- 
ders and  France  at  the 
opening  of  the  Hundred 
Years'  War,  192,  193 ; 
concessions  to  Parliament, 
193,  194;  truce  with 
France,  194;  victor  at 
Crecy,  195,  196;  besieges 
and  captures  Calais,  197; 
ceases  to  take  active  part 
in  the  war,  ib. ;  troubles 
with  subjects,  198,  203; 
makes  Black  Prince  ruler 
of  Gascony,  204;  declin- 
ing capacity  of,  205  ;  his 
death,  208,  209 ;  secures 
sovereignty  of  the  seas, 
213 


Edward,  Earl  of  March,  later 
Duke  of  York  and  King 
of  England,  242,  261 ; 
exile  and  return,  261,  262  ; 
defeat  at  St.  Albans,  263 ; 
but  occupies  London  and 
declared  King,  264;  see 
Edward  IV 

Edward  IV,  victory  at 
Towton,  265 ;  character 
of,  265,  266 ;  marries 
Elizabeth  Woodville,  266 ; 
estrangement  from  War- 
wick, 266,  267 ;  taken 
prisoner,  267  ;  driven  out 
of  England,  268;  returns 
and  gains  victories  at 
Tewkesbury  and  Barnet, 
268,  269 ;  ruthlessness 
and  exactions,  269,  270; 
expedition  to  France  and 
treaty  of  Pecquiny,  270; 
execution  of  Clarence, 

270,  271 ;    last  years  of, 

271,  272;   his  death,  272; 
moneys  promised  to,  282 

Edward  V,  272,  273 

Edward,  Prince,  son  of 
Henry  VIII,  birth  of, 
331 ;  proposed  marriage 
of,  to  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scots,  334,  344;  see 
Edward  VI 

Edward  VI,  situation  at 
accession  of,  348;  death 
and  character  of,  355,  356 

Edward  VII,  King  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  Em- 
peror of  India,  accession 
and  character  of,  1071, 
1072 ;  coronation  of, 
1072 ;  as  an  advocate  of 
peace,  1075  ;  appoints  Mr. 
Asquith  Prime  Minister, 
1077  ;  his  death,  1080 

Edward,  the  Black  Prince, 
his  birth,  189;  at  Cr6cy, 
195,  196;  victory  of,  at 
Poitiers,  202,  203 ;  ruler 
of  Guyenne,  204;  in- 
volved in  war  with  Spain, 
ib. ;  loses  ground  in  France, 
205,  206 ;  leads  opposition 
against  the  court  party, 
206 ;  his  death,  207 ;  his 
use  of  cannon,  218 

Edward,  Prince  of  Wales, 
son  of  Henry  VI,  260,  267- 
269 


Edward,  Earl  of  Warwick, 
nephew  of  Edward  IV, 
279,  280 

Edwig,  Anglo-Saxon  King, 
49 

Edwin,  Northumbrian  King, 
supremacy  and  overthrow,      / 
34 

Edwine,  Earl  of  Mercia,  58, 
59,  76,  77 

Egbert,  establishes  the  West 
Saxon  supremacy,  41 

Egmont,  Count,  381 

Egypt,  Napoleon's  expedi- 
tion to,  618;  Napoleon's 
campaign  in,  844,  845 ; 
French  forces  abandon, 
847 ;  provision  for,  in 
treaty  of  Amiens,  848; 
Anglo-French  dual  con- 
trol in,  1002,  1003,  1013, 
1014;  revolution  in,  and 
the  beginning  of  the 
British  occupation,  1013- 
1016;  the  transformation 
of,  1016;  government  of, 
1064;  the  English  in, 
1075 ;  see  Suez  Canal 

Eighteenth  century,  leading 
characteristics  of,  614 

Eikon  Basilike,  the,  507 

Ejectors,  the,  518 

Elba,  Napoleon  at,  859; 
Napoleon  escapes  from, 
862 

Eldon,  Lord  Chancellor,  868, 
878,  881 

El  Dorado,  412 

Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  Queen 
of  Henry  II,  103,  113,  135 

Eleanor  of  Provence,  Queen 
of  Henry  III,  150,  173, 
181 

Eleanor  of  Castile,  Queen  of 
Edward  I,  166 

Elections,  Grenville  Act  to 
settle  disputed,  761 ;  the 
Clare,  881 ;  bribery  in, 
before  first  Reform  Bill, 
911-912  and  notes 

Elective  ministers,  baronial 
demand  for,  151 

Electoral  Hesse,  Prussia  in- 
corporates, 988 

Elector  of  Bavaria,  the,  see 
Max  Emanuel 

Electrical  inventions  and 
appliances,  1054,  1055 

Electricity,  1052 


INDEX 


Elgar,  Sir  Edward,  1057 

Elgin,  Lord,  and  army  re- 
form, 1173 

Elgin  sculptures,  the,  1050 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  437,  454, 
455  ;  his  Resolutions,  459 ; 
his  imprisonment  and 
death,  460;  his  political 
views,  466 

Eliot,  George,  see  Evans, 
Mary  Ann 

Eliott,  General,  defends  Gib- 
raltar against  Spain,  772 

Elizabeth,  Princess,  later 
Queen  of  England,  birth 
of,  318;  declared  illegiti- 
mate, 325;  later  placed  in 
the  line  of  succession,  355  ; 
Thomas  Seymour  aims  to 
marry,  352  ;  charged  with 
complicity  in  Wyatt's  Re- 
bellion, 360,  361 ;  acces- 
sion and  character,  369, 
370;  her  courtships,  370; 
her  favorites  and  coun- 
cilors, 370,  371 ;  her 
problems  and  policy,  371, 
372 ;  makes  peace  with 
France,  372  ;  her  religious 
settlement,  372-374;  her 
Scotch  policy  and  rela- 
tions to  Mary,  Queen  of 
Scots,  374-377  ;  policy  of, 
towards  the  Catholics, 
378,  379;  aid  to  the 
Huguenots,  378;  bull  of 
excommunication  against, 
382 ;  Anjou  marriage  proj- 
ect, 384;  Alencon  mar- 
riage project,  386;  plots 
against,  386-388 ;  atti- 
tude of,  toward  the  Protes- 
tant extremists,  389;  in- 
tervention of,  in  the 
Netherlands,  300,  391 ; 
her  support  of  the  English 
seamen  against  Spain, 
392>  393  ;  her  part  in  the 
execution  of  Mary,  393, 
394;  her  part  in  repuls- 
ing the  Armada,  394- 
397 ;  final  struggle  with 
Philip  II,  397,  398;  de- 
clining years  and  death  of, 
398,  399 ;  strength  and 
weakness  of  her  monarchy, 
401 ;  Poor  Laws  of,  415  ; 
progresses  of,  ib. 

Elizabeth    of    York,    later 


Queen  of  Henry  VII,  272 ; 
274,  279,  283 

Elizabeth,  Princess  (later 
Countess  Palatine),  432, 

437 

Elizabeth  Farnese,  Queen  of 
Spain,  684-686 

Elizabethan  settlement,  the, 
372 

Ellenborough  (el'lenboro), 
Lord,  Chief  Justice,  851 

Ellenborough,  Lord,  Gover- 
nor-General of  India,  968 ; 
his  India  Bill,  973,  974 

Elphinstone,  General,  968 

Ely,  the  monks  of,  55,  77, 
131 

Elyot,  Sir  Thomas,  344,  345 

Embargo,  the  American,  of 
1807,  860 

Emigration,  1064, 1065 

Emma,  Queen  of  JEthelrtd, 
and,  later,  of  Cnut,  53 

Emmet,  Robert,  844 

Empire,  Holy  Roman,  the, 
end  of,  851 ;  Colonial, 
British,  aspirations  for, 
in  early  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 928 ;  the  League  of 
the,  1069 ;  see  British  Em- 
pire 

Empire  Day,  1073 

Employer's  Liability  Act, 
the,  1009 

Empson,  Sir  Richard,  280, 
699 

Enclosures,  beginning  of, 
216;  laws  against,  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  284 ; 
aided  by  the  Reformation, 
329;  Henry  VIII  tries  to 
check,  341 ;  Somerset  op- 
poses, 350;  legalized,  353 ; 
laws  against,  under  Eliza- 
beth, 409;  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  591,  593 ; 
in  the  eighteenth  and 
early  nineteenth  centu- 
ries, 789-791,  894 

Encumbered  Estates  Act, 
the,  951,  994 

Encyclopedists,  the,  604,  823 

Engagement,  the,  505 

Engagers,  the,  513 

England,  area  of,  i ;  pro- 
ductiveness of,  7 ;  origin 
of  the  name,  29;^  under 
the  Anglo-Norman  Kings, 
84-90 ;  at  the  close  of  the 


twelfth  century,  84-92  ; 
laid  under  an  interdict, 
137  ;  invaded  by  Louis  of 
France,  145  ;  expulsion  of 
French  from  147,  148; 
conditions  in,  in  the  thir- 
teenth century,  157-165; 
magnificence  '  of,  after 
Cr^cy,  197-198;  causes  for 
popular  discontent  in,  198 ; 
Black  Death  in,  198; 
turning  of  the  tide  against, 
in  the  Hundred  Years' 
War,  204-206;  increasing 
discontent  in,  206 ;  life  in, 
under  the  first  three  Ed- 
wards, 210-229;  popula- 
tion of,  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  216;  becomes  a 
national  state,  228,  229; 
condition  of,  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  283-291 ; 
population  of,  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  286,  287 ; 
condition  of,  under  Henry 
VIII,  338-346 ;  popula- 
tion of,  under  Henry  VII 
and  Henry  VIII,  341 ; 
development  of  sea  power 
of,  391-393  ;  condition  of, 
under  Elizabeth,  401-425 ; 
conditions  of,  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  588- 
612  ;  population  of,  during 
the  Restoration,  596 ;  ex- 
pansion of,  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  617-619; 
material  character  of, 
under  the  first  two 
Georges,  694 ;  revival  of 
sea  power  of,  1782,  778; 
conditions  in,  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  783-806 ; 
commercial  union  of,  with 
France,  817;  effects  of 
French  Revolution  on, 
822,  823  ;  favorable  con- 
ditions in,  as  compared 
with  France  at  end  of 
eighteenth  century,  823, 
824;  reception  of  French 
Revolution  in,  824,  825 ; 
debt  of,  at  end  of  Napo- 
leonic wars,  831 ;  suffer- 
ing in,  in  1795,  834,  835; 
descent  on,  from  France, 
in  1797,  fails,  836;  criti- 
cal condition  of,  in  1796- 
1797,  835,  836;  suffering 


ui6 


INDEX 


in  1799  in,  846;  Napo- 
leon's proposed  invasion 
of,  850;  industrial  dis- 
turbances in,  in  1811- 
1812,  856;  conditions  in, 
1815-1830,  867,  868;  at 
the  eve  of  the  Reform  Bill, 
892-904 ;  •  financial  crisis 
of  1825  in,  877 ;  effect  of 
July  Revolution  in,  890; 
social  effects  of  French 
Revolution  in,  901-902 ; 
conditions  in,  at  Victoria's 
accession,  927 ;  discon- 
tent of  working  classes  of, 
in  Victoria's  early  years, 
937-941 ;  threatened  with 
financial  crisis  in  1836, 
941 ;  potato  famine  in, 
944;  relation  of,  to  the 
Franco-Prussian  War, 
looo ;  local  government 
in,  1022,  1024;  popula- 
tion and  wealth  of,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  1058 ; 
condition  of,  in  the  Vic- 
torian Age,  1039-1065 
English,  language  of  law 
courts,  201 ;  first  used  in 
court  proceedings,  699 
English  Channel,  shoalness 

of,  5 

Englishry,  presentment  of,  81 
Enniskillen,  624,  625, 1087 
Entails,  179 
Entente  cordiale,  the,  1074- 

1076;   the  triple,  1075 
Enumerated  goods,  747 
Episcopacy  in  Scotland,  435 
Episcopal  elections,  96,  122, 

137,  139,  I41.  402;  see 
also  Bishops 

Epsom,  602 

Erasmus,  304-306;  as  an 
educational  reformer,  344 

Erie,  Lake,  Perry's  victory 
on, in  1813,  861 

Ernest  Augustus,  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  gets  Han- 
over upon  accession  of 
Victoria,  929 

Erse  language,  14 

Erskine,  John,  Earl  of  Mar, 
670-681 

Escheats,  85 

Eskimos,  traces  of,  in  Brit- 
ain, 12 

Essays  and  Reviews,  the, 
1042 


Essay  on  Man,  Pope's,  801 

Essay  on  Woman,  the,  745, 
746 

Essay  on  Population,  Mal- 
thus',  895-896 

Essayists,  British,  of  late 
eighteenth  and  early  nine- 
teenth centuries,  890-900 

Essex,  Earls  of,  see  Devereux, 
Robert,  and  Capel,  Arthur 

Estates  General,  French, 
meeting  of,  at  Versailles, 

,  789,  824 

Etaples,  Peace  of,  282 

Ethandun,  battle  of,  43 

Ethelfleda,  the  Lady  of  the 
Mercians,  46 

Ethelwold,  the  "Father  of 
the  Monks,"  49 

Etheredge,  Sir  George,  610 

Eugene,  Prince,  653,  655, 
656,  659,  663,  664,  665, 
670 

Eugenie,  Empress,  1002 

Euphuism,  419 

Eustace,  brother-in-law  of 
Edward  the  Confessor,  56 ; 
son  of  Stephen,  104 

Evangelicals,  the,  1039, 
1040,  1041 

Evans,  Mary  Ann,  1047, 
1048,  1049 

Evelyn,  John,  572 

Evesham,  battle  of,  155 

Evolution,  the  doctrine  of, 
1050,  1051 

Ewart,  Sir  John,   1089 

Exchequer,  the,  98,  117,  127 

Exchequer,  the  Stop  of  the, 
550,  637 

Exchequer  bills,  832,  963 

Exchequer  Chamber,  Court 
of,  406 ;  decision  of,  in  the 
Bate  case,  434;  decision 
of,  in  the  Cavin  case,  435 

Exchequer  Court,  see  Com- 
mon Law  Courts 

Excise,  Walpole's,  699,  700; 
Dr.  Johnson's  definition 
of  the  term,  699 

Exclusion,  bills  against 
James,  560,  561 ;  struggle, 
beginning  of  the,  555 ; 
of  the  Ulster  counties 
proposed,  1087,  1089 

Excommunication,  of  John, 
137 ;  of  Henry  VIII,  318 

Exeter,  Duke  of,  252 

Exeter,  Marquis  of,  332 


Exhibition,  the  great  indus- 
trial, of  1851,  954,  955 

Ex-officio  oath,  431 

Exploration  under  the 
Tudors,  409-411 

Exports,  British,  6;  under 
James  I,  589 ;  increase  in 
British,  in  1824,  876 

Export  duties,  Peel  abolishes, 
942 

Eye,  the  witch  of,  257 

Eyre,  the,  of  1194,  124 

Eyre,  John,  suppresses  insur- 
rection in  Jamaica,  983 


Fabian  Society,  the,  1063 
Factory  Act,  the,  of   1802, 

920;   of    1833,  918,    920, 

921,   938;    of  1843-1844, 

942,  943 
Factory    Acts,     the,     since 

1878,    1060 
Factory  System,  Arkwright 

founder  of,    785;    use  of 

steam  in  the  development 

of,  788;    results   of,  788, 

789 

Faerie  Queene,  the,  422,  607 
Fagel,     Grand    Pensionary, 

577 
Fairf  ax.iThomas,  commander 

of  the  parliamentary  army, 

490,  502,  506,  507,  512 
Fairfax,  Lady,  507 
P'airs,  130,  131,  163,  806 
Falaise,  113 
Falkirk,  battle  of,  176 
Falkland,  Lord,  476,  603 
Family  Compact,  the  first, 

703 ;     the    second,    708 ; 

the  third,  742 
Famine,  the  cotton,  979 
Famines,   in  the  thirteenth 

century,      165 ;      in     the 

fourteenth  century,  220 
"Fantastic  School,"  the,  of 

English  poetry,  607 
Faraday,  Michael,  1052 
Farquhar,  George,  610,  611 
"Farmer  George,"  739;   see 

George  III 
Faro  banks,  902 
Fashoda  incident,  the,  1015, 

1016 

Faulkes  de  Breaute',  148 
Fawkes,  Guy,  432 
Federation,  Imperial,  1069, 


INDEX 


1117 


1081 ;  of  the  United  King- 
doms, suggested,  1088, 
1089 

Felony,  prisoners  on  trial 
for,  to  have  counsel,  925 

Felton,  John,  458 

Fen'ians,  991-993 ;  con- 
trasted with  the  Home 
Rulers,  1010 

Fens,  the  draining  of  the,  592 

Fenwick  (fen'ick),  Sir  John, 

634,  635 

Feorum  fidtum,  68 

Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  281, 
282,  295,  296,  298,  299 

Ferdinand  VI,  King  of 
Spain,  684,  716 

Ferdinand  VII  of  Spain, 
853,  884,  889 

Ferdinand  II,  German  Em- 
peror, 442 

Ferdinand,  Austrian  Em- 
peror, abdication  of,  952 

Ferdinand  of  Brunswick, 
Prince,  730,  733,  736 

Ferdinand  of  Naples,  884 

Ferguson,  Robert  (the 
"Plotter"),  568 

Feud,  the,  65 

Feudal  dues,  404 

Feudal  grievances  under 
John,  140 

Feudal  incidents,  91,  433 

Feudal  system,  the,  abol- 
ished, 533 

Feudalism,  elements  of,  in 
Anglo-Saxon  times,  84 ; 
Anglo-Norman,  ib. ;  inci- 
dents and  other  obliga- 
tions, 85 

Field,  Cyrus,  1054 

Field  deputies,  the  Dutch, 
054,  057,  663,  664,  667 

Field  of  Cloth  of  Gold,  the, 
299 

Fielding,  Henry,  799-800 

Fifth  monarchy  men,  501 ; 
rising  of,  535 

Filmer,  Sir  Robert,  604,  605 

Finch,  Daniel,  Earl  of 
Nottingham,  583,  620, 
621,  641,  668,  669,  676 

Finch,  John,  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Common  Pleas, 
467,  468 

Fining  of  Juries,  abolished, 
529 

Finnsburg,  Battle  of,  71 

Firearms,  263 


Fire  of  London,  the,  543 
Fir  ma  burghi,  129 
First  fruits,  see  Annates 
First  Fruits,  Court  of,  406 
Fisher,     John,     Bishop     of 

Rochester,  319,  321 
Fishguard  Bay,  French  ex- 
pedition lands  at,  835 
Fitch,  Ralph,  410,  411 
Fitzgerald,    Gerald,    eighth 
Earl  of  Kildare,  281,  335  ; 
Gerald,  ninth  earl,  ib. 
Fitzgerald,  William  Judkin, 

841 

Fitzgerald,  Vesey,  881 
Fitzgibbon,    John,    Earl    of 
Clare,  Irish  Lord  Chancel- 
lor, 838,  842 
Fitzherbert,  Mrs.,  820,  821, 

872 

Fitzmorris,  James,  386 
Fitzwilliam,      Lord,      Lord 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  839, 
840 
Five  Articles  of  Perth,  the, 

467,  470 
Five  Boroughs,  the  Danish, 

46 

Five  knights'  case,  the,  456 
Five  Mile  Act,  the,  538,  539 
Flagellants,  Brotherhood  of 

the,  199 

Flambard,  see  Ranulf 
Flanders,  expedition  of  Ed- 
ward I  against,    175;    a 
factor    in    the    Hundred 
Years'    War,    192 ;    inva- 
sion of,  192,  193  ;  crusade 
against,  235  ;   invaded  by 
Henry  VIII,  1513,  296 
Fleet  marriages,  the,  719 
Fleet  wood,  General,  526 
Flemish  weavers,  migrations 

of,  214 
Fleury,  Cardinal,  Bishop  of 

Fr6jus,  692,  703,  708 
Fleurus,  battle  of,  625 
Flodden,  battle  of,  296 
Flogging,  illegal  for  women, 

903 

Flood,  Henry,  777 
Florida     Treaty,     the,     of 

1819,  949 
Florio,  John,  418 
"Flying  Coach,"  the,  593 
Flying  shuttle,  the,  invention 

of,  785 

Folk,  the,  see  Tribe 
Folkmoot,  the,  66 


Fontainebleau,    Treaty    of, 

708 

Fontenoy,  the  battle  of,  709 
Food,  English,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  217;  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  284 ; 
in  the  Restoration  period, 
602 

Forbes,  Brigadier,  729 
Forced  loans,  see  Loans 
Foreign  Enlistment  Act,  the, 

1001 

Foreign  policy,  British,  char- 
acter   of,     at     Victoria's 
accession,  927-928 
Forest  fines,  declared  illegal, 

480 

Forest,  Friar,  329 
Forests,  under  Cnut,  William 
I,   81 ;    under   Henry  II, 
118;     under    John,    138; 
concessions  regarding,  in 
MagnaCarta,  144 ;  charter 
of,    148,    154,    176;     en- 
croachments   on  the,  by 
Charles  I,  461 
Forfeiture,  85 

Forgery,  death  penalty  re- 
sumed for  certain  classes 
of,  004 

Forster,  Thomas,  680,  68 1 
Forster,  W.  E.,  995,  996 
Fortescue,  Sir  John,  200 
"Forwards,"  the,  1080 
Foucault  and  Staite,  1055 
Fountains  Abbey,  99 
Four  Days'  Battle,  the,  542 
Fox,    Charles    James,    529, 
776 ;     character   of,    779 ; 
attitude   of,   towards  the 
Americans  after  the  Revo- 
lution, 780 ;    joins  North 
in    attack    on  Shelbume, 
808;    Secretary  of  State, 
ib. ;     India   Bill   of,    811, 
812;   attack  on  Pitt,  812, 
813 ;       breach     between, 
and  Prince  of  Wales,  820, 
821;      Pitt    thwarts,    on 
Regency    question,     821, 
822 ;      attitude     towards 
French   Revolution,    825 ; 
estrangement         between 
Burke     and,     825,     826; 
political  breach  between, 
and      Grenville,      healed, 
850 ;  made  Foreign  Secre- 
tary, 85 1 ;  death  of,  85 1 ; 
dress  of,  901 


ni8 


INDEX 


Fox,  George,  524 

Fox,  Henry  (later  Lord 
Holland,  719,  720,  723, 
725,  730,  742,  779 

Fox,  Libel  Act  of,  762 

Foxe,  John,  420,  421 

Foxe,  Richard,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  280 

Fragment  on  Government, 
Bentham's,  906 

France,  war  with  Edward  I, 
169-172  ;  peace  with,  176 ; 
Edward  assumes  title  of 
King  of,  190;  Hundred 
Years'  War  with,  ib. ; 
causes,  191,  192;  cam- 
paigns, 1338-1340,  192, 
193;  truce,  194;  cam- 
paign of  1346,  194-196; 
siege  and  capture  of 
Calais,  197 ;  attempt  to 
recover,  202 ;  campaign 
of  battle  of  Poitiers,  202, 
203 ;  sufferings  and  dis- 
order in,  203 ;  Peace  of 
Bretigny,  ib. ;  turning  of 
the  tide  against  England, 
204-206 ;  course  of  the 
war  under  Richard  II, 
235.  243 !  war  reopened 
by  Henry  V,  248-250; 
three  invasions  of,  by 
Henry  V,  250-252  ;  treaty 
of  Troyes,  251;  siege  of 
Orleans  and  relief  of,  by 
Jeanne  d'Arc,  255 ;  Eng- 
land loses  ground  in,  257  ; 
end  of  Hundred  Years' 
War,  260 ;  treaty  between 
Louis  XI  and  Edward  IV, 
267 ;  between  Louis  XI 
and  Charles  of  Burgundy, 
ib. ;  Edward's  expedition 
to,  270;  relations  with 
Henry  VII,  280,  281; 
alliance  with  Henry  VIII, 
296 ;  meeting  of  Francis  I 
of,  with  Henry  VIII,  299, 
300;  invasion  of,  by 
Surrey,  300 ;  expedition 
of  Suffolk  against,  300; 
Henry  VIII  signs  a  truce 
with,  301 ;  renewal  of 
war  with  Henry  VIII, 
334 ;  relations  with,  under 
Somerset,  352;  War- 
wick's treaty  with,  353 ; 
war  with,  under  Mary, 
recovers  Calais,  364,  365; 


Elizabeth  makes  peace 
with,  372 ;  marriage 
treaty  with,  447 ;  war 
with,  under  Charles  I, 
455  ;  Peace  of  Susa  with, 
460;  refuses  to  aid 
Charles  I,  488;  Crom- 
well's alliance  with,  520, 
521 ;  Charles  II's  alliance 
with,  536 ;  he  draws  closer 
to,  540;  treaty  of  Dover 
with,  549-550;  relations 
of  James  II  with,  5  70,  5  7 1 ; 
influence  of,  on  the  Res- 
toration drama,  610;  sig- 
nificance of  the  wars  with, 
in  the  eighteenth  century, 
618;  alliance  of  William 
III  against,  629,  630; 
King  William's  Wrar  with, 
629-636  passim;  Peace 
of  Ryswick  with,  636; 
see  Spanish  Succession, 
War  of  the;  Peace  of 
Utrecht  with,  670,  671 ; 
commercial  treaty  with, 
defeated,  672;  see  Triple 
Alliance,  the,  of  1716; 
becomes  a  principal  in  the 
War  of  the  Austrian  Suc- 
cession, 708 ;  declares 
war  on  England,  709 ; 
see  Aix-la-Chapelle,  the 
Peace  of  (1748);  see 
Seven  Years'  War,  the; 
see  Paris,  the  Peace  of, 
743 ;  joins  the  United 
States  against  England, 
770,  771 ;  initiates  the 
Armed  Neutrality  of  1778, 
774 ;  peace  concluded 
with  England,  1783,  781 ; 
commercial  union  of,  with 
England,  817;  Burke  on 
intervention  in  revolu- 
tionary, 826;  Triple  Alli- 
ance of  1781  against,  826, 
827  ;  aggressive  in  Nether- 
lands, 828;  Pitt's  effort 
to  avoid  intervention  in 
revolutionary,  ib. ;  for- 
eign intervention  in  rev- 
olutionary, 829 ;  declares 
war  on  Great  Britain, 
1793.  830;  prepares  to 
invade  Holland,  ib. ;  First 
Coalition  against  revolu- 
tionary, 832-834;  Peace 
of  Basel  concluded  with, 


834;  aims  at  ruin  of 
England's  trade,  835 ; 
Directory  rejects  English 
peace  proposals  in  1796, 
ib.;  expedition  to  Ire- 
land from,  835,  836; 
failure  of  expedition  to 
England  from,  in  1797, 
836;  conditions  in,  in 
1796-1797,  837;  end  of 
war  of  First  Coalition 
against,  837,  838;  Wolfe 
Tone  seeks  aid  for  Ire- 
land from,  840;  expedi- 
tions to  Ireland  from,  in 
1798,  841 ;  war  of  Second 
Coalition  against,  845- 
846 ;  Napoleon  becomes 
First  Consul  of,  846 ; 
gains  of,  after  LuneVille, 
847 ;  Louisiana  receded 
to,  ib. ;  signs  Peace  of 
Amiens,  841 ;  Great  Brit- 
ain declares  war  on, 
March,  1803,  849,  850; 
war  of  Third  Coalition 
against,  850,  851 ;  na- 
tional risings  against,  in 
1813,  850;  American 
Non-intercourse  Act 

against,  860;  signs  first 
Treaty  of  Paris,  861-862  ; 
boundaries  of,  as  deter- 
mined at  Vienna,  865 ; 
intervenes  in  Spain  in 
1820,  884-885;  Revolu- 
tion of  1830  in,  889; 
attitude  of,  toward  Bel- 
gian Revolution,  890 ;  July 
Revolution  in,  stimulates 
parliamentary  reform  in 
England,  908 ;  strained 
relations  of,  with  England 
over  Spanish  marriages, 
949;  troops  from,  restore 
Pope  in  Revolution  of 
1848,951;  nears  war  with 
England  over  Don  Pacifico 
case,  955-956;  in  the 
Crimean  War,  959-964 ; 
joins  England  against 
China  in  1856,  966; 
antagonizes  England  by 
her  attitude  towards  Or- 
sini's  Conspiracy,  974- 
975  ;  assists  in  Italian  uni- 
fication, 975-976;  Napo- 
leon III  proposes  media- 
tion in  American  Civil 


INDEX 


nig 


War  by  Russia,  England, 
and,  979;  England  es- 
tranged by  Palmerston 
from,  988 ;  in  China, 
1029;  in  South  Africa, 
1032 ;  relations  with, 
under  Edward  VII,  1072, 
1074,1075;  see  Morocco; 
see  Fashoda;  see  Entente 
cordiale 

France,  Isle  de,   721 

Franchise,  county,  by  law 
of  1430,  285 ;  restricted, 
before  first  Reform  Bill, 
909;  the  borough  and 
county,  before  first  Re- 
form Bill,  910-912;  in 
Scotland  and  Ireland  be- 
fore first  Reform  Bill, 
912  note,  913;  under 
Reform  Bill  of  1832,  916  ; 
state  of,  in  1865-1866, 
984 ;  extension  of,  by  Bill 
of  1867,  986-987;  ex- 
tension of,  by  the  Act  of 
1884;  the,  in  the  South 
African  Republic,  1033 

Franchise  Bill  of  1912,  1087, 
1088 

Francis  I,  King  of  France, 
298,  299,  301,  317,  333, 
351 

Francis  II,  King  of  France, 
374,  375 

Francis,  successively  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany,  and  Emperor 
of  Germany,  700,  704,  708, 
710 

Francis  II,  becomes  Emperor 
of  Austria  and  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  ceases  to 
exist,  851,  and  note 

Francis  Joseph,  Austrian 
Emperor,  952,  976 

Francis,  St.,  157-159,  308 

Francis,  Sir  Philip,  759 

Franciscan  friars,  the,  131, 
157-159 

Franco-Austrian  War,  the, 
975-976 

Franco-Prussian   War,    the, 

IOOO,    IOOI 

Franking,  abuse  of,  816, 
936,  937 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  749, 
752,  758,  763,  770,  780; 
his  experiments  with  elec- 
tricity, 792 


Franks,  piratical  invasions 
of,  against  Britain,  20 

Fraser,  Simon,  Lord  Lovat, 
7i4 

Frederick  Barbarossa,  Em- 
peror, no,  122 

Frederick  I,  King  of  Prussia, 
656 

Frederick  II  (the  Great), 
King  of  Prussia,  676 ;  his 
character  and  aims,  704, 
705,  707,  710;  allies  with 
England  in  the  Seven 
Years'  War,  724;  see 
Silesian  War,  the  third ; 
breaks  with  England,  743, 
744;  joins  the  Armed 
Neutrality  of  1778,  774; 
Carlyle's  History  of,  1044 

Frederick  VII,  King  of 
Denmark,  980 

Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales, 
697,  701,  709,  718,  739 

Frederick  V,  Count  Pala- 
tine^ 44  2,  443,  437 

Frederick  Augustus,  Duke 
of  York,  845,  881 

Frederick  of  Augustenburg, 
980 

Frederick  William  II,  829 

Frederick  William  III,  851, 
852,  859 

Free  Church  of  Scotland, 
1042 

Freedom  of  speech,  586 

Freeholders,  the  forty  shil- 
ling, 285,  912,  916 

Freeman,  Edward  Augustus, 
1004 

Freeman,  Mrs.,  see  Jennings, 
Sarah 

Free  trade,  agitation  to 
secure  centers  at  Man- 
chester, 940-941 ;  Peel 
furthers  growth  of,  941, 
942 ;  Peel's  conversion 
to,  944—946 

Free  United  Presbyterian 
Church,  1043 

French,  General,  1035,  1089 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  1030, 
1031 

Friars,  Franciscan,  131, 157- 
159,  219;  proceedings 
against,  under  Henry 
VIII,  319,  320;  orders  of, 
328 

Friends  of  the  People, 
society  of,  organized  to 


promote  parliamentary  re- 
form, 907,  and  note 

Friendly  societies,  1060, 1061 

Frith,  John,  317 

Fro'bisher,  Martin,  411 

Froissart,  Jean,  chronicler, 
196,  223 

Frost,  John,  939 

Fry,  Elizabeth,  1059 

Fulk  the  Good,  of  Anjou, 
145 

Fuller,  Thomas,  603 

Fulton,  Robert,  893-894 


Gadarn,  Darvell,  329 

Gaels,  14 

Gage,  General,  757,  768 

Gainsborough,  battle  of,  492 

Gainsborough,  Thomas,  '804 

Gallicanism,  570 

Galway,    Earl   of,   see   Ru- 

vigny,  Henri  de 
Galway,     Queen's     College 

established  at,  944 
Gama,  Vasco  da,  411 
Gambling,     in    the     seven- 
teenth  century,    602 ;    in 
the    eighteenth    century, 
806 

Game  Laws,  changes  in,  in 
early  nineteenth  century, 
903 

Games  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, 217,  218 
Gaol  Acts,  1059 
Gardiner,    Stephen,    Bishop 
of  Winchester,   348,  350, 
353,  358,  359,  360,  362 
Garibaldi,  march  of,  976 
Garrick,  David,  802 
Garter,  Order  of  the,  198 
Gascony,   troubles  in,    149; 
Henry    Ill's    expeditions 
to,    149,    151 ;    de  Mont- 
fort  in,   152;    expeditions 
against,    in    the   reign   of 
Edward  I,  171,  172,  174, 
I75,   !77;   hearth  tax  in, 
205 

Gaskell,  Mrs.,  1048 
Gaspee,  affair  of  the,  763 
Gates,  General,  770,  775 
Gatton,  Borough  of,  910 
Gauden,    Dr.     John     (later 
Bishop  of  Worcester),  507 
Gaunt,  Elizabeth,  569 
Gaunt,  see  John 


II2O 


INDEX 


Gavelkind,  85 
Gaveston,  Piers,  182,  183 
Gawayne    and    the    Green 

Knight,  224 

General      Assembly,      the, 
of    the    Church    of    Scot- 
land, 366,  428;   the  Veto 
Act  of,  1042 
General  Staff,  the,  1035 
General  Warrants,  744,  745 
Geneva  Award,  the,  1001 
Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  96,  103 
Geoffrey,  Count  of  Brittany, 
son  of  Henry  II,  113,  114 
Geoffrey,      Archbishop      of 

York,  121,  141 
Geoffrey,  Fitzpeter,  135,  140 
Geoffrey  de  Mandeville,  103 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  8g 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  127 
George  I,  King  of  Great 
Britain,  437 ;  ceases  to 
attend  Cabinet  meetings, 
617;  proclaimed,  674; 
his  peaceful  reception  in 
England,  676 ;  character 
and  policy  of,  676,  677 ; 
difficulties  of,  abroad  and 
at  home,  677,  678;  rising 
of  1715  against,  670-681  ; 
his  journeys  to  Hanover, 
681,  682 ;  arranges  the 
Triple  Alliance  and  dis- 
misses Townshend,  682, 
683 ;  concludes  the  Quad- 
ruple Alliance,  684,  685 ; 
resentment  against,  688 ; 
negotiates  the  Treaty  of 
Hanover,  or  Herren- 
hausen,  692 ;  his  death, 
ib.  •  material  bases  of  his 
power,  693 

George,  Prince  (later 
George  II,  King  of  Great 
Britain),  676;  made 
Guardian  of  the  Realm 
and  Lieutenant,  682 ;  re- 
lations with  his  father, 
696 ;  see  George  II 
George  II,  King  of  Great 
Britain,  contributes  to 
the  growth  of  the  Cabi- 
net, 617;  as  man  and 
King,  696,  697 ;  his 
quarrels  with  Frederick, 
701 ;  in  the  campaign  of 
Dettingen,  707,  708 ; 
vainly  seeks  to  support 
Cartaret  against  the  Pel- 


hams,  708,  709;  forced 
to  admit  Pitt,  716 ;  makes 
a  treaty  with  Frederick 
the  Great,  724;  makes 
Pitt  Secretary  of  State, 
725;  dismisses  Pitt,  but 
obliged  to  recall  him,  728; 
recalls  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland, 729;  gives  his 
confidence  to  Pitt,  734 ; 
death  of,  737 ;  robbed 
by  thief,  806 

George  III,  King  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  sig- 
nificance of  his  reign,  738 ; 
character  and  policy  of, 
739-741 ;  breaks  up  the 
combination  of  Pitt  and 
Newcastle  and  brings 
about  a  peace,  742-744; 
his  opposition  to  Wilkes, 
745 ;  his  support  of  the 
Grenville  Programme,  746, 
749,  750;  foresees  the 
gravity  of  the  American 
crisis,  752;  his  mental 
illness,  753  ;  his  dismissal 
of  Grenville,  ib.  •  his 
opposition  to  the  Rocking- 
ham  Ministry,  754-756; 
commissions  Pitt  to  form 
a  ministry,  756;  attacked 
in  the  Junius  Letters,  759 ; 
makes  Lord  North  Prime 
Minister,  759;  share  of, 
in  government  under 
North's  Ministry,  760, 
761 ;  Royal  Marriage  Act, 
762 ;  Acts  of,  to  coerce 
Massachusetts,  764;  at- 
titude of  England  to- 
wards, regarding  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  766 ; 
thwarts  development  of  re- 
sponsible government,  771, 
772;  his  power  attacked, 
773 ;  curbs  Gordon 
rioters,  773,  774! 
threatens  to  retire  to 
Hanover,  776,  808;  ap- 
points Shelburne  Prime 
Minister,  780;  his  posi- 
tion in  1783,  781 ;  blocks 
Fox's  India  Bill  in  House 
of  Lords,  811,  812;  dis- 
misses Coalition  Ministry, 
812;  breach  between, 
and  Prince  of  Wales,  820, 
821 ;  insanity  of,  821 ; 


obstinacy  of,  regarding 
concessions  to  Irish  Cath- 
olics, 843,  844;  peace 
letter  from  Napoleon  to, 
846;  blindness  and  in- 
sanity of,  856  ;  death  of, 
871 ;  bribery  in  elections 
reaches  height  under,  911, 
and  note 

George,  Prince  of  Wales 
and  Regent,  his  unpromis- 
ing youth,  740 ;  his  friend- 
ship for  Fox,  808 ;  mis- 
conduct of,  820,  821 ; 
question  of  Regency  of, 
821,  822;  becomes  Re- 
gent, 856;  his  extrava- 
gance, 868;  his  carriage 
attacked,  869,  870;  dress 
of,  901 ;  see  George  IV 

George  IV,  King  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  ac- 
cession of,  871—872;  sep- 
aration of,  from  Queen 
Caroline,  872—873;  op- 
poses Catholic  Emanci- 
pation, 881-882 ;  death 
of,  883 

George  V,  King  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  and 
Emperor  of  India,  birth 
of,  1072;  assents  to  the 
creation  of  Peers,  1079; 
his  accession  and  visits 
to  various  parts  of  his 
kingdom,  1080 

George,  Duke  of  Clarence, 
265,  267,  268,  270,  271 

George  of  Denmark,  con- 
sort of  Queen  Anne,  583, 
650,  653 

George,  King  of  Greece, 
888 

George,  Prince,  High  Com- 
missioner of  Crete,  1029 

George,  David  Lloyd,  his 
socialistic  legislation, 

1061 ;  becomes  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  1077 ; 
his  Budget,  1077,  1078; 
on  the  Parliament  Bill 
conference,  1079 ;  speech 
of,  on  the  Morocco  ques- 
tion, 1082 ;  his  Insurance 
Bill  resisted,  1086 

Georgia,  Oglethorpe's  colony 
in,  805 

Georgiana,  Duchess  of  Dev- 
onshire, 813 


INDEX 


II2I 


Gerald  de  Barri,  see  Giraldus 
Cambrensis 

Geraldines,  see  Fitzgerald, 
281 

Germain,  Lord  George,  Co- 
lonial Secretary,  769 ;  see 
also  Sackville 

German  Confederation,  the, 
and  Schleswig-Holstein, 
980-981 

Germanic,  the  invasions  of 
the  Empire,  21;  of 
Britain,  25  ff. 

"German  Ministry,"  the, 
683 

German  Unification,  un- 
successful efforts  towards, 
in  1848,  951-952 

Germans,  their  ancient  re- 
ligion, 26;  political  or- 
ganization, ib. ;  ranks, 
personal  characteristics, 
28 ;  causes  of  migration,  ib. 

Germany,  development  of, 
causes  England  concern, 
928;  revolution  of  1848 
in,  951—952;  in  China, 
1029 ;  concessions  of,  for 
Heligoland,  1032;  rela- 
tions with,  under  Ed- 
ward VII,  1072,  1075 ; 
under  George  V,  1083 ; 
see  Morocco 

Ghent,  Treaty  of,  86 1 

Gibbon,  Edward,  comment 
of,  on  the  Gordon  Riots, 
774  note;  historical  writ- 
ing of,  792-793 

Gibraltar,  capture  of,  656; 
ceded  to  the  British,  671 ; 
negotiations  concerning, 
691,  692;  Spain  attempts 
to  recover,  772  ;  Spanish 
siege  of,  raised,  778 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  411, 
412 

Gilbert  and  Sullivan,  1057 

Gilds,  origin  and  growth  of, 
130;  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  164;  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  215; 
festival  of,  224;  regula- 
tions of,  231 ;  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  287 ; 
under  Henry  VIII,  341 ; 
decline  of,  413 ;  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  598 ; 
as  ancestors  of  Friendly 
Societies,  1060.  1061 


Gillray,  James,  caricatur- 
ist, 901 

Gin,  Act  to  check  drinking 
of,  in  1736,  804 

Giraldus  Cambrensis,  127, 
128 

Girton  College,  1059 

Gladstone  (glad'ston),  Wil- 
liam E.,  enters  Parlia- 
ment from  Newark,  910; 
in  Peel's  second  Ministry, 
941 ;  in  Coalition  Minis- 
try, 950;  early  Budgets 
of,  959 ;  financial  policy 
of,  to  support  Crimean 
War,  961,  and  note;  ap- 
proves Cobden's  com- 
mercial treaty  with 
France,  976 ;  in  Palmer- 
ston's  second  Administra- 
tion, 976 ;  in  sympathy 
with  South  in  American 
Civil  War,  977 ;  Liberal 
financial  policy  of,  in 
1860,  977;  able  adminis- 
tration of  Exchequer  by, 
during  American  Civil 
War  crisis,  979 ;  leader 
of  House  of  Commons, 
983 ;  attitude  toward 
compound  householders, 
986 ;  speeches  by,  further 
reform  in  1866,  986;  Dis- 
raeli on  policy  of,  toward 
Victoria,  990 ;  charac- 
ter and  policy  of,  990- 
991 ;  first  Ministry  of, 
991-999;  first  Ministry 
of,  foreign  affairs,  1000- 
1001 ;  temporarily  with- 
draws from  the  Liberal 
leadership,  1002 ;  de- 
nounces the  Bulgarian 
atrocities,  1003,  1004; 
opposes  Disraeli's  Afghan 
policy,  1007 ;  his  Midlo- 
thian campaign,  1008, 
1009 ;  second  Ministry 
of,  1009-1017;  his  Land 
Act  of  1881,  ion ;  his 
Franchise  Bill  of  1884, 
1885,  1012,  1013;  his 
disastrous  Egyptian  policy 
and  failure  to  relieve 
Gordon,  1013-1016;  fall 
of  his  second  Ministry, 
1016,1017;  adopts  Home 
Rule,  1017;  his  third 
Ministry  and  the  defeat 


of  his  first  Home  Rule 
Bill,  1018,  1019;  re- 
pudiates Parnell,  1021; 
his  Newcastle  Programme, 
1023 ;  his  fourth  Minis- 
try and  the  defeat  of  his 
second  Home  Rule  Bill, 
1024;  threatens  the 
.  Lords,  1026;  his  resig- 
nation, ib. ;  death  of, 
1028 ;  his  disastrous  South 
African  policy,  1031 ;  his 
High  Churchmanship, 
1041 

Glamorgan,  Earl  of,  498 

Glanville,  Ranulf  de,  Jus- 
ticiar,  113,  121;  Treatise 
ascribed  to  him,  126,  127 

Glasgow,  8,  428;  repre- 
sentation of,  in  Parlia- 
ment, before  first  Reform 
Bill,  912 

Glastonbury,   Abbey  of,   22 

Glencoe,  the  Massacre  of ,  629 

Glendower,  Owen,  243,  244, 
245 

Glenfinnan,  711 

"Glorious  Revolution,"  the, 
see  Revolution  of  1688 

Gloucester,  22 

Gloucester,  the  Duke  of, 
son  of  Anne,  643  ;  see  also 
Thomas  of  Woodstock, 
Humphrey,  and  Richard 

Gloucester,   Statute  of,   178 

Godfrey,  Sir  Edmund  Bury, 
557 

Godolphin,  Sidney,  583,  630, 
632,  635,  660,  662;  his 
character  and  policy,  654, 
666 ;  dismissed,  667  ;  his 
death,  672 

Godoy,  Spanish  Minister, 
signs  treaty  with  Napo- 
leon to  divide  Portugal, 
853 

Godwin,  William,  899 

Godwine,  Earl  of  Wessex, 
54 ;  exile  of,  56 ;  return 
and  death,  57 

Goidels,  14 

Gold,  discovery  of,  in  the 
Transvaal,  1031,  1032; 
in  California  and  Aus- 
tralia, 1056 ;  in  Australia, 
1067 

Golden  Rose,  the,  307 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,  800,  802 
note;  plays  of,  803 


1122 


INDEX 


Gondomar,  Count,  441,  443, 
445,  446 

Good  Hope,  Cape  of,  411 

Good  Parliament,  the,  206, 
207,  615 

Goodwin,  Sir  Francis,  case 
of,  433 

Gordon,  General  Charles 
("Chinese  Gordon"),  in 
the  Sudan,  1014,  1015 

Gordon,  George,  see  Byron, 
Lord 

Gordon,  Lord  George,  fa- 
natic, anti-Catholicism  of, 
773,  774 

Gordon     Riots,     the,     773, 

774 

Goree,  729,  743 

Gorham  case,  the,  1042 

Goshen,  Lord,  1020 

Gothic  art,  revival  of,  1044, 
1057 

Government,  British,  grow- 
ing paternalism  of,  at 
Victoria's  accession,  927 

Gower,  John,  225 

Gowrie  Conspiracy,  the,  428 

Grace,  Act  of,  623 

Grafton,  the  Duke  of,  his 
Ministry,  756-760 

Graham  (gray'am),  John, 
of  Claverhouse,  later  Vis- 
count Dundee,  574,  628, 
629 

Graham,  Sir  James,  909; 
refuses  place  in  Peel's 
Cabinet,  923 ;  Home 
Secretary,  943 ;  supports 
Peel's  free  trade  views, 
945 ;  in  Coalition  Minis- 
try, 958 

Grail,  the  Holy,  22 

Grammar  schools,  under 
Henry  VIII,  344!  of 
Edward  VI,  356 

Gramont,  Duke  of,  707,  708 

Grampian  Hills,  8 

Grand  Alliance,  the,  647 

Grand  Army,  Napoleon's, 
veterans  of,  at  Waterloo, 
864 

Grand  National  Consoli- 
dated Trade  Union,  the, 
938 

Grand  Remonstrance,  the, 
482,  483 

Grand  Tour,  the,  901 

Granvella,  Cardinal,  minis- 
ter of  Philip  II,  381 


Granville,  Earl  of,  see  Car- 

taret,  John 
Granville,  Lord,  1000,  1002, 

1009,  1015,  1016 
Gratian,  116 
Grattan,    Henry,    777,    829, 

838,  840,  842 
Gray,  Thomas,  802 
Gray's  Elegy,  732,  802 
Great  Britain,  rise  of  the 
sea  power  of,  619;  name 
of,  adopted  at  the  union 
of  England  and  Scotland, 
662 ;  territorial  gains  of, 
by  the  Peace  of  Utrecht, 
670,  671 ;  achievements 
of,  in  the  war  of  the 
Spanish  succession,  672; 
struggle  begins  with 
American  Colonies,  763 ; 
strength  of,  in  American 
Revolution,  767 ;  isola- 
tion of,  by  formation  of 
"Armed  Neutrality,"  774; 
critical  situation  of,  in 
1800—1801,  846,  847;  ter- 
ritorial gains  of,  at  Con- 
gress of  Vienna,  865 ; 
situation  of,  with  refer- 
ence to  Europe  at  close 
of  Napoleonic  wars,  883- 
890;  effect  of  separation 
of  Hanover  upon,  929 ; 
survey  of  problems  of, 
after  Crimean  War,  966; 
sentiment  in,  regarding 
American  Civil  War,  977- 
978 ;  survey  of  problems 
confronting,  in  1865,  983 
Great  Contract,  the,  434, 435 
Great  Council,  the,  98,  118; 
summoned  by  Charles  I, 

473 

Greater  Britain,    1063-1069 
Great  Fire,  the,  599,  611 
Great  Mogul,  the,  720 
Great  Schism,  227,  251 
Great  Seal,  the,  311,  583 
Greece,     independence     of, 
886-888  ;   Byron  and  War 
of  Independence  of,  898 ; 
England  in  trouble  with, 
over  Don    Pacifico  case, 
955~956;    war  with  Tur- 
key, 1029 

Greek  Christians,  Russian, 
desire  regarding,  in  Otto- 
man Empire,  959 ;  Rus- 
sia refuses  to  renounce 


protectorate    over,    963 ; 
struggle    between    Latin 
Church   and,    over   Holy 
Places,  959 
Green    Ribbon    Club,    the, 

554,  564 

Green,  J.  R.,  135 
Greene,  Nathanael,  General, 

775 

Greene,  Robert,  420,  423 

Greenwich,     the     National 

Observatory      at,       606 ; 

royal  hospital  at,  612,  633 

Greenwood,  Frederick,  1002 

Gregory  I,  Pope,  32,  74;  his 

Pastoral  Care,  45 
Gregory  VII,  Pope  (Hilde- 

brand),  80 

Gregory  IX,  Pope,  149 
Gregory  XI,  Pope,  208,  227 
Gregory  XIII,   Pope,   385- 

387,  7i8 

Grenville,  George,  725;  be- 
comes Prime  Minister,  744 ; 
his  colonial  programme, 
746,  751-753;  his  dis- 
missal, 753 ;  his  Election 
Act,  760,  761,  913 ;  his 
death,  761 

Grenville,  Lady  Hester,  725 

Grenville,  Thomas,  780 

Grenville,    William    Wynd- 

ham,      Lord      Grenville, 

British  Foreign  Secretary, 

830;     opposition    of,    to 

Addington  Ministry,  847 ; 

refuses  to  enter  Cabinet 

in    1804,    850;     Ministry 

of  "  All  the  Talents,"  851, 

852 

Grenville  Election  Act,  the, 

of,  1770,  760,  761 
Gresham,  Thomas,  413 
GrSv'ille,  Charles,  character- 
ization of  Derby  by,  989 
Grey,    Charles,    later    Earl 
Grey,     motions     of,     for 
parliamentary  reform  re- 
jected,     907 ;       becomes 
Prime      Minister,      9°9 ; 
Ministry  of,  secures  Par- 
liamentary Reform,  914- 
917;    resignation  of,  922; 
adviser    to    the    bishops, 
1040 
Grey,  Lady  Jane,  344,  355, 

358,  360,  361 
Grey,  Lord  Leonard,  335 
Grey  de  Wilton,  Lord,  386 


INDEX 


1123 


Grey,  Sir  Edward,  Foreign 
Minister,  1077, 1083-1085, 
1089 

Grey,  Sir  Richard,  272,  273 

Grindal,  Edmund,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  389 

Grocyn,  William,  304,  305 

Grosseteste,  see  Robert 

Grote,  George,  1050 

Grouchy,  Marshal,  at 
Waterloo,  863,  864 

Grub  Street,  advent  of 
authors  of,  798 

Gualo,  papal  legate,  147,  148 

Guarda-coslas,  the  Spanish, 
703,  7°4 

Guesclin,  Bertrand  du,  204- 
207 

Guillotine  Closure,  the,  1020, 
1021,  1024 

Guinegate,  the  battle  of,  296 

Gulf  Stream,  the,  2 

Gulliver's  Travels,  797 

Gunpowder,  early  use  of, 
218 

Gunpowder  Plot,  the,  432 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of 
Sweden,  470 

Gustavus  III,  of  Sweden, 
827 

Gutenberg,  John,  291 

Guthrum,  Danish  invader, 
43 

Guy  of  Lusignan,  136 

Guyenne,  seized  by 
Philip  VI,  102,  107 ; 
made  separate  principal- 
ity, 204;  see  Aquitaine 
and  Gascony 

Guzman,  Domingo  de,  see 
St.  Dominic 

Gwledig,  British  leader,  25 

H 

Habeas  Corpus,  142,  144; 
purpose  of  the  writ  of, 
456;  attitude  of  the 
judges  of  Charles  I  on,  466 

Habeas  Corpus  Act,  the, 
529;  passed,  561; 
James  II  aims  to  repeal 
the,  571 ;  suspended,  634, 
833,  870;  in  Ireland,  840 

Hadrian,  Abbot,  36 

Hadrian's  Wall,  20 

Hague  Conference,  the 
first,  1029;  the  second, 
1084 


Haidarabad,       Nizam      of, 
Mornington   forces   terri- 
tories from,  967 
Haidar  Ali,  809,  845 
Hailes,  the  phial  of,  329 
Hakluyt,  Richard,  his  Voy- 
ages, 412,  421 
Hales,  Sir  Edward,  the  case 

of,  S7i 

Hales,  John,  603 
Halidon  Hill,  battle  of,  191 
Halidon  Rig,  333 
Halifax,   Earl  of,  see  Mon- 
tague, Charles 
Halifax,     Marquis    of,    see 

Savile,  George 
Halley,  Edmund,  792 
Hal,     Prince,     see     Henry, 

Prince  of  Wales 
Halsbury,  Lord,  1080 
Hamilton,  General  Ian,  1035 
Hamilton,    James,    Marquis 

of,  470,  481,  505,  506 
Hamilton,  Patrick,  367 
Hampden,  John,  466-468, 

475,  476,  479,  492 
Hampton      Court     Confer- 
ence, the,  431 

Hampton  Court  Palace,  311 
Hams,  Anglo-Saxon,  63 
Handel,    George   Frederick, 

697,  803,  1057 
Hanover,  the  Treaty  of,  692  ; 
Napoleon  gives  kingdom 
of,  to  Prussia,  851 ;  dispo- 
sition of,  at  Victoria's  ac- 
cession, 929 
Hansard,  case  of  Stockdale 

against,  936 
Hanseatic  League,  162 
Harcourt,   French  ambassa- 
dor, 645,  646 

Harcourt,  Sir  William,  1027 
Hardinge,  Lord,  Viceroy  of 

India,  1080 

Hardinge,  Sir  Henry,  968 
Hardwicke,     Earl     of,     see 

Yorke,  Philip 
Hardwicke's  Marriage  Act, 

719 

Hardy,  Thomas,  1049 
Harfleur,  siege  of,  250 
Hargreaves,  James,  invents 

spinning  jenny,  785 
Harington,  Sir  John,  418 
Harleck,  499 

Harley,  Robert,  Earl  of 
Oxford,  intrigues  with 
Mrs.  Masham,  665 ;  char- 


acter of,  667 ;  leading 
minister  of  Anne,  667, 
668;  founds  the  South 
Sea  Company,  671",  686; 
rivalry  with  Bolingbroke, 

672,  673 ;    his  dismissal, 

673,  674;     his   impeach- 
ment, 678 

Harold  Harefoot,  Danish 
King  of  England,  55 

Harold,  son  of  Godwine,  56 ; 
becomes  Earl  of  Wessex, 
57 ;  King  of  England,  58 ; 
victory  at  Stamford 
Bridge,  59;  defeat  and 
death  at  Senlac,  59,  60 

Harold  Hadrada,  King  of 
Norway,  59 

Harrington,  James,  604 

Harrison,  William,  421 

Harthacnut,  Danish  King 
of  England,  55 

Hartington,  Marquis  of,  see 
Compton,  Spencer 

Harvey,  William,  606 

Hasten,  43    • 

Hastings,  see  Senlac 

Hastings,  Lord,  273 

Hastings,  Warren,  governor 
of  Bengal,  810;  impeach- 
ment of,  561,  820 

Havana,  captured  by  the 
British,  742  ;  restored,  743 

Havelock  the  Dane,  161 

Havelock,  Henry,  972 

Hawke,  Admiral,  716,  730, 
733 

Hawkins,  John,  392,  411 

Hawley,  General  Henry,  712 

Haxey,  Sir  Thomas,  case  of, 
238 

Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty,  the, 
1084 

Hazlitt,  William,  900 

Head,  Major,  931 

Heads  of  Proposals,  the, 
S°2,  503,  509 

Health,  public,  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  period,  73 ;  in 
Anglo-Norman  times,  88; 
in  the  twelfth  century, 
132 ;  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  220,  221;  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  284, 
285 ;  in  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII,  341,  342; 
in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 

4i4,  415 
Health  Act,  the  Public,  1002 


1124 


INDEX 


Hearth  Tax,  the,  621;  in 
Gascony,  205 

Heathfield,  battle  of,  34 

Heinsius,  Grand  Pensionary, 
653 

Heligoland,  865,  1032 

HSm'ans,  Felicia,  1043 

Hengist  and  Horsa,  invaders 
of  Britain,  25 

Henrietta  Maria,  Queen  of 
Charles  I,  betrothed  to 
Charles,  447 ;  character 
of,  453 ;  fosters  Roman 
Catholicism,  465 ;  plots 
of,  479,  481 ;  threatened 
impeachment  of,  483 ;  es- 
capes abroad,  484 ;  seeks 
foreign  alliances,  488,  498 ; 
urges  Charles  to  take  the 
Covenant,  501 

Henrietta,  of  Orleans,  sister 
of  Charles  II,  540,  550,  554 

Henry  I,  King  of  England, 
accession  and  issue  of 
Charter  of  Liberties,  94; 
marriage  to  Edith  (Ma- 
tilde),  ib. ;  suppresses  a 
rising  of  the  barons,  94, 
95 ;  treaty  with  Robert, 
95 ;  conquest  of  Nor- 
mandy, ib. ;  victory  at 
Tenchebrai,  95 ;  com- 
promise with  Anselm,  95, 
96 ;  last  years,  character 
and  policy,  96,  97 ;  ad- 
ministrative reorganiza- 
tion, the  Curia  Regis  and 
Exchequer,  97,  98;  en- 
courages growth  of  towns, 
98 ;  founder  of  Curia 
Regis  and  Exchequer,  117; 
originator  of  scutage,  118; 
charters  to  London,  129; 
charter  to  Weavers'  Gild, 
130 

Henry  II,  King  of  England, 
96;  early  visits  to  Eng- 
land, 103 ;  marries  Elea- 
nor of  Aquitaine,  ib. ; 
recognized  as  heir  of 
Stephen,  104 ;  accession 
and  character,  107  ;  prob- 
lem and  policy,  107,  108; 
conflict  with  Becket,  109- 
1 1 1 ;  in  Ireland,  112; 
submission  at  Avranches, 
112;  crushes  a  revolt  led 
by  Prince  Henry,  113, 
114;  penance  at  Becket's 


tomb,  113;  last  years 
and  death,  114;  constitu- 
tional and  legal  reforms, 
114-116;  development  of 
the  jury  system,  116,  117; 
reorganization  of  the 
courts  and  administrative 
reforms,  117,  118;  rev- 
enue of,  118;  summary 
of  his  work,  119;  litera- 
ture and  learning  at  his 
court,  126;  grants  of 
borough  charters,  129; 
imposes  fines  on  adulterine 
gilds,  130 

Henry  III,  King  of  England, 
constitutional  importance 
of  his  reign,  133,  134, 147  ; 
crowned,  147 ;  years  of 
minority,  148,  149 ;  un- 
successful expeditions 
against  Gascony  and 
Wales,  149 ;  beginning  of 
his  personal  rule,  150; 
marries  Eleanor  of  Prov- 
ence, ib. ;  invasions  of 
needy  foreigners,  ib. ;  leads 
another  unsuccessful  ex- 
pedition to  Poitou  and 
Gascony ;  new  inroads 
of  foreigners,  151 ;  breach 
with  Simon  de  Montfort, 
152;  baronial  war  against, 
153-155  ;  death  and  char- 
acter of,  156,  157,  158; 
favor  to  Jews,  180;  to 
Lombards  and  Proven- 
gals,  211 

Henry  of  Lancaster,  Earl 
of  Derby,  236 ;  made 
Duke  of  Hereford,  238; 
quarrel  with  Norfolk  and 
exiled  by  Richard  II, 
239 ;  lands  at  Ravenspur, 
239 ;  chosen  King,  240 ; 
see  Henry  IV 

Henry  IV,  King  of  England, 
opening  of  his  reign,  242, 
243  ;  character  and  prob- 
lems, 243 ;  revolts  against, 
243-245 ;  last  years  of, 
245,  246 

Henry,  Prince  of  Wales, 
at  Shrewsbury,  245 ; 
Welsh  campaign  of,  ib. ; 
begins  to  assume  the 
government,  246 ;  see 
Henry  V 

Henry  V,  King  of  England, 


accession  and  character, 
247,  248;  reopens  war 
with  France,  248,  249, 
250;  suppresses  the  Lol- 
lards, 248,  249 ;  first  inva- 
sion of  France,  250;  vic- 
tory at  Agincourt,  250, 
251 ;  second  invasion,  251 ; 
concludes  Treaty  of 
Troyes,  ib. ;  third  inva- 
sion, 252  ;  his  death,  ib. ; 
suppresses  alien  priories, 
323 

Henry  VI,  King  of  England, 
coronation  of,  256;  dis- 
regards Parliament  in  the 
appointment  of  councilors, 
257 ;  marries  Margaret 
of  Anjou,  ib. ;  temporary 
insanity  of,  260;  second 
attack,  261 ;  dominated 
by  Margaret,  261,  262; 
defeated  and  taken  pris- 
oner, 262 ;  release  of, 
263  ;  flight  into  Scotland 
after  defeat  at  Towton, 
265 ;  attainted,  266 ; 
again  a  prisoner,  267 ; 
his  release,  268 ;  his 
death  and  character,  269 

Henry,  Duke  of  Richmond, 
representative  of  the  Lan- 
castrian line,  in  exile  in 
France,  273,  274;  lands  in 
England,  274;  victory  at 
Bosworth,  274,  275  ;  pro- 
claimed King,  275 ;  see 
Henry  VII 

Henry  VII,  King  of  Eng- 
land, chapel  of,  222; 
his  policy,  276;  character 
of,  278;  problems  and 
means  of  securing  his 
title,  279;  marries  Eliza- 
beth of  York,  279 ; 
troubles  with  pretenders, 
279,  280;  his  exactions, 
280;  establishes  the  Star 
Chamber,  279,  280;  Irish 
policy  of,  281 ;  foreign 
policy  of,  281-283 ;  mar- 
riage alliances,  ib. ;  mod- 
ern and  medieval  traits 
of,  283 ;  regulation  of 
gilds,  287 ;  negotiates 
Intercursus  Magnus,  289; 
issues  a  patent  to  the 
Cabots,  290;  death  and 
estimate  of,  291,  292 


INDEX 


1125 


Henry  VIII,  King  of  Eng- 
land, marries  Catharine 

•  of  Aragon,  283  ;  accession 
and  character  of,  294, 
295 ;  author  of  the  De- 
fense of  the  Seven  Sacra- 
ments, gains  title  of  "De- 
fender of  the  Faith,"  295  ; 
joins  the  Holy  Alliance, 
295 ;  invades  Flanders, 
296 ;  betrayed  by  Fer- 
dinand he  allies  himself 
with  Louis  XII ;  favor 
to  Wolsey,  297 ;  unsuc- 
cessful candidate  for  the 
Imperial  crown,  299 ;  his 
alliance  with  Charles  V, 
299,  300 ;  meeting  with 
Francis  I  at  the  Field 
of  Cloth  of  Gold,  ib. ; 
yields  on  the  question  of 
the  Amicable  Loan,  301 ; 
he  withdraws  from  the 
European  war,  301,  302; 
motives  of,  for  separation 
from  Rome,  301,  302;  a 
patron  of  the  New  Learn- 
ing, 306;  his  orthodoxy, 
307  ;  his  divorce  proceed- 
ings against  Catharine, 
308-3 1 1 ;  throws  over 
.Wolsey,  311,  312;  takes 
Cranmer  and  Cromwell 
as  advisers,  314;  sum- 
mons the  Reformation 
Parliament  and  brings 
about  the  separation  from 
Rome,  315-320;  perse- 
cutes heretics,  316,  317; 
restricts  powers  of  Con- 
vocation, 317;  marries 
Anne  Boleyn,  ib. ;  se- 
cures divorce  from 
Catharine,  318;  assumes 
title  of  Supreme  Head, 
320;  has  More,  Fisher, 
and  others  executed,  320, 
321 ;  his  dissolution  of 
the  monasteries,  322-324; 
divorces  and  executes 
Anne  Boleyn,  324,  325; 
marries  Jane  Seymour, 
325;  imposes  the  Ten 
Articles  on  the  Church, 
325,  326;  attitude  of, 
toward  the  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace,  327,  328;  dis- 
posal of  the  spoils  of 
monasteries,  329,  330; 


forces  the  Six  Articles 
on  Parliament,  331,  332; 
marries  and  divorces  Anne 
of  Cleves,  332 ;  throws 
over  Cromwell,  ib. ;  mar- 
ries Catharine  Howard, 
ib. ;  has  her  executed, 
333  ;  Scotch  policy,  333, 
334 ;  war  with  France, 
334;  Irish  policy,  334, 
335 ;  marries  Catharine 
Parr,  336;  closing  years 
and  death  of,  336,  337 ; 
nature  of  his  absolutism, 
338 ;  management  of  Par- 
liament, 338-340 ;  his 
revenue  and  his  extrava- 
gance, 340 ;  as  a  military 
leader,  344;  attitude  to- 
ward education,  344,  345 ; 
character  of  his  age,  346; 
final  regulation  of  the 
succession,  355 

Henry,  son  of  Henry  II,  in, 
113,  H4 

Henry,  Prince,  son  of 
James  I,  432,  437 

Henry,  Cardinal  of  York, 
son  of  the  Old  Pretender, 
7i4 

Henry  II,  King  of  France, 
3Si 

Henry  of  Navarre  (later 
Henry  IV,  King  of 
France),  384,  390,  397, 
398 

Henry  VI,  Emperor  of  the 
Germans,  123 

Henry  FitzAylwine,  Mayor 
of  London,  130 

Henry  of  Huntington,  89 

Henry  of  Lancaster,  guard- 
ian of  Edward  III,  189,  194 

Henry  of  Trastamara,  204 

Henry  of  Winchester,  100, 
102,  103 

Henry,  Patrick,  750 

Hepburn  (heb'burn),  James, 
Earl  of  Bothwell,  375, 
376,  377 

Heptarchy,  30 

Herbart,  Admiral  (later 
Earl  of  Torrington),  580, 
581,  625,  626 

Herbert,  George,  607 

Herbert,  Sidney,  945,  958 

Heresy  laws,  326;  repealed 
by  Somerset,  349 ;  see 
De  haretico  comburendo 


Heretics,  persecution  of,  by 
Henry  VIII,  316,  317 

Heriot,  68 

Heritable  jurisdictions,  abol- 
ished in  Scotland,  715 

Herrenhausen,  Treaty  of, 
see  Hanover 

Herrick,  Robert,  608 

Hertford,  Earl  of,  see  Sey- 
mour, Edward 

Hertzog,  General,  1081 

Herzegovina,  1003,  1005 

Hide,  63 

High  Church  party,  views 
and  aims  of,  under 
Charles  I,  452 ;  resists 
forced  loan,  455 ;  under 
the  direction  of  Laud, 
,  461-463 ;  on  the  side  of 
Charles  I  in  the  war,  487  ; 
alliance  with  Charles  II, 
553 ;  alienated  by 
James  II,  575-580;  re- 
action of,  against  Wil- 
liam III,  620,  622;  prin- 
ciples of,  651 ;  opposes 
the  Union,  662  ;  alienated 
by  the  Education  Act  of 
1870,998;  see  Sacheverell 
and  Oxford  Movement 

High  Commission,  the  Court 
of,  begins  to  be  .active, 
379  ;  enlarged  powers  of, 
389 ;  under  Elizabeth  and 
the  early  Stuarts,  402, 403  ; 
see  Ecclesiastical  Com- 
mission ;  abolished,  480  ; 
in  Scotland,  435,  469,  470 

High  Court  of  Delegates, 
the,  318,  402 

High  Court  of  Justice,  the, 
a  division  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Judicature,  999 

Highe,  Thomas,  inventor, 
785 

Highland  Host,  the,  573 

Highlands,  the  Scottish,  8; 
state  of,  at  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  628 

High  Steward,  the  court  of 
the,  639,  640 

Highwaymen,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,-  593 ;  in 
the  eighteenth  century, 
805,806 

Hildebrand,  see  Gregory  VII 

Hill,  Abigail,  see  Masham 

Hill,  Rowland,  Post  Office 
reforms  of,  936,  937 


1126 


INDEX 


Historical  writing,  Eliza- 
bethan, 420,  421 ;  Vic- 
torian, 1043,  1050 

Hoadley,  Benjamin,  Bishop 
of  Bangor,  see  Bangorian 
Controversy 

Hobbes,  Thomas,  487;  his 
political  theories,  604,  605 

Hoche,  French  commander, 

834 

Hochkirchen,  the  battle  of, 
730 

Hogarth,  William,  803 
.  Hohenlinden,  battle  of,  846 ; 
Campbell's  poem,  890, 

Holbein,  332 

Holborne,  Robert,  council 
for  Hampden,  467 

Holinshed's  Chronicles,  421 

Holland,  ceases  to  be  a 
great  Power,  717;  joins 
the  Armed  Neutrality  of 
1778,  774;  England  de- 
clares war  against,  1780, 
ib. ;  Orange  Party  of,  in 
Triple  Alliance,  826,  827  ; 
States  General  of,  appeal 
to  England  for  aid,  829; 
France  declares  war  on, 
1 7  93 1  830;  France  pre- 
pares to  invade,  ib. ; 
Batavian  Republic  set 
up  in,  834 ;  kingdom  of,  I 
85 1 ;  revolts  against  j 
France  in  1813,  859;  j 
Belgium  declares  her  in- 
dependence from,  890 ; 
see  also  Dutch  Wars^and 
Austrian  and  Spanish  Suc- 
cession, wars  of  the 

Holland,  Lord,  872 ;  see 
also  Fox,  Henry 

Holies,  Denzil,  459,  460 

Holmby  House,  501 

Holmes,  Robert,  841 

Holstein,  Duchy  of,  980 

Holy  Alliance,  the,  865 

Holy  Grail,  223 

Holy  League,  301,  306;  01 
France  and  Spain,  380 

Holy  Places,  the  quarrel 
over  the,  in  Palestine, 
precipitates  Crimean  War, 
959 ;  settlement  of  cus- 
tody of,  965 

Holy  rood  palace,  376 

Holy  Sepulcher,  the,  959 

Home  Rule,  origin  of  the 
movement,  1010 ;  adopted 


by  Gladstone,  1017;  de- 
feat of  Gladstone's  first 
bill  for,  1018, 1019;  Ulster 
opposition  to,  1018;  the 
Conservative  substitute 
for,  1023,  1024 ;  defeat 
of  Gladstone's  second  Bill 
in  the  Lords,  1024;  the 
problem,  1025,  1026 ; 
Rosebery's  views  on,  1027  ; 
becomes  an  issue  in  the 
election  of  1910,  1078; 
revival  of  the  struggle 
for,  1086-1088  ;  the 
triumph  of,  in  Parlia- 
ment, 1089 
Home  Rule  Federation,  the, 

1010 

Homilies,  the  Book  of,  350 
Hong-Kong,  948 
Honorius,  Roman  Emperor, 
withdraws  Roman  legions 
from  Britain,  21 
"  Honours,"  87 
Hood,  Admiral,  Lord,  813, 

834 

Hood,  Thomas,  1043 
Hooker,  Richard,  390,  420 
Hooper,    John,    Bishop    of 
Gloucester,  336,  353,  363 
Hopton,     Ralph,     Royalist 

commander,  492 
Hospitals,  St.  Thomas's  and 

St.  Bartholomew's,  356 
Hotham,  Sir  John,  484 
Hotspur,  see  Percy,  Henry 
Houghton,  Prior  John,  320 
Hounslow  Heath,  580,  642 
House  breaking,  death  pen- 
alty for,  removed,  904 
Household  franchise,  1012 
House    of     Commons,     see 

Commons 

House  of  Lords,  see  Lords 
House,  the  "Other,"  under 

the  Protectorate,  523 
"Hovering  Act,"  the,  816 
Howard,   Lord    Charles,    of 
Effingham   (later  Earl  of 
Nottingham),    394,    395, 
396,  440 
Howard,      Catharine,      see 

Catharine 

Howard,  Edward,  Lord  Ad- 
miral, 296 

Howard,  Frances,  Lady  Es- 
sex, 440,  441 

Howard,    Henry,    Earl    of 
Surrey,  poet,  336,  346 


Howard,  Henry,  seventh 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  573 

Howard,  John,  prison  ret 
former,  805,  1059 

Howard,  Thomas,  Earl  of 
Surrey  and  Duke  of  Nor- 
folk, 296,  328,  333,  336, 
337 

Howard,  Thomas,  fourth 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  377, 
381,  382 

Howard,  Thomas,  Earl  of 
Arundel,  611 

Howe,  General,  incompe- 
tency  of,  768;  occupies 
Philadelphia,  769 ;  re- 
sponsibility of,  in  Bur- 
goyne's  surrender,  770 

Howe,  Admiral,  Lord,  peti- 
tion from  British  seamen 
to,  837 ;  quells  naval 
mutiny  at  Spitbead,  ib. 

Hubert  de  Burgh,  136; 
Justiciar,  148-150 

Hubert  Walter,  121,  122, 
123, 124;  probable  author 
of  the  Treatise,  127,  135, 
136,  140 

Hudson's  Bay,  510 

Huerta,  General,  1085 

Hugh,  St.,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
124,  131 

Hughes,  Thomas,  1062 

Huguenots,  introduction  of 
new  industries  into  Eng- 
land by,  589,  783 

Humanism,  303 

Humber  River,  5 

Humble  Petition  and  Ad- 
vice, the,  523 

Hume,  David,  792,  794 

Humphrey,  Duke  of 
Gloucester,  252,  254,  255, 
256,  257,  303 

"Hundred  Days,"  the,  862 

Hundred  Rolls,  178 

Hundreds,  Anglo-Saxon,  44, 
62 ;  origin  of,  65 ;  courts 
and  procedure  in,  65,  66; 
responsibility  of  the,  81 

Hundred  Years'  War,  the, 
significance  of,  191 ; 
causes  of,  191,  192  ;  open- 
ing campaigns,  192,  193 ; 
three  years'  truce,  194; 
Crecy,  195,  196;  capture 
of  Calais,  1^7;  campaign 
and  battle  of  Poitiers, 
202,  203 ;  peace  of  Br£t- 


INDEX 


1127 


igny,  203 ;  turning  of 
the  tide  against  England, 
204-206 ;  economic  effects 
of,  212;  longbow  and 
firearms  in,  218,  235; 
reopened  by  Henry  V, 
248-250;  his  three  in- 
vasions of  France,  250- 
252;  Treaty  of  Troyes, 
251 ;  siege  of  Orleans, 
and  relief  of,  by  Jeanne 
d'Arc,  255  ;  England  loses 
ground,  257 ;  end  of, 
260;  effect  on  the  no- 
bility, 278 

Hungerford,  Sir  Thomas, 
206 

Hunt,  Holman,  1057 

Hunt,  Leigh,  literary  work 
of,  goo 

Hunting,  in  Anglo-Saxon 
times,  73 ;  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  595 

Hurst  Castle,  506 

Huskisson,  William,  presi- 
dent of  Board  of  Trade, 
874-875  ;  reforms  of,  875- 
877 ;  resigns  from  Wel- 
lington's Cabinet,  881 ; 
death  of,  908 

Huss,  John,  228,  251,  308 

Hutchinson  Letters,  the, 
763 

Hutton,  James,  895 

Huxley,  Thomas,  983,  1051, 
1052 

Hyde,  Anne,  544,  552 

Hyde,  Edward,  Earl  of 
Clarendon,  leader  of  the 
Constitutional  royalists 
and  author  of  the  History 
of  the  Great  Rebellion,  476, 
483,  S3o;  made  Lord 
Chancellor,  his  character 
and  policy,  532,  533; 
opposes  Charles  II's  at- 
tempts at  toleration,  538 ; 
foreign  policy  of,  539; 
blamed  for  the  sale  of 
Dunkirk,  540;  the  fall 
of,  544,  545 ;  laments 
bribery,  553 ;  his  over- 
throw, 615 

Hyde,  Henry,  Earl  of 
Clarendon,  567,  575 

Hyde,  Lawrence,  Earl  of 
Rochester,  567,  575 

Hyde  Park,  reform  demon 
stration  in,  986 


Iberians,  13,  16 

Idle  River,  battle  of,  34 

Immigrants  Regulation  Act, 
1081 

Impeachments,  beginning  of, 
206 ;  of  Latimer  and 
Lyons,  206,  207 ;  of 
Suffolk,  258;  of  Mom- 
pesson,  Michell,  and 
Bacon,  442-445  ;  of  Mid- 
dlesex, 447 ;  of  Bucking- 
ham, 454,  455  ;  of  Laud, 
477,  478;  of  Strafford, 
477-479 ;  of  Clarendon, 
545  ;  of  Danby,  560,  561 ; 
prorogations  no  bar  to, 
561 ;  royal  pardon  no 
bar  to,  561 ;  no  pardon 
to  be  pleaded  in  bar  of, 
644 ;  of  Portland,  Orford, 
Halifax,  and  Somers,  646 ; 
of  Dr.  Sacheverell,  666, 
667 ;  of  Bolingbroke,  Ox- 
ford, and  Ormonde,  678 ; 
of  Thomas  Parker,  Earl 
of  Macclesfield,  693,  694 ; 
of  Lord  Lovat,  714;  of 
Warren  Hastings,  820 

Imperial  Conferences,  1081, 
1082 

Imperial  defense,  1081 

Imperial  federation,  1069, 
1081 

Imperial  Federation  League, 
the,  1069 

Imperial  Guard,  Napoleon's, 
at  Waterloo,  864 

Imperial  Naturalization  Bill, 
the,  1088 

Imperialism,  British,  Dis- 
raeli foreshadows  idea  of, 
988;  Disraeli  popularizes 
the  idea  of,  990;  Glad- 
stone opposed  to  extreme, 
ib. ;  Disraeli  exploits  idea 
of,  during  Gladstone's 
first  Ministry,  998-999 ; 
growth  of  the  idea  of, 
1022,  1027,  1065 ;  Vic- 
toria as  the  embodiment 
of,  1037 

Imports  under  James  I,  589 

Impositions,  404,  434 

Impressment,  British,  antag- 
onizes United  States,  860 

"In  and  out"  clause,  the, 
1024 


Incandescent  lamp,  the, 
ioS5 

Incident,  the,  481 

Income  tax,  the,  established 
by  Pitt,  846;  abolished 
after  the  Napoleonic 
Wars,  868;  Peel's  sec- 
ond Ministry  revives,  941 ; 
Gladstone  proposes  re- 
duction of  the,  959; 
Gladstone  doubles,  to 
fight  Russia,  961 ;  in- 
creased by  Lloyd  George, 
1078 

Indemnity  and  Oblivion, 
Act  of,  533 

Indemnity  Bill,  the,  622 

Independent  Labor  party, 
the,  1062,  1063 

Independent  Nationalists, 
the,  1025 

Independents,  the,  388 ; 
breach  with  the  Presby- 
terians, 499;  in  the  New 
Model,  503 

India,  opened  up  by  Eng- 
lishmen, 411;  beginnings 
of  the  English  activity  in, 
720,  721 ;  the  struggle 
with  the  French  for 
supremacy  in,  721,  722; 
triumph  of  the  British 
over  the  French  in,  734- 
736 ;  mutual  restoration 
of  Conquests  in  (1763), 
743 ;  state  of,  at  close  of 
Seven  Years'  War,  808- 
809 ;  North's  Regulating 
Act,  809,  810;  Fox's  Bill 
for,  811  and  note,  812; 
Pitt's  Bill,  815;  British 
successes  in,  in  1793,  833  ; 
Napoleon  strikes  at,  838, 
844,  845 ;  supposed  plot 
of  Russia  against,  966; 
extension  of  British  con- 
trol in,  966  ff. ;  the 
Mutiny  in,  969-973 ; 
Derby  Ministry  intro- 
duces bill  for  govern- 
ment of,  973-974;  Bill, 
the,  of  1858,  carried,  975  ; 
cotton  imported  from, 
during  English  famine, 
979;  Civil  Service,  the, 
posts  in,  filled  by  competi- 
tive examination,  997 ; 
Victoria  'declared  Empress 
of,  1003 ;  visit  of  Prince 


1128 


INDEX 


Albert  to,  1006;  the 
government  of,  1064; 
visit  of  George  V  and 
Mary  to,  and  transfer  of 
the  capital  of,  1080;  see 
Anglo-Japanese  Treaties  ; 
"India  Bill  No.  2,"  the, 

973-974 

Indian  Empire,  the  Order 
of  the,  1006 

Indians,  American,  in  Ameri- 
can Revolution,  767 ;  loy- 
alty of,  to  England,  in 
War  of  1812,  860 

Indo-European    "race,"    13 

Indulgence,  the  Declara- 
tion of  Charles  II,  551 ; 
the  first  Declaration  of 
James  II,  575,  576;  the 
second,  578,  579 

Industrial  and  Social  Prog- 
ress, in  the  Victorian 
Era,  1058 

Industrial  Revolution,  4 ; 
effects  of,  788  and  note, 
789 

Industry,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  163,  164;  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  287, 
289;  under  Edward  I, 
II,  III,  211-214;  regula- 
tion of,  213,  214;  under 
Elizabeth,  413,  414;  con- 
dition of,  under  James  I 
and  Charles  I,  589;  con- 
dition of,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  589,  590; 
development  of,  in  Eng- 
land, before  the  great 
inventions,  783,  784 ;  de- 
velopment of  the  cotton, 
784-786;  disturbed  con- 
ditions in,  in  1811-1812, 
856;  depressed  state  of, 
at  end  of  Napoleonic 
wars,  868,  869;  laissez- 
faire  theory  opposes  state 
interference  with,  937-938 

Ine  (e'ne  or  I'ne),  King  of 
the  West  Saxons,  his  laws, 

4°,  44 
Injunctions,  governing 

monasteries,    323;    royal, 

of      Henry      VIII,     326; 

Cromwell's,  327,  330 
Inkerman,  battle  of  Mount, 

962 
Innocent  III,  Pope,  117, 124, 

137.  138,  139,  MS 


Inns,  Anglo-Saxon,  73 ;  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  220; 
in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, 594 

Inns  of  Court,  223 

Inoculation,  discovery  of, 
792 

Inquisition,  the,  380,  381 

Inquisition  jury,  the,  116, 
ii7 

Inquisition  of  Sheriffs,  the, 
118 

Instrument  of  Government, 
the,  516,  517 

Insularity,  importance  of 
British,  5,  6 

Insurance,  against  sickness 
and  unemployment,  1060, 
1061 

Insurance  Bill,  the  National, 
1086 

Intercursus  Magnus,  289 

Interdict,  137 

Interest,  forbidden,  215, 
288 ;  legalized  under  Eliz- 
abeth, 408 ;  fall  in  rate  of, 
under  Charles  I,  589 

Interludes,  422 

International  Workingmen's 
Association,  the,  1062 

Interparliamentary  period, 
the,  under  James  I,  437— 
443 ;  under  Charles  I, 
460-471 

Invasions  into  Britain,  neo- 
lithic, 12;  Celtic,  13; 
Germanic,  25,  26,  28-30; 
Danish,  41,  42,  51-53; 
Norman,  59,  60 

Investiture,  compromise  on, 
95,  96 

lo'na,  monastery  of,  34 

Ionian  Islands,  865 

Ireland,  physical  charac- 
teristics, 8,  9;  English 
conquest  and  oppression 
of,  9 ;  population  of,  ib. ; 
granted  to  Henry  II,  1 1 1 ; 
condition  of,  1 1 1 ,  112; 
conquest  of,  by  Strong- 
bow  and  Henry  II,  112; 
John's  visit  to,  114;  his 
expedition  against,  138 ; 
description  of,  by  Gi- 
raldus,  127;  laws  of  Ed- 
ward III  relating  to,  201 ; 
on  side  of  Bruce  against 
Edward  II,  ib. ;  visited 
by  Richard  II,  237 ;  his 


second  visit,  239;  sup- 
ports Simnel  and  War- 
beck,  281 ;  disorders  in, 
under  Henry  VII,  ib. 
Poynings's  Law  imposed 
on,  ib. ;  policy  of  Henry 
VIII  toward,  334,  335; 
he  assumes  the  title  of 
King  of,  335  ;  movements 
in,  against  Elizabeth,  386 ; 
Essex's  failure  against, 
398 ;  Mountjoy's  conquest 
of,  ib. ;  court  of  Castle 
Chamber  in,  406;  diffi- 
culties with,under  James  I, 
435.  436;  Wentworth's 
rule  in,  471;  rebellion  of 
1641  in,  481,  482; 
Charles  I's  relations  with 
the  Roman  Catholic  party 
in,  488,  498,  499;  Crom- 
well's conquest  of,  510, 
511;  the  "Cromwellian 
Settlement  in,"  511 ;  rep- 
resented in  the  English 
Parliament,  516 ;  the  Res- 
toration in,  535,  536; 
restrictions  on  Irish  com- 
merce, 575 ;  policy  of 
James  II  in,  575 ;  land- 
ing of  James  in,  624 ;  the 
Parliament  of  1689  in, 
624,  625  ;  flight  of  James 
from,  after  the  defeat  at 
the  Boyne,  626 ;  the 
treaty  of  Limerick  and 
its  violation,  626,  627 ; 
oppressive  restrictions  and 
penal  laws  against  the 
Irish,  627 ;  evil  condi- 
tions in,  under  George  III, 
777 ;  independence  of 
Parliament  of,  777,  778; 
Pitt  fails  to  establish 
freedom  of  trade  between, 
and  England,  817  ;  French 
expedition  to,  in  1796, 
835,  836;  conditions  in, 
in  1782-1789,  838,  839; 
effect  of  French  Revolu- 
tion in,  839 ;  Fitzwilliam 
made  Lord  Lieutenant 
of,  839,  840;  expedition 
from  France  to,  in  1798, 
841 ;  rebellion  of  1798  in, 
ib. ;  condition  of,  after 
rebellion  of  1798,  841, 
842 ;  Lord  Cornwallis 
Lord  Lieutenant  of,  ib. ; 


INDEX 


1129 


parliamentary  union  of, 
with  England,  9,  842,  843  ; 
representation  of,  in  Eng- 
lish Parliament,  843 ; 
Napoleon  on  French  ex- 
pedition to,  844 ;  agita- 
tion on  behalf  of  Roman 
Catholics  in,  880  ; 
Catholic  emancipation 
fails  to  quiet,  882 ;  par- 
liamentary franchise  in, 
before  first  Reform  Bill, 
913 ;  parliamentary  fran- 
chise under  Bill  of  1832, 
916-917;  the  Tithe  War 
in,  918-920;  conditions 
in,  at  Victoria's  accession, 
932-033 ;  violent  agita- 
tion of  O'Connell  in,  in 
1843,  943-944;  potato 
famine  in,  9,  944;  a 
new  Coercion  Bill  for, 
defeated,  946 ;  Russell's 
remedial  measures  for 
relief  of,  950-951 ;  effects 
of  Revolution  of  1848 
upon,  952 ;  disorder  in, 
in  1865,  984;  represen- 
tation of,  under  Act  of 
1867,  987;  measures  on 
behalf  of,  during  Glad- 
stone's first  Ministry, 
991-995 ;  Gladstone's  bill 
to  unite  colleges  of,  999 ; 
Victoria's  visits  to,  1037  ; 
condition  of,  in  the  last 
decade  of  Victoria's  reign, 
1024,  1025 ;  see  Wood's 
Halfpence,  Fenians,  Irish 
Land  Acts,  Parnell 

Ireton,  General,  502,  503, 
So6,  507,  511,  533 

Irish  Agricultural  Commis- 
sion, the,  9 

Irish  Agricultural  Organi- 
zation Society,  the,  1025 

Irish  Church,  Derby  op- 
poses disestablishment  of, 
989 ;  Gladstone  and  dis- 
establishment of  the,  991- 

994 

Irish  Church  Temporali- 
ties Bill,  the,  918,  919, 
1040 

Irish  forfeitures,  642 

Irish  Land  Acts,  of  1870,  the, 
994—995;  of  1881,  ion 

Irish  Local  Government  Act, 
1028 


Irish  Nationalists,  see  Na- 
tionalist Party 

7mA  People,  the,  Rossa 
proprietor  of,  992 

Irish  Protestant  Volunteers, 
778 

Irish  Tithe  War,  the,  918- 
919 

Irish  Union,  the,  O'Connell 
agitates  repeal  of,  943- 
944 

Iron,  development  of  Eng- 
lish manufacture  of,  786 ; 
smelting  of,  589  ;  develop- 
ment of  the  manufacture 
of,  786 

"  Ironsides,"  the,  489,  492, 
495 

Isabel  of  Angouleme,  second 
wife  of  John,  135 

Isabel,  of  Gloucester,  first 
wife  of  John,  135 

Isabella  of  France,  Queen 
of  Edward  II,  176,  185- 
187,  189,  190 

Isabella,Queen  of  Richard  II, 
238 

Isabella  of  Castile,  282,  299, 
380 

Isabella,  Queen  of  Spain,  949 

Island  Voyage,  the,  398 

Isle  de  Bourbon,  see  Bourbon 

Isle  de  France,  see  France 

Ismail,  Khedive  of  Egypt, 
1002,  1003 

Italian  Opera,  in  England, 
802 

Italian  Republic,  Napoleon 
president  of,  849 

Italy,  status  of  Austria  in, 
883-884;  Revolution  of 
1830  in,  890;  Revolution 
of  1848  in,  951,  952; 
Cavour  and  Unification 
of,  975—976 ;  kingdom  of, 
Austria  recognizes,  988 

Itinerant  justices,  under 
Henry  II,  117 ;  instruc- 
tions to,  123,  124;  under 
Edward  I,  168 

Ivan  (the  Terrible),  King  of 
the  Muscovites,  410 


Jack  Ketch,  569 

Jackson,    General    Andrew, 

defeats    British    at    New 

Orleans,  861 


Jackson,  Dr.,  1051 

Jacobites,  the,  under  Wil- 
liam III,  625,  630,  634, 
641 ;  under  George  I, 
677,  679-681,  685,  690, 
691 ;  under  George  II, 
703,  709,  710-714,  7i8 

Jacqueline,  wife  of  Hum- 
phrey of  Gloucester,  254 

Jacquerie,  203 

Jamaica,  English  capture  of, 
520;  suspension  of  con- 
stitution of,  933-934;  in- 
surrection in,  983 

James  I,  King  of  England, 
epigram  on  Bacon,  420; 
significance  of  his  acces- 
sion, 427 ;  early  environ- 
ment and  character  of, 
427-429;  views  on  mon- 
archy, 429,  430;  his 
treatment  of  the  Puri- 
tans, 430,  431 ;  of  the 
Catholics,  431-433 ;  con- 
flicts with  Parliament, 
433,  434,  437,  443,  444, 
445-449 ;  financial  em- 
barrassments of,  433,  434 ; 
relations  with  Scotland, 
435 ;  with  Ireland,  435, 
436 ;  conflicts  with  his 
subjects  during  the  inter- 
parliamentary period, 
437-443 ;  negotiations  of, 
for  a  Spanish  marriage, 
441,  442;  his  policy  in 
the  Thirty  Years'  War 
opposed  to  that  of  his 
subjects,  442,  445,  446 ; 
quarrels  with  the  Com- 
mons over  privilege,  445, 
446 ;  adopts  the  anti- 
Spanish  policy  of  the 
Commons,  447 ;  arranges 
marriage  treaty  of  Charles 
and  Henrietta  Maria,  ib. ; 
sends  out  the  Mansfeld 
expedition,  447,  448 ; 
death  and  final  estimate 
of,  448,  449 ;  character 
of,  440;  regulation  of 
trade  and  manufactures 
by,  589 ;  Scotch  policy  of, 
468 

James,  Duke  of  York,  made 
Lord  Admiral,  532 ; 
patron  of  the  African 
Company,  541 ;  in  the 
second  Dutch  war,  541 ; 


INDEX 


marries  Anne  Hyde,  544 ; 
conversion  to  Rome,  549 ; 
resigns  as  Lord  Admiral, 
5Si,  552;  in  the  third 
Dutch  War,  552 ;  be- 
comes the  center  of  Cath- 
olic hopes,  554,  sss ;  his 
connection  with  the  Pop- 
ish Plot,  557-560;  ex- 
cluded from  the  Council, 
559 ;  attempts  to  exclude 
from  the  succession,  559, 
560;  resumes  office  in 
defiance  of  the  Test  Act, 
564;  see  James  II 

James  II,  King  of  England, 
his  character  and  aims, 
566,  567 ;  first  measures 
of,  567  ;  his  revenue,  567, 
568;  vengeance  of,  after 
Monmouth's  rising,  569, 
570;  the  turning  point 
in  his  reign,  570 ;  his  rela- 
tions with  Louis  XIV, 
57°,  5?i ;  his  encroach- 
ments on  the  Test  Act,  and 
Ecclesiastical  Commis- 
sion, 571,  572;  quarters 
an  army  on  Hounslow 
Heath,  572,  573  ;  his  deal- 
ings with  the  Scots,  574, 
575  ;  his  Irish  policy,  575  ; 
his  first  Declaration  of 
Indulgence,  575,  576;  his 
attack  on  the  Universi- 
ties, 577  ;  his  attempt  to 
pack  a  Parliament,  577, 
578;  his  second  Declara- 
tion of  Indulgence,  578, 
579;  birth  of  a  son  to, 
579;  fails  in  suit  against 
the  Seven  Bishops,  580; 
orders  recruits  from  Ire- 
land, 581 ;  issues  belated 
concessions  on  the  coming 
of  William,  581,  582;  his 
flight,  583 ;  his  capture 
and  second  flight,  583, 
584 ;  Parliament  declares 
his  abdication,  585,  586 ; 
lands  in  Ireland,  624 ; 
flees  again  to  France,  626 ; 
his  Declaration,  630;  ex- 
pedition of,  defeated  at 
La  Hogue,  630,  631 ;  'his 
second  Declaration,  631  ; 
forbids  mourning  for 
Mary,  633  ;  death  of,  647 

JamesI,  Kingof  Scotland,  245 


James  III,  King  of  Scot- 
land, 271,  272 

James  IV,  King  of  Scotland, 
296 

James  V,  King  of  Scotland, 
333,  334 

James  VI,  King  of  Scotland 
(later  James  I,  King  of 
England),  his  birth,  376; 
ascendancy  of  Esm6  Stew- 
art over,  387 ;  seized  in 
the  Ruthven  raid,  ib. ; 
disinherited,  394;  named 
as  Elizabeth's  successor, 
399 ;  see  James  I,  King  of 
England 

James  Francis  Edward,  his 
birth,  579;  taken  to 
France,  583 ;  attempts 
an  invasion  of  Scotland 
in  1708,  663,  664;  ex- 
cluded from  France,  670; 
distrusted  by  the  Protes- 
tants, 673 ;  the  rising  of 
1715  in  behalf  of,  679- 
691 ;  see  Atterbury 

Jameson,  Dr.,  1032 

Jameson  Raid,  the,  1032 

Jamestown,  settlement  of, 
436 

Jane  (Seymour),  Queen  of 
Henry  VIII,  325,  331,  332 

Japan,  war  with  China, 
1029 ;  see  Anglo-Japanese 
Treaties,  Russo-Japanese 
War 

Jarnac,  battle  of,  381 

Jay,  John,  780 

Jeanne  d'Arc,  255,  256 

Jefferson,  President  Thomas, 
860 

Jeffrey,  Francis,  900 

Jeffreys,  George,  succes- 
sively Chief  Justice  and 
Lord  Chancellor,  564,  569, 
570,  583,  584 

Jemmappes,  Austrians  de- 
feated at,  829 

Jena,  battle  of,  852 

Jenkins'  Ear,  the  War  of, 
701-704 

Jenkins,  Robert,  702 

Jenkinson,  Anthony,  ex- 
plorer, 410 

Jenner,  Edward,  895 

Jennings,  Sarah,  Duchess 
of  Marlborough,  650,  654, 
658,  660,  665,  667 

Jervis,    Admiral    Sir    John 


(Lord  St.  Vincent),  wins 
battle  of  Cape  St.  Vin- 
cent, 836 

Jesuits,  the,  founding  of  the 
Society  of,  379,  380;  in 
England,  387,  388,  560; 
see  Popish  Plot 

Jews,  90,  164,  199,  212,  221, 
380,  719;  massacre  of, 
1 2 1 ;  expulsion  of,  by 
Edward  I,  180,  181 ; 
return  of,  518,  500;  re- 
moval of  exclusion  from 
Parliament,  975 

Jingoism,  origin  of  the  term, 
1004 

Joanna  of  Castile,  282,  299 

Johannesburg,  1032 

John,  King  of  England, 
occasions  revolt  of  1173, 
113;  revolt  against  Henry 
II,  114;  misconduct  in 
Ireland,  ib. ;  gains  the 
name  Lackland,  ib.,  121; 
plots  against  Richard  I, 
122,  123;  scholarship  of, 
126;  treatment  of  the 
weavers'  gild,  130;  con- 
stitutional importance  of 
his  reign,  133,  134;  his 
character,  134,  135;  the 
three  crises  of  his  reign, 
135 ;  the  loss  of  Nor- 
mandy, 136;  the  disputed 
archiepiscopal  election,  his 
struggle  with  the  Pope  and 
his  submission,  136-138; 
struggle  with  the  barons, 
130-141 ;  concession  of 
Magna  Carta,  142 ;  final 
struggles  and  death,  145 

John  Lackland,  Softsword, 
see,  John,  King  of  Eng- 
land 

John  II,  King  of  France, 
202,  203,  204 

John  VI,  King  of  Portugal, 
884,  888 

John,  Duke  of  Bedford,  252, 
254,  256,  257 

John  of  Burgoyne,  221 

John  of  Gaddesden,  221 

John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of 
Lancaster,  205,  206,  207, 
208,  225,  226,  230,  239 

John  of  Salisbury,  125,  126, 
127 

John  (the  Fearless),  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  249,  251 


INDEX 


1131 


John,  Don,  of  Austria,  385, 

386 
John  Bull,   The  History  of, 

64S 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  his 
definition  of  "excise,"  699 ; 
character  and  v/ritings, 
798,  799 

Jones,  John  Paul,  772,  773 

Jones,  Inigo,  611 

Jonson,  Ben,  424,  425 

Joseph  I,  German  Emperor, 
6S7,  663,  664,  668,  671 

Joseph  II,  German  Emperor, 
826 

Joseph  Ferdinand  of  Bava- 
ria, 645,  646 

Joyce,  Cornet,  502 

Jubilees,  Victoria's,  in  1887, 
1022,  1065,  1069;  in 
1897,  1027,  1028 

Judges,  the,  conflicts  of,  with 
James  I,  438-440;  three, 
dismissed  by  Charles  I, 
466;  consultation  of,  by 
James  I,  439 ;  by  Charles 
I,  467 ;  tenure  of,  644 

Judgment  by  peers,  144 

Judicial  combat,  81 

Judicial  Committee  of  the 
Privy  Council,  the,  318, 
402 ;  decisions  of,  in  the 
Gorham,  Essays  and  Re- 
views, and  Colenso  cases, 
1042 

Judith,  niece  of  William  I, 
married  to  Waltheof,  77 

Julius  II,  Pope,  308 

"July  Ordinances,"  the,  889 

"Junius,  the  Letters  of," 
758,  759 

Junot,  French  commander, 
in  Portugal,  854 

Junto,  the  Whig,  641 ;  break- 
up of  the,  643 

Juries,  introduced  into  Eng- 
land by  William  I,  116; 
brought  into  general  use 
by  Henry  II,  116,  117; 
fining  of,  abolished,  529 

Jury,  trial  by,  46 

Justices  of  the  Peace,  124, 
180,  216,  405-407,  414 

Justiciar,  the,  97,  150 

Justification  by  faith,  307, 
325,  326,  380 

Justinian,  Roman  Emperor, 

Justinian  Code,  the,  115, 116 


Jutes,     their     invasion    of 
Britain,  25,  29 


Kaffirs,  the,  1030 

Kalm  (Swedish  traveler), 
749 

Kamschatka,  English  expe- 
dition against,  in  1854, 
fails,  961 

Kangaroo  closure,  1079 

Kars,  in  Asia  Minor,  Russia 
secures,  964 

Katherine  of  France,  suc- 
cessively wife  of  Henry  V, 
and  of  Owen  Tudor,  249, 
251 

Kaunitz,  minister  of  Maria 
Theresa,  724 

Kay,  John,  invents  flying 
shuttle,  785 

Kearsarge,  the,  978 

Keats,  John,  poetical  writ- 
ings of,  898-899 

Keble,  John,  1040,  1041 

"Keepsakes,"  1043 

Kelvin,  Lord,  see  Thomson, 
William 

Kemble,  John,  1050 

Kendal,  Duchess  of,  see 
Schulenburg,  Countess 
von 

Kenilworth,  Dictum  of,  156 ; 
Castle  of,  415,  417 

Kenneth,  King  of  the  Scots, 
So 

Kenneth,  MacAlpine,  King 
of  the  Scots,  170 

Kent,  Duchess  of,  mother  of 
Victoria,  928,  930 

Kent,  the  Nun  of,  319 

Kentish  petition,  the,  647 

Keppel,  Admiral,  739 

Keroualle,  Louise  de,  D  uchess 
of  Portsmouth,  554 

Ketch,  John,  see  "Jack 
Ketch" 

Kelt,  Robert,  rebellion  of, 

3Si 

"Khaki  election,"  the,  1035 
Khartum,  1015 
Kiao  Chau,  1029 
Kidd,  Captain,  789 
Kielmannsegge,       Countess 

von,  677 
Kilkenny,    Statute  of,   201, 

202,  237 
Killiekrankie,  battle  of,  628 


Kilmainham  Treaty,  the, 
ion 

Kimberley,  1031,  1034 

Kimbolton,  Lord,  see  Mon- 
tagu, Edward,  483 

King,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  his 
functions,  68;  see  also 
Monarchy ;  office  of, 
abolished  by  the  Rump, 
Sf>9 

"King  of  France,"  title, 
dropped  by  English  mon- 
arch, 843 

King  Horn,  161 

King  James'  version,  the, 
331,  43i 

Kingmaker,  see  Neville, 
Richard 

King's  Bench,  Court  of,  117; 
business  of,  in  1825,  903  ; 
see  Common  Law  Courts 

King's  Book,  the,  336 

"King's  evil,"  58 

King's  Friends,  the,  739, 
758 

King's  peace,  68 

King's  Primer,  the,  331 

Kingsley,  Charles,  1041, 
1048,  1062 

King  Waldere's  Lay,  71 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  1049 

Kirke,  Colonel  Percy,  569, 

,,6*5 

"  Kirke's  Lambs,"  569 

Kirk  o'  Field,  376 

Kirk  sessions,  366 

Kitchener,  General  Herbert, 
Lord  Kitchener,  his  con- 
quest of  the  Sudan,  1015  ; 
in  the  Boer  War,  1034, 
1035 

Kloster-Zeven,  729 

Kneller,  Sir  Godfrey,  por- 
trait artist,  803 

Knight,  Dr.,  310 

Knighthood,  distraint  of, 
461 ;  declared  illegal,  480 

Knights'  fees,  85 

Knights  Hospitallers,  99 

Knights  Templars,  99 

Knolles,  (nOls)  Richard,  421 

Knox,  John,  365,  367,  368, 
374,  375 

Koniggratz  or  Sadowa, 
battle  of,  987 

Konigsmarck,  Philip  von, 
676 

Korea,   1029,   1075,   1076 

Korsakov,     Russian     com- 


1132 


INDEX 


mander,  defeated  at 
Zurich,  845 

Kruger,  President,  1033, 
1035 

Kutuzov,  Russian  com- 
mander, 858 


Labor  disturbances,  1911— 
1912,  1085,  1086 

Labor  legislation,  since  the 
second  Reform  Bill,  1060; 
in  New  Zealand,  1068 

Labor  parties,  1062 

Labor  party,  the,  oppose 
the  Civil  List,  1072 

Laborers,  condition  of,  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  287, 
288;  condition  of,  under 
Henry  VIII,  341 ;  under 
Elizabeth,  408,  409 ;  con- 
dition of,  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  804 ;  condition 
of,  in  the  Victorian  period, 
1058 ;  Huskisson's  reforms 
regarding,  876-877 ;  stat- 
utes of,  200,  216,  219,  231, 
342 

La  Bourdonnais,  721 

Labrador,  290 

Lackland,  see  John,  King  of 
England 

Ladies'  Gallery,  the,  1059 

Ladies-in-waiting,  the  royal, 
and  party  politics,  934- 
935 

Ladysmith,  1034 

La  Fayette,  Marquis  de,  770 

Laffeldt,  battle  of,  716 

La  Haye,  864 

La  Haye,  Sainte,  864 

La  Hogue,  battle  of,  631 

Laibach,  Congress  of,  883 

Laissez  -faire,  Whigs  advo- 
cate policy  of,  for  industry 
921 ;  the  doctrine  of, 
opposed  to  State  inter- 
ference in  industry,  937- 
938;  supporters  of,  fight 
Ashley's  legislation  of 
1843-1844,  942-943;  doc- 
trine of,  works  hardship 
in  Ireland,  950 ;  death  of 
policy  of,  984;  protest 
against,  1062 

Lake  district,  the,  3 

Lake  of  the  Woods,  the,  949 

Lake,  General,  841 


"Lake  School,"  the,  896-897 

Lally,  Comte  de,  735 

Lamarck,  1051 

Lamb,  Charles,  literary  work 
of,  899-900 

Lamb,  Mary,  literary  work 
of,  899 

Lamb,  William,  Lord  Mel- 
bourne, in  Canning's 
Cabinet,  878 ;  resigns 
from  Wellington's  Cabi- 
net, 881 ;  in  Grey's  Cabi- 
net, 909 ;  first  Ministry 
of,  922-923;  second  Min- 
istry of,  924;  reforms  of 
second  Ministry  of,  924- 
926 ;  prepares  Victoria's 
accession  speech  to  Privy 
Council,  928 ;  Victoria's 
instructor,  929 ;  char- 
acterization of  Ministry 
of,  in  1837-1838,  933,  934  ; 
resignation  of,  434 ;  con- 
duct of,  in  Bedchamber 
Question,  934-935 ;  dif- 
ficulties of,  with  Victoria, 
over  Prince  Consort,  935- 
936 ;  opposes  Corn-Law 
repeal,  940;  final  resig- 
nation of,  940-941 

Lambert,  John,  General, 
526,  533 

Lancaster,  Duchy  of,  dis- 
position of  revenue  from, 
under  Victoria,  929-930 

Lancaster,  House  of,  par- 
liamentary basis  of,  240; 
constitutional  importance 
of  its  regime,  242  ;  causes 
for  fall  of,  265,  275,  276 

Lancaster,  James,  411 

Lancaster,  Joseph,  educa- 
tional reformer,  995 

Lancaster,  Thomas  of,  183- 
185 

Land  bank  project,  the,  638 

Land  Purchase  Acts,  the 
Irish,  1017,  1023,  1024; 
see  also  Irish  Land  Acts 

Landed  proprietors,  rise  of, 
in  eighteenth-century  Eng- 
land, 791 

Landor,  Walter  Savage,  lit- 
erary work  of,  900 

Landseer,  Edwin,  Sir,   1057 

Landwehr,  the  Prussian,  859 

Langfranc,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  52,  79,  83, 
89,  90 


Langland,  William,  225,  226, 

230 

Langport,  battle  of,  499 
Langside,  battle  of,  377 
Langton,      Stephen,     Arch- 
bishop    of     Canterbury, 
137,  138,  139,  I4S,  148 
Language,  in  the  thirteenth 

century,  161 

Lansdowne,  the  Marquess 
of,  1074,  JOTS,  1079, 
1086;  see  also,  Petty, 
William,  Earl  of  Shel- 
burne. 

Lardner,  Dionysius,  1053 
Latimer,  William,  Lord,  im- 
peachment of,  206 
Latimer,    Hugh,   Bishop    of 
Worcester,  285,  325,  327, 

34S,  363 

Latin  Church,  the  struggle 
between  Greek  Church 
and,  over  Holy  Places,  959 

Latitudinarians,   the,   603 

Laud,  William,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  character 
of,  453 ;  policy  of,  461- 
463 ;  impeachment  and 
execution  of,  477,  478 

Lauderdale,  Duke  of,  see 
Maitland,  John 

Laudian  divines,  the,  451, 
602,  603,  1041 

Laurier,  Sir  Wilfrid,  1082 

La  Vendde,  insurrection  in, 
832 

Law  Courts,  reorganization 
of  British,  in  1873,  999 

Law,  John,  688 

Lawlessness  in  Medieval 
England,  216;  in  eight- 
eenth-century England, 
805,  806 

Lawrence,  Sir  Henry,  de- 
fense of  Lucknow  by,  971- 
972 

Lawrence,  John  (later  Lord 
Lawrence),  aids  in  sup- 
pressing the  Indian 
Mutiny,  971,  972 

Lawrence,  Major  Stringer, 
"father  of  the  Indian 
army,"  721 

Lawrence,  Thomas,  900 

Lawyers,  attempt  to  exclude, 
from  Parliament,  174 

Layamon,  127 

Laynez,  the  Jesuit,  379 

Lay  patronage,  1042,   1043 


INDEX 


"33 


League,  the  Anti-Corn  Law, 
founded,  940 ;  growth  of, 
942 

League,  the  Catholic,  390, 
391!  397  ;  see  Holy  League 

League  of  the  Empire,  the, 
1069 

Learning  at  the  court  of 
Henry  II,  126;  of  Henry 
VIII,  344 

Leeds,  3,  908,  987 

Leeds,  Duke  of,  see  Osborne, 
Sir  Thomas 

Leicester  (les'ter),  Earl  of, 
see  Dudley,  Robert 

Leighton  (lay'ton),  Alexan- 
der, 464,  477 

Leinster  (leVster),  112 

Leipzig,  battle  of,  859 

Legal  memory,  year  of,  178 

Legatine,  commission,  the, 
3io 

Legislation,  beginning  of, 
under  Edward  I,  168 

Lely,  Peter,  611 

Lenthall,  Speaker,  483,  484 

Leo  X,  Pope,  300,  303 

Leof'ric,  Earl  of  Mercia,  56 

Leopold  I,  German  Em- 
peror, 646,  647,  655,  657 

Leopold,  Prince  of  Saxe- 
Coburg,  later  King  of 
Belgium,  871,  887,  888, 
890,  928,  935 

Leopold  of  Austria,  122,  123 

Lesage,  1054 

Leslie,  Alexander,  Earl  of 
Leven,  470,  495 

Leslie,  David,  Scottish  gen- 
eral, 495,  512 

Lesseps,  Ferdinand  de,  1002 

Letter  from  Sydney,  the, 
1065,  1066 

"  Letters  of  Junius,"  the, 
758,  759,  ?6i 

Letters  of  a  Pennsylvania 
Farmer,  the,  757 

Leuthen,  the  battle  of,  729 

Levant  Company,  the,  413 

Levelers,  the,  501,  504,  510 

Le'ver,  Charles,  1048 

Leviathan,  the,  604 

Lewes,  battle  of,  154;  Mise 
of,  154-i.SS 

Lexington,  battle  of,  766 

Libel,  the  law  of,  640,  936 

Libel  Act,  Fox's,  762 

Liberal  party,  the,  Glad- 
stone causes  breach  in, 


991 ;  Gladstone  breaks 
up,  991 ;  the,  social  legis- 
lation of,  1060,  1 06 1 ; 
alliance  of,  with  the 
Laborites  and  National- 
ists, 1062 

Liberal  programme,  the,  of 
1906,  1076,  1077 

Liberal  Unionist  party,  birth 
of,  1019 

Liber  de  Unitate  Ecdesice,  325 

Liberties,  see  "Honours" 

Licensing  Bill,  the,  1077 

Lichfield,  archbishopric  of, 
39 

Liegnitz,  the  battle  of,  736 

Light  Brigade,  Charge  of 
the,  962 

Ligny,  battle  of,  862,  863 

Ligurian  Republic,  the,  846 

Lilburne,  John,464,477,  510, 
664 

Lillibullero,  581 

Limerick,  the  siege  a*nd 
treaty  of,  626 ;  violation 
of  the  treaty,  627 

Limoges,  sack  of,  205,  207 

Linacre  (lin'acre),  Thomas, 
304,  3°5 

Lincoln,  defeat  of  Stephen 
at,  102  ;  the  fair  of,  148 

Lincolnshire,  rising  in,  327 

Lindisfarne,  35,  42 

Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence, 
second  son  of  Edward  III, 
240 

Lisle,  Viscount,  see  Dudley, 
John 

Lister,  Joseph,  Baron  Lister, 
1052 

Literature,  Anglo-Saxon,  70, 
71;  Anglo-Norman,  88; 
at  the  court  of  Henry  II, 
126;  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  161 ;  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  223- 
226;  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 290,  291 ;  in  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII,  345, 
346 ;  in  the  Elizabethan 
age,  417-425;  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  607 ; 
in  the  eighteenth  century, 
796-803 ;  the  Victorian, 
1043-1049 

Literary  criticism,  in  the 
Restoration  period,  611 

Little  Parliament,  the,  see 
Nominated 


Littleton,  Sir  Thomas,  290 

Liverpool,  5 ;  railroad  from 
Manchester  to,  opened, 
894;  cruiser  Alabama 
built  at,  978;  repre- 
sentation of,  under  the 
Act  of,  1867,  987 

Liverpool,  Lord,  made  Prime 
Minister,  856 ;  Ministry 
of,  supports  Welling- 
ton in  Spain,  857;  with- 
draws the  Orders  in  Coun- 
cil, 860;  conspiracy  to 
destroy  Cabinet  of,  872; 
bill  introduced  by,  to 
divorce  Queen  Caroline, 
873 ;  end  of  Ministry  of, 
878 

Livery  and  Maintenance, 
216,  230,  237,  280,  281 

Livery  Companies,  414 

Llywelyn  ap  Grufiydd,  168, 
169 

Llywelyn  ap  Jowerth,  Prince 
of  North  Wales,  138,  156, 
1 68 

Loans,  forced,  340,  405,  455  ; 
abolished,  455 

Lob-lie-by-the-fire,  597 

Local  government  under  the 
Tudors,  407 

Local  Government  Act,  the, 
1024,  1026;  extended  to 
Ireland,  1024 

Lochleven  Castle,  377 

Locke,  John,  his  political 
philosophy,  605  ;  his  Let- 
ters on  Toleration,  621 ; 
assists  in  restoration  of 
coinage,  635  ;  influence  of, 
in  revolutionary  preachers, 
747 ;  indebtedness  of 
Hume  to,  794 

Lodge,  Thomas,  420,  423. 

Logarithms,  invention  of, 
606 

Lollards,  228,  246,  247,  248, 
249 

Lombards,  money  lenders, 
164 

Lombardy,  Austria  in  con- 
trol of,  951,  952 

London,  5  ;  in  Celtic  times, 
1 6 ;  Saxon  conquest  of, 
29 ;  taken  by  the  North- 
men, 42 ;  recovered  by 
Alfred,  43 ;  captured  by 
William  I,  76;  granted  a 
charter,  ib.  •  under  Henry 


1 134 


INDEX 


I,  98 ;  charters  to,  1 29 ; 
granted  a  "commune," 
122,  129,  130;  receives  a 
charter,  1 23  note ;  charters 
to,  from  Conquest  to 
Magna  Carta,  129,  130; 
gilds  and  livery  companies 
of,  130;  concessions  to,  in 
Magna  Carta,  143 ;  in 
the  time  of  Edward  I,  180 ; 
Black  Death  in,  199 ; 
trade  regulations  in,  211 ; 
lawlessness  in,  216;  trade 
combinations  in,  231 ;  pop- 
ulation of,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  287 ;  health  reg- 
ulations in,  341 ;  opposi- 
tion of  James  I  to'  its 
growth,4i4 ;  population  of, 
in  Elizabeth's  reign,  meas- 
ures to  check  growth  of, 
414,  415  ;  treaty  of  (1603), 
432;  in  the  first  months 
of  the  Long  Parliament, 
477 ;  the  Plague  and 
Fire  in,  543 ;  Treaty  of 
(1674),  553  ;  condition  of, 
in  the  seventeenth  century, 
599-601 ;  in  the  eight- 
eenth century,  806 ;  banks 
of,  in  crisis  of  1825,  877; 
Treaty  df  (1827),  886; 
conference  of,  887 ;  con- 
ference at,  Belgian  Revo- 
lution referred  to,  890; 
postal  rates  from,  to  Bel- 
fast and  Aberdeen,  before 
Penny  Post,  936;  Anti- 
Corn  Law  Movement  fails 
in,  940;  Chartist  conven- 
tion in,  952;  conference 
at,  Schleswig-Holstein 
Question  before,  980 ;  in- 
crease of  members  from, 
1013 ;  made  a  separate 
county,  1022,  1023 ; 
Treaty  of  (1913),  1083 
Londonderry,  the  siege  of, 
624,  625 ;  proportion  of 
Protestants  in,  1087 
London  Gazette,  the,  640 
London  Magazine,  the,  900 
Longbeard,  see  William 

FitzOsbert 
Longbow,    effectiveness    of 

the,  169,  218 
Longchamp,  see  William 
Long  Parliament,  the  tem- 
per and   aims,  474,    475 ; 


the  leaders  in,  475-477; 
impeachments  by,  477- 
479 ;  remedial  legislation 
of,  479,  480 ;  struggle  over 
religion  and  the  Grand 
Remonstrance,  481-483 ; 
alliance  with  the  Scots, 
493  ;  intolerance  of,  500 ; 
conflict  with  the  army, 
500—504,  506 ;  Pride's 
Purge  of,  506 ;  see  Rump ; 
final  dissolution  of  the, 
526 

Lord  Chancellor,  the  Roman 
Catholics  excluded  from 
office  of,  882 

Lord  Lieutenant,  the  Eng- 
lish, origin  of,  407 ;  at- 
tempted coercion  of,  by 
James  II,  578 

Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland, 
Roman  Catholics  excluded 
from  office  of,  882  ;  power 
of,  under  Coercion  Bill, 
919-920 

Lord  Protector,  the,  see 
Cromwell,  Oliver  and 
Richard,  and  Seymour, 
Edward 

Lords  Appellant,  the,  236, 
238 

Lords,  House  of,  the  origin 
of,  as  a  separate  House, 
1 74 ;  spiritual  power 
weakened  by  dissolution 
of  the  monasteries,  329; 
composition  of,  under 
Henry  VIII,  339;  the 
control  of,  by  Eliza- 
beth, 403  ;  as  a  court  of 
appeal,  406 ;  bishops  tem- 
porarily deprived  of  seats 
in,  484 ;  parties  in,  487 ; 
temporarily  abolished  by 
the  Rump,  509 ;  yield 
right  to  amend  money 
bills,  545,  546 ;  gain  right 
to  hear  appeals  from  Chan- 
cery, 554;  Country  Party 
organized  in,  ib. ;  de- 
nounce tacking,  659 ; 
creation  of  twelve  new 
peers  in,  669 ;  a  Tory 
stronghold  under  Pitt, 
815;  threat  to  create 
peers  in,  to  carry  Reform 
Bill,  915;  Radicals  call 
for  reform  of,  926;  Irish 
bishops  excluded  from, 


993 ;  as  a  Court  of  Ap- 
peal under  reform  of 
1873,  999;  threat  to 
diminish  their  power, 
1013 ;  Gladstone  suggests 
curtailing  the  power  of, 
1026;  decides  in  favor  of 
lay  patrons,  1042 ;  deci- 
sions of,  in  the  Taff  Vale 
and  Osborne  cases,  1062 ; 
reduction  of  the  powers  of, 
1077-1080 ;  see  also  Witan, 
Great  Council,  Parlia- 
ment, Barons,  Nobility, 
and  Peers 

Lords  of  the  Articles,  the, 
428 

Lords  of  the  Congregation, 
the,  367 

Lords  Ordain ers,  183 

Loreburn,  Lord,  1088 

Lose-coat-field,  268 

Lostwithiel,  the  surrender 
at,  495 

Lothian,  cession  of,  54,  170 

Lotteries,  637,  913—914 

Loubet,  President,  1075 

Loudon,  the  Earl  of,  728 

Loughborough  (luf'boro), 
Lord,  see  Wedderburn 

Louis  VII,  King  of  France, 
103,  no,  in,  113 

Louis  (afterwardsLouis  VIII, 
King  of  France),  138;  in- 
vasion of  England,  145; 
defeat  and  expulsion,  147, 
148,  149 

Louis  IX  (St.  Louis),  King 
of  France,  149,  151,  154 

Louis  XI,  King  of  France, 
267,  268,  270,  282 

Louis  XII,  King  of  France, 
295,  296 

Louis  XIII,  King  of  France, 
488 

Louis  XIV,  King  of  France, 
alliance  of  Charles  II  with, 
536,  540,  541 ;  treaty  of, 
with  the  Dutch,  541 ;  in- 
tervenes in  the  first  Dutch 
War,  542  ;  fear  of,  547 ; 
his  "  War  of  Devolution  " 
with  Spain,  549 ;  combines 
with  Charles  II  in  the 
Treaty  of  Dover,  to  se- 
cure his  aid  in  a  war  on 
the  Dutch,  549-553  ;  sub- 
sidizes the  Opposition, 
SSS.S^o;  his  Gallicanism, 


INDEX 


"35 


570 ;  alienates  the  Dutch, 
581 ;  receives  James  II 
and'  his  Queen,  584 ;  aids 
James  II,  620,  624 ;  alli- 
ance of  William  III 
against,  629,  630 ;  in  the 
campaign  of  1693,  631 ; 
agrees  to  the  Peace  of 
Ryswick,  636,  637 ;  see 
Spanish  Succession ; 

promises  to  recognize  the 
son  of  James  II,  647,  648 ; 
his  proposals  of  peace  to 
the  Dutch,  659,  663 ; 
later  negotiations  of,  664, 
668;  makes  Peace  of 
Utrecht  with  England, 
670,  671 ;  achievements 
of,  in  the  war,  672  ;  death 
of,  679 ;  length  of  his 
reign,  1036 

Louis  XV,  King  of  France, 
679,  691,  709,  724,  742 

Louis  XVI,  King  of  France, 
824,  828,  830 

Louis  XVIII,  King  of 
France,  859,  862,  889 

Louis  Napoleon,  see  Napo- 
leon 

Louis  Philippe,  ascends 
throne  of  France,  889; 
alienates  England  in  Span- 
ish marriages  affair,  949 ; 
ousted  by  Revolution  of 
1848,  951 

Louis,  Emperor  of  the  Ger- 
mans, 192,  193 

Louis,  Count  of  Flanders, 
192,  196 

Louisburg  (Cape  Breton 
Island),  the  capture  of, 
710;  reverts  to  France, 
717;  recapture  of,  729 

Louisiana,  ceded  by  France 
to  Spain  (1763),  743; 
Spain  recedes  to  France, 
847 ;  Napoleon  sells  to 
the  United  States,  849 

Louth,  outbreak  of  Lincoln- 
shire rising  in,  327 

L'Ouverture,  Toussaint,  849 

Louvois,  minister  of 
Louis  XIV,  629 

Lovelace,  Richard,  607 

Lowe,  comment  of,  on  re- 
form of  1867,  987 

Lowestoft,  battle  of,  541 

Lowlands,  the  Scottish,  8 

"Loyalty  Loan,"  the,  836 


Loyalists,  in  American  Col- 
onies, 766;  provision  re- 
garding, in  Treaty  of 
Paris,  781 

Loyola,  Ignatius,  379,  380 
Lucknow,  siege  of,  971—973 
Lud,  god  of  commerce,  16 
"Luddites,"  the,  856 
Ludlow,  General,  511 
Luneville,  Peace  of,  846 
Luther,    Martin,    299,    303, 

305,  3°7,  308,  330 
Luttrell,  Colonel,  758 
Luxembourg,  Marshal,  630- 

632,  634 

Lycidas,  Milton's,  608 
Lydgate,  John,  290 
Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  895 
Lyly  (IJ'ly),  John,  419 
Lyme  Regis,  568 
Lyndhurst,  Lord  Chancellor, 

923,  933 

Lyons,  Richard,  206,  207 
Lytton,     Edward     Bulwer, 
Lord  Lytton,  writings  of, 
1046 

Lytton,  Edward  Robert, 
Earl  of  Lytton,  Viceroy 
of  India,  1006, 1007 

M 

MacArthur,  John,  1066 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Bab- 
ington  (Baron  Macaulay), 
combats  views  of  Radi- 
cals on  parliamentary  re- 
form, 908;  his  writings, 
1043 

Macaulay,  Zachary,  819 

Macdonald,  Flora,  714 

Macdonnell,  Sir  Anthony, 
1074 

Macedonia,   1005,   1006 

Machiavelli,  314,  605 

Mackay,  General  Hugh,  628 

Mackintosh,  Brigadier,  679, 
680 

Mackintosh,  Sir  James,  the 
V indicia  Gallics,  of,  825  ; 
assists  in  law  reforms,  875 

Macpherson,  James,  802 

Madagascar,  721 

Madero,  Francesco,  1084, 
1085 

Madison,  President  James, 
860 

Mad  Parliament  of  Oxford, 


Madras,  721 ;  see  India 

Madrid,  Treaty  of,  between 
Charles  V  and  Francis  I, 
301 ;  Peace  of  (1630),  460; 
in  the  War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession,  663,  665 

Mafeking,  1035 

Magdala,  Abyssinian  strong- 
hold, 988 

Magdalen  College,  case  of 
the  Fellows  of,  577,  582 

Magenta,  battle  of,  976 

Magna  Carta,  94,  135;  the 
struggle  for,  142 ;  sig- 
nificance of,  ib. ;  terms 
of,  143,  144;  means  of 
enforcement  and  future 
importance  of,  144,  145; 
declared  null  and  void  by 
the  Pope,  145,  147;  con- 
firmations of,  148,  153, 
154,  156,  170,  175,  176 

Magnum  Concilium,  see 
Great  Council 

Mahdi,  the,  in  the  Sudan, 
1014,  1015 

Mahomet,  677 

Maiden  Castle,  15 

Maidston,  Cromwell's  cof- 
ferer, 525 

Maine,  French  province  se- 
cured by  Philip  II,  136 

Maine,  U.  S.  A.,  Ashburton 
adjusts  boundary  of,  948 

Maintenance,  see  Livery 

Maitland,  John,  Earl  and 
later  Duke  of  Lauderdale, 
548,  549,  550,  SSL  573 

Major-Generals,  the  rule  of 
the,  522,  523 

Majuba  Hill,  the  battle  of, 
1031 

Malakoff  Tower,  the,  963-964 

Malcolm,  King  of  Scotland, 
77 

Maldon,  battle  of,  51 

Malmesbury,  the  borough  of, 
910 

Ma/lory,  Sir  Thomas,  290 

Malplaquet,  the  battle  of, 
665 

Malta,  captured  by  Napo- 
leon, 844;  recovered  by 
England,  846 ;  in  treaty 
of  Amiens,  848 ;  England 
refuses  to  evacuate,  after 
Amiens,  849;  secured  to 
Great  Britain  by  Congress 
of  Vienna,  865 


1136 


INDEX 


Malthus,  Thomas,  895 
Mamelukes,  the,  Egyptian, 

844  and  note 
Manasseh  Ben  Israel,  500 
Manchester,  3 ;    cotton  in- 
dustry centered  at,  784; 
massacre     in,     870-891 ; 
railroad  to  Liverpool  from, 
opened,  894 ;    Russel  ad- 
vocates    enfranchisement 
of,   908 ;    free  trade  agi- 
tation   centers    at,    940; 
representation    of,    under 
the    Bill    of    1867,    987; 
Fenian     disturbance     at, 
992-993 
"Manchester  martyrs,"  the, 

993 

Manchester      School,      the, 

views     of,     on     Ashley's 

legislation   of    1843-1844, 

943 

Manchester,     Earl    of,     see 

Montagu,  Edward 
Manchuria,  1036,  1075,  1076 
Manila,    captured    by    the 
British,  742 ;  restored,  743 
Manila  ransom,  the,  743 
Manitoba,  Province  of,  932 
Manning,  Cardinal,  1042 
Manoa,  fabled  city  of,  412 
Manor  houses,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  222,  223 
Manors,    Anglo-Saxon,    62, 
63,  64 ;   in  Anglo-Norman 
times,  86-88 
Mansfeld    expedition,     the, 

447,  448 
Mansfield,  Lord,  see  Murray, 

William 

Manufactures,  measures  to 
protect,  289 ;  regula- 
tions of,  by  James  I  and 
Charles  I,  589;  develop- 
ment of,  in  England  be- 
fore the  great  inventions, 
784;  status,  in  1832,  of, 
892 ;  British,  opposition 
of,  to  factory  legislation, 
921 
Manwaring  (man'nering), 

Roger,  451 
Maoris,  the,  1068 
Map,  Walter,  127 
Mar,   Earl  of,   see  Erskine, 

John 

Mara'thas',  809,  810,  967 
"March  of  the  Blanketers," 
the,  870 


Marchand,  Major,  1015 
Marcher  lords,  the,  155,  169, 

185 

Marconi,  inventor,  1054 
Mare,  Sir  Peter  de  la,  206 
Marengo,   Austria  defeated 

at,  846 

Margaret,  daughter  of  Ed- 
ward the  jEtheling,  58 
Margaret  of    Anjou,  Queen 

of  Henry   VI,    257,    258, 

260-270 
Margaret  of  Burgundy,  271, 

272,  280 
Margaret,         Queen         of 

James    IV    of    Scotland, 

282,    296,    298,    333,    355 
Margaret,  Maid  of  Norway, 

170 
Margaret  of  Parma,  Regent 

of  the  Netherlands,  381 
Margaret  of  Valois,  384 
Margaret  Beaufort,   Count- 
ess of  Richmond,  279 
Maria    Anna,    daughter    of 

Philip  III  of  Spain,  441, 

446 
Maria  Christina,  Queen  and 

Regent  of  Spain,  889,  949 
Maria  Leczinska,  Queen  of 

Louis  XV  of  France,  691 
Maria     Theresa,     Empress, 

700,   704,    705,    708,    710, 

716,  717,  724,  725,  826 
Marian    Exile,    significance 

of,  365,  366 
Marian  exiles,  388 
Marian  martyrs,  the,  363 
Marie  Antoinette,  828 
Marignano,  battle  of,  298 
Markets,  130,  131 
Marlborough,    Duchess    of, 

see  Jennings,  Sarah 
Marlborough,   Duke  of,    see 

Churchill,  John 
Marlborough,    the    Statute 

of,  156 

Marlowe,    Christopher,    423 
Marprelate  libels,  the,  389, 

390 
Marriage,  feudal  incident  of, 

85  . 
Marriage   with    a   deceased 

wife's     sister      legalized, 

1077 
Marriage  Act,   Lord  Hard- 

wicke's,  719 

Mar'ryat,  Captain,  1048 
Marsh,  Adam,  160 


Marshall,  see  William  Mar- 
shall 

Marston  Moor,  battle  of, 
494,  495 

Martin,  Richard,  "Human- 
ity Martin,"  903 

Mar'vell,  Andrew,  607 

Mary  I,  Princess  and  Queen 
of  England,  308,  344; 
provisions  concerning  her 
succession,  355 ;  acces- 
sion, character,  and  policy 
of,  358,  359;  marriage 
projects,  359;  restores  the 
ecclesiastical  system  of 
Henry  VIII,  359,  360; 
marries  Philip  of  Spain, 
360;  suppresses  Wyatt's 
rebellion,  361 ;  secures 
reunion  of  Church  of 
England  with  Rome,  361 ; 
the  Marian  persecutions, 
361-364;  last  years  and 
death  of,  364,  365 

Mary  II,  Princess,  later 
Queen  of  England,  marries 
William  of  Orange,  555 ; 
her  succession  barred  by 
the  birth  of  a  son  to  James 
II,  579;  chosen  joint 
sovereign  with  William, 
585,  586 ;  her  arrival  in 
England,  586;  influence 
of,  in  purifying  the  drama, 
610,  625;  her  death,  632 

Mary-  (of  Modena),  Queen 
of  James  II,  552,  570, 
579,  583 

Mary,  sister  of  Henry  VIII, 
Queen  of  France,  and 
Duchess  of  Suffolk,  296, 

355 

Mary  (of  Lorraine),  Queen 
of  James  V  of  Scotland 
and  Regent,  333,  334, 
367,  374 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  birth 
OI>  334 !  crowned  Queen, 
ib. ;  taken  to  France,  352  ; 
married  to  the  Dauphin 
(later  Francis  II  of 
France),  353 ;  refuses  to 
ratify  the  Treaty  of  Edin- 
burgh, 374;  returns  to 
Scotland  and  marries 
Darnley,  375 ;  murder  of 
Darniey,  376;  her  mar- 
riage to  Bothwell,  defeat, 
and  flight  to  England, 


INDEX 


H37 


377 ;  her  trial  and  cap- 
tivity, ib. ;  plot  of  Nor- 
folk to  marry,  and  the 
rising  of  the  Northern 
Earls  to  put  her  on  the 
throne  of  England,  377, 
378;  aim  of  Philip  II 
to  make  her  Queen,  380; 
plots  in  behalf  of ,  381,  382, 
385,  386,  387,  388,  393; 
her  execution,  393,  394 

Mary  of  Burgundy,  270-272, 
299 

Mary  of  Bavaria,  646 

Ma'serfeld,  battle  of,  35 

Masham,   Mrs.,   665,   667 

Mashonaland,  1032 

Mason,  James  M.,  Confed- 
erate Commissioner  to 
England,  978 

Massachusetts,  resistance  to 
the  Stamp  Act  in,  753 ; 
to  the  Townshend  Acts, 
757 

Massachusetts  Bay,  colony 
of,  436 

Massacre  of  St.  George's 
Fields,  the, -758 

Massacre,  the  "Peterloo," 
870-871 

Matabeleland,  1032 

Mathew,  Father,  950,  1059 

Matilda,  daughter  of 
Henry  I,  96 ;  marries  Em- 
peror Henry  V,  ib. ;  mar- 
ries Geoffrey  of  Anjou, 
ib. ;  claims  the  throne, 
100;  begins  civil  war, 
101 ;  gains  and  losses, 
102,  103  ;  retires  from  the 
struggle,  103 ;  mention 
of,  309 

Matthew  Paris,  156,  161, 
172 

Matthews,  Thomas,  330 

Matthias,  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many, 442 

Maurice  (mdr'ris),  Freder- 
ick Denison,  1041 

Mauritius,  secured  to  Great 
Britain  by  Congress  of 
Vienna,  865 

Max  Emanuel,  Elector  of 
Bavaria,  655,  656 

Maximilian,  later  Emperor 
of  the  Germans,  271,  272, 
281,  282,  295,  296,  298,  299 

Maximilian,  Duke  of  Ba- 
varia, 442 


Maximilian,  Archduke,  in 
Mexico,  980 

Maximus,  20,  21 

May  Fair,  806 

Mayflower  Compact,  the, 
5i7 

Maynard,  Sergeant,  584 

Maynooth  College,  840,  944 ; 
grant  to,  discontinued,  993 

Mazarin,  Cardinal,  372,  488 

McAdam,  John,  893 

McCarthy,  Justin,  1021 

Meagher  (ma'her),  Thomas 
Francis,  Irish  conspira- 
tor, 952 

Meath,  112 

Medicine,  in  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, 221 ;  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  606 ;  in 
the  eighteenth  century, 
792 ;  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  895 

Medina  Sidonia,  Duke  of,  394 

Medway,  the  Dutch  enter 
the,  542,  543 

Meerut,  rising  at,  970 

Melbourne  (mel'bun),  Lord, 
see  Lamb,  William 

Melbourne,  capital  of  Vic- 
toria, Australia,  1066 ; 
temporary  capital  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Aus- 
tralia, 1067 

Melrose  Abbey,  99 

Melville,  Andrew,  431 

Menai  Straits,  road  across, 
893 

Menshikov,  Prince,  960-962 

Mercantilism,  288 ;  declin- 
ing strength  of,  605 ; 
Adam  Smith's  criticism 
of,  796 

Merchant  Adventurers,  the, 
289,  413 

Merchant  gilds,  130 

Merchants,  concessions  to, 
in  Magna  Carta,  143 ; 
Statute  of,  179,  212; 
foreign,  in  England,  212, 
213;  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  286;  of  the 
Staple,  289 ;  condition 
of,  under  Henry  VIII,  341 

Merchant  Shipping  Act,  the, 
1002 

Mercia,  supremacy  of,  38,  39 

Mercians,  the,  30 

Merciless  Parliament,  the, 
236 


Meredith,      George,      1048, 

1049 

Merlin,  89,  243 
Merry  Andrew,  224 
Mersey  River,  5 
Merton  College,  Oxford,  160 
Methodism,  rise  of,  794-795 
Methuen  Treaty,  the,  655 
Metropolitical      visitations, 

the,  463 
Metternich,     Prince,     865, 

883,  884 

Mexico,  recognition  of  Re- 
public of,  885 ;    Napoleon 

III  intervenes  in,  979-980 ; 

the    situation    in,    1910- 

1914,  1084,  1085 
Michell,  Sir  Francis,  443, 445 
Middle    class,    the,    in    the 

fifteenth  century,  286 
Middlesex  election,  the,  757, 

758 
Middleton,    John,    Earl   of, 

535 

Miguel,    claimant    to    Por- 
tuguese throne,  885,  888, 

889 

Milan  decree,  the,  853 
Mile  End,  232,  233 
Militant     suffragists,    1060, 

1088 
Military  and  Naval  Officers' 

Oath  Bill,  the,  880 
Military  tenures,  introduced 

by  William  the  Conqueror, 

85 ;  abolished,  534 
Mill,  James,  907, 1049 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  973,  983, 

1041,  1059,  1060 
Millais        (mil  la'),       John 

Everett,  1057 
Millenary  Petition,  the,  430, 

431 
Millet,  Constable's  influence 

on,  901 
Milner,    Sir    Alfred     (Lord 

Milner),  1033 
Milton,  John,  423,  451,  601, 

747 ;    his  life  and  works, 

608,  609 

Minden,  the  battle  of,  733 
Mines    and    collieries,  Acts 

relating  to,  in  1842-1843, 

942,  943;    in    1872-1906, 

1060 
Minimum   Wage    Bill,    the, 

1085,  1086 
Ministerial      responsibility, 

615,  646 


1 138 


INDEX 


Ministries,     list     of,     from 

Walpole,  appendix 
Ministry  of  All  the  Talents, 

851,  852 

Ministry,  the,  distinguished 
from  the  Cabinet,  614 

Minorca,  captured  by  the 
British,  665 ;  ceded  to 
Great  Britain,  671 ;  cap- 
tured by  the  French,  723, 
724;  restored,  743;  lost 
again,  776;  ceded  to 
Spain,  781 

Miquelon,    Island    of,    781, 

833 

Miracle  plays,  224 
Mise  of   Amiens,    the,  153, 

154 

Mise  of  Lewes,  154 
Missal,  the,  331 
Mistress  of  the  Robes,  the, 

changed   with  each  Gov- 
ernment, 935 
Mitchell,  Irish  conspirator, 

952 
Modena,  see  Zurich,  Peace 

of 
Mogul,  the  Great,  720,  960- 

973 
Mogul      Empire,       British 

assume    guardianship    of, 

967 

Mohocks,  600 
Moira,   Lord,   see  Rawdon, 

Francis,  Earl  of  Hastings 
Moldavia,     887,     964 ;     see 

Rumania 
Mompesson,  Sir  Giles,  443, 

445 

Monarchy,  rise  and  decline 
of  Anglo-Saxon,  62 ;  rev- 
enues, 66;  •evidences  of 
growth  of,  68,  69 ;  cause 
of  decline  of,  69,  70; 
strength  of,  at  the  acces- 
sion of  James  I,  566 ; 
declining  respect  for, 
under  the  first  two 
Georges,  693 

Monasteries,  hospitality  of, 
220 ;  faults  and  merits  of, 
322 ;  dissolution  of  the, 
322-324,  328-330;  as 
centers  of  poor  relief,  342  ; 
of  education,  345 ;  see 
Monks 

Monastic  revival  in  twelfth 
century,  99 ;  decline  of, 
under  Henry  II,  126;  see 


Monks,  Monasteries,  and 
Cluniac  reform 

Monck,  George,  later  Duke 
of  Albemarle,  526,  527, 
532,  542 

Money  bills,  the  Lords 
yield  right  to  amend,  545, 
546 ;  to  veto,  1078 

Money  lending,  legalized, 
408;  see  Interest  and 
Usury 

Monks,  work  and  influence 
of,  36,37  ;  the,  as  landlords, 
285,  341 ;  proceedings 
against  under  Henry  VIII, 
319,  320,  322-324,  326, 
328-330;  see  Monasteries 
and  Monastic  revival 

Monmouth,  Duke  of,  see 
Scott,  James 

Monopolies,  attitude  of  Eliz- 
abeth on,  399 ;  under  the 
Tudors  and  Stuarts,  405 ; 
attack  on,  443,  444;  Act 
abolishing,  444 ;  grants 
of,  by  Charles  I,  461 ; 
justification  for,  588,  589 

Monroe,  President,  enunci- 
ates "Monroe  Doctrine," 
885  and  note 

Monroe  Doctrine,  the,  885, 
1028 

Mons,  630 

Montagu  (mon  ta  gu'), 

Charles,  later  Earl  of 
Halifax,  his  share  in  the 
restoration  of  the  coinage, 
635 ;  in  founding  the 
National  Debt  and  the 
Bank  of  England,  635- 
637,  643 ;  impeachment 
of,  646;  mention  of, 
667 

Montagu,  Edward,  Earl  of 
Manchester,  477,  483,  492, 
495,  496 

Montagu,  Edward,  Earl  of 
Sandwich,  552 

Montagu,  John,  Earl  of 
Sandwich,  745 

Montague,  Mrs.,  806 

Montcalm,  Marquis  of,  278, 
731-733 

Montenegro,  1003,  1005 

Montesquieu,  823 

Montfort,  de,  see  Simon 

Montgomery,  Robert,  971 

Monthly  assessments,  488 

Montpensier,  Due  de,  949 


Montreal,  the  British  cap- 
ture of,  736 

Montrose,  the  Earl  of,  481, 
498,  512 

Moore,  Sir  John,  death  of, 
854  and  note 

Moore,  Thomas,   899,   1045 

Morality  plays,  224 

Morals,  status  of  British, 
after  French  Revolution, 
902 

Moray,  Earl  of,  see  Stewart, 
Lord  James 

Mordaunt,  Charles,  Earl  of 
Peterborough,  657,  663 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  295 ; 
Speaker  of  the  Commons, 
300;  character  and  work 
of,  305,  306;  made  Lord 
Chancellor,  311,  314;  re- 
signs, 317;  arrest  and 
execution  of,  319-321 ; 
as  a  writer,  346 

Morea,  the,  Ibrahim  Pasha 
in,  886,  887 

Morkere,  Earl,  58,  59,  76,  77 

Morley,  John,  Viscount 
Morley,  1013,  1024 

Morley,  Mrs.,  see  Anne, 
Queen  of  England 

Mornington,  Lord,  see 
Wellesley,  Richard,  Mar- 
quis of  Wellesley 

Morocco,  138,  1075,  1076, 
1082 

Morris,  William,  1057 

Morse,  Samuel,  1054 

Morte  d' Arthur,  Malory's, 
290 

Mortimer,  Edmund,  Earl 
of  March,  heir  presump- 
tive of  Richard  II,  240, 
244,  245,  250 

Mortimer,  Roger,  186,  189, 
190 

Mortimer's  Cross,  battle  of, 
263 

Mortmain,  Statute  of,  179 

Morton,  Earl  of,  Regent  of 
Scotland,  367,  387 

Morton,  Thomas,  Lord 
Chancellor,  280,  289 

Morton,  Dr.,  1051 

"  Morton's  Fork,"  280 

Mortuaries,  316 

Moscow,  in  Napoleon's  Rus- 
sian campaign,  858 

Mountjoy,  Lord,  398 

Mount  Vernon,  704 


INDEX 


"39 


Mowbray,  Thomas,  Earl  of 
Nottingham,  236 ;  Duke 
of  Norfolk,  238,  239 

Muckden,  battle  of,  1076 

Mummeries,  208,  218 

Mummings,  224,  422 

Mun,  Thomas,  605 

Municipal .  corporations,  at- 
tacks on,  by  Charles  II, 
and  James  II,  563,  564, 
577.  578;  forfeited  char- 
ters restored,  582 

Municipal  Reform,  problem 
of,  for  Ireland,  in  1837, 
932-933 

Municipal  Reform  Act,  the, 
924-925 

Munster,  112 

Miinster,  the  Bishop  of,  542 

Murphy,   Father  John,  841 

Murray,  Lord  George,  711- 
7M 

Murray,    Brigadier    James, 

735 

Murray,  William,  Lord 
Mansfield,  719,  761 

Music,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  612;  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  803 ; 
in  the  Victorian  Age,  1057 

Mustapha,  677 

Mutiny  Act,  the,  origin  of, 
621 ;  opposed  by  Walpole, 
683;  by  Fox,  812 

"My   son's  Ministry,"   808 

Mysore,  establishment  of, 
as  British  protectorate, 
966-967 ;  revolt  in,  845 

N 

"Nabobs"  in  Parliament, 
911 

Namur,  631,  634,  862 

Nana  Sahib,  969,  971,  972 

Nankin,  Treaty  of,  948 

Nantes,  the  Edict  of,  397 ; 
revoked,  570,  589 

Na  pi  er,  Admiral,  Sir 
Charles,  961 

Napier,  General,  Sir  Charles, 
968 

Napier,  John,  606 

Napier,  Sir  Robert,  Abys- 
sinian expedition  of,  988 

Naples,  in  Second  Coalition 
against  France,  845 ;  re- 
volt of  1820  in,  884 

Napoleon,  see  Bonaparte 


Napoleon,  Louis,  later 
Napoleon  III,  Palmer- 
ston  approves  the  coup 
d'tlat  of  1851  of,  957; 
supports  French  protec- 
torate over  Holy  Places, 
959;  ambition  of,  a 
cause  of  Crimean  War, 
959,  960;  anxiety  of,  to 
end  Crimean  War,  964, 
965 ;  Orsini's  attempt 
to  assassinate,  974—975 ; 
Orsini's  plot  stimulates 
to  intervention  in  Italy, 
975 ;  negotiates  a  com- 
mercial treaty  with  Cob- 
den,  976 ;  unfriendly  atti- 
tude of,  to  United  States 
during  Civil  War,  979-980 ; 
attitude  and  policy  of,  in 
Schleswig-Holstein  ques- 
tion, 980;  in  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War,  looo 

Naseby,  battle  of,  497,  498 

Nash,  Richard  (Beau  Nash), 
602 

Nash,  Thomas,  420 

Natal,  1030,  1031 ;  in  the 
Boer  War,  1033,  1034, 
1035 

Nation,  the  Irish  nationalist 
journal,  944 

National  Assembly,  French, 
aggressive  decrees  of, 
829,  830 

National  Constituent  As- 
sembly, the  French,  824 

National  Debt,  the,  550; 
beginning  of  the,  637 ; 
Scotch  share  in,  662 ; 
after  Napoleonic  wars, 
831;  in  1796-1797,  836; 
after  the  Union,  843 ; 
amount  of,  at  end  of 
Napoleonic  wars,  868 ; 
see  South  Sea  Company 

National  Insurance  Bill,  the, 
1086 

National  Land  Leagues,  1010 

National  League,  the  Irish, 
ion,  1020 

National  Society,  the,  foun- 
dation of,  995-996 

National  Transport  Federa- 
tion, 1085 

Nationalist  party,  the,  split 
in  the  ranks  of,  1021, 
1022  ;  reunion  of,  1025 ; 
the  Independent,  ib. ;  com- 


bination with  Liberals, 
1062;  opposes  the  Civil 
List,  1072 ;  the  agreement 
with,  1078;  see  Home 
Rule  and  Parnell 

Nationality  in  Revolutions 
of  1848,  951 

Naturalization  Bill,  the  Im- 
perial, 1088 

Navarino,  887 

Navigation  Acts,  the,  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  288, 
289;  of  1651,  414,  519; 
of  1660,  534,  535,  539; 
their  effect  on  trade,  590, 
591 ;  scope  of,  and  effect 
of,  on  the  American 
Revolution,  747,  748,  750, 
7Si 

Navigation  Law,  the,  213 ; 
of  Elizabeth,  412;  op- 
position of  Burghley  to, 
413  ;  repeal  of,  875  ;  tem- 
porary suspension  of,  in 
1846-1847,  950 

Navy,  beginning  of  English, 
172,  213 ;  under  Henry 
VII  and  Henry  VIII, 
343 ;  growth  of,  under 
Elizabeth,  390,  391 ;  in 
the  Civil  War,  488 ;  under 
the  Commonwealth,  514; 
condition  of,  under 
Charles  II,  541 ;  abuses 
in  treasurerships  of,  in 
late  eighteenth  century, 
816;  superiority  of,  in 
X793>  831 ;  mutiny  in,  in 
1797.  836,  837 ;  reforms 
in,  in  1870,  997-998; 
in  the  Victorian  period, 
1053, 1054 

Near  East,  see  Russo-Turk- 
ish  War 

Necker,  French  Minister, 
824 

Neerwinden,  battle  of,  631 

Nelson,  Admiral,  at  battle 
of  St.  Vincent,  836;  de- 
feats Napoleon  at  Aboukir 
Bay,  844,  845;  in  com- 
mand before  Copenhagen, 
847 ;  victory  off  Tra- 
falgar, 850 

Nemours,  Due  de,  Belgian 
crown  offered  to,  890 

Neolithic  man,    in   Britain, 


12-13 
Netherlands, 


commercial 


1 140 


INDEX 


treaty  with  (the  Great 
Intercourse),  289;  revolt 
of,  against  Philip  II,  380, 
381,  385  ;  Elizabeth's  in- 
tervention in  the,  390, 
391 ;  French  aggressions 
in,  828;  French  driven 
from,  832 ;  defeat  of 
allies  of  First  Coalition 
in,  834  ;  the  kingdom  of, 
880-890;  see  also  Flan- 
ders, Holland,  Belgium 
and  Batavian  Republic 

Neutral  goods  in  "Declara- 
tion of  Paris,"  964 

Neutrals,  regulations  regard- 
ing, under  Continental 
system,  852,  853 

Neville  (nev'il),  Richard, 
Earl  of  Warwick,  the  king- 
maker, 261-264  passim, 
266,  267,  268,  269  passim 

Neville's  Cross,  196 

New'ark,  Scotch  camp  at, 
499 

Newberrie,  John,  410,  411 

New  Brunswick,  Province 
of,  932 

Newbury,  first  battle  of, 
492  ;  second  battle  of,  496 

Newcastle,  5 

Newcastle,  Dukes  of,  see  Pel- 
ham-Holles  and  Clinton 

Newcastle,  the  Earl  of,  491, 
53i 

Newcastle  Program,  the, 
1023,  1024 

Newcastle,  the  Propositions 
of,  501 

Newcomen,  his  steam 
engine,  787 

Newfoundland,  290,  412, 
670,  671,932;  fisheries  of, 
French  rights  in,  defined, 
781 

New  Harmony,  U.S.A., 
Owen's  colony  at,  938 

New  Learning,  the,  298,  302, 
303;  in  England,  303- 
307 

Newman,  John  Henry,  in 
the  Oxford  Movement, 
1040,'  1041 ;  his  writings, 
1044-1046 

"New  Model"  army,  the, 
343,  489,  490,  496,  497 ; 
breach  with  Parliament, 
499 ;  conflicts  with  Parlia- 
ment, 500-504;  rise  of 


democratic     opinion     in, 
503,  504;   disbanded,  533 
New  Netherland,  541,  543 
Newnham  College,  1059 
New  Orleans,  battle  of,  86 1 
"New  Poor  Law,"  the,  921- 

922 
Newport,  R.I.,  French  fleet 

blockaded  at,  774 
Newsletters,  601 
New  South  Wales,  958,  959, 

1066,  1067 
Newspapers,  601 
New  Testament,  the,  edition 
of  Erasmus,  305  ;  Luther's 
translation  of,  307  ;   Tyn- 
dale's  translation  of,  330 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  577  ;   his 
discoveries,     606 ;      share 
in  the  restoration  of  the 
coinage,  635 
Newton    Butler,    battle    of, 

625 

New  World,  discovery  of,  6 
New  York,  553,  769,  992 
New    Zealand,    origin    and 
growth    of,    1065,    1068; 
contributes   a   battleship, 
1082 

Ney,  Marshal,  862-864 
Nice,  975-976 
Nicholas  I,  Tsar  of  Russia, 

886,  959,  960,  963 
Nicholas  of  Hereford,  228 
Nicholas  of  Lynn,  213 
Nicholson,  General,  972 
Nicolls,  Colonel  Richard,  541 
Niemen,    the    interview    of 
Napoleon   and  Alexander 
on,  852 
Niepce,  1052 

Niger  Company,  the,'  1029 
Nightingale,     Florence,     in 

the  Crimea,  962 
Nile,  battle  of  the,  844,  845 
Nineteen  Propositions,  the, 

484 

NIths'dale,  Lord,  681 
Noailles,  Marshall  de,   707, 

708 

Nobility,  weakness  of,  under 
the    Tudors,    278;     con- 
dition of,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  285,  286 ;  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  595 
Nominalists,  the,  160 
Nominated  Parliament,  the, 

516,  524 
Nomination  boroughs,  916 


Nonconformists,  their  rise, 
388;  effect  of  the  Act  of 
Uniformity  upon,  537 ; 
decline  of,  in  eighteenth 
century,  793 ;  Education 
Bill  of  1870  unpopular 
with,  996;  barred  from 
the  universities,  997  ;  op- 
pose the  Education  Bill 
of  1902,  1074 ;  failure  of 
Education  Bills  favoring, 
1077 ;  see  Dissenters 
Non-intercourse  Act,  the 

American,  860 
Non-jurors,  the,  622 
Non-residence,     of     clergy- 
men, 316,  1040;  Ecclesi- 
astical   Commission    cor- 
rects, 925 
Non-resistance,  Tory,  High 

Church  theory  of,  563 
Nootka  Sound,  827 
Nore,  mutiny  at,  837 
Norfolk,     Dukes     of,     see 

Howard  and  Mowbray 
Norham,  Award  of,  170 
Norman  architecture,  72 
Norman  barons,  risings   of, 

91,  93,  94,  95 
Norman    Conquest,    results 

of,  84  ff. 

Norman  earls,  rising  of,  78 
Normandy,  Duchy  of, 
founded  by  Rollo,  41 ; 
conquered  by  Geoffrey  of 
Anjou,  103 ;  loss  of,  by 
John,  135 

North,  Lord,  enters  the 
Grafton  Ministry,  757 ; 
becomes  Prime  Minister, 
759;  his  character  and 
policy,  759,  760;  breaks 
Whig  power,  760;  char- 
acterization of  Adminis- 
tration of,  760,  761 ; 
favors  conciliation  with 
American  Colonies,  765 ; 
failure  of  policy  of,  to 
conciliate  American  Col- 
onies, 766 ;  Continental 
Congress  rejects  concilia- 
tion schemes  of,  768; 
efforts  to  conciliate  Ameri- 
can Colonies  in  1778, 
771 ;  Administration  of, 
loses  strength,  773  ;  resig- 
nation of,  776 ;  Irish  re- 
forms of,  777 ;  unites 
with  Fox  to  attack  Shel- 


INDEX 


1141 


burne,  808;    Secretary  of 
State,     ib. ;      Regulating 
Act  of,  809,  810 
North,  Thomas,  418 
Northallerton,  battle  of,  see 

Standards 

North  America,  voyage  of 
Cabots  to,  290;  the 
English  colonies  in,  436, 
437 ;  struggle  of  the 
French  and  English  in, 
722 

North  Briton  Review,  No.  45, 
744,  745 

North  Downs,  4 

North  German  Confedera- 
tion, organization  of  the, 
987-988 

Northern  earls,  rising  of 
the,  377,  378 

Northern  Rising,  the,  see 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace 

Northern  Star,  the,  Chart- 
ist organ,  939 

Northampton,  Assize  of,  117 

North  Island,  1068 

Northmen,  their  home,  41 ; 
their  conquests,  ib.  •  first 
invasion  of  England  and 
Ireland,  42 ;  their  king- 
doms, and  the  West 
Saxon  reconquest,  46,  47 ; 
second  coming  of,  51,  52  ; 
gain  a  foothold  in '  Eng- 
land, 53 ;  establish  a 
dynasty  under  Cnut,  53 

North  Pole,  213 

Northumberland,  Duke  of, 
see  Dudley,  John 

Northumbrians,  30 ;  their 
supremacy,  33  ;  end  of  su- 
premacy, 38 

Norton,  Thomas,  422,  423 

Norwich,  strike  at,  784 ; 
case  of  the  Archdeacon  of, 
134;  Bishop  of,  crusade 
to  Flanders,  235 

Nottingham,  Earl  of,  see 
Howard,  Charles,  and 
Finch,  Daniel 

Nova  Scotia,  670,  671,  932 

Novel,  the,  rise  of,  798,  799 ; 
development  of,  in  the 
late  eighteenth  and  early 
nineteenth  century,  899 ; 
in  the  Victorian  period, 
1046—1049 

Noy,  William,  suggests  ship 
money  to  Charles  I,  466 


Nun  of  Kent,  the,  319 
Nymwegen,    the   Peace   of, 
556 

O 

Gates,  Titus,  556,  557,  558, 
562,  567 

Oath  helpers,  66;  see  Com- 
purgators 

Oaths,  see  Supremacy  and 
Allegiance 

Obdam,  Admiral,  542 

O'Brien,  William  Smith,  952 

Observants,  the  friars,  320 

Occasional  Conformity  Act, 
668,  669;  repealed,  684 

Oceana,  see  Commonwealth, 
604,  605 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  cham- 
pions cause  of  Catholics, 
880-882;  fights  duel,  902  ; 
secures  franchise  reform  in 
Ireland,  913  ;  attitude  of, 
toward  English  remedial 
legislation  for  Ireland, 
919,  920;  supports  Whig 
Ministry,  932-933;  names 
"  Chartist"  agitation,  939 ; 
violent  agitation  of,  in 
1843,  943-944;  death  of, 
944 

O'Connor,  Feargus,  Chartist 
leader,  939,  952 

Octavius,  Roman  Emperor, 
18 

Odo  of  Bayeux,  91,  93 

O'Donnell,     Frank     Hugh, 

IO2I 

Off  a,  King  of  Mercia,  38, 
39;  his  Dyke,  38;  his 
laws,  39,  44;  letter  from 
Charlemagne  to,  74 

Ogle,  Captain,  789 

Oglethorpe,  James,  804,  805 

Ohm,  1052 

Ohthere,  the  Northman,  45 

Old  Age  Pensions  Act,  1060, 
1077 

Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  249 

Old  Sarum,  borough  of,  702, 
910 

"Oliver  the  Spy,"  govern- 
ment agent,  870 

Oliver  Twist,  contemporary 
life  reflected  in,  938 

Omagh  (oma'),  1086 

Omdurman,  1015 

O'Neill  (nel),  Hugh,  Earl 
of  Tyrone',  398 


Onslow,  Colonel,  762 

Ontario,  province  of,  932 

Oollt'ic  range,  4 

Opium  traffic,  measures  for 
the  suppression  of,  1080 

Opium  War,  the,  947-948 

Orange,  see  William 

Orange  Free  State,  1030, 
1034,  1035 

"Orange  Lodges,"  formation 
of,  in  Ireland,  839 

Orange  River  Colony,  1035 

"Orator"  Hunt,  869,  871, 
907,  918 

Ordeals,  66,  81,  117 

Order  of  the  Indian  Empire, 
the,  1006 

Orderi'cus  Vita'lis,  89 

"Orders  in  Council,"  the, 
852,  853, 860 

Ordinances,  the,  of  1311, 
183;  royal,  210;  of  the 
Tory  Parliament,  489 

Oregon  boundary  question, 
the,  948,  949 

Orford,  Earl  of,  see  Russell, 
Edward,  and  Walpole, 
Robert  and  Horace 

Origen  (or'ijen),  22 

Orleans,  siege  of,  255 

Orleans,  see  Charles,  Duke 
of 

Orleans,  Philip  II,  Duke  of, 
Regent  of  France,  679, 
682,  685,  691 

Ormonde,  Duke  of,  see 
Butler,  James 

Ormonde,    Marquis   of,    see 

Butler,  James 
Orosius,  Alfred's  translation 

of,  45  i 

Orsini,  conspirator,  974—975 
Orsted,  1052 

Osborne,  Sir  Thomas,  suc- 
cessively Earl  of  Danby, 
Marquis  of  Carmarthen, 
and  Duke  of  Leeds,  be- 
comes Lord  Treasurer, 
553;  his  use  of  bribery, 
553,  554;  his  religious 
policy,  554 ;  his  bill  for  a 
Protestant  successor,  555 ; 
attitude  toward  the  Pop- 
ish Plot,  557,  558;  fall 
of,  560,  561 ;  signs  the 
invitation  to  William  of 
Orange,  581 ;  his  plan  for 
regulating  the  succession, 
585;  his  dismissal,  615; 


1142 


INDEX 


becomes  head  of  the 
Ministry  under  Wil- 
liam III,  622;  forced 
to  retire,  641 

Osborne  Judgment,  the,  1062 
O'Shea,  Captain,  1021 
Ostend  Company,  the,  692 
Oswald,  Northumbrian  King, 

34,  35 

Oswy,  Northumbrian  King, 
35 

Otho,  papal  legate,  150 

Otis,  James,  749 

Otto  I,  King  of  Greece,  888 

Otto  IV,  German  Emperor, 
138,  141 

Ottoman  Empire,  see  Turkey 

Oudenarde,  battle  of,  664, 
696 

Oudh,  the  Begums  of,  810; 
Wazir  of,  810;  land 
cessions  secured  by  British 
from,  967 ;  British  an- 
nexation of,  968-969;  in 
Indian  Mutiny,  971 

"Outdoor  Relief,"  for 
British  paupers,  921,  922 

Outram  (oot'ram),  Sir 
James,  in  India,  972 

Owen,  Robert,  938,  1061, 
1062 

Oxford, .  barons  present  de- 
mands to  John  at,  141 ; 
Provisions  of,  153,  154; 
knights  of  the  shire  sum- 
moned to,  173;  head- 
quarters of  Charles  I, 
487,  491 ;  Treaty  of,  491 ; 
royal  Parliament  at,  494; 
the  last  Parliament  of 
Charles  II  at,  562,  563 ; 
borough  of,  practice  of 
bribery  in  parliamentary 
election  by,  911 

Oxford,  Earl  of,  see  Vere, 
Aubrey  de  and  Harley, 
Robert 

Oxford  Gazette,  the,  640 

Oxford  Movement,  the,  953, 
1040,  1041,  1042 

"  Oxford  Reformers,"  the, 
283,  291,  304-307 

Oxford,  University  of,  not 
founded  by  Alfred  the 
Great,  46 ;  origin  of,  1 28 ; 
quarrel  with  papal  legate, 
150;  friars  at,  158;  col- 
leges at,  1 60;  Magdalen 
Tower  at,  222;  in  the 


fourteenth  century,  222, 
223 ;  New  College  founded 
at,  223 ;  in  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII,  324,  345; 
James  II's  attack  on  the, 
577;  the  Test  Act  of  1871, 
997 


Pacification  of  Berwick,  the, 
470 

Page,  1054 

Pageants,  224 

Paine,  Thomas,  768,  825,  828 

Painter,  William,  418 

Painting,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  611;  in  the 
eighteenth  and  early  nine- 
teenth centuries,  900-901 ; 
in  the  Victorian  Age,  1057 

Palatinate,  of  the  Rhine, 
the,  442,  443,  447;  see 
Frederick  V 

Palatinates,  78,  79 

Pale,  the  Irish,  237,  281 

Paleolithic  men,  of  the 
river  drift,  1 1 ;  of  the 
caves,  12 

Palestine,  quarrel  over  Holy 
Places  in,  •  precipitates 
Crimean  War,  959 

Paley,  William,  895 

Palladio,  611 

Pallium,  92 

Palmers,  219 

Palmerston,  Lord,  in  Can- 
ning's Cabinet,  878;  re- 
signs from  Wellington's 
Cabinet,  881 ;  Foreign 
Secretary,  888;  in  Grey's 
Ministry,  909 ;  foreign 
policy  of,  947,  948,  955- 
957 ;  favors  Italians  in 
Revolution  of  1848,  952; 
in  Coalition  Ministry, 
958;  would  force  Rus- 
sian concessions  before 
Crimean  War,  960;  in- 
tervenes in  China  in 
affair  of  the  Arrow,  966 
note;  frames  an  India 
Bill,  973 ;  carries  the 
Divorce  Bill  of  1857,  974 ; 
fall  of,  974-975 1  begin- 
ning of  second  Ministry 
of,  976-977  ;  in  sympathy 
with  South  in  American 
Civil  War,  977;  in  Trent 


affair,  978;  imports  cot- 
ton from  India  and  Egypt 
during  English  famine, 
979;  attitude  of,  in 
question  of  the  Duchies, 
980-981 ;  characterization 
and  death  of,  981,  982 ; 
policy  of,  isolates  Eng- 
land in  1866,  988;  op- 
poses the  Suez  Canal  proj- 
ect, 1002 

Panama,  Paterson's  attempt 
to  establish  a  colony  in, 
660,  661 ;  exposition,  the, 
1084;  tolls,  ib. 

Pandulph,  .papal  legate,  139, 
148 

Pantheon,  the,  closing  of,  902 

"Papal  Aggression,"  the, 
953-954 

Papal  States,  the,  incor- 
porated in  kingdom  of 
Italy,  976 

Papelotte,  864 

Paper  Duty  Repeal  Bill,  the, 
977 

Paper  money,  depreciation 
of  American,  774;  issue 
by  Bank  of  England  to  be 
covered  by  bullion,  942 

Papineau,  Louis  Joseph, 
930-931 

Paradise  Lost  and  Paradise 
Regained,  609 

Pardoners,  219 

Pardoning  power,  the,  1036 

Paris,  siege  of,  1000 

Paris,  Treaties  of  (1763), 
742,  743;  (1783),  781; 
(1814),  861,  862;  (1815), 
865  ;  (1856),  964,  965 

Paris,  University  of,  128 

Paris,  see  Matthew 

Parish,  the  origin  of,  64; 
in  Tudor  times,  407 ; 
care  of  roads  by,  593 

Parish  priest,  the,  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  159 

Parish  registers,  327 

Parker,   Sir  Hyde,   847 

Parker,  Matthew,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury, 
374,  389,  420 

Parker,  Samuel,  Bishop  of 
Oxford,  57»2 

Parliament,  origin  of,  133  ; 
Simon  de  Montfort's,  155, 
1 68,  173;  the  Model,  170, 
*73i  J74.  origin  and 


INDEX 


"43 


growth  of,  to  1205,  172- 
174;  payment  of  mem- 
bers, 174;  the  unlearned, 
ib. ;  declaration  of,  1322, 
185;  deposes  Edward  II 
and  sets  up  Edward  III, 
186;  gains  of,  in  1341, 
ig3,  194;  the  Good,  206, 
207 ;  beginning  of  im- 
peachments in,  ib. ;  sep- 
aration into  Lords  and 
Commons,  174,  210;  gains 
in  the  fourteenth  century, 
210,  21 1 ;  the  Merciless, 
236 ;  the  Great,  of  Shrews- 
bury, 238 ;  deposes 
Richard  II  and  sets  up 
Henry  of  Lancaster,  240, 
241 ;  gains  of,  under 
Henry  IV,  246;  attacks 
wealth  of  Church,  247; 
causes  of  weakness  under 
the  later  Lancastrians, 
the  Yorkists,  and  the 
Tudors,  279;  resists  Sub- 
sidy of  1523,  300;  the 
Reformation,  315-320, 
324;  acts  of,  relating  to 
the  monasteries,  323,324, 
328,  336 ;  Henry  VIII  re- 
proves, 336 ;  Henry's 
management  of,  338-340; 
control  of,  by  Elizabeth, 
403 ;  privileges  of,  403, 
404;  conflicts  of,  with 
James  I,  433,  434,  437, 
443,  444,  445-449;  the 
"Addled,"  437;  conflicts 
of,  with  Charles  I,  453- 
455,  457-46o;  taxing 
power  of,  467,  468;  the 
Short,  471,  472;  the 
Long,  first  session  of,  474- 
481 ;  struggle  with  Charles 
I  for  control  of  the  king- 
dom, 484 ;  its  organization 
during  the  Civil  War,  486- 
490 ;  breach  with  the  army, 
499 ;  intolerance  of,  500 ; 
conflicts  with  the  army, 
500—504,  506 ;  Pride's 
Purge  of,  506;  see  the 
Rump;  see  also  the 
Nominated ;  quarrels  of 
Cromwell  with,  521-523; 
final  dissolution  of  the 
Long,  526;  the  Conven- 
tion, 527,  529,  532-535; 
gains  of,  under  Charles  II, 


529;  see  the  Cavalier; 
gains  of,  under  Charles  II, 
545,  546;  origin  of  cor- 
ruption in,  553 ;  new 
tests  excluding  Roman 
Catholics  from  (1678), 
559 ;  breach  of  James  II 
with,  571 ;  the  Conven- 
tion, of  William,  584-586 ; 
rights  of,  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  Rights,  586; 
Scotch  members  admitted 
to,  662  ;  corruption  in,  in 
the  time  of  Walpole,  690 ; 
Act  of,  necessary  for 
divorces  to  1857,  719; 
question  of  its  supremacy 
over  the  Colonies,  749, 
750;  struggle  over  re- 
porting of  debates  in,  761, 
762  ;  Adam  Smith  favors 
Colonial  representation  in, 
766;  annual,  urged  by 
Duke  of  Richmond,  773 ; 
Pitt's  attempts  at  reform 
of,  818;  Catholic  priests 
excluded  from,  882 ; 
drunken  men  in,  902 ; 
causes  of  reform  of,  in 
nineteenth  century,  905- 
906 ;  Bentham's  influence 
upon  reform  of,  906-907 ; 
abuses  in,  needing  reform, 
909-914;  question  of  priv- 
ileges of  members  of, 
in  Stockdale  vs.  Hansard, 
936 ;  annual,  Working- 
man's  Association  wants, 
939;  property  qualifica- 
tion for  election  to,  abol- 
ished, 975 ;  restoration  of 
payment  of  members  of, 
ib. ;  abolition  of  disabil- 
ities of  Jews  to  sit  in,  ib. ; 
open  to  atheists,  975, 
1009;  bills  to  reform, 
between  1832-1866,  984; 
opened  in  person  by  Ed- 
ward VII,  1072 ;  powers 
of  the  Lords  reduced  in, 
1078-1080;  term  of ,  short- 
ened to  five  years,  1080; 
see  Reform  Bills  of  1832, 
1867,  1884,  and  1885; 
see  also  House  of  Com- 
mons and  House  of 
Lords 

Parliament  Bill,  the,   1078, 
1079,  1080 


Parnell,  Charles  Stewart, 
character  of,  1010;  his 
visit  to  the  United  States, 
ib. ;  his  arrest  and  re- 
lease by  the  Kilmainham 
Treaty,  ion  ;  breaks  off 
his  connection  with  the 
Clan-na-Gael,  1012 ;  Salis- 
bury's negotiations  with, 
1017;  accepts  the  first 
Home  Rule  Bill,  1019; 
his  suit  against  the  Times, 
1020,  1021 ;  his  disgrace 
and  death,  1021,  1022 

"Parneilism  and  Crime," 
1020 

Parsons,  Robert,  387 

Parson's  Cause,  the,  750 

Parthenon  Sculptures,  the, 
1050 

Parties,  political,  rivalry  of, 
checks  political  evils  in 
eighteenth  century,  914; 
see  Cavalier,  Roundhead, 
Court,  Country,  Tory, 
Whig,  Conservative, 

Liberal,  Radical,  Young 
Ireland,  Nationalist, 

Labor 

Partition  Treaties,  the,  645, 
646 

Party  system,  the,  beginning 
°f>  554;  rise  of,  614-617 

Pasha,  Ibrahim,  in  Greek 
Revolution,  886,  887 

Paterson,  William,  638,  660- 
661 

Patriarcha,  the,  604 

"Patriots,"  the,  698, 700, 701 

Patronage,  see  Lay  Patron- 
age 

Paul  III,  Pope,  321,  348 

Paul  IV,  Pope,  364,  379 

Paul,  Tsar  of  Russia,  835, 
845-847 

Paul's  Walk,  600,  601 

Paulet,  Sir  Amyas,  393 

Pauncefote  (pounce'foot) 
Sir  Julian,  1029 

Pauperism,  in  late  seven- 
teenth and  in  eighteenth 
centuries,  804,  921,  922 

Pavia,  siege  and  battle  of, 
301 

Paxton,  Sir  Joseph,  955 

Payment  of.  members,  1062 

Peace,  see  Justices 

Peace  Preservation  Acts  for 
Ireland,  919,  995,  1010 


1 144 


INDEX 


Peacham's  case,  439 

Peasant  Revolt,  the,  225, 
228,  230-234 

Pecquigny,  Treaty  of,  270 

Pedro,  King  of  Castile,  204 

Pedro,  Emperor  of  Brazil, 
885,  888,  889 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  the  Elder, 
interest  in  factory  legis- 
lation of,  920—921 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  made 
Home  Secretary,  874 ; 
law  reforms  of,  875 ;  re- 
fuses service  in  Canning's 
Cabinet,  878 ;  supports 
Wellington  Ministry,  88 1 ; 
reforms  criminal  code, 
903  and  note,  904;  in- 
fluenced by  Bentham,  907  ; 
First  Ministry  of,  923- 
924;  supports  Municipal 
Reform  Bill  of  1835,  925; 
deplores  accession  of  Vic- 
toria, 928 ;  precipitates 
Bedchamber  crisis,  934— 
935 ;  second  Ministry  of, 
begins,  941 ;  the  Bank 
Charter  Act  of,  941-942  ; 
furthers  development  of 
free  trade,  942 ;  views 
of,  on  Ashley's  labor  legis- 
lation of  1843-1844,  943 ; 
conciliatory  measures  for 
Ireland  of,  944;  conver- 
sion of,  to  free  trade, 
944-946 ;  secures  Corn 
Law  repeal,  945,  946 ; 
death,  and  estimate  of 
work  of,  946-947  ;  failure 
of,  to  relieve  Irish  troubles, 
950 ;  Disraeli's  attacks  on, 
during  Corn  Law  agita- 
tion, 942,  989;  Derby 
splits  with,  on  Corn  Law 
repeal,  989 

Peele,  George,  423 

"Peelites,"  the,  947;  Con- 
servatives among,  in  1846, 
950 ;  refusal  of,  to  support 
first  Derby  Ministry,  957  ; 
in  Coalition  Ministry, 
958 ;  Gladstone  secedes 
with  the,  990 

"Peep  of  Day  Boys,"  the, 
838,  839 

Peerage  Bill,  the,  686 

Peers,  judgment  by,  144; 
Pitt  and  creation  of,  815; 
wide  control  over  Com- 


mons by,  before  first  Re- 
form Bill,  910;  fight  first 
Reform  Bill,  914-915; 
defeat  second  Reform  Bill, 
915  ;  Tory,  oppose  munic- 
ipal Reform  Bill  of  1835, 
925 ;  see  Lords,  House  of, 
and  Parliament  Bill 

Peine  forte  et  dure,,nj,  217 

Peking,  the  Treaty  of,  966 

Pelham,  Henry,  708,  709, 
716,  718,  719 

Pelham  -  Holies,  Thomas, 
Duke  of  Newcastle,  char- 
acter of,  698;  makes  his 
brother  Prime  Minister, 
708;  brings  Pitt  into  the 
Ministry,  716;  opposes 
the  reform  of  the  calen- 
dar, 718;  becomes  Prime 
Minister,  719;  his  quan- 
dary, 722,  723;  dismisses 
Pitt,  723 ;  makes  Byng  a 
scapegoat,  724;  resigns, 
725 ;  anticipates  Pitt  as  a 
strategist,  727  ;  forms  his 
second  Ministry  with  Pitt 
in  control  of  foreign  af- 
fairs, 728,  730;  end  of  his 
Ministry,  742 

Pelissier,  General,  963 

Pembroke  Castle,  505 

Penal  laws,  under  Eliza- " 
beth,  373,  387,  388 ;  under 
James  I,  432,  442,  445; 
under  Charles  I,  451,  455  ; 
operation  of,  suspended 
for  Protestant  Dissenters, 
621 ;  done  away  with,  773 

Penal  servitude,  regulation 
regarding,  as  established 
for  transportation,  958- 
959 

Penda,  King  of  Mercia,  34, 
35 

Peninsular  War,  the,  853-858 

Penn,  Admiral,  520 

Penn,  William,  576 

Pennine  Mountains,  the, 
importance  of,  293 

Pennington,  Admiral,  455 

Penny  postage,  in  London, 
602  ;  introduced  in  Eng- 
land, 936-937 ;  Imperial, 
1028,  1081,  1082 

Penrud'dock's  rising,  522 

Penry,  John,  390 

Pensionary  Parliament,  the, 
see  Cavalier  Parliament 


Pensions,  Victoria's  allow- 
ance for,  929;  see  Old 
Age  Pensions 

Pentland  rising,  the,.  573 

Pepperell,  William,  710 

Pepys  (peeps),  Samuel,  538, 
540,  54i 

Perceval,  Spencer,  852,  855, 
856 

Percival,  Dr.,  920 

Percy,  Henry,  Earl  Mar- 
shal, 208 

Percy,  Henry,  Earl  of  Nor- 
thumberland, 244,  245 

Percy,  Sir  Henry  (Hotspur), 
244,  245 

Percy,  Thomas,  Bishop  of 
Dromore,  802 

Periodical  literature,  British, 
in  early  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 900 

Per'rers,  Alice,  205,  206, 
207,  208 

Perry,  Commodore,  victory 
on  Lake  Erie  of,  in  1813, 
861 

Persia,  591,  966,  968,  969 

Perth,  West  Australia,  1066 

Peruzzi,  the,  194 

Peter,  St.,  22 

Peter  (the  Great),  Tsar  of 
Russia,  682 

Peter  of  Amiens,  93 

Peter  des  Roches,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  147,  148,  149, 
150 

Peter  of  Wakefield,  138,  139 

Peterborough,  Earl  of,  see 
Mordaunt,  Charles 

Peter's  Pence,  origin  of,  39 ; 
abolished,  318 

Petition  of  Right,  the,  457, 
458 

Petitioners,  the,  562 

Petitions  and  the  origin  of 
legislation,  210,  211 

Petrarch,  225 

Petre  (pe'ter),  Father,  571, 
572 

Pet'ty,  Sir  William,  605,  606 

Petty,  William,  Earl  of 
Shelburne  and  Marquis 
of  Lansdowne,  776,  778- 
780,  808,  825 

Pev'ensey,  29,  59 

Philadelphia,  765,  769,  772 

Philip  II  (Augustus),  King 
of  France,  114,  121,  122, 
123, 135, 136, 138, 141, 149 


INDEX 


"45 


Philip  IV,  King  of  France, 
171,  176 

Philip  V,  King  of  France, 
185,  186 

Philip  VI,  King  of  France, 
191-197  passim,  202 

Philip  II,  King  of  Spain, 
359-362,  364,  365,  372, 
375,  380,  381 ;  rejoices 
at  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  385 ;  re- 
calls Alva,  ib.  •  his  share 
in  the  Catholic  League, 
39°.  391 ;  leader  of 
the  Counter-Reformation, 
392 ;  plans  expedition 
against  England,  393 ; 
claim  to  the  English 
throne,  394;  sends  the 
Armada  against  England, 
394;  views  of,  on  the 
destruction  of  the  Ar- 
mada, 396 ;  final  struggle 
with  Elizabeth  and  death, 
397,  398 

Philip  III,  King  of  Spain, 
441,  442 

Philip  IV,  King  of  Spain, 
520,  542,  549,  645,  646 

Philip  of  Anjou,  later 
Philip  V  of  Spain,  646, 
647,  664,  668,  670,  671, 
679, 682,  685,  691,  692,  716 

Philip  (the  Good),  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  251,  254,  282, 
289 

Philip  (the  Fair),  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  299 

Philiphaugh,  battle  of,  498 

Philippa,  of  Hainault,  Queen 
of  Edward  III,  189,  197, 
205,  220,  223 

Philippa,  wife  of  Lionel, 
Duke  of  Clarence,  240 

Phillip,  Commodore,  1065 

Philosophical  Radicals,  the, 
aims  of,  in  1838-1839,  933 
note 

Philosophy,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  604;  hi 
the  eighteenth  century, 
793,  794;  in  the  late 
eighteenth  and  early  nine- 
teenth centuries,  895 ;  in 
the  Victorian  Age,  1049, 
1050 

Phoenicians,  14 

Phcenix  Clubs,  organization 
of,  in  Dublin,  991,  992 


Phcenix  Park  murders,  the, 

ion 

Photography,  1052 
Physicians,  College  of,  304; 

see  Medicine 
Picts,  the,  15,  20,  30 
Piedmont,  revolt  suppressed 
in,    884;     joins    Franco- 
British  Alliance,  963 
Pie  Powder  Court,  163 
Piers  the  Plowman,  225,  226 
Pigott  forgeries,  the,  1021 
Pilgrimage    of    Grace,    the, 

326-328 
Pilgrims    and    pilgrimages, 

219,  220,  326 

Pilgrim's  Progress,  the,  607 
Pillory,  the,  805,  903 
Pinkie  Cleugh,  battle  of,  352 
Piracy,    in   eighteenth   cen- 
tury, 789 
Piraeus,     British     siege     of 

Greek  ships  at  the,  956 
"Pitch-cap,"  the,  841 
Pitt,  Fort  (Pittsburgh),  729 
Pitt,  William  (later  Earl  of 
Chatham),  the  beginning 
of  the  political  career  of, 
702,  703  ;  denounces  sub- 
sidies, 707 ;  and  Carteret, 
709;  he  enlists  High- 
landers, 715,  727 ;  ad- 
mitted to  the  Pelham 
Ministry,  716;  opposition 
of,  to  his  Chief  New- 
castle, 719,  720;  dis- 
missal of,  723 ;  made 
Secretary  of  State,  725 ; 
estimate  of,  725,  726; 
his  "system,"  717,  727; 
vainly  tries  to  save  Byng, 
727 ;  his  dismissal  and 
recall  as  Secretary  in  the 
second  Newcastle  Minis- 
try, 728;  his  conduct  of 
the  campaigns  of  1757- 
1760,  728-734,  736;  wins 
the  confidence  of 
George  II,  734,  737! 
anti-party  attitude  of, 
738;  his  resignation,  741, 
742 ;  distinction  of,  be- 
tween taxation  and  regu- 
lation of  trade,  749;  re- 
fuses to  tax  the  Colonies, 
751;  refuses  to  form  a 
Ministry,  753 ;  his  op- 
position to  the  Stamp 
Act,  755 ;  forms  the 


Grafton-Pitt  Ministry, 
756;  becomes  Earl  of 
Chatham,  756;  his  ill- 
ness and  retirement,  ib.; 
attacks  the  Grafton  Min- 
istry, 759 ;  opposes  British 
Colonial  policy,  765,  766; 
views  of,  regarding  Ameri- 
can Colonies  in  1778,  771 ; 
death  of,  772;  advocates 
parliamentary  reform,  907 
Pitt,  William,  the  Younger, 
struggle  of,  with  the 
Coalition,  812,  813  ;  Tory- 
ism of,  813;  sketch  of 
career -of,  813—814;  posi- 
tion of,  in  1784,  814,  815 ; 
India  Bill  of,  815  ;  estab- 
lishes commercial  union 
between  England  and 
France,  817;  estimate 
of  his  political  strength 
and  achievements,  819 ; 
attitude  of,  in  Hastings's 
impeachment,  820 ;  recon- 
ciles George  III  and 
Prince  of  Wales,  820,  821 ; 
thwarts  Fox  on  Regency 
question,  821,  822;  atti- 
tude towards  French  Rev- 
olution, 824,  825 ;  for- 
eign policy  of,  826-830; 
Burke  denounces  foreign 
policy  of,  828;  dismisses 
Chauvelin  from  England, 
830;  on  the  war  with 
France,  ib.;  hostility  to- 
ward in  1795,  834;  sub- 
sidizes Austria  in  war 
with  France,  834;  fails 
to  make  peace  with  France 
in  1796,  835;  France 
seeks  overthrow  of,  ib.; 
efforts  of,  to  secure  peace 
with  France  in  1797,  837; 
instructs  Fitzwilliam  re- 
garding Ireland,  840;  re- 
calls Fitzwilliam  from  Ire- 
land, ib.;  decides  upon 
Irish  Union,  842-844 ; 
resignation  of,  843,  844 ; 
organizes  Second  Coalition 
against  France,  845  ;  sup- 
ports Addington  Ministry, 
847,  848 ;  second  Minis- 
try of,  850,  851  ;  death 
of,  851 ;  duel  with  Tier- 
ney,  902  ;  advocates  par- 
liamentary reform,  907 ; 


1146 


INDEX 


Quebec  Government  Bill 
of,  930 

Pius  V,  Pope,  382 

Pius  VII,  847 

Place,  Francis,  907 

Place  Bills,  639,  646,  913, 
1089 

Plague,  the,  221,  341,  543, 
see  also  Black  Death 

Plantagenet  (plantaj'enet) 
dynasty,  the,  beginning 
of,  107 ;  end  of,  240,  241 

Planters,  British  colonial, 
oppose  abolition  of 
slavery,  920 ;  labor 
troubles  of,  in  Jamaica, 

933-934 

Plassey,  the  battle  of,  735 
Platonic  Academy,  304 
Platonists,  the    Cambridge, 

603,  604 

Plautius,  Aulus,  18 
Plautus,  422 
Play  House  Bill,  passage  of, 

802 

Plim'soll,  Samuel,  1002 
Plombieres,  the  meeting  of 
Cavour  and  Napoleon  III 
at,  975-976 

Plun'ket,    William,     Baron 
Plunket,  champions  Cath- 
olics, 870-880 
Plun'kett,    Sir    Horace,    9, 

1025 

Plural    holdings,     ecclesias- 
tical commission  corrects, 
925 
Plural    voting,    986,    1012, 

1023,  1086,  1087 
Plural  Voting  Bill,  the,  1088 
Pluralities,  316,  431,  1040 
Plymouth,    colony   of,    431, 

436 

Pocket  boroughs,  910 
Poet  laureate,  897,  1045 
Poetry,  Anglo-Saxon,  70, 
71 ;  Anglo-Norman,  88, 
89;  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
223,  226,  290;  Eliza- 
bethan, 421 ;  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  607,  610; 
in  the  eighteenth  century, 
801,802;  Romantic,  896- 
899 ;  Victorian,  1045, 
1046 

Poitiers,  218 

Poitou,  oppression  of  the 
nobles  of,  by  John,  136 ; 
John's  expedition  to,  139, 


141 ;  Henry  Ill's  expedi- 
tions to,  149,  151 ;  in- 
corporated into  French 
dominions,  151 

Poland,  827,  834,  890,  981 

Pole,  Reginald,  later  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury, 
32S,  326,  332,  359,  361, 
362,  365 

Pole,  Michael  de  la,  created 
Earl  of  Suffolk,  234,  235, 
236 

Pole,  William  de  la,  Duke  of 
Suffolk,  257,  258 

Poles,  execution  of,  332 

Polish  succession,  war  of 
the,  700 

Political  Register,  the,  Cob- 
bett's  Radical  organ,  900 

Poll  taxes,  207,  230,  231 

Pol'lock,  Sir  George,  968 

Polo,  Marco,  1065 

Pompadour,  Madame  de, 
724 

Pondicherry,  721,  736 

Pontiac,  the  conspiracy  of, 
749 

Poonah,  the  Peshwa  of,  809, 
967 

Poor  Laws,  the,  of  Hen- 
ry VIII,  342,  343 ;  of 
Elizabeth,  343,  415;  the 
New  (1834),  921,  938, 
1055;  the  Irish,  932,  933, 
939,951 

Poor  preachers,  the,  228 

Poor  relief,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  342 ;  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth 
centuries,  804 

Pope,  Alexander,  poetry  of, 
801,  896 

Popish  Plot,  the,  543,  556- 
560 

Population,  of  England,  in 
the  Anglo-Norman  period, 
88 ;  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, 216;  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  286,  287 ;  in- 
crease of,  under  Henry  VII 
and  Henry  VIII,  341 ;  in 
the  Restoration  period, 
596;  growth  of,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  804 ; 
of  Scotland  under  James 
VI,  428 ;  decrease  of,  in 
Ireland,  1025  ;  increase  of, 
in  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  in  England  and  Wales 


in  the  nineteenth  century, 
1058 ;  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, 1063;  of  New  Zea- 
land, 1068 

Person,  Richard,  1050 

Port  Arthur,  1029,  1076 

Port  Jackson,  1065 

Porte,  the  Sublime,  origin 
of  name,  886  and  note; 
treaty  of  1740  with,  959; 
see  Turkey 

Portland,  Earl  of,  see  Ben- 
tinck,  William 

Portland,  Duke  of,  see  Ben- 
tinck,  William  Henry 

Porto  Bello,  703,  704 

Portsmouth,  Duchess  of,  see 
Keroualle,  Louise  de 

Portsmouth,  the  Peace  of, 
1076 

Portugal,  marriage  alliance 
of  Charles  II  with,  540; 
as  a  maritime  power,  618, 
619;  joins  the  Grand 
Alliance,  655 ;  Methuen 
Treaty  with,  ib. ;  in 
Second  Coalition  against 
France,  845 ;  seized  by 
Napoleon,  853-854;  loses 
Brazil,  876;  result  of 
1820  in,  884;  revolution 


Portuguese,  the,  in  India, 
720,  721 

Portuguese  West  Africa, 
1032 

Posidonius,  14 

Positivism,  1049 

Post,  the,  in  the  seventeenth 
century  and  the  Restora- 
tion period,  601,  602  ;  see 
Penny  postage 

Post  nati,  the,  435 

Potato  famine,  the,  944, 1056 

Potosi,  mines  of,  340 

Pottery,  development  of 
English  manufacture  of, 
786 

Poundage,  see  Tonnage 

Poverty,  suffering  from,  in 
England,  during  Victoria's 
early  reign,  937 

Poynings,  Sir  Edward,  281 

Poynings'  Law,  281,  842 

Prsecipe  (prg'cipe),  writ  of, 
142,  144 

Prasmunire  (pre'mu  nl're), 
Statute  of,  200,  237 ;  em- 
ployed against  Wolsey, 


INDEX 


1147 


311 ;  invoked  by  Henry 
VIII  against  the  clergy, 
3i7 

Pragmatic  Sanction,  the, 
692,  704,  708,  709,  717 

Prague,  the  Defenestration 
of,  442 

Prague,  Peace  of,  987- 
988 

Praise  of  Folly,  see  Erasmus 

Pratt,  Charles,  Lord  Cam- 
den,  747,  759 

Prayer  Book,  see  Common 
Prayer 

Preferential  trade,  1072, 
1081,  1082 

Premonstratensians,  gg 

Preraphaelites,  the,  1046, 
1057 

Prerogative,  the  royal,  mag- 
nified by  the  High  Church 
party,  451,  452 

Presbyterians,  organization 
of,  366 ;  aims  of,  under 
Elizabeth,  388,  389;  re- 
ligious and  political  theo- 
ries of,  43 1 ;  relations  of, 
with  James  I,  435  ;  effort 
of,  to  capture  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  England, 
480,  481 ;  see  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  and 
Westminster  Assembly ; 
breach  of,  with  the  Inde- 
pendents, 495 ;  Charles 
II's  views  of,  530 ;  block 
the  efforts  of  Charles  II 
to  secure  toleration,  535, 
538 ;  lose  ground  in  Eng- 
land, 539;  oppose  the 
union  with  England,  660 ; 
establishment  of,  guaran- 
teed in  the  union,  66 1 ; 
Irish,  Gladstone's  treat- 
ment of,  in  1869,  993;  see 
United  and  Free  Church 

Presbyteries,  366 

Presentment  jury,  116,  117 

Press,  the  censorship  of  the, 
464;  end  of  the  censor- 
ship of,  640;  becomes  a 
factor  in  party  govern- 
ment, 641 ;  progress  of, 
as  a  political  factor,  under 
George  III,  762 ;  in 
struggle  over  reporting 
debates,  762  ;  the  London, 
on  defeat  of  second  Re- 
form Bill,  915 


Pressburg,  Peace  of,  850-851 

Pressing  to  death,  805 ;  see 
also  Peine  forte  et  dure 

Prester,  John,  988 

Preston,  battle  of,  506; 
Jacobite  surrender  at,  680 

Prestonpans,  the  battle  of, 
711 

Pretenders,  see  James  Fran- 
cis Edward ;  Charles 
Edward,  Simnel,  and  War- 
beck 

Pretoria,  1035 

Prevention  of  Crimes  Bill, 
the,  ion 

Price,  Dr.  Richard,  794, 
8 1 8,  825 

Pride's  Purge,  506 

Priest,  the  parish,  in  thir- 
teenth century,  159 

Priestley,  Joseph,  792,  825 

Prime  Minister,  the,  rise 
of,  615,  616;  the  first 
use  of  the  name,  698, 
705 ;  the  office  of,  1076 

Primer,  the  King's,  331 

Primogeniture,  85 

Prince,  the,  of  Machiavelli, 

3M 

Prince  Edward  Island,  932 

Printing,  introduction  into 
England,  290,  291 

Priories,  alien,  323 

Prisons,  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
216,  217;  efforts  of  Ogle- 
thorpe  and  Howard  to 
reform,  804,  805 ;  im- 
provement of,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  1059 

Privateering,  abolition  of,  in 
"Declaration  of  Paris," 
964, 965 

Privateers,  American,  during 
Revolution,  772 ;  British, 
in  American  Civil  War, 
978-979 

Privilege,  see  Parliament 

Privy  Council,  the,  under 
the  Tudors,  404;  as  a 
court  of  appeal,  406; 
its  constitution  under 
Charles  II,  532;  com- 
mittee of,  for  Trade,  591 ; 
powers  of  the,  646 ;  crea- 
tion of  educational  com- 
mittee of,  996;  Judicial 
Committee  of  the,  318, 
402,  918;  judgment  in 
the  Gorham,  Essays  and 


Reviews,      and      Colenso 
cases,  1042 
Probate,    Court    of,    under 

the  reform  of  1873,  999 
Probate  of  wills,  316 
Proclamations,    royal,    349, 

439 
Procopius,  Roman  historian, 

25 
Proctors,    tithe,    abuse    of, 

by  Irish  peasantry,  919 
Progresses,  royal,  415 
Prohibitions,  438,  439 
Property  Qualification  Act, 

668 
Prophesyings    or    exercises, 

389 

Prose  writers,  see  Literature 
Protection,  Disraeli  supports 
policy   of,   in   Commons, 
942  ;  abandonment  of,  in 
England,    946-947 ;    Dis- 
raeli   abandons,  958;    see 
Chamberlain,  Joseph,  Corn 
Laws,  Gladstone,  Huskis- 
son,    Mercantilism,    Peel, 
and  Adam  Smith 
Protectorate,  the,  517,  527 
Protectorates,  British,  1064 
Protestant  extremists,  under 
Edward      VI,      348-356; 
under  Elizabeth,  388-390; 
see    Baptists,    Brownists, 
Congregationalists,    Fifth 
Monarchy  Men,  Indepen- 
dents, Presbyterians,  Puri- 
tans, Quakers,  Dissenters, 
Nonconformists 
Protestant  Association,  the 
Elizabethan,    563 ;     Lord 
George  Gordon's,  773 
Protestant  flail,  the,  559 
Protestant  Union,  the,  442 
Protestation,    the,    of    the 

Commons,  446 
Provisions    of    Oxford,   the 

iS3t 154 
Provisions  of  Westminster, 

the,  154,  156 
Provisors,   Statute  of,   200, 

237 

Prussia,  becomes  a  power 
of  the  first  rank,  717; 
joins  Triple  Alliance  of 
1781,  826,  827;  in  war 
of  First  Coalition,  834; 
joins  armed  neutrality 
of  1800,  846;  Great  Brit- 
ain lays  embargo  on 


1 148 


INDEX 


vessels  of,  852;  joins 
Russia,  Austria,  and 
Sweden  in  War  of  Libera- 
tion, 859;  signs  first 
Treaty  of  Paris,  861-862  ; 
signs  Quadruple  Alliance, 
865  ;  attitude  of,  toward 
revolution  in  Belgium, 
890;  signs  Treaty  of 
Paris  after  Crimean  War, 
964 ;  Napoleon  III  counts 
on  neutrality  of,  in  war 
of  Italian  Unity,  976; 
Victoria  favors,  in  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  affair,  980, 
981 ;  defeats  Austria  in 
war  of  1866,  987-988; 
see  Frederick  II  (the 
Great),  King  of;  see 
Franco-Prussian  War, 
1000 

Prynne,  William,  464,  466, 
477 

Public  Debt,  the,  in  Pitt's 
Ministry,  815,  816;  see 
National  Debt  and  Sink- 
ing Fund 

Public  works,  Russell's  sys- 
tem of,  for  Ireland,  950- 
9Si 

Public  Worship  Regulation 
Act,  the,  1042 

Pularoon,  541,  543 

Pulteney,  Sir  William  (later 
Earl  of  Bath),  698,  705, 
706,  708,  716 

Punishments,  216,  217,  805, 
903,  904 

Punjab,  the  annexation  of, 
968 

Purcell,  Henry,  612 

Puritans,  the  origin  of,  388 ; 
demands  of,  at  the  ac- 
cession of  James  I,  430, 
431;  their  views  and  aims 
in  the  time  of  Charles  I, 
451,  452;  their  .moral 
and  religious  discontent, 
463-466;  moral  influence 
of,  525 ;  hostility  of,  to 
the  stage,  610 

Puritan  revolution,  the,  228 ; 
its  principles,  366;  com- 
plex and  peculiar  character 
of  the,  402 ;  the  results 
of,  508,  527 

Purvey,  John,  228 

Purveyance,  201,  218,  433; 
abolished,  534 


Pusey,  Dr.,  1041 

Puttenham,  Richard,  346, 
420 

Pym,  John,  471,  472,  475- 
477.  479,  481 ;  his  part 
in  the  Grand  Remon- 
strance, 482,  483 ;  ar- 
ranges the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant,  493;  his 
death,  ib. 

Pyramids,  the,  at  Giza,  1002 

Pyramids,  battle  of  the,  844 

Pyrenees,  the  Peace  of  the, 
54° 

Pytheasof  Marseilles,  14,  1 6 


Quadrivium,  128 
Quadruple     Alliances,    the 

(1718),  684,  685;    (1815), 

865;    (1834),  889 
Quakers,  the,  538,  567,  621, 

719 

Quarter-days,  718 
Quarter  Sessions,  406 
Quartering  Acts,  749 
Quarterly  Review,  the,  900 
Quatre  Bras,  battle  of,  862, 

863 

Quebec,  the  siege  and  cap- 
ture of,  730-733;  the 

Province  of,  932 
Quebec  Act,  the,  764 
Quebec    Government    Bill, 

the,  930 
Quebec     Ordinances,     the, 

931-932 

Queen  Anne's  Bounty,  651 
Queen's   Bench,    Court   of, 

under  reform  of  1873,  999 
Queen's  Colleges,  in  Ireland, 

944 

Queensland,  1066,  1067 

Quia  Emptores,  181 

Quiberon  Bay,  naval  battle 
&t,  733 ;  the  landing  at, 
884 

Quiros,  De,  1065 

Quo  warranto,  inquiries, 
under  Edward  I,  178; 
writs  of,  brought  by 
Charles  II  against  Lon- 
don and  other  municipal 
corporations,  563,  564 

R 

Races  in  Britain,  Eskimos, 
12  ;  Iberians,  13  ;  Celts,  13 


Rack-renting,  Irish,  880 

Radcot  Bridge,  236 

Radical  party,  the,  oppose 
the  Civil  List,  1072 

Radicals,  the,  in  the  Whig 
party,  868 ;  agitations  of, 
869-870,  872;  the  Press 
organ  of,  ooo;  school  of 
philosophic,  007 ;  Mac- 
aulay  combats  views  of, 
908;  oppose  New  Poor 
Law  of  1834,  922;  claims 
of,  under  Melbourne's 
second  Ministry,  925-926 ; 
policy  of,  in  1838-1839, 
933 ;  Chartism  embodies 
aims  of  British,  939; 
denounce  Ecclesiastical 
Titles  Bill,  954 

Raeburn  (ra'bun),  Sir  Henry, 
900 

Raedwald,  King  of  the  East 
Anglians,  33,  34 

Raglan,  Lord,  962,  963 

Raglan  Castle,  499 

Railroads,  development  of, 
894;  in  the  Victorian 
Age,  1052,  1053;  gov- 
ernment ownership  of,  in 
Australia,  1067 ;  in  New 
Zealand,  1068;  see  Steam 
engine 

Railway  strike,  the,  1085 

Rainsborough,  Colonel,  504 

Rakoczy,  Prince,  655 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  370, 
397,  412, 421,  438,  441,  606 

Ralph,  Earl  of  Norfolk,  78 

Ralph  Roister  Doister,  422 

Ramillies,  the  battle  of,  659, 
662 

Ranelagh,  806,  902 

Rani  of  Jhanai,  the,  973 

Ranulf  Flambard,  91,  94,  95 

Rastadt,  preliminaries  at, 
670 

Rates,  compulsory  church, 
abolition  of,  925 

Rates,  the  poor,  burden  of, 
before  New  Poor  Law, 
921—922 

Rating  franchise,  101 2 

Raw'don,  Francis,  Lord 
Moira  and  Earl  of  Hast- 
ings, Governor-General  of 
India,  967 

Ray,  John,  792 

Raymond  VI,  of  Toulouse, 
138 


INDEX 


"49 


Raymond,  John,  411 

Reade,  Charles,  1048 

Real  Presence,  the,  325,  354 ; 
see  also  Transubstantiation 

Realists,  the,  160 

Recognition,  Act  of,  430 

Recognition  juries,  117 

Recreation  in  the  twelfth 
century,  99 ;  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  217 

Recusants,  measures  against, 
•  387,  388;  under  James  I, 
432,  443,  447;  see  Penal 
Laws 

Redan,  the,  963 

Redistribution  Act,  the,  of 
1885,  1013 

Redmond,  John,  succeeds 
to  Parnell's  leadership, 
1022  ;  becomes  leader  of 
the  reunited  Nationalists, 
1025 ;  and  the  Home  Rule 
Bill  of  1914,  1089 

Reeve,  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
63,65 

Reflections  on  the  French 
Revolution,  Burlap's,  825 

Reform  Bill,  the  *rst,  de- 
'  feated,  914-915;  defeat 
of  second,  915 ;  passage, 
terms,  and  results  of 
third,  915-917;  results 
of  first,  917;  the  first,  of 
1832,  disappointment  of 
working  classes  in,  937- 
938;  Russell  and,  985 
note ;  its  effect  on  the 
Church,  1040;  of  1866, 
984-985;  of  1867,  986- 
987;  of  1884-1885,  1012, 
1013 

Reform  of  the  Calendar,  see 
Calendar 

Reformation,  the,  in  Eng- 
land, causes  for,  301,  302  ; 
condition  of  the  Church 
on  the  eve  of  the,  307, 308 ; 
causes  of,  308;  some 
results  of,  316;  effect  of, 
on  poor  relief,  342  ;  prin- 
ciples of,  in  England,  Ger- 
many, and  Scotland  con- 
trasted, 366 

Reformation  of  Manners, 
Society  for,  Wilberforce 
founds,  902 

Reformation  Parliament, 
the,  315-320,  324 

Reforms,  legal,  of  1833,  918 


Refugees,  foreign,  in  Eng- 
land, 589 

Regency  Bills,  the  (1705, 
1706),  658;  (1765),  7531 
(1788,  1789),  821,  822 

Regicides,  the,  533 

Reginald,  sub-prior  of  Christ 
Church,  Canterbury,  137  j 

Regium  Donum,  993 

"Reign  of  Terror,"  the,  833 

Relief,  feudal  incident  of,  85 

Relief  Bill,  Savile's,  773 

Religion,  of  the  Celts,  14; 
in  thirteenth  century,  159, 
1 60;  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  793 ;  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  1030- 
1042 

Renascence,  the,  225,  291 ; 
302,  303 ;  in  England, 
303-307 ;  influence  of,  on 
English  literature,  418 

Rent,  Ricardo's  theory  of, 
896 

"Repealers,"  924 

Representation,  inequalities 
in,  in  House  of  Commons, 
900-910 ;  after  Reform 
Bill  of  1832,  984;  see 
American  Revolution  and 
Virtual  representation 

Requests,  Court  of,  350 

Resolutions,  the  Eliot,  459 

Responsibility  of  ministers, 
615,  646 

Restoration,  causes  and 
nature  of,  527,  528; 
colonial  and  trade  ex- 
pansion during,  590,  591 

Restoration  of  the  coinage, 
see  Coinage 

Revenues,  Anglo-Saxon,  68; 
Anglo-Norman,  86 ;  under 
Henry  II,  118;  under 
Henry  VIII,  340;  under 
the  Tudors,  404,  405 ;  of 
the  royalist  and  parlia- 
mentary parties  in  the 
Civil  War,  488;  settle- 
ment of,  at  the  Restora- 
tion, 533,  534;  the,  of 
James  II,  567,  568;  set- 
tlement of,  under  Wil- 
liam III,  623 ;  from  the 
American  Colonies,  751 ; 
of  the  British  Empire, 
1063 ;  see  Civil  List 

Revenue  officers,  deprived 
of  right  to  vote,  7?6,  777 


Revised  version,  the,  331 

Revolution,  of  1688,  the 
nature  and  results  of,  697  ; 
see  American  Revolution 

Revolution,  Belgian,  of  1830, 
880-890 

Revolution,  the  French,  ef- 
fects of,  on  England,  822, 
823  ;  causes  of,  823,  824 ; 
outbreak  of,  824 ;  govern- 
ments of,  824  and  note; 
reception  of,  in  England, 
824,  825  ;  English  propa- 
ganda checked,  828 ;  Eng- 
lish societies  to  spread 
doctrines  of,  ib. ;  emis- 
saries of,  in  England,  829 ; 
Reign  of  Terror  of,  833 ; 
effect  in  Ireland  of,  889 ; 
attitude  of  English  poets 
toward,  898 ;  social  effects 
of,  901-902 ;  Bentham's 
fear  of,  906 ;  of  1 830,  899 ; 
spread  of  movement  of 
1830,  890 ;  stimulates 
reform  in  England,  908; 

Revolution,  Spanish,  of 
1820,  884,  885 

Revolution  in  Portugal  and 
Spain,  888-889 

Revolution,  European,  of 
1848,  951-952 

Revolution  Society,  the  Eng- 
lish, 825 

Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  803- 
804 

Rhe,  the  expedition  to,  455, 
456 

Rheims,  college  at,  387 

Rhodes,  Cecil,  1031,  1032, 
1033 

Rhodesia,  1032 

Rhuddlan,  Statute  of,  169 

Ricardo,  David,  896 

Rich,  Robert,  Earl  of  War- 
wick, 477 

Richard  I  (Cceur  de  Lion), 
King  of  England,  made 
Duke  of  Aquitaine,  113; 
revolt  against  Henry  II, 
114;  accession  and  char- 
acter, 1 20 ;  exactions, 
121;  participation  in  the 
Third  Crusade,  121,  122; 
return  and  imprisonment 
in  the  German  Empire, 
122,  123;  his  ransom  and 
visit  to  England,  1 23 ; 
departure  for  France  and 


INDEX 


death,  123,  124;  growth 
of  boroughs  under,  129; 
grants  a  guild  hall  to  the 
merchants  of  Cologne,  131 

Richard  II,  King  of  England, 
festivities  for,  as  Prince 
of  Wales,  207,  208 ;  navi- 
gation laws  under,  213, 
225;  accession,  230;  atti- 
tude toward  the  Peasant 
Revolt,  232-234;  marries 
Anne  of  Bohemia,  234; 
manifestations  of  despot- 
ism of,  235 ;  temporarily 
yields  to  the  opposition, 
236 ;  recovers  power 
and  rules  well  for  eight 
years,  236,  237 ;  goes  to 
Ireland,  237 ;  attempts^to 
resume  absolute  power, 
237—239 ;  second  mar- 
riage, 238;  second  visit 
to  Ireland,  239 ;  deposi- 
tion of,  240;  death  and 
final  estimate  of,  241,  243 

Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester 
265 ;  suspected  of  murder 
of  Henry  VI,  269;  leads 
an  expedition  against 
Scotland,  272;  makes 
himself  Protector,  272; 
character  and  policy,  272, 
273 ;  proclaimed  King, 
273 ;  see  Richard  III 

Richard  III,  King  of  Eng- 
land, crimes  and  vain 
efforts  to  secure  popu- 
larity, 273,  274;  defeat 
and  death  at  Bosworth, 
274,  275 ;  estimate  of,  275 

Richard,  Duke  of  York,  257 ; 
claim  to  the  throne,  258; 
visit  to  Ireland  and  return, 
259 ;  Protector,  260,  261 ; 
opens  War  of  the  Roses, 
261 ;  in  exile,  261,  262 ; 
claims  the  throne,  defeat 
and  death  at  Wakefield, 
262 

Richard,  Duke  of  York,  son 
of  Edward  IV,  272,  273, 
280 

Richard  de  Clare  ("Strong- 
bow"),  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
112 

Richard  de  Clare,  Earl  of 
Gloucester,  153 

Richard  of  Cornwall,  150, 
152,  i?3 


Richard  Fitzneal,  127,  150, 
156 

Richardson,  Chief  Justice, 
464 

Richardson,'  General  Sir 
George,  1087,  1088 

Richardson,  Samuel,  799 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  447, 
455,  488 

Richmond,  Duke  of,  urges 
annual  parliaments,  773 

Ridley,  Nicholas,  Bishop  of 
London,  363 

Ridolfi  plot,  the,  381,  382 

Rights,  Bill  of,  see  Bill 

Rights,  the  Declaration  of, 
586;  see  Bill  of  Rights 

Rights  of  Man,  Paine's  pam- 
phlet, 825 

Riot  Act,  the,  678 

Riots,  in  connection  with 
parliamentary  reform, 
915,  986 

Ripon,  negotiations  with  the 
Scots  at,  473 

Rising  of  1715,  the,  679- 
681 ;  of  1745,  710-714 

Ritualism,  1041,  1042 

River  systems,  475 

Rivers,  economic  impor- 
tance of,  4 

Rivers,  Lord,  272,  273,  304 

Rizzio,  David,  376 

Roads,  Roman,  21 ;  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  218; 
in  the  fifteenth  century, 
285 ;  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  593  ;  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century,  893 ; 
in  Scotland,  715 

Robert  (Curthose),  Duke  of 
Normandy,  78 ;  rising  of, 
91 ;  goes  on  the  first  Cru- 
sade, 9,3 ;  mortgages  his 
duchy  to  William  Rufus, 
ib.;  forestalled  as  King 
of  England,  94;  return 
from  the  Holy  Land,  ib. ; 
leads  a  rising  against 
Henry  I,  95 ;  treaty  with 
Robert,  ib. ;  defeat  at 
Tinchebrai,  ib. ;  dies  a 
prisoner,  ib. 

Robert,  Earl  of  Gloucester, 
100,  101,  102,  103 

Robert  of  Artois,  192 

Robert  of  Bellame,  95 

Robert  of  Crickland,  125 

Robert  of  Jumieges,  56,  57 


Robert  of  Mowbray,  93 

Robert  Fitzwalter,  142 

Robert  Grosseteste,  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  131,  151,  152, 
164,  181,  304 

Roberts,  General,  Earl  Rob- 
erts, in  the  Afghan  War, 
1007;  in  the  Boer  War, 
1034-1036 ;  honors  ac- 
corded to,  1035,  1636 ; 
opposes  Home  Rule  Bill, 
1088 

Robespierre,  833 

Robethon,  677 

Robin  of  Redesdale,  267 

Robin  Hood,  224 

Robinson,  Frederick,  Vis- 
count Goderich,  874,  879 

Robinson,  Sir  Hercules,  1032 

Robinson,  Sir  Thomas,  719, 
720 

Rochambeau,  Count,  774- 
776 

Rochdale,  1061 

Rochester,  Earls  of,  see 
Wilmot,  John,  and  Hyde, 
Lawrence 

Rochester,  Viscount,  see 
Carr,  Robert 

"Rocket,"  the,  Stephenson's 
locomotive,  894 

Rockingham,  Council  of,  92 

Rockingham,  the  Marquis 
of,  first  Ministry  of,  754- 
756;  second  Ministry  of, 
776-778;  death  of,  780 

Rockingham  Act,  the, 
checks  abuses  in  Parlia- 
ment, 913 

Rodney,  Admiral,  730,  775, 
778 

Roe,  Thomas,  591 

Roebuck,  John,  786 

Roger,  of  Hereford,  78 

Roger  of  Hoveden,  127 

Roger  of  Salisbury,  97,  101 

Rogers,  John,  330,  363 

RoiPacificateur,  Le,  1075 

Rollo,  41,  56 

Roman  Catholicism,  con- 
trasted with  Calvinism, 
366;  Puritan  fears  of, 
464,  465 

Roman  Catholics,  excluded 
from  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, 373 ;  treatment  of, 
by  James  I,  431-433  ;  the 
party  of,  fostered  by  Hen- 
rietta Maria,  465 ;  mostly 


INDEX 


on  the  side  of  Charles  I, 
487 ;  Charles  I's  intrigues 
with,  in  Ireland,  488,  4g8 ; 
the  condition  of,  under 
Cromwell,  517,  518; 
Charles  II's  attempts  to 
reintroduce,  534,  549- 
552;  the  Test  Act  against, 
551 ;  see  the  Popish  Plot ; 
excluded  from  Parlia- 
ment (1678),  559;  ad- 
mitted to  office  by 
James  II,  571,  572;  prog- 
ress of,  in  Scotland,  574 ; 
indulgence  granted  to, 
575,  S?6,  578,  579;  fanati- 
cism against,  in  England, 
773,  774;  Grenville  Min- 
istry fails  to  secure  com- 
missions in  army  and 
navy  for,  852  ;  disabilities 
of,  before  the  Relief 
Acts,  879;  emancipation 
of,  879-882;  status  of, 
at  Victoria's  accession, 
927 ;  Russell's  legislation 
against,  954;  see  Acces- 
sion Declaration  Act 

Roman  Catholics,  Irish, 
penal  laws  against  the, 
627;  condition  of,  1782, 
838 ;  concessions  to,  839 ; 
failure  of,  to  secure  con- 
cessions after  the  Union, 
843,  844 ;  denounce 
founding  of  nonsectarian 
schools  in  Ireland,  944; 
proportion  of,  in  Ulster, 
1087 

Roman  de  Ron,  88 

Roman  Empire,  the,  17 

Roman  fortifications  in  Brit- 
ain, 19 

Roman  Law,  revival  of, 
115,  116;  Henry  II  keeps 
it  out  of  England,  116 

Roman  roads,  21 

Romans,  their  invasion  of 
Gaul,  1 7 ;  invasions  of 
Britain,  17,  18;  conquest 
of  Britain,  18;  occupation 
of  Britain,  18  ff. ;  forti- 
fications in  Britain,  19,  20 ; 
end  of  the  occupation,  20, 
21 ;  advantages  and  dis- 
advantages of  rule,  21  ff . ; 
taxation,  23 ;  slightness 
of  influence  on  Anglo- 
Saxons,  30 


Romantic    movement,    the, 

in    literature,    801,    802, 

896-899 

Rome,  sack  of,  301 ;    Eng- 
lish college  at,  387  ;  French 

occupation  of,  951 
Romilly,    Sir   Samuel,   903- 

004,  912 

Romney,  George,  804 
Rood  of  Boxley,  the,  328, 

329 

Rooke,  Sir  George,  656,  657 
Root  and  Branch  party,  the, 

481 
Rosebery,  Lord,   1003 ;    his 

Ministry,  1026,  1027  ;   his 

scheme  for  reforming  the 

Lords,  1079 
Roses,  see  War  of  the 
Rossa,     O'Donovan,     992, 

1012 

Rossbach,  the  battle  of,  729 
Rossetti,     Dante     Gabriel, 

1046,  1057 

Rothschild,  Baron,  975 
Rotten  boroughs,  910,  916 
Rouen,  siege  of,  251 
"Round  tables,"    194,   198, 

218 

Roundheads,  the,  483,  616 
Roundway  Down,  battle  of, 

492 

Rouse's  Point,  948 
Rousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  604, 

823 

Rowlandson,  Thomas,   car- 
icaturist, 901 
Royal    African     Company, 

the,  541,  591 
Royal  Agricultural  College, 

1055 
Royal  Agricultural  Society, 

the,  1055 

Royal  Exchange,  the,  413 
Royal  Marriage  Act,  762 
Royal  Society,  the,  603, 

606 
Royal  title,  the,  changes  in, 

662,  843,  1003,  1072 
Royal   Titles    Bills   (1876), 

1003 ;    (1901),  1072 
Rozhvestvensky,     Admiral, 

1076 

Rubens,  611 
Rumelia,  1006,  1083 
Rump  Parliament,  the,  506 ; 

abolishes  the  kingship  and 

the  House  of  Lords,  509; 

unpopularity  of,  ib. ;    re- 


fuses to  dissolve,  509,  510; 
dissolved  by  Cromwell, 
5i5,Si6 

Rump,  the,  recalled  and 
finally  dissolved,  526 

Runnymede,  142 

Rupert,  Prince,  489,  492, 
495,  497,  499,  542,  552 

Ruskin,  John,  1044,  1045, 
1057 

Russell,  origin  of  the  family 
of,  329 

Russell,  Edward  (later  Earl 
of  Orford),  581,  630,  631, 
632,  634,  641,  643,  646 

Russell,  John,  Lord,  carries 
repeal  of  Test  and  Cor- 
poration Acts,  880-881 ; 
identifies  parliamentary 
reform  with  Whigs,  907, 
908;  in  Grey's  Ministry, 
909 ;  introduces  Reform 
Bill,  915;  resigns  from 
Grey's  Cabinet,  922 ; 
speaker  of  House  of  Com- 
mons, 924 ;  introduces 
Municipal  Reform  Act  of 
1835,  925;  attitude  to- 
ward Victoria  upon  her 
accession,  929 ;  sends 
Durham  to  Canada,  931; 
becomes  an  advocate  of 
free  trade,  944—945 ; 
first  Ministry  of,  950; 
religious  problems  of  first 
Ministry  of,  953~954 ; 
criticizes  Palmerston's  in- 
dependent tendencies, 
956 ;  in  Coalition  Minis- 
try, 958;  dismisses  Pal- 
merston,  957  ;  fall  of  first 
Ministry  of,  ib. ;  would 
force  Russian  concessions 
before  Crimean  War,  960 ; 
presents  bill  to  abolish 
Jewish  disabling  oath, 
975 ;  in  sympathy  with 
South  in  American  Civil 
War,  977;  hasty  policy 
of,  in  Trent  affair,  978 ; 
refuses  to  intervene  in 
American  Civil  War,  979 ; 
attitude  of,  on  question  of 
the  Duchies,  980-981 ; 
second  Ministry  of,  983 ; 
Reform  Bills  of,  984,  985  ; 
fall  of  second  Ministry, 
and  death  of,  985,  and 
note ;  see  Alabama  Claims 


1152 


INDEX 


Russell,  William,  Lord,  558, 
562,  564 

Russell,  Sir  William  How- 
ard, correspondent  of 
Times  during  Crimean 
War,  962 

Russia,  opening  up  of,  in 
the  sixteenth  century, 
410;  joins  the  armed 
neutrality  of  1778,  774; 
Pitt's  failure  to  check  the 
expansion  of,  827,  828; 
in  war  of  First  Coalition, 
834 ;  Tsar  Paul  of,  835  ;  in 
Second  Coalition  against 
France,  845  ;  armed  neu- 
trality of  1800,  organized 
by  Tsar  of,  846,  847; 
Alexander  I  becomes  Tsar 
of,  847 ;  boundary  dis- 
pute between  United 
States,  England,  and,  ad- 
justed, 949;  joins  Third 
Coalition  against  France, 
850,  851 ;  meets  Napoleon 
at  Eylau  and  Friedland, 
852 ;  Napoleon's  cam- 
paign in,  858;  combines 
with  Prussia,  Austria,  and 
Sweden,  against  Napoleon, 
859;  signs  first  treaty  of 
Paris,  861-862 ;  signs 
Quadruple  Alliance,  865 ; 
Nicholas  I,  Tsar  of,  886; 
attitude  of,  towards  Greek 
struggle  for  independence, 
886,  887;  attitude  of, 
towards  Belgian  Revolu- 
tion, 890 ;  in  the  Crimean 
War,  959-965 ;  accession 
of  Nicholas  II,  963 ; 
supposed  plot  against 
India  of,  966 ;  seeks  ex- 
tension of  her  power  in 
Afghanistan,  968;  Napo- 
leon III  counts  on  assist- 
ance from,  in  struggle 
for  unity  in  Italy,  976; 
Napoleon  III  proposes 
mediation  in  American 
Civil  War  by  England, 
France,  and,  979 ;  Eng- 
land isolated  by  Palmer- 
ston  from,  998 ;  brings  her 
ships  again  into  the  Black 
Sea,  1000, 1001 ;  in  China, 
1029 ;  occupies  Man- 
churia, 1036 ;  see  Afghan, 
War  of  1878;  Russo- 


Turkish  and  Russo-Japa- 
nese War 

Russia  Company,  the,  413 
Russo-Japanese  War,   1075, 

1076 
Russo-Turkish   War,    1003- 

1006 
Ruthven  (riv'en)  raid,  the, 

387,  428 
Ruvigny,  Henri  de,  Earl  of 

Galway,  663 

Ruyter,  Admiral  de,  542,  552 
Ryehouse  plot,  the,  564 
Ryswick,  the  Peace  of,  635, 

636 


Sabbath,     association     for 

better  observance  of,  902 
Sac  and  Soc,  64 
Sacheverell,  Dr.  Henry,  666, 

667 

Sackville,  Lord  George,  733 
Sackville,     Thomas,     Lord 

Buckhurst,  423 
Sacraments,     definition    of, 

325 

Sadler,  Michael,  921 
Sadowa,  battle  of,  see  Konig- 

gratz 
Saint  Alban,  shrine  of,  180, 

329 
St.  Albans,  Council  at,  140; 

residence    of    Henry    III, 

161 ;    reeve  and  four  men 

summoned  to,  173  ;  battle 

of,  261 ;  second  battle  of, 

263 
St.    Albans,    Viscount,    see 

Bacon,  Sir  Francis 
St.  Aldhelm,  see  Ealdhelm 
St.  Anthony's  fire,  88 
St.  Bartholomew,  massacre 

of,  384,  385 
St.  Benedict,  36,  37 
St.  Brice's  Day,  massacre  of, 

52 

St.  Dominic,  157-159 
St.  Edmund,  martyrdom  of, 

42 

Saint-Evremond,  611 
St.  Francis,  see  Francis 
St.  Gilbert  of  Sempringham, 

99 
St.  Giles'  Cathedral,  the  riot 

in,  469 
St.    Helena,    Napoleon    at, 

864-865 


St.  John  (sm  jm),  Henry, 
later  Viscount  Boling- 
broke,  character  of,  667 ; 
his  peace  negotiations  with 
France,  668-670;  rivalry 
with  Oxford,  672,  673 ; 
failure  of  his  succession 
schemes,  674 ;  dismissal, 
676 ;  his  flight  from  Eng- 
land, 678;  enters  the 
service  of  the  Pretender, 
ib.  •  aims  to  stop  the 
rising  of  1715,  679;  dis- 
missed by  the  Old  Pre- 
tender, 680;  return  to 
England,  691 ;  his  activity 
in  opposition,  698;  end 
of  his  political  career,  701 ; 
his  Idea  of  a  Patriot  King, 
740 
St.  John,  Oliver,  467,  476, 

477 

St.  Leger,  Sir  Anthony,  335 
St.  Lucia,  island  of,  865 
St.  Omers,  556 
St.  Paul,  22 

St.   Paul's   Cathedral,   416, 
462,612;  see  Paul's  Walk 
St.  Paul's,  Council  at,  140 
St.  Peter's  Fields,  870 
St.   Pierre,   Island  of,   781, 

833 

St.  Stephen,  chapel  of,  483 
St.  Thomas,  see  Becket 
Sal'adin,  118,  121,  122 
Salian  Franks,  law  of,  191 
Salisbury,  Countess  of,  332 
Salisbury,  Earl  of,  261,  262, 

263 
Salisbury,   Marquis  of,  see 

Cecil 

Salisbury  oath,  the,  82 
Salomans,  Alderman,  975 
Salonl'ka,  massacre  at,  1003 
Sancroft,     William,     Arch- 
bishop    of     Canterbury, 
572,  578,  583,  585 
Sanctuary  of  the  Nativity, 

the,  959  note 

San  Domingo,  revolt  in,  849 
Sandwich,  Earl  of,  see  Mon- 
tagu 

Sanitation,  220,  221 ;  in  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII,  341, 
342 

San  Jacinto,  the,  978 
San  Stefano,  the  Treaty  of, 

1005 
Santa  Cruz,  394 


INDEX 


"53 


Saratoga,  surrender  of  Bur- 
goyne  at,  770 

Sardinia,  671,  685,  975,  976 

Sarmiento,  Don  Diego, 
Count  Gondomar,  see 
Gondomar 

Sarum  Use,  the,  350 

Saskatchewan,  Province  of, 
created,  932  note 

Saucy  Castle,  see  Chateau 
Gaillard 

Saunders  (san'ders),  Admi- 
ral, 731,  732,  733 

Savannah,  capture  of,  by 
British,  772 

Savery,  Thomas,  787 

Savile  (sav'il),  George,  Mar- 
quis of  Halifax,  562,  563, 
567,  583>  585,  616,  620 

Savile,  Sir  George,  Bill  of, 
on  behalf  of  Catholics  in 
England,  773 

Savile,  Sir  Henry,  606 

Savonarola,  303 

Savoy,  976 

Savoy,  Duke  of,  657 

Savoy  Conference,  the,  535 

Savoy  palace,  232,  356 

Sawtre,  William,  247 

Saxe,  Marshal,  664,  709,  736 

Saxons,  piratical  invasions 
of  Britain,  20 

Scheldt,  French  open  to 
navigation,  829,  830 

Schism  Act,  673 ;  repealed, 
684 

Schleswig-Holstein  ques- 
tion, the,  980,  981,  985, 
988,  1075 

Scholasticism,  160,  291 

Scholemaster,  The,  344 

Schomberg,  Count,  581,  625, 
626 

Schoolmen,  345 

Schools,  126,  223,  344,  995. 
996 ;  see  Chantry  and 
Grammar 

Schulenburg,  Countess  von, 
677,  691 

Science,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  125,  126;  in  the 
Elizabethan  Age,  417; 
progress  of,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  606;  in 
the  eighteenth  century, 
791,  792;  in  the  early 
nineteenth  century,  895 ; 
in  the  Victorian  Age,  1050- 
1052 


Scone  (scoon),  coronation 
stone  of,  171 ;  coronations 
at,  513,  680 

Scotch-Irish  Church,  the, 
22 

Scotch  Small  Landholder's 
Bill,  1077 

Scotland,  physical  features, 
8;    wars  with  Edward  I, 
169-172;     alliance    with 
France,     170;      disputed 
succession   in,    170;    ris- 
ing of  Wallace,  175;   ris- 
ing of  Bruce  and  last  cam- 
paign     of      Edward      I 
against,    177;    repulse  of 
Edward   II   at   Bannock- 
burn  by,  184;  "Shameful 
Peace"    with,    189;     dis- 
puted succession,  in,  190; 
expedition      against,     by 
Edward  III,  191 ;   repulse 
of     invasion     from,     at 
Neville's  Cross,  197  ;  rela- 
tions of  Edward  IV  with, 
271,  272;    supports  War- 
beck,    280;     James    IV, 
King  of,  marries  Margaret 
of  England,  282  ;  invasion 
from,  repulsed  at  Flodden, 
296;      designs    of    Hen- 
ry   VIII    on,    333,    334; 
impolicy      of      Seymour 
toward,    351,    352;     the 
Reformation  in,  367,  368 ; 
374,    375;     conflicts    be- 
tween    Mary     and     the 
Protestant     lords,     375- 
377 ;    attempted  Catholic 
revival  in,  386,  387  ;   con- 
dition of,  at  the  accession 
of  the  Stuarts,  428,  429; 
relations      with,       under 
James    I,    435;     projects 
of  union  with,  433,  435 ; 
Episcopacy     vs.    Presby- 
terianism,  435 ;   outbreak 
against     the     policy     of 
Charles   and   Laud,    and 
the    first    Bishops'    War, 
468-470 ;       the      second 
Bishops'  War,  473 ;  Mon- 
trose  in,  488 ;   the  Solemn 
League     and     Covenant 
arranged       with,       493 1 
troops  from,  on  the  side 
of  Parliament,  499 ;  Ham- 
ilton    invades     England 
from,  505.  So6;  conquest 


of,  by  Cromwell,  512,  513; 
defeat  of  invaders  from, 
at  Worcester,  513;  repre- 
sented   in     the     English 
Parliament,  516;  the  Res- 
toration in,  535 ;   landing 
of  Argyle  in,  568 ;  the  situ- 
ation in,  under  Charles  II 
and  James  II,  573-575;  the 
Revolution   in,    627 ;    the 
rising  of,  under  Dundee, 
and  its  collapse,  628,  629 ; 
Presbyterianism    reestab- 
lished in,  628;    the  mas- 
sacre of  Glencoe  in,  629; 
union   of,  with    England, 
8,  660-672 ;   development 
of,  after  the  union,   662 ; 
attempted  descent  upon, 
in  1708,  663,  664;   rising 
of     1715     in,     670-681; 
Jacobite   force   lands   in, 
685 ;       French     invasion 
against,    709;    the   rising 
of  '45    in,  710-714;    the 
transformation  of,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,   714- 
716;    parliamentary  fran- 
chise in,  before  first  Re- 
form    Bill,     912,     913; 
under  bill  of  1832,  916- 
917;     representation    of, 
under  Act  of  1867,  987; 
visits  of  Victoria  to,  1037 ; 
secessions       from       the 
Church  of,  1042,  1043 
Scots,  homages,  47, 113, 121, 
171 ;    invasion  of  Britain, 
20;    union  of,  and  Pitts, 
30 ;  alleged  submission  to 
Edward  the  Elder,  47 
Scott,  James,  Duke  of  Mon- 
mouth,  558,  559,  562,  564, 
568-570,  574 
Scott,  Major,  820 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  415,  710. 
897,  898,  900,  1040,  1043, 
1045 ;    his  literary  work, 
897,  809 

Scroggs,  William,  Chief  Jus- 
tice, 560 
Scrope,  Richard,  Archbishop 

of  York,'  245 
Scutage,  118 
Scutari,  hospitals  at,  during 

Crimean  War,  962 
Sea  coal,  5 

Seamen,  Elizabethan,  their 
achievements,  400-411 


"54 


INDEX 


Sea  power,  rise  of  the  Eliz- 
abethan, 391-393 

Search,  the  right  of,  as  a 
cause  of  the  War  of  Jen- 
kins'  Ear,  701,  702 ;  of 
the  War  of  1812,  853,  860; 
given  up,  by  Great  Brit- 
ain, 86 1 

Sebastopol,  siege  of,  962,  963 

Secession,  question  of,  in 
American  Civil  War,  977 

Secretary  of  State,  the,  404 

Secretary  of  State  for  India, 
the  institution  of,  974 

Secretary  for  War,  abolition 
of  office  of,  963 ;  reor- 
ganization of  duties  of, 
963,  and  note 

Sectaries,  Act  against,  390 

Security,  Act  of,  661 

Sedan,  the  battle  of,  1000 

Sedgemoor,  battle  of,  568, 
569 

Seditious  writings,  royal 
proclamation  against,  828 

Seditious  Meetings  Bill,  the, 
835 ;  passage  of  a  new,  870 

Seely,  Colonel,  1089 

Self-denying  ordinance,  the, 
496,  497,  Soo 

Selkirk,  Alexander,  789 

Selling,  William,  304 

Seminary  priests,  387,  388 

Seneca,  422 

Senegal,  729 

Senlac,  battle  of,  59,  60,  88 

Separatists,  388,  389 

Sepoys,  721 ;  in  Indian 
Mutiny,  969,  971 

Septennial  Act,  the,  617, 
681,  926 

Sepulchre,  Holy,  93,  959 

Sequestration,  500 

Serf,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  64 

Serjeanty,  grand,  533 

Servia,  964,  1003,  1005 

"Service"  franchise,  the, 
1012 

Settlement,  the  Act  of,  642- 
644;  the  law  of,  921,  922 

Seven  Bishops',  the  Case  of 
the,  578-580 

Seven  United  Provinces,  the, 
385 

Seven  Years'  War,  the,  issues 
in,  720;  chief  events  in, 
722-736,  741-743 ;  the 
peace  negotiations,  741- 
743 ;  effect  of,  in  pre- 


cipitating the  American 
Revolution,  748,  749 

Severn  River,  5 

Severus,  Septimius,  Roman 
Emperor,  20 

Seville,  the  Treaty  of,  701 

Seymour,  Charles,  Duke  of 
Somerset,  577 

Seymour,  Edward,  Earl  of 
Hertford,  invades  Scot- 
land, 334;  becomes  Pro- 
tector and  Duke  of  Som- 
erset, 348;  character  of, 
348,  349 ;  remedial  legis- 
lation of,  349 ;  Protestant 
excesses  under,  349,  350; 
growing  unpopularity  of, 
350 ;  risings  against,  350, 
351 ;  failure  of  his  foreign 
policy,  351,  352;  his  fall, 
352,  353;  execution  of, 
354;  Edward  VI's  opin- 
ion of,  355 

Seymour,  Jane,  Queen  of 
Henry  VIII,  325,  33*,  332 

Seymour,  Thomas,  Lord 
High  Admiral,  352,  370 

Shaftesbury,  Earls  of,  see 
Cooper 

Shakespeare,  William,  142, 
143,  279,  415,  420,  421 ; 
his  writings,  423,  424 

Shameful  Peace,  the,  189 

Shanghai,  opened  to  British 
trade,  948 

Sharp,  James,  Archbishop 
of  St.  Andrew's,  573,  574 

Sheep  raising,  234,  284,  409 ; 
in  Australia,  1066 

Sheffield,  3 

Sheldon,  Gilbert,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  545 

Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  liter- 
ary work  of,  898 

Sheppard,  Jack,  806 

Sher  Ali,  1007 

Sherfield,  Henry,  case,  of 
462,  463 

Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley, 
820,  848 ;  plays  of,  803 

Sheriff,  the,  or  shire-reeve, 
44 ;  Anglo-Saxon,  67 ;  in 
Anglo-Norman  times,  87 ; 
at  the  Exchequer,  98; 
decline  of,  under  the 
Tudors,  407 

Sheriff  Muir,  the  battle  of, 
680 

Sheriff's  "aid,"  the,  109 


Sheriffs,  Inquisition  of,  118; 
attempts  of  James  II  to 
control  the,  578 

Ship  money,  466-468;  de- 
clared illegal,  480 

Shipping,  laws  relating  to, 
213 ;  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  288,  289;  in- 
crease of,  under  Hus- 
kisson's  reforms,  876 ; 
status  in  1830,  892-893; 
extent  of,  in  1910,  1053 

Shires,  origin  of,  44,  46; 
Anglo-Saxon,  62 ;  varied 
origin,  courts  and  proce- 
dure, 67 ;  see  County 

Shirley,  James,  610 

Shirley,  Sir  Thomas,  case  of, 
433 

Shirley,  William,  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  710 

Shirley  vs.  Fagg,  case  of,  554 

Shooting  Niagara,  Carlyle's 
pamphlet,  987 

Shorthouse,  Joseph  Henry, 
1049 

Short  Parliament,  the,  471, 
472,  752 

Shovel,  Sir  Cloudsley,  656 

Shrewsbury,  Peace  of,  168; 
the  Great  Parliament  of, 
239;  battle  of,  245 

Shrewsbury,  Earl  of,  see 
Talbot,  Charles 

Shrines,  180,  219;  destruc- 
tion of,  329 

Sicily  ceded  to  Savoy,  671 ; 
acquired  by  Austria,  685  ; 
revolt  of  1820,  in,  884 

Sickness,  insurance  against, 
1060,  1 06 1 

Siddons,  Mrs.,  802,  803 

Sidmouth,  Lord,  see  Adding- 
ton 

Sidney,  Algernon,  564 

Sidney,  Henry,  581 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  391,  419, 
420 

Sigismund,  Emperor,  251 

Sikh  Wars,  the,  968-969 

Silesian  Wars,  the  first  and 
second,  705,  707,  710;  the 
third,  725,  729,  730,  733, 
736 

Silk  manufacture,  the,  in 
the  seventeenth  century, 
589 

"Silken  Thomas,"  335 

Simnel,  Lambert,  279,  280 


INDEX 


"55 


Simon  de  Montfort,  152- 
156;  160,  168,  181; 
character  and  work,  155, 
156;  Parliament  of,  153, 
168,  173 

Simpson,  General,  succeeds 
Raglan  in  Crimea,  963 

Simpson,  Sir  James,  dis- 
coverer of  chloroform, 
1051 

Sinclair,  Oliver,  333 

Sind,  annexation  of,  968 

"Singeing  the  King  of 
Spain's  beard,"  394 

Sinking  Fund,  the  begin- 
ning of  the,  683 ;  of  1717, 
699;  Pitt's,  817,  818; 
end  of  the,  875 

Sinope,  Russians  attack 
Turkish  fleet  at,  960 

Siward,  Earl  of  Northum- 
bria,  56,  57 

Six  Articles,  the,  336;  re- 
pealed, 349 

Skeffington,  Lord  Deputy, 
33S 

Skelton,  John,  345 

Slave  trade,  Anglo-Saxon, 
74,  79;  abolition  of 
African,  818,  819,  851 

Slavery,  86,  87 ;  abolition 
of,  in  the  British  colonies, 
918,  920,  989  ;  promise  of 
regulation  by  Congress 
of  Vienna,  865  ;  question 
of  extension  of,  as  a  cause 
of  the  American  Civil 
War,  977 

Slidell,  Confederate  com- 
missioner to  England  and 
France,  978 

Sluys  (slois),  naval  battle 
of,  193 

Small  Holdings  Acts,  1056, 
1097 

Smith,  Adam,  606,  766,  795, 
796,  895,  896,  1049 

Smith,  Sidney,  900,  914,  917, 
937 

Smith,       William       Henry, 
leader   of   the   House   of 
Commons,  1020,  1023 
Smithfield,  233 
Smollett,  Tobias,  704,  800 
Smuggling,    699,    701,    702, 
805,  815,  816;    in  postal 
service  before  penny  post- 
age, 937 ;   English  traders 
promote,  with  China,  948 


Soap  Company,  the,  461 

Socage,  534 

Social  classes,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  594;  in 
the  Victorian  period,  1058 

Social  Compact,  the,  604 

Social  Democratic  Federa- 
tion, the,  1063 

Social  Democratic  party, 
the,  1063 

Social  Levelers,  or  Diggers, 
504 

Socialism,  938,  1062,  1063  ; 
Christian,  1048,  1062 

Socialists,  agitations  of,  at 
end  of  Napoleonic  wars, 
869 

Society,  British  and  Foreign 
Bible,  902 

Society,  English  Revolu- 
tionary, 825,  828 

Society,  the  British  and 
Foreign  School,  995 

Society,  the  National,  995- 
996 

Society,  Royal,  for  Preven- 
tion of  Cruelty  to  Ani- 
mals, 903  ;  see  also  Royal 
Society 

Society  for  the  Improvement 
of  Prison  Discipline,  the, 
1050 

Society  of  Arts,  the,  803 

Society  of  Friends  of  the 
People,  the,  907 

Society  of  Jesus,  see  Jesuits 

Socinians,  622 

Sociology,  1049 

Solebay,  see  Lowestoft  and 
Southwold  Bay 

Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant, see  Covenant 

Solferino,  battle  of,  976 

Solway  Moss,  battle  of,  333 

Somers,  John  (later  Lord), 
in  the  Seven  Bishops'  case, 
580;  his  share  in  the 
Restoration  of  the  coin- 
age, 635 ;  character  of, 
641 ;  his  Balancing  Letter, 
642 ;  deprived  of  the 
Great  Seal,  643 ;  impeach- 
ment of,  646 
Somerset,  Dukes  of,  see 

Seymour 
Somerset,  Earl  of,  see  Carr, 

Robert 

Somerset,  Henry,  Duke,  of 
Beaufort,  595 


Sophia,    Electress   of   Han- 
over, 643,  658,  676 
Sophia  Dorothea,  Queen  of 
Frederick    William    I    of 
Prussia,  676 
Sophia  Dorothea,  Queen  of 

George  I,  676,  692 
South  Africa,  the  British  in, 
1030-1036 ;  the  union  of, 
1067,  1068,  1077,  1081 ; 
government  in,  1067, 
1068 ;  Indian  laborers  in, 
1080;  labor  problems  in, 
1081 

South  African  Republic,  see 
also  the  Transvaal,  1033 
South  American  Republics, 
the,     Canning    and    the 
recognition  of,  885-886 
South  Australia,  1066,  1067 
South  Downs,  the,  4 
Southey,  Robert,  898 ;  writ- 
ings of,  897 
South  Island,  1068 
South  Kensington  Museum, 

the,  955 
South,   Marshal,    854,   857, 

858 
South  Saxons,  the,  invasion 

of  Britain,  29 
South  Sea  Bubble,  the,  see 

South  Sea  Company 
South   Sea   Company,   the, 

671,  686-688,  703 
Southwark  Fair,  the,  806 
Southwold  Bay,  the  battle 

of,  552 

Spa  Fields,  869,  870 
Spain,  war  of  England  with, 
204 ;  matrimonial  alli- 
ance with  Henry  VII,  282 ; 
aggressions  of  Elizabethan 
seamen  against,  392-394, 
396-398;  marriage  nego- 
tiations with,  441 ;  journey 
of  Charles  to,  446;  mar- 
riage negotiations  with, 
broken  off,  447 ;  peace 
of  Madrid  with,  460; 
refuses  to  aid  Charles  I, 
488 ;  Cromwell's  war 
with,  520;  in  the  War  of 
the  Spanish  Succession, 
657,  663,  665,  671 ;  see 
Utrecht,  Peace  of;  helps 
to  defeat  the  Darien  proj- 
ect, 661 ;  reforms  and 
projects  of  Alberoni  in, 
684-686 ;  see  Vienna, 


1156 


INDEX 


Treaty  of;  see  Jenkins' 
Ear,  the  War  of,  701-704 ; 
see  Aix-la-Chapelle,  the 
Peace  of  (1748);  joins 
France  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  741—743 ;  see  Paris, 
the  Peace  of,  743 ;  joins 
France  against  England, 
772;  joins  the  armed 
neutrality  of  1778,  774; 
concludes  peace  with  Eng- 
land, 781 ;  antagonism 
between  England  and,  in 
1789-1790,  827;  joins 
First  Coalition  against 
France,  1793,  832;  Jervis 
defeats  squadron  from, 
836;  cedes  Louisiana  to 
France,  847 ;  signs  Peace 
of  Amiens,  848;  fleet 
from,  at  Trafalgar,  850; 
national  uprising  against 
Napoleon  begins  in,  853- 
855 ;  Peninsular  War  in, 
closes,  856-858;  Spanish- 
American  colonies  of,  de- 
clare independence,  876 ; 
Revolution  of  1820  in, 
884,  885;  Revolution  in, 
888-889;  Louis  Philippe 
anxious  to  exercise  con- 
trol over,  949;  Palmer- 
ston's  mandate  to  gov- 
ernment of,  in  1848,  955; 
sends  expedition  to 
Mexico  in  1860,  979 

"  Spanish  Fury,"  the,  385 

Spanish  marriages,  the,  949 

Spanish  Succession,  War  of 
the,  618;  opening  of  the, 
644—646,  652-659,  662- 
666,  668-670  passim 

Speakers,  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  206,  339;  to 
decide  on  Money  Bills, 
1078 

Special  lecturers,  462 

Spectator,  the,  796 

Speculation,  frenzy  for,  in 
1825,  877 

Speech,  freedom  of,  586 

Speech  from  the  throne,  the, 
read  by  Edward  VII  in 
person,  1072 

Spencer,  Charles,  Earl  of 
Sunderland,  659 ;  made 
a  Secretary  of  State,  659, 
660 ;  removed,  667 ;  as- 
sjsts  in  the  overthrow  of 


Townshend,  682 ;  final 
dismissal  from  office,  688 

Spencer,  Herbert,  983, 1049, 
1050,  1051 

Spencer,  John  Charles, 
leader  of  Whigs,  883 ;  see 
Althorp,  Lord 

Spencer,  Robert,  Earl  of 
Sunderland,  562 ;  chief 
adviser  of  James  II,  567, 
571 ;  testimony  of,  in  the 
Seven  Bishops'  case,  579; 
dismissed  by  James  II, 
582  ;  advises  William  III 
to  select  a  party  ministry, 
616 

Spenser,  Edmund,  421,  422 

Spinning  jenny,  the,  inven- 
tion of,  785 

Spinning  mule,  the,  785 

Spithead,  mutiny  at,  836, 
837 

Sports,  the  Declaration  of, 
463,  464;  see  Recreation 

Spottiswood,  Archbishop, 
469 

Spurs,  battle  of  the,  296 

Stafford,  Edward,  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  execution  of, 

295 

Stafford,  Henry,  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  273,  274 

Stafford,  Thomas,  364 

Stafford,  Lord  William,  vic- 
tim of  the  Popish  Plot, 
560 

Stage  coaches,  number  of, 
in  1825,  893 

Stair,  Earl  of,  see  Dalrymple, 
John 

Stair,  the  Master  of,  see 
Dalrymple 

Stamford  Bridge,  battle  of, 
59 

Stamp  Act,  the,  749,  751- 
753 ;  repeal  of,  755,  756 

Stamp  Act  Congress,  the, 
752 

Standards,  battle  of  the,  101 

Standing  army,  nucleus  of 
the,  533 ;  increased  by 
James  II,  572,  573  ;  illegal 
without  consent  of  Parlia- 
ment, 586;  reduction  of, 
642 

Stanfield,  Clarkson,   1057 

Stanhope,  James,  first  Earl 
Stanhope,  682,  683,  684, 
685,  688 


Stanhope,  Philip  Dormer, 
Earl  of  Chesterfield,  700, 
718,  728,  754;  Letters  to 
his  Son,  801 

Stanislaus,  deposed  King  of 
Poland,  692 ;  becomes 
Duke  of  Lorraine,  700 

Stanley,  Arthur  Penrhyn, 
1041 

Stanley,  Edward  George, 
Lord  Stanley  and  four- 
teenth Earl  of  Derby ;  in 
Grey's  Ministry,  909 ; 
Irish  Secretary,  919 ; 
Colonial  Secretary,  920; 
refuses  portfolio  under 
Peel,  923 ;  leads  oppo- 
sition in  Don  Pacifico 
trouble,  956 ;  first  Min- 
istry of,  957-958;  com- 
ment of,  on  Peace  of 
Paris,  965 ;  second  Min- 
istry of,  975,  976 ;  third 
Ministry  of,  985-986 ; 
comment  of,  on  Reform 
of  1867,  987;  resignation 
and  death  of,  988-989 

Stanley,  Edward  Henry, 
fifteenth  Earl  of  Derby, 
1005 

Stanley,  Lord,  275 

Staples,  Merchants  of  the, 
289 

Staple  towns,  212 

Star  Chamber,  Court  of, 
281,  404,  480,  561 

Steamboats,  893-894,  1053 

Steam  engine,  the,  787,  788, 
894 

Steam  railways  and  naviga- 
tion in  the  Victorian  Age, 
1052,  1053 

Steele,  Sir  Richard,  680, 
796,  797 

Steelyard,  the,  131 

Steenkirke,  battle  of,  631 

Stephen,  King  of  England, 
loo ;  his  charter,  ib. ; 
character  and  problems, 
100,  101 ;  attack  on  the 
Salisburys,  101 ;  in- 
volved in  Civil  War,  101- 
103 ;  agrees  to  Treaty  of 
Wallingford,  103,  104 ; 
results  of  his  rule,  104- 
105  ;  extension  of  Church 
courts  under,  109 

Stephens,  James,  992 

Stephenson,  George,  devel- 


INDEX 


"57 


ops  steam  transportation, 

894 

Sterne,  Laurence,  800 

Steuben,  Baron,  770 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis, 
1049 

Stewart,  Dugald,  895 

Stewart,  Esm6,  386,  387 

Stewart,  Henry,  Lord  Darn- 
ley,  375,  376,  377 

Stewart,  Lord  James,  later 
Earl  of  Moray,  367,  376, 
382 

Stlg'and,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  57 

Stillingfleet,   Benjamin,   806 

Stillingfleet,  Edward,  Bishop 
of  Worcester,  604 

Stirling  Bridge,  battle  of,  175 

"Stockdale  and  Darling- 
ton "  railroad,  opening  of 
the,  894 

Stockdale  vs.  Hansard,  936 

Stockmar,  Baron,  929 

Stoke,  battle  of,  280 

Stolberg,  Louise  von,  Coun- 
tess of  Albany,  714 

Stonehenge,  15 

Stop  of  the  Exchequer,  the, 
55° 

Stourbridge  Fair,  163 

Stow,  John,  421 

Strachan  (strawn),  Sir  Rich- 
ard, British  Admiral,  855 

Strafford,  Earl  of,  see  Went- 
worth,  Sir  Thomas 

Stratford,  John,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  193 

Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  Lord, 
960,  961 

Strathclyde,  30,  170 

Strikes,  at  Norwich,  in  1754, 
784;  use  of,  by  British 
trades  unions,  938;  in 
1911-1912,  1085,  1086 

Strode,  William,  460 

"Strongbow,"  see  Richard 
de  Clare 

Stuart,  John,  Earl  of  Bute, 
740,  741,  742,  743,  744 

Stuart,  Robert,  King  of 
Scotland,  first  of  the  line, 
197 

Submission  of  the  clergy, 
3i7,  318 

Subsidies,  201,405 

Subsidy  of  1523,  300 

Succession,  acts  of,  provid- 
ing for  the  heirs  of 


Henry  VIII  and  Anne, 
318;  relating  to  heirs  of 
Henry  VIII  and  Jane 
Seymour,  325 ;  of  1544, 
355  ;  plans  for  regulating 
the,  584,  585 

Suckling,  John,  607 

Sudan,  the,  1014-1016 

Sudbury,  Simon,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  233 

Suez  Canal,  the,  967,  990, 
1002,  1053 

Suffolk,  Duke  of,  father  of 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  358,  360 

Suffolk,  Earl  of,  execution 
of,  295 

"Suffolk  Resolves,"  the,  765 

Suffrage,  manhood,  urged 
by  Duke  of  Richmond, 
773 ;  aim  of  the  Work- 
ingman's  Association, 
939;  in  Franchise  Bill  of 
1912,  1088 

Suffrage,  women's,  in 
Australia,  1067 ;  in  New 
Zealand,  1068 

Suffragists,  the  militant, 
1060,  1088 

Sugar  Acts,  the,  748,  751 

Sully,  epigram  on  James  I, 
429 

Sumptuary  laws,  201,  214 

Sunday  schools,  develop- 
ment of,  795 

Sunderland,  Earl  of,  see 
Spencer,  Robert  and 
Charles 

Superstition,   160,  417,   597 

Supremacy,  Act  of,  passed 
in  the  first  parliament  of 
Elizabeth,  373 ;  provi- 
sions of,  relating  to  eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction,  402 

Supremacy,  oaths  of,  373, 
559,  621,  880 

Supreme  Court  of  Judication 
Act,  the,  999 

Supreme  Head  of  the  Church 
of  England,  title  assumed 
by  Henry  VIII,  320 

Surgery,  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  221 ;  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  1052 

Surinam,  543 

Surrey,  Earls  of,  see  Howard, 
Henry  and  Thomas 

Susa,  peace  of,  460 

Suspending,  royal  preroga- 
tive of,  586 


Suttee,  Bentinck  abolishes 
Hindu  practice  of,  967 

Suvorov,  Russian  com- 
mander, 845 

Swansea,  7 

Sweating  sickness,  the,  284, 
4iS 

"Sweet  William,"  the,   713 

Swein,  Danish  invader,  51 ; 
King  of  Norway,  renewed 
attacks  on  England,  52 ; 
dominant  in  England, 
death,  53 

Swift,  Jonathan,  his  Conduct 
of  the  Allies,  669;  his 
Drapier  Letters,  691 ;  his 
other  writings,  797,  798 

Swinburne,  Algernon 

Charles,  1046 

Switzerland,  revolts  against 
France  in  1813,  859; 
revolution  of  1830  in,  890 

Swynford  (swm'ford),  Cath- 
erine, 246,  279 

Sydney,  Australia,  1065 

Syndicalism,  1063,  1086 

Synods,  366 


Tacitus,    Roman    historian, 

18,  19 
Tacitus'  description  of  the 

ancient  Germans,  27,  62 
Tacking,  643,  659 
Taff  Vale  case,  the,  1062 
Talavera,  battle  of,  855 
Talbot,    Charles,  Earl,  and 
later,  Duke    of    Shrews- 
bury, 581,  616,  620,  621, 
634,  641,  674,  676,  677 
Talbot,      John,      Earl      of 

Shrewsbury,  257,  260 
Talbot,    Richard,    Earl    of 
Tyrconnel,  571,  575,  623, 
624 

Talbot,  William,  1052 
Tallages,  86,  176 
Tallard,  Marshal,  655,  656 
Talleyrand,  862 
Talmash,  General,  632 
"Tamworth        Manifesto," 

the,  923-924 
Tangier,  540,  591,  1076 
Tarbes,  Bishop  of,  309 
Tard  Venus,  204 
Tariff,    Huskisson's    reform 
of  the,   875-876;    reduc- 
tion   of,    in    1842,    941 ; 


iiS8 


INDEX 


Gladstone  reduces  articles 
on,  in  1860,  977 ;   Disraeli 
advocates  an  imperialistic 
protective,  999 
Tariffs,    preferential,    1081, 

1082 

Tariff  reform,  1073,  1074 
Tariff  Reform  League,  the, 

1074 

Tasman,  Abel,  1065 

Tasmania,  1065,  1066,  1067 

Taxation,  under  the  Tudors, 

404,    405 ;    the   arbitrary, 

of   Charles   I,    461,    472; 

curtailed,     480;      of    the 

American   Colonies,    749— 

753,    756,    757;     Huskis- 

son's  reform  of,  875-876 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  603 

Taylor,   Rowland   (ro'land), 

363 

Tea,  the  tax  on,  757 
Tea  Room  Party,  the,  987 
Teghler,  Wat,  232,  233,  234 
Telegraph,  the,  1054 
Tel-el-Kebir,  battle  of,  1014 
Telephone,  the,  1054,  1055 
Telford,  Thomas,  893 
Temperance     revival,     the, 

1059 

Temple,  Richard,  Lord 
Temple,  725,  728,  731, 
742,  755 

Temple,  Lord,  his  son,  8n 
Temple,    Sir   William,    549, 

562,  797 

Tenant  farmers,  the,  in 
the  seventeenth  century, 
596 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  1045, 1046 
Tenths  and  fifteenths,  405 
Tenures,  see  Military 
Tertullian,  22 

Test  Act,  the,  passed,  551 ; 
James  II  seeks  to  repeal, 
568,  571 ;  repeal  of,  880- 
881 

Testament,  see  New  Testa- 
ment 

Test  and  Corporation  Acts, 
beginning  of  annual  in- 
demnity from,  684;  the 
repeal  of  the,  880,  88 1, 
1040 

Teutonic,  see  Germanic 
Tewfik   Pasha,    Khedive   of 
Egypt,  1003,  1013,  1014, 
1016 
Tewkesbury,  battle  of,  268 


Thackeray,  William  Make- 
peace, 1047 

Thagi,  or  thugs,  suppres- 
sion of  the,  967 

Thanet,  25 

Theaters,  Shakespearean, 
424 ;  the  decline  of,  425  ; 
ordinance  closing,  ib.,  610 

Theobald,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  108,  116,  126 

Theobald  of  Blois,  100 

Theodore  of  Tarsus,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  36 

Theodore,  King  of  Abys- 
sinia, 988 

Theology  in  eighteenth  cen- 
tury England,  793 

The  United  Irishmen,  Mitch- 
ell, editor  of,  952 

Theyns,  69 

Thirlwall,  Bishop,  1050 

Thirty-nine  Articles,  the, 
379,  621,  997,  1041 

Thirty  Years'  War,  the,  437, 
442,  443,  445,  519 

Thistlewood,  plans  con- 
spiracy to  destroy  Liver- 
pool's Cabinet,  872 

Thomas  of  Lancaster,  183— 
185 

Thomas  of  Woodstock,  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  235-238 

Thomas  Aquinas,  159 

Thomson,  James,  802 

Thomson,  William,  Lord 
Kelvin,  1052,  1054 

' '  Thorough ' '  Went  worth  and 
Laud's  policy  of,  453,  471 

Thrale,  Mrs.,  806 

Three-field  system,  the,  63 

Throgmorton's  plot,  387,  388 

Thurlow,  Lord,   776,   8n 

Thurot,  Admiral,  730,  733 

Ticonderoga,  729,  731 

Tierney,  Pitt's  duel  with,  902 

Tilbury,  395 

Tillotson,  John,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  604 

Tilsit,  Treaty  of,  852,  853 

Times,  the  London,  founded, 
900;  Russell  special  cor- 
respondent of,  during 
Crimean  War,  962 ;  on 
defeat  of  second  reform 
bill,  915 ;  on  Tory  policy, 
in  the  Reform  of  1867, 
987 ;  suit  of  Parnell 
against,  1020,  1021 

Tin,  Celtic  trade  in,  16 


Tin  mines  in  Britain,  14 
Tinchebrai,  battle  of,  78,  95 
Tippermuir,  battle  of,  498 
Tiptoft,      John,      Earl      of 
Worcester,  268,  303,  304 
Tipii,  Ruler  of  Mysore,  845 
Tirel,  Walter,  93 
Tithe     Commutation     Act, 

the,  1055 

Tithe,  Saladin,  118 
Tithes,  English,  924,  925 
Tithes,  Irish,   910—920,  933 
Tobacco,  416 
Toland,  John,  English  Deist, 

793 

Toleration,      religious,      in 
Utopia,  306;  absence  of, 
in  the  sixteenth  century, 
362  ;   failure  of  Charles  II 
to    secure,    534;     and    of 
James  II,  575,  576,  578, 
579;     extended    to   Epis- 
copalians in  Scotland,  715 
Toleration  Act,  the,  621,  622 
Tone,  Wolfe,  839-841 
Tonge,  Dr.  Israel,  556 
Tonnage  and  poundage,  210, 

404,  454,  458 
Tooke,  Home,  833 
Torbay,    William's    landing 

at,  582 

Torgau,  the  battle  of,  736 
Tories,    the    High    Church, 
approach  the  Dissenters, 
576;   changed  attitude  of, 
toward  lawfulness  of  re- 
sistance,   580;     see   High 
Church 
"Torrens  System"  of  land 

registration,  1067 
Torres  Vedras,  lines  of,  856, 

857 

Tory  party,  the,  origin  of, 
562 ;  doctrines  of  non- 
resistance,  563 ;  reaction 
of,  against  William  III, 
620;  refuse  to  vote  for 
admission  of  Nonconform- 
ists to  office,  622  ;  attacks 
the  Bank,  638;  favors  a 
Place  Bill,  639;  its  rela- 
tions to  William  III,  641 ; 
make  up  and  aims  of,  651, 
652  ;  the  eclipse  of,  under 
the  first  two  Georges,  689, 
693 ;  return  of,  to  power 
under  George  III,  738; 
French  Revolution  and 
the,  822;  reforms  of  the 


INDEX 


"59 


Liberal,  875  ff. ;  opposes 
parliamentary  reform, 
908;  attempts  of,  to 
defeat  parliamentary  re- 
form, gis,  gi6;  attitude 
of,  towards  factory  legis- 
lation, 921 ;  liberalism  of, 
in  Reform  of  1867,  987 

Tostig,  Earl  of  Northum- 
bria,  57-59 

Tottel's  Miscellany,  346,  421 

Toulon,  832 

Touraine,  secured  by 
Philip  II,  136 

Tourbin,  Admiral,  663,  664 

Tourville,  Admiral,  625,  626, 
631,  632 

Tower  of  London,  76,  489 

Towns,  the,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  598,  599 ; 
see  Borough 

Townshend,  Charles,  Vis- 
count, 676,  682,  683,  688, 
699,  790 

Townshend,  Charles,  756, 
757 

Townshend  Acts,  the,  756, 
757 

Townships,  Anglo-Saxon, 
62,  63 

Towton,  battle  of,  265 

Tract  XC,  1041 

Tractarian  movement,  see 
Oxford  movement 

Tracts  for  the  Times,  the, 
1040 

Trade,  Anglo-Saxon,  73,  74; 
in  the  twelfth  century, 
131 ;  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  162,  163  ;  under 
Edward  I,  II,  III,  211- 
213 ;  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 288,  289;  under 
Henry  VIII,  343 ;  regu- 
lation of,  under  Eliza- 
beth, 412;  regulation  of, 
by  James  I  and  Charles  I, 
589 ;  during  the  Restora- 
tion, 590,  591 ;  increase 
of,  in  1824,  876;  condi- 
tion of,  in  1830,  892, 
893 

Trade  Unionism,  938,  1061, 
1062 

Trading  classes,  favored  by 
the  Tudors,  401 

Trading  companies,  under 
Elizabeth,  413 ;  justifi- 
cation for,  588,  589 


Trades  Disputes  Act,  the, 
1062,  1077 

Trades  Unions,  General  Fed- 
eration of,  1062 

Trades  Unions  Acts,  1061, 
1062 

Trafalgar,  battle  of,  850 

Traile  de  Madame,  le,  550 

Traitorous  Correspondence 
Bill,  the,  833 

Trans-Humbrians,  the,  145 

Transportation,  improve- 
ment in  British,  by  1830, 
893-894 ;  see  Canals, 
Steamboats,  and  Steam 
railways 

Transportation  of  criminals, 
958,  959,  1067 

Transubstantiation,  227, 
331 ;  the  declaration 
against,  621,  880;  see  also 
Real  Presence 

Transvaal,  the,  1030;  re- 
volt in,  1030,  1031 ;  dis- 
covery of  gold  in,  1031, 
1032;  war  in,  1034—1036; 
self-government  granted 
in,  1077 ;  see  also  Boer 
War 

Travel,  in  Anglo-Saxon 
times,  73 ;  in  fourteenth 
century,  218-220;  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  593 

Treasons,  Statute  of,  200; 
punishment  for,  217;  Acts 
of,  of  Henry  VIII,  320; 
Acts  of,  under  Warwick, 
353  ;  Acts  of,  under  Ed- 
ward VI,  349 ;  Acts  of, 
under  Edward  VI,  354; 
Acts  of,  under  Elizabeth, 
387  ;  new  theory  of,  478 ; 
new  theory  of,  in  the 
trial  of  Charles  I,  506, 
507 

Treason,  Act  regulating 
trials  for,  639,  640 

Treasonable  Practices  Bill, 
the,  834 

Treasurer,  97 

Treaty  of  1856,  the,  viola- 
tion of,  1003 

Trelawney,  Sir  Jonathan, 
Bishop  of  Bristol,  579 

Trent,  the  Council  of,  380 

Trent  affair,  the,  978 

Trial  by  battle,  117 

Trial  by  jury,  introduced 
into  England  by  William  I, 


1 1 6 ;  brought  into  general 
use  by  Henry  II,  116,  117 

Tribe,  the,  among  the  an- 
cient Germans,  among 
the  West  Saxons,  44 

Triennial  Acts,  the,  of  1641, 
479;  of  1694,  639 

Triers,  the,  518 

Trinidad,  848,  865 

Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
345 

Trinoda  necessitas,  68 

Trinovantes,  18 

Triple  Alliances  (1668),  549, 
55°;  (1716),  682,  683; 
(1788),  826,  827;  of 
Germany,  Austria,  and 
Italy,  1075,  1083 

Tripoli,  annexed  by  Italy, 
1082 

"Triumvirate,"  the,  562 

Trivium,  128 

Trollope,  Anthony,  1048 

Tucker,  Josiah,  views  of, 
concerning  the  American 
Colonies,  766 

Tudor,  Henry,  Duke  of 
Richmond,  see  Henry 

Tudor,  House  of,  basis  of 
the  new  absolutism  of, 
278,  279 

Tudor  monarchy,  strength 
and  weakness  of,  401,  402 

Tull,  Jethro,  700 

Tun-moat,  63 

Tunscipe,  see  township 

Turco-Italian  War,  the,  1082 

Turenne,  Marshal,  520,  566 

Turkey,  Russia  at  war  with, 
827,  828;  in  Second 
Coalition  against  France, 
845;  Sultan  of,  signs 
peace  of  Amiens,  848; 
Greece  revolts  from,  886- 
808;  Russian  desire  re- 
garding Greek  Christians 
in,  959;  troops  of,  begin 
Crimean  War,  960;  signs 
Treaty  of  Paris,  after 
Crimean  War,  964-965 ; 
Crimean  War  checks  de- 
signs of  Russia  on,  965 ; 
relations  with  Great  Brit- 
ain in  the  last  years  of 
Victoria,  1028,  1029;  war 
with  Greece,  1029;  see 
Russo-Turkish  War 

Turner,  Joseph  Mallard,  ooi, 
1044 


n6o 


INDEX 


Turnips,  the  cultivation  of, 

592,  700 

Turpin,  Dick,  806 
Tuscans,     money     lenders, 

164 
Tuscany,    under    Peace    of 

Zurich,  976 
Tusser,  Thomas,  409 
Tweed  River,  4 
Two-bottle    orthodox,    the, 

1030-1041 
"Two-penny  Trash,"   Cob- 

bett's  Register,  871   and 

note 
Two-power    standard,    the, 

1078 

Tyler,  see  Teghler 
Tyndale,  William,  330,  363 
Tyndall,  John,  1051 
Tyne  River,  4 
Tyrconnel   (tercSn'nel),   the 

Earl     of,      see     Talbot, 

Richard,  571 
Tyrell,  Sir  James,  273 
Tyrone',  Earl  of,  436 

U 

U'dall,  Nicholas,  422 

Uganda,  1032 

Uitlanders,  the,   1032,  1033 

Ulster,  112;  the  plantation 
of,  436;  the  rebellion  in, 
of  1641,  480,  481 ;  re- 
bellion of  1798  in,  sup- 
pressed, 840,  841 ;  Tenant 
Right,  994 ;  beginning 
of  opposition  to  Home 
Rule  in,  1018;  growth 
of  the  opposition,  1086- 
1089 ;  the,  Covenant, 
1087  ;  balance  of  Catholics 
and  Protestants  in,  1087  ; 
the  army  crisis  in,  1089 

Undertakers,  the,  437 ;  in 
Ireland,  436,  777 

Unemployment,  insurance 
against,  1060,  1061 

Uniformity,  first  Act  of, 
35°,  351 ;  second  Act  of, 
354^  355 1  the  Act  of 
Elizabeth,  372 ;  the  Act 
of  1662,  537,  538 

Union,  the,  of  England  and 
Ireland,  9,  842,  843 

Union  of  England  and 
Scotland,  projects  for, 
433.  435  ;  brought  about 
in  1707,  8,  660-663 


Union  of  South  Africa,  1067, 
1068,  1077 

Unionist  Free  Trade  Club, 
the,  1074 

Unitarians,  622 

United  Irishmen,  Wolf  Tone 
and  the,  839;  defenders 
unite  with,  840 

United  Kingdom,  increase 
of  population  and  wealth 
in,  1058 

United  Presbyterians,   1042 

United  States,  the,  indepen- 
dence of,  acknowledged 
by  England,  780,  781 ; 
trade  war  between  Great 
Britain  and,  856 ;  war 
of  Great  Britain  with, 
859-861 ;  commercial  re- 
lations of,  with  Great 
Britain,  improve  after 
war  of  1812,  876;  thwarts 
European  intervention  in 
South  American  Repub- 
lics, 885  and  note,  886; 
panic  of  1836  in,  941 ; 
boundary  disputes  ad- 
justed with,  948-949 ;  re- 
fuses to  agree  to  "  Declara- 
tion of  Paris,"  964,  965 ; 
Civil  War  in,  977  ;  Trent 
affair  nearly  starts  war 
between  England  and  the, 
978;  resent  British  atti- 
tude toward  privateering 
and  blockade  running  dur- 
ing Civil  War,  978-979; 
Mexican  policy  of  Napo- 
leon III  causes  trouble 
to  the,  979-980 ;  England 
estranged  by  Palmerston 
from,  988;  Fenian  move- 
ment in,  992 ;  British 
immigration  to,  1065 ; 
attempted  reciprocity  of, 
with  Canada,  1082 ;  re- 
lations with,  under  Ed- 
ward VII  and  George  V, 
1084;  see  American  Civil 
War  and  Venezuela 

Universities,  the,  rise  of,  1 28 ; 
in  the  thirteenth  century, 
1 60;  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  222,  223 ;  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  291 ; 
the  divorce  of  Henry  VIII 
referred  to,  316;  in  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII,  345  ; 
in  the  seventeenth  cen- 


tury,    594;      attack     of 

James  II  upon,  577 ;    in 

the    Restoration    period, 

603 
"University  Group,"  the,  of 

Elizabethan     dramatists, 

423 

University  Test  Act,  the,  997 
Urban  II,  Pope,  92,  93 
Urban  VI,  Pope,  227,  235 
Uses,  Statutes  of,  326,  327 
Usury,    legislature    against, 

215,  288 
Utilitarians,     the     English, 

604,  895 

Utopia,  the,  305,  306 
Utrecht,  the  Peace  of,  637, 

670,  672 

Utrecht,  the  Union  of,  385 
Uxbridge,  Treaty  of,  496 


Vacarius,  116,  126 
Valentine,    Benjamin,    459, 

460 

Valhalla,  26 
Valla,  Lorenzo,  303 
Valladolid,  556 
Valley    Forge,   Continental 

Army  at,  770 
Vanbrugh,  Sir  John,  610,  612 
Vancouver,  Province  of,  932 
Vancouver  Island,   949 
Vancouver  Sound,  949 
Van  Dieman's  Land,  1065, 

1066 

Vandyke,  611 
Vane,  Sir  Henry,  478 
Vane,      Sir      Henry,      the 

Younger,    476,    479,   493, 

515,  533 
Vauban,  630 

Vaudreuil,      Governor-Gen- 
eral of  Canada,  736 
Vauxhall,  148  note,  602,  806 
Venables,  General,  520 
Vendome,  the  Duke  of,  659, 

663,  664 
Venezuela    boundary,    the, 

1028 

Venner,  Thomas,  535 
Vera  Cruz,  1085 
Vere,    Aubrey   de,    Earl   of 

Oxford,  581 
Vere,    Robert    de,    Earl    of 

Oxford,  234,  235,  236 
Vergennes,  French  minister, 

749,  774 


INDEX 


1161 


Vergil,  Polydore,  345 

Vernon,  Admiral  Edward, 
703,  704,  70S 

Verona,  European  congress 
at,  884 

Versailles,  Treaty  of,  781 

Veru'lam,  Huron,  see  Bacon, 
Sir  Francis 

Verulamium,  destruction  of, 
19 

Vestiarian  controversy,  the, 
388,  389 

Veto  Act,  the,  of  the  Scotch 
General  Assembly,  1042 

Veto,  the  royal,  339,  615,  750 

Vicegerent,  the,  315,  322 

Vice  President  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Education, 
creation  of  office  of  the,  996 

Viceroy,  institution  of  title 
of,  for  Crown's  represent- 
ative in  India,  974 

Victor  Emmanuel,  crowned 
King  of  Italy,  976;  Aus- 
tria cedes  Venice  to,  988 

Victoria,  Australia,  1066, 
1067 

Victoria,  Empress  of  Fred- 
erick II  of  Germany,  1075 

Victoria,  Queen  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  and 
Empress  of  India,  early 
life  and  accession  of,  928 ; 
Civil  List  of,  929;  char- 
acter of,  at  her  accession, 
934;  conduct  of,  in  Bed- 
chamber crisis,  934-935 ; 
marriage  of,  935-940 ; 
anxious  to  conciliate 
France  in  1846,  949; 
comment  of,  on  the  Great 
Exhibition,  955 ;  opposed 
to  National  Liberal  move- 
ment in  Europe,  955 ; 
memorandum  to  Palmer- 
ston  from,  956-957 ;  es- 
timate of  Wellington,  958 ; 
tries  to  intervene  on 
Austria's  behalf  in  war 
of  Italian  Unification,  976 ; 
adopts  conciliatory  policy 
in  Trent  affair,  978 ; 
interest  and  policy  of,  in 
Schleswig-Holstein  ques- 
tion, 980,  981 ;  Bismarck 
repulses  mediation  offer 
of,  988 ;  Disraeli's  policy 
toward,  990 ;  attitude 
towards  Gladstone  of, 


990-991 ;  aids  passage 
of  Gladstone's  disestab- 
lishment bill,  993 ;  abol- 
ishes purchase  of  army 
commission  by  royal  war- 
rant, 998;  her  attitude 
toward  the  Franco-Prus- 
sian War,  1000;  declared 
Empress  of  India,  1003 ; 
her  mediation  in  the  ex- 
tention  of  the  franchise, 
1013 ;  her  opposition  to 
Home  Rule,  1018;  her 
Jubilees  of  1887  and  1897, 
1022,  1065,  1(369,  1027, 
1028;  her  relations  with 
Gladstone,  1026 ;  death 
and  estimate  of,  1036, 
1037;  problems  of  her 
reign,  1037,  1038;  ex- 
cludes Prince  Albert  from 
political  activities,  1071 ; 
Empire  Day  as  a  memo- 
rial to,  1073 

Victorian  art,  1056,  1057 

Victorian  historians,  1043, 
1050 

Victorian  literature,  1043 

Victorian  philosophers,  1049, 
1050 

Victorian  poets,  1045,  1046 

Victorian  prose  writers, 
1043-1045,  1046-1049 

Victorian  science,  1050-1052 

Vienna,  Congress  of,  the, 
861-862 

Vienna,  Treaties  of,  691, 
692,  700,  704 

Vigo  Bay,  capture  of  Spanish 
fleet  in,  654;  captured  in 
1719,685 

Villafranca,  Truce  of,  976 

Villars,  Marshal,  663,  665, 
668,  670 

Villa  Viciosa,  the  battle  of, 
665 

Villeins,  231 ;  in  the  twelfth 
century,  131 ;  proportion 
of,  in  reign  of  John,  142 

Villenage,  causes  for  aboli- 
tion of,  234 

Villeneuve,  Admiral,  Nelson 
defeats  off  Trafalgar,  850 
and  note 

Villeroy,  Marshal,  634,  655, 
656,  658,  659 

Villiers,  Charles,  fights  for 
Corn  Law  repeal,  940 

Villiers,  George  (later  Duke 


of  Buckingham),  440,  441 ; 
journey  to  Spain,  446; 
adopts  an  anti-Spanish 
policy,  446 ;  his  alliances, 
447,  448;  character  of, 
453 ;  impeachment  of, 
454.  455;  his  expedition 
to  Rh6,  455,  456;  his 
murder,  458;  as  a  col- 
lector, 611 

Villiers,  George,  second 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  544, 
548,  550,  551,  566 

Villiers,  George,  Earl  of 
Clarendon,  964,  997,  1000 

Vimeiro,  battle  of,  854 

Virgate,  64 

Virginia,  origin  of  the  name, 
412 

Virginia  Resolves,  the,  752, 
757 

Visitations,  under  Somerset, 
350;  see  also  Metropolit- 
ical  and  Sheriffs 

Vitoria,  battle  of,  857 

Vives,  Ludovicus,  344 

Volta,  Alessandro,  1052 

Voltaire,  823 

Volunteers,  the  Ulster,  1087, 
1088 

Vortigern,  25 

Votes  for  women,  987,  1088 

Vulgate,  the,  330 

W 

Wace,  of  Jersey,  88 
Wade,  General  George,  712, 

7i5 

Wagram,  battle  of,  855 
Wakefield,  battle  of,  262 
Wakefield,  Edward  Gibbon, 

1065,  1066,  1068 
Wakeman,  George,  560 
Wakes,  the  Somerset,  464 
Walcheren,  battle  of,  855 
Waldersee,  Count  von,  1036 
Wales,  physical  features  and 
resources,  7,  8;    relations 
with  John,    138;    unsuc- 
cessful      expedition       of 
Henry  III   against,    149; 
rising  against  Edward  I, 
171 ;      conquest     of,     by 
Edward  I,   168;    Statute 
of,     or    Rhuddlan,     169; 
revolt    of,  against  Henry 
IV,    243,    244;     represen- 
tation granted  to,  339 


Il62 


INDEX 


Wales,  Prince  of,  77  ;  origin 
of  title,  169 

Wales  and  the  Marches, 
Council  of,  set  up,  406; 
abolished,  480 

Walewski,  Count,  957,  974, 
975 

Walker,  Obadiah,  572 

Walker,  Robert,  611 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russell, 
1051 

Wallace,  Sir  William,  175, 
177 

Wallachia,  887,  964 

Waller,  Sir  William,  492 

Wallingford,  treaty  of,  103, 
104 

Walpole,  Horace,  later  Earl 
of  Orford,  417,  707,  718, 
730,  733,  759,  QOI  ;  writ- 
ings of,  801 

Walpole  (wol'pole),  Sir 
Robert,  later  Earl  of 
Orford,  617,  676;  his 
denunciation  of  the  Peace 
of  Utrecht,  678 ;  in  op- 
position, 683,  684 ;  settles 
the  affair  of  the  South 
Sea  Company,  688;  be- 
ginning of  his  twenty 
years'  ascendency,  ib.  • 
his  character  and  policy, 
688-690 ;  proves  indis- 
pensable to  George  II, 
696,  697  ;  becomes  Prime 
and  sole  Minister,  698, 
699 ;  his  excise,  699,  700 ; 
his  pacific  policy,  700; 
his  attitude  toward  the 
War  of  Jenkins'  Ear,  701- 
703 ;  forced  out  of  office, 
705 ;  created  Earl  of 
Orford,  ib. ;  influence  of, 
after  his  retirement,  706- 
708;  refuses  to  tax  the 
Colonies,  751 ;  use  of 
bribery  in  Parliament,  913 

Walsingham,  Our  Lady  of, 
219 

Walsingham  (wSl'singham), 
Sir  Francis,  Secretary  of 
State,  371,  398 

Walter  of  Coutances,  123 

Walter  of  Coventry, 
chronicler,  139 

Walter  of  Henley,  164 

Walter,  John,  900 

Walter  Map,  127 

Walters,  Lucy,  562 


Waltheof,  Son  of  Siward, 
57,  76-78 

Walton,  Izaak,  607 

Wandewash,  the  battle  at, 
735 

War  of  1812,  the,  860-861 

War  of  Liberation,  the,  858- 
859 

War  of  the  Roses,  the,  open- 
ing of,  259,  260,  261 ; 
battle  of  St.  Albans  in, 
260;  of  Blore  Heath  in, 
261 ;  battle  of  Wakefield 
in,  262 ;  second  battle  of 
St.  Albans  in,  263  ;  occu- 
pation of  London  in,  264 ; 
battle  of  Towton  in,  265  ; 
Edward's  imprisonment 
and  exile  in,  267-268 ; 
victories  at  Tewkesbury 
and  Barnet  in,  268,  269 ; 
effect  on  the  nobility  of, 
278;  effect  of,  on  educa- 
tion, 291 

Warbeck,  Perkin,  280,  282 

Ward,  Sir  Joseph,  1081 

Ward,  William  George,  1041 

Wards  and  Liveries,  Court 
of,  406,  533 

Wardship,  feudal  incident 
of,  85 

Warfare,  art  of,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  218;  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  343, 
344 

Warham  (wor'ham),  Wil- 
liam, Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, 306,  317 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  guardian 
of  Richard  II,  230 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  see  Ed- 
ward, Neville,  Dudley, 
Rich 

Wash,  the,  51 

Washington,  capital  of 
United  States,  destruction 
of,  by  British  troops,  861 

Washington,  George,  704, 
722  ;  Commander-in-Chief 
of  Continental  Army,  768 ; 
in  campaign  of  1776,  769; 
at  Valley  Forge,  770; 
hardships  of  army  of,  774 ; 
receives  surrender  of  Corn- 
wallis,  775,  776 

Washington,  Lawrence,  704 

Washington  ,  the  Treaty  of, 
1001 

Waterford,  9 


Water  frame,  the,  invention 
of,  785 

Waterloo,  campaign  of,  862- 
865 

Watling  Street,  22 

Watt,  James,  development 
of  steam  engine,  787,  788 

Watts,  George  Frederick, 
1057 

Waverley  Novels,  the,  899 

Wavre,  862,  863 

Wealth,  increase  of,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  1058 

Wealth  of  Nations,  the,  795, 
796,  1064 

Wedderburn,  Alexander, 
later  Lord  Loughborough, 
763,  844 

Wedgwood,  Josiah,  786 

Wedmore,  Peace  of,  43 

Weekly  Political  Register, 
Cobbett's  paper,  869 

Wei-hai-Wei,  1029 

Wellesley  (weTsley),  Sir 
Arthur,  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, in  India,  845 ;  in 
the  Peninsular  Campaign, 
853,  854,  856-858;  repre- 
sents Great  Britain  at 
Congress  of  Vienna,  862 ; 
Waterloo  campaign  of, 
862-865 ;  refuses  service 
in  Canning's  Cabinet,  878 ; 
blocks  Corn  Law  in  Lords, 
878-879 ;  becomes  Prime 
Minister,  879 ;  Catholic 
Emancipation  passed 
under  Ministry  of,  881- 
882 ;  end  of  Ministry  of, 
883 ;  at  Congress  of 
Verona,  884-885 ;  atti- 
tude and  policy  of,  in 
Greek  revolt,  887  ;  policy 
of,  in  Portuguese  Revolu- 
tion, 888 ;  recognizes 
Louis  Philippe,  889 ;  chal- 
lenges Winchelsea  to  duel, 
902  ;  resignation  of  Min- 
istry of,  908-909 ;  at- 
tempts to  form  Ministry 
during  Reform  Bill  agi- 
tation, 916;  in  Peel's 
Cabinet,  923  ;  refuses  to 
form  Ministry  upon  Mel- 
bourne's resignation,  934 ; 
furthers  Corn  Law  repeal, 
946 ;  measures  of,  against 
Chartist  agitation,  952; 
death  of,  958 


INDEX 


1163 


Wellesley,  Richard,  succes- 
sively Lord  Mornington, 
Marquis  Wellesley,  845, 
966,  967 

Wellington,  capital  of  New 
Zealand,  1068 

Welsh,  the  tribes  of,  30 

Welsh  Church,  disestablish- 
ment of,  suggested,  1023 ; 
the  disestablishment  of, 
1086, 1088 

Wentworth,  Sir  Thomas 
(later  Earl  of  Straff ord), 
enters  Parliament,  437 ; 
character  of,  453  ;  resists 
forced  loan,  455  ;  his  bill 
for  security  of  the  sub- 
ject, 457 ;  his  "apostasy," 
458;  his  rule  in  Ireland, 
471 ;  advises  Charles  to 
summon  an  English  Par- 
liament, ib. ;  created  Earl 
of  Strafford,  ib. ;  advises 
arbitrary  methods,  472; 
impeachment  and  execu- 
tion of,  477-479 

Wergeld,  16 

Wesley,  Charles,  794 

Wesley,  John,  794,  795 

Wesley,  Samuel,  579 

Wesleyan  revival,  1039 

West  Australia,  1066,  1067 

West  Florida,  781 

West  Indies,  French  suc- 
cessors in,  during  1778- 
1779,  772;  Rodney  in, 
775 ;  British  successes 
in  1793,  833;  Villeneuve 
and  Nelson  at,  850; 
crisis  in,  in  1839,  933-Q34 

Westminster,  Council  at, 
109,  no;  Provisions  of, 
154,  156;  statutes  of, 
178,  179,  181  ;  Peace  of, 
553,  554;  see  London, 
Treaty  of 

Westminster  Abbey,  58,  156, 
162,  171,  222,  329 

Westminster  Assembly,  the, 
493, 494,  500 

Westminster  Hall,  222,  601 

' '  Westminster  Scrutiny, ' ' 
the,  813 

Weston,  Sir  Richard,  592 

Westphalia,  creation  of  king- 
dom of,  852 

Westphalia,  the  Peace  of,  519 

West  Point,  Arnold  attempts 
to  betray,  775 


West  Saxons,  invasion  of 
Britain,  29 ;  temporary 
eclipse  of,  40;  causes  of 
ultimate  supremacy,  40, 
41 ;  reconquest  of  the 
Danelagh  by,  46-51  pas- 
sim 

Wexford,  massacre  of,  511 
Wharton,  Thomas,  later 
Marquis  of,  581,  641,  669 
Wheeler,  General,  971 
Whig  party,  the,  origin  of, 
562 ;  reverse  of  the,  at 
the  close  of  the  exclusion 
struggle,  563 ;  rise  of, 
615,  616;  relations  of, 
to  William  III,  620,  637, 
641 ;  make  up  and  aims 
of,  652 ;  driven  out  by 
Anne,  667  ;  advantages  of, 
in  the  struggle  over  the 
Hanoverian  succession, 
673 ;  factions  of,  under 
George  II  and  George  III, 
738,  740;  North  breaks 
power  of,  760;  Pitt 
routs,  812,  813;  French 
Revolution  and  the,  823 ; 
split  in  the,  1791,  825, 
826;  united  in  1804, 
850;  views  of,  in  1816- 
1817,  868;  rally  to  cause 
of  Queen  Caroline,  873 ; 
in  Canning's  Cabinet,  878 ; 
colors  of  the,  901-902 ; 
identified  with  movement 
for  parliamentary  re- 
form, 907  ;  victory  of,  in 
general  election  of  1830, 
908 ;  support  reform 
movement  in  England, 
914;  Ministry  of,  under 
Grey,  favors  Parliamen- 
tary Reform  Bill,  914- 
917  ;  in  first  reformed  Par- 
liament, 918 ;  advocates 
laissez-faire  in  industry, 
921;  attitude  of,  toward 
Victoria  upon  her  acces- 
sion, 929 ;  leaders  of  the, 
advocate  free  trade,  944- 
945 ;  in  Coalition  Minis- 
try, 958;  Disraeli  op- 
posed to  commercial  aris- 
tocracy of,  989 ;  see  also 
Liberal  party 

Whip  with  six  strings,  the, 
331 ;  see  also  Articles  of 
Faith 


Whistler,  James  McNeill, 
1057 

Whitby,  Synod  of,  triumph 
of  the  Church  of  Rome  at, 
35,  36 

White,  General  Sir  George, 
1034 

White,  John,  412 

Whiteboys,  the,  777,  838 

Whitefield,  George,  794,  795 

Whitefriars,  600 

Whitehall,  507,  601 

White  Ship,  the,  96 

Whitgift,  John,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  389 

Wiclif,  John,  writes  The 
Last  Age  of  the  Church, 
199 ;  career  and  activities 
of,  208;  development  of 
his  views,  226,  227;  his 
death,  227  ;  influence  on 
English  language,  228; 
attitude  toward  Peasant 
Revolt,  231 ;  Bible  of,  sup- 
pressed, 247 ;  a  forerunner 
of  reform,  308;  Bible  of, 
330 

"Widow  McCormack's  po- 
tato patch,"  the,  952 

Wigs,  discarded  in  England, 
901 

Wilberforce,  William,  819, 
902,  920 

Wilfrid,  leader  of  Roman 
party  at  Whitby,  35 

Wilhelmina,  sister  of  Fred- 
erick the  Great,  677 

Wilkes,  Captain,  in  Trent 
affair,  978 

Wilkes,  John,  726,  744-746, 
757,  758,  762,  007 

Wilkie,  Sir  David,  art  of,  ooo 

William,  Fort,  in  the  High- 
lands, 629;  see  also  Cal- 
cutta 

William  I  (the  Conqueror), 
Duke  of  the  Normans, 
visits  England,  56;  de- 
clared heir  of  Edward  the 
Confessor,  57 ;  claims 
the  crown  from  Harold, 
58 ;  his  other  claims, 
59;  victory  at  Senlac, 
59,  60,  74 ;  captures 
London  and  crowned 
King,  76;  disposal  of 
lands  of  conquered,  puts 
down  risings  and  wastes 
vale  of  York,  77;  quells 


1164 


INDEX 


a  rising  of  the  Earls,  78; 
method  of  keeping  down 
different  classes  of  his 
subjects,  78-79 ;  rela- 
tions with  the  Church, 

79,  80 ;     relations    with 
the  Papacy,  80 ;   his  laws, 

80,  8 1 ;  revives  the  Dane- 
geld,     orders     Domesday 
Survey,    81,    82;     exacts 
Salisbury  oath,  last  years 
and  death,  82,  83 ;    char- 
acter  and   rule,    83 ;     in- 
troduces   feudal    tenures 
into  England,  84-86 ;  sep- 
aration   of    lay   and    ec- 
clesiastical      jurisdiction, 
109;     under    Henry    II, 
no;    brings  jury  system 
to  England,  116;  charter 
to  London,  129 

William  II  (Rufus),  80; 
character  and  policy,  90; 
puts  down  the  Norman 
barons,  91 ;  treaty  with 
Robert,  ib.  •  conflict  with 
Anselm,  92,  93  ;  puts  down 
rising  of  William  of  Mow- 
bray,  93  ;  last  years  and 
death,  93,  94 

William  of  Orange,  Stad- 
holder  of  the  Dutch,  later 
William  III  of  England, 
his  birth,  514;  becomes 
Stadholder,  553 ;  marries 
Mary,  555 ;  the  English 
begin  to  look  to,  570; 
refuses  to  indorse  the 
Declaration  of  Indulgence, 
577 ;  his  character  and 
policy,  577  ;  sends  Dyke- 
velt  to  England,  577, 
578;  invited  to  England, 
580,  581 ;  issues  a  Decla- 
ration and  sails  for  Eng- 
land, 581,  582;  lands  at 
Torbay,  582  ;  arrives  in 
London,  584;  calls  a 
convention  which  chooses 
him  and  Mary  as  joint 
sovereigns,  584-586 ;  pro- 
claimed, ib. ;  selects  a 
Whig  cabinet,  616;  sig- 
nificance of  his  reign, 
619,  620 ;  reaction  against, 
620;  turns  the  Conven- 
tion into  a  parliament, 
621 ;  works  for  tolera- 
tion, 621,  622;  opposed 


to  bribery,  622  ;  dissatis- 
fied with  the  revenue 
settlement,  ib. ;  victor 
at  the  Boyne,  626;  op- 
position of  the  Cove- 
nanters to,  627 ;  sanctions 
the  massacre  of  Glencoe, 
629;  forms  an  alliance 
against  France,  629,  630; 
his  succession  of  defeats, 
630—63  2  ;  founds  Green- 
wich hospital,  633 ;  plot 
to  assassinate,  634,  635 ; 
arranges  the  Peace  of 
Ryswick,  635,  636;  turns 
toward  the  Whigs,  641 ; 
quarrels  with  Parlia- 
ment, 642,  643 ;  arranges 
the  Partition  Treaties, 
645,  646 ;  forms  the 
Grand  Alliance,  647 ; 
death  and  character  of, 
648;  urges  the  union 
with  Scotland,  661 ;  mili- 
tary system  of,  outworn, 
717;  uses  bribery  in 
Parliament,  913 

William  IV,  King  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  early 
history  and  personal  traits 
of,  905  ;  attitude  toward 
parliamentary  reform, 
914—916;  accepts  resig- 
nation of  Prince  Mel- 
bourne, 923 ;  death  of, 
926 

William  the  Lion,  King  of 
Scotland,  113,  121,  138 

William  I,  German  Emperor, 
1000 

William  II,  German  Em- 
peror, 1075,  1076 

William  I,  King  of  Nether- 
lands, 889,  890 

William  (the  Silent),  of 
Orange,  381,  384,  385, 
388 

William,  Stadholder  of  Hol- 
land, 716,  717 

William,  Prince,  son  of 
Henry  I,  96 

William  Augustus,  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  707,  708, 
709;  his  victory  at  Cul- 
loden  and  the  cruelties 
which  followed,  713,  714; 
in  the  Seven  Years'  War, 
728,729 

William  of  Aumale,  148 


William  FitzOsbert  (Long- 
beard),  124 

William,  Lord  Latimer,  206, 
207 

William  Longchamp,  121, 
122 

William  Marshall,  Earl  of 
Pembroke,  Regent  of  Eng- 
land, 136,  147,  148 

William  of  Malmesbury,  89 

William  of  Newburgh,  127 

William  of  Ockham,  159 

William  of  Wykeham, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  222, 
223 

Willis,  Dr.,  King's  physician, 
822 

Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh,  410 

Wills,  see  Probate 

Wills,  General  Sir  Charles, 
680 

Wilmington,  Earl  of,,  see 
Compton,  Sir  Spencer 

Wilmot,  John,  Earl  of 
Rochester,  530 

Wilson,  President,  1084, 
1085 

Wilson,  Richard,  804 

Wilson,  Thomas,  418 

Winchelsea,  Lord,  Welling- 
ton's challenges  to  duel, 
902 

Winchelsea,  Robert,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury, 

174,  i7S 
Winchester,  court  school  at, 

45 
Winchester,  Statute  of,  163, 

179,  180 

Winchester  Fair,  163 
Winslow,      Captain,      sinks 

Alabama,  978 
Winstanley,  Gerard,  504 
"Winter  King,"  the,  442 
Winward  Field,  battle  of,  35 
Wireless  telegraphy,  1054 
Wiseman,  Cardinal,  953 
Wishart  (wish'art),  George, 

367 

Witchcraft,  160,  417,  597 
Wite,  65 
Witenagemot,     origin     and 

functions,  67 
Woden,  26 
Wolfe,  General  James,  729, 

731,  732,  733 
Wolseley,  General     Garnet, 

Lord  Wolseley,  his  failure 

to  relieve  Gordon,   1015; 


INDEX 


1165 


in  the  Boer  War,  1033, 
1034 ;  succeeded  by 
Roberts  as  Commander- 
in-Chief,  1035 
\Volsey,  Thomas,  Cardinal, 
and  Archbishop  of  York, 
rise  of,  296,  297 ;  his 
pomp  and  influence,  297, 
298 ;  concludes  the  Treaty 
of  Universal  Peace,  298; 
vain  attempts  to  secure 
the  Papacy,  299-301 ;  his 
policy  of  alliance  with 
the  Emperor,  300,  301 ; 
unpopularity  of  his  sub- 
sidy and  of  his  amicable 
loan,  300,  301 ;  attitude 
toward  the  New  Learning, 
306;  his  share  in  the 
divorce  of  Henry  VIII 
and  Catharine,  300-3 1 1 ; 
fall  and  death  of,  311, 
312,  314,  317;  dissolves 
some  smaller  monasteries, 
3  23  ;  preference  for  di- 
plomacy over  war,  343 ; 
his  school  at  Ipswich, 

344 

Women,  legislation  regulat- 
ing of  employment  of, 
943 ;  enfranchisement  of, 
1049;  condition  of,  in 
the  nineteenth  century, 
1059 ;  votes  for,  1059, 
1070 

Wood's  Halfpence,  691 
Woodstock,  Council  of,  109 
Woodville,  Elizabeth,  Queen 

of  Edward  IV,  266,  272 
Woodward,  John,  792 


Wool,  act  for  burying  in, 
500;  trade  in,  212  ;  origin 
of  duty  on,  211;  free  of 
duty  in  1843,  941 

Woolsack,  the,  412 

Worcester  (woos'ter),  battle 
of,  Si3 

Worcester,  the  Marquis  of, 
487 

Wordsworth,  William,  896- 
898,  1043 

Working  classes,  the,  dis- 
content of,  in  Victoria's 
early  years,  937-941 

Workingman's  Association, 
the,  foundation  and  pur- 
pose of,  938-939 

Workmen,  Act  of  Parliament 
against  combinations  of, 
784;  effect  of  industrial 
revolution  upon,  788 

Workmen's  Compensation 
Acts,  1060,  1077 

Wotton,  Sir  Henry,  372 

Wren,  Christopher,  611,  612 

Writs,  legal,  116 

Writs  of  Assistance,  749 

Wulfstan,  the  Dane,  45 

Wulfstan  of  Worcester,  79 

Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  the 
poet,  346 

Wyatt's  Rebellion,  360 

Wycherley,  William,  610 

Wyndham,  George,  1074 


Yakub  Khan,  1007 
Year  of  legal  memory,  the, 
178 


Yeomen,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  285 ;  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  595, 
596;  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  791 

York,  22 ;  vale  of,  wasted 
by  William  I,  77 

York,  Dukes  of,  see  Edward, 
Frederick  Augustus, 

George,  James,  Richard 

York,  House  of,  causes  of 
triumph  of,  265 ;  causes 
of  fall  of,  275,  276 

Yorke,  Philip,  Earl  of  Hard- 
wicke  and  Lord  Chancel- 
lor, 706,  719 

Yorkshire,  domestic  system 
in,  784 

Yosktown,  surrender  of  Lord 
Cornwallis  at,  775,  776 

Young,  Arthur,  700,  824, 
894 

Young,  Edward,  802 

Young  England  Party,  the, 

942,  989 

Young  Ireland   Party,   the, 

943,  952 

Yuan  Shih-Kai,  1080 


Zamindars,  970 

Zanzibar,  1032 

Zimri,  548 

Zulu  War,  the,  1007,  1030 

Zurich,  battle  of,  845  ;    the 

Peace  of,  976 
Zutphen,  battle  of,  391 
Zwingli,    Ulrich,    307,   349, 

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acterizes definite  statements;  all  contribute  to  make  it  of  the  highest 
permanent  value  to  students  of  political  science  the  world  over." 
— EDWARD  PORRITT  in  The  Forum. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


The  Government  of  American  Cities 

By  WILLIAM   BENNETT   MUNRO,    PH.D.,    LL.B.,    Pro- 
fessor of  Municipal  Government  in  Harvard  University. 

Cloth,  8vo,  $2.25  ;  postage,  77  'cents 

"  It  is  doubtful  if  a  more  scholarly  and  unprejudiced  presentation 
of  the  tendencies  of  the  times,  snowing  the  faults  and  advantage 
of  our  systems  of  municipal  management,  has  before  appeared. 
The  book  will  be  appreciated  everywhere."  —  The  Boston  Globe. 

"...  a  fresh  contribution   to  a    weighty  and    important  public 
.discussion."  —  Philadelphia  North  American. 


By  THE   SAME   AUTHOR 
The  Government  of  European   Cities 

Cloth,  8vo,  $2.00  net ;  by  mail,  $2.19 

"The  most  effective  work  now  done  in  political  science  is  that 
going  on  in  the  field  of  applied  politics.  Avoiding  abstract  prin- 
ciples and  a  priori  speculation,  it  addresses  itself  to  examination 
of  the  actual  organization  of  public  authority  and  of  the  way  in 
which  governmental  function  is  carried  out.  In  '  The  Government 
of  European  Cities'  (Macmillan)  ,  Prof.  William  Bennett  Munro 
of  Harvard  has  made  a  valuable  addition  to  this  literature.  He 
gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  way  in  which  municipal  government 
is  formed  and  carried  on  in  France,  Germany,  and  England.  The 
style  is  clear,  straightforward,  and  unpretentious,  and  the  treatment 
is  steadily  confined  to  the  subject  in  hand  without  any  attempt  to 
point  a  moral  or  aid  a  cause.  At  the  same  time  references  to 
American  municipal  methods  frequently  occur  as  incidents  of  the 
explanation  of  European  procedure,  and  these  add  to  the  value  of 
the  book  for  American  readers.  The  writing,  while  succinct,  is 
copious  in  detail,  and  only  administrative  experts  in  the  countries 
respectively  considered  could  check  off  all  the  statements  made ; 
but  the  work  itself  affords  intrinsic  evidence  of  its  painstaking 
accuracy.  One  cannot  read  the  book  without  being  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  essential  simplicity  of  the  principle;;  upon  which 
European  municipal  government  is  constituted."  —  The  Nation. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


